Alex Thrawn: While researching the film it looks like this was your first
screenplay to get made?
Warren Low: Yes, it was.
Q: What is the history of the screenplay - when was it started, completed, green
lighted?
WL: We basically finished the screenplay in August of 2000 and optioned it to the production company in December of that year. By February we were in pre-production, Malcolm came on board somewhere around that time and by April we were in Revelstoke shooting.
Q: Did you write any of the “classic lines”?
WL: I think the best answer to that would be I don't remember who wrote what.
Q: I really appreciated how the story kept away from the horror and focused on
the characters. I was even drawn to the Chief and Crawley – you could really
feel the tension between them. Was that your plan?
WL: Michael Bafaro (the director/co-writer) and I worked hard to make the film not
about the killing or the horror, but rather about the psychology of the
people in this small town in nowhere Alaska. The fact Crawley's brought in from
the big city to solve the crime, a device often employed in movies, is only
interesting if Crawley doesn't solve the crime. So he starts drinking again,
smoking and sleeping around. The 24 hour darkness is too much and
he's basically broken by the
place. Chief Vance Corgan fled the very world Crawley represents. So not only is
Vance overwhelmed by Lucy's death and battling his own demons, he must also deal
with the friction caused by Crawley's arrival. The tension between them was
important in as much as the arcs of the two characters actually cross one
another. Crawley falls apart, loosens up and becomes much more 'human' because
of the experience, while Vance, actually in a tragic way the moment he dies with
the truth, is finally complete and free. His past no longer rooted in his
present.
Q: About Crawley losing it because of the endless night. Does it really affect
people that fast or was that to move the story along?
WL: It was somewhat accelerated.
Q: Were there any scenes you wrote that didn’t get used?
WL: We'd written a different ending which involved Dexter leaving town aboard
a small ferry while the authorities locked off the nearest airstrip, but because
of budget restraints we re-wrote it as it is in the film.
Q: It seemed like everything was on location. Were there any sets built?
WL: Moosehead Barbershop was a build we took over from an antique store. Other than that, no builds.
The Production Designer and the whole art
department for that matter, I thought did a great job.
Q: There was no indication as to why Dexter killed the women in town. It wasn’t
needed, but I wonder if there was any back story that explained it?
WL: There was one other scene that took us back to Dexter as a young boy on a
farm, the first time he cuts open a pig and the excitement and resolve and even
the clarity the moment offers him. But we didn't need it. Or maybe we did?
Q: During the scene decorating the Xmas tree when Dex loses it for a
minute, that seems the perfect place for the flashback to the pig killing.
WL: That's where it was if I remember correctly.
Q: I thought it was different to have the main character a barber. Was this
profession the first choice?
WL: I believe Michael's brother is a 'barber', or whatever handle you slap on a
guy who cuts hair in a fancy salon that doesn't mess with his manhood.
Q: Did you agree with my assessment of the score being too Danny Elfmanish?
WL: I like the score, but I'm sure Peter must like Elfman. When I first heard
it I remember thinking Jacob's Ladder.
Q: At first I thought Dexter stabbing the doctor in his truck at the end was a
flaw. It seems too easy to trace the murder back to him since he just got away
with murder yet again. Then I interpreted this as him leaving a clue in a cat
and mouse game because he likes to go head to head with the law. Is that what
you aimed for?
WL: The research says that these guys like the proximity to being caught. It's
part of what excites them. (Like leaving Tarot cards behind.)
Q: It also seemed slightly hokey that Dex has a blank spot in his fingerprint that gave him away and was cleanly placed on the glass the chief found. In the end it didn’t matter, but has there ever been a case of someone having a fingerprint like that?
WL: No. But I've got a hell of a mole on the back of my head which causes
nothing but grief when I'm sitting in the barber chair and that comb lances over
it. The fingerprint was simply a device that we used early in the film between
Vance and Dexter that only the two of them share. In the end, that passing
comment is what allows Vance to put it all together. At least you said
'slightly' hokey.
Q: I thought it was a nice touch to have the “town meeting” in the Detox
Hall.
WL: Thank you for noticing.
Q: I saw a couple shots that had effects added to the sky, but overall it looked
like it was filmed almost completely at night. Was this the case?
WL: All our shooting days were ironically at night. The DP, Adam Sliwinski,
could make the second coming of Christ look dark so I'm not sure that was
necessary, but hell, it was a good excuse to drink coffee until one's entire
body was trembling.
Q: Were you on the set often?
WL: I was trembling. Yes.
Q: Any interesting stories from the set besides shivering and buckets of coffee?
WL: Well that girl that played Lucy was naked in the snow for about two hours, but I guess that would just be more shivering...
Q: Was the film written with Malcolm in mind?
WL: In a perfect world my answer would be yes.
Q: Were you a fan of Malcolm’s before the film?
WL: Yes. He's a great actor.
Q: Do you have a favorite movie of Malcolms'?
WL: if.... I saw it at the Egyptian Theatre last year, a nice print for a retrospective they did. He's great in it.
Q: How was it to work with him?
WL: He's a great actor. And although he's done a broad range of films with an
even broader range of quality, I honestly believe each time he's on set he's
working his craft. I know that sounds pretentious, or as you'd say hokey, but I
believe it. I'm excited to see the result of Malcolm McDowell and Robert Altman
working together. Now that should make for some interesting
cinema.
Q: Any idea why the distributor backed out on a theatrical release?
WL: I don't know and at this point I don't care. I've wasted too much energy
trying to figure it out. Too bad though, I'm sure my ego would have like to have
seen it projected onto the big screen. I'd also pay top dollar to experience C.
Ernst Harth's face 40 ft wide. By the way, that man's got the chops.
Q: I was surprised that the location was switched to Revelstoke USA in the film
instead of Canada. I would think that would upset he Canadians who made the
film. Was that just to Americanize it?
WL: It was originally set in North Pole Alaska but the company that cleared
the 'rights' on a bucket load of names and places said no go to the North Pole.
The town council in Revelstoke were more than happy for us to use their city
name. Don't you know Canadians don't get pissed off, we just say okay?
Q: Were you happy how it all turned out? You should be because I thought it was
one of the best films I ever saw.
WL: I am. That's very generous, thank you.
This entire page © 2002-08 Alex D. Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net