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Stay Alive: Writer/Director Brent Bell and Writer Matthew Peterman
By: Elaine Lamkin
One of the last films to be completed in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit last year, “Stay Alive” makes wonderfully creepy use of the city and surrounding plantations in its tale of a video game that takes over the lives of the players – literally. The ultra-realistic 3-D game itself is based on the spine-chilling true story of the infamous 16th-century Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
After the mysterious, brutal death of an old friend, a group of friends, who have holed up in a decaying plantation house, begins to play the grisly game, which they don't know anything about other than they're not supposed to have it... and they're dying to play it. After a time, a horrifying realization is made – they are each being murdered in the same method as the character they played in the game. As the game itself comes alive, the group must find a way to defeat the vicious and merciless Countess Bathory, all the while knowing that, as the tagline reads, “If you die in the game, you die for real”.
Bloody-Disgusting recently spoke with director William Brent Bell and writer Matthew Peterman about this hotly anticipated movie from Hollywood Pictures which is scheduled to open in theaters on March 24th.
BD: Being a huge Bathory fan, I was excited when I heard about this movie. First though, how about some background information on the two of you?
 MP: I was born in Atlanta, Georgia but my family moved to Lexington, Kentucky when I was two. I graduated from Tates Creek High School in Lexington and then from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.
WBB: I am also from Lexington, Kentucky but I attended Lafayette High and didn’t actually meet Matt until we were both in LA.
BD: What can you tell us about “Stay Alive”? What kind of budget did you have to work with? Where did you film? Any details like that.
WBB & MP: We had a budget under $10 million and we shot in and around New Orleans from May 6 until June 25, 2005. We wanted a European flavor for the film and New Orleans was perfect for that. The exterior of the plantation in the film is Kenilworth Plantation and the interiors were filmed at Palo Alto Plantation near Donaldsonville, Louisiana.
BD: What about the rating for “Stay Alive”? The trailer looked pretty intense.
WBB & MP: We’re not sure what the MPAA will give it yet. We really pushed the PG-13 rating but we tried to stay away from tons of gore. We wanted to make a clever teen slasher movie so there’s more violence than blood.
BD: What was your inspiration for the film, other than the Bathory legend?
MP: We wanted to do a movie with the game being used as the engine which “drives” the film. The game itself was invented for “Stay Alive”. Also, we changed the Bathory story – instead of having her end her days walled up in her castle, we had her chased out of Hungary and coming to America. Once there, she travels to New Orleans where she opens a “finishing school” for young ladies at her plantation home and there she kills them. In the game, you have to kill the undead young girls.
BD: Which brings up the next question – will there be a real “Stay Alive” game made available?
WBB & MP: We hope so. It will depend on the success of the movie.
BD: You have assembled a great cast of young actors: Samaire Armstrong (“The OC”, “Entourage”), Frankie Muniz (“Malcolm in the Middle”), Jon Foster (“The Door in the Floor”, “Murder in Greenwich”), Milo Ventimiglia (“The Gilmore Girls”), Sophia Bush (“One Tree Hill”) and Adam Goldberg (“Zodiac”, “Saving Private Ryan”). There have been questions about why Frankie Muniz is not the “star” of the film but rather a supporting character.
WBB & MP: Frankie really just wasn’t right for the lead – that part, “Hutch”, went to Jon Foster. But Frankie does make a transition in this film to more adult roles; he sort of “grows up”. And he really was very sweet and passionate about the movie.
BD: There has been a lot of talk about the use of next-gen graphics in “Stay Alive”. Would you explain what that is?
MP: It’s the new wave in consoles, like the XBox 360, which is already out, and the Playstation 3, which will be out next year. Our game looks as good as any of these.
BD: How did you hook up with producer McG who directed both of the “Charlie’s Angels” films?
WBB & MP: McG was one of the “creative” producers on “Stay Alive”. We had met him because of a TV show we worked on with him and he actually gave us offices in his building in LA.
BD: Which companies actually financed “Stay Alive”?
WBB & MP: Spyglass Entertainment, McG’s companies, Wonderland Pictures and Wonderland Sound and Vision, Endgame Entertainment and Touchstone Pictures.
BD: Who did the creepy SFX makeup in the film?
 WBB & MP: Michele Paris, who has worked on such films as “The Stepford Wives”, did both the SFX makeup as well as the regular makeup. And did an amazing job!
BD: Your SFX were done by Pixel Liberation Front. What can you tell us about them?
WBB & MP: They have worked on such films as “Matrix Revolutions” and “Matrix Reloaded”, “Secret Window”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “The Ring”, “The Cell” and the up-coming, “Superman Returns” so they have quite a resume. They pioneered the technique of previsualization where they map out a shot in 3-D and then animate the principal actions of a sequence well in advance of shooting. It looks so amazing what they have done on “Stay Alive”!
BD: How was it working for Disney?
WBB & MP: Disney has mainly been involved in post-production but the whole experience has been great. And “Stay Alive” will be the first film of their relaunch of their Hollywood Pictures label.
BD: What’s next for the two of you?
WBB & MP: Right now we’re just finishing up “Stay Alive” but all we want to do is continue making films.
BD: One last question – WHY are these people in that creepy plantation to begin with?
WBB & MP: Let’s just say there’s a VERY good reason they go there…
February 2006
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