FearNet spoke to The Crazies director Breck Eisner on how he went about remaking a cult classic, and getting the blessing on the film from George Romero (creator of the original) himself:
How did you get involved with The Crazies?
Breck Eisner: Michael Aguilar and Dean Goergaris – two of the producers – had a deal at Paramount. They had optioned the rights to The Crazies directly from Romero, and had a draft written by Scott Kosar. I was approached at that point. The thing that really drew me was the fact that they optioned the story directly from Romero, which meant he was going to be an executive producer, and he supported the idea of remaking this movie. That appealed to me. I liked the script, although I had a somewhat divergent take on it, so I hired another writer, Ray Wright, to do a rewrite. I really enjoyed the original movie and felt it was ripe for a reinvention.
What changed from that first draft of the script to what we will see on screen?
The first draft followed the structure of the original film a little more closely. The original and the first draft both had this bifurcated view: the movie was half from the point of view of the military and half from the point of view of the townspeople. I felt that by putting any of the movie in the military’s point of view, it turned the movie more towards action and less towards horror. I worked with the writers and we excised the military’s point of view and focused on the point of view of the hero and the townsfolk. I think it makes the movie scarier, and makes it a darker, more mysterious journey.
Do you consider The Crazies to be a zombie film?
It’s definitely not a zombie film. That’s one of the things I like about it. Obviously, when you say “Romero,” you associate his name with zombies. When you see the TV ads, it feels like a zombie movie, if only due to the pure power of montage. But zombies are – in theory – undead human beings who are decaying. They all have a collective conscious. They all want to eat brains or infect, and they all act as one. The concept of the infected in The Crazies is that they all maintain some sense of their deep psyche. They all act differently, and they may act out based on their own deep-seated desires. That is what keeps it distinctly different from zombies.
To read the whole interview click here!
More info about The Crazies and Danielle’s character, Becca Darling, can be found here.
The Crazies opens in theaters this Friday, February 26! (US, UK and Canada. To check more release dates go here.)
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