Sorry for not keeping up, but here is the news, and I swear to keep this thing updated.
Darren Lynn Bousman answered some questions on HOJ:
Jordanaivrum
- you asked how man people worked on the story for SAW IV... Great question - - EVERYONE!!! seriously - from the production designer to the prop guys. We have all been doing these films for the last three years so we all kind'a feel like it's our baby. We take input from EVERYONE on set. That being said - Marcus, Patrick and I spent many a long hour on the phone talking about where the story should go. Once we were close we brought it to the saw family to get their ideas...
Brock Manson - will this story focus on Jeff? Every plot synopsis you might have read online is false... trust me when I tell you - the real 'story' has not been released.
Strictly Bars and Bad Boys - - are there a lot of twists? YES!!! but again - not all twists are THE GUY GETS UP OFF THE FLOOR. A twist in my book is any time you think you know whats going on - and come to realize you don't.
SAWesome89 - - you wanted to know about the teaser trailer... I don't know when they will be releasing this - but I can say - keep watching on line - for some OTHER surprises very very soon.
deserted soul - - Will we get to know more about Amanada - and will we see what was in the note... I can say the answer to ONE of your questions is YES... I Just can't tell you which one I am answering yes to!
Disciple Of Jigsaw - - you ask if I ever read SAW STORIES written by fans. During Saw II I use to read a lot of them... But currently I am swamped with editing this bad boy - as well as prepping my next project REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA. So my time is pretty short... I tell you what I do look at though is the ART people draw based on the saw films... We have some real talented fans out there!
copycatjigsaw - - you ask if someone is returning for the first film... YES!!!! just can't tell you who!!!!
Ok guys - I have to go back to editing... We are currently editing the ending... It's crazy... Let me tell you about it... Oh wait... I can't do that... but you will see it soon enough!
Keep the questions coming!
dlb
Tobin Bell was interviewed
here.
More from Bousman:
"There was a scene in this movie that made me regurgitate in my mouth."
That's how Darren Lynn Bousman describes the next chapter in the Saw series. He recently got back from shooting the fourth entry in this hugely popular franchise. He met up with me and a couple of other
journalists at Parc Restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard to dish about his latest gory entree, and his experiences making it.
Every possible question was asked. Did he answer them? Not so much. Saw is a mystery, whether you like it or not. And they aren't ready to show all of their cards just yet. Here is how Darren described his
new film:
"What I can tell you about
Saw IVis this. Everyone thinks we are doing a prequel. We are not. Is Tobin back in this? One hundred percent he is. Is he a bad ass in this one, you bet he is. Is Tobin only in flashbacks? No he's not. Is Tobin Dead? Yes he is. Is Tobin a ghost? No he's not. It's hard to explain. All we can say is watch the
movie. If you can get the end of the movie, then you are my personal fucking heroes. I read the script and didn't get the ending. A lot of the actors don't know the ending either. We only gave the ending to Tobin. No one else got it."
Are you curious? I know I am. I might have to see this one in the theater.
Here is the rest of our chat (note - This interview is culled from a couple of different interviews. Most of it is exclusive, but some of it came from the informal roundtables that were also conducted at the time, inside a bar, by a bunch of drunk people):
Darren Lynn Bousman: We are not churning these movies out. We just never stopped production. So, it's not like we have to come back and figure this out. I used to work on the
The X Files, and I would have to walk up to them and ask if they knew where this was going. We defiantly know where this is going. It does have an ending. And it is badass. There is a definite conclusion. We figured it out. We found the end. Did I think I was going to come back for IV? No, I thought III would have been the end. For me, at least. III was the end of that story. But there was always envisioned separate stories that were supposed to be going on in Saw. I just happened to take part in the beginning of the next story.
Why did you come back
Darren Lynn Bousman: It was the heap loads of cash that came pouring out of the dump truck they pulled up next to my house. No. What it really boils down to is two things. Unlike starting from scratch, I'd been with this project for two years now. I knew the people involved. I knew
the producers. I knew the cast. So it wasn't starting at square one, it was coming directly back into it.
Can you tell me anything that hasn't already made the rounds?
Darren Lynn Bousman: Well, here is a funny anecdote that nobody knows about yet. We're filming the movie, and I wanted something more intense. There was a thirty-minute chunk of film that was kind of boring. I needed something that would make people squirm, and cringe. I went to David Hackle and told him that, in the next four days, we are shooting these scenes that I really don't care about. He agreed that they weren't too good. So I said, lets put a trap there. I called Mark into work on a Friday. I decided I wasn't going to work for the next four days. I was going to put a trap in here. And they were like, "What?" I pitch them the trap, and they think it's a pretty good trap. So I call Hackle on Thursday. I tell him that I need this really complex trap built and done. He's like, "Uh, okay." We took these days that we were going to film and built a trap instead. We built it on Friday to shoot on Monday morning. And its one of the best traps in the movie. It's absolutely amazing. That's why these Saw films are successful. We are continually working on the script. Making it better. Every single Saw film, I am looking at the edit, and I'm like, "oh, fuck. I didn't get this. It would be so great if we had it." Example, in
Saw II we have this scene were these guys are hut-hutting it up these stairs. They are walking up there, and it's boring. Someone needs to get their leg or ankle broken. And we were done shooting. I tell the editor that it sucks. He says, "It does suck." I tell him that we need to fix it. So I tell the assistant editor that I need a staircase. I tell him to go build me a staircase. So the assistant editor goes to Home Depot, and for two days he builds this staircase. I get a Panavision, and I reshoot the scene with the assistant editor going up the stairs. He's, like, what? Four foot nine. I put him in S.W.A.T. gear, and we reshot little segments of stuff like that. We got the ankle breaking, and that was never in the script. We don't do normal reshoots were you have two hundred people and a week to film it. We do two-hour reshoots.
How closely are you involved with the editing process?
Darren Lynn Bousman: Every day. I am in there every day. I work on all aspects of the film. The
sound effects, the digital effects. A big part of my job is getting the sound mix where it needs to be. I remember last year, I was in the audio booth from eight o'clock in the morning to ten o'clock everyday, screaming, "No, I want it to go down like that!" It was intense. I was in the editing room, and I saw one of the traps go off on film, and I started crying. It was the worse thing I had ever seen in my life. The editor said, "Just give me a day." He went back, he added flash frames. And the sound design. And I was thoroughly disgusted. Sound does so much to horror movies.
