Craven Talks 'Cursed' & 'Red Eye'

From the New York Post:

Wes Craven, the genius behind teen cult horror classics such as "Scream" and "Nightmare on Elm Street," is giving away some scare tactics.
As executive producer of the third installation of "Project Greenlight," the critically acclaimed director exhibits his chilling craft to a starving filmmaker, who is given the opportunity to create his own movie, titled "Feast."

"I was a big fan of the show," Craven told The Post. "It's great drama and I thought it would be fun to do." While Craven was filming last month's depressingly unsuccessful werewolf movie "Cursed," Miramax's Bob Weinstein approached him about doing the TV show, which also stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as executive producers.

"They had moved it over into a genre film, the horror section, and that's my territory, and the request was made, and I said sure," Craven says. "I love what the show is ... giving someone a chance."

Q:When you directed your first film, "Last House on the Left," it was just luck, right?

A:I was working for Sean Cunningham, who eventually did "Friday the 13th." At that time, he was a guy in a little office in New York and I was just a guy who had just quit teaching and we were the same age, and we became friends. After that, the people who were financing him said, "We'd like something scary now." So Sean said, "Hey, you said you'd like to direct. Why don't you go write something scary and if they like it, you can direct it, too." We figured we could pocket $10,000 between us. As it turned out, they loved the script and they gave us another $40,000.

Q:You made people faint with that movie ...

A:It was scary. We kept hearing reports of people fainting and fistfights and people trying to get into projection booths to confiscate the print. And prints would come back in all sorts of pieces. Certain theater owners would get in there and rip out certain sections.

Q:Why would they do that?

A:I think it deeply upset people, and they thought it had gone too far. There is a reality that is quite shocking and it was quite subversive in that we intentionally went beyond where everyone thought we would stop. The theory is that that's the way real violence is. You don't get to look away.

Q:Then you created the same buzz with "Nightmare on Elm Street."

A:It's getting harder to do. The tone in the country is so much toward severe censorship and connecting blame to it that all the studios are running scared and asking for PG-13, which is a royal pain in the butt, frankly.

Q:Is that what happened with "Cursed?"

A:I'm very disappointed with "Cursed." The contract called for us to make an R-rated film. We did. It was a very difficult process. Then it was basically taken away from us and cut to PG-13 and ruined. It was two years of very difficult work and almost 100 days of shooting of various versions. Then at the very end, it was chopped up and the studio thought they could make more with a PG-13 movie, and trashed it. We were writing while we were shooting. It wasn't ready to film. We rewrote, recast and had two major reshoots. It went on and on and on.

Q:Maybe it was the name.

A:After a while, I regretted it was called "Cursed" because it was "Cursed." It was just chopped up, and it was awful. I thought it was completely disrespectful, and it hurt them (the studio) too, and it was like they shot themselves in the foot with a shotgun. Not a nice thing.

Q:Was the movie "Feast" in Project Greenlight difficult to pull off?

A:Incredibly. The original script was 21 speaking roles, 14 monsters and special effects, and compared with "Last House on the Left," which was like four people in the woods, it was very difficult. When we walked out of the room, someone said, "I think maybe we've all gotten our revenge on Bob Weinstein."

Q:How was the outcome?

A:It went along pretty smoothly. I think it's a good job. It's the thing the core audience really loves, which is a take-it-to-the-limit blood-and-guts film with a funny style.

Q:Would you have picked a different script than "Feast?"

A:I liked a script in the final running called "Wildcard," which I thought was much more sophisticated. It was one of the submissions, I bought the rights to it and I'm working with the author himself.

Q:You said the "Feast" script required a lot of work.

A:It was just all over the place. It had no real center. It was a series of random events, and the monsters weren't real. When it was the day to shoot any given sequence, the director would have to come up with very difficult solutions to how someone was going to fly around the room. I suppose writers write that way, and they don't have to worry about cost. But certainly [the director] was going to have his plate full.

Q:What was it like working with Ben and Matt?

A:They were a pleasure. They were very funny and extremely smart. Ben would be driving the bus and making jokes and he was up on everything. He did his homework and he was really good. He's an interesting and very gracious guy.

Q:How hands-on were you?

A:Not that. I was there for all the meetings and choosing. I had dinner with [the director], I spoke to him a few times. But I was in the middle of my own war on "Cursed."

Q:So you're still learning, even though you're such a huge icon.

A:It's counting for less and less, I must say. The icon thing doesn't guarantee you any sort of protection. Ultimately, the bottom line is so severe, that they will always go for the bottom line.

Q:Your next movie, "Red-Eye," is a psychological drama about a plane flight that goes awry. What intrigued you about it?

A:It's a script from a young writer named Carl Ellsworth. DreamWorks bought the script. After two years of trying to make a script work, this was a nice thing. It was doable.

Q::Can we expect another big blockbuster from Wes Craven?

A:We screened it two days ago, and everyone loved it. We had tears in our eyes. "Cursed" was so painful, and here was this film that delivered. The performances are great, and it moves along like a bat out of hell and just makes you laugh and cry and jump.