Trade Publication Article

BITE ME

2011

Overview

I've always been fascinated by movies about sharks - anybody that saw Jaws is fascinated by movies about sharks - and how those movies attack people's phobias about water. It's a great venue for a movie. But I read the script and saw that it was really rich in character development, had some great twists and wasn't just about sharks killing people. I've worked in this kind of genre in almost all the films that I've done, but it's not really a horror movie ora slasher movie or a gory movie. It's PG-i 3. It's more of a really scary movie. But it's also a movie that you have a lot of fun with and you invest in these characters more than a lot of these movies have you do, so you actually care about them. It was a smart script and the producers involved all have a really great pedigree. I love what I do. I love working with great people, I love having fun, I love telling a good story and I love entertaining people. For me, this is the best piece I've had as a director in my career. When Steven Spielberg shot Jaws, the technology for animatronic sharks wasn't there. He had so many problems filming the movie because his shark kept breaking. He ended up having to rely on teasing the authence more with the anticipation of when the shark would come - he didn't have the ability to show the shark as much as he wanted to. I think that's similar to our movie - it's all about the anticipation. For our characters, it's their fears. Where are the sharks going to come from, balanced with those moments of when we show the sharks. But I think we have one thing that's really unique: we have eight different varieties of sharks from makos to tiger sharks, from bull sharks to hammerheads to great whites to these little cookie cutter sharks. It's not just about one killer shark that's loose. Every time we have a new character encountering a shark, we introduce a new shark character. They're bigger, they're more ominous, they're more graceful. And yet at the same time, they're totally lethal. You need a school of piranhas to kill a person where a shark can in one bite dismember or cut in half a person. We're going to be compared to Piranha 3D, of course, but it's a totally different movie. Theirs is all about T&A and really gory swarm attacks by piranhas. Ours is more character-driven and more about anticipation. Once you see a school of piranhas, you pretty much know what's going to happen. There are times when there are near-misses with sharks - they don't always attack right away - and I think there's more of a build-up with our movie. Obviously, Piranha has a huge fan base and did well at the box office. It delivered to people who wanted to see that movie. People are going to compare our movie to Piranha 3D, but they're going to be surprised to see something totally different, and hopefully we give them a little bit more.

• Publisher: Boxoffice Media LP
• Subject: 3-D films / Actors / Animal attacks / Cameras / Careers / Ellis, David R / Milligan, Dustin / Motion picture directors & producers / Paxton, Sara / Science fiction & fantasy / Sharks / Snakes / Stunts & stunt performers