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People are obviously enjoying what you've done. You had a little tiny budget, and now it's getting all this hype, and a wide release. Did you expect this?
Honestly it's wonderful that it worked out that way but when you build something, you build for success. When we shot this movie we shot it in Super 35 because this was going to be a theatrical release. And when we scored it, we said this is going to be a theatrical release. And when we cast it, we said, “Okay, we're going to have Rider [Strong]. He was on a TV show but he's a great actor and he transcends that, but no other TV actors. We're going theatrical. This is a theatrical movie.” The fact that it is getting a wide release I think is terrific, but it's what I planned for from the beginning. It's what I always dreamed.

We shot it that way from Day 1. We said, “This is a theatrical movie. This is not straight to video.”

Getting into the actual filming of “Cabin Fever,” the Union shut you down during the process. Can you talk about what happened?
It was horrible. These c**ksuckers are the worst f**king scumbags on the planet because you know what they do is they just extort you for money. They don't look at the fact that you have no money, that you're making it with Aunt Gladys writing you a check for $5,000. They just see a movie camera and assume you are a billionaire.

After 9/11, there were no movies shooting on the East Coast, none, except for one, and that was us. And here we are saying, “F**k you.” People were afraid to fly and we said, “F**k you. We're shooting anyways. We are not going to let these terrorists threats or anthrax threats stop us.” So here we are creating jobs for people and pumping money back into the economy, trying to do something, and these guys come in and they f**king threaten the crewmembers, and they say you have to jack up the pay and pay Union rates. They are extortionists; they are Mafia extortionists. I have no problem paying the Union but when you are making a movie for almost nothing, you can't afford Union rates. It's like, “Why don't you guys let me finish this so I can get a bigger budget and come back and make the Union movies? You're essentially ruining me now.” They are like, “No. F**k you, we don't care.”

We had the crew working 11 hour days. Most indie movies - I worked 10 years in independent films - you work 18-20 hour days and that's not unusual. And they had picket signs saying “Unfair Labor Practices.” These f**king pussies wouldn't even look me in the eye or talk to me. It was disgusting. My producers and I, we got through it but it was horrible. My dad, he's a doctor, he had to take money out of his retirement to pay them off. It was horrible. He's not rich but it's just like that's what he did so we could keep going.

We had to come back to LA, owing the crew a $100,000 and needing another $600,000 to finish. My producers and I would go around with this little 10 minute clip of different scenes, showing it to different people, trying to raise the money. It was horrible. The Unions were disgusting, even the Screen Actors Guild. They were such a**holes. We showed up in North Carolina and this d**khead Brad from SAG goes, “You're on my turf now.” I'm like, “Look a**hole, this is the first movie in this area of North Carolina in a year, and the last movie was made by my producers. So don't f**king be mean to us because we're bringing jobs to the area. Don't give me this 'You're on my turf now.'” I'm like, “You should f**king thank us for creating f**king jobs.” Nope, they don't see it that way. If they see a little money, all they want is more.

How did that affect the morale of the cast?
Here's what happened: none of them knew. They knew we had money problems, but then when the Union shut us down, they felt so bad… The crew didn't want to turn Union, they just got bullied into it. And they were all great. They stuck by us. Jordan Ladd said, “I'll take out money from my bank account to help pay for this.”

No way.
Yep. I'm like, “Jordan, I love you, but don't do that.” This is the kind of movie where our [director of photography] was buying film stock and putting it on his credit card and not telling me because he didn't want me to get upset. The only way you can make a movie like “Cabin Fever” is with everyone sacrificing. The crew was incredible.

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