Bloody-Disgusting’s Chris Eggertsen got on the phone the other day to speak with writer/director/producer Adam Green about Hatchet 2, and in the process managed to extract a few nuggets of info not only on Green’s plans for the series’ third installment but on other projects he currently has in the works. Green also hinted at what special features we can expect to be included on the Frozen DVD/Blu-ray, including the *SPOILER WARNING* death scene that was left out of the theatrical release!
For you Hatchet fans waiting with bated breath for any news at all on the third installment, I managed to get some interesting info out of Green when I chatted at length with him on the phone yesterday. Green indicated he’d like to direct Hatchet 3, but that if Dark Sky continues with their aggressive push for a sooner-than-later third entry in the franchise it will simply be impossible for him to direct:

“The plan for `Hatchet 3′ is that they’re gonna make one,” he said. “That’s about all I know right now. It’s way too early to say what my involvement is gonna be if any, but obviously I created it and came up with everything, and I would love to always stay a part of it and maybe I’ll direct the third one. Looking at what I have coming kinda down the line right now I don’t know when I would necessarily be available anytime soon, and I think that their plan is to try to make `Hatchet 3′ next year.”

Not only is he too busy to take on the job, Green also told me he would need a little more time away from the franchise before returning to it. “Kind of what worked out great about [`Hatchet 2′] was when I finished `Hatchet 1′ we knew we were gonna make `Hatchet 2′ but I just was not ready to do it yet,” he told me. “I needed to go make other movies and get away from it for a little while so I could come back with the same passion I had the first time. And I think that worked out well. To do `Hatchet 3′ right now, I’m not into it. I need to go do some other stuff. But if they wanna wait, then perhaps I’ll be back at the helm but if not, whoever it is will be somebody that I pick personally, and I’ll still always be involved with it.”

As for doing a `Hatchet’ movie in 3-D, Green affirmed there’s already been talk: “I mean, that would be a ton of fun, and it is already being discussed. I mean, the one thing I don’t like about…the 3-D thing is it’s a fad, and we’ve seen this fad come and go before. It seems to be sticking a little bit more than it did in the `80s, and I gotta admit it is a good way to get people into the theater, because it’s getting harder and harder to get people to actually go to the theater. So if you have a gimmick it seems to work. I mean, what would be more fun than seeing a girl’s tits get chopped off and like fly at you…? So I think a `Hatchet’ movie is right for 3-D, I think it makes sense, and I understand why they’re talking about that. I know I’d like to see it, for sure, so hopefully it does end up happening.”

As for plot specifics, Green was generally mum but suggested we can expect further installments after the third movie: “It is mapped out. [It’s] actually even mapped out through [`Hatchet 4′]. But it’s all gonna kinda depend on what happens, because if I’m not gonna be the one directing it, there’s also a chance I’m not the one writing it, which means what I’d have to do is kinda be open to all the writer/directors that are gonna come in and try to get the job, to kinda hear them out and hear some new ideas. Which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing. I mean, that might be what it needs at that point, is a completely new vision and direction on it.”

Still, Green seems to be having a tough time with the idea of handing over his baby for someone else to coddle: “It’s tough. It’s a really tough thing because I wish I could do everything. Like I wanna go do these other movies, and I wanna do this, and I don’t wanna let it go, I don’t want somebody else to do it, I wanna do it. But I only have so much time, and I’m already spread more thin than humanly possible. So I don’t know what’s gonna happen with it. In a perfect situation I go do some of these bigger things and they wait and I can do `Hatchet 3′ when I’m ready. But I don’t see it playing out like that right now, with how excited they are to move on the third one.”

On the Frozen front, Green told me what special features we can expect on the DVD, which is looking at a distant September release date: “There’ll be some deleted scenes, there’s going to be…the behind-the-scenes documentaries are amazing. Adam Barnick, who did the `Grace’ behind-the-scenes, did the `Frozen’ ones. What’s really great about his approach is he doesn’t do it like typical `B-T-S’ footage where it’s just people going through…’well, I’m this actor and I play this character.’ It’s done documentary-style.”

Among those deleted scenes, you can expect to find one of Kevin Zegers’ character biting the dust in spectacular fashion, whereas in the theatrical release you could only listen as he was eaten alive by wolves: “It’s not in the movie because to me the movie’s much scarier to have to watch his girlfriend and his best friend listening to it. That’s how it was written. But while we were there we did actually shoot a horrifically gory death which won’t be inserted back into the movie because it really has no place in the movie in my opinion, but it will be on the DVD for people to see what they couldn’t see in the movie.” Sweet.

Unfortunately Green wasn’t able to spill much about other upcoming projects, except to say horror fans can expect another grisly horror flick in the vein of Hatchet from him in the VERY near future: “There is another horror thing that is actually starting up in a matter of days… that the fans can expect much sooner rather than later…It’s gonna be very, very disgusting…there should be [an announcement] shortly. Again, it’s one of those things where we’re debating – we might finish it and then tell people about it. We don’t know what we’re gonna do yet with that one in particular. It sucks, I hate to be so cryptic, but there’s so many people involved with that one too and I don’t wanna speak out of line.”

On the producing front, Green will be involved in a horror flick to be directed by Dance of the Dead helmer Gregg Bishop: “I’m developing a project with Gregg Bishop who did `Dance of the Dead’, and Joe Ballarini who wrote `Dance of the Dead’. My company’s developing a project with them that they would be writing and directing that we’re not talking about yet.”

All this news is sorta like a dinner at a five-star restaurant: it tastes damn good, but it’s leaving me feeling half full. Let’s hope we’ll be getting more concrete details on all this stuff soon.