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| | CONVERSATION WITH DAVID TWOHY | |
Hopefully you already know that David Twohy was the writer-director on THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, wrote the story for DARK FURY, and was the director and one of the writers of PITCH BLACK. With this in mind, it's probably easy to figure out what a great opportunity it was for me to get a chance to talk to him. Sure it was only for three minutes (down from five), but I had my questions prioritized so thankfully I got to a few interesting things. I've transcribed the conversation verbatim rather than cut it into the standard Q&A format since I thought some of the back-and-forth was a little funny; feel free to email me if you think this is annoying and maybe I'll clean up the next interview.
Hey, Patrick?
Uh, Bruce!
Uh Bruce! Is it Pitch Black or is it Pitcher Blacker?
It's PitcherBlacker.com.
And who runs that website?
That would be me.
Really?
Yeah, I started it up two and a half years ago... still there.
When I first, uh... among other websites, you mean?
Pardon me?
You have a bunch of websites?
No.
Oh, ok.
That's the one.
When I first wrote a treatment to a sequel, after PITCH BLACK, I called it Pitcher... I called it PITCH BLACKER, actually.
Oh yeah?
Yeah.
As a joke? (Ed: Yes, I actually said this to David Twohy) Or as, uh... sort of as an in-joke or you thought there might be a chance that would be a real title?
No, that would be a real title.
Yeah?
It didn't stick, but you know..
I threw the extra 'er' on the first word kind of as a joke, since I figured no one would call their movie PITCHER BLACKER. David, thanks for your time, mind if I throw in a few questions, I know you have to leave.
Yeah, go Bruce.
Great. The first one is, uh, when you were doing promotion for the actual movie, you recorded about a two hour and fifty minute cut that you had assembled. With the new footage on the DVD and the deleted scenes, that's still about half an hour longer. Can you describe some of that additional footage, or is it all just alternate takes.
Now you're talking about the additional footage that we lost between that 2hr50m cut and what we currently have, or are you talking about just the new footage that we've reintroduced on the unrated version?
The new footage that nobody has seen, not even on this new disk.
Oh, um, no, I think every scene in the movie is represented by the longer version of the movie plus the deleted scenes I put on the side and I think that that two-fifty just represents a lot of slop that should have come out of the movie in terms of just uh from intros and extros of given scenes that clearly we didn't need, and just gratuitous pauses from some of the actors. I think all that, that difference is just attributable to that.
So just tightening, it's not whole scenes.
Yeah, any movie that comes in with a first cut at three, any commercial movie that comes with a first cut around three hours, a half hour of it is, the editors just call it 'air.'
Got it.
Let me take a half hour 'air' out of this movie first.
Got it.
That was sort of 'air time.' Uh, I think that all the scenes are now represented in the body of the film and the three ones we set on the side. We set those three aside only because the visual effects weren't finished, sometimes only half complete, so I didn't feel right about putting them into the body of the film.
Could you describe your involvement with some of the extras that are on this disk and also the redone PITCH BLACK disk, the stuff referring to universe fiction like the chase log and the text commentary. Did you actually sit down and write that, or do you work with the guys like at Herzog or whoever?
Uh, in terms of those specific bonus features that you mention I work with them, they play lead dog. They give me the text, I correct the text, say "This is wrong because we never use this language, we use this language" and I correct it.
In terms of the spinoff things like, um, one of the bonus features on the DVD is the first level (Ed: Sixth level, actually, but who's counting?) of the ESCAPE FROM BUTCHER BAY game.When it comes to the game stuff, I work with the guys early on to set the story for that. I tell them that "if you want to do a breakout movie, it's got to be a prequel to." I help them place it in time. Vin stepped in on that, and his game company helped produce that. All that aftermarket stuff, the anime piece that came out, DARK FURY, I wrote the story for that, so that we're involved in all those spinoff ventures because if you aren't involved they can get out of hand real quick. So Vin was sort of overseeing the video game, I was sort of overseeing the anime.
In terms of the bonus features, the chase logs and things like that, first they run them by us conceptually, they run them by me conceptually and say "Do you want to do something like that" and I say "Yeah." They'll put a writer on, I'll look at his text, I'll correct his text, and then they run with it. So it's collaborative but they are lead dog on most of that stuff
Alright, understood. Did you have to complete any effects or redo any voice work or anything for this new footage that you put back in? I noticed some different line deliveries, stuff that might have been relooped after the fact, or was it all from stuff that was packaged up before the movie came out?
No. We opened up everything again. I mean, I had a budget to do that, they just said whatever we do, no new visual effects, because they had spent enough on visual effects in this movie, they were hemorrhaging visual effects,so they said "That's it, no more visual effects." In fact, I had the Shirah character who I wanted to reintroduce, and she was only like 80% done in terms of her visual effects before we abandoned her in the theatrical cut. So I actually went to the visual effects house, Rhythym & Hues, who had done a lot of good work for us, they did the hellhound for instance, and I said "Look guys, I had it in computers around the world, she lives in computers around the world in many different parts. I've got to bring her together. Will you do that for me and not charge me a cent?" And they said yes. And so they did a freebie for me and they brought Shirah together so I could put her back without spending more visual effects money. But yeah, we actually opened up the picture, obviously we relooped, we did a new sound mix, and we did a new color correction session for the unrated version.
Oh, okay, so this is not just a cut that you had had previously, maybe the first one that you submitted to the MPAA or anything, this is all, you sat down fresh with a general idea of what you wanted to do. The version we're seeing now on this disk might be different from any of those multiple versions you submitted
That is correct.
Okay. Was anybody surprised when the MPAA kicked it back the first time?
Well, they kicked it back six times and it was only on the seventh time that they gave us that PG-13 stamp. All that stuff that then I had to take out for MPAA reasons is back in it, it tends to be the action stuff with y'know Riddick during the prison escape there's that sequence called One Step, One Kill, I put a lot of stuff back in there. The MPAA was jumping down my throat about that, and uh I actually think I forgot your question!
No, you got to it!
Sometimes I get spinning off!
Feel free to spin off.
David, when you have to cut someone completely out of a movie like you did with Kristin Lehman's character, is there anything special that you do? Do you call her up and tell her that it's coming so that she's not surprised opening night, or is that just kind of the way the business works?
I just let her find out at the premier.
Pardon me?
I just let her find out at the premier.
Yeah?
Nooooo! No, it's a terrible thing to have to do, and I didn't look forward to the call but obviously it had to be made and it has to come from me. So um, y'know at first she thinks I'm kidding and I say "No, but if it's any consolation your character will be in on the DVD" and I made that promise to her and I kept it.
Nice, and it's a great addition.
I think so too.
A great cut, I really appreciate it as a fan, I like it quite a bit. Uh, I guess that's it, thanks David and best of luck on your next project.
Alright, say high to Verge.
Take care.
Bye.
So there we have it. No idea who Verge is, but hello to him anyway. Thanks to David Twohy, Scott Essman from Visionary Media, and Universal Home Video.
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