Latest movie in the Saw franchise is released May 14.
“I was just like, what the f—?”
“How did this happen?”
Credit: Brooke Palmer/Lionsgate
Samuel L. Jackson plays Banks' ex-policeman father while Max Minghella is Banks' new partner.
“Darren is like a kid,” says Minghella of his director.
He has so much imagination and really is excited to be there.
Brooke Palmer
Below, Bousman explains how he gottrappedinto making anotherSawmovie and working with his A-list cast.
It’s funny because I really thought my days ofSawwere behind me.
I’d gone in once before and pitched mark on a reboot idea.
Brooke Palmer/Lionsgate
So I kind of lost faith in me coming back was going to happen.
I got a phone call out of nowhere.
Literally, it had probably been a year since I’d heard from those guys.
They called, and they asked where I was, and I was in New York.
He didn’t tell me it wasSaw.
I’m like, “Mark, I’m in New York and Chriswho?”
It didn’t compute with me that he meantthatChris Rock.
I buy a plane ticket, I’m on a flight reading the script.
On page 14 or 15 I was like, holy shit, this is aSawmovie.
I had no idea when I started reading it.
The next morning, I’m sitting at breakfast with Chris Rock.
It was so crazy to me.
It was just a wholly surreal experience.
He said, “Chris is adamant that you direct this movie.
I was like, “I’m in, I’m in.
It’s Chris Rock, how could I say no?”
Did you ever talk with Chris Rock about howhegot involved with theSawfranchise?Yeah, very loosely.
I ask him about the origins and it basically came down to he was a fan of theSawfranchise.
He was always bummed out onSaw IIthat there was not a joke.
He goes, “A little levity goes a long way in a movie like this.”
He met with [screenwriters] Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg and they beat out a treatment.
He was very involved.
He was a very big champion of this entire thing.
I didn’t believe it until he showed up on set.
I think up until the moment he walked on I thought I was being punked.
I was like, it’s going to end up being like Gilbert Gottfried or someone.
It’s not going to be Samuel L Jackson.
Could I just say, I would watch aSawmovie with Gilbert Gottfried.That’ll be the next one.
What about Max Minghella?Max’s name came up early on and I wasn’t familiar with him.
In retrospect, I’ve seen a lot of stuff that he’s done.
I was talking to my wife.
She doesn’t care what I do.
Then I was like, “And they’re talking to this guy named Max Minghella.”
You cast that man!”
I have a man-crush on him, I’ll admit it.
But he’s a fantastic actor.
Obviously, the traps play a big role in the film.
Are they described in the script?The traps are one of the hardest aspects of making these movies.
They’re really not in the script.
It will say “Insert trap here.”
Or it will have a placeholder trap.
We look at numerous aspects.
What was the crime?
So let’s say the crime was, he lied under oath.
We say, how can we personify that in a trap?
Well, if you lied, you used your mouth, your teeth, your tongue.
Okay, we’ve done teeth stuff, let’s do a tongue.
Okay, how do you rip a tongue out?
And then we look at the location.
Okay, we’re in a subterranean tunnel.
What if we made it a subway instead?
What if we hung someone by a tongue?
So they go through a process.
They change up to the very last second.
So they constantly change and shift.
What was it like directing Chris Rock and Samuel L Jackson?Well, Samuel L. Jackson directs himself.
He’s Samuel L Jackson!
I was just starstruck.
Chris could not have been more collaborative, trying things different ways, and then workshopping the words.
Let’s say we shot something and it didn’t sound right.
The whole thing just seemed like a surreal dream to me.
Spiral: From the Book of Sawis released May 14.
Watch the trailer forSpiral: From the Book of Sawabove.
