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Interview by Moviehole.net
Moviehole talks to ["AVP-R"] directors Colin and Greg Strause about its conception.
When you saw the first “ALIEN”, what were your thoughts?
G. STRAUSE:
Um, to-to me the first “ALIENS” is one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen, so. And no matter how many times I watch it, uh, yeah, that-that movie just has a great, it’s so atmospheric and, uh, scary and, uh, it’s just so fundamentally sound. It-it always gets to you. It’s just great to watch it over and over again.
C. STRAUSE:
Yeah. It’s, uh, it’s been p--, it’s pretty cool doing a movie that’s part of that same franchise ‘cause I remember the first time we saw it, it was, like, on Pay-Per-View and we kept getting scared and turning the channel off and going back to watching it again. And we’ve probably seen that movie almost fifty, sixty times now and it’s really good.
When this project came to you what were your thoughts?
G. STRAUSE:
Um, it’s-it’s kinda funny ‘cause Colin and I used to, you know, we’d always start of movie pitches with, uh, a little background information about ourselves and, um, you know, the story would always be, like, “Well, we really love movies, like “ALIENS” and-and “PREDATOR”, those are some of the, you know, our-our favorite kinda films,” and-and then it’s just kinda ironic our first movie we get to combine the two franchises. So, I, you c--, you couldn’t ask for anything better than that.
Were you nervous?
G. STRAUSE:
Um, yeah, eh-eh-eh--. We’d-we’d be lying to say we-we, you know, there-there weren’t, uh, there weren’t some nerves at the beginning, but, uh, everything’s been going great now and, uh, yeah, there’s a lot of pressure. I mean, the last movie’s very successful, um, but, and also the, you know, the, let’s see. The other m--, the original movies in these franchises were-were not just successful films, but they’re just very, they’re great movies. So there’s a lot more pressure on us, um, in that regard, at least that we put on ourselves just trying to live up to the originals.
Given your background in visual effects, did you see the movie before and think you could make it better?
C. STRAUSE:
Well, I mean, the irony is even though our background is visual effect, it’s we’re actually doing most the movie in camera. It’s just one of our approaches. I mean, it’s like less is more and, you know, we’re t-trying to use digital effects when you absolutely have to ‘cause one of the things that made the original “PREDATOR” and the original “ALIENS” movies so great was the fact that they didn’t have visual effects back then. I mean, the same thing like with “JAWS”. It’s, you know, if they had CG sharks back then and they showed too much of the shark, would that movie have been as scary? You know, so it’s the fact that, you know, sometimes you-you limit yourselves and sometimes it’s the less, the more, the less that you show, the scarier that the movie becomes. So that’s been kind of our attitude to this is, you know, try to do as much in camera, try to take it back, you know, to the roots, to the way they did the originals because there’s something, you know, just really scary about a real creature in a real shot and it gives something for the actors to play off of as well.
How do you combine the actors and the monsters and make it look authentic?
G. STRAUSE:
Well, I mean, the first part would, uh, you know, to that answer I would say is-is Tom Woodruff. Um, Tom’s a performer who puts on the alien suit. Um, Tom’s been the alien for I think all the way back to “ALIENS”, so for over twenty years now, uh, him and Alec Gillis own the company that builds the suits, these guys live and breathe “ALIENS” and “PREDATORS”. So they’re a fantastic team and it-it’s really quite, you know, it’s spectacular to watch Tom put the suit on because he becomes the alien, he is the character. His little nuances and motions really bring it to life. So, uh, and it’s all those little things that make the creature horrifying and real and those two have to go together. It has to seem real in order to be horrifying and Tom can really, you know, he flips that switch on and, uh, yeah, just, we just love pointing the camera at him when he’s wearing that suit. Um, on “THE PREDATOR” side of things, Ian White’s brought a lot to the performance of the predator. Um, we wanted to bring “THE PREDATOR” back a little bit to its more tribal roots, uh, the-the sort of tribal warrior that, um, was it K-Kevin Peter--? Yeah, that Kevin Peter Hall brought to the original back in-in the eight--, the mid--, um, back in the middle eighties. So, um, Ian’s done a great job at that and I, and I think the fans are really gonna appreciate the-the new sort of grittier Predator that we have.
Do you worry about disappointing the big fans while your directing?
C. STRAUSE:
Well, I mean, at the end of the day you can’t make everyone happy. ‘Cause there was a lot of (?) at the studio, there’s our opinions, the producers, the writers, and then there’s a lot, a lot of different people have different feelings for how the movie’s supposed to go, but at the end of the day, I mean, we’re the biggest fans of all, so it’s. You know, we, and we check on the Internet all the time, we kinda see what the pulse of the communities are and what people generally like and generally dislike and, you know. So-so I-I think a lot of this is, you know, it’s a fan movie, you know. It’s like we’re trying to bring a lot of cool elements. There’s things in here that we haven’t seen, w--, things that the predator do that we haven’t seen before, some of the new alien designs. There’s-there’s a lot of really cool stuff that, you know, I think the fans are really gonna enjoy.
Can you tell us a little bit that we haven’t seen or is that top secret?
C. STRAUSE:
Well, one of the new designs is there.
G. STRAUSE:
Yeah, o-obviously he’s not too secret. Um, it’s the warrior design, sort of inspired from “ALIENS” so, uh, definitely the-the-the-the main characteristic that people notice, uh, is the ridged heads as opposed to the very smooth domes that were in the last film and in the original. Um, there’s a few other tricks we have up our sleeves we don’t really wanna let out of the bag right now. But, um, de-definitely the, you know, the-the aliens, eh--, we’re-we’re quite fond of the new alien head for sure.
The first one didn’t really have a lot of blood and guts.
C. STRAUSE:
Oh, yeah. The, yeah, this one’s definitely, as, uh, Tom Rothman has said, it’s gonna be a lot more hardcore. So they’ve definitely given some freedom to bring some, uh, you know, ‘cause, like, in the original “PREDATOR” and original “ALIENS”, I mean, there was, you know, that had a lot of gore, they, those weren’t, like, bloodbath movies, but when there was it was shocking and it really, it made the experience feel real. And we definitely are doing those same type of elements in this movie.
Tell us about your cast.
G. STRAUSE:
Um, you know, we-we have a great cast. Uh, the, uh, you know, definitely kinda young and up and comers that-that we felt, um, there-there are a few other (?), John Ortiz has been in a, in a lot of great movies, he’s a great character actor. Steven Pasquale and-and Reiko are, um, you know, the--, a little bit newer the feature film world, but, uh, very talented and, uh. I’m trying to, what…Um, how am I, how should I say that? I’m trying to think the best way of…Steven Pasquale and Reiko Aylesworth are-are, you know, very talented TV actors that were, you know, they-they’ve been in a few films, but this is definitely, uh, probably their-their big sort of suspense, thriller, action movie debuts. Uh, they’ve been great. We have Shareeka Epps who’s got a lot of buzz about her. She plays Kendra in the movie. And Ariel Gade plays Molly, uh, and Ariel’s just a fantastic little young lady. Um, great performances from her. So, uh, we’ve been v--, and not to forget Johnny Lewis and Kristen Hager. Um, so yeah, we’ve had, we’ve been very lucky with our cast. It’s been working very well. Very happy----
----Did you do that on purpose so you don’t get really huge names?
C. STRAUSE:
Well, at the end of the day you get the two biggest names in the world. I mean you got “ALIENS” and “PREDATORS”. I mean, it’s like, that’s, you know----
G. STRAUSE:
----We-we really wanted to go for good actors and that-that was really the, you know, and, eh--, w--, you either had names or talent and we really picked through the lot and went for the talent, so----
C. STRAUSE:
----Well, Reiko, uh, Steve and Johnny are all, or John Ortiz are all great stage actors from New York. So it’s like they have a lot of experience of that and-and that r--, especially with this movie ‘cause it’s much more character driven, uh, whereas the last movie was much more of a sci-fi movie, this one, because it’s more of a urban horror, it’s-it’s really about bringing out the characters, much like how it was “ALIEN” where, I mean, most of that movie was actually a character piece before, it’s almost forty-five minutes, almost an hour into the film before the actual alien even, uh, started, uh, terrorizing the ship. So we have a lot of similar elements with that and we had, we really spent a lot of time casting to make sure we got the best actors so that we can really have some characters with great depth.
Talk about directing together. Do you argue a lot? Do you agree?
G. STRAUSE:
Well, uh…
C. STRAUSE:
For the most part.
G. STRAUSE:
Yeah, I----
----Are you both there together all the time?
C. STRAUSE:
Oh yeah.
G. STRAUSE:
Yeah. Yeah. Colin and I have been working together in, uh, you know, since ninety-five or so in LA, in-in the movie industry. Um, so, you know, over the last eleven years or so, we’ve grown, you know, we, uh, we have a-a st--, a working style that’s kind of grown and evolved and over the last six years or so we’ve been directing together, uh, mainly music videos and commercials, this is the first movie. But, uh, you know, it’s pretty important that with any sorta directing teams that-that the two people are pretty much on the same page with their tastes and, uh, styles and whatnot. So, uh, not-not to say we agree on absolutely everything, but the, uh, the nice thing is that when we do disagree, it-it brings an extra point of view to the table and, uh, you know, that provides for checks and balances, which is great, so.
Ariel was saying that you each told her to do something different and then ended up agreeing on having her something different altogether. Does that happen a lot?
G. STRAUSE:
Yeah. I mean, you know, it-it-it depends and sometimes those scenes, they sort of evolve before your eyes when you’re, when you’re laying them out and you’re blocking them. Um, also it’s-it’s really good to get options. So where we have, you know, you’ll try things a couple different ways, you get to play with things, it’s part of the-the magic that happens on set. And, uh, the more sorta options we can build in for ourselves here, the, you know, the more freedom and flexibility we have in post when we’re doing our editing.
Have you learned a lot about directing from doing this film?
G. STRAUSE:
Oh yeah. It-it’s a, you know, it’s a fantastic amount of work. It’s-it’s a huge undertaking putting a-a movie together sh--, you know, all the way through prep and shooting and-and we have a, at least another half year or more of post after this, so it-it’ll-it’ll-it’ll have been, uh, o-over a year from start to finish for us. You know, it’s-it’s quite a bit of involvement. And, you know, literally hundreds of people, hundreds and hundreds of people on the crew, you know, so it’s, uh, ramping up and hiring all these people, it’s like building a small company in a, in a very short time. So yeah, it’s-it’s been a great experience.
How does it feel to be part of the franchise?
G. STRAUSE:
Yeah, it’s great.
C. STRAUSE:
It’s good.
Did you ever imagine that you would be doing something like this?
C. STRAUSE:
Well, you know, we actually went in on the first movie and, uh, and when we didn’t get that it was, it was kinda cool having a second chance to kinda come in and, you know, kinda brings a cool new direction for the franchise and it’s fun. I have to say, I mean, it’s been, it’s the greatest job ever and it’s, every time we get to work with the creatures, it’s, I mean, it’s challenging getting through all the mechanics of the creatures, but once you get into that end result, it’s just, it’s the coolest thing. So it’s-it’s definitely been a fun, fun job.
G. STRAUSE:
Yeah, there’s-there’s nothing more cool than getting to film and direct the creatures you kinda grew up with as a kid.
It’s going to be surreal.
C. STRAUSE:
Yeah. It’s pretty wild. I remember the first time we saw the “PREDATOR”, we just started almost giggling like little schoolgirls ‘cause it’s like the first time you see him, it’s like you walk in a room and he’s, you know, just standing there and the g--, you know, guy’s almost eight feet tall with the helmet on and it’s just, it’s wild seeing it in person.
What was the hardest part of this whole experience for you?
G. STRAUSE:
I’d say there’s n-nothing.
Nothing?
C. STRAUSE:
Nothing, it’s been easy. No. Um, I mean, the biggest thing’s just been time management, you know, just working with our, we had a fantastic assistant director and just going through all the scheduling and just trying to figure out what we need, what we can get, how we break things down and, you know, it’s just been, uh, it’s just trying to have this organizationally ‘cause we h--, didn’t have a lot of prep time, so it was just trying to make sure we can get everything lined up and get all the locations ‘cause I mean, that’s probably been the most challenging part of this is a lot of the other “ALIENS” movies have been completely done on soundstages. This is one of the only, other than probably the, uh, “PREDATOR” franchise, which was on locations like forests or in downtown LA, this one we literally every day or two we’re in a completely different part of town. So, and that’s actually been the most challenging thing, is just, you know, everyday, you know, packing up all the equipment, moving to another location, settling in, getting the shots, and then tearing everything down and moving on the next day----
G. STRAUSE:
----I-I-I think one of the drivers said we’ve had forty-two moves in fifty-two days. So it-it, that-that has been one of the more challenging aspect, is everyday you’re in some new place figuring out all the little details to that and just as you start to get really good at the place you’re at, pack all the trucks up and you’re onto the next one, so.
What do you hope audiences will take away from this?
G. STRAUSE:
Well, I mean, first and foremost, we want them to really be able to relate to the characters, enjoy the-the story, be entertained and also be scared.
You agree?
C. STRAUSE:
Yup, wholeheartedly.
That’s it.
G. STRAUSE:
Great----
C. STRAUSE:
----Cool.
Thank you----
G. STRAUSE:
----Thank you.
C. STRAUSE:
Thank you.
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