Director, Writer, & Producer Paul W.S. Anderson
Hypes the Match of theCentury!
BY Joseph B. Mauceri
 

A satellite picks a heat bloom coming from a remote island in Antarctica
that leads to the discovery of an ancient pyramid buried under the ice.
The Weyland Corporation, owned by billionaire industrialist Charles
Bishop Weyland, gathers an international team of archaeologists,
scientists and security experts and sends the team into the frozen
continent. There, they make a terrifying discovery. These ancient
artifacts tell the tale of two alien races at war and the human race the
cattle between the two. This incredible and horrific adventure is led by
environmentalist and adventurer Alexa "Lex" Woods.

What they discover 2000 feet below the frozen surface is a pyramid
bearing a mixture of Aztec, Egyptian and Cambodian cultures. Inside the
pyramid they find a matrix of chambers so technologically advanced that
it becomes obvious that an extraterrestrial influence has been at work
there for thousands of years. The chamber walls reconfigure
unexpectedly, trapping members of the team and cutting them off from
their colleagues.

Moving from chamber to chamber, the horrific truth finally reveals
itself: Predators have been keeping alive a captive Alien Queen who lays
eggs at 100 year intervals. Young Predators warriors are tested by
fighting the Alien offspring. The team stumbles into the middle of an
incredible rite of passage - and a war between Aliens and Predators.

Nearly a quarter-century after the debut of the film "Alien" comes ALIEN
VS. PREDATOR (AVP). Taking almost a decade long journey to get to the
screen Twentieth Century Fox considered various storylines until
writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson came up with the idea of setting the
story on Earth, in contemporary times. Anderson's new mythology for AVP
has the Predators visiting Earth thousands of years ago, when they were
worshipped as gods, by cultures like the Aztecs and Mayans. With such a
formidable cast and team of artists behind him, writer and director, and
Alien and Predator film fanatic, Paul W.S. Anderson realized a dream by
helming a picture bringing the two screen icons together.

A native of Newcastle, England, Paul W.S. Anderson left his home to
study film at Warwick University, where he graduated with a degree in
Film & Literature Studies in 1986. He wrote the first draft of
"Shopping" while still a student and he stayed in Warwick where he
became the youngest student to complete an MBA, in 1988.

Following graduation, Anderson was a principal episode writer for "El
Cid," a TV police drama. He also wrote and directed a short film
entitled "Speed," shot in his native Newcastle, and an award winning
documentary about spin bifida called "The Spiral Cage." His directorial
debut, "Shopping," which was financed by Channel Four, starred Jude Law
and Sadie.

In 1992, Anderson co-founded Impact Pictures Ltd. with his partner
Jeremy Bolt, and is based in both Los Angeles and London. Anderson's second
feature was the action-adventure "Mortal Kombat," and his third movie,
"Event Horizon," starred Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill. In 1998,
Anderson returned to the States to direct "Soldier," produced by Impact.
The sci-fi action film starred Kurt Russell and Jason Scott Lee.

Anderson wrote, produced and directed "Resident Evil," an adaptation of
the best selling video game, starring Milla Jovovich. Anderson wrote and
produced the sequel, "Resident Evil: Apocalypse," which will be released
in the fall of 2004 and is directed by Alexander Witt.

W.O.F. Being we've spoken in the past about several of your other projects,
its clear you're not simply a writer, director, and producer, you're a
fan. In taking on a project like ALIENS VS. PREDATOR (AVP) how do you
balance your expectations of the film with that of the fans?

Paul W.S. Anderson: I think if you're dealing with two existing
franchises it's obviously very important to try and deliver on the
expectations. However, you also have to make sure that the movie you
make doesn't in anyway contradict the existing mythology that's been
setup by the existing franchises.

One of the things I believe you have to be very aware of is what has
already happened in the universe of Alien and the universe of Predator.
And also, to a lesser extend, what's also happen in the mythology that's
been setup by the Dark Horse Comic Book franchise. So you definitely
need to be aware of those franchises and the rules of them, and the
narrative that has taken place, was something that we were extremely
aware of when we set out to do AVP.

W.O.F. I was skimming through the press notes and was struck by the fact
that it says that this was something that you began thinking about
nine-years ago. It almost seems about as long as 20th Century Fox has
been trying to get this project going. What kinds of ideas and concepts
have you been personally brewing over that time to bring to this story?

Paul W.S. Anderson: I was struck when I saw "Predator 2," obviously
where the germ of this idea came from. It's was cool that not only was
the Alien skull in the Predator's spaceship, which lead to the idea that
these two have fought at some point, but also the idea that when Danny
Glover went into the Predator spaceship the interior design style of it
was rather specific. Frank Lloyd Wright's designs visibly influenced it,
and Lloyd Wright was influenced by Aztec culture. He took a lot of his
designs from the Aztec civilization ad kind of tweaked them. When I saw
the interior of the Predator spaceship, and it had this kind of Aztec
feel to it, it really started me thinking about the idea that the
Predator's did not take their design ideas from the Aztecs, it must have
been the other way around. It made me think that the Predators must have
been visiting the earth not just for 100's of years, but for probably
1,000's or 10,000's of years. They had in someway influenced earth
culture. That's kind of the important story strand in our movie.

W.O.F. You've directed movies like "Mortal Kombat," "Resident Evil," and now
AVP, which are projects with a lot of background material to them. Then
there are "Event Horizon" and "Soldier," where you have virgin territory
for you to shape as a filmmaker. As a director, and an artist, is there
an advantage to one type of film over another?

Paul W.S. Anderson: It really depends. Creatively you have to consider a
lot more things if you are following in the footsteps of an existing
piece of material, being it a comic book, video game, or a series of
movies. But I think that the times that I've done that its always been
that I have such a passion for the subject matter that it's worth giving
up a small amount of creative freedom to work in that existing world,
whether it be the world of "Resident Evil" or the world of Aliens and
Predators.

For example, in AVP you're not just free to change the design of the
Alien, nor would I want to. I think that where the Alien franchise has
attempted to do that the movies have been less successful. I was not a
big fan of the kind of change of the look of the Alien in "Alien3," for
example, or the way the alien look in "Alien: Resurrection." Creatively,
we went back to the original Giger design of the Alien, which is kind of
like the classic form from Ridley Scott's movie. So we didn't get to
play with the look of the Alien, and I don't think that is a bad thing.

 W.O.F. When you look at the universe of the Alien and the Predators, they
both have their own unique styles. Were there any particular challenges
in trying to blend the two? Did the setup and setting of the story you
were trying to tell make it any easier?

Paul W.S. Anderson: It was difficult to try and blend the two. They are
slightly different kinds of movies. I think that one of the things that
made it easy was the fact that this is also based upon a comic book
series. "Alien vs. Predator" the comic book provided a template for the
tone and the feel of the movie. That's why the movie does lean quite
heavily upon the original "alien vs. Predator" comic book that was
published about 12 to 13 years ago.

W.O.F. I know that there were several key people attached to the project at
one time or another. However, from the background pieces the studio
released it's obvious you've brought several unique concepts to plot to
reshape it and make it your own, such as bringing in Lance Henriksen.

Paul W.S. Anderson: Lance was key to me. I wrote the role for him. There
is the whole mythology of the Bishop android that exists in the Alien
films. I wanted so type of casting continuity with the Alien franchise
and because our movie is set present day, and those movies are set
several 100 years into the future, the only way we could have done that
was by using Ian Holm or Lance. I'm such a big fan of Lance's
performance in "Aliens" and it was a real treat to work with him. So we
modeled the "real life" Bishop, which the android is modeled upon, on
Lance's performance from "Aliens." The theory is, Charles Bishop
Weyland, Lance's character, owns the Weyland Corporation, which has made
all of its money basically through high technology, and especially
robotics. Charles Bishop Weyland is like the father of modern robotics.
In 150 to 200 years time, when they make the Bishop android they make it
with the face of the creator. But more then that, they give it some of
his behavioral traits of the man it was based upon. That meant that
Lance could repeat some of his ticks and nuances from "Aliens" in our
movie. That was a lot of fun to watch

W.O.F. In having someone like that one set it must help create an anchor for
then other actors. Once Lance was signed to the project did it change
the mood of the production?

Paul W.S. Anderson: He was definitely the kind of farther on set, to all of us. He was the gatekeeper to the Alien mythology in many ways. The movie was made by a lot of people who are huge Alien fans, and it was
always a big treat to work with him. He was a great presence on set, and
when he complimented you on things you could help but think, "Wow,
that's great!" He came up to me one time, we were working with the Alien
Queen, and he said, "You know I really think your Queen is better then
Jim's Queen."  I thought, "Excellent!"

Just talking about the Alien Queen, we went back and actually built the
Alien Queen that Cameron had originally designed. His original sketches
for the Alien Queen were different from the one they ultimately built
for "Aliens." He had to compromise his design slightly because he had to
put 2 puppeteers inside the full-size Alien Queen. He had to bulk her
out a lot more to accommodate space for the puppeteers. Because we had
slightly more sophisticated technology we could actually return to the
sleeker more insectoid design that he wanted for the Alien Queen to
start with. That was actually a big thrill to put up on screen what
Cameron had originally designed.

W.O.F. Speaking of the technology, it appears that once the film was green
lighted it got rolling and complete rather quickly. Do you feel that is
due to the advances in the technology, and are there any particular new
specific advances that have made your job any easier?

Paul W.S. Anderson: One of the things that assisted us is my insistence
to returning to the classic designs to a lot of the creatures. I wanted
to go back to Ridley Scott's Giger look for the Alien. I want to stick
with a classic look for the Predator. I think if we had wanted to
redesign the Alien and redesigned Predator, create something like the
"newborn" that appeared in "Alien: Resurrection," there may have been a
much longer lead-time on the film. Because we were going from original
classic designs, and then working with a lot of the people who
manufactured those original classic designs, that certainly did help us
speed up the process a little. We work with Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis
of ADI. Tom has been the guy in the Alien suit for the past three
movies. They built the aliens and had built an Alien Queen, so for them
it was just a matter of looking through the old blueprints.

What changed was that there was a lot more technology available.
Cameron's full size Alien Queen was entirely puppeteered. Some times the
movements quite compromised because at the time there was no such thing
as wire or rod removal. You had to hide the, and in hiding them you
limited the movement the Queen could have. Now all of that is possible
so we have a wider range of movement from the Queen.

W.O.F. So it sounds like most of the computer-generated images are being
used in terms of cleanup and enhancement of the physical effects.

Paul W.S. Anderson: That was our intention when we started out. We
wanted to limit the C.G. as much as possible. I work with John Bruno,
who is my visual effects supervisor and he worked with Cameron on a lot
of movies, like "The Abyss," "True Lies," and "Titanic." Bruno he just
hates visual effects. It's quite amazing because he is this amazing
visual effects supervisor yet he doesn't like them. When I ever try to
bring up something and ask him if we can do it as a visual effects he's
quick to see f there isn't some way we can to it practical, build it and
shoot it. He always wants to try and do things for real. I think that's
good, and that's one of the reasons why the visual effects in the films
he's worked on look so good. On "True Lies" they were trying to figure
out to get the jets to fly on the top of those buildings and ultimately
it was John's idea to take a real jet to the top of the building and
hang it off a crane. That's why the effects in those movies are so good
because they are really there. In our movie whenever we could have a guy
in an Alien suite, or a real Alien Queen there, and then fix it with
about 20% to 25 % c.g. touch up, that's what we would do. We would only
go the c.g. route once we exhausted the physical route first.

W.O.F. I know that in addition to working on AVP your production company is
producing "Resident Evil 2," which you turned over to Alexander Witt to
direct. How much time have you had to over see that film and what
audiences might be in store from that sequel?

Paul W.S. Anderson: I'm really please with "Resident Evil: Apocalypse."
It's an extremely strong sequel. I think it elevates the franchise
because it's not an attempt to make the same movie again. We were very
influenced by the Alien franchise in that the strength in "Alien" and
"aliens" is that Cameron didn't try to make the same movie that Ridley
Scott had made. He made more of an action movie, there was more comedy
in it, and I we saw that as an approach we should take with "Resident
Evil: Apocalypse." It has a border canvass, where as before the first
"Resident Evil" movie was all set in a claustrophobic environment in the
one underground laboratory, now we have a whole abandoned city to play
with. There are helicopters and larger action scenes, and instead of
100's of zombies there are 1000's of zombies. Instead of one Licker
there are lots of them. We really tried to up the stakes with this one.

It's been a huge amount of work working on both movies. Fortunately,
"Resident Evil 2" had stopped shooting by the time AVP started, and
comes out slightly later as well. It's not like the too movies have been
running completely parallel.

W.O.F. With these two films under your belt, and hopefully a bit of a rest,
where do you go from here? If "Resident Evil 2" is successful, will
there be another sequel with your production company, who you possibly
direct it, or are there some other things you're looking at?

Paul W.S. Anderson: I'm not really looking at anything at the moment
other than, hopefully, the inside of my eyelids for a long time. It's
been a really journey these past two years to write both movies and get
them into production. I'm proud and pleased with both movies. So, yes, a
rest is in order.

Although having said that, I obviously won't be taking a rest! We're
producing a movie for a Canadian director, who I really like, called
John Fawcett, who directed "Ginger Snaps." It's a psychological thriller
called "The Dark," and it will wrap shortly. It stars Sean Bean and
Maria Bello. It's a smaller scale movie then AVP or "Resident Evil:
Apocalypse," but it is potentially a very terrifying film. So we'll be
putting some effort into that.

Then there is another movie that I'm excited about, that we're
producing, which is for Vincenzo Natali, who directed "Cube" and
"Cypher," and that is called "Necropolis." Again, it's on a slightly
smaller scale than AVP or RE2.

W.O.F. It sounds to me that regardless of the project, or producing,
writing, or directing, Paul Anderson is in there, fully involved, and up
to his in filmmaking.

Paul W.S. Anderson: I think when you are producing other people's movies
you don't have to get quite so covered in slime and gore! (Laughs) With
AVP it was definitely a year of being up to your neck in latex and
slime. It's fun to be clean for a while.

W.O.F. As a fan, what to you hope the fans come away with as they leaving
the theater for AVP?

Paul W.S. Anderson: I think the thing that you definitely want to see is
some insane action. When these creatures go head-to-head you want to see
some action that just blows you away. I'm really pleased with some of
the fight scenes we've got on film, especially the first time an Alien
and Predator goes head-to-head. It took us a month and a half to shoot
it. It just rocks. That's the thing that hopefully people will come away
with. I hope they'll say that the movie "kicked ass." What we tried to
was to manufacture a rollercoaster movie, which I think is quite an
overused term. People too often say things like, "The movie was complete
action, from start to finish, it was a complete rollercoaster." I think
roller coasters, in reality; the first half of the ride is all
anticipation. You're going up the hill before you go over the top.
That's the kind of movie we tried to make. I wanted it to kind of
reflect the way I felt when I came out of Cameron's movie, "Aliens." At
the end of it I felt like Cameron had beaten me over the head with a
baseball bat. That was the movie we wanted to try and make. There is
this anticipation, but when the action kicks off it doesn't let go and
is relentless. There is a lot of Alien blood and Predator spread across
the screen!