2009: Ulli Lommel looks back on 'Green River Killer'
ULLI LOMMEL SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON HIS CONTROVERSIAL 2005 SHOCKER, "GREEN RIVER KILLER". HERE ARE THE BEST BITS TRANSLATED FROM A GERMAN EDITION OF PREMIERE MAGAZINE, PUBLISHED IN APRIL 2009:
"Of all my films, "Green River Killer" is perhaps the most remembered and I believe that it has achieved a certain notoriety within the online community. This is not a film that you forget easily."
"George Kiseleff as Gary Ridgway, the killer, was unbelievable. So was the rest of the cast - touched by grace."
"The film is unflinching in its depiction of violence and doesn't shy away from unpleasant situations. For instance, the scene where the prostitute has to poop and offers Ridgway: "you can wipe my @ss if you want" is almost unbearable to watch... the viewer feels that he is there, next to her on the toilet, with the foreknowledge that this is going to end badly... the tension builds until she runs out of toilet paper. This is the trigger for the kill, filmed in full blurry close-up with an intensity only matched recently by the French horror flick "Martyrs"... but I was the first to go there, and that was almost 5 years ago! (laughs) Evidently that movie's director, Pascal Laugier, is just rehashing my ideas."
"I can't help but smile at the idea that someone would even try to direct something more shocking than "Green River Killer" - this is not going to happen any time soon, period. I can't even bring myself to direct the reboot I have in mind yet, where we would actually show the @ss wiping, and no special effects here, no! I plan to use the real thing to make the scene more urgent and raw. It will be a flashback of the original scene, when Gary Ridgway masturbates while defecating himself 15 years later.... it's daring, both psychologically and artistically. How to picture the absolute horror of this situation? Perhaps by filming the excrement's point of view as it is ejected slowly out of Ridgway's body. But I don't have the budget for a tiny camera and I don't want to hurt my actor by inserting my Nokia phone in there. It would require CGI and I'm not sure this kind of movie needs CGI to be honest... I wouldn't want to infuriate fans of the original. I've seen how Steven Spielberg was criticized when he used CGI for the latest Indiana Jones movie, so I'm not sure "GRK 2.0" - as I call it - would go in that direction. Never piss off the fanbase."
"What I can tell you is that Ridgway's two co-workers, who were such a hit with viewers in the original, will have a much expanded presence and will definitely have gay sex with Gary in the warehouse - I was always uncomfortable that we didn't have enough time in our tight weekend schedule to shoot it for the original. It was always intended and it would have elevated the film to a whole new sphere, I think. So if you thought there were subtle and complex nuances in these characters, you were dead on the money."
"I am fully aware that some weirdos didn't get it and then went on to trash the movie on IMDb. I just ignore them."
"As Ridley Scott did in "The Duellists", every frame of my film has been carefully designed to resemble a painting. But one that only I could see in my head. The result is truly breathtaking, for a $500 budget."
"Yes, I'm happy to confirm that "Green River Killer" will be coming out on Blu-ray in 2009. It will still look like an old video-8 tape in mono sound because that's what it is."
"I am thinking of releasing a 3D version in IMAX, with the excrement flying out of the toilet and over the audience. It's just a question of when, not if. Maybe for the 10th anniversary in 2015."