Showing posts with label James Wan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Wan. Show all posts

"The Conjuring" Director James Wan Returns with "Insidious: Chapter 2"

4:21:00 PM

Australian director James Wan is one of the most intelligent and creative filmmakers working today. He recently conqured global box-office with the blockbuster supernatural thriller “The Conjuring” which is based on the story of husband-and-wife psychic investigators who come across a horrific case involving the hauntings of a Rhode Island farmhouse.

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Previously, Wan co-created the “Saw” franchise, the most successful horror-film series of all time.

Now, the newly crowned master of horror brings to the screen the terrifying thriller “Insidious: Chapter 2,” the sequel to the disturbing and original 2011 psychological horror thriller “Insidious.”

In “Chapter 2,” a haunted family struggles to uncover a terrifying secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world. The sequel reteams the cast of the first film, including Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye and Ty Simpkins.

“We’re super excited at the chance to continue telling the story we started in the first film,” says Wan. “I love the characters we created in the first film, and it’s great to come back to work with the same cast and crew. It’s like coming home to a family. But it’s also very scary because the success of the first film took us all by surprise.”

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“The first film had a single vision—James and screenwriter Leigh Whannell’s—pushing it forward without any kind of interference or creative compromises,” producer Jason Blum says. “I believe that’s one reason the film did so well, so we didn’t want James or Leigh to make any creative compromises with the sequel either.”

The filmmaking duo, whose creative partnership goes back to their college days in Melbourne, Australia, say their inspiration has always come from trading ghost stories with one another. Even during the filming process, they constantly bounce around ideas and concepts that they then incorporate into the film.

“If you have enough similarities, or if the same stories excite you, then it’s really easy to work together,” says Whannell. “James and I are pretty in sync that way, especially when it comes to horror.”

Or as Wan puts it: “We’ve always tried to scare the crap out of each other. And then one day we said, ‘We should put this in a movie!’ And that’s literally what we did for `Insidious.' We took all the scares, all the great ghost stories we’d heard, and put them in the film.”

The film hit a nerve, connecting with audiences domestically and abroad.

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The filmmaking duo sees “Insidious: Chapter 2” as more of a psychological thriller than a horror film. While “Insidious” was infused with haunted-house-film archetypes, Wan says “Chapter 2” focuses less on gore and CGI effects than on tapping into audiences’ most basic childhood fears.

“I would describe it as a domestic thriller with a supernatural edge to it,” Wan says. “The ghouls are coming back, but this film isn’t about that as much. I feel like I’ve already established the characters, so now I can get into them without being too gimmicky, while still keeping those elements that people love. The first one was a lot more straightforward, which is great for a first movie, but in a sequel you want to expand on the mythology. You want to show people more of the world you’ve created, and that’s what we did with Chapter 2.”

Opening across the Philippines on Sept. 18, “Insidious: Chapter 2” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit www.columbiapictures.com.ph to see the latest trailers, get free downloads and play free movie games.

The Haunting Escalates in Horror Thriller "Insidious: Chapter 2"

6:21:00 PM

A haunted family struggles to uncover a terrifying secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world in “Insidious: Chapter 2,” the latest nerve-twisting horror thriller from director James Wan (“The Conjuring”) and screenwriter Leigh Whannell (“Saw,” “Insidious”).

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Produced by “Paranormal Activity's” Jason Blum and Oren Peli, the sequel reteams the cast of the first film, including Patrick Wilson (“The Conjuring”), Rose Byrne (“X-Men: First Class”), Barbara Hershey (“Black Swan”), Lin Shaye (“There’s Something About Mary”) and Ty Simpkins (“Iron Man 3”).

Working individually and collectively, director James Wan, screenwriter Leigh Whannell and producer Jason Blum have been responsible for some of the most influential, commercially successful and flat-out terrifying horror thrillers of the past decade.

In 2004 Wan and Whannell unleashed the groundbreaking and hugely popular “Saw,” which spawned a blockbuster franchise on which Whannell continued to serve as a writer (“Saw II” and “III”) and executive producer. Wan most recently helmed the acclaimed haunted-house tale “The Conjuring,” while Blum has shepherded such blood-curdling hits as “Paranormal Activity” and “Sinister” to the screen. Together, the trio collaborated on the disturbing and original 2011 psychological horror thriller “Insidious,” a micro-budgeted film that became the most profitable theatrical release that year.

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Now all three filmmakers are back—along with the entire cast of “Insidious”—with “Insidious: Chapter 2,” which continues the story of the Lambert family’s life-and-death struggle with malignant spirits bent on destroying their lives.

“We’re super excited at the chance to continue telling the story we started in the first film,” says Wan, who makes his sequel-directing debut. “I love the characters we created in the first film, and it’s great to come back to work with the same cast and crew. It’s like coming home to a family. But it’s also very scary because the success of the first film took us all by surprise.”

“Insidious” centers on the troubles of the Lamberts, a suburban family who leave their haunted house for a new home, only to learn it’s not their house that is haunted—it’s their eldest son. “Insidious: Chapter 2” rejoins the family as they try to put their recent troubles behind them, but discover that the spirits that have tormented them are far from finished.

Wan and Whannell took the unusual step of calling the film “Insidious: Chapter 2” because it picks up right where the first film ends. “Not too many sequels try that, but we loved the idea of creating back-to-back stories,” says Whannell. “You could almost watch them as one movie, or as chapters in the same story. We see Josh murder Elise, but Renai doesn’t see it and she’s not quite sure what’s going on. So at the start of the second film, everything seems back to normal, but slowly you realize something is terribly wrong.”

Opening across the Philippines on Sept. 18, “Insidious: Chapter 2” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visitwww.columbiapictures.com.ph to see the latest trailers, get free downloads and play free movie games.

Horror Master Director James Wan Prepares “The Conjuring”

4:52:00 PM

Truth is stranger than fiction…and a lot more frightening. No one knew that better than Ed Warren and his clairvoyant wife, Lorraine, whose lifelong personal experiences combating inhuman forces garnered them respect in the field of demonology long before the immense popularity of the paranormal on the screen. And long before Ed and Lorraine tackled the foreboding menace in a little place called Amityville, they encountered the most perilous evil even they would ever come up against. This terrifying case is the subject of the new horrror film “The Conjuring” from New Line Cinema.

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James Wan, who had known of the couple’s work prior to taking the directing reins of “The Conjuring,” relates, “I've always been a big fan of the Warrens. I really admire them. They pioneered the modern-day style of ghost hunting with technical equipment, capturing evidence on film and audiotape. Since they've inspired so many stories, books and films, it was cool to actually make a movie where who they are is as much the focus as the family’s home they are investigating.”

The film reveals the real horrors lurking within a secluded centuries-old farmhouse in the seemingly peaceful countryside of Harrisville, Rhode Island, bought in 1970 by Carolyn and Roger Perron. However, the couple and their five daughters soon find themselves directly in the path of extreme, yet indefinable, danger. When Ed and Lorraine meet the family and the unnatural enemy waging war against them, they know they are in for the battle of their career...and lives.

Producer Peter Safran believes the case was seminal for the Warrens because they wanted not only to safeguard the Perron children, but their own young daughter, Judy. He conveys, “I think what they went through with those girls really laid the groundwork for their life path, including Amityville and beyond. I was particularly drawn to the events because I also have a daughter, and I can't even think of a limit to what I would do to protect her.”

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Producer Rob Cowan comments, “Everybody identifies with the notion that something’s under your bed or in the closet, but this really happened, so it makes it all the more chilling.”

Screenwriters Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes had a unique take—telling the story via the tandem points of view of the Warrens and the Perrons. Chad remarks, “What we loved about writing this script is the contrast between two couples: there are the Warrens, who are devout Catholics and respected demonologists, and the Perrons, who aren’t at all religious. And then their lives collide. Who fixes what and how does it get fixed?”

“These strangers crossed paths over some very ugly entities,” Carey adds. “They took a very daunting journey, and going through their steps, we just got hooked. It became an obsession.”

Wan remembers, “When I read the script, I said, ‘Wow, this is great, here is a chance to do something different.’”

During the project’s development, Wan and the Hayes brothers went through the Warrens’ files—some 4,000 cases. “We found a lot of great material,” says Wan. “My goal was to incorporate some of the wildest things they'd encountered in their lifetime, yet still stay true to this particular family’s story. We drew a lot of inspiration from the Perrons’ recollections as well. I thought it was even more frightening to show the scares through the eyes of the pros along with the perspective of this family that has no inkling of the supernatural world.”

“We wanted to honor both families,” says Cowan, “so it was really rewarding when they said we’d achieved a genuine level of accuracy.”

Wan concludes, “Most people will, at some point, relate that they know someone who has, or that they themselves have, experienced something paranormal. On my other films, it was comforting to tell myself those things weren’t real, I’d just made them up…but for ‘The Conjuring’ I didn't have that luxury.”

Opening across the Philippines on August 21, “The Conjuring” is a New Line Cinema production and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

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