| What it says on the back of the video box... Those morphing, man-eating monsters are shaking things up again in the dusty little town of Perfection, Nevada - and survivalist Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) is the only solution to the latest in evolution! Aided by a couple of young local entrepreneurs (Shawn Christian and Susan Chuang), Burt pits his impressive knowledge against the newest and deadliest generation of Graboids. If Burt and his new partners can't find a way to stop them, then the creatures that put Perfection on the map will wipe it right off the face of the earth. Tremors 3 promises earth-shaking, explosive, edge-of-your-seat entertainment! |
| . |
 |
 |
|
|
| TREMORS 3 - BACK TO PERFECTION |
 |
| BRENT MADDOCK EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH TREMORS MOVIES! - 03/07/04 Brent Maddock, the director of Tremors 3: Back To Perfection, recently spoke to us about his experiences whilst directing the movie! Here's the latest addition to the Tremors Movies interviews! THE INTERVIEW First of all, how's things in the wonderful world of Tremors at the moment? At the moment, Steve and I are finishing a draft of Tremors 5 for Universal. The studio, however, isn't sure they actually want to make the movie. There have been changes in the up-to-now pretty successful direct-to-video market which are giving the studio cold feet when it comes to investing in more films in that particular niche. Partly what has happened is that giant video outlets are filling their shelf space with a hundred copies of a certain title (always, of course, a theatrical release that's now coming out on video and DVD), and that leaves less space, if any, for the kinds of lower budget movies characterised by the Tremors sequels. Needless to say though, is that we have a fun idea for Tremors 5 and would love to make it! We'll see what happens. We hope you get to make it! After the huge success of the first two movies, how did you find the responsibility of having to deliver a third movie? After the success of the first two Tremors movies I felt, naturally, some responsibility not to blow it! Basically, we've always felt alot of responsibility to the fans. That's why, when we've made our sequels, we tend to get pretty ambitious considering our relatively small budgets. My experience directing Tremors 3 was great largely because I had Nancy Roberts as my producer. Nancy kept all the studio pressure and other production and budgetary problems away from me so that I could concentrate on actually directing the movie in a very tight 22-day schedule! Whilst shooting inside that tight schedule, you had to get lots of shots to show the new life-cycle stage... the Ass-Blasters. Did you find it hard to create this next life-cycle stage, knowing that the fans expectations were so high? Creating the Ass-Blasters took some time and alot of debate. We knew we needed new creatures. We also felt they should be a further manifestation of Graboids. But just exactly what they should be wasn't to obvious at first. There was, however, something about getting these little devils up in the air that appealed to us. The real leap of faith (or lapse of taste) that followed was the concept of the creature's flatulently rocket-powered propulsion system. Absurd and laughable? Yes, but also based on some fact; the Bombardier Beetle actually does something very similar to shoot itself forward and out of harm's way. And the comedy aspect of this system of locomotion actually appealed to us because we felt that by the time we were making a third Tremors we could loosen the reins a bit (not regarding logic but, rather, the film's tone). Talking of a move in tone, we all thought the Tremors franchise was over when Burt gets 'eaten' because it just wouldn't be Tremors without Michael Gross. When you were writting the script with SS Wilson and Nancy Roberts, who came up with the idea to scare is to death by making us believe we'd just seen the last of Burt? I don't recall whose idea it was having Burt get swallowed up by the Graboid. But I do remember the 'Jonah in the Whale' aspect of it appealed to me alot. Also, of course, the idea that the story's hero has just been eaten is a pretty good basis upon which to surprise the audience with Burt's clever survival skills. Structually these films, like most drama, are about solving a problem or getting around an obstacle and, then, because you've done that, you now find yourself up against a bigger problem. Burt's getting swallowed requires all of Burt's skills and smarts as well as all Jack's athletic derring-do! Well... the chainsaw idea was indeed pure genius! Whilst making any movie, there are always unforseen problems to overcome. What was the most daunting problem you came across whilst making Tremors 3? As I indicated earlier, the most daunting challenge on Tremors 3 was simply that the budget required us to film the movie in only 22 days. That required us to be highly organised. We shot most of the movie in just three outdoor locations so as to minimise time-consuming company moves. I didn't get all the angles and shots I wanted, but I learned to identify the minimum shots I needed in each scene. I'd shoot those and, if there was any time left over, I'd grab a few other angles. Luckily, I had a crew that knew how to work extremely quickly. I also had a cast of actors that were so professional that they almost never forgot their dialogue. Those are all big time-savers. Another challenge we faced was that we were filming an almost completely exterior movie. And since most of the scenes were day scenes, we needed as long a period of sunlight as possible. Unfortunately, we were shooting in November. The daylight was short. So, by the time sunset was near, we'd be racing at warp-speed to get all our shooting finished for the day. Also, since we were in the desert just north of Los Angeles, shooting the few night scenes we had was a real battle against the cold. One of the main differences in Tremors 3 is the soundtrack. Was it a hard choice to move to this different style of music for Tremors 3? We wanted to try a different sound musically for Tremors 3. That was largely because of my musical tastes. I think Kevin Kiner did a great job. Very atmospheric, but fun when it needed to be. That doesn't mean I don't also like what Jay Ferguson did on Tremors 2 and 4. But sometimes it's fun to try something different. As we all know, music is extremely important to telling a story on film. And, in lower budget film that might easily need some extra help because of limited coverage of special effects that under-perform; music can save the day! What gave you the most satisfaction from directing the film? What gave me the most satisfaction in making Tremors 3 was the fact that I was still on my feet (and enthusiastic) after 22 tough days of shooting! Also, I felt good about our ability to give the sense that these creatures could actually fly. That's the reason I asked Nancy Roberts with our line-producer Anthony Sante Croce to please find a few extra dollors in the budget so that we could rent a tiny remote-controlled helicopter that carried a little movie camera. With that we were able to film the Ass-Blaster's point-of-view looking down on the world and it's prey. I think the few shots of this that are in the film helped to make the creatures seem a bit more real. Back in 1989, did you ever envisage that Tremors would become such a huge movie franchise with a massive fan following? When Steve and I wrote and produced Tremors in 1989, we never imagined that we'd even get to do one sequel! It's kind of amazing to us. The funny thing is, as soon as we build Chang's Market (regardless of where the location may actually be) we all feel like we're back home in Perfection, Nevada! Thanks so much for taking the time out to talk to us! |