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I got a chance to talk with Breck Eisner this week about his new film THE CRAZIES.  For those unaware, this movie is a remake (or should we say “update”) of the 1973 George Romero film of the same name.  Breck’s version, which I really enjoyed, hits theaters this weekend, and the advance reviews have been fairly positive.  It’s definitely got my approval.  You can listen to our entire interview (approx 20 mins) by CLICKING HERE – will open a new window, or you can right click and save the MP3 file.

Please give it a listen, but just in case your speakers are out, I’ve also transcribed some select portions of the discussion below.  I even talked with Breck a bit about his next project, FLASH GORDON, which looks like it’s definitely moving forward.

Mark Walters: …earlier, we were talking about Romero, has Romero seen the final cut of the film?  Do you know what his thoughts were on it?

Breck Eisner: Yeah, we screened for Romero in Toronto, he was in Toronto when I was screening in Toronto… I was not there for the screening, but the next morning I called him, which was quite a nerve-wracking call.  I was “Do I call you George?  Mr. Romero?  Romero?”  I wasn’t sure so I decided to go with Mr. Romero.  And he was very positive about the movie, and has since in the press been positive in talking about it.  It was a real happy moment for me that he seemed pleased with the movie.  You know the great thing about Romero is that it wasn’t like he was trying to over-manage the movie, or trying to ghost-direct or in any way control the movie.  He recognized, he said “Look, I made this movie, I’m done, I did it, it’s my concept and you guys are going to do an interpretation of it and embrace the idea.”

Mark Walters: Now, you guys leave things kind of open at the end, towards the idea maybe this could potentially have a sequel, or maybe multiple sequels.  If the film ends up doing really, really well, was that something that was always kind of in the back of your head?  Maybe this could potentially be sequel-ized?

Breck Eisner: It was never… it was never a thought, the ending was only to benefit the movie.  It was only designed as what I thought was the best way to end the movie.  If we get so lucky and people like the movie and it does so well, I would love to do another.  But we certainly didn’t go into it as arrogant to think “Oh yeah, we’re gonna do great so let’s set it up to do another.”

Mark Walters: Now outside of someone like Romero obviously, who would be some of your influences, particularly when it comes to horror films?  Are there any directors that you really admire or have paid a lot of attention to over the years?

Breck Eisner: Yeah, there are two ends of the spectrum.  I love (John) Carpenter, I love THE THING.  For me, the experience of going to see his version of THE THING was like… epic.  And it just sat with me, it still sits with me, that movie.  But when I also think about the horror movies that I love and that sat with me, it was CARRIE, and (Stanley) Kubrick’s THE SHINING, and THE OMEN and THE EXORCIST.  Those are kind of the movies, or some of the movies in horror that have really sat with me.  When I think about the horror movies that have real resonance for me, it’s the movies that are good movies first, and horror movies second, you know?  I love the horror genre, I’ve always been a fan of it, but personally I need to have a connection with the characters and the story to make it really scary for me.  And I think in a movie like THE SHINING where you’re really invested in these three, in the three of them, you find that things that are so small become so terrifying.  Like a man typing on a typewriter can be the absolutely most terrifying thing you’ve ever seen.

And later, I of course had to get into some FLASH GORDON discussion…

Mark Walters: You are listed as being the director of FLASH GORDON in 2012, and I know you’ve said previously in interviews this is probably something that wouldn’t come out until the JOHN CARTER OF MARS project was moving forward.  Can you give us any sort of updates on that, is it still kind of at a standstill?

Breck Eisner: No, it’s definitely not at a standstill. FLASH GORDON is something I’ve been obsessive with for years now, I’ve been pursuing it for a long time.  It’s been optioned multiple times around town.  There was a window that came up when an option lapsed at Universal, and I went to Hurst and said to their guys, “I love the property and I’m a big fan of the Alex Raymond strips, can I take it out and try to get it set up?” and they said “Yeah, you have two days because we’re about to sell it to someone else.”  And so I went and quickly put together a pitch and brought some people, and got Sony to buy it.  We’ve hired two writers who I’ve spent the last couple of months breaking story with there, they’ve started writing now, and we should have a script into Sony in a couple of months.  Hopefully they’ll like the script, I’m sure there will be work to do, but hopefully they like the script and get us into early pre-prep and design work, and push this thing forward.

Mark Walters: So you think you’re on target for a 2012 release?  Somewhere around there?

Breck Eisner: That’s obviously the best case scenario… 2012, 2013, you know.  These “giant” movies are beasts to get made.  It took me four years to get THE CRAZIES made.  Just because they’re different budgets doesn’t always make it that much harder, but big movies these days are hard to make, and making movies is hard… it’s a lot of work to get people to commit.  I never know when a movie is gonna happen or not happen, but I’m desperately passionate about the project, and I hope that I can force it up the hill…. make it a reality.

Mark Walters: So two follow up quick questions on that.  One, do you have anybody in mind for who you’d like to see play Flash Gordon?

Breck Eisner: I certainly have people in mind, but I haven’t yet started talking about that.  I’m afraid to start bringing that up for fear of scaring them away.

Mark Walters: Well, I like the fact that you mentioned you’re a fan of the Alex Raymond strips, which I myself am as well.  It’s such beautiful stuff.  So I’m assuming that you’re definitely wanting to keep this in the vein of the classic Flash Gordon style, the classic look and feel of that.

Breck Eisner: Yeah.  Yeah, but updated.  My point of view on it is go back to the Alex Raymond stuff… it’s not a remake, it has nothing to do with the 80’s version, the UK version, it has nothing to do with certainly the Sci-Fi shows, it has nothing to do with the serials even.  When I first met with the writers, I was like “Look guys, let’s pretend Alex Raymond is alive.  Let’s pretend he just started doing a strip.  He’s doing a strip or people in 2010.  What kind of strip would he do?  What would it look like, how would he do it?”  And let’s take that point of view on the movie without in any way throwing away what’s in the original.  I think the mistake that people make in reading into Flash Gordon, and reading the (Mac) Raboy or the Raymond stuff is that “The heroes can’t be silly!”  But I think for an audience in ’32 or ’35 or 1940, it wasn’t silly, you know?  It was adventure and it was off-world, and it was amazing and fantastic.  It was not campy because that was a different time we lived in.  I think it’s important when you think about adapting something from a different generation, or two generations earlier, you try to look at it through the eyes of the people it was made for.

Mark Walters: You’re making me feel pretty good about it Breck.

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