The Hitcher - Dark Horizons
Source:
Dark Horizons
January 8, 2007
Interview: The Cast & Crew
"The Hitcher"
Posted: Monday, January 8th 2006 12:20AM
Author: Paul Fischer
Location: Los Angeles, CA
A remake of the classic eighties thriller, the all new Hitcher casts Britain's
Sean Bean in the title role of a grisly, manic serial killer of sorts trying to
do the wrong thing by young lovers Sophia Bush and Zach Knighton. Gathered
together to talk to online outlets in a press conference, PAUL FISCHER was
there and spoke with the trio about the project along with director Dave
Meyers, and producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller:
Question: Sean how difficult was this character to play for you because
we don't really know anything about him.
Sean Bean: It was. There wasn't a great deal of back history to the guy.
Not a lot of information about where he came from which I thought was quite
interesting really, because it allowed me the freedom to create what I wanted
and to invent as a person. And I always thought that it was somewhat scarier
that you don't know anything about him or where he comes from. I always find
that the less you know about people, the less you trust them. I usually like to
have something to go on but for this particular movie I would say he was like
an angel of death. Wandering the freeways [inaudible] and that quite appealed
to me.
Question: This is for the producers; the fact we don't know much of the
hitcher does that mean will there be a prequel?
Brad Fuller: No. I don't see a prequel happening. As Sean said, give him a
blank slate and let him do what he'll do with it. There was no thinking about
a prequel until you brought it up.
Question: Sophia what are the challenges of playing a girl like this and
avoiding the cliché's?
Sophia Bush: I think that was a big thing for me and something we definitely
looked into in a lot of moments in filming, because I don't want to be that girl
running around whining and irritating, but at the same time I don't want to
come out like Lara Croft with guns blazing, because that's not quite right
either. And I think that it's something that made it great was or greater for
me rather was a lot of what Zach and I got to do together. Because we
spent weeks just working on the chemistry of our relationship and how Jim
and Grace behaved and reacted and the ways we kind of messed with one
another and the ways partners in a long standing relationship sort of do.
So, what we had, I think this gave me some license to go on the emotional
roller coaster instead of just being one kind of woman or another was when
Grace wasn't going to make it Jim pulled her up and when Jim wasn't going
to make it, Grace pulled him up. And it was a very symbiotic relationship,
so it allowed me to show both sides. And it allowed me to flip the scales
from her being kind of happy go lucky to her being stripped down and very
animalistic. It let me do that slowly more in a see saw than in one quick
flip and I think that's a more accurate of how people change and how
people sort of tap into their strengths.
Question: Dave, this is really a lean film. Was there more stuff that
got cut? And how was your relationship with the MPAA?
Dave Meyers: I had a really great MPAA experience. I didn't focus on violence
in the film even though there is some. I tried to keep everything on thrills
and suspense. We cut most of it out before we actually filmed it which is
sort of how we kept the budget was extremely low, and yet we still have
huge car action and all that stuff. And so, part of the relationship I had
with the producers was trying to cut that stuff before we filmed it. And
really cutting the fat everywhere we could. I pulled from my commercials
and video background and keeping things really succinct. It's lean and
there is only one scene that has only five different versions of it and
that hopefully make it to the DVD.
Question: What scene is that?
Dave Meyers: Am I allowed to say?
Andrew Form: Sure.
Dave Meyers: The motel scene, we shot that so many times I think
Sean might be mad at me. He was like, 'Again?'
Question: Dave can you talk about the musical decisions for the film?
I enjoyed the scene with 'Closer' coming into the scene.
Dave Meyers: I had a play list that I used to inspire me for the characters of
the film. And it came through my exposure of music and what I love and I
was distinctly told by the producers I'd never afford any of it. So, the film
came out we put it together and we had all that music in there as my own
personal thing. And then one day Brad called me and said, 'Guess what.
The studio likes it and they are going to pay for this song.' I called Dave
Matthew's people and got a deal on that song. And then I started going
and Trent Reznor signed off on it, and then like three or four days ago
the studio paid for it, so it was just hanging on it. 'No, no, no, OK.' (Laughs.)
Question: This question is for Sean, how difficult was it stepping into
Rutger Hauer's shoes?
Sean Bean: I saw the film when it first came out about 20 years ago. And
it made a big impression on me. It was a very well constructed film and
Rutger Hauer gives a very good performance and I remember being scared
by it, and I thought it made an impact but I really didn't want that
running around my head and cluttering things up when we were making
our version of it. So, I think working with Dave and obviously, Zach and
Sophie I think we crated quite an interesting new version. And I really
didn't have any reservations or concerns about being compared to another
actor. I just wanted to stop and scratch and do it my way.
Question: Zack and Sophia in the same outfits most of the movie,
how many different versions were there? How gross did they get by the
end?
Zach Knighton: I'll be back in 15 minutes. (Laughs.) It was the same outfit.
I wore the same thing every day. It smelled really bad.
Sophia Bush: Yeah, there definitely got to a point where what did they have?
Six? For continuity sake they had to keep a couple of pairs of all that clothes.
Zach Knighton: Yeah, but there were different stages, because we shot out
of sequence.
Sophia Bush: There were a couple of days when we would be in sequence
and we'd be in the same clothes and he looked at me one day and was
like, 'We smell.' And I'm like, 'I know.' (Laughs.) It was interesting, but
then again we were covered in dirt, blood and filth so we probably would
have smelled anyway. I don't think anyone noticed, except for us.
Question: Sophie, Zack and Sean - how is the relationship between you
guys and Sean since you had to be scared of him?
Sean Bean: It's quite good in a way -- that they were scared of me.
Zach Knighton: I'm still afraid. (Laughs.)
Sean Bean: The first scene we did in Austin, Texas was a night shoot, was the
scene in the car where they are picking up the garage and we shot the
interior of the car which is quite a long scene and it was quite good that
we didn't really know each other by then at all did we? Liked each other or
not.
Zach Knighton: You didn't talk to us at all.
Sean Bean: That's not unusual.
Sophia Bush: It took us a couple of weeks to all get speaking.
Sean Bean: But it actually worked because we weren't supposed to know each
other so I'm glad we did that.
Sophia Bush: Our first conversation was about how hard you could push the
knife into my face. And I was like, 'HI. How are you? Feel free to hit me.'
(Laughs.)
Question: Was it hard to shoot the scenes with the heavy rain?
Zach Knighton: I can tell you if you shoot in the rain you're going to have a
lot of voice ADR to do after the movie and voice looping, stuff like that.
Sean Bean: If you've got lines. (Laughs.)
Dave Meyers: I think rain is really restrictive to work in, but In our particular
case we had 20 minutes of rain in a car and it couldn't have been any more
challenging to keep it interesting and so that was one of my main focuses.
Shooting a whole bunch of angles and catching the nuances of the scene
and stuff so that the tension can stay alive and with the sound effects
people, every single day I said, 'I want 100 different tracks of rain. I want
rain for this scene that sounds different than rain for the next scene.' It's
a really subtle thing and I don't know how many people will really pick up
on it, but I was just worried the same type of rain, for 20 minutes, would
put people to sleep.
Question: Sophia, how challenging is it to find quality scripts?
Sophia Bush: I think it's definitely hard to find films of quality that you want
to make and particularly even when this script came it's like; prior to reading
it did I really know it was going to be anything other than a typical movie of
a scary genre. And as I was going through it did I realize that there was
something special here. Because, not only did that tomboy side of me
get to completely freak out and like in my stunt junkie way and do all of
these amazing things and watch cars get blown up and watch helicopters
fly over our faces and ride around the desert with guns, but there was
such a development for this character and a sort of slope for this girl to
fall down. And I think that's it of me is choosing something that gives
me some work to do and things that I haven't done before. It was
something just really very exciting. And the relationships between our
characters is phenomenal and real and something that gets overdone in
our age range a lot. And to be working with Sean and it was like,
'Yeah, I want to make a movie with Sean Bean. Totally scary!' (Laughs.)
And it's so great, because we had a moment in that first sequence, like
he says, barely knowing each other and we're fighting and I'm like, 'God,
this guy is so strong and he has my face in his hand and this is great,
this is great.' And I made some noise that worried him and you looked
at me and was like, 'Are you alright?' And I was like, 'OK.' And you were
like, 'OK!' And I was like, 'OK, we're back in the scene. Beat me up
some more.'
Sean Bean: You liked that didn't you? (Laughs.)
Question: For Andrew and Brad - any update on 'Friday the 13th'?
Andrew Form: We are working on a script right now. And I think that next year,
it's not in the first two quarters for us, that movie, maybe at the end of the
year next year. But right now we are still working on the screenplay.
Question: No director?
Andrew Form: No director yet at all. I mean Jonathan Liebesman is
attached to the movie right now, the director of 'Chainsaw'.
Brad Fuller: But it really depends on his schedule. He's got a lot of things
rolling around right now. So, if he's available when we have a script, we'd
love to work with him again. We had a great experience with him.
Question: Dave, how did you come to the project and was it something you
always wanted to remake? And Zack, you spoke a little bit last night, can
you talk about the cocksock?
Zach Knighton: The cocksock lives on buddy.
Dave Meyers: Brad, Drew and Michael are big fans of the Hitcher and were sort
of circling it and found rights to it. I was circling their operation of sort of
being a home for video commercial guys, making that jump to movies.
The president of the studio happened ---to a year before do a movie with
him. All of these stars sort of aligned. I studied the film and realized like
Sophia said, there's character arcs in there. There is something more special
than the typical horror film. It just all sort of worked. And to see a guy
with a cocksock.
Zach Knighton: I always dreamed of wearing a cocksock so it was the perfect
marriage of director and actor.
Question: Sophia, what do you think the fascination with girls kicking ass is?
Sophia Bush: I think what's great about is that we've seen so many great
heroes in men and your iconic with "Indiana Jones" and "Dirty Harry". You've
got that and we're at a point where in our sociology we've evolved to realize
that women can kick as much ass and want to see it. There's something
that's a little less expected about seeing the girlfriend end up with the
shotgun. It's exciting and it really gives the guys something to root for,
but it gives the girls in the audience something to root for too. You no
longer have women being dragged to an action movie by their boyfriend.
Couples are going together because they're both really excited about the
film and it's something I enjoy. I really liked that whole end sequence in
the movie. We had a good time with that one.
Question: How close to the original script did you stay to and how long
was the shoot?
Dave Meyers: Shoot was 44 days. The original script of the remake?
Question: Your original script of this?
Dave Meyers: The structure of it stayed pretty close. We pretty much
improved the whole movie. There was a greenlit draft that had a
structure that had certain scenes that are still in the movie. I think
one of the biggest things these movies is creating a believability.
Everyday we'd show up and see a block of the scene and go, 'oh t
hat's not very real.' So we'd all go back to our corners and a lot of
time it was the cast that would find the soul of it and we'd help
guide it. That's why there is an authenticity in the film.
Question: Eric Red gets credited on the film. Is that a WGA thing?
Andrew Form: We had two writers write on it. Jake Wade Wall and Eric Red.
We submitted to the WGA and they came back and gave Eric Red credit.
We were surprised by that. We had no idea. That was the last thing we
thought would happen actually.
Question: Any favorite villains of movies past?
Sean Bean: Other villains? I used to like the old style ones. James
Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. People like that. It's quite hard to
spring to mind. I suppose so. Quite rough and ready, no-nonsense
gangsters. I tried to play this guy without being too aggressive
in a sense. John Malkovich is someone I always admire as a villain.
I like him in general, but I think he has an assertive quality about him.
Question: There was recent talk that they might do a prequel to Lord of the
Rings and a movie about The Hobbit? Would you consider coming back if