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Tribeca '09 Preview! Mr. Beaks Gets To The Heart Of TELL-TALE With Director Michael Cuesta!
TRUE! There have been many attempts to bring Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" to the screen, but, to date, the only completely successful adaptations of the 2,148-word short story have, appropriately enough, kept it brief. It's not like there's a great deal to the narrative: basically, a nut-job kills an old man because he doesn't like his "vulture eye", hides the hacked-up remains under the floorboards of his house, and is driven to confession after being tortured by what he believes to be the cacophonous throbbing of the old man's heart.
But what if, rather than beating from the floorboards, the heart of the victim was transplanted into another body and drove its new host crazy with thoughts of revenge? That's the premise of Michael Cuesta's TELL-TALE, a "psychological paranoid thriller" set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24th. Written by THE HORSEMEN's Dave Callaham, the film stars Josh Lucas as a struggling single father who inexplicably becomes consumed with vengeance after receiving his new heart. Lena Headey also appears as a doctor who's been treating his daughter for a "rare degenerative disorder" (must be some rotten genes in that family). Rounding out the cast is the great Brian Cox as a somewhat devilish detective who encourages Lucas's bizarre pursuit of justice.
Shot in Providence, Rhode Island, and produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, the film promises to be a stylish variation on Poe's blood-curdling yarn. With the premiere a little over a week away, I got on the phone with Cuesta to find out what prompted the indie director of L.I.E. and TWELVE AND HOLDING to take on his first commercial feature. In the following interview, we discuss the influence of Cronenberg on TELL-TALE, the Poe-ness of Providence, the difficulty of editing a film with a strong-willed producer (Ridley Scott), and much more.
Mr. Beaks: Your first two films [L.I.E. and TWELVE AND HOLDING], were small, personal movies. TELL-TALE seems an attempt at something more commercial.
Michael Cuesta: Yeah, I think so. Between making those two smaller movies, I did a couple of TV shows that introduced me to a more commercial world. I did the pilot and also produced and directed the first season of DEXTER, and that kind of reminded me how much I love genre films. And in the midst of trying to get a third film made, of a book I adapted that was more in the vein of TWELVE AND HOLDING, that ignited the urge to make a genre movie - mainly horror, which has always been my favorite. Funny enough, when I did L.I.E. and even TWELVE AND HOLDING, I approached those as if they were social horror movies.
But the filmmakers we love who do [horror] well, guys like Cronenberg and Kubrick... they're the kinds of filmmakers that try to make them almost into art movies. Cronenberg is really the guy. I discovered him when I was in the eighth grade and went to see THE BROOD. I snuck into it, and I was like, "What is this?" Then after that, SCANNERS came out and... I had a whole group of friends who were just completely taken by his movies. They weren't just horror movies; they went much deeper.
Beaks: I think that's an interesting way into TELL-TALE. Cronenberg was a master of body horror, and it seems like TELL-TALE is something of a body horror film, too.
Cuesta: Exactly. Look, dude, this was a very hard movie to make. There were a lot of producers, so there were many, many opinions. This was the first film where I had more money at stake and more people nervous and several people not knowing what the hell they were doing. That gets in the way of interpretation, if you know what I mean, especially when you're dealing with Edgar Allen Poe and the deep ideas he puts out in his writing - and which David [Callaham] put in his script. I did a rewrite with David on the script.
But I think the Cronenberg that's in TELL-TALE... in hindsight, I wish there was more. I wish there was more silence, I wish there was more sex - and when I say "sex", I mean "sexual". (Laughs) I think it's sensual in the way it looks, and the relationship that's at the core of the movie. But, yes, it definitely involves the body, and the mind-body connection. "Is it my body? Is it my mind?" It's exploring those connections. When you see the film, one of the better parts is that his daughter has a very rare disease; she's a physical anomaly like himself. That's an interesting relationship.
Beaks: To give people a sense of what the movie is, it sounds like the narrative is basically "The Tell-Tale Heart", but with the heart up out of the floorboards and embedded in Josh Lucas's character. And it's actively trying to find the murderer rather than lying there and driving the culprit crazy? Is that accurate?
Cuesta: It's doing both. The floorboards are his body, his chest. And it is driving him crazy. The similarity with Poe is that it has that madness and insanity. "Is it me, or is it my mind?" "Is it my own prejudice?" - as it is in "The Tell-Tale Heart" with him accusing the old man. And "Am I in control, or not in control?" It being in his own chest, it keeps beating in his own head; therefore, his conscience is telling him "I need to do this." And he ends up believing and following it.
Beaks: You mentioned that you rewrote the script with Dave Callaham. How was that process? Were you both bringing different things to the table?
Cuesta: One relationship was changed drastically, and one character was changed. There's a relationship at the core of the film; it was originally a friendship between a man and a woman, and I made it into a romance. I wanted to explore more of the affairs of the heart, I guess you could say. And I did that by creating a romance, as well as developing another character in the film - who I think came out great. Brian Cox plays a detective who's investigating the crime Josh Lucas's character is avenging. He kind of uses Josh ultimately as an instrument of revenge. He plays it kind of like Mephistopheles; he helps him make the Faustian deal in a way. His character is great. He was originally in the script, but it wasn't fully developed, so Dave and I developed it. Then I called Brian, and told him "Look, I have this character. Would you be interested in playing him?" And Brian was like, "Yeah, I'll do anything. Just send me the script." Once I knew Brian was on board, it was very easy to write because you know what Brian can do. (Laughs) That helps a lot.
Beaks: If you're thinking of Mephistopheles, why not start with Brian Cox?
Cuesta: Exactly. You can't get better than that for the devil. He could read the phone book and be scary.
Beaks: So you've had a great relationship with Brian since L.I.E.?
Cuesta: Yeah. Brian is tough, but he's tough in that he wants you to know what the fuck you're doing on set. You know how it is: you can write a script all you want, but when you make it it's a completely different animal. Brian's a pro. He understood what we were doing with the character, and he brought a lot to the table. There's this one scene where Brian's character wants a sort of confirmation about what really happened to this man and what's driving him. If you do the research, there's this thing called "cell memory", and it translates into having certain cravings of their donors. So he goes to get confirmation at the hospital, but I played it that he gets it and, at the same time, acts sort of like the devil. "This is what you need to do. Go and finish the job." He's the devil on [Lucas's] shoulder. "Kill! Kill!" (Laughs)
Beaks: That's an interesting way of going about it.
Cuesta: My hope is that people who love genre movies take to it, but also people who are looking for something different. I'm hoping L.I.E. and DEXTER fans take to it.
Beaks: Two of your producers, Ridley and Tony Scott, are known for taking genre scripts and imbuing them with a distinctive style.
Cuesta: That's right. Tony wasn't very involved, but Ridley was very involved in the postproduction. Nothing in the developing of the script - some of his producers were; he has several who worked on it through his company [Scott Free]. But Ridley was very much involved in post. At times it was good, and at times it was a wrestle. I mean, it's two filmmakers in a room, and you're never going to see eye-to-eye on everything. That was a very interesting experience, wrestling with him a little bit at times.
Beaks: TELL-TALE was done outside of a studio. Do you have U.S. distribution yet?
Cuesta: No, no. It was independently made. I didn't produce this film. It was financed by a company called Social Capital, which also sold the foreign sales rights. We're basically using Tribeca as a launching pad for the U.S. It's a tough market. I'm sure my sales agent has his hands full.
Beaks: But it's a horror film, and those movies often perform strongly. You've also got Josh Lucas, Lena Headey and Brian Cox. Those are very attractive pieces, if you want to think about the film that way.
Cuesta: And Lena's super sexy. She surprised me. We cast her a week before we started shooting, and I kept her British accent. I wouldn't let her do that generic American accent that she does on [TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES] or stuff like that. She's kind of an interesting character; she's enigmatic in the movie. She's a doctor, and she's taking care of the main character's daughter, and she's very restrained. Lena's just like that: she's always not giving it away.
As far as the movie goes, I'd call it a psychological paranoid thriller. It looks like a horror movie at times because I do bring in baroque and gothic elements, but when I think of horror today I think of THE RING and I think of SAW. This is much more psychological and paranoid, but... it tries to make the grotesque beautiful. There are a few scenes where I try to do that.
Beaks: When you say "grotesque", I suppose there's an expectation that a heart is going to be ripped out of a chest at some point.
Cuesta: There are a few moments where you'll have to turn away, but... I pull back on them so maybe they'll be more effective. I show a little less than what you typically see, but I think it really gets under your skin.
We shot it in twenty-nine days in Providence - which happens to be a great Poe city, by the way. We lucked out. Not only was it a tax break; it's also a salty, seafaring, turn-of-the-century Poe type of town. It really worked quite well. It has all of the demonically gothic textures of Poe. And the whole Brown University element was perfect for the film.
Beaks: I'm trying to think if anyone's exploited Providence for that.
Cuesta: I think that we might be the first film that has done that - just the way I made it look. I shot it last year in the early spring, right when the trees were budding. It was cold and it looked like you were very much in the Poe world that he writes. You know, there's this building that has this plaque saying [Poe stayed there] with his mistress as he traveled up the Eastern seaboard writing all of his stories.
As we wrapped up the interview, Cuesta informed me that he's working on a screenplay with his brother for a "shoestring" independent feature. He'll also be directing the finale for the second season of Alan Ball's TRUE BLOOD (he hasn't seen a script yet, so no details for you!).
For those of you hitting up the Tribeca Film Festival next week, here's the screening schedule for TELL-TALE.
Premiere – Friday, April 24th at 9:30pm – BMCC Tribeca PAC
Press & Industry Screening 1 – Saturday, April 25th at 11:30am - AMC Village 7, Theater 2
Public Screening 2 - Monday, April 27th at 4:45pm – AMC Village 7, Theater 1
Public Screening 3 - Friday, May 1st at 9:45pm – AMC Village 7, Theater 3
Check it out and let us know how it is!
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
But the filmmakers we love who do [horror] well, guys like Cronenberg and Kubrick... they're the kinds of filmmakers that try to make them almost into art movies. Cronenberg is really the guy. I discovered him when I was in the eighth grade and went to see THE BROOD. I snuck into it, and I was like, "What is this?" Then after that, SCANNERS came out and... I had a whole group of friends who were just completely taken by his movies. They weren't just horror movies; they went much deeper.
But I think the Cronenberg that's in TELL-TALE... in hindsight, I wish there was more. I wish there was more silence, I wish there was more sex - and when I say "sex", I mean "sexual". (Laughs) I think it's sensual in the way it looks, and the relationship that's at the core of the movie. But, yes, it definitely involves the body, and the mind-body connection. "Is it my body? Is it my mind?" It's exploring those connections. When you see the film, one of the better parts is that his daughter has a very rare disease; she's a physical anomaly like himself. That's an interesting relationship.
As far as the movie goes, I'd call it a psychological paranoid thriller. It looks like a horror movie at times because I do bring in baroque and gothic elements, but when I think of horror today I think of THE RING and I think of SAW. This is much more psychological and paranoid, but... it tries to make the grotesque beautiful. There are a few scenes where I try to do that.
We shot it in twenty-nine days in Providence - which happens to be a great Poe city, by the way. We lucked out. Not only was it a tax break; it's also a salty, seafaring, turn-of-the-century Poe type of town. It really worked quite well. It has all of the demonically gothic textures of Poe. And the whole Brown University element was perfect for the film.
For those of you hitting up the Tribeca Film Festival next week, here's the screening schedule for TELL-TALE.
Premiere – Friday, April 24th at 9:30pm – BMCC Tribeca PAC
Press & Industry Screening 1 – Saturday, April 25th at 11:30am - AMC Village 7, Theater 2
Public Screening 2 - Monday, April 27th at 4:45pm – AMC Village 7, Theater 1
Public Screening 3 - Friday, May 1st at 9:45pm – AMC Village 7, Theater 3
Press & Industry Screening 1 – Saturday, April 25th at 11:30am - AMC Village 7, Theater 2
Public Screening 2 - Monday, April 27th at 4:45pm – AMC Village 7, Theater 1
Public Screening 3 - Friday, May 1st at 9:45pm – AMC Village 7, Theater 3
Check it out and let us know how it is!
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
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But I feel the same way about that I do almost every adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde: the original is so damn perfect, modifying it can only make it worse.
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interesting idea, but the original is so amazing that there is really nowhere to go but down in terms of quality. Do you think the government can make a list of books, short stories, and movies that can no longer be remade?
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kinda eliminates the idea that the killers guilt drives him nuts, right? in poes tale, the killer is alone with the body under his floor and he cannot ignore it. or am i thinking of a different story altogether.
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...of course the Tell Tale Heart is so short and simple that any film version can't have much more than a title in common with the story...and hopefully something heart-related in the plot. Sounds interesting though.
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I do love Poe, have his complete short story collection on my bookshelf. Cuesta seems to have the right stuff to make a compelling movie out of this. Can't wait to hear the verdict from Tribeca.
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in the original story, the killer is confronted by the police inside the house where he hid the person he killed under the floorboards. The police suspect nothing, but the killer still hears the heartbeats of the person he killed under the floorboards, so right as they're about to leave he screams out "Villains! dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!" Sorry I'm taking a class where we thoroughly analyzed the story, so it's pretty fresh in my head.
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its been a while since i read it. i forgot about the police being there. yeah so pesonal guilt does him in. a nice modern twist could have been the killer just kills and runs and then gets THE heart transplant. or the killer thinks anyone he meets could be THE heart transplant recipient.
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...but it sure smells good!
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i rolled my eyes, but after reading the rest of the interview i have to say it sounds interesting.
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thats the word on ew street man. dont be hating on me.
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as good as
http://tinyurl.com/c3ng5q -
Very imaginitive and atmospheric, a classic. Think it's on YouTube
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Sly? Err... Jacko? Anyone?
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So yay for this! paul dano is great in l.i.e. btw. thats where i first saw him and then didn't recognize him in the girl next door... hah. Anyways i hope this gets good distribution and eventually makes it's way to Australia.
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Wasn't sure if I would be going to this..... Now I KNOW I am.
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Apr 24, 2009 11:23:09 PM CDT
"TELL TALE" TRIBECA PREMIERE CAUSES AUDIENCE MEMBER TO HAVE A H
by longislandman
NO FRICKING KIDDING-- "TELL TALE" TRIBECA PREMIERE CAUSES AUDIENCE MEMBER TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK! HOLY SHIT!!!!!!! I just caught the premiere of the Tony and Ridley Scott produced TELL TALE at the Tribeca Film Fest and I’m still shaking. Both from the film--- and from what fucking happened during the screening. After I read Mr. Beaks article about this flick earlier in the week , I was interested in checking it out. Holy shit, what a film. And I kid you not. It was so intense, about ten minutes from the end after one of the most traumatic sequences, some dude in the audience literally had a heart attack. For REAL. The film was paused for half an hour while the paramedics came and attended to the poor guy, who was taken out a stretcher. After the film came back on for yet another shocking ten minutes, I asked around and it seems that the gentlemen in question will be okay. (PRAYERS AND BLESSINGS FOR A FULL RECOVERY) I still can't believe this shit happened. But seriously, this film is THAT damn intense. Who would have thought the best in new horror was to be found at Tribeca ? After a rash of dumbed-down remakes like FRIDAY THE 13th and unimaginative crap like THE UNBORN and THE UNINVITED, this is the real deal, a welcome and refreshing return to the high-end, brooding psychological dread of films such as Roman Polanksi’s REPULSION and THE TENANT, Adrian Lyne's JACOB’S LADDER, Alan Parker's ANGEL HEART, Christopher Nolan's MEMENTO or the collective works of David Fincher (THE GAME, PANIC ROOM, SEVEN and ZODIAC). Edgar Allen Poe by way of David Cronenberg, you might even say, and as he said in his interview with Mr. Beaks, director Michael Cuesta (who gave us L.I.E. and TV’s DEXTER) has definitely watched his share of Cronenberg ; for in mood, tone and character reality TELL TALE falls right in line with THE DEAD ZONE, THE BROOD and THE FLY.
I am amazed that nobody has ever sought to adapt Poe’s THE TELL-TALE HEART before. Of all the Vincent Price/Roger Corman Poe pics, not one tackled the story. Screenwriter Dave Callaham cleverly uses the basic elements of the classic short tale, but whereas the undying heart of Poe’s story lay beating in the murdered body of the protagonist’s victim beneath the floorboards under which he was buried, here that heart rests in the chest of single father Josh Lucas, recipient of a transplant from what turns out to be a murdered man whose dead spirit is bent on revenge. Just like the hands of the serial killer grafted onto the severed stubs of an unwitting pianist in the horror classic MAD LOVE, this relocated organ begins to take over Lucas in both body and mind, drawing him ever closer, and ever more violently, towards those responsible for the crime. Along the way there are some great supporting characters that add a level of humanity which really flesh out the piece and raise the stakes. There is Lucas’ young daughter who suffers from a degenerative bone disease (SO Cronenberg) that brings her in touch with Sara Connor herself, Lena Heady, playing a caring and (what else) sexy doctor that becomes the glue between father and daughter when their world begins to break apart as Lucas spirals more and more out of control. Heady is terrific, as is Lucas, who truly shines in his role, making us feel so deeply for his plight at the same time that we are frightened of the murderous monster he is becoming. Adding real spice to the mix is the always amazing Brian Cox, playing a cop whose character defies cliché when he goes from hunting Lucas to becoming his Svengali-like puppeteer.
Twists abound, nothing goes the way you think it will go, whether it be the plot or the frequent outburst of gruesome horror that abound. From the grisly opening credits depicting the bloody murder of the heart’s original owner to its graphic transplant into Lucas, director Cuesta does not shy away from the gore. But it’s done with a sense of poetry and craft that, coupled with the film’s breathtaking cinematography and Rhode Island locale make you both want to watch AND look away. All this adds up to an underlying tone of dread that I could not shake from the moment the film began to its melancholy finale. Truly channeling Poe at its core, this is a haunting piece of filmmaking. A real beauty. Again, films like DON’T LOOK NOW come to mind.
All of this is not to say that the film doesn't have a few drawbacks, such as some of the romantic relationships (e.g. hot doctors falling in love with sickly, broke-ass patients) and rather convenient detective work. There also could have been more villain character development for my taste. Regardless, for those looking for cerebral horror that truly approaches art, this is a rare treat. But not to worry, blood hounds. Without giving spoilers, suffice it to say there is a sequence near the climax that rivals the “Is it safe” dental drilling sequence from MARATHON MAN in terms of faint-inducing squirming. If not heart attack inducing as judged from the horrific situation tonight. (Again, I thank GOD that this audience member will be all right--- and again, prayers and blessings for a full recovery). A soon to be referenced classic sequence in the making for sure. Hats off to Tribeca for being the unlikely showcase for new directions in horror. May this film find the distribution and audience it deserves. It’ what HORROR movies are truly meant to be. Mr. Poe himself would be proud.
Submitted by JJ Butler aka LongIslandMan
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