Leigh Whannell’s latest film Upgrade hit U.S. cinemas last week, but sadly, it doesn’t reach UK shores until the end of August. The writer and director has been doing press across the pond and caught up with Forbes‘ Simon Thompson. The filmmaker spoke about his plans for a kids movie and mentioned just how the Saw movies (he starred in and wrote the original) and his latest project could exist in the same universe.
Firstly, here’s what he had to say about that planned kids’ movie.
“Many years ago I wrote a children’s fantasy film along the lines of Labyrinth. It was difficult to get people to get excited about it because they just couldn’t square it up with what it was known for. It’s literally as simple as, ‘Hey, you’re the horror guy! Why would I give you money to make a children’s film?’ And you’re standing there thinking, ‘You do know I can do other things, right?’ I feel the only way to get that film made is to have already had some success in that area but you can’t get that until you make the film. It’s a closed loop; it’s classic Catch 22. It is kind of left up to you to somehow make it all happen.”
But what about the shared universe?
“That’s a really an interesting question. No-ones asked me that before. I think it could be. In the first Saw movie we never named the city that it was all taking place in, it wasn’t New York or Los Angeles or Chicago, it was just a city. There’s a part of me that does want to play into that extended universe part it in terms of asking why couldn’t Upgrade take place in the same city as Saw? It’s less of a worldbuilding thing where we drop a bombshell that the movies all took place in the same universe, it’s more of a fun thing. Think of it in the same way that you think about how Tarantino used to use the same brand of cigarettes in his movies or references to certain restaurants. I think he did those things to amuse himself and that’s the spirit I was embracing on Upgrade.”
There’s more at Forbes at the end of the link above.
Upgrade will be released in the UK on August 31st.
