Drew Turney
He came to prominence as half of the two-man team that graduated from Melbourne’s RMIT film school and conquered the world with their debut film, ”Saw”, in 2004.
But with erstwhile partner James Wan now having moved onto other little projects you might have heard of (the billion-dollar ”Furious 7”, ”Aquaman” and ”Robotech”), now actor/writer Leigh Whannell is staking his own claim as a director.
First out of the gate is the third instalment of the wildly successful Insidious franchise, and as he tells Moviehole.net, he’s ready for the next phase of his career.
We believe you’re a fan of the 1976 version of King Kong.
Yeah, I am. I mean historically, obviously it’s not going to be the King Kong that gets remembered, the Jeff Bridges version. But it captured my imagination as a kid.
As a kid you’re much less discerning about the baggage of cinema, whether something’s a remake or not a remake, or this actor’s good or this actor’s not.
Your imagination is captured by these simple primal elements and I think for me that film just got me. You know seeing that big hand come down and grab Jessica Lange. There’s so many great moments in that film.
You also did an awesome job with The Mule.
That film’s always going to have a really special place in my heart because it’s Australian. It’s the first Australian thing I’ve ever done. It’s the first time I’ve ever been able to write in my native tongue and act in my native tongue so I’m happy. That’s almost like my 1970s King Kong. The Mule fans are few and far between but when I find them I like them.
It had such a strong sense of time and place, the Australian suburbs of the early 80s were so well captured.
I really researched the whole sharpie movement [colloquial term for youth gangs in 70s Australia] and what they turned into. We did a lot of work placing that film in that time. Also I know that world very well subconsciously because I grew up in it.
My dad was a card-carrying member of the local footy club and I’ve been in those halls with those people and the raffle nights. It’s in my bone marrow, that stuff. Always the kids in the corner with the pink lemonade and the table top Pacman machines.
Turning to Insidious Chapter 3, is it true James [Wan, Whannell’s frequent collaborator] was lined up to direct and then Furious 7 came along?
I think that’s true. The producers of Insidious wanted him to direct a third film but as soon as Furious 7 came that booked him up for a year or more. They’re so gargantuan, these studio tent pole films. So it just wasn’t an option anymore and I think I was the guy left standing when the music stopped. I was their only other option.
But even I didn’t know if I wanted to direct it. I didn’t really make a firm decision to direct it until I started writing. When you’re talking about a film before you start writing it you’re really talking about an abstract thing, but in the writing it comes alive. You start to know the characters and like the characters and I felt that I didn’t want to see someone else make all these decisions.
I also had another moment that I remember very clearly where I was at this big outdoor shopping mall in LA getting my computer fixed. I had some time to kill and I wandered over to the huge movie multiplex. Movie theatres are still great and nostalgic places for me, just the smell of popcorn instantly transports me back to, you know, the time I saw Ghostbusters.
So I’m standing in the lobby of this theatre I’m smelling this popcorn and I looked around at all the movie posters and I had this sudden realisation of what a dire state the movie industry is in. You know, fewer and fewer films are getting released in theatres. It’s either the Avengers or it’s one of these Blumhouse horror movies. In that moment I realised I wanted that experience of making a film that was released in theatres.
Most of the time these days if you make an independent film you’re probably looking at VOD or iTunes or Netflix as a more viable option, especially in the independent world. The only faction of the independent world where you’re guaranteed a cinematic release is working with a company like Blumhouse. And that moment was so crystallising for me, just knowing that I wanted that experience.
The next movie I go off and write, there’s a big chance it’ll end up on demand. I mean I put a lot of effort into The Mule and it was not a theatrical release, it’s a film that most people saw on their TVs at home. So it’s something we need to get used to in the modern age but I still haven’t let go of my love of movie theatres.
Maybe that’s a generational thing?
Yeah, it is a generational thing but also it’s an economical thing. I think releasing movies has become more and more expensive so companies are very wary of spending that money. They need to really believe in something. You know, if it’s not The Hunger Games, why bother with it? That was a big driving factor.
Other than James moving off to Furious 7 why wait until now to direct?
It was the combination of James going off to do his thing with Furious 7 which kind of left me on my own because I knew he’d be gone for quite a while and probably he was stepping up to this whole new world. You don’t often hear of directors working at that level coming back to shoot a million dollar horror film. Once they’re there, once they’re behind the velvet rope they stay there.
So I kind of felt like it was a version of a goodbye. I felt like we’ve been a team for so long and now he was stepping up to this other level. But I think it was good for me because it made me reassess what I wanted to do. When I met James I was at film school wanting to be a director. I didn’t go to film school to meet a working partner. I went to film school to learn to be a director myself.
So I think it was a great reassessment period for me. So it feels in a weird way, it feels like a new beginning, like a new era for my career or film making life.
Do you feel a little bit more like you’re where you’re supposed to be now?
I’ve talked to a lot of directors over the years and as you know sometimes it’s not fun, sometimes they get their arse kicked. Maybe they don’t tell you that in an interview but when you’re behind closed doors in the bar and you hear the war stories, it can be horrific.
So I think I walked into it expecting it to be really bad and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It really took me by surprise. If I hadn’t enjoyed it I’d probably wouldn’t have reassessed my life in that way. But now I have a film I enjoyed making so much, I’m really thinking down the road as a director now, which I never have before.
I’m thinking ‘what’s my second film? What’s my third film? Where do I want to be in ten years as a director?’ I’m looking at other directors and saying ‘I like the way that guy did it.’
Are you looking at or dreaming about the next level, James Wan style?
Not really. I mean it certainly is attractive to think about making a film at that level because you have so many toys to play with. Who doesn’t want to be in a sandpit that big, you know? But I’m not sure I’m ready for it. It feels very far.
You know whose career I really feel organically went to that level was Rian Johnson. He made Brick and then he did The Brothers Bloom and Looper. It’s sort of like he made this natural progression on his own terms and then he was asked to do Star Wars. You know they bought into what he does, he didn’t go begging to them to do this job. So I really like that. He’s somebody who I feel like has done things on his own terms and I feel like that’s what I maybe would want to do.
So it’s important for you to have a personal stamp on your work like Rian Johnson, to use your example?
Yeah. You either have directors for hire who come in and they’re great at steering a ship. Someone like JJ Abrams will come in and buy into a whole other world and do a great job of keeping everyone happy. Then there are other people that are creators, you know, they do their thing and you either buy into it or you don’t.
Even someone like James Cameron – as big as the films have gotten, he makes James Cameron films. He’s his own guy and his early films are just masterpieces. What I think gets forgotten about James Cameron is what a good writer he is.
If you look at the Terminator and Aliens, the writing is beautiful. If he was just a screenwriter, not a director, I think I would still hold him up on a pedestal as a guy that just can write his arse off. The characters and the story in Terminator and Aliens and The Abyss, they’re just crazy. I really aspire to that.
Cameron’s a great example, he does something just as magical with $300m as he did with $5m.
Absolutely. When you watch The Terminator, it’s just so crisp and efficient. It’s like a great white shark of a movie, it can’t stop, it’s just swimming forward. Nothing’s wasted, there’s not an inch of fat. That movie is the cinematic equivalent of Zach Efron’s torso.
Where there’s character development and exposition, he disguises it like a magician because it happens within an action moment. He embeds the exposition within a car chase so you don’t even notice it. You know Reece is turning these corners and he’s like ‘You’ve been targeted for termination’, he just machine-guns all this exposition beautifully disguised by action.
I could only dream of writing and directing something that amazing. In fact I’ve said this before but I really don’t want to direct the second Terminator film. What I want to aspire to do is that first film. Just that punk rock engine of a movie, that’s what I love.
So is something that lean and mean next up for you?
I would love to do something like the original Terminator. It has a really big idea but can be shot in a contained way and I’m going through this real phase of wanting to have my cake and eat it.
I want to make films that have big ideas but make them for a price, so you have to be clever about the way you disguise it. One of the genius things about Terminator is it’s a robot but it looks like a man. So all he had to do was cast Arnie and you bought that it was a robot. It’s almost like the special effects in that film are done in your mind. Every time he turns his head, you’re thinking of a robot.
Of course we get the great special effects make up but it doesn’t come until right to the end. Now of course, Terminator 2 goes into this huge big budget territory. But I liked it better when he was using his imagination more. It’s a genius low budget film, you know?
