This past Friday First Look Studios released Brad Anderson’s (Session 9, The Machinist) latest thriller into theaters, Transsiberian, which follows a pair of American tourists who end up in one helluva heap of trouble. Inside you can read our exclusive chat with the director where he talks about the real-life inspiration for the film, among many other things (including his potential re-teaming with Scott Kosar and Christian Bale).
Today I chatted over the phone with director Brad Anderson about his new film, TRANSSIBERIAN, where he revealed a bunch of other films he has in the works, including a re-teaming with Christian Bale! First up, we spoke about the Hitchcockian train thriller, which is now in limited theatrical release.

“The film WAS based of a real life trip I took; I was sort of like the back packer character in the movie trekking through Asia, on my own Asian odyssey. I took the train to Moscow just like in the movie, I thought it would be a good way to meet real Russian people,” he tells Bloody-Disgusting. “The experience was interesting, kind of dramatic, exotic and abandoned. In thinking about the story, this seemed like the perfect place to lose a body where it may never be found. This is where the seeds of the story came from. [In the film] a woman… kills a person and tries to cover it up to get away with it, this train is the perfect setting. But, No particular incidents or encounters happened (on my trip) as they do in the film. As far as I know, I didn’t leave any dead bodies back in Siberia.”

TRANSSIBERIAN focuses on an American couple that travels on the famous Trans-Siberian train from China to Moscow and encounters another couple. What seems to be a simple train journey soon turns into a thrilling chase full of deception and murder as it becomes clear that not everybody is what they seem.

Anderson also talked a bit about to whether or not TRANSSIBERIAN is a film horror fans would enjoy.

“It depends on what kind of horror you are into. It’s certainly not a bloody-gory movie, it’s really a paranoid thriller. I would equate it more with a Roman Polanski or Hitchcock than I would with any sort of horror. I like horror films, but my horror tends to be more horror of the mind and less visceral. I suppose you call it psychological horror. Its not a horror movie, I would not define it in that way, it is horrific, but more of a paranoid thriller. Sort of like THE MACHINIST, but more of an adventure. This gets pretty fucked up, as well. It’s about building a level of suspense and dread, not just about a body count,”

Anderson broke the news to Bloody-Disgusting that he has a TON of projects in the works, including a re-teaming with writer Scott Kosar and star Christian Bale!

“I have a few horror specific things in the works, first I am doing ALL LOST SOULS, a serial Killer movie, and the other is called VANISHING, a smart post apocalyptic horror film. I have been offered some more mainstream stuff that does not quite appeal to me, in general, I prefer to do my own things, writing and directing my own work. However, I might be doing a remake of THE 7TH VICTIM, an old Val Lewton film, being remade by RKO. Its about a bunch of devil worshipers in New York, sort of a precursor to Rosemary’s Baby. The script isn’t done yet, but that will be cool, I love those old films! Lastly, Scott Kosar and I are trying to get another project off he ground called CONCRETE ISLAND, based on a story by JG Ballard. Like an urban Robinson Caruso story, but much more f**ked up. Christian Bale has expressed interest in being the lead. Its not a studio film, it’s a hallucinogenic odd movie, similar in tone to Cronenberg’s CRASH weird twisted and perverse. Its not horror, but its in that ballpark.”

TRANSSIBERIAN is now in theaters everywhere.