At last night’s Spike TV Scream Awards, B-D caught up with Saw creators James Wan and Leigh Wannell to talk to them about their new film Indsidious, which was bought by Sony for a reported seven figures almost directly following its premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The two were in a jubilant mood as they discussed the pickup and what it means for their little indie, which screened to generally favorable (and a couple of rapturous) reviews at the fest.
“It was the sale that basically got picked up and closed the night that the film screened, when no films were selling,” said Wan. “No films were selling on the day that it played. We were very honored that that happened…so now it went from a non-studio film to now it’s a studio film. So who knows what’s gonna happen. Sony’s very excited about it, so we’ll see.”

Of course, with a big fancy studio now on board there’s also the possibility of stuffy, focus-group-happy suits mucking up the process. I asked the filmmakers what kind of changes we can expect from the festival cut, if any.

“You go into those studio meetings, as I’m sure you know, you walk in there and you’re waiting for them to make the studio suggestion, like, ‘We love the movie, but what about a talking dog? Have you thought about that? Because tests have shown that audiences love talking dogs,’” said Wannell only half-jokingly. “So James and I were in there thinking about the ‘talking dog’ suggestion, and it turns out they actually were big fans of the movie. And not only that, but they saw it as something that they didn’t want to mess with too much. They bought it at Toronto and they loved how it screened, so they were like, ‘why mess with it?’ So we’re really, really elated.”

That being said:

“They realize we made it for pretty much no money,” said Wan. “So they’re actually gonna give us more money to basically tweak and make the film even better, so that’s a good thing.”

But that money comes with strings attached, right? I mean, right?

“No, it’s [more] like, ‘you can use the resources at Sony to do little touch-ups.’,” said Wannell.

“Like visual effects, and sound design, and more that kind of stuff,” said Wan.

So they won’t be shooting any additional footage?

“We don’t know yet,” said Wan.

“But I think the film that you’ll see when we release it will be close to the one that screened at Toronto,” assured Wannell. “It’ll be the same film.”

As for a release strategy – and a possible sequel – they told me it was too early in the process to say.

“The only meeting we’ve had so far is the one where everyone pats each other on the back and says, ‘you’re great’, ‘no, you’re great!’,” Wannell told me. “I think it’s gonna take a few more meetings to get to the one where they pull out their knives and say, ‘you are releasing on this day!’”

Or perhaps, ‘have you put any more thought into that talking dog idea?’