Daniel Minahan Interview

DM: I wanted to make something that was satirical, entertaining but at the same time thought-provoking and provocative.

Lineone: Tell us a little about the making of the film.

DM: It was shot in the fall of '99 and we shot it over a 21 day period which is very quick for a feature. We shot 6 days a week in my hometown in Connecticut. We borrowed a lot of locations and used family and friends as extras. It was a pretty wild ride. It was a very good shoot. I tired to base the structure as much as possible on my documentary background so I had a very small crew.

Lineone: How much of the dialogue was improvised?

DM: It was very tightly scripted. Working that quickly we didn't have a lot of room for improvisation. The thing that I found worked the best for improvisation were the interviews that I did with the characters. They were initially scripted but I found that they seemed a little rehearsed, so I interviewed the actors in character, just as you're interviewing me now.

Lineone: How has the film been received in the States?

DM: It was very well received. The majority of people seem to understand it and go with it. I was hoping it would be more divisive, that people would be more divided, but they mostly seemed to really understand it. It had a very conservative release and it's still opening slowly in theatres around the country.

Lineone: You must have had fun doing the 'Joy Division' spoof.

DM: That was one of the early days of the shoot and it helped the cast and crew to bond. It was really fun to make and everyone was happy to make fools of themselves. After that there was nothing worse we could do in front of each other. It was a definite highpoint of the shoot.

Lineone: Was there much that you left out of the film? How conscious were you of keeping a limit on what you showed to the audience?

DM: I felt the most difficult scene was the one in the mall (where a murder occurs. That was the most difficult because it's the point where it's not funny anymore. You realise that people are getting hurt here and it's horrifying. I think the violence is shocking, but what makes it funny is the way we send it up. There were things I left out including a very graphic scene of the removal of a testicle which was too strong.

Lineone: So what's your take on Big Brother and Survivor? Are you a fan?

DM: I used to love those shows but by the time I'd finished making a fake reality tv show and spending two years of my life on it, I really lost my enthusiasm! I tend to prefer the older shows like 'Cops, which are a bit simpler.

Lineone: So what's next for you?

DM: I'm spending the summer writing a screenplay. It's a psychological thriller. I'm trying to write it in the style of Joe Eszterhas (the scribe behind Basic Instinct and Showgirls.)