What horror fan doesn’t watch The Walking Dead? Musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie jokes it’s because he needs to catch up on Cheers first, but the reality is he’s a horror purist who takes the genre very seriously. That dedication led to Bob Weinstein handpicking him to relaunch the Halloween franchise back in 2007, and Paranormal Activity and Insidious producers Jason Blum and Oren Peli seeking out Zombie to direct an original horror flick.
They certainly got one in The Lords of Salem. Blum and Peli gave Zombie complete creative control over the feature, and he marvels at what that freedom allowed him to accomplish. ”I remember the first time I watched this movie with an audience. The whole last chunk of the movie I was like ‘Wow. This really could only be made without studio meddling,” Zombie told me, adding: “‘ Cause it’s pretty out there.”
How out there? Zombie said friends have told him “Man, it’s weird. No, it’s weirder than that…No, it’s still weirder than that!”
But Zombie says he doesn’t worry about his work being accepted by the mainstream. ”I really just do what I like,” he explained. “I don’t understand what the general public likes sometimes.”
In fact, Zombie feels there’s only two things you can count on with universal appeal: Coca-Cola and the Beatles.
Check out my full in-depth interview below:
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I’m relieved that Kevin Williamson is back in our lives, even tangentially, thanks to Scream 4 (or Scre4m, if you prefer your horror cinema Ke$hified). But while he’s giving fine, diplomatic interviews in 2011, the Kevin Williamson of 1999 who confessed his insecurities to Movieline magazine might be even more entertaining. Did his predictions about teen slashers and Neve Campbell (not to mention the cast of Dawson’s Creek) manifest? Let’s visit the Movieline vault and see.
In 1999, the world was more than a year away from the release of Scream 3. You’ll be delighted to know that Williamson anticipated a downturn for teen slashers and his relationship with Bob Weinstein.
“The whole horror movie thing is over,” Williamson asserts. “The best we can hope is that this present cycle will run its course. Let them all die out and, a year from now, let’s hope the curiosity factor about seeing the third part of the Scream trilogy will let it make some money. It’s a departure from the first two. Yes, it’s a horror movie, yes, people will die, but there’s a whole new angle, which I can’t reveal because Bob Weinstein would have a fit.”
Williamson also sang Neve Campbell’s praises, but even though he correctly identified her grown-up attitude towards moviemaking, he failed to guess that she’d be so choosy about future roles.
Neve Campbell, heroine of both Scream? “There’s something very ‘Old Hollywood’ about her. Out of all these kids, she has a maturity
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Scream 4 promises to be one of the scariest Hayden Panettiere movies ever, but it didn’t occur without setback (as Wes Craven, who doesn’t sound thrilled with the process, can attest). Screenwriter Kevin Williamson is finally revealing the details about his fight with Bob Weinstein over creative differences and explains that he never abandoned the series. But you can blame vampires for the confusion!
According to a new interview with EW, Williamson’s tiff with Weinstein was as explosive as you imagined.
There were all these rumors that you were fired from Scream 4. What happened?
Oh, I got in a big fight with Bob. God love him. I’ve worked with the man for 16 years out of my 16-year career. We get in some fights. We’re a very dysfunctional family over there at the Weinstein Co. We got into a massive fight creatively and we hugged it out and then we moved on.
Can you allude to what the struggle was about?
Oh just, you know — I felt strongly about this and he felt strongly about that and then I did this and that wasn’t right. Everyone was second-guessing everything because everyone wanted it to be so perfect. That’s exactly what happened. The one thing that Bob and I connect on very basically, why we’ve worked successfully together for 16 years, is we’re passionate. And no one is more passionate than Bob Weinstein. And it is that passion that allows you to make a movie where he will believe in you and trust in you and it’s also that passion that can cause fights and cause struggle. For 16 years, he’s kept me gainfully employed. I love him.
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Scream 4 promises to be one of the scariest Hayden Panettiere movies ever, but it didn’t occur without setback (as Wes Craven, who doesn’t sound thrilled with the process, can attest). Screenwriter Kevin Williamson is finally revealing the details about his fight with Bob Weinstein over creative differences and explains that he never abandoned the series. But you can blame vampires for the confusion!
According to a new interview with EW, Williamson’s tiff with Weinstein was as explosive as you imagined.
There were all these rumors that you were fired from Scream 4. What happened?
Oh, I got in a big fight with Bob. God love him. I’ve worked with the man for 16 years out of my 16-year career. We get in some fights. We’re a very dysfunctional family over there at the Weinstein Co. We got into a massive fight creatively and we hugged it out and then we moved on.
Can you allude to what the struggle was about?
Oh just, you know — I felt strongly about this and he felt strongly about that and then I did this and that wasn’t right. Everyone was second-guessing everything because everyone wanted it to be so perfect. That’s exactly what happened. The one thing that Bob and I connect on very basically, why we’ve worked successfully together for 16 years, is we’re passionate. And no one is more passionate than Bob Weinstein. And it is that passion that allows you to make a movie where he will believe in you and trust in you and it’s also that passion that can cause fights and cause struggle. For 16 years, he’s kept me gainfully employed. I love him. Yes, we got into the fight, but then the big clincher came: Contractually, I had signed on to do The Vampire Diaries [Williamson’s series for The CW]. You know, the little thing called first and second position? I was in first position to do Vamprie Diaries and second position to do Scream 4. So guess what? It was a contractual thing. Warner Bros called up and they said, “Dude where are you? You have a show that’s on the air — where are you?” I did double duty as much as I could but The Vampire Diaries was also very important to me.
So it was basically a contractual parting of ways?
Yeah, but then one blog got a hold of it. It’s fine. What are you going to say? Yeah we got into a massive fight, but at the same time the fight ended and we hugged it out and we continued forward and we tried to make the best movie possible. But it was also very raw and sensitive.
When did you and Bob reconcile?
Oh, I haven’t talked to him yet.
How do you know if he’s over it?
Oh please! Oh come on, it’s Bob. It’s fine!
In all fairness, The Vampire Diaries is a good show. I’d have been happy to abandon Scream 4 for it. Mind you, I might’ve stuck with Scream 4 for a chance to keep fighting with Bob Weinstein. But I guess it’s one or the other!
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