Mickle and I make it work, however, sitting on the patio outside of the cafe to talk about his latest film, We Are What We Are, a remake of the Jorge Grau film of the same name. eOne picked up the remake following a debut at Sundance and plans to release it September 27th in a limited theatrical run. Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner, Bill Sage and Michael Park star. Just past the synopsis inside, read our discussion with Mickle who explains why he took on the redo and confesses his love for Ravenous.
A seemingly wholesome and benevolent family, the Parkers have always kept to themselves, and for good reason. Behind closed doors, patriarch Frank rules his family with a rigorous fervor, determined to keep his ancestral customs intact at any cost. As a torrential rainstorm moves into the area, tragedy strikes and his daughters Iris and Rose are forced to assume responsibilities that extend beyond those of a typical family. The most important task that the girls face is putting meat on the table but not the kind that can be found at the local supermarket. As the unrelenting downpour continues to flood their small town, the local authorities begin to uncover clues that bring them closer to the secret that the Parkers have held closely for so many years.
Shock Till You Drop: The original film is sort of unconvention to remake, don’t you think?
Jim Mickle: Yeah, I hadn’t seen it when the producers, who I was working on the film with, brought it up. They had the rights to it, but I hadn’t seen it and read all about it. I felt like I had a version in my mind of what the movie was in a way. Then, when I watched it, I was like, Cool, that’s not the movie I had pictured in my head, but it’s still a cool movie on its own. And that was sort of the impetus because I had a movie in my mind of what it should be. So, I thought if we could do the movie in my head, then it doesn’t feel like we’re strictly trying to redo Jorge Grau’s thing and translating it into English and calling it a day. I was gun shy about the whole remake thing, but the producers were like, Make your own movie, as long as it bears the concept. Talking to Jorge, he told me he wished he could do a little more of this or a little less that with his film and he was very open and honest. He was open to suggestions and improvements to what he had done. The things I didn’t like about his film, we didn’t feel the need to carry over to the remake, so we were on the level.
Shock: To me, his film – and this isn’t a knock against what he did – feels like a first draft while yours feels like the idea refined.
Mickle: Thank you. We only had one conversation before I started, but in it Jorge talked about, These are the things I did because they were important to me to pull off and all the things that were important to him were the things I responded to like the organized religion and the literalism of faith. I feel like we both appreciate the same sort of thing and separately we were able to comment on it, with me handling how America deals with these things.
Shock: This is a change of pace, tonally, from your last effort Stakeland – so what did this offer that was creatively satisfying that you were eager to commit to?
[At this point, a group of girls wearing Tetris shapes on their heads walk by.]
Mickle: [laughs] Wow, that’s awesome. Um, what I liked about the original idea…after doing movies like Mulberry Street and Stakeland, which both had a genre element and character elements, this felt like the opportunity to really spend time with the characters and – there’s not many cannibal movies around. People are eager to hang it and see where it goes.
Shock: You’re right, there are not many cannibal movies around. Either they’re exploitive or campy…or there’s Ravenous, which I adore but was not accepted.
Mickle: I love that movie, too! I love that movie… I can see why some people don’t want to see it though.
Shock: But people have no problem with flesheating when it comes to zombies these days…
Mickle: Maybe there’s not that living dead part to distance you from it. Maybe it’s something where it doesn’t have that ‘one step removed from reality’ thing. That might be it.
Shock: Now there’s talk of a prequel and a sequel that you’re involved with…
Shock: What’s next for you?
Mickle: I start shooting a new film this month called Cold in July, the Joe Lansdale thing, and we’ll do that for five weeks. Michael C. Hall is the lead. So, We Are What We Are is going to come out while we’re deep in that. It’s a period piece set in Texas, like 1989.
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