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The Current Trend of Remaking Horror Films: “I don’t like it. I really think it’s really creatively bankrupt. Look, remakes can work in a certain scenario. Two of my favorite films, not just horror films, are The Fly by David Cronenberg and The Thing by John Carpenter – both remakes. But I really do feel like they were more justified than what we’re seeing now. They’re remaking films from the late 80’s, from the early 90’s. It’s bizarre. And the amount of remakes that James and I have been offered since Saw came out… Remake after remake of every single horror film and we’ve just said no to all of them.”
Does Whannell respond to all remake queries with an automatic no? “I may consider it, but usually it’s an automatic no. I’m just not interested creatively. I want to tell a story that’s never been told before. To me, even adaptations don’t interest me, really, as a screenwriter. My agent’s crying right now as he’s reading this. He’s like, ‘What are you doing?’ Obviously, many great films are [adaptations]. Jaws, my favorite film, is an adaptation of a book. I don’t have a problem with that.
It’s just for me, the only way I can really work is if I’m doing something only I know about. I feel like I’m letting the audience in on a secret. You can’t really get that wrong. And now I’m really telling you my secret: if you write a script that is totally original idea that you’ve come up with, you can’t get it wrong. Whereas if you adapt a graphic novel or a comic book, you can get it wrong. You can blow it, and people want your blood. It’s actually my fear… I mean, I can take this front of pretending I’m courageous. ‘You know, the reason I don’t take remakes and adaptations is because I only want to do originals. That’s how courageous I am,’ but I’d be lying to you. It actually comes from a place of fear. I don’t want anyone emailing me saying, ‘I can’t believe you messed up Green Lantern.’ I’d rather come up with my own idea. No one can come up to me and tell me that I got Saw III wrong because I made up the rules.”
Sequels are a Different Animal: “Sequels I don’t mind so much sequels to a film if it’s an original film. Let’s take a film like Star Wars or The Matrix. The Wachowski Brothers or George Lucas, they were the masters of that universe. Sequels, I don’t mind. I don’t know about doing a sequel to someone else’s film, but the Saw films I really feel comfortable about them.”
The Absence of Original Stories in Hollywood: “I really feel like I’m existing within this really small niche of a guy that really just wants to come up with original ideas. It’s a dying breed in Hollywood. I really respect someone like M. Night Shyamalan. I don’t like all of his films - I haven’t seen Lady in the Water yet - but I really respect that guy because every one of his films is an original story. Every single one: Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village. I just think that is so rare today to see a filmmaker making totally original stories.”
Whannell says a lot of the blame must be placed on the studios. So how does an independent thinker get around the system? “I don’t know. I think the trick is to not need it, for me. I feel like getting into Hollywood’s like getting past the door b***h at some really exclusive club. He holds up the velvet rope and goes, ‘Okay, you’re in.’ Except that once you’re in the club, it’s just as tricky to stay in. You can get kicked out really easily and that fear is what drives a lot of people. I’ve noticed a lot of people around me subtlety letting me know that, ‘Your 15 minutes could be up, you’d better produce. Keep shoveling coal into that fire or the fire will go out and you’ll be a footnote.’ So the trick for me is to not need this.
The trick for me is to remind myself that if I had to go back to Australia tomorrow and get a job somewhere, it wouldn’t be so bad. It’s not a prison sentence. I want to stay in, I want to keep working in L.A. and Hollywood - whatever you want to call it - because it’s my lifelong dream, and also I get to create for a living. But at the same time, I don’t want to be slavishly reliant on it. Otherwise, what you’re saying will happen – I’ll end up taking that remake just to put my name out there. It could come to that. You could be interviewing me in two years and saying, ‘So, Friday the 13th The Reimagining… I have you on tape here saying that you have all this integrity.’ If that happens, quote it back to me. Take me to task and I’ll accept it. I’ll take it on the chin. But for now, I really want to get out there and put some more original stories out there.”
Page 4: What's Next for Leigh Whannell
