My movie BELOW is “the one that got away.” The one that didn’t get the release it deserved, the one the audience never really had a chance to see. Why was that?
The year was 2001. I’d just come off writing and directing PITCH BLACK, and that movie did pretty damn well in the theaters. Surprisingly so. The Weinsteins — the now-infamous brothers who ran Miramax and Dimension — had a movie up against PITCH BLACK, and their movie was getting crushed. So their reaction was “Well then, let’s get the PITCH BLACK guy to make a movie for us!” And in one of those Hollywood moments you dream about, they pitched me everything they had in their development pipeline. And when they said “Haunted submarine,” I said “Stop right there.”
It was the first of a three-picture deal for me at Miramax. A deal that never came to be.
Trouble was, they wanted BELOW to be a straight horror movie, while I was more interested in the mystery elements. They wanted more jumps, I wanted more suspense. It all came to a head when, in post production, they threatened to fire me and take the movie over, but I dug in and said “That’s my cut. That’s the version I’m willing to put my name on.” (A not-so-veiled threat to remove my name and use a pseudonym instead.)
It was touch-and-go for a while, but eventually they backed down. Yet almost out of spite, the Weinsteins gave the movie a small, obligatory release in the States, and the international release was nearly non-existent.
So this is why I was surprised and heartened to hear that the Forbidden Worlds Film Festival was giving BELOW its British premiere in Bristol, England – 23 years after I shot the movie! I beamed into Bristol with a few introductory remarks…
And then the lights dimmed and the journey into the depths of the ocean and the minds of men began.
I had a great time making this one, in large part because the cast was so talented and so willing to accept my vision. They were all great, ready-to-roll actors. But hey, just because you had a good time making the movie doesn’t always mean a good movie is being made. Yet with this effort, I think we acquitted ourselves pretty well. Check it out here and decide for yourself.