An Interview with Marcus Nispel

Who would be brave enough to remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

While I was unimpressed with last year's remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I came away with a much higher opinion of its director, Marcus Nispel, after interviewing him. He comes off has having good sense about him when it comes to movies in general and dealing with Hollywood, which you need to survive this town.

Actually, I found the story of his trip around America to be the most interesting, because very few people in the entertainment industry venture outside the 212 and 310 area codes unless it's a location shoot. But he's seen a lot more of America than most of us, which can only serve him in the future.

So while I remain unsold on the movie (it was his first, after all), I expect that in time he will prove himself to be a very good director. He's following a well-worn path, since he's a music video director (as well as directing commercials) making the move to the big screen. Heck, even David Fincher's first feature film was nothing to write home about, although that wasn't his fault.

To date, Nispel has directed over 1000 commercials and music videos. He's directed 15 number one songs, has gotten 12 MTV Music Video Award nominations and four trophies. He's also won Clio Awards (for advertising) and many other accolades as well. With a rep like that, he didn't need to move to Hollywood, he did it when he was ready. So let's find out why he started out by remaking one of the most popular horror movies ever.

IGN DVD: You know, you and I have something in common. We were both born in Frankfurt.

Marcus Nispel: Really? You're kidding me?

IGN DVD: Nope. My father was stationed in the Army there, which is where he met my mother.

Nispel: That's so funny. You know, I learned to speak English in Germany hanging around with kids of GIs. I have a lot of Army brat friends. I grew up next to McNair [Barracks]. How old were you when you left?


Nispel: Oh, then you won't remember much. You know, when I left school and had a lot of time on my hands, I realized that all these kids that I had as neighbors went back to America, so I went by Greyhound and visited them all. I had stayed in touch with a lot of them and went cross-country twice. That's how I got to see America from the inside out, just visiting all of these old acquaintances that went home with their dad.


IGN DVD: For a filmmaker, that must be a great experience and source of inspiration, going across the country like that.

Nispel: Yeah you don't see it as much as a tourist, and you realize America is not just New York and L.A. Most Americans aren't even aware of that (laughs). I keep reminding myself when I select movie material, I tell myself it's not just your peers from film school.

IGN DVD: So what was it that drew you to this project? Why do a remake of such a popular film as your film debut?

Nispel: Good question. Usually the first question is why did you make a remake at all (laughs). Let me think. I think it came out of frustration with the Hollywood way of doing things.

IGN DVD: You just got here and you're already getting frustrated?

Nispel: I've had on-again off-again development deals for the last 15 years. So it seemed at a certain point like a gigantic waste of time. I was not fresh from film school when it was offered to me, I was already a star doing music videos, so you maybe don't have the humility that you should have when you approach this sort of thing. So you have alternatives and you say no. I got a lot of stuff offered to me in tremendous budget ranges without having done dialogue or having done any true narrative that went beyond five minutes I was having $100 million budgets offered to me.

IGN DVD: Any titles we'd recognize?

Nispel: A whole bunch. I know I turned down Con Air, I turned down End of Days. End of Days is a good example where I had a $120 million budget I could have spent, but you realize very quickly that they don't let you do anything with it. It can't be truly scary because you have to make your money back, you can't do this or that for all sorts of reasons. So you go 'Wow, I've got $120 million and can't do anything with it.' And then, with Texas Chainsaw, I got $5 million for production and I can do pretty much anything with it that I want to, and I realized that's where I want to be. With big budget movies you are painted involuntarily, just by the way things go, into a certain corner where you have to do something for everybody in a specific genre with a very specific audience.


IGN DVD: Well I can see their point of view. If you're going to spend $120 million you want to make it back.

Nispel: You can't forget about what the material is, and I think that kind of a compromise is a tough one, especially when you are a first-time filmmaker. It was interesting in this particular case. If you want to hear the whole sob story, after about five or six years of saying it's not worth it, I had a development meeting on a movie that was a Cold War story but it had a tough chick in the center of it, kind of like La Femme Nikita that would otherwise be a 60 minute special from the '80s. After three months of spending time on it, the head of the whole thing, the producer comes in and says 'You know guys, I had an epiphany last night, the lead should be a male after all.' I said 'Well now it looks like my father's Clancy.' He pulled me to the side and said 'Marcus, I want you to realize something. The studio only wants to take one chance at a time. By hiring you, they are taking that chance. You want to go out and make edgy movies, you can't have it both. You alone are that risk.' And I said 'You know what, you are right,' and I signed on for Texas Chainsaw that week. Because I felt here's a chance where I can show I can do a lot with a little bit of inventiveness and a little money, you can do more in that environment, as opposed to one where people supposedly want to be safe but see their movies fail all the time.

IGN DVD: Your budget was $5 million?

Nispel: It was five million for production.