http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZWrpJQ-YTM
DVD Release Date: June 10, 2014
from an interview with director Mark Hartley
BUG: Very cool. Well how did you assemble this cast? It’s a really great cast, with Charles Dance, Rachel Griffith, Sharni Vinson—how did each of them become involved in this film?
MH: We always wanted to get some kind of prestige cast for this film. And so when we wrote the screenplay we really did overwrite it, we wanted it to read like it was a smart dialog-driven story so we could attract a decent cast. And thankfully Charles, you know, responded to it, and Rachel had been a fan of the original when she was a kid so I think that was part of the appeal for her also in playing Julia Blake’s role. Sharni, I think Sharni was just an actress who like the script and sent in an audition and almost at the same time as we originally started casting this film, YOU’RE NEXT had played Toronto had played Midnight Madness and it made huge buzz of that film so casting Sharni seemed like a complete no-brainer to reach a link to the sales agent for this film.
BUG: Very cool. Well how did you assemble this cast? It’s a really great cast, with Charles Dance, Rachel Griffith, Sharni Vinson—how did each of them become involved in this film?
MH: We always wanted to get some kind of prestige cast for this film. And so when we wrote the screenplay we really did overwrite it, we wanted it to read like it was a smart dialog-driven story so we could attract a decent cast. And thankfully Charles, you know, responded to it, and Rachel had been a fan of the original when she was a kid so I think that was part of the appeal for her also in playing Julia Blake’s role. Sharni, I think Sharni was just an actress who like the script and sent in an audition and almost at the same time as we originally started casting this film, YOU’RE NEXT had played Toronto had played Midnight Madness and it made huge buzz of that film so casting Sharni seemed like a complete no-brainer to reach a link to the sales agent for this film.
BUG: Speaking of Dance, he’s such a distinguished gentleman sort, in a diabolical way. Was it tough to get Charles Dance to eat the frog?
MH: It wasn’t tough to get Charles to do it. He was great. He was up for anything. He was sitting on the floor in the kitchen covered in frog slime and I kept thinking of this horrible taste he must have had in his mouth. There were some moments when I did think surely this actor is above this. But no, Charles was really great and it was amazing coming to work each day and hearing him put his life into the character that we scripted.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/67287
MH: It wasn’t tough to get Charles to do it. He was great. He was up for anything. He was sitting on the floor in the kitchen covered in frog slime and I kept thinking of this horrible taste he must have had in his mouth. There were some moments when I did think surely this actor is above this. But no, Charles was really great and it was amazing coming to work each day and hearing him put his life into the character that we scripted.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/67287
And then there’s Charles Dance as Dr Roget, the role played by Robert Helpmann in the original. And Charles doesn’t get anywhere near as hammy as Robert…
"Robert does have a camp edge in the original, yes, and that was the last thing that we wanted for our film. And Charles brings real authority to it, and he’s playing a character who’s so driven that nothing else is more important than his work, he brings real sincerity to the role too... And in some ways we wanted the film to be a throwback, and some people are saying that it reminds them of a Hammer horror film and so, if that’s the case, then Charles is our Peter Cushing. He’s got such charisma in real life too: he’s such a lovely, great guy, and he said to me often, 'Do you have any notes about my performance?', and I’d say, 'No! It’s just wonderful watching you breathe life into our dialogue!'. You know, when people heard that we were going to be remaking Patrick, they thought that we were going to be going for the whole hi-tech-thriller route, with Patrick able to program supercomputers, and be like a Bourne film with a guy in a coma......
http://www.ripitup.com.au/lifestyle/article/mark-hartley-director-of-patrick-interview#.U3-
"Robert does have a camp edge in the original, yes, and that was the last thing that we wanted for our film. And Charles brings real authority to it, and he’s playing a character who’s so driven that nothing else is more important than his work, he brings real sincerity to the role too... And in some ways we wanted the film to be a throwback, and some people are saying that it reminds them of a Hammer horror film and so, if that’s the case, then Charles is our Peter Cushing. He’s got such charisma in real life too: he’s such a lovely, great guy, and he said to me often, 'Do you have any notes about my performance?', and I’d say, 'No! It’s just wonderful watching you breathe life into our dialogue!'. You know, when people heard that we were going to be remaking Patrick, they thought that we were going to be going for the whole hi-tech-thriller route, with Patrick able to program supercomputers, and be like a Bourne film with a guy in a coma......
http://www.ripitup.com.au/lifestyle/article/mark-hartley-director-of-patrick-interview#.U3-
DG: How did Charles Dance feel about playing such an enjoyably creepy character?
MH: Charles just liked the script. We’d actually overwritten the script, it was much more verbose than most screenplays are because we wanted to attract a couple of prestige actors. And we wanted people to think this was a smart dumb movie as opposed to a dumb dumb movie? And Charles really liked the script and he liked the idea of coming to Australia, and he just liked the character. So I went over to England and met with him, and he’s very charming. He was just an absolute delight to work with. This was a very compact shoot, and we didn’t have a lot of time for takes, and he would just nail it. I said to him that it’s just amazing that you bring this slightly clunky dialogue on the page to life. He was just great to work with, a really lovely guy. The crew and the rest of the cast just really loved him.
http://dailygrindhouse.com/interviews/not-hollywood-director-mark-hartley-takes-patrick/
MH: Charles just liked the script. We’d actually overwritten the script, it was much more verbose than most screenplays are because we wanted to attract a couple of prestige actors. And we wanted people to think this was a smart dumb movie as opposed to a dumb dumb movie? And Charles really liked the script and he liked the idea of coming to Australia, and he just liked the character. So I went over to England and met with him, and he’s very charming. He was just an absolute delight to work with. This was a very compact shoot, and we didn’t have a lot of time for takes, and he would just nail it. I said to him that it’s just amazing that you bring this slightly clunky dialogue on the page to life. He was just great to work with, a really lovely guy. The crew and the rest of the cast just really loved him.
http://dailygrindhouse.com/interviews/not-hollywood-director-mark-hartley-takes-patrick/
