Movies
Alex Aja Defends Post 3-D ‘Piranha’, Talks Blood and Guts
When Dimension Films delayed Piranha 3D – Alex Aja’s remake of Joe Dante’s classic 80’s film – speculation ranged from the fact that Dimension wanted to avoid a box office battle with Lionsgate’s Kickass to the notion that the film needed a lot more work in FX department. While we wait until August for the massive attack, Aja talked with MTV about the post 3-D conversion, while also revealing a few scenes that he enjoyed shooting.
The conversation kicks off with a little Piranha hype.
“I understand why James Cameron in “Avatar” didn’t want to make the 3-D gimmicky, and he was right,” he tells MTV. “But we are making a piranha-attacking-spring-break movie, so we are going to go for the huge on-the-screen effects and fish attacking the audience.”
Aja claims to have been skeptical of post-conversion 3-D until he saw footage of Star Wars and Titanic.
“We were going to shoot with the camera system Cameron used, and we found out that, of course, we don’t have the same budget as an “Avatar” or as much time. And shooting on the water with a real 3-D camera brings some very big restrictions in terms of dealing with reflections. But I was very, very skeptical about the 3-D conversion, because it felt so unnatural to create 3-D when it’s flat at the beginning. And I saw a lot of demo reels, like some of the James Cameron “Titanic” conversion scenes, some of “Star Wars,” and 20 minutes of Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” fully converted into 3-D, and that was simply the best 3-D I’ve ever seen. Period.” That’s a bold statement. He’ll regret this after he sees Clash.
Speaking of Clash of the Titans, when you guys see that (or Alice in Wonderland), it will be quite apparent why post-3-D conversion is garbage. Aja defends his post-conversion process citing budget issues and the fact that all of the fish are CG.
“I was sold. And in addition to that, because all of our piranha are CG, they are all real 3-D in the computer. Our movie is going to be completely converted, but a big chunk of it will be real 3-D as well.”
For those of you who can’t wait until August, Aja explains just how blody the film is while also teasing one of his fav 3-D sequences.
“I think everything involving the fish is going to be fantastic. The biggest thing for the fans is going to be the big spring-break wet T-shirt contest, where we have thousands of spring-break groups on the water, and the party has its climax when the piranhas come and start attacking everyone. It’s almost 25 minutes of a huge massacre, and it’s really insane. I think we broke all the records in the manner of blood used. I don’t remember the exact number, but we passed “Kill Bill.” You’ve never seen something like that before.”
He continues, “Then there’s a more specific 3-D area, where at one point there’s a boat that’s sinking and they are rescued by another boat, and they cannot exit because there are a lot of rocks, and they are pulling a rope in between the two boats — like a ski rope — and they have to cross over, and the piranha are jumping, trying to get them. It’s a very, very big 3-D moment.”
Piranha 3D arrives in theaters August 27.
Movies
Art Meets Leslie – David Howard Thornton Joins ‘Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon’
Leslie Vernon will be back in the upcoming Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon, and Variety reports that David Howard Thornton (Terrifier) has joined the cast.
David Howard Thornton is said to be featured in a “key role.” Stay tuned for more.
“David is one of the defining faces of the modern slasher era,” returning director Scott Glosserman said in a statement to Variety. “If Behind the Mask was about deconstructing the classic rules, then a sequel 20 years later has to reckon with what the genre has become.”
Glosserman adds, “Bringing David into Leslie’s world lets us put the old guard and the new blood in direct conversation, which is exactly where this movie should live.”
The upcoming slasher sequel picks up in a horror landscape that has changed dramatically since Leslie first emerged, as the old rules of the genre collide with a new wave of modern slashers, viral killers, legacy sequels and blood-soaked icons built for the internet age.
It look less than 10 minutes for the Kickstarter campaign for the recently announced Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon to smash through its goal earlier this year.
The stars of the 2006 movie Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon will reunite for the upcoming sequel, with Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals and Robert Englund confirmed to return as Leslie Vernon, Taylor Gentry, and Doc Halloran, respectively. Scott Glosserman is also back to direct Behind the Mask II, with David J. Stieve back to write the film.
Glosserman previews, “For twenty years, people have asked if Leslie would ever come back. Fans kept this movie alive by sharing it, quoting it, introducing it to their friends, and treating it like something worth holding onto. This sequel is happening because of them.”
In the 2006 meta-slasher, aspiring slasher icon Leslie Vernon gives a documentary crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the sleepy town of Glen Echo. What’s Leslie Vernon been up to in the past 20 years? And what’s next for the character?
Paper Street Pictures, led by Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns, produces the sequel. Adam F. Goldberg (The Goldbergs, Shelby Oaks) will also serve as an executive producer.
Expect Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon in 2027.
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