Bride of Chucky is a lot of fans’ favorite Chucky movie, thanks largely to director Ronny Yu’s style. The acclaimed Hong Kong director brought his visual sense and macabre humor to Don Mancini’s self-referential script. But, it turns out he left the film before the movie was finished.
At a Screamfest Q&A for a 20th anniversary screening of Bride of Chucky, producer David Kirschner revealed that Yu went back to China before finishing his first cut of the film. The cut wasn’t going well so Mancini and the editor actually took it over and made Bride of Chucky the kind of classic that gets a 20th anniversary celebration.
“Ronny left after we finished the film. He started to work on a cut and we were not happy with it,” Kirschner said.
“I think he just missed home. He missed his wife and his family. Don really stepped up. It was at that point for me that I saw that he was now ready to move on to the next film and be the director. He really brought so much to it with how he really edited that film with Randy Bricker who Don has continued a relationship.”
Keep in mind that rough cuts are usually far from the completed film. Often running too long, they are the first attempt to put the movie together before it’s whittled down into shape. The difference in Yu’s cut, Kirschner said, was pacing.
“It’s not that it was ever a completed cut,” Kirschner said. “We just saw what he was doing and we were unhappy with it. The pacing was not there. Don and Corey Sienega – who produced the film with us – we went to the editing room and worked with them. He had shot it all but the choices and pieces were not there in my mind for what it would become.”
Bride of Chucky was only Yu’s second American film after Warriors of Virtue. Remember in the ‘90s, Hollywood was poaching Hong Kong directors like John Wu, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam as well. So Yu wasn’t fluent in English, which perhaps contributed to communication issues and deciding to leave the final cut in American hands.
“I think it was a rough first cut,” Mancini said.
“It just wasn’t ready. His English wasn’t superb. I think that was an issue. Sometimes there was a communication issue. He was more the visuals.”
All respect to Ronny Yu, his essential contribution to Bride of Chucky was bringing on his Bride with White Hair cinematographer Peter Pau, who later won an Oscar for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. That was no easy sell on the studio.
“Peter Pau deserves so much credit,” Kirschner said. “We were so blown away by the way that it looked. Universal did not want to hire him. He was older. He spoke almost no English. They wanted someone cool and hip and someone that was doing videos. We fought tooth and nail to have this guy who had done The Bride With White Hair with Ronny.”
Screamfest continues through Thursday, October 18.
