Along with his Saw III cohorts - director Darren Lynn Bousman, producer Mark Burg, and series stars Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith - writer/producer/Saw series creator Whannell answered questions about the film franchise and then treated the audience to a clip which might not make the film (depending on how the MPAA reacts to the scene).
After signing autographs and posing for photos with fans, Whannell sat down for this 1:1 about the third Saw movie and the direction of the franchise.
The Decision to Be Involved in Saw III: “I knew late last year. After Saw II had just come out I didn’t know what my involvement was going to be. After Gregg [Hoffman] died, you know, tragically, I think all of us wanted to ban together and do one more for Gregg. I started really picturing the box set, to be honest. I pictured going into Barnes and Noble and seeing the trilogy: I, II, and III. I was like, ‘It would be cool to have my name on the trilogy,’ you know, no matter if I go on, rather if I go on to do any of the other films. Just to do the trilogy. I like that number. I’m pretty obsessive/compulsive. I like three better than two.”
What about Saw IV? “I really don’t know,” said Whannell. “I really don’t. I mean, here we are at Comic Con promoting Saw III so asking me whether I’m going to do Saw IV is a bit like asking a woman who is in the middle of labor whether she wants to have another baby. It’s kind of like this weird thing. I don’t know. I’m going to have to have a while to sit on it. At the moment I feel like I’ve told all the tales I want to tell within the Saw universe. It’s hard for me to picture digging out some more. But if someone was to ring me with a great idea or if I was to sit down with James [Wan], who knows?”
The Interconnected Stories of the Saw Films: Whannell says you don't have to watch the Saw films in order, but it helps. “I think that’s the most fun part about the Saw films is they are so sort of intricate and twisted, that the sequels give you a chance to go back and reflect on things that have happened. I just think the fans get a kick out of it. It’s a reward for the fans. I mean Saw is a fan film. This is a film that didn’t succeed because it had a star in it. It didn’t succeed because it had the biggest special effects budget. It didn’t succeed because its marketing campaign had $15 million to spend. This film really succeeded because of the hard core audience, the horror audience. These are the kids that love it and you’ve got to reward them. The way to give back to those fans is to answer their questions and rather than doing it online one at a time, do it in the films.”
The Success of the Saw Movie Franchise: There’s absolutely no way Leigh Whannell could have imagined the success of Saw and Saw II when he and James Wan came up with the idea for the first story. “No, you never expect it. You never expect it. There’s not even any sort of…what am I trying to say here…you can’t really even have any expectations. It’s not like a sporting team who starts the season and expects to win the Super Bowl, the World Series. That’s what they’re aiming at. Whereas James and I weren’t like that. We weren’t aiming at winning the lottery. We were actually aiming to do something very small with Saw, to just shoot it. We were going to use a video camera and I think we were going to save up $5,000 and try and do it in our garage. I always bring that up because it means that the results far exceeded our expectations. If our plan had been to shoot the film in Hollywood and have it be a success and go to Comic Con, then it would be kind of wish fulfillment. But this isn’t really wish fulfillment. This is more like someone granting you a wish when you didn’t expect it.”
Page 2: Leigh Whannell on Satisfying Saw Fans
