SCI FI PI

"I've turned down nine or ten movies that have already been made."

Recently you may have heard the news that Duncan (Moon) Jones had taken over the directing reigns of the film Source Code, a Sci Fi time-trap thriller, from Aussie director Shane Abbess. However, usually when you read about these things in The Hollywood Reporter or Daily Variety, what is written and what actually went on are sometimes very different things. We were intrigued.

Shane is well known to audiences as the director of Gabriel, the low budget film that has struck a chord worldwide in filmgoers seeking a bit of angel-on-angel brutality. His stylish film was very well received in the US, particularly on DVD.

But it's been a little while since the film came out and Shane went off to Hollywood. As luck would have it, we managed to track him down and spoke to him (on speaker phone of course) as he was driving into the Fox lot where yet another meeting with 'real-life people who actually make movies'.

Shane's actually been working in some pretty rarified circles, currently teaming up on projects involving producers of the ilk of Mark Gordan (2012, Saving Private Ryan, The Day After Tomorrow) and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura (GI: Joe, Transformers 1 & 2, Constantine).

We managed a quick chat, and as you'd expect, Shane was up front, straight up and made no bones about what he's doing, and what he's trying to do in Hollywood. It's a fascinating insight for any young aspiring filmmaker into the Hollywood of today, and Shane has some nice tips on how to get ahead not just in the US, but in Oz.



Shane at WonderCon.


What's the story with Source Code? This is the number one script on the 'black list', the best unproduced Hollywood scripts, and you were attached to it for a while, but news is that now you're not. But then maybe that's not the whole story?

I was on it for two years. originally I was on The Dark Crystal for about nine months and I rewrote the Dark Crystal script with Brian Henson, Jim Henson's son. I'd been on that ages.

To get the rebate, we had to shoot it in Australia, and so we had to bring on Australian producers. As soon as that happened it went from being a really edgy Henson movie to being a watered down Australian version of Shrek. I wasn't going to part of that film, and I was attached to Source Code at the time, but I left The Dark Crystal really regretfully. I really wanted to do the film, but I realised I wasn't going to be able to do my version of it.

So with Source Code, we did five drafts. Billy Ray, who's an amazing writer, worked on the rewrite, and we'd got to the point where we had a few really big names that were serious about doing it, then Jake (Gyllenhaal) came aboard, and he's a lovely guy, but we had such different opinions about the film about how he wanted to be shot, and he's at the point in his career where he can call the shots, so… I'm still attached to the film in the producing capacity.

The film started off with Universal, then it got to Relativity, then it got to Summit. When you change guard that much, the film you began with is not the film you have at the end, so I think you're better off with someone new to do it and for me to go on with some of the other films I'm developing. You sign on to make an apple, and in a few years, you've got a pear.



Sounds like you're really in the thick of it. So what other things are you working on?

I currently have a trifecta of projects. I'm working on an original film with producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura. A big supernatural action movie. I'm developing a comic book adaptation with Sean Daniel, who produced The Mummy films. We're doing a supernatural thriller.

The thing I'm doing right now is with Paramount and Mark Gordan, I can't say anything right now, as it's one of the biggest and most beloved video games of all time, being turned into a film. That's been a year of my life, trying to get the rights, and develop it. So far, everything seems to have gone the way it should, so in a couple of weeks they should make a big trade announcement. A lot of people should be amazed that we're making this particular game into a movie.


Is it less of a leap of Monopoly, Asteroids, or Battleship?

It's definitely one of those movies where people can say, "I've been waiting all my lifer this". By the time I pitched it to the games company, there had been almost a hundred people over the past decade and a half trying to get this game as a film. When Mark Gordon and I finally got it, it felt like we had won the lottery.

That's amazing!

I'd get killed if I say anything.


It seems you've become a major Hollywood player, but without making a movie.

Well, the thing is, Gabriel was really well received in the US. The country that hates it the most was the country that made it, Australia. I go to comic conventions like Comic-Con in San Diego and people come up to me dressed as characters from the film. There are fan sites, you go on YouTube and there are literally hundreds of fan cuts and movies of the film. There's such a love for the movie that came after the DVD release. I actually think it's a better DVD film than it was at the cinemas. It's made for a very specific cult audience, but that audience is pretty big when you take it world wide. Given that, when I meet people over here, the reaction to Gabriel is really positive. "Wow, you did that film, what are you going to do next?"

I've been very selective and specific about what I do. A lot of people come to Hollywood and say "I just want to direct movies".

I don't want to have a career, I just want to tell specific stories. If it takes twenty years to tell five stories I'd rather do that than do a film a year just to pay my bills.It's taken me two years to learn the business though. It seems such random chaos when you start, but there's such a calculated process to it all. There's not as much luck involved as you might think. That's a really good excuse for people who don't understand it.

Besides the three I mentioned, there's a lot of things that I'm developing or attached to. I'm doing things that are up my alley, and things that I love. I can only hope that I can continue to do that.



From Gabriel.


What would you say to yourself if you could go back in time and meet yourself at the airport?

Be a bit more brutal. I kept the Australian way of being friends with the people you work with and I took what everyone said as gospel. A lot of times, someone will look you in the eyes and say, "You are the man. We are doing this. It's going to happen next week." Then they'll call two weeks later and say, "you're even better than you were last week, this film's bigger than it was, and it's going to be green lit even harder".

What I learned was, 'I would really like to maybe make this film in January' actually comes out as 'we are going to make this film in January'. It's a positive affirmation, but it's not actually the truth.

So I probably wouldn't have the same 'you're a really nice guy, I'll wait for you' approach. 'You said you were going to make it, so I didn't show it to anyone else'. What I should have done was to show it to twenty different people in the year that it took for you not to make it. It's a very brutal industry. I don't want to become that as a person. I've got my friends who are my friends, and the people who I work with who are the people that I work with. Obviously there's a bit of an overlap, but not much.

To put it in a nutshell: Be nice to everyone. But don't trust anyone!


How are you surviving?

I'm keeping my head above water. As you develop films, studios give you a bit of money. I've lived very frugally. A lot of people when they get here they spend up big like they're living in Hollywood, but have to go home after three or four months because they can't afford it. I lived in a really bad squatters' flat. I rode my push bike around LA for a year. The plan was to live here long enough - long enough to choose projects that I wanted to do, to find the people that I wanted to work with.

I've turned down nine or ten movies that have already been made. I don't think the world needs that many more movies. If you're going to spend years of your life on it, if you're going to die for it, it better be f**ing good.

Sci Fi and action is my passion, ant that's what I'ms sticking to. Sci Fi and good classy action is a lot harder to get up than say, horror.


Has it been hard to work with people that have hitherto been heroes, stars, names that you would only imagine ever meeting?

I've pretty much worked or met with everyone. The first six months was a bit freaky, of course, but after a while you realise they're professionals and just want to make movies. You can't be too nervous or freaked out, you have to treat them with respect, otherwise there's no point.


Do you feel confident in the future of Australia film?

If there's anything to be said, there are a few producers from Hollywood coming to Australia trying to package things with the rebate. the rebate is one of the best things to happen to the Australian film industry, It's encouraged a lot of people, like myself, to come back to Australia and make big commercial movies.