Signing on to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Prequel: Let's face it, just the idea of a prequel, sequel or remake turns off some moviegoers. Knowing how some people feel about prequels, was the decision to direct Texas Chainsaw Massacre an easy one to make? Liebesman responded, “I actually personally love prequels. I love the idea of knowing where the movie ends and seeing how you get there. I think it’s kind of fun being ahead of the audience. When you watch something like Batman Begins or Episode III in Star Wars, it’s quite exciting to know that the characters you are seeing are going to become Batman or Darth Vader or something like that, so I actually love watching prequels.”
Liebesman doesn’t believe the fact that anyone who’s watched a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie knows all about the homicidal ways of the family involved limited his ability to thrill audiences with an origin story. “No. It’s like did people not enjoy Titanic because they knew the ship was going down? It’s something that is tension-filled. The amazing thing about movies is you can still think that there’s a chance that they will miss the iceberg. It’s something about movies where you really can suspend people’s disbelief. The fact that it’s inevitable makes it more powerful.”
The Tone of The Beginning vs Previous Texas Chainsaw Massacre Films: “I just wanted to stylistically make a bridge between Tobe Hooper’s movie and Marcus Nispel’s. It’s something that feels earlier than Nispel’s and kind of using the style of Tobe Hooper’s documentary, you know, almost cinéma vérité filmmaking to make a prequel that feels earlier than the remake.”
The Studio’s Involvement: New Line pretty much let Liebesman and crew do their thing. “You know, the studio kind of let us go and do what we had to as far as making the movie. It was important to me that it was frightening. I’ve never looked at something as gory or not, it’s just either frightening or not. So I tried to make it as frightening as possible.”
Pushing the Limits: What did Liebesman use to gauge how far to push the violence and how much an audience would be willing to accept? “I don’t know what an audience is willing to accept. I know I’ve gone too far when the MPAA keeps sending the movie back and says it’s NC-17 in 17 different places. Then I know I’ve gone too far.”
Don’t worry, the NC-17 version isn’t lost. Liebesman confirmed there will be an unrated version on DVD. “Yes. I just saw it the other day. It reminded me of what I had to take out.” And as expected, it’s mostly the gory scenes that didn’t make the final cut. ““Sure, I mean certain scenes were longer. There were more shots of, I guess, gore and people’s faces being pulled off and stuff like that.”
Getting R Lee Ermey to Sign On to the Prequel: Liebesman believes getting Ermey to reprise his role of Hoyt was hugely important. “There’s nothing more disappointing to me than a prequel or a sequel that does not have the characters you love. You know, in Alien 3 the movie starts off and two of your favorite characters aren’t there. They’re gone and you’re like, ‘Wait a second! If you’re going to continue a story, you can’t kill the best people.’”
Thankfully it wasn't difficult to get Ermey or Andrew Bryniarski (‘Leatherface’) to say yes to Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. “You know, Lee… They read the script. Andrew just couldn’t wait to play Leatherface again. He’s nuts for it. And Lee also, once he read the script, was totally into it. …My favorite part of the first movie was Hoyt and so, you know, in this movie he’s basically one of the leads. He was very into that.”
Asked why Hoyt was his favorite character Liebesman replied, “Because I had never seen a character like that. He was insane and compelling. Whenever he was on screen you never knew what was going to happen next, but you couldn’t take your eyes off the scene. To me, if you could have him in more of the first film, that means more of the first film’s going to be compelling.”
Page 2 The Characters, Practical Effects, and Michael Bay
