interview
Vincenzo Natali072 | w w w. s c i fi n ow.co.u k
movies being remade are not necessarily
the best choices – because to me, the best
choices for remakes would be movies that
had a great idea but weren’t fully realised
the first time around. And usually, the
films that are chosen to be remade are the
opposite: they’re great movies and people
are just trying to recreate that success a
second time.
But I also feel that movies are like
time capsules – they’re very specific to
the moment in which they’re made. So if
someone’s going to remake any film, even
Cube, then they need to find a reason for it to
exist at this moment. I would be interested
to see what someone does with it. I don’t
think the first film is perfect by any stretch
[laughs]! However, I think it would be hard
to do it in a way that still felt fresh. Because
when I made that movie, there really wasn’t
a lot out there like it. After my film – not
necessarily because of it – there were the
Saw movies, and a lot of films about people
being trapped and having to work together to
find a way to escape. That path feels like it’s
been well trod over the last two decades.
When we watched the Saw movies, we
definitely thought ‘this feels familiar...’
Believe me, I’ve found myself many times in
a situation where I’m working on something
that I thought was a completely original idea,
only to discover that somebody else had done
it a long time ago or was doing it at the same
time! These things happen.
I’m not saying anyone was necessarily
imitating Cube – but it’s that Jungian thing;
it was in the air. When we make these
things, it’s like you feel a kind of urge to
make it. You have this itch that you want
to scratch, and it draws you towards a
particular kind of story or idea. I feel like,
often, that’s because a lot of people are
feeling the same way. It’s just the moment
we’re in culturally that draws us to do
certain things.
Recently, you’ve moved more into directing
for television. Was that a conscious decision
for you or did that move happen naturally?
It happened out of desperation! About five
years ago, it started to become really difficult
to get movies made. I wasn’t able to get a
studio movie made – the space that I had
always existed in, the sort of mid-range
budget, was disappearing, and there just
wasn’t a place for the things I wanted to do.
After I couldn’t get High Rise made and I
couldn’t get Neuromancer made – both
of which were very ambitious projects – I
just found myself needing to work. I
didn’t want to make a movie that I wasn’t
passionate about; I just don’t have it within
me to do that.
But TV is the kind of work where you can
go into it a little more as a hired gun, and
you don’t have to wear it in the same way
that you wear one of your own movies as
a director. So I went into it with this very
mercenary attitude.
Ironically, one of the first shows I worked
on was [Bryan Fuller’s] Hannibal, and I
ended up really falling in love with the
show and feeling that some of my best work
as a director that I’ve ever done – before
or since – was on that show. Overall, I just
found the whole process of working on TV
really creatively rejuvenating. So it actually
ended up being more than just a job. It ended
up being something that revived me after
having a hard time in the feature film world.We were devastated when Syfy passed on
the Tremors pilot you directed. What do
you think happened?
I think the head of the network didn’t like
it. It was that simple. And I don’t knowwhy. Of course, I can’t be objective about
it because I made it, and I made it with a
friend, Andrew Miller – it’s his show, I just
directed the pilot. I thought it turned out
really well.
One thing I can tell you for certain – Kevin
Bacon is amazing in it. He’s so good and
was lovely to work with. We had a terrific
shoot, a fantastic cast, and the creatures
looked great. When they tested it, it tested
well – which is very unusual for me, because
virtually everything I do tests badly [laughs].
I thought, ‘oh, at last, I’ve done something
that tests well!’ So, I was doubly shocked
when they decided not to pick it up.
I’ll never understand these things. I
mean, I was with Bryan Fuller on Star Trek
[Discovery] when he was doing that, and
watching that whole thing implode was a
lesson in how studios think, or don’t think.
So, nothing really surprises me.Natali was a key
director on Hannibal.