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— by Larry Carroll
It isn't a sequel, it isn't a remake, there are no A-list stars and it doesn't even have a title. Deep in the isolated mountains of Saskatchewan, Canada, however, the infamous Pang Brothers are making plans to scare the life out of you. And if 72,000 sunflowers and more than a dozen flesh-eating, shiny black ravens are any indication, they're going to make it happen.
"Those Pangs, man," smiled 15-year-old "Panic Room" star Kristen Stewart as she took a break from her character's near-catatonic level of fear to talk about the unorthodox production. "They just have a completely different view of what a scary movie should look like, and it's petrifying. It's just eerie and startling."
For the uninitiated: Danny and Oxide Pang are twin brothers from Hong Kong who helped revitalize the horror genre with 2002's visually stunning cornea-transplant shriek fest, "The Eye." A successful sequel followed in 2004, along with the news that self-professed fan Tom Cruise had purchased the rights for an American remake (currently in development). With the Pang name echoing back and forth across the Pacific, "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi utilized his newfound clout to convince the brothers to make their English-language debut for the Ghost House Pictures production company through which he produced "The Grudge."
"Before … we knew about Sam Raimi … it was not 'Spider-Man,'" said Oxide — or as he's known on set: "the one with the mole on his neck" — in semi-broken English. "[We remember] 'Darkman' and 'A Simple Plan.' We love [Raimi's] movies before already, so when he contacted us to be the director of this project, we were excited."
"We really love to work with Sam Raimi," added Danny — or as he's known on set: "the other one." "He is a director, so he really knows and really understands what the director wants and needs."
Such excitement has manifested itself in a stunning set, built on a farm situated in the true, genuine Middle of Nowhere. A blazing sun beats down daily on the dilapidated brown farmhouse, while a creaky steel windmill indicates brief moments of windy relief. In the backyard, an open tool shed contains the kind of rusted arsenal that serial killers dream about: hacksaws, a scythe, axes and branding irons, all clanging against each other like the devil's wind chimes. A three-story barn (delivered from a neighboring town) appears on the verge of collapsing, the type of structure you wouldn't want to enter for any number of reasons.
And it's all surrounded by endless fields of sunflowers, their cheerful blooms lending the whole scene an audacious, incongruously chirpy air.
"[My character] Roy is the guy who just wants to go back to his roots," reflected Dylan McDermott, looking further away from "The Practice" than ever in a farmer's jeans and crumpled shirt. "He did this as a kid ... so he tries to hold onto that as much as he can. He comes back here to plant sunflowers, and hopefully he'll get a little piece of that happiness again."
When McDermott's Roy finds himself out of work for two years, he decides to move his wife Denise (Penelope Ann Miller) and their angst-ridden teenage daughter Jess (Stewart) from their chaotic Chicago lives to Belton, North Dakota. Realizing it may be the last chance to salvage his family, Roy purchases a sunflower farm in hopes that tilling the land will help keep them afloat. As a mysterious stranger named Johnny Burwell (John Corbett) informs them, however, the locals are all too well aware of the haunting circumstances that enabled Roy to nab such a good deal on the property.
"I'm just sort of a drifter who helps this family out," Corbett said of his character. "I haven't seen any ghosts, but I'm aware that there are some goings-on in the house and I'm a little scared, so I sleep out in the barn with my shotgun."
So, there it is: the top-secret Pang Brothers movie (due in 2006) is — ta da! — a ghost story, albeit one told with such a unique style that Corbett was willing to come out of the short-lived retreat from acting he announced last year.
"I came out of retirement to work on this," Corbett confirmed. "It's just a really good ghost story, and the Pang Brothers — people here in America aren't that familiar with them yet. Some people are, of course. But they're going to make a really big splash with their American debut. When the phone rings and those people are involved, you've kinda got to come out of retirement, or you're a fool."
The Pangs have an unusual visual sensibility, as evidenced not only by the enormous number of angles they come up with for each take, but also by choices such as employing different colors (including bright red and, reportedly, yellow) to represent the "flesh" of various ghosts. They have an equally distinctive working relationship, rarely collaborating on-set in the manner of such other famous cinematic teams as the brothers Wachowski, Hughes or Coen. Each day of filming finds the brothers alternately performing their dual roles: one directs while the other edits in a neighboring bunker. The next day, they swap hats.
So, 18 days into their 59-day shoot, what have the duo learned about Hollywood?
"They set a lot of meetings," said Oxide, cracking up his brother.
A few of these sit-downs were undoubtedly held to discuss a sequence in which more than a dozen ravens (meant to portray crows) attack McDermott's character, foreshadowing other dangers later in the film. With the aid of computer graphics, the ravens will eventually appear to number in the thousands. The on-set bird handlers from the Czech Republic, meanwhile, have their hands full keeping even this mini-flock from picking away at a stuntman's face. A revolting, gooey mixture of raw meat, honey and powdered sugar keeps the hungry creatures performing on cue.
Perhaps even hungrier than the black birds, however, are the Pang loyalists out there anxiously awaiting the duo's movie or, at the very least, something more concrete to call the thing than the current moniker attached to it: "Untitled Pang Brothers Horror Project."
"How about 'Whipple House'? Or maybe 'Bobby Whipple'?" jokes Dustin Milligan, who plays daughter Jess' protective friend by that very name. "'Whipple Mania,' or 'Whipple World.' That's what it should be called: 'Whipple World.' That'd be nice. I like that."
"I've got one," said William B. Davis (The Smoking Man of "X-Files" fame), playing along with the notion that a character can't be killed off if his name is in the title. "'The Bank Manager.' I have four scenes of two minutes each. Why not call it 'The Bank Manager'?"
"I like 'As the Crow Flies,'" Stewart insisted. "During the entire movie the crows are a constant factor; they're always there. They're always watching."
"It was going to be 'Scarecrow,'" added Milligan. "But there actually isn't a scarecrow in it, so that doesn't make sense."
"Yeah, well, my number one and only suggestion is 'Scarecrow,'" said a smiling, obstinate McDermott. "Somehow it just makes sense to me. 'Scarecrow.' It's the fields and you're out here and the scare is in the title and crows are in the movie."
The discussion continues, and at least one thing about the film becomes increasingly clear: out here in The Middle of Nowhere, "Untitled Pang Brothers Horror Project" is beginning to sound downright catchy.
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Photo: MTV News
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