I truly do have an exclusive for our
readers this week, as I have had the pleasure of chatting to
Lennie Overgaard, writer of the forthcoming horror film 'Rip
Cage'. I am so excited about this movie as it promises to be
something very special, not to mention that those of you with
good vision will be able to see yours truly in it. Read on for
all the details on this groundbreaking project, with an
exclusive look at the set which has so far never been seen
anywhere online!!
When did you first become
interested in film?
I've been a movie lover for as long as I can
remember. I loved going to the theatre to see all the latest
movies. I'm not sure if there was a particular film that made
me interested in the entire film thing, I believe it was film
as a medium that was the most interesting thing about it all,
mostly because some of the films I saw as a kid were
incredibly real. Movies could almost pass for another world
one could escape into. Movies have always had a very special
place in my heart. I doubt that I will ever stop watching
them.
How did you get started in the
business?
Every filmmaker out there has made amateur films
when they were younger. Some of those films are easily
forgotten and some films turn out really well. I made amateur
films also. The first notable one was a short film called "The
Metal Cage", an animated cartoon I made with friends, it was
meant as a project to be submitted for an animation
competition. We were never able to finish it on time, but "The
Metal Cage" stirred up quite some interest and I guess that's
where it all started. Time passed by and I got to see a movie
called "Cube" - I fell in love with it at once. When I found
out that there was going to be a sequel to "Cube" I didn't
hesitate one second to create a website, which was meant to
provide other Cube fans with all the latest news on the
sequel. Well, Lions Gate, who had bought out Trimark Pictures
and therefore owned the rights to the Cube franchise, came
upon my site - it even won a couple of awards for "Movie Site
of the Month". They proposed the idea of letting me design the
official "Cube 2: Hypercube" website and that was kind of my
ticket to Lions Gate. I have had regular contact with them
ever since. Through this project I got to know a lot of other
filmmakers and I learned a lot from them. There's no way I can
ever thank them enough. I'll be forever
grateful.
Do you feel that it is important
for people to go to film school or should they just start
making movies if they wish to succeed?
You've seen a lot of people break into the film
industry without having studied film or without having been to
film school. Film schools aren't something you have got to
attend to have a chance in this business, but they will always
be helpful. Film schools can give you something you can't
learn by working on your own - at least not in the beginning.
It's all a matter of learning new techniques and being willing
to improve. I guess filmmaking has always had a touch of luck
to it - I was lucky to get to work for Lions Gate. The
directors, the producers, the distributors; they are the
industry professionals. If you are good, you'll be discovered.
If you'd be a worthy addition to a crew, you'll be hired. But
don't sit back and expect them to come to you. Filmmaking is
hard work and they'll prefer people who are hardworking and
passionate about what they do - of course. Let people know who
you are and what you are capable of doing. Some filmmakers
like working with new faces; they like to hear new ideas and
they do know that everybody has to start
somewhere.
Are you a fan of the horror
genre?
I'm a huge fan of horror films. There's nothing
better than blood and gore - nothing better than a nice horror
film with guts and stuff flying around. I'm an even bigger fan
of horror with a meaning; I'm really into the more
psychological stuff out there. Films like "Se7en", "Signs" and
especially the whole Cube franchise; you won't find a bigger
Cube fan out there than me and I am really looking forward to
"Cube Zero". "Rip Cage" is a bit like "Se7en", a bit like
"Cube" and it also references bits and pieces of other films
now and then. Those films have made such a big impression on
me and they are hard to forget - very hard. Still, there's
nothing you can say "Rip Cage" is really like; at least that I
know of.
How did Rip Cage come
about?
"Rip Cage" is, to some extent, a continuation and
deeper version of "The Metal Cage" I wrote when I was younger.
I just wanted it to be darker, dirtier and more horrible than
anything you'd ever seen before. It was also an opportunity
for me to become a philosopher. The part of "Rip Cage" that
I'm particularly proud of is the philosophy that is being
discussed and used in the film. It was a chance for me to try
out some theories about life and death. The philosophy in "Rip
Cage" is on the same, if not an even more advanced, level as
"The Matrix". Also, I've always had a keen interest in music
and art and that is something you'll notice fairly
easily.
You wrote the script. Where did
your ideas come from and can you tell us a little about the
story?
I've always had in mind that I wanted to write
something new. There are a lot of similar comedies, remakes
and horror films nowadays. I decided not to make something
like that. So, that's sort of where it all began. Another
thing I thought could be interesting to do, was to involve
religious aspects. I've always been fascinated by religious
fanatics, they can truly be some of the scariest people you'll
get to know. I did a lot of research on various religions and
it's strange that something that involves so many different
religions and religious theories comes from a writer, who
doesn't believe in any gods or religions. That's sort of why I
decided to show my script to Vanessa Mason who's more into
that stuff than I am. The script was almost completely
finished by then, but Vanessa added some tremendous stuff and
together we wrote a final draft, which is absolutely amazing.
The story centres on Mary Hart as we follow her in her attempt
to get out of the cage. In the story she'll be taken to some
really crazy places; nobody has ever proved that hell is all
fire and brimstone. Mary will experience that hell can be far
more painful than she had ever imagined. She'll be facing a
lot of horrifying incidents including murdering of young
girls. Vanessa and I tried to push the envelope without
pushing it too far. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against
kids; I'm even a UNICEF member, but the violence is just there
to make sure the film is as different as
possible.
How long did it take you to
write?
I began writing the very first draft back in July
2001, it was even called "Rip Cage" back then, and it was
about a number of people stuck in basically two places. One of
which was a forest environment and the other one was hell. It
was just a very rough draft with a lot of plot holes in it -
it only took me like one week to write that one though. With a
first draft having been written I instantly began
brainstorming the idea and I began to realize that this was
going to be hard to make, it would be too different; people
were going to hate it so the story changed from being chaos
and religion to strange sci-fi concepts. It was about that
time "Cube 2: Hypercube" was green lit and unfortunately, that
premise was a bit too similar to the draft I had now finished.
I felt as if I had just written a huge rip-off, which it
really wasn't - so I decided to go back to the original
concept. The script was put on stand-by for a year and I had
now been researching various religious ideas and been reading
about a lot of religious societies and tribal religions. I
decided that this shouldn't be about one religion as such, it
should be about discussing various theories and ideas; what
afterlife was - where would we all go once we died. It took me
one and a half years before I was satisfied with the story and
decided to make a final draft I could give out to various
production companies. So, the script has been underway for
more than two years - I've had a lot of time to consider
things and concepts - I didn't want my first feature length
script to be an entire waste of time.
Who did you submit it to, in
order to get it green lighted, or had you been asked to write
it?
As an indie screenwriter you're going to take some
beatings and so did I. Just don't expect your material to be
accepted for production by the very first company you submit
it to. I submitted "Rip Cage" to some medium-sized production
companies. Given the way "Rip Cage" is written I wanted to get
in touch with some smaller, more artistic companies. The
script was returned quite some times. Then one day I came to
see a short film called "In the Attic", which was made by
Zombie House, our indie co-producers. The film wasn't
particularly well-written, but it had some amazing cinematic
moments and some really cool ideas, and best of all - they
focused on creating weird horror. I took a shot, sent them the
script and they said they'd do it! All the way through the
process of finding a production company I never thought about
sending it to the film production part of Savage Dog. The idea
has always been that Savage Dog Digitals would be providing
the visual effects and then another company would be producing
it, but it just felt natural that this production should be
indie co-operation. Who else would do something as crazy as
this? You have more freedom when you work with smaller
companies and we needed freedom for
this.
What have you worked on
previously?
I've been working on a bunch of digital short films.
Projects like "Crib" and "Box", both of which I also wrote,
and most recently I helped in creating some of the digital
magic for another of our films coming up, "Zero-Z". I also did
a lot of publicity work on the Lions Gate Films title, "Cube
2: Hypercube", and it was a whole new side of the film
business I got to see. I worked very closely with the key crew
of the film and it was an amazing time where I learned a lot
of stuff. It was a tremendous experience that I would love to
do over again. It began at the time Lions Gate hired me to do
the official "Cube 2: Hypercube" website and then it sort of
evolved from that. It was pretty cool ending up as one of the
publicists on the projects it was just a little bit sad that
the website ended up being something I wasn't too happy with.
That's how it is with large film companies; they have a lot to
say. In this case it cost the site its quality and a lot of
pictures had to be replaced. The MPAA controls all the movie
websites also. With a Lions Gate request of taking the site
down to a maximum of 1 Megs total it was obvious that the
final result wouldn't be as satisfying as the one I aimed for
and the original site is now on my computer only. After a
little while it was too much for me and I launched
Uncubed.com, a site centering on everything Cube related,
mostly about the upcoming "Cube Zero" though. The site gets as
many as 500,000 hits each month so I'd say it's reasonably
popular. As for "Cube Zero", if you're good you'll be able to
spot me in the film for a frame or
two.
Can you tell us a bit about the
casting process, you recently got Vincenzo Natali
onboard?
It's a huge honour to have written the first film
ever where Vincenzo Natali is on the other side of the camera
than he's used to. As far as I remember I talked to him twice
about the project before he said he'd do it - that's how much
he trusted in the production and the people involved with it.
I wanted to involve Vincenzo from the very first draft, but as
the script evolved I sort of forgot about the idea. In the
original script his character was named Marcus Fiehls and
though his character doesn't have a name in the final draft
we'll continue to call him Marcus Fiehls. The only problem is
that his role, unfortunately, ended up not being very big, but
if there's ever a sequel to "Rip Cage" I'll yet again ask
Vincenzo to return and hopefully for a much bigger part of the
film.
Our co-producers, Zombie House Films,
had an audition once and it was quite popular. A lot of people
were interested in being a part of this project and that's
very positive. As it looks right now, more auditions will be
coming up as we haven't finally decided on actors for the
remaining parts.
You recently asked the horror
community for headshots to appear in the film (myself
included) can you tell the participants what they can expect
to happen to their photo?
As I also talked about when I asked for people to
send in their headshots I said that it was going to be in the
opening title sequence of the film. We have already cut that
part and the headshots will appear after just 1 minute. A lot
of people sent in their headshots. The interest in the project
was phenomenal and we even got to answer some really great
questions that the lads asked us. Unfortunately, we also
became the victim of spam mail because of that; things seem to
have been worked out by now, thank God. Well, the headshots
have all been edited, cropped, colour corrected and resized
separately and that took an awful lot of time, but we're over
that now and nobody says filmmaking is easy. In the film,
we'll start off as they do in "Resident Evil", sort of. We'll
start off with a quote about death by the brilliant
philosopher Khalil Gibran who was an incredible source of
inspiration when writing this script. We then see a TV far
away, there's noise on the screen, and we zoom in further and
further until we are deep in the pixels that then turn out to
be pictures of people. As we travel deeper into the pixels
that'll take us to the Savage Dog Films opening logo. As we
play this first part, this is where Vincenzo is introduced
also, at least his voice is. Vincenzo talks about death and
that death comes to all of us so that sort of ties the
pictures together with the rest of the
film.
Is the film still set for
premiere in November?
If we can follow the schedule we'll have a finished
copy of the film that we can give out to festivals at the end
of October this year and since we have been invited along for
a German horror film festival at the beginning of November,
this is where we'll screen the film for the very first time.
If we haven't had the time to finish all of the visual effects
by then we'll give the organizers a copy with some temp
effects. No matter what comes in our way, we're going to make
this happen.
What are your hopes for
release?
The plan is to let the film travel the festival
circuit before we decide to get in touch with any distributors
at all. And it's not because the interest isn't there. A
Portuguese and a Finnish distributor have shown major interest
in the project so far. We want to be able to control most of
the releases around the world at the beginning, make sure the
film comes the way we made it without disturbing cuts that
have been requested by the festival organizers. There'll
simply be too much stuff in the film in terms of gore,
violence and language that would have to be cut out then and
that isn't exactly what we want for this
film.
What certificate are you aiming
for?
It would be absolutely crazy to get the film rated
as soon as we have finished it, because there's no doubt that
it would get an NC-17 rating and in the U.S. that isn't
actually very good - at least not if you want your film to be
shown in theatres. The MPAA can really be hard nowadays and
that forces filmmakers to re-cut their pictures so they can go
for an R rating, Naturally, nobody wants a rating to kill
potential success from the very beginning so that's why we
rarely see NC-17 ratings. Today, the key to success is, to
some extent, to get some publicity out and spread the word.
Since "Rip Cage" was green lit on January 1st 2004 and the
press release was given out on January 4th, I'd say things
have been moving nicely.
You also handle the visual
effects. Can you tell us about the shoots ambitious
effects?
This is one of the coolest parts of Rip Cage. Never
before has a film been shot on as much green screen as we'll
be using. Don't get me wrong, it's not a 100% CGI movie, but
as soon as we're in the cage it'll be all CGI. And because the
set consists of four walls, a ceiling and a floor which are
all green, the actors have nothing to react to. In other films
where a digital object will be added in post, the actors at
least have the environment they can relate to - in Rip Cage
there's nothing at all. Obviously, this is going to be hard
and we'll be needing actors who are more than up to the task.
I'll be supervising the visual effects on this project and
they'll be taking a long time to create. Thank God we decided
to go all CGI with the set. That means we can develop a lot of
the action before shooting even starts. We can go in and make
all the changes to the set we want to and we can decide all
the camera movements also. We have been underway for a long,
long time and it's looking awesome right now. In terms of
filmmaking, there's no tool that even comes close to
CGI.
Our job in the film, besides placing
the actors in the CGI set will be to add some gore. We'll be
decapitating people, we'll be throwing axes at people, we'll
cut out people's guts - the rest is up to the special effects
and make-up department and Priscilla Gonzalez who's in charge
of it.
I hear that there will be a lot
of publicity for the film; can you tell us a bit
more?
Publicity and promotional material always help sell
a film, so we've decided to focus quite a lot on that. The
music, which is composed by the brilliant band Catonium, will
most likely be released on a CD soundtrack by the label that
Catonium works with. We'll be releasing teaser trailers,
regular trailers and we've even hired pro editors just to
create trailers that have never been seen before. Smaller
things will be an official website as well as posters. And
speaking of the posters, the upcoming ones as well as the DVD
cover will be rotated. So whenever you grab this DVD you'll
have to turn it 90 degrees to read what it says on it. It's a
very small thing, but we always said that if this movie was
going to be really different, so should the
DVD.
The project really seems to be
breaking new ground. In terms of success, do you feel that the
film could tap into something and repeat the success of a film
such as 'The Blair Witch Project' or 'My Little
Eye'?
"Blair Witch" and "My Little Eye" are movies you
can't compare anything to. I don't know how popular "Rip Cage"
will be, but I hope it'll go on to become a classic. It all
depends on whether people are interested in seeing something
that is completely new or not. We know some people will hate
it, but we also expect that some people will love it. It's a
mixed world and we're not aiming for the general public, "Rip
Cage" is made especially for the hardcore horror lovers. If we
can please them, then we've done what we wanted
to.
What do you hope to do next? Do
you have more stories to tell?
I am currently writing a script similar to "Rip
Cage" and I'll also be supervising visual effects on two
upcoming films. One of which is the sequel to a hugely popular
comedy flick so I'm really looking forward to that. It could
be really interesting to be working on a really big Hollywood
project so that's also something I'd hope to be doing in the
future. It's been a really awesome process of writing the
screenplay for "Rip Cage" and I'd love to do that again, so
maybe one day you'll get to see a "Rip Cage
2".
"Thank you ever so much for taking
part in this interview Lennie.
We wish you the best of luck in the
future."
© 2008 Savage Dog Films. All rights reserved