Wes Craven on Expanding the Nuclear Testing Storyline: Writer/director Aja’s version of “The Hills Have Eyes” more fully focuses on what caused the hill dwellers to mutate and further explains their rage. Asked why he believes Aja went that direction Craven answered, “My guess would be that the nuclear testing is not that important in its specifics, but more important in the sense of a government who did things and perhaps is doing things similar that are going to make some people that we don’t even know very, very pissed off some place down the road (laughing). The government does things in secret that are quite horrible that you would never approve of if you were anywhere near the loop, which none of us are. It’s dealing with the long-term ramifications – the human ramifications – of such acts.
I found it fascinating the idea of going into the test town that would be there and is in those old black and white films that we’ve all seen where the trees are bent over and the houses are just vaporized. It just ties into a powerful sense of the ultimate nightmare.”
Wes Craven on Remakes: Acknowledging that remakes are pretty much hit or miss, Craven said he thought it was the right time to remake his “The Hills Have Eyes.” Offering an explanation Craven said, “I guess because the first one had such legs. I mean, it’s really never been off the shelves of video stores for 30 years and that’s pretty unusual (laughing). That’s one thing. The second thing is that I co-own it with one other person so it’s something that I could control as opposed to a remake or another sequel to ‘Scream’ or to Freddy Krueger’s something or other. Those are owned by other people so ultimately I’d have to answer to them, which is not a situation you’d want to be in as a creative person. So I think those two things.”
The original does still stand up and Craven even said it has a good shelf life so is he worried about remaking a film that’s still so valid and can still scare audiences 30 years after it hit theaterse? Craven said, “Thank you very much first of all. It’s interesting. We would poll people in the screenings, ‘How many of you have seen the original Hills Have Eyes?’ and I would say, to be generous to myself, maybe a fifth of the people had seen it. I think a significant portion of those had never even heard of it. Yeah, the film’s been out there but the younger generation tend to not watch films that were made before a certain time – which was not that long ago.”
Wes Craven's Next Project: "Paris, je t'aime:" “My segment takes place in the 20th arrondissement which is a district well outside of the Paris that everyone knows about. It contains [Père Lachaise Cemetery], a huge cemetery that’s been there since the Revolution. I wrote kind of a romantic comedy moment with Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell. It turned out beautifully and I’m so excited about it. It gives you a lump in your throat and makes you laugh. It’s just a chance to do a 5 minute romantic comedy so it was great. Also rubbing shoulders with lots of wonderful filmmakers that were there doing their films at the same time. In fact, Alexander Payne plays Oscar Wilde, the ghost of Oscar Wilde, in my film. I did a cameo in another filmmaker’s film. There were just a lot of really interesting filmmakers. And just to be shooting in Paris… I mean, my God that was a lifelong fantasy.”
Wes Craven on the Origin of His “Paris, je t’aime” Segment: “I originally wrote it to take place by Jim Morrison’s grave because I thought that was the one everybody knew. But it was interesting because about a week before I went over they said we cannot get you clearances. These people would not clear anything, not even the use of his name.
Then I wrote one for Edith Piaf and showed up and they were checking the legality of that. When we arrived they said – and this is like 4 days from the time we’re supposed to start shooting – ‘The Piaf script doesn’t work either.’ So I literally walked into an unused room and in two hours wrote the one that we shot. I think it was the best one (laughing).
It was fun. It was just one of those times when everything came together in a really great way.”
