Posted in: Interview, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: interview, lionsgate, saw x

Saw X Interview: Producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg

Our full interview with Saw X producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg that took place in the SAW Escape Room in Las Vegas.

We've shared most of our interview with Saw X producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg, but one thing we did mention back in our first post about this junket was that these interviews were conducted in the SAW Escape Room in Las Vegas, so the backgrounds were interesting. So we have a video of the interview and the full transcript if you're wondering how the conversations went down, including a very amusing back-and-forth between the two producers about star Tobin Bell.

Kaitlyn Booth: We are ten movies in, but no franchise can survive on your die-hard fans alone, even though Saw has some very die-hard fans. You need to bring in new people. What steps were taken to try and bring in new people for this movie? In particular, for someone who's never seen a Saw movie like me, for example. Yesterday was my first one. Why do you think this would be a good one to introduce people to this franchise?

Oren Koules: Kevin Greutert, our director, he's been preaching the whole time before we started shooting this that he wanted this to be a movie that's accessible to people who've never seen a Saw movie before. So this is probably the most concerted effort we've made to make it a complete, like a movie beginning, middle, and end that you don't need to know anything about Saw.

Mark Burg: Did you understand?

Kaitlyn Booth: Yeah, I did. I did some research looking into everything, so I made sure to know some things. But I always try to think of how my parents would react to things if they didn't know. [Editor's Note: Got to love it when you completely blue screen while on camera.]

Oren Koules: Ah, don't do that. Not this movie.

Kaitlyn Booth: Obviously, there's some sort of special sauce here that keeps bringing people back to the franchise. What do you think is the special sauce that keeps bringing people back to Saw, in particular where other franchises who have tried to imitate Saw have failed?

Mark Burg: I think we spend an inordinate amount of time working on the scripts and coming up with a story that we think our audience, and any audience, will want to find out what happens in the beginning and stick around for 90 minutes, 2 hours to find out how it ends and what happens.

Oren Koules: I also think there are two other reasons. One is it's [director] Kevin Greutert, [executive producer] Dan Heffner, us, [digital compositor: Switch VFX] Jason Kozsurek, who have been here since the first day of shooting, so it's the consistency of the same team. And Charlie Clouser does our music. So we've had the same people that have done the movies for 20 years. The other thing is, I know this sounds super corny, but we actually respect our fans and try to look at it from their point of view. And we listen to them. We read Reddit, we've done studies, NRG has done things, and so we listen. So we're like, Hey, if everyone hates X (not the movie) a person, we're probably not going to keep using the same person and things like that. But we literally read all the Reddit threads.

Mark Burg: This story in particular, the audience wanted Tobin Bell, and they wanted Shawnee Smith, and they wanted Tobin Bell carrying the story. We came up with an idea that Tobin Bell's probably in this movie more in sight than he's been in the last five movies combined. He drives this story, and he's so good. Thinking of making a Saw movie without him just won't happen.

Kaitlyn Booth: He was magnetic on screen.

Oren Koules: So we open the movie with him as John Kramer. Most people see him in most of the movies he's Jigsaw. So, seeing him as a human trying to extend his life no different than any of us would do. His doctor tells him how long he has to live, and he's trying to do an experimental process to try to extend his life. All of us would try it.

Kaitlyn Booth: This is the most Tobin has ever been on screen. How did that change from a production? Just how you guys were approaching the movie. Because it's so different.

Oren Koules: We're genius. So we put an 80-year-old actor at 7500 feet in the air. Neither of us realized Mexico City was 7500 feet. It's like almost one and a half of Denver.

Mark Burg: Tobin's in amazing shape.

Oren Koules: Thank goodness.

Mark Burg: He's older and…

Oren Koules: …the air's thin.

Mark Burg: We worked our schedule around what was doable and what wasn't doable. We know how many hours he's good and how many days, and made sure we gave him plenty of breaks. But he was so excited about this script. He got to act and emote and do everything he wanted to do. And a lot of this is dialog he wrote. He's involved every step of the way—a true partner of the franchise.

Saw X: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most chilling installment of the SAW franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw's personal game. Set between the events of SAW I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer – only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, John returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through a series of ingenious and terrifying traps.

Saw X, directed by Kevin Greutert, stars Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Renata Vaca, Michael Beach, Octavio Hinojosa, Paulette Hernández, and Joshua Okamoto. It will be released on September 29th.

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