Quint interviews Sean Cunningham and Ronny Yu!

RONNY YU: Yes?  

QUINT: YOU'RE UP... AFTER THIS AND BRIDE OF CHUCKY, YOU SEEM TO BE THE GUY THE STUDIOS ARE COMING TO TO BREATHE A FRESH VIEWPOINT INTO THESE SERIES. WHY DO YOU THINK THEY COME TO YOU FOR THESE FILMS?  

RONNY YU: To be honest, I have no idea. When Universal asked me to do the Chucky movie, I said I know nothing about the CHILD'S PLAY franchise. They say, "Oh, that's fine. That's fine. Just come in and make an entertainment movie." I said, "OK. Fine. I can do that." The same thing with FREDDY VS JASON.  

All I saw when I was in Hong Kong is the one Sean did, the first FRIDAY THE 13TH and the one that Wes Craven did, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. That's it. That's it. I was very honest. I told the studio, that's it. That's all I know about FREDDY VS JASON. But they said, "Do you get excited about this script?" I said, "Yes, that for sure." "So, do you wanna do it?" I said, "Yeah, I want to do it, but I have to be upfront with you. I'm not that familiar, but I will go into studying it and get educated."  

I saw when I went to the website, then I realized... Man! What did I get myself in to? You know, there's like this huge expectation. All I know from the studio is they've been trying to make this for the last 10 years. I thought maybe there were script problems, but then I realized so many expectations. People are waiting for this and this is the first time these two together... To quote my lawyers and my agents, "Ronny, Ronny! You've always wanted to do a real American movie, right? We have something for you! Now you have in your hands two horror icons... American horror icons are now in your hands." I said, [SARCASTICALLY] "Well, thank you very much!"  

Fortunately, there was already a blueprint with the script and I have Sean and I have Robert Englund to give me a lot of input. Especially Robert. He is Freddy. The character, the persona, the body language, how to deliver a line... That really helped me.  

QUINT: BACK TO SEAN, AS YOU SAID EARLIER THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN IN DEVELOPMENT FOR ALMOST 10 YEARS. IN THAT TIME SO MANY SCRIPTS WERE TURNED IN AND TURNED DOWN, WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THIS SCRIPT THAT MADE IT THE ONE?  

SEAN S. CUNNINGHAM: Well... Um... I don't know that... What it is is it's like one of those games that have the six little BBs and you try to roll them and two or three get into the hole, then go for the fourth one and two fall out. A lot of that going on. When the stars all came together, we had certain... the picture for all intents and purposes had been greenlighted for six years! There was always a reason not to make it. There were changes in management and there were internal changes in the company...  

Last year, when all the stars aligned as it were, we had a viable script and suddenly (NEW LINE PRESIDENT) Bob Shaye said, "I'm willing to pay the money to make this into an A movie. Let's really do it." And Ronny was available and he was going to bring a whole other dimension to it. Everybody felt now's the time. Let's do it and we did. I think that without all those elements at the same time at the same place it wasn't going to happen. It was a combination of Ronny and Bob Shaye and the script and time, I think.  

RONNY YU: Somehow everything suddenly... 'Cause I remember it was only in June last year that I flew from Sydney to LA to meet Bob Shaye. That's how the whole thing gelled together. Then we were able to find a new Jason, Ken... and everything was on a good flow.  

QUINT: COOL... SO WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THE SCRIPT THAT GOT YOU EXCITED, RONNY?  

RONNY YU: I know the rules. The rules is Freddy only functions in the dream world and Jason is a silent killer that only functions in the real world. Now, I know these rules and I was like, "OK. Show me how you can put these two together." I thought the script was pretty smart. Rather than just having all these victims, the teenagers running around getting chopped, you know... In the middle of the movie, the victims turn the tables around. They come up with this idea... Ah! One of them becomes the bait to lure Freddy and then pull Freddy from the dream world because it was done before in a previous episode.  

Something belonging to Freddy can be brought back to the real world, so the rules are set. All you need to do is pull the whole Freddy out and then these two evil monsters fight each other out. Wow, yeah. That's good, yeah? That's very smart. Also, I thought there was some fantastic opportunities for me to throw in a lot of action. That stuff really excites me.  

QUINT: IT SEEMS FROM THE TRAILERS AND TV SPOTS I'VE SEEN THE FILM HAS A LOT OF ENERGY...  

RONNY YU: Absolutely there's a lot energy. I've been shooting movies in Hong Kong and it's all about pacing and energy and you always try to surprise the audience. So far, I've been shooting movies for 20 years and every time I look in the monitors onset I make decisions not from Ronny Yu the director, but always Ronny Yu the audience. I just paid ten bucks of my own money, so would I be satisfied in that monitor as an audience?  

So, I always make my choices that way. All the time with my fellow crew I would say, "Give me something different. Give me something I haven't seen before. Give me something more dynamic, more powerful." I kept pushing the envelope.  

QUINT: HOW DID YOU APPROACH THE VISUAL STYLE OF THIS FILM? BECAUSE NIGHTMARE AND FRIDAY EACH HAVE A DISTINCTIVE STYLE. DID YOU JUST THROW ALL THAT OUT THE WINDOW AND CREATE SOMETHING NEW OR DID YOU PICK AND CHOOSE?  

 

RONNY YU: What is interesting with this this time around is I have two worlds to deal with. I have the real world and I have the dream world. In the movie you have two big fights. In one, Freddy manages to get Jason into his world, which is the dream world, a more of a fantasy world in the boiler room. So, everything goes. Later on, Freddy got thrown into the real world fighting Jason.  

We had a DoP who said, "We should play with color. We should play with primary color... Red is real red. Green is real green and blue is like steel blue." I always liked those primary colors. So, the boiler room in the dream world is really red. Red with steam going and all that. Very surreal, you know. Also, in a dream world Freddy gets to understand more about Jason. Where he's coming from, his childhood... Because Jason was drowned by water... there's plenty of water in the dream world so we make that really green.  

If there's one thing I try to follow is "Don't rely on CGI too much." Go back to the basics. If we can do it physically or with an in-camera trick with color and lighting and with filter and all that. Do it there. Don't rely on CGI because I think nowadays people are too familiarized with CGI and it took emotion out of it when watching a movie. They're like, "Oh, that's not real..."  

So, I been telling my crew this is about two monsters fighting, like T-Rex fighting. We don't want CG things. We want real. When they duke it out, when they tear each other apart, I want to see flesh rather than "Oh, I use CG" and quick cut. No! No! It's all real.  

Because of that all the stunt guys and the actors had to carry all this pipe, like 30 pipes, along because every cut you had to have blood coming out and compressed air, you know... So it's like 30 people running around with these pipes. (laughs) Now, I have to give credit for CG because CG helped me to clean up all those! (laughs)  

But I'm very happy with it. I'm sure Sean is very happy with it. We got that emotion across. At the end when these two fight you feel the pain. These two monsters... you feel, "Oh my God! His hand's coming out! Oh my God! The limb is coming out!"  

QUINT: I KNOW YOU'RE DEEP INTO PUBLICITY ON FREDDY VS JASON, BUT WHAT HAVE YOU GOT LINED UP NEXT?  

RONNY YU: I read a comic book, a Japanese comic book, a long time ago... not too long... three, four years ago, called BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE. There an animation movie... And I'm trying to adapt that one... trying to get the rights to that one...  

QUINT: DOES IT TAKE PLACE ON A MILITARY BASE?  

RONNY YU: Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.  

QUINT: I'VE SEEN THAT ONE. IT'S PRETTY DAMN COOL AND CREEPY.  

RONNY YU: That's what's really interesting. You've never seen a vampire that took place on the... the... the... army base. The military base.  

QUINT: I REMEMBER THE DESIGN OF THE VAMPIRES IS WHAT GOT ME... KINDA LIKE A MIXTURE OF TRADITIONAL WEREWOLVES AND VAMPIRES.  

RONNY YU: It's a bit combination. So, I'm trying to develop a script of an English version.  

QUINT: WHAT ABOUT YOU, SEAN?  

SEAN S. CUNNINGHAM: I'm working on a vampire movie, but in the female military... (laughs) I don't know, Ronny... I don't know which one is going to be released first. (laughs) Actually we're working on a sort of... Jason Vs Xena. (everybody laughs). I don't think anybody could kick Xena's ass.  

RONNY YU: I think most everyone agrees we wait and see how the audience likes this film.  

QUINT: WHERE DO YOU SEE THE FRANCHISE GOING. MORE JASON MOVIES, MORE FREDDY MOVIES OR FREDDY VS JASON 2?  

SEAN S. CUNNINGHAM: Ronny's been trying to get me to do BRIDE OF FREDDY. (laughs) No! No! Xena. BRIDE OF XENA!  

RONNY YU: I think the studio and everybody just waits to see...  

SEAN S. CUNNINGHAM: I know, I know... As far as this goes, I think that you can say whatever you want, but the truth is the audience will determine if this is over or if they like it, they enjoy it, then we'll find a way to serve this fan base. That's really what always happens.  

 

There you have it, squirts. Special thanks to Kraken for taking the pics. My review may be forth coming... depends if I can get my ass in gear tonight and pound something out... If I don't get to it, let me say that it has Quint's stamp of approval. I have some minor problems, but the movie has it where it counts. I've seen it twice and both audiences went nuts for it.  

I'll be back soon, squirts. Lots of good stuff coming up, including an interview with a living legend of comedy. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.  

-Quint

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