erin_broadley

Don't blame Darren Lynn Bousman for giving me a relatively swift interview -- he's a busy guy. Apart from Saw IV, which he's currently out doing promotion for, he's also shooting a film in Toronto called Repo!: The Genetic Opera! (a set visit report is coming soon!) and is heavily involved in pre-production for his next film, a remake of the 1981 classic Scanners that will be shooting in Toronto in the coming months. As if all that isn't enough, he's also taking part in preparations for the next Saw film, scheduled to hit theaters in October 2008. He won't be directing that one, however -- three times up to bat is enough. The reigns on Saw V are being handed over to the series' longtime production designer and second unit director, David Hackl, and how long the gravy train will keep rolling along is anyone's guess.

During a break at the taping of Spike TV's Scream Awards at LA's Greek Theater last Friday, Bousman gave me a call and we talked about how he's juggling all his various projects and exactly what fans of gore, guts and bloody mayhem should expect from him going forward.




Darren Lynn Bousman: Hey Ryan, this is Darren, how are ya?

Ryan Stewart: Hey, pretty good. How's it going with you?

DB: Good, man. Good.

RS: Thanks for calling. Are you not on set today? I see you called from a 310.

DB: I'm in Los Angeles right now, for the Scream Awards. I actually flew in, just for today.

RS: I had fun on the set last week, by the way -- thanks for letting me be part of it.

DB: Of course.

RS: The set your trailer overlooks, on the set is The Incredible Hulk set, right? Have you scaled the fence to get a peek at what's doing over there?

DB: Yeah, the one right across is the Hulk. I've been trying to. They were supposed to film there two weeks ago, three weeks ago, but they're a little behind so they haven't started filming over there, but I think they film next week, so it'll be exciting to get a peek.

RS: You're at the tail end of filming Repo, right? How many days left on Repo?

DB: We have three days left. I fly back on Monday, and we're shooting on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

RS: Are they going to take the Sweeney Todd approach to marketing it, you think? Pretend it's not a musical? Or opera, in this case?

DB: I hope not, I mean for me, the whole purpose of doing this movie is so that it wouldn't look like anything anyone's seen before. The whole thing that drew me to it, and is gonna draw the public to it, is the fact that it is a musical, a rock opera -- not the fact that the movie is about repossession. If you just want to go see a movie about repossession, go see Repossession Mambo when it comes out in a couple of months. This is hard core. This is music from beginning to middle to end. There's no speaking in it. There is no talking in it. There is no any of that. In Sweeney Todd, if I'm not mistaken, there is talking, so they can use that to market it, the talking aspect. We can't market the talking aspect because there is none.

RS: Is it the risk that attracted you? Repo would be a risky project for anyone, indie filmmaker, big-budget, whatever.

DB: It is, it's extremely risky, and I think that's why I wanted to do it. I always said, from day one of me getting the opportunity to direct, that I didn't want to be safe. I have no desire to be safe. That's not the kind of movies I want to make, or the kind of films I want to bring out there. If it was just about money or notoriety, I would continue to do Saw films. I would do Saw V, VI, VII and VIII, but it's not. As a movie fan, and I'm a huge, huge movie fan -- I go see movies all the time -- what makes me upset is the cookie-cutter approach to movie-making these days. Everything's the same. All the movies look the same, they have the same people in them ... you're seeing the same thing. I thought, as a fan of movies, what do I want to see? I want to see something completely different -- something I hadn't seen before. That's one of the main reasons I fought for Repo for so long.

RS: You've talked before, though, about wanting to keep things the same behind the scenes -- same crew, same shooting environment, and all that. Do you ever feel like that's stifled your creativity?

DB: Not at all. I brought the same people onto Repo with me out of choice, not because I had to. It's like a family. I think I found a bunch of people that I get along with, amazingly, and we make good movies together. If it's not broken, I'm not gonna fix it. I have some amazing people with me, on my team, and I will continue to exploit them as long as possible. They're great.

RS: Now that you're finally handing over the directing reigns to another person, after three Saw films, has the new guy, David Hackl, come to you for advice?

DB: David and I, I don't know if he's come to me for advice, but we're so close that we talk about it a lot. He's in Los Angeles with me right now. He was my second unit director on Saw II, the second unit director on Saw III, on Saw IV, I had him help me out on Repo, to do pick-up unit as well. He's a great director, he's a great production designer as well, and he's been with the franchise as long as I have. So it's not like some newbie coming in and just being handed the reigns. David is a pro a this -- he's been doing it with me. He's been in the trenches with me since day one.

RS: You guys bounce trap ideas off each other a lot?

DB: Every day. That's all we did back when Saw started. That was the majority of our conversations. We'd sit in his office, "What about this, no we can't do that, okay, well what about this? No, that won't work either ..." That's pretty much all we did. Mine and David Hackl's working relationship has been about trying to figure out new and interesting traps.

RS: Do you have a bunch saved up in a drawer somewhere, to use in future films?

DB: I think we pulled them all out for Saw IV. When I was doing Saw II, we had a plethora, but I used a lot of those in Saw III and then I used the rest of them on Saw IV. Like that knife trap? That's something we had talked about for Saw II, but we've used it for Saw IV now. David has an uphill battle, finding himself some good traps -- ones that I haven't already taken.

RS: So is the plan going forward to gradually phase out Jigsaw? Can the series work as well without him?

DB: Of course, I think it can. I mean, Tobin Bell and the character of Jigsaw has become integral to the movies, obviously, but I think there's much more to the Saw movies than just Jigsaw and I think people will see that with what they're gonna do with Saw V. They've pitched me the idea, and I've been talking to them about it, and it's amazing, the idea. These ideas are already coming up for Saw V and Saw IV hasn't even been released yet. I think people are gonna be in for a real treat.

RS: I see it going forward sort of like Fight Club, where other people just fancy themselves as Jigsaws and start franchising this thing out, setting their own traps.

DB: Yeah, cool. There are some interesting ideas. It's gonna be exciting over the next couple of years to see how they move forward with it.

RS: By the way, even though they wouldn't let us see the final reel of Saw IV during the set visit, I was talking with Ryan and Dan and they seem convinced that Dr. Gordon from the first film is integral to the ending of Saw IV. Apparently, you might have let something slip to them by mistake. No comment, right?

DB: Well, no. Go watch it in four days and tell me who's integral to it. I'm depressed that they didn't show you the entire film. I think it would have been great for you guys to actually see it. But I don't think anyone's gotten it yet. Not that I'm aware of.

RS: Is that Dina Meyer actually playing her character's corpse in this film? It didn't look a lot like her and I couldn't tell.

DB: Yeah, that's her. She came in for two days to do a life-cast of herself, a body cast of herself. So that actually was Dina Meyer's body, obviously not really her, but she herself came in for two days. She did a bunch of photos for us and she did that. Dina's great, she wants to stay involved as much as possible. That's one of the great things -- everyone that we've asked to come back and join us has, and that's exciting.

RS: Is Witchita coming next for you, after you finish Repo? Is that still happening?

DB: No, Witchita is kind of at an impasse right now. It was deemed unshootable, because of the violent nature, and that makes me want to shoot it all the more, but as of right now there are no plans to do it.

RS: You can't tone it down to an R?

DB: Not this -- there's no violence in the script. You don't see any violence in Witchita. It's not that kind of ... that's not why it's unshootable. It's the overall tone of the movie. You can't tone down the overall tone.

RS: Did the MPAA bust your chops over the big autopsy scene in Saw IV?

DB: Didn't say a word about it.

RS: That's surprising.

DB: ComicCon had a major problem with the autopsy, but not them. The MPAA had more of a problem with the hotel room trap that you saw and the knife trap. Those were the biggest ones that caused the most problems with the MPAA.

RS: Did you make a lot of cuts for this one?

DB: We had to make some, but not a ton. Definitely the MPAA did come in there and try to spank us.

RS: Does that piss you off? I mean, you're making a movie for gorehounds. It must be irritating to you as a filmmaker.

DB: The thing that's most frustrating to me is that we're on number four now. We're not trying to trick people. This isn't trying to say 'Our movie is about teddy bears and rainbows' and then end up pulling out the stops and they see, oh, we're really a violent movie. People know what we are. They've seen the movie. They've seen all of the movies. We're not tricking anybody. So, in that respect, it really does upset me. It's something that we set a precedent on and we have to keep changing it to meet the standards of the MPAA. People have come to expect something out of the Saw films and we want to deliver.

RS: There's always the director's cut.

DB: Oh yeah. I'm sure there'll be some great stuff in there.

RS: By the way, the word is that they're going to skip a year -- no Saw film for October, 2008.

DB: I think it's a rumor. I've never heard that. I was talking with David Hackl about it today, and I have not heard that at all.

RS: What's your level of involvement going forward? Much the same as James Wan?

DB: I'm sure I'll be at the craft services table quite a bit, seeing as I'm shooting, most likely, Scanners in Toronto. I want to be involved as much as I possibly can be involved. There's an overlapping of shoots. Their shoot overlaps with Scanners, so it's going to stop me to some extent, coming to the set and hanging out all the time. That being said, I'm definitely going to be involved in reading the scripts and offering my advice, when asked.

RS: Got a cast for Scanners?

DB: No, not at all. We're just, right now, in the early stages of pre-production.

RS: Alright, cool. Well, I had lots of fun on the set -- thanks again for the invite.

DB: Excellent! Well, thank you very much.

Saw IV hits theaters October 26.