Exclusive: Dread Central at The Collector Premiere
Steve Barton
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Dread Central attended the premiere of Marcus Dunstan’s directorial debut The Collector (review here) at Hollywood & Highland last night, as well as the after-party held in the swanky Tropicana Bar at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and brought back a slew of pics. We also chatted with Dunstan and his The Collector co-writer and longtime collaborator Patrick Melton regarding the film along with the many other genre projects they’re attached to so read on.
On hand for the raucous, packed and enthusiastically received screening was John Gulager, his wife Diane Goldner and brother Tom (the latter two appear in the flick), as was Neo Art & Logic’s Mike Leahy, Feast actress Jenny Wade, filmmakers Sean (Silent Night, Zombie Night) Cain, Frank (The Mist) Darabont and The Collector star Josh Stewart, among others.
In good spirits following his uproarious introduction and screening (the director prefaced the film with a clever poem regarding the flick’s trip from script to screen), Dunstan (who co-wrote with Melton the Feast franchise and Saw IV thru VI) effused of The Collector, “This is the film we have to make no excuses for. Everything we intended is up on the screen. I spent every damn penny to get the scenes just the way the script intended, and we pushed ourselves to the very limit to guarantee the experience in the theater that we intended to deliver from the page.”
Melton was equally enthusiastic. “I love it. Looks and sounds wonderful – seeing the first film print the other day made me misty-eyed because we took such a long, strange road to get here. Our intent was to make something intense and scary, and I think we achieved our goal in spades. I am biased, though.”
Will there be a sequel? Dunstan feels that many unexplored avenues remain. “Should we have an opportunity to return to The Collector terrain, there are ideas aplenty to unleash our darkest ideas,” he said. Watch our exclusive red carpet video interview with the duo, along with the film’s on-screen siblings Madeline Zima (Jill) and Karley Scott Collins (Hannah), here.
As for the duo’s involvement with the Saw films, Dunstan told us of his co-scripted sixth in the series (which releases October 23 via Lionsgate), “I love it! (Director) Kevin Greutert hit this entry out of the park. He pointed to the stands and swung for the stars. This installment brings with it a sense of closure on storylines long in development. It feels complete. It feels timely. It has emotion, violence and artistry in a mad ballet. Patrick and I are thrilled to be a part of this ride.”
“We’re currently scripting Saw VII,” added Melton. “As for loose ends in Saw VI, a lot is tied up at the end. People wonder how we can have resolution but still have a sequel, but I beg them to see Saw VI first before casting judgement. There is resolution in the end of Saw VI,” says the scribe of the series’ historically complicated narrative. “We understand John’s quest and we understand the involvement of Hoffman and Amanda.”
Dread questioned the two regarding their involvement with the project The Good Doctor, a script which came across our desk earlier this week penned by Tom Gulager and based on an original idea by Dunstan and Melton, which is slated to be directed by Feast franchise helmer John Gulager.
“The Good Doctor is something we hope to be John Gulager’s Hitchcock film,” said Dunstan. “It is a lurid suspense-thriller conceived with giallo touches in an adult-hard-R world. John has so much to contribute to cinema, and the Feast films are merely a taste. Gulager is an artist through and through. His lifetime body of work is based in drama and thriller territory, so the fact his first film was a horror-comedy was a happy accident. I think the gentleman knows how to make anything sing. However, The Good Doctor was conceived as a project to be born from his lifetime passion. I can’t wait to see what comes of it!”
Melton added of the project’s status, “It’s a high suspense thriller/horror that can be made in limited locations at a cost, and the (Gulager) brothers are honing the script so we’ll know more soon.”
As for other genre projects, Melton let it slip that the duo is (in addition to the feature film The Killing Street (coverage here)) “doing a TV show with Clive Barker, but I can’t really say anything about that yet. Other than that there’s this comic book named Deal With The Devil by Mike Miller that we just got involved (with).”
Set up at Lionsgate, the adaptation of the Alias Enterprise comic is going to be tackled by producer Lisa Brause of Golden House Entertainment.
“It’s in the same school as The Collector,” said Melton, “but its scale is larger. The idea is for us to write (the screenplay) and for Marcus to direct.”
– SeanD.
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