Interview : Don Mancini

And they say college kids don’t do anything productive with their spare time. In his off-time, former ULCA undergrad Don Mancini wrote a film script. The ingenious little piece told the story of a killer doll – possessed by a dead rogue – who gives his young owner a bit of a surprise when he comes to life and demands his body.

Cut to 1988 and “Child’s Play”, the film, is streaming through a multiplex projector. A few short months later, it’s on VHS, and whilst counting the green it makes – studio, and Mancini, envision sequel. And then another, and another…

A couple of years back, Mancini put pen to paper and started writing the fifth in the series. It was easy to scrawl, not so easy to sell. “I wrote the script five years ago, just after Bride (of Chucky). But we got stalled in "development hell" after the Columbine shootings”, says Mancini. “Hollywood took a lot of heat for marketing violent movies to kids, and as a result, a lot of horror projects hit a brick wall, particularly at Universal, which, to cite another example, sold House of 1000 Corpses to Lion’s Gate. But fortunately, people in Hollywood have short memories. Things inevitably calmed down, and after the success last year of Cabin Fever, Jeepers Creepers 2, and Freddy vs. Jason, we immediately went into pre-production at Focus Features — ironically, the art-house division of Universal. I love it — "From the people who brought you The Pianist and Lost in Translation comes…Seed of Chucky!"

Mancini says he had several ideas for a fifth film. “After Seed stalled, I would periodically pitch new Chucky ideas to David Kirschner and Corey Sienega. We were just trying to light a fire under the studio, and goose them a bit, to get them to move forward with something. But none of these ideas ever went beyond the half-baked stage. One notion was to do a parody of Hannibal, centering on the sole surviving victim of Chucky, bent on revenge. Another idea was to do A Clockwork Chucky — Chucky is somehow "deprogrammed," so that the thought of violence and swearing makes him sick. Come to think of it, I still think that idea is pretty funny. Imagine it: Chucky’s sitting in the back seat of a car parked on some lovers’ lane, while a couple of teenagers are making out in front. Chucky glances around: there’s a knife; there’s a cleaver; Chucky’s just dying to do his thing, but his hands are shaking and he can’t even bring himself to pick up a weapon! It’s a true existential dilemma for Chucky”, he remarks.

Ultimately, “Seed of Chucky” would be a satirical horror flick featuring Chucky and bride, Tiffany, as they go to Hollywood. Quite a departure from the serious horror that the first film was. But the injection of comedy is almost a necessity, says Mancini. “…deliberate, crucial, even necessary decision. Sequels are tricky. The audience demands to see more of the central character, but the more you bring these horror icons front and center — whether it’s Freddy, Jason, or Chucky — the less scary they become. They inevitably lose their mystery. And with Chucky, it’s a particular problem, because he’s a doll. He’s already absurd. So on Bride, we decided to embrace the humour while taking full advantage of the opportunity to explore Chucky’s character. With Bride and now Seed, I felt that the most unexpected — even subversive — thing we could do was to actually make you care about these dolls.”

Remarkably, the studio let Mancini direct the latest instalment too. He says the experience was “Thrilling, gruelling, frustrating, fulfilling, titillating — and exhausting. Mostly exhausting. But I’m raring to do it again. I was lucky; I had a great crew. And David and Corey are fantastic producers. We’ve been working together on these movies for a long time, and one of the tricks to a successful collaboration is simply enjoying each other’s company. We have a good time together. The same is true of working with Jennifer Tilly and Brad Dourif. I knew going into this that having them as the stars of my directing debut was going to be a huge asset to me, not just because of their talents, but also because I knew they’d be gentle with me as they popped my directorial cherry”.

Thankfully for the new director, advances in technology means Chucky, the doll, is a lot easier to operate on film. “Yes, it is easier, particularly with regards to the dolls’ mouth movements. Now we can lock the mouth movements into the computer, so once the puppeteers get the articulation perfect, we can repeat that perfect performance, over and over again. It’s like a sort of vocal motion control. Also, advances in animatronics allow for Tiffany to give a much more expressive performance this time. In Bride, she was a little stiff, because her head is relatively small as compared to Chucky’s, and we literally couldn’t fit in as many servo-mechanisms. Of course, we’ve never had this problem with Chucky, because he’s always had such a big head, in more ways than one.”

The film turned out just the way he wanted it to, says Mancini, but there’s still a couple of things he would’ve liked to have included. There was a whole sequence involving Debbie Carrington, the actress who played Thumbelina in Total Recall. Like Jennifer Tilly, Redman, and Tony Gardner, Debbie was playing herself. (In Seed, Jennifer Tilly, Oscar-nominated actress and international sex symbol, is starring in a movie about Chucky and Tiffany’s exploits.) The sequence in question involved Tiffany’s stalking Debbie on the Universal backlot. Unfortunately, we had to cut the stalking scene in order to stay on schedule; we never even shot it. We did shoot the scene which introduced Debbie and set this whole thing up, but without the payoff, the scene didn’t work. But we’ll have this establishing scene on the DVD.”

And what’s on that impending DVD? “Commentary tracks featuring Brad, Jennifer, David Kirschner, Corey Sienega, Tony Gardner, and myself. Plus, an additional commentary track with Chucky and Tiffany. A behind-the-scenes documentary. A series of very funny, specially-shot skits featuring Chucky, Tiff, and Glen. An on-camera interview with composer Pino Donaggio. Footage of Brad, Jennifer, and Billy Boyd, recording the doll vocal tracks. By popular demand: Jennifer’s diary (her diary chronicling Bride was a big hit). Also, hopefully, Jennifer’s on-set video which originally appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. A piece on the puppeteers and the wonders of animatronics. A piece on our VFX company, Stargate and how they helped us transform Romania into Hollywood. (They deserve an Academy Award for that alone.) And state-of-the-art anti-piracy technology which will give pirates a shocking surprise.”

So what’s next for Chucky’s pop? “I’m working on a PG-13 haunted house thriller, and another in the vein of Airport meets Babe, focusing on all the pets caged in the cargo hold of a 747 — dogs and cats and birds who have to set aside their natural animosity towards one another and band together to save the day when the plane is hijacked. Unfortunately, 9-11 put the brakes on that one. All these damn terrorists keep screwing up my career. But like I said, people in Hollywood have short memories.”

And what about a sixth “Child’s Play” movie? “I’ll let you know next Monday, after the box office receipts for Seed are in”, he says.

Any chance the possible sixth one might feature original tyke-hero Andy (played by Alex Vincent in the first two films) again? “If Alex Vincent has anything to say about it. He keeps telling me that fans want Andy back. But what would it be about? Maybe Andy could be that sole survivor, obsessed with revenge, in a Hannibal spoof. But does anybody really want to see that little brat again? (Relax, Alex — I’m talking about Andy, not you.)”.