#i want to study the brain of leigh whannell

[thefinalinagirl]

I watched Doggie Heaven today and it looked like a fever dream Adam Stanheight once had which made him realize he's not a dog person at all

[brokehorrorfan]

Leigh Whannell Gets an “Upgrade:” Part 1

Leigh Whannell is the exception to the rule that says lightning never strikes twice. The Australian writer-director-actor helped revolutionize the horror genre twice over by penning the scripts for 2004's Saw and 2010's Insidious, both directed by James Wan. Forging ahead on a new path, Whannell has written and directed the genre-bending Upgrade.

In celebration of Upgrade's theatrical release tomorrow, June 1, via BH Tilt and OTL Releasing, I sat down with Whannell for an extended conversation about all things Upgrade, Saw, and Insidious. Read the first half below, and check back tomorrow for the conclusion.

Upgrade arose from Whannell's experience working with Blumhouse on the Insidious films. He challenged himself to create an expansive sci-fi world within the studio's low-budget business model. "I was using the original Terminator as my model for how you could achieve big sci-fi ideas within a lean and mean budget." He later cites RoboCop as another source of inspiration. "There was definitely a bit of Tetris that we had to play with the budget. It took a while to configure."

Although Whannell was pleased with his script, he didn't originally intend to direct it, as it was written before he made his directorial debut on Insidious: Chapter 3. "This would not have been a good first movie," he says with a smirk. "It would have been too much to handle." Upon stepping into the director's chair on the third Insidious, however, he was chomping at the bit to make another film. "I loved directing. I think I was prepared for directing to be a baseball bat to the face every minute of ever day. It turned out to be fun! Of course it has its stressful moments, but I really enjoyed the process."

Whannell was interested in making Upgrade his next movie, but the script had found its way into the very capable hands of Wolf Creek's Greg McLean, who was attached to direct. Whannell approached the fellow Aussie filmmaker: "I said, 'Do you mind if I direct this film?' Luckily, he said yes. He could have said no! So I'm thankful to him."

Logan Marshall-Green stars in Upgrade as a quadriplegic man who's implanted with Artificial Intelligence that gives him superhuman physical abilities. Although known for bigger roles in the likes of Prometheus, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Devil, and The O.C., the actor grabbed Whannell's attention in Karyn Kusama's 2015 slow-burn horror film The Invitation. "It's such a good film, and he handles that role so well. It's a role that is so consumed by grief, which is a big aspect of this movie, so I knew he'd be good for that."

Whannell's confidence in Marshall-Green was reinforced upon their first meeting about the film. "I could tell from his notes and his thoughts about the movie that he had really studied it from every angle. Some of his thoughts improved the movie. He's opinionated but not in an obtrusive or antagonistic way. He's gently offering his thoughts and opinions - and I like to steal those thoughts and pass them off as my own," he says with a laugh.

Whannell has been known to act in many of the films that he writes, but he opted to concentrate all of his energy behind the camera this time around. "I didn't want to split my brain or take on this multitasking challenge; I just wanted to direct." There was, however, a brief period early on where he considered playing the role of the hacker of the film. "We ended up casting someone who was gender neutral named Ky. To me, Ky delivered a far more interesting performance than I ever could have. I was very thankful that Ky played the role and not me," he beams.

The film is set in the near-future, with a cyberpunk aesthetic landing somewhere between Black Mirror and Blade Runner. Whannell credits production designer Felicity Abbott with helping to create the look. The fact that her resume consisted largely of period dramas and not a single genre film appealed to the filmmaker. "I knew that she would come at the sci-fi elements through a different lens. Immediately, that thought proved fortuitous. She was very opinionated about the world."

Abbott even challenged Whannell to be more creative with some aspects. They based the technology in the movie around the natural world. "We felt that tech in the future will try to mimic nature. We wanted to use a lot of wood, a lot of natural materials, a lot of indoor plants; as if people were trying to recreate nature in their own houses." A cloud of information, for example, is depicted as a literal cloud. "That was something that I feel someone else would not have brought to the table. She attacked it through a unique perspective."

Upgrades creative fight scenes manage to stand out among dynamic, modern action movies like John Wick, Mad Max: Fury Road, and The Raid. Ever humble, Whannell credits the stunt team, the actors, and cinematographer Stefan Duscio. "I don't know exactly what I'm good at in terms of directing, but I know I'm good at pep talks! I try to make people enthusiastic and let the crew take ownership of the film." In this case, Whannell encouraged the stunt team to try things they weren't allowed to do on other movies. "We don't have to reinvent the wheel completely," Whannell told them, "But let's come at it from an angle that we haven't seen before."

Beyond the unconventional approach, another key component to crafting the action set pieces is the fact that Whannell didn't want to use stunt performers. Instead, the stunt team instead taught the fight choreography to the actors. "They actually learned all these moves. It's really them doing it all, which was great." Duscio is responsible for the important, final ingredient: he locked the camera to Marshall-Green, allowing it physically move with him. "Hopefully it all adds up to something good," Whannell muses.

Click here to read the second half of my conversation with Leigh Whannell!