Over the past twenty years Director and Screenwriter Stuart Gordon’s name has become synonymous with cosmic horror author H.P. Lovecraft. While Gordon has been involved with no less than four Lovecraft projects over the years he also wrote the story for “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” and created guilty pleasures like “Robot Jox” and “Space Truckers.”
More recently though Gordon has found himself branching out and crafting tales based less upon supernatural horror but more the horrific actions one human being will do to another. This is best shown in Gordon’s most recent film “Stuck” that’s not only his best film since “Re-Animator” but one of the best films of the year.
Tyler Shainline- I’m sad to say that I did not receive the screener for “Stuck” before this scheduled interview took place so tell me about the film.
Stuart Gordon- Its based on a true story that took place in Fort Worth in 2001. The story’s about a woman who is a caregiver at a senior citizen home who goes out partying and hits a homeless man with her car. He literally goes though the car’s windshield, so half his body is in the car with her and his legs are on the hood. She panics and instead of taking him to the emergency room she puts him in her garage while the man is still alive Do you remember this?
TS- I do, it was a rather shocking piece of news.
Gordon- It was one of those stories that was in the front page of the newspapers for weeks. I kept thinking about it, what would make a woman do something like this? And that was why I decided to make a movie out of it.
TS- Does “Stuck” follow the more serious tone you’ve set up with your recent work?
Gordon- It takes place in the real world, it’s not a fantasy, it’s not like a Lovecraft movie or anything. As I said, it’s based on a true story so it’s much more realistic than the other films I’ve done.
TS- How closely does “Stuck” mirror the actual events that took place in 2001?
Gordon- Its pretty close, I would say the first half of it is very, very close and then we took a few liberties with the way things went down. In the second half we really let our imaginations run wild.
TS- I see you placed Mena Suvari in the lead role of “Stuck.” You worked with her previously in “Edmond” and you seem to reuse a lot of actors in your projects.
Gordon- My background is in the theater and I used to have a reparatory company and when you find actors whose work you admire and you’re on the same wavelength you want to hang onto them for as long as you can. I had such great time working with Mena on “Edmond” that she contacted after she read the script and said she really wanted to do this. So I said that’s great let’s go.
TS- Your next project after Stuck was an episode of the upcoming NBC horror anthology show, “Fear Itself,” when does the episode air and what’s it about?
Gordon- I’m not certain exactly when the air date is but I think it’s the end of this month, maybe July. It’s the story about a rookie cop and they bring a serial killer to her police station and she has to spend the night watching over him. But he gets loose and he’s a cannibal, its pretty intense hour of television. Is should tell you that the rookie cop is played by Elizabeth Moss from the series “Madmen,” she’s a terrific actress, I’ve been very lucky to work with some wonderful actresses lately.
TS- Is this the first time you’ve worked with her?
Gordon- Yeah it is, she can be part of the repertory company too.
TS- With all your film and television work do you still find time for the theater?
Gordon- I haven’t done any theater in awhile. I was rehearsing with some friends in a production, just kind of for the hell of it. But I would like to get back into the theater. You develop some sort of an addiction to it.
TS- I consider your Masters of Horror Episode “The Black Cat” to be the best offering of the show’s twenty six episode run. How did working on “Fear Itself” differ from the episodes you shot for “Masters?”
Gordon- Well, it’s different that it’s on network television which means there’s commercials. One of the cool things about being on Showtime was that it was an hour, uninterrupted. One of the problems of television is that you gotta keep stopping and starting and how do you keep and maintain the tension over that period of time? But I think that the script was very well done.
TS- Did you find yourself adding “hooks” before the commercial breaks to encourage the viewers to stay tuned?
Gordon- Yeah, I kind of ended each section with a cliffhanger so that people would be there to see what happened next.
TS- Were there additional scenes filmed featuring nudity and gore for a possible DVD release of your episode?
Gordon- Yeah, that will be coming out later form Lionsgate.
TS- Are their plans to include a commentary with you and other goodies?
Gordon- Yeah, I’m sure they’ll do that.
TS- With the exception of your TV projects the majority of your work seems to be less and less horror related and more edgy drama. Was this a conscious decision to move away from horror?
Gordon- No, I think that they’re all horrifying in their own way. As I get older I find that the things people do to each other are far scarier than anything we can dream up.
TS- A prime example of this would be how in “King of the Ants” you turned Norm (George Wendt) from “Cheers” into a violent, sadistic psycho.
Gordon- (Laughs) Yeah. His wife, when she saw the movie she said “I don’t know who you are anymore.” (Laughs) What’s really funny is that it was George Wendt who brought me the project. He had met the writer, Charlie Higson and he had been given a copy of the book. He gave it to me and said “If you like this it I’ll option it” George was sort of the moving force behind that movie.
TS- You’ve made everything from Sci-Fi flicks to blood soaked horror to straight forward family films. What is it that draws you to a project?
Gordon- I think its all about the story for me. I like stories where you don’t know what’s going to happen next, or it takes you to a place that you’re not expecting to go.
TS- You’re probably best know for making “Re-Animator” which spawned two sequels without your involvement, whey didn’t you helm those films?
Gordon- A couple of reasons. One was that I was doing something else at the time those projects went into production and the other thing is that I really like doing new things. Going back and revisiting old, told stories is not as interesting to me as something fresh.
TS- But at the same time I’ve seen your name attached to the upcoming sequel “House of Re-Animator.”
Gordon- Yeah, yeah I was hoping that would happen but it doesn’t look like it is unfortunately.
TS- That’s a damn shame, the concept sounded great, with William H. Macy as an evil reanimated President of the United States.
Gordon- I know! It seemed like “how could you resist this” but unfortunately I think I scared people the wrong way. People are afraid of upsetting the Bush administration
TS- But that would be a great thing to do!
Gordon- I think so too. I’m with you but financiers are much more cautious and conservative. So you’re kind of at their mercy unfortunately.
TS- When will “Stuck” be in theaters?
Gordon- It’s opening on Friday (June 5th) in twenty different cites.
TS- Is there a DVD release announced yet?
Gordon- I know they’re talking about a DVD release I believe in October and Blockbuster is going to be doing a thing where they’re going to have DVD extras that are only available at Blockbuster, which is an interesting concept.
TS- Has there been any reaction from the people involved in the actual events that inspired “Stuck?”
Gordon- When Stephen Rea was in Dallas he ran into the son of the man that was hit. He came to see the movie and afterwards Stephen talked to him and he said that he had a feeling that the son was trying to learn more about what had happened to his father.
TS- Did the son express any opinion about the way the character based off his father was portrayed in the film?
Gordon- I don’t know because I was not there. But Stephen suggested that he was kind of looking for more about his father because he didn’t know him very well.
TS- This was the first time you’ve worked with Stephen Rea correct?
Gordon- It was and I had a great time with him, what a terrific actor he is.
TS- Is he going to be another member of the repertory company?
Gordon- Yeah, he can join up anytime. He went through hell, literally. At one point he said “look, the real guy was in the windshield for three days, I’ve been in it for three weeks.” He really paid his dues here.
TS- Are there any other upcoming projects that haven’t been announced yet?
Gordon- I’m actually going to do another Lovecraft. I’m doing “The Thing on the Doorstep” which starts shooting in the fall.
TS- Any casting news for that one?
Gordon- Oh we’re in the midst of casting now but we can’t say anything yet because we’re still waiting to hear back from various people.
TS- Speaking of Lovecraft, there are some purists that claim you make his works more extreme with sex and violence than the original stories really were.
Gordon- Well, I don’t think you can get too much more extreme than Lovecraft really was. I think the thing about movies is that you have to be more explicit. Lovecraft was able to leave more to the imagination, but when you’re doing a movie you’re dealing with a visual medium and so you’ve got to show more.
TS- Mr. Gordon you’re one of my all time favorite directors, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. I look forward to finding the screener for “Stuck” in my mailbox soon.
Gordon- Yeah! Watch the movie; you’ll have to let me know what you think. It’s been a pleasure talking to you, take care.
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