{"id":291,"date":"2010-10-26T22:24:27","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T22:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2010\/10\/26\/king-of-terror-conversation-w-stuart-gordon-part-3\/"},"modified":"2012-08-17T05:18:36","modified_gmt":"2012-08-17T05:18:36","slug":"king-of-terror-conversation-w-stuart-gordon-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2010\/10\/26\/king-of-terror-conversation-w-stuart-gordon-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"King of Terror: Conversation w\/ Stuart Gordon Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2003, I interviewed legendary horrormeister Stuart Gordon for the now defunct\u00a0 Science Fiction Weekly<\/span>\u00a0from Scifi\/SyFy.com. The piece, originally edited due to length concerns, is no longer available online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a Halloween treat, I’m reprinting the complete 6,000 word conversation in three easily-digestible blog entries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of my more enjoyable assignments, I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did chatting with the affable Gordon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nStuart Gordon Interview Part 3<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With Rick Klaw<\/p>\n

\nAre there any books that you would like to do that you haven\u2019t done?<\/span><\/p>\n

GORDON:<\/span> Oh yeah, there\u2019s a lot of them, actually.<\/p>\n

You sound like a big literature fan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, I like to read, and there\u2019s some sort of dream projects I would like to do. I\u2019ve been talking to Ray Bradbury about doing The Martian Chronicles<\/span>. That would be great.<\/p>\n

Considering the TV version they did, you couldn\u2019t do any worse than that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, I mean that would be fun. I know they\u2019re working on a movie version of that, so that would be great. And for a while there, I was connected with the project Iron Man, the Marvel Comics character, and that would be really great. <\/p>\n

Are you a comic book fan?<\/span><\/p>\n

I am, pretty much so. I\u2019ve got a lot of friends who make comic books. Now seeing all these comic book movies coming out, it\u2019s be fun to do one.<\/p>\n


\nJack Kirby<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t surprising since several of your earlier horror films especially Re-Animator<\/span> and From Beyond<\/span> are very much like comic books in tone, the shooting of them and everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

Are there other books?<\/span><\/p>\n

GORDON: Now they\u2019re doing all of these Alexander the Great things, and there\u2019s a book by Mary Renault called The King Must Die<\/span> that would be a fantastic movie. But I\u2019ve got to get into Peter Jackson-land to get the bucks for that.<\/p>\n

What do you think about Peter Jackson? I read somewhere Peter Jackson was influenced by you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah. We got to be friends, which was really great. We met at a film festival when he did Brain Dead.<\/span> He\u2019s terrific. He\u2019s really fun and very down-to-earth; that\u2019s the thing I like about him. And I\u2019m sure he\u2019s still the same way. I haven\u2019t seen him in a few years, but he\u2019s very open and approachable.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like Lord of the Rings<\/span>; I never liked Tolkien, and the only reason I wanted to see the movies is because I\u2019d loved all of Jackson\u2019s older movies. All these people wanted to see it because it was Lord of the Rings<\/span>, and I had these visions of people deciding to see all of his other films. I\u2019m not to sure that would be a good idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

(laughing) Well, I don\u2019t know, I think they should.<\/p>\n

I think they\u2019re very good movies, but I think a lot of people\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, they\u2019ll be shocked by some of them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like someone enjoying The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and deciding to watch some of your horror films.<\/span><\/p>\n

(laughing) But I also think there\u2019s something interesting. You\u2019ve got Sam Raimi doing Spider-Man<\/span>, and I think there is something to be said here about people that come out of the horror genre and very small movies. It\u2019s kind of great way to make your bones. And rather than getting these guys who just do commercials and MTV videos to direct these movies, going back to people who\u2019ve got a background in what\u2019s considered B-movie fare to do a big budget movie seems to be working.<\/p>\n

What do you think about the current crop of horror films?<\/span><\/p>\n

28 Days Later<\/span> I thought was great. I was really impressed with it. It was extremely well done and very well written and acted and directed and that\u2019s what makes me happy. So many horror movies you get the feeling that the people think that they\u2019re slumming. That they\u2019re not really into it, they don\u2019t really have belief in the genre, they\u2019re kind of winking at you all the time, and those I really don\u2019t care for. But the ones where they really are trying to knock your socks off. There\u2019s something very scary about realizing the director is very, very bright and talented and willing to do things that other directors aren\u2019t, and he\u2019s not going to play by the rules. That becomes a very scary proposition. I love movies like The Audition<\/span> by Takashi Miike, the Japanese film. Or there\u2019s a movie called Irreversible<\/span>, which is a French director Gaspar No\u00e9 which is just mind-boggling. These movies will like\u2026you will not be\u2026able to think about anything else.<\/p>\n

Most American horror films are utterly forgettable. I remember when Jeepers Creepers<\/span> came out and everybody was going nuts for it. I saw it and was very under whelmed and bored.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah. I thought the first half of that movie was good, and then it just\u2026What happened was they started explaining it to you, and one of Lovecraft\u2019s basic rules is Never Explain Anything. I liked The Ring<\/span>, the American version of it, and then I went and saw the Japanese version, Ringu<\/span>, which I liked even more because it doesn\u2019t explain anything. You know, in the American version there\u2019s all of this\u2026they feel this need to explain everything, and\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I sometimes fell they think we\u2019re idiots.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know. I think it\u2019s there\u2019s too many executives. I always run into this when I\u2019m working at a studio where they go, \u201cWell, what are the rules?\u201d It\u2019s like they want everything spelled out, and what\u2019s scary is when you don\u2019t know what the rules are, and anything\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

Michael Moorcock talks about making an Elric movie and the problem he\u2019s had in the past is they don\u2019t put geeks in a position of power. And so you get, \u201cWhy is he an albino?\u201d Where a geek would just say, \u201cHe\u2019s an albino,\u201d and that would be the end of the conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s true. I mean, someone was telling me the other day about studio executives, and he said, \u201cIf they were making Lawrence of Arabia<\/span>, they\u2019d want to know what kind of shoes he was wearing.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cDo we have to put him in the desert?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard about that kind of stuff. Joe Lansdale talks about that. When they were going to make Cold in July<\/span>, they were like, \u201cDo we have to set it in Houston?\u201d It\u2019s a crime novel set in Houston, a very violent crime novel set in Houston. He wondered why? They told him: \u201cWell, we want to set it in Amarillo.\u201d Have you ever been to Amarillo, Texas?<\/span><\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing there. It\u2019s flat. Amarillo\u2019s like, when you think of the Hollywood version of Texas, it\u2019s Amarillo. Tumbleweeds. \u201c\u2019Cause it looks more like Texas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, and it\u2019s so funny. There was a book I really wanted to do. It\u2019s called A Wrinkle in Time<\/span>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Madeleine L\u2019Engle?<\/span><\/p>\n

Madeleine L\u2019Engle, yeah. It\u2019s a great book. When I was at Disney I was trying to talk them into doing it, because they have the rights, and they had done all of these terrible screenplays. They were unreadable. And I finally went in and they, \u201cWell, what\u2019s your take on the material?\u201d And I said, \u201cDo the book.\u201d And they go, \u201cThat\u2019s it?\u201d like they were expecting that you\u2019re going to have some brilliant idea to turn the project inside out and upside down and it\u2019s like, no, this is a brilliant book; just do it. When they were doing Wizard of Oz<\/span>, they did Wizard of Oz<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Like Peter Jackson with Lord of the Rings<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Exactly. But they\u2019re into this whole thing where everything has to be this high-concept, that you have to be clever, clever, clever, and reinvent something that doesn\u2019t need to be reinvented.<\/p>\n

What exactly were you doing at Disney? Were you under contract to them?<\/span><\/p>\n

After I did Honey, I Shrunk The Kids<\/span> they gave me an office there, and I was at Disney for about 10 years. I was there to direct\u2026to develop family films.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry. What?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I know, it\u2019s pretty bizarre. And I think that\u2019s what Disney finally realized after awhile, that I was like this freak in there\u2026 I was the Castle Freak down in the cellar, and it\u2019s like, \u201cWhat\u2019s he doing here?\u201d Actually, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit<\/span> was the very last project that I did at Disney, so it was kind of like a chance to work with Roy Disney, which was great. I\u2019m really sad that he\u2019s left Disney, because he really was the heart and soul of that place. So now it\u2019s like soulless; totally soulless.<\/p>\n

Did you want to do animated films when you were at Disney? Were you interested in that?<\/span><\/p>\n

I was, and as a matter of fact, we talked about doing The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit<\/span> as an animated film, and they even did some conceptual drawings that were fantastic of the characters. But then they finally decided that\u2026everyone kept saying the same thing about that story. \u201cThe story is too small. It\u2019s too simple.\u201d And I said, \u201cYou know, small and simple is good for a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

You just keep mentioning Disney, and I just keep going\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is all this Disney stuff?\u201d Well, I mean, I loved Disney when I was a kid, and the idea of being able to work for that company was like a dream for me. Just walking on the lot every day was great. I used to go to the archives and go through all the stuff from the other movies. When Walt Disney was alive, he had a stenographer at every meeting taking notes, so you can read these sessions that they had. It\u2019s sort of like reading a play.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Did you ever read Harlan Ellison\u2019s essay about his time at Disney?<\/span><\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

They hired Harlan Ellison to come write for them. He\u2019s got his own parking space, his own secretary, and his own desk. He\u2019s thinking this is great. He does his morning work and then goes to lunch. At lunch he suggests a porn flick starring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Ellison then proceeded to act out the parts while imitating the voices of several animated Disney characters. And all of the other writers are looking at him with their eyes wide, and they\u2019re all like, \u201cUhhhhhh.\u201d Sitting at a nearby table are Roy Disney and other studio heads who have heard the whole thing. Ellison goes back to his office, the secretary is gone, his typewriter is gone, and he\u2019s looking out in the parking lot and they\u2019re painting over his space.<\/span><\/p>\n

(laughing) Well, I\u2019ll tell you sort of the flip side of that, which is when I did Dagon<\/span>, I showed it to Roy Disney, and afterwards I said, \u201cWell, this is my version of The Little Mermaid<\/span>.\u201d And he laughed. It\u2019s funny, I think he was the only guy at Disney that kind of got me\u2026 what I was doing.<\/p>\n

Somebody must have gotten you.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Cause they hired me, yeah. And it was kind of great to be on the same wavelength with him. He\u2019s the man\u2026if it weren\u2019t for Roy Disney, they would\u2026first of all, they would have changed the name of the company to Touchstone, this is true, they would have stopped making animated films entirely, and it would have been the end of Disney Studios as we know it.<\/p>\n

I did not know that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah. He\u2019s the guy who brought in Michael Eisner, actually, which is why it\u2019s so ironic that now it\u2019s Eisner that\u2019s forcing him out.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s sad, but it happens. And now you make your own movies, so you can be the guy forcing people out, since you\u2019re the producer now.<\/span><\/p>\n

(laughing)<\/p>\n

What are you working on now?<\/span><\/p>\n

GORDON: I\u2019m working on a couple of projects. I\u2019ve talked about the Mamet project, based on Edmund<\/span>, a play of his, which William H. Macy wants to play the leading role with Julia Stiles, so I\u2019m looking forward to that. I\u2019ve also got a project that I\u2019m working on with Jack Ketchum, which is called Ladies\u2019 Night<\/span>, and it was based on one of his novels which is about a toxic spill that only affects women and turns them into\u2026first they become very sexually aggressive and then they become killing machines, and of course their main target: men. It takes place in Manhattan, so you get the feeling that the entire city is going crazy. It\u2019s kind of like 28 Days Later<\/span>, except it\u2019s not 28 days later, it\u2019s today.<\/p>\n

That does sound like a Stuart Gordon film.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah. That would be really fun.<\/p>\n

What kind of legacy do you want Stuart Gordon to leave behind? When people look at your work in a hundred years, what do you want them to say about you?<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be happy if people are looking at my work in a hundred years. I\u2019ll be happy if people are looking at my work in ten years. But you know, I think if people enjoy them, that\u2019s the best thing. Hopefully I try to make movies that go places that people haven\u2019t gone before, and so, if that continues to be true, then I\u2019ll be happy.<\/p>\n

\nRead the interview from the beginning<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2003, I interviewed legendary horrormeister Stuart Gordon for the now defunct\u00a0 Science Fiction Weekly\u00a0from Scifi\/SyFy.com. The piece, originally edited due to length concerns, is no longer available online.\u00a0 As a Halloween treat, I’m reprinting the complete 6,000 word conversation … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n