GOD'S HANDS: An interview with Frailty writer Brent Hanley
By Warren
Curry
4/7/02
Part 1 of 2
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GOD'S HANDS: An interview with Frailty writer Brent Hanley By Warren
Curry Part 1 of 2 |
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Talk about striking debuts -- screenwriter Brent Hanley will have a tall order in trying to top his first produced screenplay, Frailty, a script that oozes atmosphere and blends just the right touches of horror, narrative twists and fascinating characters. But try the writer will, as he recently penned a movie adaptation of the children's novel Holes, with Andrew Davis (Collateral Damage, The Fugitive) directing, and is currently writing a screenplay for John Woo (Face/Off, The Killer) to produce and possibly direct.
The writer (soon to be writer/director -- he has plans to make his directorial debut on a project slated to begin production later this year) enthusiastically spoke in detail, not only about Frailty, but also his writing style, his love of author Jim Thompson (my favorite writer -- the man has taste!) and the joys of being a Texan.
Click Here for an interview with Bill Paxton,
director and star of Frailty.
(Note: This interview was conducted as part of a press roundtable, therefore not all questions were asked by CinemaSpeak.)
So where did the idea for Frailty come from?
I actually had a vision -- God came down to me (laughter). No, actually, it's kind of a boring story. I started off writing a script called The Ambulance Story, which is not even in the film at this point, except for a real quick little blip. Originally, it was about two brothers; one of them killed themselves and said that the other had to take them to the rose garden. Essentially the main character, Fenton, who is (played by) Matthew (McConaughey) in the movie, hijacks this ambulance and tells the ambulance driver this story. Originally, I was going for more of a film noir thing -- I hadn't introduced the horror element to this. The back-story was going to be this Bastard Out of Carolina story -- that book was really influential on me. I really wanted to do something about child abuse, but I realized very quickly that this was a very dark subject matter and a very hard subject matter. I didn't really feel comfortable exploring that in the film. I thought now I was getting into a novel area and this is not something that would be entertaining and would be very, very hard to look at. I know a lot of people feel that way about Frailty, but I had another idea -- and I'm glad I didn't write this script, because I've seen about 10 of these around town in the last few years -- about a "killer's killer." The idea of a serial killer, and somebody who has visions and is able to track down these serial killers and kill them. That was another idea I had and I ended up marrying these two together, which became Frailty.
Can you cite any influences?
I'm hugely influenced by Stephen King. I learned how to write screenplays by reading Jim Thompson, who was a minimalist crime writer. The Killer Inside Me, one of his novels, had a huge impact upon Frailty, as well as just growing up in Dallas, Texas. That's somewhat the buckle of the Bible Belt to a large degree, and religious influences have always been there. My grandma raised me, a lot of my childhood I spent with her, and she took me to her Southern Baptist church. All the kids, while the preacher droned on and on about Jesus, we were there flipping to the back of the Bible reading about all the juicy stuff. Frailty has a lot of influences from the Old Testament; there's definitely parallels to the story of Isaac, there's some Cain and Abel going on. Just as well as the basic idea of God speaking to man, which doesn't really happen in the New Testament. That's all usually done through Jesus Christ, where in the Old Testament it's God directly talking to people. The idea also came from the 12 Tribes of Judea; each one had a certain function for God. The only one I really know is the Levis, because my grandma tells me we were descended from that -- she was a Levi. They were essentially the accountants for God and so everyone had a specific function. So I took that with Dad's mission.
Was it important for the film to have a concrete perspective rather than being ambiguous?
It does pick a side. It's not a message film; I'm not trying to say anything by doing that (picking a side). It was more of a Twilight Zone episode to me. There's more horror in what happens, but I don't want to give away the ending, and please help me with that!
Do you have a brother?
I don't have a brother; I've been asked that quite a bit. I have a sister. I had an older sister, who died when I was younger of leukemia, and I have a younger sister by my mother and stepfather, who is in her 20's. Almost every single script of mine -- I'm writing one now for John Woo -- is a brother piece. I'm just drawn to that for some reason?
So there's nothing autobiographical here?
No, well, you know, it's all autobiographical (laughs). No, no, not at all -- it's complete imagination. The first script that I wrote was very autobiographical -- I used a lot of myself and my own experience in it. Frailty was actually my second piece and I went completely just from imagination. There are a lot of things in Frailty that are autobiographical -- the childhood stuff to a large degree, like the rose garden, which used to be the Tyler (rose garden). They wouldn't let us use the Tyler Rose Garden, because it's the biggest rose garden, I think, in the U.S., or definitely in Texas. I think they were afraid that people would think they were burying bodies in the garden, so that wouldn't be good for tourism. My grandpa's from Tyler and every summer and spring we would go down when the roses were in bloom and that had a huge impact on me. That house behind the garden -- there really was a house that was built for the gardeners back in the 50's, where they used to bunk. It always fascinated me -- it was a very creepy house and I always wondered who lived there. Plus, there are countless references -- a lot of them didn't make it into the film because of right's issues, but originally Laverne and Shirley or Happy Days were playing on the TV. We had the The Love Boat in there at one point, but we couldn't get clearance on any of that. The only thing that actually wasn't in the script, which Bill put in and I love, is Davey and Goliath, because I remember that growing up as a kid. It's ironic, because the clip they use has such relevance to the picture and that was completely an accident. We were going through all this footage and laughing and had a few beers, basically just getting off on Davey and Goliath. They really just nailed our theme right on the head where we needed it, so it was a beautiful accident.
I understand Bill involved you quite a bit during the production.
Pre-production, production and post. I
actually came out here to be a writer/director, not just a screenwriter.
I went to film school at Emerson College and did not have any
money to make a reel. So, I figured, like everyone -- that's why
I think so many people write scripts, because it doesn't cost
anything, it's just pen and paper. So I wrote a script to get
into it, and Bill knew coming in, even reading the script he was
very complimentary, that I had a filmmaker's eye. That I hadn't
just written this as a story, I'd written this as a film. He was
very respectful of the script and he brought me in immediately.
The producers as well kept me really involved and I worked very
closely with them on a second draft of the script, which was basically
just touching things up. Nothing really got cut out or altered.
In pre-production I got to work with the actors, which was an
amazing experience. This has been like a series of surreal events
for me. Working with Bill, we had to cut the script down a little
bit, because it was a little fat. It was at about 120 (pages)
and to make the studio happy we had to get it down to about 110.
We went through cutting pages and as we did this -- it was a very
involved process and this was my first stage of pre-production
-- he'd basically read through the script and we'd find out that
we didn't need certain things. It was really amazing, because
I really got emotional and suddenly Bill became Dad for me right
there in the room. That was the first time I'd really had an actor
say my words. He started to pick up the mannerisms of the character
and it was just a really cool experience. He kept me involved
through pre-production, especially working with Matthew and Powers
(Boothe), which was really fun. I worked with the kids and Vincent
Chase, who plays Edward March, the older, second demon. He was
actually Bill's old acting coach and we worked with him and the
kids and that was cool. All during production, I was there every
day I could be. I got my first assignment at that time on a project
called Holes, which was really different. It's based on
a kid's book and Andy Davis is doing it. That goes into production
next month, I think. Even in post, I was working on other scripts,
but he would send over tapes and I was able to give him notes.
It was really a collaborative process. Bill was open, really respectful
of me and very respectful of the script. A lot of directors don't
like to have the writers on set, but Bill demanded it. He actually
got kind of upset on the days I couldn't make it.
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