THE HITCHER PRESS CONFERENCE

Interviews with Sophia Bush, Zachary Knighton, Sean Bean, and producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller
posted by Wilson Morales

January 15, 2007

SPEAKING OF THIS FILM, IT WAS REALLY KIND OF FULL OF THE HEAVY RAINING SEQUENCES. FOR ACTORS, IT MUST HAVE BEEN — NICE SHOWER, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. OR IT’S REALLY COLD. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE BEHIND CAMERA STORY ABOUT THE HEAVY RAIN SCENE, BETWEEN ACTORS AND THE DIRECTOR?

DAVE: I can tell you if you shoot in the rain, you’re gonna have a lot of ADR after the movie. Lot of voice looping, stuff like that.

SEAN BEAN: Yes, if you’ve got lines. [LAUGHTER]

DAVE: I think rain’s really restrictive to working, but it’s also — you know. In our particular case, we had 20 minutes of rain in a car. And it couldn’t have been any more challenging to keep it interesting. So, you know, that was one of my main focuses, shooting a whole bunch of angles. Really trying to capture the nuances of the scenes and stuff, so that the tension could stay alive. And the special effects people, I — every single day, I said, “I want a hundred different tracks of rain. And I want rain for this scene that sounds different than the rain for the next scene.” And it’s a real subtle thing. I don’t know how many people really pick up on it. But. I was just worried that the same type of rain for 20 minutes would put people to sleep. So.

DAVE, WHAT WAS THE CG TO PRACTICAL RATIO WHEN YOU WERE DOING THE FAKE POLICE CAR CHASE SEQUENCE?

DAVE: It’s about 99.9 real. What — there’s no CG at all, and the only thing that was done is, there’s certain — we put cameras — we gambled correctly and put the camera right in harm’s way. And so we shot each sequence with about ten cameras. So four or five cameras, we see some of the other cameras, and we had to erase them. It’s kind of just the art of invisibility. There was only really one major CG thing, which was the rabbit, you know, which I think is — pretty much off the box right now. But you know, that’s — everything else was the art of trying to not have anything ?

HOW CHALLENGING IS IT FOR YOU TO FIND — I MEAN, THERE’S SO MUCH COMPETITION AMONGST YOUNG ACTRESSES OF YOUR AGE GROUP. AND YOU’RE SLOWLY MAKING THE TRANSITION FROM TV TO FILM. HOW CHALLENGING IS IT FOR YOU TO FIND THE KINDS OF PARTS THAT REALLY CHALLENGE YOU AS AN ACTRESS? AND WHAT CRITERIA DO YOU USE?

SOPHIA BUSH: I think it’s definitely — you know, hard to find films of quality that you want to make. And, you know, particularly even when this script came, it’s like, prior to reading it, did I really know that it was gonna be anything other than a typical movie of a scary genre? And as I was going through it, I realized there was something special here. Because — you know, not only did that tomboy side of me get to completely freak out, in my stunt junkie way, and do all of these amazing things and watch cars get blown up and helicopters fly over our faces, and — you know, run around in the desert with guns. But there was just such an arc, and such a development of a character, and a real sort of slope for this girl to fall down. And I think that that’s it for me, is really choosing things that give me some work to do. And things that I haven’t done before. And - you know, it was just really something very exciting. And the relationship between our characters, I think, is phenomenal and real. And something that kind of gets overdone in our age range a lot. And, you know, to be working with Sean, it was like, yeah, I want to do a movie with Sean Bean. Totally. Scary. [LAUGHTER] You know? And it’s like — and it’s so great. Because — you know, we had an element, in that first sequence, like he said, barely knowing each other, when, you know, we’re fighting. And I’m like, “God, this guy is so strong. He has my face in his hands, and this is great. This is great.” You know, I made some noise that worried him. And you looked at me, and you just said, “Are you all right?” And I was like, “Yeah.” And you were like, “Okay.” And I’m like — oh, we don’t talk in the scene. All right. Great. Good. Beat me up some more. I’m ready.

SEAN BEAN: Yeah, you liked that, didn’t you?

SOPHIA BUSH: Yeah! [LAUGHTER]

SEAN BEAN: I told you that. [LAUGHTER]

THIS QUESTION IS FOR ANDREW AND BRAD. ANY UPDATES ON ‘FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH’, AND WHEN ARE WE GONNA HEAR ABOUT A DIRECTOR OR ACTORS OR SCRIPT OR ANYTHING?

ANDREW: Well, we’re working on a script right now. And I think that next year — it’s not in the first two quarters for us, that movie. Maybe at the end of the year next year. But right now, we’re just working on the screenplay.

AND DIRECTOR?

ANDREW: No director yet at all. I mean, Jonathan Liebesman’s attached to the movie. The director of ‘Chainsaw’. But it just depends on his — you know. He’s got a lot of things rolling around right now. So if he’s available when we have a script, we’d love to work with him again. I mean, we had a great experience with him.

DAVE, I HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT HOW YOU CAME TO THE PROJECT. AND IS THIS SOMETHING THAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO REMAKE? AND ZACH, I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU. WE SPOKE A LITTLE BIT LAST NIGHT, AND I WANTED TO KNOW IF YOU COULD TALK ABOUT USING A COCK SOCK.

DAVE: The cock sock lives on, buddy.

ZACH: It really does.

DAVE: Why don’t you go first?

ZACH: You go.

DAVE: I — Brad, Drew, and Michael are big fans of ‘The Hitcher’, and were sort of circling it, and found rights to it. And I was circling their operation of being sort of a home for video commercial guys making that jump to movies. And we just sort of — and then president of the studio happened - a year before, I was gonna do a movie with him. So all these stars just sort of aligned. I studied the film and realized that there — like Sophia said, there’s character arcs in there. There’s something more special than the typical horror film. And so it just all sort of worked. And then to see a guy with a cock sock is something that — [LAUGHTER] I signed up for.

ZACH: Well, I’ve always dreamed of wearing a cock sock. So, it was a perfect marriage of director with an actor.

DAVE: He’d walk around with it all.

SOPHIA, WHAT DO YOU THINK IS OUR FASCINATION WITH THESE TOUGH GIRLS KICKING ASS?

SOPHIA BUSH: Sorry, I’m still laugh — okay.

ZACH: She’s reliving it.

SOPHIA: I’m good, I’m okay. Yeah. You know, I think — I think what’s great about it is, we’ve seen some great heroes in men, and your iconic — you know, Dirty Harry’s and Indiana Jones. And you’ve got that. And we’re at a point where thankfully, you know, in our sociology, we’ve evolved to realize that — you know, women can kick just as much ass. And people want to see it. Because there’s something — there’s something that’s a little less expected about — you know, seeing the girlfriend end up with the shotgun. It’s exciting. And it really gives the guys something to root for, but it gives the girls in the audience something to root for, too. So, you no longer have women being dragged to an action movie by their boyfriend. But — you know, couples are going together, because they’re both really excited about the film. And — you know, it’s something I enjoy, definitely. I really — I really liked that whole end sequence of the movie. We had a good time with that one.

SEAN BEAN: Yeah.

HOW CLOSE TO THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT DID YOU ALL STAY? AND HOW LONG WAS THE ACTUAL SHOOT?

DAVE: Shoot was 44 days. The original script — the remake, or the original script of the original movie?

QUESTION: YOUR ORIGINAL SCRIPT. HOW CLOSE DID YOU ALL STAY TO THAT?

DAVE: The structure of it stayed pretty close. The — pretty much, I would — you know, I don’t know what ?

ANDREW: Come on, Dave.

DAVE: We pretty much improv’ed the whole movie. [LAUGHTER] There was a — there was a green draft, that had a structure, that had certain scenes that are still in the movie. But getting all the way through the movie — and I think one of the biggest things about the scenes in the movie is believability. And so there was a lot of talks, every day we’d show up, and we’re like — we see a block in the scene. We’re like, “Oh, that’s not very real.” You know? And so everyone would go back to their corners, and a lot of times there was — the relationship of our cast, they would find the soul of it. And we’d just sort of help guide it. And it’s why I think there’s an authenticity in the film.

FOLLOWING UP ON THAT WITH THE SCRIPT. ERIC RED GETS CREDITED. IS THAT A WGA THING? OR IS THAT SOMETHING YOU GUYS DECIDED YOU WANTED TO DO? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?

BRAD: No, we had two writers write on it, Jake and Eric. And we just submitted both drafts to the WGA, and they came back and Eric Red a credit.

ANDREW: Yeah, we were surprised by that. We had no idea. I mean, that was the last thing we thought would happen, actually.

BRAD: Yeah.

SEAN, I WAS JUST WONDERING IF YOU’VE HAD ANY FAVORITE VILLAINS OF MOVIES PAST, OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, THAT MAYBE YOU TOOK FROM?

SEAN BEAN: Not mine, other people? Other villains?

YEAH.

SEAN BEAN: Oh, sorry.

SOPHIA BUSH: Not ones you play! [LAUGHTER]

SEAN BEAN: I just like the old style ones like James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson. People like that. It’s quite hard to spring to mind.

GANGSTERS, REALLY.

SEAN BEAN: I suppose so. Yeah. Yeah. A quite rough... quite rough and ready type. You know, no nonsense to it. You know, I — I tried to play this guy without being too aggressive. So, I don’t know what could really compare with — John Malkovich is someone who I always admire as a villain. And that’s in general. But I think he’s got a very real sort of a languid, seductive quality about him.

THERE’S RECENT TALK THAT THEY MIGHT BE DOING A PREQUEL OF ‘THE HOBBIT’, AND THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT DOING IT WITHOUT PETER JACKSON, MAYBE. AND IT MIGHT INCLUDE SOME OF THE CHARACTERS FROM THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY. WOULD YOU CONSIDER COMING BACK IF PETER JACKSON IS NOT INVOLVED?

SEAN BEAN: For ‘The Hobbit’?

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