Fifth full-length feature. First American full-length feature.
Joel SILVER (the producer of Matrix, DIE HARD, PREDATOR…) calls me in Paris because he has just seen CRIMSON RIVERS on the plane. A polite meeting follows where I encounter a Hollywood “heavyweight”. We keep in touch, then a year later I receive a call from Joel: “I’m sending you a script, it’s with Halle Berry, we’re shooting in two months”…
The script for Gothika was frightening, very well written and corresponded to my cinematographic tastes in a genre that I’m particularly fond of –B series films.
As much as Crimson Rivers has a logical explanation for its fake ghosts, here we are in a pure ghost film without explanations.
The film was scheduled to be released for Halloween in 7 months, Halle Berry had just won an Oscar for MONSTER’S BALL, Joel SILVER was in the process of finishing production on MATRIX 2 and 3… The request was clear: I had to deliver a sexy and efficient film and it was up to me to amuse myself with the camera and frighten the spectators. The work of an artisan in a world of brutes.
Shot in Montreal with an entirely local crew, I went through another professional milestone, that of working with actors and technicians who are used to doing things differently. I learned a lot and I hope I brought them something of our typically French “system D” (resourcefulness).
I can’t help citing Steven Spielberg himself who thought that he would be seeing “another slasher movie” with Gothika, and then described it as a “classy” film.
Thanks Steve. |
