By Fred Topel | Image property of Summit Entertainment.
P2
Alexandre Aja has become a mogul since directing the horror films High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes. Now he's co-writing and producing horror films for his friends and colleague. He produces P2 from an idea he co-wrote.
Aja Thinks Up P2
"Now it's like a new opportunity," said Aja. "We have many scripts that we don't know if we're going to make them. Today, to be able to make and produce them is a way to see them because once again, when we start writing a story, it's really because we would like to see that movie. So we keep that feel of we would like to see that movie and we can't direct it, but we are always working together. Producing has great advantages, like seeing the story that you want to see on the screen like P2 without being on the deck all day long for all time, because making movies is a full year of work."
P2 is the other extreme from Hills Have Eyes, from the wide open desert heat to the claustrophobic underground parking garage. "It was even more awful. Believe me, spending that much time in an underground parking garage is the worst experience ever. It was a great experience but physically, the air is so [bad]. The desert is out[side] but the underground parking, maybe every day you spend half an hour or less, 15-20 minutes in the parking garage. Here you have to spend all day."
The confined thriller bears some resemblances to Aja's own High Tension, which was one of the reasons he turned it over to director Franck Khalfoun. "First of all, that's the idea why, when the idea came to me, we were with Greg Levasseur thinking about a new setup to do a one night action movie, survival kind of movie. The idea of the underground parking garage came very fast and very early. We developed the story but I realized then it was very close to High Tension and I didn’t want to find myself redoing the same thing. Because we were working with Franck a long time on many other projects, it came very naturally the idea this was perfect for him. It was a great opportunity for us to be all together making a movie and having a lot of fun."
Aja also pointed out the key differences between his new movie and his old one. "Why it's different, it's not the story, it's all the characters. Basically, High Tension is about the duality and the confrontation between two people but one of them is the dark side and there's no talking. There are maybe three lines in the movie. Here it's really like a dual between two characters with the same kind of weapon, a lot of psychology and I think that's one of the best things that Franck brings to the movie. I'm kind of scared about dialogue in general. I like the movie almost a silent movie. I think fear is so great when you don't have any dialogue and it's just feeling. You need something but with Franck and working with Franck on the script and on the movie, I realized that you can also make movies with a lot of great intensity in the dialogue."
P2 opens to theaters on November 9th.
For the poster, trailer and more movie info, go to the P2 Movie Page.
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