The GENRE ONLINE.NET Interview – Writer/Director Patrick Lussier
By Mark A. Rivera
Writer and Director Patrick Lussier has worked in feature films going back to “Wes Craven’s Vampire In Brooklyn” and his television credits go back even farther. As an Editor, Mr. Lussier has been involved in the mid 1990s BBC/Universal co-production of “Doctor Who” with Paul McGann, as well as the feature films “Scream”, “Mimic”, “Halloween: H2O – Twenty Years Later”, “Music From The Heart”, “Scream 3” and “Cursed” among others. He has also served as Writer and Director for “The Prophecy 3: The Ascent” starring Christopher Walken, “Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000” starring Gerard Butler and the two straight to video sequels “Wes Craven Presents Dracula II: Ascension” and “Wes Craven Presents Dracula III: Legacy.” With the DVD release of “Wes Craven Presents Dracula III: Legacy” debuting at retailers on and offline on Tuesday, July 12, 2005, Mr. Lussier was kind enough to sit down for an interview regarding the new film and his career in general.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Thank you for giving me the time to interview you with regard to “Dracula III” and some of your previous works. I went over your production credits as an Editor working with Dimension Films and Wes Craven going all the way back to “Vampire In Brooklyn” and I thought it was quite impressive. I was wondering, is that how you got started in the film business, as an Editor?
PATRICK LUSSIER) Yeah, yeah. I started as an Assistant Editor on “The Hitchhiker” back in 86 and then went on to “21 Jump Street” and then “MacGyver.”
GENRE ONLINE.NET) So from there that’s what lead eventually for you to direct?
PATRICK LUSSIER) Yeah. And then I started editing for Wes Craven and did several films with him and then started working with Dimension Films and worked on “Mimic” and then they offered me a chance to direct “Prophecy 3.”
GENRE ONLINE.NET) So you’ve been an Editor and now are also a Writer and Director, is there any specific vocation within the art of filmmaking that you prefer more than one or the other like do you have a passion for directing more than you do for writing or whatnot?
PATRICK LUSSIER) Well they’re all great. Editing is great and directing is fantastic. Whenever you get a chance to do it, you really get to bring the story to life. Directing is the best part of it, but editing is great as well.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Was Wes Craven Instrumental in helping you get the twenty first century Dracula Trilogy made?
PATRICK LUSSIER) Certainly with the first one. Not quite so much in the other two, but he was definitely part of getting “Dracula 2000” made.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) When you were planning the sequels, did you originally have Gerard Butler in mind at one point to reprise his role from “Dracula 2000?”
PATRICK LUSSIER) No we didn’t actually. After “Dracula 2000” came out Gerry’s career began to get bigger and bigger and we felt he was not going to be available to do it both time wise and financially. So we became aware that we weren’t going to have the option to have Gerry. So we constructed the stories for Dracula II & III to allow for not having Gerry there.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) If I understand correctly, you shot Dracula II and III simultaneously as if it were one film though the intention was they would be split into two films. If that is the case why was there a two-year wait between the 2003 DVD release of Dracula II and the 2005 DVD release of Dracula III?
PATRICK LUSSIER) It was Dimension films. Literally my understanding was it was just politics – waiting for the release date, waiting to figure out what they were going to do? They were supposed to come out six months apart from each other and that just didn’t happen.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Okay I see.
PATRICK LUSSIER) It was finished by September of 2002.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) I was waiting and I remember after reviewing “Dracula II” I was thinking “Boy I hope I don’t have to wait a long time to see what happens…”
PATRICK LUSSIER) Better late than never.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Absolutely. On the DVD for “Dracula III: Legacy” I was really impressed by your knowledge of Vampire mythology and Wes Craven like George Lucas seems to have definitely been a disciple of Joseph Campbell’s mythology studies and I was wondering for lack of a better expression, do you find yourself falling back to archetypal storytelling like Lucas and Craven when you construct a story and of all the masters of the genre, do you personally have a filmmaking hero perhaps outside of Wes Craven, who I imagine after more than ten years, he is probably more than that.
PATRICK LUSSIER) Yes of course. Certainly you fall into archetypal storytelling especially if you start telling an epic story that Dracula II and III become especially with the hero and the companion to the hero, especially in the third film.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) They become the fearless vampire hunters.
PATRICK LUSSIER) They’re like that, but they are different. Look at the construction of heroes in the film; for lack of a better expression in the film they’re like the mentor and the sidekick. That is a hero structure throughout storytelling. You have the hero and the companion to the hero, who is more of a comedic foil and the two characters venture through something that can go back throughout many different stories and that is definitely true of the third film to make this kind of buddy movie version of the horror story structure.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) I remember hearing you say “Heart Of Darkness” was an inspiration. I found that interesting. In which way? I don’t really see Dracula as Kurtz if you know what I mean. I can understand that Dracula has always been portrayed at least in the last twenty somewhat years and probably a lot more as being a person who is tired of eternal life on some level. He’s found it to be a curse. I wasn’t so sure though about the Kurtz similarity. Dracula is not insane; do you know what I’m saying?
PATRICK LUSSIER) Well he is and he isn’t. Certainly when you first meet him in Dracula III he comes off that he may not posses all his faculties and then as the story continues he becomes sharper and shrewder.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) I just didn’t get the insanity thing off of Rutger Hauer. Maybe I missed it and if so, I apologize.
PATRICK LUSSIER) No, it wasn’t designed for him to play the character totally as a crazy person. He is somebody who has grown tired and exhausted of what he has achieved because he could basically have anything he wants. He’s waiting for someone to take it from him. Someone he finds worthy.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) That was clear. I absolutely agree with you on that aspect being clear. Now you have worked with some great genre icons including Christopher Walken and Rutger Hauer and in the film Hauer’s role was pretty short and he wasn’t as prominent as Christopher Walken’s character was in “Prophecy 3.” I was wondering if that was be design or by budget?
PATRICK LUSSIER) It was by design that we only reveal Dracula at the end. That he is the final act of the story. It was very much written with that in mind throughout the film so he is only spoken of and it’s more about the journey and what they had to go through on the journey to find him and what it cost them.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) This brings me to the film’s ending and the alternate ending. Now having seen the alternate ending I might be the only person in the world, but I kind of liked the alternate ending better than the ending of the movie itself.
PATRICK LUSSIER) Really?
GENRE ONLINE.NET) That’s not to say that the ending that’s currently there is bad because I was thinking about it and obviously in order for Jason Scott Lee’s character to kill Dracula, he has to become what he is going to kill to a certain extent.
PATRICK LUSSIER) Yes.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) So was that the reason why you changed the ending?
PATRICK LUSSIER) The alternate ending was actually something the studio asked us to shoot. It was never our choice. It was never the choice of the actors. It was something we were asked to shoot so we shot it. It was not an ending that we believed in terms of being the appropriate ending to the film. What’s on the film is the ending we were very passionate about. We believed that to achieve his goal he (Lee’s character) was going to have to surrender everything. For him to be able to walk away felt too easy. We wanted him to basically be willing to give up absolutely every single thing that he represented in order to achieve what he wanted and then upon doing so he becomes the very thing he is trying to destroy.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) So basically he becomes Dracula.
PATRICK LUSSIER) That’s exactly what happens. The King is dead. Long live the King.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) If that’s the case, Dracula won in a way. He’s not dead.
PATRICK LUSSIER) In a way, yeah. In the opening scene with Roy Scheider, basically the Cardinal says to him, “Don’t do this. We don’t want you to do this We’ll give you anything just don’t do this.” Because he knows the price Father Uffizi (Lee) has already paid and he knows that Uffizi is very single minded and will pay any price to achieve what he must. He also knows that if Uffizi has to pay that ultimate price, he will be a far more mortal enemy to the church and that he will becomes unstoppable.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) So things end of actually worse of then they were.
PATRICK LUSSIER) I think of it as a happy ending.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Well it is refreshing not to have a cliché “Hollywood” happy ending for lack of a better expression where everything is wrapped up in a nice neat bow.
PATRICK LUSSIER) But the studio was very concerned about the ending we went with on paper. Once they saw it though, they loved it.
Director Patrick Lussier with Dracula III Co-Star Jason Scott Lee at Screamfest
LA 2003
Picture courtesy of Andy Lalino of www.filthythemovie.com.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Are there going to be any more Dracula films?
PATRICK LUSSIER) To be honest with you I don’t know. Joel and I and Jason and Lee all talked about it and we’d love to continue the adventures and we’re certainly intrigued by where we left the characters. I can certainly see Jason London’s character being picked up by the Cardinal’s men sometime later and having to venture back and find out what happened to their master hunter. The Cardinal would use Luke (London) to hunt Uffizi.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) This is hearsay so there’s no sequels planned at the moment?
PATRICK LUSSIER) Not at this time, but that’s kind of the storyline we would follow if we actually make it.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) If Dimension decides to go ahead with a sequel, would you automatically be attached to it?
PATRICK LUSSIER) For Joel and I that would be our hope.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) What’s your next project going to be?
PATRICK LUSSIER) We’re just working on figuring that out right now. We have something in development, which is kind of a survival story. It’s much more non-fantasy based. It’s a horror film. Much more man versus nature.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Is horror your favorite genre? Or would like to branch off?
PATRICK LUSSIER) It didn’t really start out that way, but I enjoy working in it.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Any films out in theatrical release that impressed you just out of curiosity?
PATRICK LUSSIER) I enjoyed “Land Of The Dead.” I thought it was less of a zombie film and more of a political film.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) This brings me back to my question I asked before about your heroes. I was wondering if you had any genre icons or Director that you look up to?
PATRICK LUSSIER) Well I think Guillermo Del Toro, who I had a chance to work with is an amazing filmmaker. He’s such a gifted visionary. I like Robert Wise’s “The Haunting.” “The Omen” is an incredibly captivating film. There have been some amazing films coming out of Asia. “Battle Royale” is incredibly terrifying. Go back to Hitchcock and “Psycho.” The storytelling twists he does setting up Janet Lee as the hero of the film and then he pulls the rug from under your feet. “Duel” is a great horror film. You look at it and it’s such an amazing film and Steven Spielberg shot it in 17 or 18 days with no money and it still holds up.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Well I noticed in films like “Open Water” during the ending credits when you see them opening up the shark to find the camera inside, the irony reminds me of the ending of “Night Of The Living Dead” and if you look at Hitchcock’s “The Birds” I often wonder whether or not if structurally Romero was influenced by it.
PATRICK LUSSIER) That is such an inspiring film. It created a whole subgenre and made it okay to end the world. “28 Days Later” was great.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) And “Shaun Of The Dead.”
PATRICK LUSSIER) “Shaun Of The Dead” is the best genre film.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) I think it is the best mixture of horror and comedy since “An American Werewolf In London.”
PATRICK LUSSIER) Definitely. I’ve seen it probably eight times. My son and I just watched it. That movie is so good.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) I always ask this question to close my interviews and with you just mentioning your son it seems appropriate. You represent this generation of horror filmmakers, but there will be others that follow. What advice would you give them in their career aspirations?
PATRICK LUSSIER) What’s really important is that you love what you do and what’s also really important to is to thank everyone for working for you. Filmmaking is such a collaborative process that you have to know that you do not do it alone. You do it with an army of people and you want them to be willing to lay down in the dirt with you because you’re going to ask them to and you damn well better thank them everyday because you’re lucky to have them. Never forget that you owe all these other people everything.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) That’s a beautiful statement.
PATRICK LUSSIER) You have to do that because these people are working damn hard for you. They’re away from their families and you have to respect that.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) Thank you much for your time Patrick and I look forward to your next film.
PATRICK LUSSIER) Thank you so much for your time and your thoughtful questions.
GENRE ONLINE.NET) My pleasure.
Special thanks to Mac McLean at Buena Vista Home Entertainment for making this interview possible.
© Copyright 2005 By Mark
A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.