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Veteran
ComingSoon.net had a chance to talk to Ellis while he had a brief moment of respite amid his hectic San Diego Comic-Con schedule of interviews and presentations for the movie.
ComingSoon.net: This is your third movie with New Line and suddenly, "Snakes on a Plane" has become the biggest craze of the summer, so how do you feel about that?
David R. Ellis: Yeah, who knew? I think it's great that it's getting the buzz that it's getting, and we have the internet and the media to thank for that. It's exciting. It's been quite a ride for sure.
CS: Is it possible that it's been hyped up so much that it's going to be hard to live up to the expectations?
Ellis: No, I'm not worried about that at all. I mean, there's two kinds of hype. There's the hype of the people that are fans and can't to see Sam Jackson say "motherf*ckin' snakes" and all that stuff, and then there are the ones who are going to go see the movie but they're just more intrigued and think it's going to be the best "worst movie of the year." I think the ones going with that in mind are going to be surprised that the movie is actually really good and really works.
CS: The movie now has an R-rating, so was that something thrown at you at the last minute?
Ellis: No, I wanted to do an R-rated movie in the beginning and when I signed on, that's what it was, but then New Line felt that we'd get a bigger audience with a PG-13 movie. So that's the movie we made. As soon as I delivered that film, they said "David, this has to be an R-rated film." I said, "No sh*t" because you have to cut the snake attacks early and you can only use the "F" word once for PG-13. Because it's called "Snakes on a Plane," I felt we just had to go for it, so we got to increase the nudity and the gore and the language and all that stuff.
CS: Was this your original concept?
Ellis: No, this was a concept that had been around for nine years. It was based on another script called "Venom" and then these guys [New Line] bought the rights to that. It wasn't set on a plane, but then they changed it, and John Heffernan came in and wrote "Snakes on a Plane." It was set up originally at Paramount with MTV Films and they were going to make it, and then 9/11 happened so they put it on the shelf. It went through several different places and finally ended up at New Line.
CS: I remember when 9/11 happened, every single movie that took place on a plane, even "View from the Top," was gone, and now last year, they had "Red Eye" and "Flightplan."
Ellis: Yeah, they're coming back. Ours isn't political like some of the other movies, so it's easier to sell, because it's just about a mob boss that is trying to get a witness. But plane movies are coming back.
CS: How do you feel about making a movie that will probably never be shown on a plane?
Ellis: Yeah, this isn't going to make any airlines, that's for sure.
CS: This being your third movie with New Line, what is it about the company that makes you want to work with them so extensively?
Ellis: I don't have a contract with them. It's just worked out that they've had three projects I responded to. I did have a two-picture deal with them, which was "Final Destination 2" and "Cellular," and then "Snakes" came up and they were looking for a director and they came to me. I'll go back with them in the future, but I'm going to off to do a horror movie called "Asylum" first, that's my next project, and then from there, we'll see. I have a lot of really good friends at New Line and a lot of support there.
CS: I'm guessing that with "Snakes on a Plane," a lot of the challenges involve combining the real snakes with the CG ones. Is that something you learned on the fly with "Final Destination 2"?
Ellis: No, that was something I've learned already doing 2nd unit, because all of those movies (see list above) were all very heavy with visual FX, so I already had a good background in doing visual FX. I already knew how to execute them and what was involved.
CS: In terms of this movie, getting actors being on a plane with real snakes, how do you decide what's going to be real and what's going to be added with computers?
Ellis: We had 500 snakes and we tried to use real snakes wherever we could, but there were certain limitations with snakes, what they can do or can't do, and then obviously, we kill a lot of snakes in the movie. We can't kill real snakes, so we have to kill CG snakes, so it's an intricate mixture of both.
CS: Did you have any animatronic snakes?
Ellis: We had some that we used in a couple shots, but it's mainly real snakes and then CG snakes.
CS: Assuming that most of this film takes place on a plane…
Ellis: All of the film takes place on a plane.
CS: Were they any difficulties in shooting on such a small set?
Ellis: It's very claustrophobic, because we built a 747 that's 150 feet long and two stories high and there's only so many entrances and exits to the set and it got very hot and smoky, because there's an electrical fire on board, so it was a really tough working environment, but we just made it fun as far as how we ran the set. So in spite of all that, we still had a really good time making the film.
ComingSoon.net: This is your third movie with New Line and suddenly, "Snakes on a Plane" has become the biggest craze of the summer, so how do you feel about that?
David R. Ellis: Yeah, who knew? I think it's great that it's getting the buzz that it's getting, and we have the internet and the media to thank for that. It's exciting. It's been quite a ride for sure.
CS: Is it possible that it's been hyped up so much that it's going to be hard to live up to the expectations?
Ellis: No, I'm not worried about that at all. I mean, there's two kinds of hype. There's the hype of the people that are fans and can't to see Sam Jackson say "motherf*ckin' snakes" and all that stuff, and then there are the ones who are going to go see the movie but they're just more intrigued and think it's going to be the best "worst movie of the year." I think the ones going with that in mind are going to be surprised that the movie is actually really good and really works.
CS: The movie now has an R-rating, so was that something thrown at you at the last minute?
Ellis: No, I wanted to do an R-rated movie in the beginning and when I signed on, that's what it was, but then New Line felt that we'd get a bigger audience with a PG-13 movie. So that's the movie we made. As soon as I delivered that film, they said "David, this has to be an R-rated film." I said, "No sh*t" because you have to cut the snake attacks early and you can only use the "F" word once for PG-13. Because it's called "Snakes on a Plane," I felt we just had to go for it, so we got to increase the nudity and the gore and the language and all that stuff.
CS: Was this your original concept?
Ellis: No, this was a concept that had been around for nine years. It was based on another script called "Venom" and then these guys [New Line] bought the rights to that. It wasn't set on a plane, but then they changed it, and John Heffernan came in and wrote "Snakes on a Plane." It was set up originally at Paramount with MTV Films and they were going to make it, and then 9/11 happened so they put it on the shelf. It went through several different places and finally ended up at New Line.
CS: I remember when 9/11 happened, every single movie that took place on a plane, even "View from the Top," was gone, and now last year, they had "Red Eye" and "Flightplan."
Ellis: Yeah, they're coming back. Ours isn't political like some of the other movies, so it's easier to sell, because it's just about a mob boss that is trying to get a witness. But plane movies are coming back.
CS: How do you feel about making a movie that will probably never be shown on a plane?
Ellis: Yeah, this isn't going to make any airlines, that's for sure.
CS: This being your third movie with New Line, what is it about the company that makes you want to work with them so extensively?
Ellis: I don't have a contract with them. It's just worked out that they've had three projects I responded to. I did have a two-picture deal with them, which was "Final Destination 2" and "Cellular," and then "Snakes" came up and they were looking for a director and they came to me. I'll go back with them in the future, but I'm going to off to do a horror movie called "Asylum" first, that's my next project, and then from there, we'll see. I have a lot of really good friends at New Line and a lot of support there.
CS: I'm guessing that with "Snakes on a Plane," a lot of the challenges involve combining the real snakes with the CG ones. Is that something you learned on the fly with "Final Destination 2"?
Ellis: No, that was something I've learned already doing 2nd unit, because all of those movies (see list above) were all very heavy with visual FX, so I already had a good background in doing visual FX. I already knew how to execute them and what was involved.
CS: In terms of this movie, getting actors being on a plane with real snakes, how do you decide what's going to be real and what's going to be added with computers?
Ellis: We had 500 snakes and we tried to use real snakes wherever we could, but there were certain limitations with snakes, what they can do or can't do, and then obviously, we kill a lot of snakes in the movie. We can't kill real snakes, so we have to kill CG snakes, so it's an intricate mixture of both.
CS: Did you have any animatronic snakes?
Ellis: We had some that we used in a couple shots, but it's mainly real snakes and then CG snakes.
CS: Assuming that most of this film takes place on a plane…
Ellis: All of the film takes place on a plane.
CS: Were they any difficulties in shooting on such a small set?
Ellis: It's very claustrophobic, because we built a 747 that's 150 feet long and two stories high and there's only so many entrances and exits to the set and it got very hot and smoky, because there's an electrical fire on board, so it was a really tough working environment, but we just made it fun as far as how we ran the set. So in spite of all that, we still had a really good time making the film.
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