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by Scott Juba Published: September 12, 2007
As for Platinum Dunes’ box-office success, Fuller says, “It’s a combination of what myself, Andrew [Form] and Michael [Bay] bring to the table. Michael certainly brings an incredible amount of talent who he’s worked with over the years who are anxious to stay in business with him. Since Michael’s only making a movie once every two years, a lot of those people don’t want to stray very far. We’re lucky that we get to hire a lot of Michael’s people…So, we’re able to get really good talent across the board at a different rate, but we’re getting the craftsmanship of people who are working on $150-million-dollar movies.” He adds, “The other part of it is that Andrew and myself have a background in lower-budget filmmaking. We were able to bring that to Michael. Despite what you hear, Michael is very aware of the budget and how much money he’s spending.” One of the most anticipated projects on the Platinum Dunes slate is a remake of the Hitchcock classic, "The Birds." Despite countless rumors that Naomi Watts will play the lead, Fuller explains that such talk remains premature. "We sat down with Naomi, and we’ve all talked about it," he says. "As of yet, there’s no deal in place for her. Until we have a director, I can’t imagine she’d commit to the movie. I certainly wouldn’t." As Fuller points out, getting a director signed for the project will be a challenge in itself. "We want to get an excellent director,” he says, “and I think it’s a bitter pill to swallow to be the guy who’s remaking Hitchcock." Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Fuller says he and the other producers on the project (which include Andrew Form, Michael Bay, Peter Guber, and Universal Pictures) fully understand the pressure of remaking Hitchcock. "It brings more baggage than any project we’ve ever considered. I think one of the reasons the movie has taken so long to get up and running is that, until we all feel that it’s worthy of its lineage, we’re not going to just go make it to try to cash in on its name. We’ll get annihilated if we don’t do a great job with it." Fuller says the looming possibility of a strike further complicates matters. "For 'The Birds' to line up, it just can’t be Naomi Watts and a great script. You have to have a great crew to support the movie and make it what it needs to me. What we’re finding is that it’s hard to hire a lot of the people who we’d like to hire because they’re taking other jobs [with the strike looming]." With the knowledge of these production challenges, as well as the timing of Michael Bay’s potential "Transformers" sequel, Fuller discounts reports of a July 3, 2009 release date being set for "The Birds." "I can’t imagine that would be the case," he says. "If Michael [Bay] signs on for 'Transformers 2', that would be the space for that. We’re certainly not going to come out any time near when 'Transformers 2' is going to come out." Aside from "The Birds," Fuller says he also hopes to produce a prequel to "Friday the 13th." He flatly denies suggestions that the company has purposely put the project on hold, citing that the rights to the project must be secured before production can move forward. "If the rights closed today, I’d start prepping the movie tomorrow," Fuller says. "It’s a very complicated movie, because there are multiple studios involved that own rights." As for the legal complexities surrounding the "Friday the 13th" prequel, Fuller says, "I’m not an attorney, so I don’t understand exactly what it is. But, with one studio, we could have made the movie where he puts the mask on for the first time. With the other studio, we could only do it where he puts the mask on after he’s done it twenty-five times. Little things like that make a ton of difference to us. We didn’t want to have that limitation. There are millions of little things like that." In addition to its remakes, Platinum Dunes will soon bring an original film to the screen with "The Horsemen." Starring Dennis Quaid, the film focuses on a widowed detective who discovers he has a connection to the suspects of a killing rampage. "Horseman was a project we bought even before we made the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,'" Fuller points out. "It was never our intention just to become a remake company." Proving Platinum Dunes’ intent to develop original projects, the company also optioned the original script, "Fiasco Heights," which Fuller describes as "a film noir that takes place in a lawless land where a guy with some integrity tries to save a girl." According to Fuller, Michael Bay has been a major supporter of "Fiasco Heights" from the beginning. He recalls, "Fiasco Heights is a script Michael Bay read and came in and said, 'This is the thing we need to move more into.' This comes more from Michael in terms of a mandate for our company, which is to find things people haven’t seen a lot of and see if we can make it feel fresh. 'Fiasco Heights' fits into that." As Platinum Dunes moves forward, it seems certain that it will strive to do what it has always done, which as Fuller puts it is, "To make fun movies that people want to go see." |
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