Len Wiseman is living every comic book geeks dream. Not only did he direct a very successful film, Underworld which had vampires AND werewolves, he has a beautiful home on the beach with one entire room dedicated to his action figures but every night he gets to go home to his fianc, Selene the Death Dealer herself, Kate Beckinsale.
Underworld was a fairly low budget studio film which Sony did not have expectations for that is until it became Sony.com's most downloaded trailer in their history edging out Spider-Man. Its basically Romeo & Juliet but with undead creatures of the night substituting for the Capulets and the Montagues.
Underworld was a big hit this past fall and now Wiseman is a hot genre director with his choice of projects coming up. The one that sounds the coolest is one he generated himself with his writing partner called Black Chapter. Hes very secretive about the plot points of that film but he has described it as what if the CIA were using ethereal agents; a kind of ghost movie done as a slick action film.
Before all of this movie excitement Wiseman worked on such films as Stargate and Independence Day in the props department which eventually led to his becoming a major video director for such artists as Static-X, Megadeth and Rufus Wainwright. But his passion was always drawing comic books. In fact it was his drawings of the Underworld characters which led to Beckinsales interest in the project.
Underworld will be released on DVD January 6, 2004
Check out the Sony Pictures website for the Underworld DVD.
Daniel Robert Epstein: The dust has settled and Underworld was a hit. Hows it feel?
Len Wiseman: Its quite strange Ive got to say. Its a bit odd. I concentrated so much on just getting the movie done that the fact that it became a hit is kind of more than we imagined.
DRE: I would imagine you are fielding a lot of offers right now.
LW: There is a lot of stuff coming in. If [Underworld co-writer] Danny [McBride] and I would have known we would be turning down projects that are coming in I would have told everybody they were crazy. We have had to pass on so much because you cant do everything.
DRE: Your life changed totally because besides the success of Underworld be you are also engaged to Kate. So if the movie had bombed everyone would say that you two were going to break up.
LW: Oh it would have been over immediately [laughs].
DRE: Would she dump you or you dump her?
LW: We just had an understanding that if the movie didnt break $50 million we would just go our separate ways. It would be too embarrassing.
DRE: I met her earlier this year while she was promoting Underworld. Shes got these giant hands.
LW: She does have giant hands.
DRE: She probably would have been able to knock you out.
LW: Its strangely abnormal, isnt it?
DRE: Yes it is.
LW: But you cant really tell until you compare hands with her.
DRE: We did that and her fingers were longer than mine.
LW: Yeah that was the running joke while shooting.
DRE: I know this is your first feature film but were you totally happy with the movie?
LW: As a director I dont know if any director is totally happy with anything they do. Lets say I was very pleased. I would say it was about 80 percent of the movie I wanted it to be. I think every director has to go through the pain of sacrifice and compromise quite a bit. There is a lot of stuff I would love to see in it while most people wont even notice it.
DRE: Is there going to be a big directors cut DVD?
LW: There is going to be a lot of extras on the first DVD. Then the later one there will be a directors cut. There wasnt enough time to do a directors cut for the initial DVD because I was all over the world promoting the movie in places like Japan, England and France.
Ive always been a huge fan of the extra features on DVDs and before that laserdiscs. They were like my film school as it was for a lot of filmmakers. Danny and I wanted to put some features in there that showed you details of how the movie was made and not just talking about the movie. We tried to get as detailed as possible.
DRE: Harry Knowles did his review of The Matrix: Reloaded and he was disappointed that the potential for having vampires and werewolves in it wasnt used. Then youre movie came out and everyone made fun of him that this is the movie he wanted because it had vampires and werewolves.
LW: Harry Knowles tore our movie apart though. He tears everybody apart. You cant win on the internet unless youre working there and you made the movie.
DRE: What about the criticisms thrown towards the movie? Many people werent happy with the story and the hair on the werewolves.
LW: I think there are a few things I absolutely agree with. Generally the thoughts about the werewolves are that people liked them. They thought there wasnt enough vampire-biting going on which maybe there could have been more. There was a lot of talk about how hard it was to distinguish the vampires from the lycans in the end battle because everyone was wearing black, I would agree with that. The werewolves were in brown leathers, the vampires were in all black but then the color design and the way the film ended up looking at the end of the day everyone looks like they were in black. That I agree with absolutely.
Then you get comments like I hated the movie from the beginning because when Selene jumped down off the building all she did was land and walk away. She should have turned into a thousand bats and swooped into a manhole. Then I would have been happy. What are you going to do?
DRE: Are you like a leather fetish typey guy?
LW: Not at all. Even when Kate first met me she was a bit concerned because she thought I would be this perverted fetish freak. I see that as completely unfair because if you come to my house its very bright, all white, modern and fairly beachy. When everyone meets me they think Im going to be some fetish Goth. It just happened to fit the movie. I wanted it to look like a really dark creepy comic book. Using vampires I wanted to go black and only the death dealers [the lycan hunters] wore leather. All the other people in the vampire mansion look a bit more vintage. So I am not a fetish freak in the least bit. Kate also checked out my music videos before she met and there is a lot of similar stuff in the videos as well. There are no deep dark secrets in my closet.
DRE: Would you have liked to have filmed a real sex scene between a vampire and a werewolf?
LW: Not on any level of hell. It was talked about with the studio. I called it Romeo & Juliet so we had to have a love scene. But we figured, what do you do for that? Does anyone really want to see that?
DRE: What about Selene versus Blade? Who would win?
LW: I would just like to see the fight. I would definitely pay to see that.
DRE: Do you ever ask Kate to dress as Selene anymore?
LW: When we first got back I didnt have to. Everyday I would wake up and shed be in the Selene outfit. Wed go the grocery and she would be wearing it. It just got a bit tiresome. I actually had to ask her not to wear it [laughs].
DRE: For the look and design did you check out any Goth clubs or did you just hire the right people and go from there?
LW: The look really just came from my own imagination sitting at my drawing table at 3 oclock in the morning. That and how the actual locations provided a look. We scouted around and the look from that. There wasnt a lot of research going on for all that.
DRE: I read that your mom thought that seeing your name on billboards all over Hollywood was a bit weird.
LW: Yeah, its weird to me! Underworld felt to me like doing a much bigger student film. We got together, everyone is struggling to do their best, and you feel like you never have enough money and all the actors had to pitch in to work later hours. Shooting over in Budapest felt a bit like summer camp to all of us. Its like that student film we made is all over the buses and the billboards. It must be a strange feeling for all directors on their first film. Its cool but its also bizarre. Someone would tell us where the most massive billboard was and Kate and I would run over there and take pictures of it. Im sure that will only be on my first few films but it was fun.
The movie was greenlit at $18 million but the script made it out to be a $60 million. It was quite a beast. Every time you had an actor in a creature suit you had two hours before he began to faint. I dont think people realize its a pain in the ass to work with creature effects and animatronics. It takes so much time. In the suit the actors could only see when the werewolfs mouth was open. If I ever wanted a werewolf to charge forward he had to have his mouth open. He couldnt roar, bite down and charge forward. I can see why people go with CGI at the end of the day.
DRE: Whats it like going from directing videos for Megadeth to directing one for En Vogue?
LW: Its funny. I had quite a bit of fun doing the one for Megadeth. I had no idea who they were; Im not into heavy metal at all. There are a bit before my time. I had heard the name vaguely. When I was doing that video there are a few trademark things that Dave Mustaine that makes him who he is. One of them is his massive mane of hair and the other is this snarl thing he does. There was a lot of talk at the time about making them more hip and MTV friendly. Im shooting and right when I get going Dave does this snarling thing into the camera. I called cut and I start to go up to him to talk. The record company people ask me what Im doing and I say Im going up there to tell him that this snarl thing looks a bit cheesy. The record company guy said I cant do that because thats Daves thing. I told them I dont like his thing that much and it looks corny. Everyone gets paranoid. So I go to Dave and asked him if we could tone down that snarl thing because it looks a bit dated. He said You know what? Thank you so much for just telling me. Tell me anything because nobody tells me shit. Ive been doing this for a long time and if anything looks dated or corny please tell me. It was a weird experience because it was my complete lack of knowledge for which they were that caused this interesting experience. Then going to En Vogue
DRE: They dont snarl as much.
LW: They do actually. Once we finish a take and theyre looking at the monitors they do a lot of snarling. You picked two completely different videos to talk about [laughs]. Those happen to be the two projects I knew nothing about.
DRE: What kind of music are you into?
LW: I like alternative rock and such. I didnt get to shoot a lot of music videos for the kind of music I was into. The kind of music I really like does not get any budget for videos. If you want to do alternative then you end up with a budget for $50,000 an En Vogue video is like $500,000. For a Coldplay video theyll kick you like ten bucks.
DRE: The music for Underworld was done by Paul Haslinger who was part of the band Tangerine Dream.
LW: Yes it was which again was before my time. I didnt even know he was part of that band when I chose him. He had sent me a demo reel based off the stuff I was putting together for Underworld. I just responded to his reel and found out later that there was a Tangerine Dream.
DRE: I just watched Near Dark which Tangerine Dream scored.
LW: It was cool. A lot of the press surrounding the movie has been about Tangerine Dream. That stuff happened a lot like with my cinematographer, Tony Pierce-Roberts. I chose him because of this really low budget movie he did called The Trench. It was really dark and creepy in the trenches of World War 2. I really responded to that and I found out later that he was the guy who did nine Merchant Ivory Films. I just havent ever really watched those movies. You wont find them on the sc-fi shelf.
DRE: Is Black Chapter going to be your movie?
LW: Its a movie I wrote with Danny McBride and were trying to find out whats going to happen with it. There are a lot of scheduling issues. I would love to direct it but it just has to work out. I think it will be awesome.
DRE: Can you talk about any of the movies they are offering you?
LW: I have no idea how it works so Ill talk and get in trouble.
DRE: How many sequels to Hellraiser have they offered you?
LW: Oh god. I hope they dont do anymore. I have all the Hellraiser action figures on my shelf. There are a few projects that as a fan you would get tempted by. They would be really bad career choices like Hellraiser 20. I know I shouldnt do it but send the script over. Theyve offered me the live action Akira, I Am Legend; they offered me the next to sequel to The Crow and Elektra the Daredevil spin-off.
DRE: Elektra might not be the worst career move.
LW: Yeah but the thing I dont like too much about that is the world was already set up too much in the Daredevil movie. I like to jump in, create my own world and not go off someone elses.
DRE: Are there any comic books you would like to adapt?
LW: A lot of the comics I would like to adapt are already snagged. I think what might be good for me is to do something thats a bit different from Underworld in terms of its horror roots.
DRE: You could do a Merchant Ivory film with Tony.
LW: [laughs] In terms of what I like and what I want to direct I dont think people get it. I get sent so many vampire films. That doesnt make any sense to me. Im not going to jump in and make another vampire or werewolf film. Thats just the way it works in this town. Black Chapter has a much different so I would love to do that before jumping into a sequel which they are knocking on their door for now.
DRE: What would Underworld 2 be like?
LW: Its a fantastic story and the studio thinks its better than the first one. They want us to start shooting tomorrow.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
LW: None. Everyone has this preconceived notion of what I am like and Kate deals with this preconceived notion everyone has of her because this movie is so different for her. They are shocked because she was all about tea and crumpets and everything. When I was first going to meet her I thought I was going to be meeting this very delicate and proper girl. That is not the case. She has such an edge to her and she thought I was going to be a Marilyn Manson groupie.
DRE: Then you fell in love.
LW: Yes it turned out to be very Merchant Ivory.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Underworld was a fairly low budget studio film which Sony did not have expectations for that is until it became Sony.com's most downloaded trailer in their history edging out Spider-Man. Its basically Romeo & Juliet but with undead creatures of the night substituting for the Capulets and the Montagues.
Underworld was a big hit this past fall and now Wiseman is a hot genre director with his choice of projects coming up. The one that sounds the coolest is one he generated himself with his writing partner called Black Chapter. Hes very secretive about the plot points of that film but he has described it as what if the CIA were using ethereal agents; a kind of ghost movie done as a slick action film.
Before all of this movie excitement Wiseman worked on such films as Stargate and Independence Day in the props department which eventually led to his becoming a major video director for such artists as Static-X, Megadeth and Rufus Wainwright. But his passion was always drawing comic books. In fact it was his drawings of the Underworld characters which led to Beckinsales interest in the project.
Underworld will be released on DVD January 6, 2004
Check out the Sony Pictures website for the Underworld DVD.
Daniel Robert Epstein: The dust has settled and Underworld was a hit. Hows it feel?
Len Wiseman: Its quite strange Ive got to say. Its a bit odd. I concentrated so much on just getting the movie done that the fact that it became a hit is kind of more than we imagined.
DRE: I would imagine you are fielding a lot of offers right now.
LW: There is a lot of stuff coming in. If [Underworld co-writer] Danny [McBride] and I would have known we would be turning down projects that are coming in I would have told everybody they were crazy. We have had to pass on so much because you cant do everything.
DRE: Your life changed totally because besides the success of Underworld be you are also engaged to Kate. So if the movie had bombed everyone would say that you two were going to break up.
LW: Oh it would have been over immediately [laughs].
DRE: Would she dump you or you dump her?
LW: We just had an understanding that if the movie didnt break $50 million we would just go our separate ways. It would be too embarrassing.
DRE: I met her earlier this year while she was promoting Underworld. Shes got these giant hands.
LW: She does have giant hands.
DRE: She probably would have been able to knock you out.
LW: Its strangely abnormal, isnt it?
DRE: Yes it is.
LW: But you cant really tell until you compare hands with her.
DRE: We did that and her fingers were longer than mine.
LW: Yeah that was the running joke while shooting.
DRE: I know this is your first feature film but were you totally happy with the movie?
LW: As a director I dont know if any director is totally happy with anything they do. Lets say I was very pleased. I would say it was about 80 percent of the movie I wanted it to be. I think every director has to go through the pain of sacrifice and compromise quite a bit. There is a lot of stuff I would love to see in it while most people wont even notice it.
DRE: Is there going to be a big directors cut DVD?
LW: There is going to be a lot of extras on the first DVD. Then the later one there will be a directors cut. There wasnt enough time to do a directors cut for the initial DVD because I was all over the world promoting the movie in places like Japan, England and France.
Ive always been a huge fan of the extra features on DVDs and before that laserdiscs. They were like my film school as it was for a lot of filmmakers. Danny and I wanted to put some features in there that showed you details of how the movie was made and not just talking about the movie. We tried to get as detailed as possible.
DRE: Harry Knowles did his review of The Matrix: Reloaded and he was disappointed that the potential for having vampires and werewolves in it wasnt used. Then youre movie came out and everyone made fun of him that this is the movie he wanted because it had vampires and werewolves.
LW: Harry Knowles tore our movie apart though. He tears everybody apart. You cant win on the internet unless youre working there and you made the movie.
DRE: What about the criticisms thrown towards the movie? Many people werent happy with the story and the hair on the werewolves.
LW: I think there are a few things I absolutely agree with. Generally the thoughts about the werewolves are that people liked them. They thought there wasnt enough vampire-biting going on which maybe there could have been more. There was a lot of talk about how hard it was to distinguish the vampires from the lycans in the end battle because everyone was wearing black, I would agree with that. The werewolves were in brown leathers, the vampires were in all black but then the color design and the way the film ended up looking at the end of the day everyone looks like they were in black. That I agree with absolutely.
Then you get comments like I hated the movie from the beginning because when Selene jumped down off the building all she did was land and walk away. She should have turned into a thousand bats and swooped into a manhole. Then I would have been happy. What are you going to do?
DRE: Are you like a leather fetish typey guy?
LW: Not at all. Even when Kate first met me she was a bit concerned because she thought I would be this perverted fetish freak. I see that as completely unfair because if you come to my house its very bright, all white, modern and fairly beachy. When everyone meets me they think Im going to be some fetish Goth. It just happened to fit the movie. I wanted it to look like a really dark creepy comic book. Using vampires I wanted to go black and only the death dealers [the lycan hunters] wore leather. All the other people in the vampire mansion look a bit more vintage. So I am not a fetish freak in the least bit. Kate also checked out my music videos before she met and there is a lot of similar stuff in the videos as well. There are no deep dark secrets in my closet.
DRE: Would you have liked to have filmed a real sex scene between a vampire and a werewolf?
LW: Not on any level of hell. It was talked about with the studio. I called it Romeo & Juliet so we had to have a love scene. But we figured, what do you do for that? Does anyone really want to see that?
DRE: What about Selene versus Blade? Who would win?
LW: I would just like to see the fight. I would definitely pay to see that.
DRE: Do you ever ask Kate to dress as Selene anymore?
LW: When we first got back I didnt have to. Everyday I would wake up and shed be in the Selene outfit. Wed go the grocery and she would be wearing it. It just got a bit tiresome. I actually had to ask her not to wear it [laughs].
DRE: For the look and design did you check out any Goth clubs or did you just hire the right people and go from there?
LW: The look really just came from my own imagination sitting at my drawing table at 3 oclock in the morning. That and how the actual locations provided a look. We scouted around and the look from that. There wasnt a lot of research going on for all that.
DRE: I read that your mom thought that seeing your name on billboards all over Hollywood was a bit weird.
LW: Yeah, its weird to me! Underworld felt to me like doing a much bigger student film. We got together, everyone is struggling to do their best, and you feel like you never have enough money and all the actors had to pitch in to work later hours. Shooting over in Budapest felt a bit like summer camp to all of us. Its like that student film we made is all over the buses and the billboards. It must be a strange feeling for all directors on their first film. Its cool but its also bizarre. Someone would tell us where the most massive billboard was and Kate and I would run over there and take pictures of it. Im sure that will only be on my first few films but it was fun.
The movie was greenlit at $18 million but the script made it out to be a $60 million. It was quite a beast. Every time you had an actor in a creature suit you had two hours before he began to faint. I dont think people realize its a pain in the ass to work with creature effects and animatronics. It takes so much time. In the suit the actors could only see when the werewolfs mouth was open. If I ever wanted a werewolf to charge forward he had to have his mouth open. He couldnt roar, bite down and charge forward. I can see why people go with CGI at the end of the day.
DRE: Whats it like going from directing videos for Megadeth to directing one for En Vogue?
LW: Its funny. I had quite a bit of fun doing the one for Megadeth. I had no idea who they were; Im not into heavy metal at all. There are a bit before my time. I had heard the name vaguely. When I was doing that video there are a few trademark things that Dave Mustaine that makes him who he is. One of them is his massive mane of hair and the other is this snarl thing he does. There was a lot of talk at the time about making them more hip and MTV friendly. Im shooting and right when I get going Dave does this snarling thing into the camera. I called cut and I start to go up to him to talk. The record company people ask me what Im doing and I say Im going up there to tell him that this snarl thing looks a bit cheesy. The record company guy said I cant do that because thats Daves thing. I told them I dont like his thing that much and it looks corny. Everyone gets paranoid. So I go to Dave and asked him if we could tone down that snarl thing because it looks a bit dated. He said You know what? Thank you so much for just telling me. Tell me anything because nobody tells me shit. Ive been doing this for a long time and if anything looks dated or corny please tell me. It was a weird experience because it was my complete lack of knowledge for which they were that caused this interesting experience. Then going to En Vogue
DRE: They dont snarl as much.
LW: They do actually. Once we finish a take and theyre looking at the monitors they do a lot of snarling. You picked two completely different videos to talk about [laughs]. Those happen to be the two projects I knew nothing about.
DRE: What kind of music are you into?
LW: I like alternative rock and such. I didnt get to shoot a lot of music videos for the kind of music I was into. The kind of music I really like does not get any budget for videos. If you want to do alternative then you end up with a budget for $50,000 an En Vogue video is like $500,000. For a Coldplay video theyll kick you like ten bucks.
DRE: The music for Underworld was done by Paul Haslinger who was part of the band Tangerine Dream.
LW: Yes it was which again was before my time. I didnt even know he was part of that band when I chose him. He had sent me a demo reel based off the stuff I was putting together for Underworld. I just responded to his reel and found out later that there was a Tangerine Dream.
DRE: I just watched Near Dark which Tangerine Dream scored.
LW: It was cool. A lot of the press surrounding the movie has been about Tangerine Dream. That stuff happened a lot like with my cinematographer, Tony Pierce-Roberts. I chose him because of this really low budget movie he did called The Trench. It was really dark and creepy in the trenches of World War 2. I really responded to that and I found out later that he was the guy who did nine Merchant Ivory Films. I just havent ever really watched those movies. You wont find them on the sc-fi shelf.
DRE: Is Black Chapter going to be your movie?
LW: Its a movie I wrote with Danny McBride and were trying to find out whats going to happen with it. There are a lot of scheduling issues. I would love to direct it but it just has to work out. I think it will be awesome.
DRE: Can you talk about any of the movies they are offering you?
LW: I have no idea how it works so Ill talk and get in trouble.
DRE: How many sequels to Hellraiser have they offered you?
LW: Oh god. I hope they dont do anymore. I have all the Hellraiser action figures on my shelf. There are a few projects that as a fan you would get tempted by. They would be really bad career choices like Hellraiser 20. I know I shouldnt do it but send the script over. Theyve offered me the live action Akira, I Am Legend; they offered me the next to sequel to The Crow and Elektra the Daredevil spin-off.
DRE: Elektra might not be the worst career move.
LW: Yeah but the thing I dont like too much about that is the world was already set up too much in the Daredevil movie. I like to jump in, create my own world and not go off someone elses.
DRE: Are there any comic books you would like to adapt?
LW: A lot of the comics I would like to adapt are already snagged. I think what might be good for me is to do something thats a bit different from Underworld in terms of its horror roots.
DRE: You could do a Merchant Ivory film with Tony.
LW: [laughs] In terms of what I like and what I want to direct I dont think people get it. I get sent so many vampire films. That doesnt make any sense to me. Im not going to jump in and make another vampire or werewolf film. Thats just the way it works in this town. Black Chapter has a much different so I would love to do that before jumping into a sequel which they are knocking on their door for now.
DRE: What would Underworld 2 be like?
LW: Its a fantastic story and the studio thinks its better than the first one. They want us to start shooting tomorrow.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
LW: None. Everyone has this preconceived notion of what I am like and Kate deals with this preconceived notion everyone has of her because this movie is so different for her. They are shocked because she was all about tea and crumpets and everything. When I was first going to meet her I thought I was going to be meeting this very delicate and proper girl. That is not the case. She has such an edge to her and she thought I was going to be a Marilyn Manson groupie.
DRE: Then you fell in love.
LW: Yes it turned out to be very Merchant Ivory.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 12 of 12 COMMENTS
I read the interview all the way to the bottom. Sounds like he has a good sense of humor, and doesn't take himself too seriously. I can respect that.