Q: So, you're working on a new movie, DOG EAT DOG. What is the movie about?
DOG EAT DOG is the great American revenge picture. I was inspired by films I loved like Die Hard and Chan-Wook Park's Oldboy and to a greater degree his amazing, poetic Lady Vengeance to make a revenge film. But I didn't just want to make a hack-and-slash rape movie, I wanted it to be poetic, and mythic. So I put a whole bunch of ideas in a blender and came up with a film that is ostensibly a female Die Hard with a sledgehammer instead of a machine gun.
Without giving too much away, the film is about a girl named Victoria that has been kidnapped by a group of kidnappers. She manages to escape and along the way she changes from Little Red Riding Hood to the Big Bad Wolf.
Q: How did you go about casting the movie?
We are still in the casting phase, but most of our actors are already in place thanks to the promo short we shot to help us raise the funds. First and foremost I have to mention Stephanie Greco, who plays Victoria our heroine. She is amazing and is a real up and comer. She can go from frightened lamb to dead-to-the-world ass-kicker in moments and you believe every second of it. Then we have Ruben Pla, who plays Clay, one of our kidnappers. What can I say about Ruben? The man is stunningly fearsome in the role, and if you've seen the 5 minute short you can see why. We've also got the excellent Brian Larrabee aboard, who's playing the slick second-in-command, and Graham Denman, who is not only a good actor but a great musician and is prepping his album for release in the middle of next year. We are out to a few people now, some really great horror notables, but nothing I can discuss at the moment. And then of course we have the wonderful, the talented, the illustrious Lin Shaye on our team as one of our kidnappers.
Q: How did you get actress Lin Shaye?
Lin and I became friends after working on James Wan's Insidious together. I showed her the promo and according to her it scared her so bad that she almost didn't finish it. Anyway, she invited me to her house for a little get together with the Insidious team and became fast friends. There's a character in the script, Denice, and I really wanted to offer it to her because I thought she could kick the part's ass. I was worried that she'd turn me down, even though we were friendly, but I bit the bullet and called her up and asked if she'd be interested. She said she would and had to read the script. Literally 2 hours later she called back and gave me an enthusiastic yes. That's how we got Lin, and we are grateful to have her, she will make this film amazing!