Inside Secrets: Chuck Russell Reveals Untold Stories Behind Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx’s Iconic Film Collateral
Ashely
Mm hmm. And maybe you can talk about that. What are some of the challenges of updating something you know, that was written years ago? What kind of changes do you guys have to implement and just a general strategy for something like this?
Chuck Russell
I didn’t, I didn’t touch that property. The films that I’ve remade, there was a reason I had to remake them. There was something important I thought I could bring to it and make it mine and give the audience is something they haven’t seen before. I think it’s really I’ve been offered remakes. The Femme Nikita, there was an American name for it. I was offered that remake and I was like, this was Luc Besson’s best film. Great female lead in an action film. I thought, you know, I actually don’t know what I would bring to that. So it’s a paycheck. I think it’s weird. I mean, I, as a filmmaker, having a great film to remake causes me more stress than remaking the blob or whichboard which are, they’re great properties or a little piece of horror history. So what is it now? How can I, you know, how do I reimagine this? And in both movies, I had a very specific point of view, very specific visuals. I knew the beginning, middle and end before I before I took the project on honestly. So that’s the trick. My other people will disagree with me. And there’s been great remakes of good films. But I’d rather do an original film if we’re going to you know, if we’re going to do that. So in my case, we stand on the shoulders of giants, right? There’s a resonant pop culture. They know the name the blob. The name whichboard is very catchy to me. It sounds like switchboard. It’s like, what’s a whichboard? You know, right? And we, there was no which in the original I said, man, we have to have a which in whichboard. So it’s very occult and witchcraft centric. And all the witchcraft is researched and it all has a resonant truth behind it.
