Conducted by Robert Freese
Jeff O'Brien studied screen writing at the Vancouver Film School. Although he still
resides in Canada, he has worked with film makers located in Mexico, Chile, France
and the U.S., as well as Canada. O’Brien's first produced feature was Blind Heat in
2002. The award winning La Taqueria followed in 2003.
In 2005 his script Insecticidal was produced. It is your basic giant blood thirsty
insectoids attack the beautiful bevy of sorority girls flick. It was filmed in Canada by
Jeffery Scott Lando, who also filmed O'Brien's Alien Incursion in 2006.
2007 has seen two of O'Brien's scripts filmed, Bone Dry, which stars Lance
Henriksen and Dee Wallace, and Prey for the Beast, for Canadian director Brett
Kelly. Currently, O'Brien has re-teamed with director Kelly to remake that classic of
'50s drive-in cinema Attack of the Giant Leeches.
Jeff O'Brien was nice enough to take time from his busy schedule to talk to me
about scripting horror films and the new creatures lurking in the swamps. Anyone
interested in his work can visit him at http://www.myspace.com/iguanaprods.
Robert- Tell us a little about how you broke into screen writing.
Jeff- I took the usual courses in film at university as part of a communications
course and studied screen writing at the Vancouver Film School. Read every
screen writing book you can think of from Syd Field on down. My first scripts were
pretty awful, as are most I guess. But I found a posting from a Mexican/US prodco
looking for a writer for a low budget film and wrote a few sample scenes from their
treatment and got my first produced credit. That was Blind Heat, a Jeff Fahey, Maria
Conchita Alonso film.
Robert- Are there any screenwriters that influence you?
Jeff- I love John Sayles films. His personal work and the commercial assignment
script that he's done to finance it. No matter how grim the subject matter may be,
you can see the sheer joy he takes in storytelling. Lone Star and Hombres Armados
(Men with Guns) are two of my favorites.
Robert- How closely do you work with the director during the shooting of
the film?
Jeff- Since most of my work has been long distance, I've worked closely up until the
shooting starts. Then I'm off the radar pretty much.
Robert- Do you ever have the benefit of knowing a film's budget before
writing the script, or do you write whatever comes from your imagination
and let the director worry about getting it on the screen?
Jeff- Both. I can do high budget specs but sometimes I like a subject matter that I
just know would be a B movie, then you have to keep in mind the prospective
budget would be low. So you write with that restriction in mind.
Robert- What was it like the first time you saw characters you created on
screen speaking dialog you wrote?
Jeff- Inside of the first scene, I was really thrilled and also cringed at how bad a line
I had written sounded. Some dialogue is meant to be read aloud and some read
internally, like from a novel. I should have moved my lips more when writing it, then
I'd have known. I started speaking the dialogue out loud ever since.
Robert- Because technology has made it so easy for anyone to be a
filmmaker, and there are tons of horror flicks available to watch, do you
find it harder coming up with new ways to scare and thrill audiences?
Jeff- I find it hard to scare ME. So many niches now, the films that scare, and the
ones that are meant to be grueling - the whole torture porn sub-genre. For me, the
bigger the scale, the smaller the scare. The more intimate the circumstances, the
more I can relate. 28 Days Later worked more than 28 Weeks Later, I felt.
Robert- In the early '80s there was a horror boom and Canada supplied a
large amount of scare flicks to U.S. screens. Is horror still hot in Canada?
Jeff- There is a lot going on but much of it isn't being sold on the shelves. You can
buy direct from film makers or distribs. Brian Clement's Meat Market films and Brett
Kelly's Ottawa horror films. Same with Vince D'amato and Ryan Nicholson of Live
Feed fame. You go on MySpace and look at Canadian indie filmmakers into horror...
just a huge amount. If you can afford a G4 or G5 and a good enough camera and
the software. That's pretty much how Jeffery Lando made Savage Island.
Robert- Many critics and fans credit Scream for reviving horror films in the
late '90s. But, a few years earlier, the Canadian slasher flick Prom Night IV
did the same thing, right down to the self-referential humor. Any thoughts?
Jeff- I'm a few films behind in the Prom Night series I have to admit. But I'd give that
to Scream. Scream ushered in all those post-modern horror films that had to be
funny and self referential and it really went too far I think. One thing about torture
porn, no matter how you feel, is that it has to be played straight and it kind of
leveled the playing field. The first remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was
grim, humorless - the anti-Scream.
Robert- What can you tell us about the thriller Bone Dry?
Jeff- Bone Dry started as a twenty page batch of pages for a script called Mojave
that I had given up on. I wanted something with a man in the desert, just one man. I
hit the wall and that was it. I was introduced to Brett Hart and the pages clicked with
him and the collaboration, years later, resulted in Bone Dry. Both of us riffing on
films and genres we liked. To get back to being self-referential, Bone Dry is, but it
has no humor. When you see a man being force marched through the desert, you
can't help but think of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or The Naked Prey. But we
did our best to keep tongue OUT of cheek - unless it was being bitten off.
Robert- What can you tell us about your horror film with Brett Kelly Prey for
the Beast?
Jeff- Brett wanted to do a low budget, rough and ragged, CGI free man-in-a-suit
film. Something you might have seen in the late seventies, early eighties. Night of
the Demon type backwoods horror fun. Something where you see more film making
on display than keyboard 3D modeling skills. It has humor but some pretty grueling
stuff in it. I didn't go in thinking, this person has to live and this person as to die. I
think the end will be a surprise in that respect.
Robert- Without giving away any surprises, what can you tell us about your
Attack of the Giant Leeches remake with Kelly?
Jeff- Brett had the idea to find a public domain film he liked and do a remake - a
personal challenge I think. He liked the Leech film, even though he admits it wasn't a
very good one. That was his mission, to take a film that wasn't good and make it
better. Rather more interesting than taking a great film and remaking it for no
reason. It's a great film, why mess with it? For the money. Brett wanted to challenge
himself.
Robert- I like Kelly's take on remaking films- to pick films that can be
improved upon. What is your take on remaking films and the current glut of
remakes?
Jeff- I bitched and preached like everyone else till I started on Attack of the Giant
Leeches then I promptly shut my trap.
Robert- How did you approach the Giant Leeches remake? Did you go back
and re-watch the original film or did you start fresh from a whole new idea?
Jeff- I stayed close enough to the original idea to please the purists but like Brett, I
liked the first film for the southern gothic, bedroom drama. That was fresh. Leeches
aren't as much fun as characters who don't like each other trying to get through the
day. Expanding the characters and playing with relationships, that was fun.
Robert- What's next for you?
Jeff- I want to write a real drive-in type film like The Car, Human Experiments, etc.
But an eighties gore fest like an Italian cannibal, zombie film wouldn't be unwelcome.
I started working with a great new agent here in Vancouver and have been trying to
up my game and get my work in bigger hands.
following interviews
Interview with Phil
Herman, Film maker
Interview with Paul
Dale Roberts,
Paranormal Investigator
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