As Hollywood continues to abuse 3D technology, it’s inevitable that multiple filmmakers will get it wrong. Throughout 2010, cineplexes were filled with post-conversion messes (Clash Of The Titans), cluttered trainwrecks (The Last Airbender), and unimaginative bombs (Gulliver’s Travels), all needlessly presented in three dimensions. Oddly enough, one of the trend’s first setters remains on top of the heap, in terms of knowing how to best utilize the format. In January 2009, the enjoyable horror remake My Bloody Valentine 3D, directed by Patrick Lussier, milked 3D for all its worth, showing everything from eyeballs popping out to a sexy naked chick running around a hotel parking lot in her birthday suit. Having edited all three of Wes Craven’s accessible and crowd-pleasing Scream movies, Lussier knows how to make scary movies fun. So it’s no surprise that his latest film, Drive Angry 3D (in theaters tomorrow), is designed as a blast of gratuity, boasting excessive amounts of sex, violence, and muscle cars all shot in 3D. Nicolas Cage stars as a guy freed from Hell so he and badass beauty Amber Heard (who inspired our countdown of the hottest women in car movies) can prevent the Satanic cult that killed his daughter from sacrificing his grandchild. In reckless 3D, brains are splattered, cars are wrecked, and Nic Cage shoots dudes while in the middle of sexual intercourse. Sure beats watching a skyscraper-tall Jack Black do unfunny things, right? Complex spoke with Lussier (pictured above, in the red hat) about going all out for Drive Angry, why Nic Cage was the only man for the job, and taking advantage of multidimensional capabilities.
Complex: First off, let’s state the obvious: You’ve got a pretty batshit crazy movie on your hands, sir.
Patrick Lussier: Yeah, it’s a very subtle and nuanced film.
Oh, obviously. More like a really quiet character study.
Patrick Lussier: [Laughs.] It’s like an art movie, only with more violence and sex.
Which is always a good thing, right?
Patrick Lussier: [Laughs.] Exactly.
There’s one clip that’s already online and it shows Nicolas Cage having sex with a hot blonde while in the midst of a gunfight. Not a bad way to sell a movie.
Patrick Lussier: That’s only a third of what that scene is; the entire sequence is a hell of a lot of fun.
Where did the initial idea for Drive Angry come from?
Patrick Lussier: Todd [Farmer, the co-writer] and I were talking about wanting to do a follow-up to My Bloody Valentine; wanting to do another 3D movie. We were trying to think about what kind of movie would look great in 3D. We’d obviously done a slasher movie. We sort of hit upon these great ’70s car movies, films like Vanishing Point, Duel, The French Connection, and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry—stuff like that. One thing led to another, and we realized that would be the kind of movie that’s great to see in 3D. Taking it back to when characters were a lot less noble, perhaps, but you still rooted for them. That really appealed to us, to create the sort of character—somebody who’s a compelling badass, who you’re going to root for no matter what they did.
When you sit down to write that kind of script, is it pretty much, “Anything goes”?
Patrick Lussier: Yeah, pretty much. We had worked on the story together up until the 20-minute mark in the movie, the demise of one character in particular. From that point, we didn’t know where the story was going, so we just started writing and one thing sort of spilled onto another and onto another. It was such an exciting process to see where the characters were going; everything came out of the character’s actions. It wasn’t about forcing them into a whole; it was about how they conducted the journey.
During that process, were there any ideas or scenes that you thought were actually too crazy to film?
Patrick Lussier: You know, there never was. [Laughs.] A lot of it was, “Wow, I can’t believe we did that. That’s going to look amazing, let’s do that!” It was really no-holds-barred for Todd and I, and I hope that audiences have as much fun watching the movie as we had writing it.
Going from My Bloody Valentine to Drive Angry, you clearly have a thing for the 3D medium. What’s so appealing about it you?
Patrick Lussier: It’s such a collective medium. The format works great for an audience to see en masse, and there’s a certain rollercoaster component that I know Todd and I found really exciting, especially watching the audience reactions to Valentine, and wanting to push that even further with Drive Angry. It’s just visually such an intoxicating format to look at. It makes the simplest things seem sort of stunning and riveting to watch. There’s a dialogue scene with Nic and Amber in the movie that’s so simple, where you’re watching Amber’s hair blow in the breeze, yet it’s coming at you in three dimensions. There’s a shot near the end of the film where Billy Burke is walking through a courtyard and there’s smoke billowing all around him, and fire is going, and the three-dimensionality of that is just stunning to watch. It’s like you’re right there. It’s not a post-conversion thing; we actually shot the whole movie in 3D. That shot in particular, with Billy Burke, you couldn’t post-convert it—you couldn’t come up with all those different variances without adding them digitally.
These days, filmgoers seem pretty savvy when it comes to figuring out which films are real-deal 3D and which are sloppily post-converted.
Patrick Lussier: Yeah, absolutely. A post-conversion, the way that 3D is created, has all these splices, and ends up looking like a pop-up book. And, you know, pop-up books can be fun to look at, but at the same time, you can’t beat something that’s actually shot in 3D because every single level of dimensionality is captured. It’s like seeing with your eyes; it’s far more compelling to see the world through your own eyes than to look at a pop-up book, which has a series of flat planes.
You and Todd Farmer seem to two of the only people in Hollywood who get how to make 3D special. Take My Bloody Valentine, for example; there’s that kick-ass scene where hottie Betsy Rue runs around naked and all her goodies come at you in 3D! Most films these days make you pay extra for the 3D glasses but give you nothing in return.
Patrick Lussier: [Laughs.] You know, our attitude has been, “We’re in the business of entertaining.” Here you have this great cinematic format that allows you to exploit not only the three-dimensional world, and letting people look into the depths of the space, but also allows them to literally interact with that space. It allows that space to cross boundaries, and forces [the audience] to be part of the story, in a way that's visually compelling and exciting. That’s something that’s right in the format, so why not use that to its full advantage? We’re trying to build the best rollercoaster that we can.
Prior to My Bloody Valentine, was 3D something you were interested in trying?
Patrick Lussier: No, it was a medium that I’d read a little bit about, but I hadn’t gotten too involved with, as far as research is concerned. And then when Valentine was being discussed, they told us that they wanted it shot in 3D, so we started doing tests. Once you start talking about it, you sort of understand it intellectually, but once you shoot it for the first time, you totally get it. You really understand the sort of amazement of the format, how mesmerizing and intoxicating it can be, and you get hooked on it and how you can push the format as far as it can go. At least that’s what has happened with me.
When you’re sitting down to write Drive Angry, and you know ahead of time that it’s going to be shot in 3D, does that seep into the actual writing and storytelling?
Patrick Lussier: Absolutely, yeah. Everything that we did in the writing was all about the 3D, also in the location scouting, the wardrobe, and the guns we chose for the movie. Also, the cars we chose. The 3D was a major factor in all of those decisions, but absolutely in the writing process. We discussed how people died and what would be the most visually striking ways to kill people using 3D, and how we could create the most amazing crescendos where we wanted them.
Does that make the writing process more difficult, though, or even stifled to a degree?
Patrick Lussier: It doesn’t, actually. You just sort of shape your thinking around it. You say, “OK, this is how we want to tell the story, so what’s the best way to tell this story in this manner?” It’s not limiting; it’s just specific.
Let’s talk about the casting of Nicolas Cage. He’s caught a great deal of flack in recent years for choosing some pretty bizarre roles, but for some reason seeing him in Drive Angry makes perfect sense. Why do you think that is?
Patrick Lussier: Yeah, Nic was totally perfect. He was the first actor that Todd and I went to after we’d finished the script. We took it to Mike De Luca, who produced the film; he immediately said, “Nic Cage would be perfect for this. He’d love this, he loves supernatural stories and he loves cars. He’ll love the edge of this character.” And he did. Part of the reason why he’s so perfect is because he completely embodies the badass side of Milton, and at the same time he can make this badass incredibly likeable. Nic has such great screen charisma; he’s so good at his craft. He really found all of the humanity in a character that seems inhuman.
It’s reminiscent of his character in Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port Of New Orleans, in the way that he just goes for it and seems to have a blast.
Patrick Lussier: Yeah. He said the part was a lot of fun. We’d finish scenes, scenes that involved tons of violence and badass actions, and he’d be grinning—you could tell he was really having a good time with the character.
Not to mention, he got to play alongside Amber Heard—all men should be so lucky at work. What made you want to work with her, other than the obvious reasons?
Patrick Lussier: Amber was somebody who was definitely on our radar right from the beginning. We’d met with Amber, and immediately we could tell she was perfect for the part. She’s from Texas, she really drives a muscle-car, and she can shoot any gun you want to throw at her. She had so much of the character already in her, from Piper’s hard edge to her vulnerable core that becomes the heart of the movie. She really delivers in the film.
It seems like she’s really trying to cement herself as a genre queen, with past roles in the still-unreleased horror flick All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, then Zombieland, and next John Carpenter’s comeback film The Ward. You’re a big genre fan—is that something you identified in her, as well?
Patrick Lussier: I think one of the things that draws her to so many genre films, this one especially, is that many genre films have really strong female characters. You’re not just the girlfriend, you’re not just the wife, you’re not just the damsel in distress; you are important to the story, and intricate to how the story unfolds. That was definitely something we were very specific about with her character in Drive Angry; Piper is Nic Cage’s partner, and she’s also the heart of the story. She’s how the audience connects to the crazy supernatural things that are going on.
Do you see yourself staying within the genre world?
Patrick Lussier: Yeah, I love making genre movies. They’ve been great to me so far, and I look forward to doing more of them. If I get the chance to do different films, I’m sure I’ll dabble in that, but I’m also sure that I’d go right back to horror and other darker genres as soon as I possibly can.
Complex: First off, let’s state the obvious: You’ve got a pretty batshit crazy movie on your hands, sir.
Patrick Lussier: Yeah, it’s a very subtle and nuanced film.
Oh, obviously. More like a really quiet character study.
Patrick Lussier: [Laughs.] It’s like an art movie, only with more violence and sex.
Which is always a good thing, right?
Patrick Lussier: [Laughs.] Exactly.
There’s one clip that’s already online and it shows Nicolas Cage having sex with a hot blonde while in the midst of a gunfight. Not a bad way to sell a movie.
Patrick Lussier: That’s only a third of what that scene is; the entire sequence is a hell of a lot of fun.
Where did the initial idea for Drive Angry come from?Patrick Lussier: Todd [Farmer, the co-writer] and I were talking about wanting to do a follow-up to My Bloody Valentine; wanting to do another 3D movie. We were trying to think about what kind of movie would look great in 3D. We’d obviously done a slasher movie. We sort of hit upon these great ’70s car movies, films like Vanishing Point, Duel, The French Connection, and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry—stuff like that. One thing led to another, and we realized that would be the kind of movie that’s great to see in 3D. Taking it back to when characters were a lot less noble, perhaps, but you still rooted for them. That really appealed to us, to create the sort of character—somebody who’s a compelling badass, who you’re going to root for no matter what they did.
When you sit down to write that kind of script, is it pretty much, “Anything goes”?
Patrick Lussier: Yeah, pretty much. We had worked on the story together up until the 20-minute mark in the movie, the demise of one character in particular. From that point, we didn’t know where the story was going, so we just started writing and one thing sort of spilled onto another and onto another. It was such an exciting process to see where the characters were going; everything came out of the character’s actions. It wasn’t about forcing them into a whole; it was about how they conducted the journey.
During that process, were there any ideas or scenes that you thought were actually too crazy to film?
Patrick Lussier: You know, there never was. [Laughs.] A lot of it was, “Wow, I can’t believe we did that. That’s going to look amazing, let’s do that!” It was really no-holds-barred for Todd and I, and I hope that audiences have as much fun watching the movie as we had writing it.
Going from My Bloody Valentine to Drive Angry, you clearly have a thing for the 3D medium. What’s so appealing about it you?
Patrick Lussier: It’s such a collective medium. The format works great for an audience to see en masse, and there’s a certain rollercoaster component that I know Todd and I found really exciting, especially watching the audience reactions to Valentine, and wanting to push that even further with Drive Angry. It’s just visually such an intoxicating format to look at. It makes the simplest things seem sort of stunning and riveting to watch. There’s a dialogue scene with Nic and Amber in the movie that’s so simple, where you’re watching Amber’s hair blow in the breeze, yet it’s coming at you in three dimensions. There’s a shot near the end of the film where Billy Burke is walking through a courtyard and there’s smoke billowing all around him, and fire is going, and the three-dimensionality of that is just stunning to watch. It’s like you’re right there. It’s not a post-conversion thing; we actually shot the whole movie in 3D. That shot in particular, with Billy Burke, you couldn’t post-convert it—you couldn’t come up with all those different variances without adding them digitally.
These days, filmgoers seem pretty savvy when it comes to figuring out which films are real-deal 3D and which are sloppily post-converted.
Patrick Lussier: Yeah, absolutely. A post-conversion, the way that 3D is created, has all these splices, and ends up looking like a pop-up book. And, you know, pop-up books can be fun to look at, but at the same time, you can’t beat something that’s actually shot in 3D because every single level of dimensionality is captured. It’s like seeing with your eyes; it’s far more compelling to see the world through your own eyes than to look at a pop-up book, which has a series of flat planes.
You and Todd Farmer seem to two of the only people in Hollywood who get how to make 3D special. Take My Bloody Valentine, for example; there’s that kick-ass scene where hottie Betsy Rue runs around naked and all her goodies come at you in 3D! Most films these days make you pay extra for the 3D glasses but give you nothing in return.
Patrick Lussier: [Laughs.] You know, our attitude has been, “We’re in the business of entertaining.” Here you have this great cinematic format that allows you to exploit not only the three-dimensional world, and letting people look into the depths of the space, but also allows them to literally interact with that space. It allows that space to cross boundaries, and forces [the audience] to be part of the story, in a way that's visually compelling and exciting. That’s something that’s right in the format, so why not use that to its full advantage? We’re trying to build the best rollercoaster that we can.
Prior to My Bloody Valentine, was 3D something you were interested in trying?
Patrick Lussier: No, it was a medium that I’d read a little bit about, but I hadn’t gotten too involved with, as far as research is concerned. And then when Valentine was being discussed, they told us that they wanted it shot in 3D, so we started doing tests. Once you start talking about it, you sort of understand it intellectually, but once you shoot it for the first time, you totally get it. You really understand the sort of amazement of the format, how mesmerizing and intoxicating it can be, and you get hooked on it and how you can push the format as far as it can go. At least that’s what has happened with me.
When you’re sitting down to write Drive Angry, and you know ahead of time that it’s going to be shot in 3D, does that seep into the actual writing and storytelling?
Patrick Lussier: Absolutely, yeah. Everything that we did in the writing was all about the 3D, also in the location scouting, the wardrobe, and the guns we chose for the movie. Also, the cars we chose. The 3D was a major factor in all of those decisions, but absolutely in the writing process. We discussed how people died and what would be the most visually striking ways to kill people using 3D, and how we could create the most amazing crescendos where we wanted them.
Does that make the writing process more difficult, though, or even stifled to a degree?
Patrick Lussier: It doesn’t, actually. You just sort of shape your thinking around it. You say, “OK, this is how we want to tell the story, so what’s the best way to tell this story in this manner?” It’s not limiting; it’s just specific.
Let’s talk about the casting of Nicolas Cage. He’s caught a great deal of flack in recent years for choosing some pretty bizarre roles, but for some reason seeing him in Drive Angry makes perfect sense. Why do you think that is?Patrick Lussier: Yeah, Nic was totally perfect. He was the first actor that Todd and I went to after we’d finished the script. We took it to Mike De Luca, who produced the film; he immediately said, “Nic Cage would be perfect for this. He’d love this, he loves supernatural stories and he loves cars. He’ll love the edge of this character.” And he did. Part of the reason why he’s so perfect is because he completely embodies the badass side of Milton, and at the same time he can make this badass incredibly likeable. Nic has such great screen charisma; he’s so good at his craft. He really found all of the humanity in a character that seems inhuman.
It’s reminiscent of his character in Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port Of New Orleans, in the way that he just goes for it and seems to have a blast.
Patrick Lussier: Yeah. He said the part was a lot of fun. We’d finish scenes, scenes that involved tons of violence and badass actions, and he’d be grinning—you could tell he was really having a good time with the character.
Not to mention, he got to play alongside Amber Heard—all men should be so lucky at work. What made you want to work with her, other than the obvious reasons?
Patrick Lussier: Amber was somebody who was definitely on our radar right from the beginning. We’d met with Amber, and immediately we could tell she was perfect for the part. She’s from Texas, she really drives a muscle-car, and she can shoot any gun you want to throw at her. She had so much of the character already in her, from Piper’s hard edge to her vulnerable core that becomes the heart of the movie. She really delivers in the film.
It seems like she’s really trying to cement herself as a genre queen, with past roles in the still-unreleased horror flick All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, then Zombieland, and next John Carpenter’s comeback film The Ward. You’re a big genre fan—is that something you identified in her, as well?Patrick Lussier: I think one of the things that draws her to so many genre films, this one especially, is that many genre films have really strong female characters. You’re not just the girlfriend, you’re not just the wife, you’re not just the damsel in distress; you are important to the story, and intricate to how the story unfolds. That was definitely something we were very specific about with her character in Drive Angry; Piper is Nic Cage’s partner, and she’s also the heart of the story. She’s how the audience connects to the crazy supernatural things that are going on.
Do you see yourself staying within the genre world?
Patrick Lussier: Yeah, I love making genre movies. They’ve been great to me so far, and I look forward to doing more of them. If I get the chance to do different films, I’m sure I’ll dabble in that, but I’m also sure that I’d go right back to horror and other darker genres as soon as I possibly can.
