Greg Jacobs Interview – Director of Wind Chill
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When a pair of college students (Emily Blunt, Ashton Holmes) share a ride home for the holidays, they break down on a deserted stretch of road and are preyed upon by the ghosts of people who have died there.
Horror.com's Staci Layne Wilson was on the set in Vancouver, during the shooting of Wind Chill. Here's one of the interviews.
Q: What are you shooting today?
Greg Jacobs: The scenes are early on after they’ve taken a short cut and got sort of stranded at this location and these are the scenes after their arrival where they’re just starting to suss each other out and getting a sense of who they are and feeling and the realization of who they’re stuck with and sort of the early relationship over the course of this one night.
Q: Nothing spooky is going on at this exact second? [laughter]
GJ: No, not yet.
Q: This is an original story?
GJ: Yes, written by Steven Katz and Joe Gangemi.
Q: What city or state is this?
GJ: This is Pennsylvania; you’re in Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains.
Q: Is this present day?
GJ: Yeah, contemporary; contemporary story about these two college kids coming home for the holidays. They don’t really know each other; it’s a ride share. It’s a psychological thriller/horror and mayhem ensues over the course of the evening.
Q: Do we get to see any mayhem?
GJ: No mayhem today, minimal mayhem. These are sort of the relationship sequences -
Q: The ‘getting to know you…’
GJ: Yeah, the ‘getting to know each other,’ that kind of stuff.
Q: So this is early on in the shoot, timing wise?
GJ: Yeah, the story takes place over the course of one night and sort of 24 hours.
Q: Is it mostly shot on location or in the stage?
GJ: Mostly on location; I’d say a 35-day shoot, 2/3rd’s of it on location. So there’s just a little bit on stage.
Q: Sounds like you had some real weather to deal with?
GJ: Real weather, there was no faking the fact that they were absolutely freezing.
Q: You kind of got caught with surprisingly cold weather up here in Vancouver?
GJ: I know, I know. I was misled. No, but it was perfect; the location was great! That kind of stuff you can’t fake. And even the car stuff we did, sort of the real car stuff that we did here, we had a refrigerated biosphere, so we could get breath. I think that sort of stuff is critical for the performances and so they were absolutely freezing while making the movie.
Q: Did you find that their teeth were chattering or they were shaking?
GJ: All in a good way, all in a way that worked for a shot.
Q: This is supposed to be Christmas time?
GJ: Yeah, December.
Q: So this scene, it’s early on so it’s not quite as cold?
GJ: It’s cold, but they’re not – the engine hasn’t died at this point. The sort of true horror of the night hasn’t kicked in yet.
Q: Did the car just die, or did they have a wreck?
GJ: A wreck.
Q: And you did shoot at night in the mountains?
GJ: Yeah, all at night; 90% of it was at night. I love it.
Q: Why do you love it?
GJ: I love making movies, it’s like we’re out there. We weren’t faking it; you can’t fake it. It was freezing, it was night; they were living it, and it was just great!
Q: Anyone get sick?
GJ: Not anyone critical (laughs).
Q: What’s it been like working with these two young actors, in a car, by themselves?
GJ: It’s been great; I’ve been huge fans of theirs and they’re who I wanted for the movie. I saw, when we started developing this, and when we finally got greenlit, I saw My Summer of Love (a 2004 film with Emily Blunt) and really early on I saw A History of Violence (Ashton Holmes) and they were the two people I wanted for the movie. And they’ve been great, they’re amazing with their theater background, working with directors. They come to work prepared and with lots of ideas, and I think half of directing is casting the movie well, and I think I did that; they’re really good.
Q: How much are you staying on script or are they able to adlib a little?
GJ: Yeah, I’m always adding stuff, and the script’s really solid. Joe (Gangemi) and Steven (Katz) are great and Steven is a good friend of mine and I’m a fan of his and that’s why I got involved. But certainly there’s stuff that comes up, and I’m a writer, and they’ve got good ideas, so we occasionally come up with stuff, but it’s great.
Q: There are so many horror movies out now, the big wave, how is this going to be different than what we’ve seen before?
GJ: I think the thing that I feel, and the reason I got involved in this – all they’re doing is making genre movies, and I read tons of them. The thing I liked about this one was I feel like there’s amazing sort of character development; it’s not like 10 people and then by the end of it, only the two best-looking ones survive. It’s these two people, and when they go through this – we care about them so much, so as they’re going through this, it’s gotta big emotional resonance to it. I think by the end of the movie, it’s really visceral and emotional, and that’s what I love about it. I like the idea that it’s 24 hours in the life of these two people; I did another movie where it was 24 hours in the life of these two con men (Criminal) and I just find that interesting. You really get to explore people if it’s just the two of them, it’s not a big ensemble and I think it’s interesting.
Q: What’s up with Ashton; he’s got some blood on his head?
GJ: I don’t know…
Q: He said you clubbed him a few times?
GJ: You know he’s just not listening. No, he gets a little injured in an accident and that’s sort of part of his demise. Um, what else can I tell you?
Q: Can you set up the supernatural element a bit more?
GJ: What I like about it is it’s sort of a classical ghost story in a way and that’s what’s interesting. There’s an element of psychological horror thriller; it’s not a movie like Audition (Odishon) and Hostel and these other - it’s not a gore fest, it’s more in the realm of The Shining, sort of. But in addition to their horror, they’re trying not to freeze to death; there are these ghosts that sort of haunt these roads and that’s sort of their problem as well.
Q: Is that because these ghosts had been killed there?
GJ: Right, somebody died there.
Q: How are the ghosts going to be seen? Are they CGI or practical?
GJ: Various, it’s sort of a mixture.
Q: Have you seen anything in the dailies that has really impressed you? Any particular scenes that stand out?
GJ: Everything. No, I feel like I haven’t left the movie; I’m happy with it and I do think there’s a nice quality to the performances. These guys are amazing, and the script really gets deep character wise and it’s sort of like saying all that stuff is going to resonate and I think it’s going to have that visceral and emotional reaction that I want. I think you really care about these kids and care about what they’re going through. I think it’s interesting that way.
Q: Did you ever want to give them names?
GJ: No.
Q: Why is that anonymity necessary to this story?
GJ: I just like the idea that you get to know them, but you never completely get to know who they are. We’re sort of getting a sense of you feel you know them and the horror they’re going through you care; it’s going to have a big emotional reaction, I think. But it’s that one little thing I like that it’s not completely there.
Q: What’s it like having two big names as producers attached to this film (George Clooney, Steven Soderberghh)?
GJ: Well, I brought them in; I’ve produced a lot of Steven Soderberghh’s movies and they executive produced my other movie, and Katz is an old buddy of mine. So when I read the script, he sent it to me, Katz and I and Gangemi started to talk about working on it. I took it to Section 8 and said this is something I want to do, they got completely behind it and they’ve been supportive and been great. They were looking to do a genre movie, and not a slasher movie, but a classical ghost story, and they’ve been really supportive, and been really supportive about Ashton and Emily and they’ve made notes.
Q: Has George been up here to see anything?
GJ: He’s here today. No, not really; just joking. Did you see that, all the girls just perked up. I know, I didn’t look up fast enough to get the reaction.
Q: Wasn’t Solaris a Section 8? That had a bit of the supernatural.
GJ: No, that was Jim Cameron; Steven and I executive produced that and James Cameron produced it. So they haven’t done one.
Q: What is like to have the writer on set (Steven Katz) and be on location with you?
GJ: Yeah, he’s a buddy of mine; he’s great. He’s involved as much as I let him be, cause he’s my pal. No, he’s been nothing but supportive; like I said, the reason I’m involved in this is because of them and I adore them both and it’s fun to have them around, besides being drinking companions, I really adore them both, and it’s great. If I’m at night, and have questions – I’m a writer, I wrote the last movie I directed, but it’s great to have people around as a great sounding board and it’s only helpful. Steven’s a good genre writer, and Joe’s been up here as well; he’s back home now, but he’s been up here.
Q: The cold brings a certain performance; Ashton was saying he was forgetting some of his lines…
GJ: I love that.
Q: So how did you get what you needed?
GJ: I got what I needed, they were great. The cold, you can’t fake that stuff; if we would have done that movie on a stage, it wouldn’t have had that much of an impact. You have to be outside, at night, suffering through it; you can’t fake that stuff, performance wise and I think it was really great for us. He pulled through, he was great.
[End]