Empire Australasia — December 2017

WORDS DAVID MICHAEL BROWN

Wolf Creek S2 takes a genre-
bending approach to terror,
as Greg McLean explains...

AS JOHN JARRATT’S Mick Taylor eyes up
a coach load of fresh victims — sorry, tourists —
licking his lips at the prospect of further destroying
Australia’s international relations, the opening of the
second season of Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek proves,
if it was ever needed, that there’s life in the irascible
old dog yet. The sophomore streaming season of
Wolf Creek promises to deliver the franchise’s
customary mix of gallows humour and rough-as-
guts larrikin butchery, but with an added twist, as
the aforementioned holiday makers fi nd themselves
at the pointy end of Aussie hospitality. Empire
caught up with director and Wolf Creek showrunner
Greg McLean for the bloody low-down...

Where did the idea for the second season
originate from?
Essentially when I was developing the fi rst
screenplay for the original fi lm, I had a long
period of development trying to crack this idea
that ultimately became the fi rst Wolf Creek
movie. It’s still there, in the fi rst fi lm, but it’s just
a sliver of that idea. This is the bigger idea.

And what was the inspiration behind the idea?
I’m obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock and I

wanted to fi nd a way to do a Lifeboat-style

thriller set in the Australian Outback with an evil

bad guy. This series sets out to do that style of

pressure cooker, multi-character thriller. Working

with six one-hour episodes you can really develop

the characters and develop a big story arc. It’s a

terrifi c format to tell a big story.

Have you found yourself restricted working on a

TV show rather than a movie? Obviously the fi rst

two fi lms are renowned for their bloodshed...?

Not really. Because we are not on free-to-air we can

do whatever we want. The remit from Stan was to

make the show as cinematic as possible. Essentially

myself and my fellow directors [Kieran Darcy-

Smith; Wish You Were Here and Geoff Bennett;

The Secret Daughter] are making six one-hour

movies. The only thing television about it is the

short post-production period but apart from that,

this is a movie. That goes for everything. The scale,

the storytelling, the pacing. Also how extreme we

can go. People who like cinematic violence will not

be disappointed because there are no real barriers.

In reality though, that’s probably the least

interesting thing about it because it’s a really

fascinating character-based drama about a bunch

of incredible people trying to survive the Outback.

And Mick Taylor. Saying that, Mick does have a

penchant for extreme violence [laughs].

You and John Jarratt must have shorthand now.

Do you always know what the other is thinking?

We do. We talk a lot about the scripts. We

basically have this thing called the ‘Beavis and

Butthead meter’ where when we talk about what

a character will do or what gags we’ll do, if John

says something that goes too far, too over-the-

top crazy, I’ll say it’s getting a bit too Beavis and

Butthead. Then we both stand there doing that

laugh, giggling at our own jokes.

Does John have much input at the writing stage?

When we had settled on the idea for the story

treatment for the new series I sent it to John to

see what he thought. Thankfully he really loved

it. Then I went off and developed the scripts and

the next time John saw them was when there were

scripts to read and from that point he got

involved to make sure his dialogue was truthful

to Mick. Because he knows the character so well.

Why do you think Mick Taylor has struck a chord

with Aussie audiences?

He’s someone who people love to hate. He’s a

horrifying psychopath and completely terrifying.

I think part of the reason that people respond to

Mick is because ultimately we’re unravelling the

nature of how a character like that thinks and

behaves, about how that personality works. Mick

is psychologically based on a couple of real

people, so there is some truth to his character.

Is it a challenge keeping things fresh? Horror bad

guys can descend into cliché very quickly...

It’s defi nitely one of the big challenges but that’s the

cool thing about continuing to do things with a

character like Mick — you basically get to do

something in a different genre each time. The fi rst fi lm

was what it was, the second fi lm was an action-horror

fi lm, the fi rst series was a revenge Western and the

new season is a suspense thriller. Different types of

genre storytelling, all featuring Mick, all within the

Wolf Creek world, but ultimately as a storyteller, you

get to tell different stories in different genres. There

are only so many Wolf Creek pure horror stories that

you can tell but you can actually tell different kinds of

stories, which I fi nd fascinating. That’s where I feel it

gets really interesting — trying to crack a different

genre within an actual genre.

So sci-fi or rom-com next?

That’s what we’re planning [laughs]. Or a musical!

WOLF CREEK SEASON 2 IS STREAMING ON STAN FROM

15 DECEMBER

Mick Taylor (John

Jarratt) is back for more

tourist-slaying action.

Below right: Wolf Creek

director and showrunner

Greg McLean takes aim.