It's Thursday night at Comic Con, and Alexandre Aja is stressed. A rabid contingent of horror fans have descended on the UA Horton Plaza multiplex in San Diego to check out a brief preview of PIRANHA 3-D, but the filmmaker is still mixing and color-timing the reel 120 miles away in Los Angeles. Aja's beyond late at this point, but he's not about to tank the first public screening of 3-D footage from his B-movie labor of love for promptness' sake. With the growing animosity toward 3-D conversions, he's got to wow the crowd with more than blood and boobs - although, given the age range and predominant gender of attendees, blood and boobs will go a long way towards masking any minor technical shortcomings. When I spoke to Aja the following day, he was confident he'd delivered the gory goods - and he was relieved. While most directors would view material like this as nothing more than an easy paycheck, Aja attacked the film with the fervor of a fifteen-year-old horror fanatic. Had he failed to get a reaction out of a ready-to-love-everything Comic Con crowd, the last three years of his career would've been a complete waste. PIRANHA 3-D is supposed to be a wild, scary ride in the tradition of GREMLINS and EVIL DEAD; it's a knowing tribute to the movies that got us hooked on the genre in the first place. For Aja, it's an opportunity to move beyond the harrowing horror of HIGH TENSION and his remake of THE HILLS HAVE EYES and have a little fun for once. As he did with the Comic Con footage, Aja went down to the wire tweaking PIRANHA 3-D, so I didn't get a chance to watch the film before posting our interview (there were screenings this week, but I've been out of town since Monday). As someone who's loathed pretty much every live-action 3-D conversion offered up by Hollywood lately, I'm eager to see if the talented Aja has been able to harness the potential of the technology studios seem determined to ram down our throats. Because Aja talked a damn good game last July, I'm optimistic.

Beaks: Did you come into this knowing it was going to take two years to finish?

Aja: It took me two years of development and shooting and post-production. But, in fact, I read the first draft six years ago, and I really started writing on that draft three years ago. It's a long process. Making a movie is always a long process, unless you're making a Sofia Coppola type of movie - and I thought MARIE ANTOINETTE was very ambitious. But I'm doing movies that have very heavy CG and very heavy set pieces and lots of action; there are a lot of things happening. If you're making a movie about an earthquake releasing prehistoric piranha during spring break... you have thousands of people getting attacked. You're casting ten different characters that need to be developed. You're shooting in the desert and on the water. There are so many components. And then you are shooting everything in 3-D - and the conversion technology we chose very early in the process for technical and also lighting reasons. You cannot shoot with the new 3-D technology on the water, because the light reflection off the water is not creating the same lighting for each eye. Without getting into too much detail, it's just impossible. (Laughs) So, no, I didn't expect it would take so long. I will be working night and day, seven days a week... until they take the movie away from me because they have to release it. It's a big budget, but it's not a huge budget. We are not working with the biggest and best visual f/x companies; we are working with small vendors, and they need to be improved and improved. It's a long process. I want the piranha to be photo-real; I want them to be so scary and nasty.

Beaks: The original was done on the cheap, but it was Roger Corman, so it was expected that the f/x would look dodgy. Here, you've kind of thrown down the gauntlet by saying you want them to look real.

Aja: You don't just press a computer button and say, "Here, photo-real piranha!" It's a long process. We created the piranha with Neville Page, who did the creature designs on AVATAR and STAR TREK. But that was fifteen months ago. Today, we are still working on the look of the piranha. You know, I could work six more months on this movie...

Beaks: And you'd be happy to do that?

Aja: Yeah! I want everything to be perfect. We've been working around-the-clock for the last few months. But I will get everything ready in time.

Beaks: One of the thing I love about your piranha is the way they swim. They're very quick and nasty, but they can also stop on a dime right before devouring someone. I love that shot from the trailer. It's kind of a Looney Tunes moment, and that makes me think of Joe Dante. Are you paying homage to those cartoons with a shot like that?

Aja: I think I'm more influenced by the GREMLINS movies than the first PIRANHA. I always wanted to make this movie a PIRANHA for adults. You take PIRANHA, EVIL DEAD, JAWS and a little bit of WEIRD SCIENCE, and you get PIRANHA 3-D.

Beaks: For people of our generation, who grew up watching JAWS over and over again, there's the intense fear of the water, and, even more so, what might lurk just below the surface.

Aja: It was actually before JAWS. I think the fear of the water is universal. As long as you can remember, there's been a fear of the water - and a fear of the piranha as well as the shark. There is a tale of a conquistador coming back to Europe and telling of a fight on the river with the natives, and people falling in the river and coming up as skeletons. There are a lot of things in the imagination with the piranha. People know about them outside of the movies. And what I love about JAWS - aside from the fact that it's a masterpiece and one of the best movies ever made - is that the movie managed to focus that universal fear into a story. We all have that fear, but after watching the movie, the fear has a face. Hopefully, for a new generation, PIRANHA 3-D will do the same.

Beaks: I love the conquistador story. It's a shame Klaus Kinski wasn't around to do a cameo in your movie.

Aja: That would've been a good homage. We could've an opening scene with him as a conquistador. (Laughs)

Beaks: Your first two horror films, HIGH TENSION and THE HILLS HAVE EYES, were very serious and brutal. They certainly weren't comedic. You seem to have headed in the opposite direction with PIRANHA 3-D. Where are you headed within the genre, and, overall, as a filmmaker.

Aja: With PIRANHA, I wanted to explore another side of the genre, and make a fun, pop-culture ride. When I was writing this movie a few years ago, I said it was exactly like drawing the blueprint for a rollercoaster. It's really about making the most entertaining storyline and experience for the audience. The tone is very different from THE HILLS HAVE EYES and HIGH TENSION, but that's what I want to explore. I love the genre, and I love fear. And I love most of all a character facing an extreme situation. That's the kind of movie I like, the kind of movie that asks the audience "What would you do if you were in that situation?" And I think that question can be asked in many other genres. So I would like now to explore other kinds of movies; I would like to do maybe some more ambitious sci-fi or adventure. I'm thinking about a few subjects. I'm working on some things, and hopefully we'll hear about them very soon. But I still love horror, and I will continue to develop and produce more movies in that genre.

Beaks: So you're hoping to produce more movies aside from what you choose to direct, like you did with P2?

Aja: I've produced a few movies in the past, and I want to keep doing that. One of the reasons I didn't direct P2 was that I felt I'd be repeating myself from HIGH TENSION. I don't want to do that. So producing is a great way of staying involved in the creative process without repeating yourself.

Beaks: Are there any directors' careers you'd like to emulate?

Aja: Of course. I'm such a big fan of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson and James Cameron. All of them had that thing where they started in genre, and managed to, at one point, find a big project that brought them to a wider audience. I think Sam Raimi would've never been able to make a SPIDER-MAN without the knowledge he gained on THE EVIL DEAD - and I think that's also true of Peter Jackson and James Cameron. Even Spielberg came from the genre. It's a very tough school, this genre, but it allows you to use all of your technique to create fear and suspense. I think that's the best way to learn how to make a movie, and it's something you can use in any type of film after.

Beaks: It sounds like you're very cognizant of not being pigeonholed as a genre guy.

Aja: PIRANHA 3-D can be seen as a horror movie, but, to me, it's more of an action-disaster-comedy film. But, yes, after this I would like to find the movie that will be the bridge to take me to another level.

Beaks: Are you looking to pull back on the gore?

Aja: I don't think about that. From HIGH TENSION to THE HILLS HAVE EYES, I'm always coming from what the story requires. This one requires [gore] because it's spring break under attack; you have 20,000 kids being attacked by 100,000 piranha. What do you expect? It's a little more than one gallon [of blood] per person. (Laughs) That's a lot of gallons of blood in the water.

Beaks: I just love a situation like that. It's the kind of thing you dream of shooting as a kid. You get to think up all of these inventive scenarios in which people are eaten whole by piranha. Did you have all of the attacks planned out by the time you got to the set, or did you allow yourself room to play on the day of the shoot?

Aja: There's always flexibility. I like to work in collaboration and listen to people around me who have great ideas. But most of the attacks in this movie were planned because they involved visual f/x and prosthetics. Everything was in the script. But it was so exciting to write, to create this different way of dying. Writing that kind of story is amazing because, technically, you don't think about how you're going to achieve it; you just put it in, and then you find the solution.

Beaks: Richard Dreyfuss. The fact that you got him in this role and put him in the Hooper outfit is amazing. But I saw an interview recently where someone asked him why he did the film, and he answered very bluntly, "Money." Did he bring that attitude on the set with him.

Aja: No. He was very happy to come and play that part again. I think the reason he answered that is... you come to do a movie, and you don't know how it's going to be. You don't understand, and you're kind of cautious about showing yourself. But he played the game, and he played the part. He is like Matt Hooper. I think he understood more than anyone what a pleasure it will be for all the audience in the world to see this character coming back. I talked to him recently, and he's very excited.

Beaks: Thinking about moving outside of genre, and the kinds of films you'll be making from here on out, do you have a specific project that you'd like to do next?

Aja: I have a lot of different things that I'm thinking about. Nothing is set up completely yet, but there is a big sci-fi adventure movie that I'm thinking about. And there's a film noir reinvention in a very strange way; you will hear about that. And there's also a project that I'm thinking about producing. A lot of things.

Beaks: Noir is a very flexible genre, but it's also very difficult to do it in a way that hasn't been done to death one way or another. You really need an original idea.

Aja: I think I have one. It's an adaptation of a Spanish graphic novel Dark Horse has just released in the States called BLACKSAD. It's a really cool project.

PIRANHA 3-D gnaws its way into theaters this Friday, August 20th. Faithfully submitted, Mr. Beaks