Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Cravenwas a prolific and influential American film director, writer, producer, and actor known for his pioneering work in the genre of horror films, particularly slasher films. Due to the success and cultural impact of his works in the horror film genre Craven has been called the "Master of Horror"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth2 August 1939
CityCleveland, OH
CountryUnited States of America
Alex was familiar with the location. It also meant we could spend another $2 million without taxes and union fees. As much as you don't like taking films out of the U.S., we had to do it.
Alex made the picture fresh, which was important. None of us wanted just to shoot the original script again. Alex took it and made it his own.
We have a romantic comedy, a road picture and a period piece that I've developed over the years, ... Now we're just putting them out there for consideration (by investors).
Those are the only two films I've made in which I have significant ownership. So you can make a deal where a studio releases your film but doesn't have final cut. You have a lot of power that you wouldn't have otherwise.
I just feel it takes just one picture where it becomes common knowledge that Craven can do other things,
Everybody's making horror films and, to me, not especially well. I don't know if it's (due to) the corporations taking over studios or what it is. But it really calls for some young filmmakers to come in and just do something from their hearts.
The audience that would see that movie, by and large, doesn't go to see horror films, ... It was a great pleasure to make, and to see Meryl (Streep) nominated (for a best actress Oscar) for it. But most of the people I run into who loved it are surprised that I made it. When you have a name that means scares, you have to live with that.
It's kind of experiment time, ... We'll see if people get behind us, and if the picture's any good. But it has to be that people will experiment with me. If not, fine, I'll just go back to writing books or something. But I have the feeling I'm onto something.
It's a thriller, it's definitely not a horror film, but it has enough of the elements that also work in horror films like suspense.
It's obviously not buckets of blood; it's a psychological thriller, ... For me, it was kind of an announcement that I can step out of the horror context and hold my own with the best of them.
It was the beginning of the end of my affiliation to the church,
It was a very concise, taut script, ... I simply chose not to have a standard car chase or any of that nonsense. I felt it was all about what's going on between these two characters. And the moment they're separated, I want to figure out how to get them back together again. I've actually had a lot of people thanking me for not making the movie go any longer than it had to.
After that, everybody-assumed I must be a terrifying person who lived in a cave. We both tried to make other kinds of films, but we couldn't get any money. They were offering us money to make scary movies, so I went off and made The Hills Have Eyes , and Sean went off and did Friday the 13th ,
Everyone from Tom Cruise to Jude Law was talked about for this role - and not everyone was available, and some we couldn't afford.