"AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS"
Three young college graduates on a "Daredevil Tour of Europe" descend upon Paris seeking some serious fun. Along the way, Andy (TOM EVERETT SCOTT) meets the woman of his dreams, the beautiful and mysterious Serafine (JULIE DELPY). The only problem is, when the moon is full, his dream girl turns into the stuff of which nightmares are made. Dressed to kill, his sharp-toothed date gives new meaning to the expression, "a howling good time," in Hollywood Pictures' thriller, "An American Werewolf in Paris."
Hollywood Pictures presents, in association with Cometstone Pictures and J&M Entertainment, A Richard Claus Production of An Anthony Waller Film, "An American Werewolf in Paris." Directed by Anthony Waller, the film is written by Tim Burns & Tom Stern and Anthony Waller, based on characters created by John Landis in "An American Werewolf in London." The producer is Richard Claus. Executive producer is Anthony Waller. Co-producer is Alexander Buchman. Buena Vista Pictures distributes.
Even a Man Who is Pure of Heart, And Says His Prayers by Night, Can Become a Wolf when the Wolfbane Blooms And the Moon is Full and Bright. -"The Wolf Man" (1941)
Those eerie words were first uttered more than half a century ago by a strange gypsy to an American traveling in a foreign land, a young man who had the misfortune to be attacked and bitten by a werewolf ... causing him to transform into a werewolf himself.
Now today, another young American, Andy (Tom Everett Scott), traveling across Europe in the company of his two best friends Brad (Vince Vieluf) and Chris (Phil Buckman), is about to experience his own fateful encounter. While on a self-styled "Daredevil Tour," searching for adventure, intent upon out-performing one another, they hit upon the ultimate stunt-a bungee jump from the pinnacle of Paris' most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower.
Scaling to the top of that tower under cover of darkness, Andy is just about to jump when someone else leaps first. Unknown to Andy, Serafine (Julie Delpy, the most gorgeous young woman he has ever laid eyes upon), has chosen that moment to end her life by committing suicide from atop the tower. Still attached to his bungee line, Andy makes an insanely brave, split-second decision to leap after her. The rescue is successful, but in the attempt Andy is injured, knocked unconscious, and Serafine escapes. When he awakens in the hospital, he is obsessed with finding the sad, beautiful woman whose life he has saved. It is an obsession that leads him to uncover-to his horror, and at the risk of his own soul-her dangerous secret.
Serafine is a natural born werewolf. Thanks to her ex-boyfriend Claude (Pierre Cosso) she is not the only one alive and well in the City of Light. Whilst Serafine and her Stepfather had spent a lifetime searching for a cure for her lycanthropy, Claude had stolen her blood and contaminated himself with it on purpose. In turn he has infected a small group of xenophobic right-wing radical followers, who share his goal of cleansing Paris of human scum-by feeding on them. Ironically, when she tries to rescue Andy from Claude's evil clutches, he is bitten, thereby becoming a werewolf himself. Now Andy's new-found love carries with it a bleak dilemma: to cure himself he must devour the heart of the werewolf that bit him.
"An American Werewolf in Paris" is not so much a direct sequel to "An American Werewolf in London," than it is a continuation of the 1981 hit horror-comedy.
According to writer/director/executive producer Anthony Waller, the opportunity to create a story that explored the bestial side of human nature strongly attracted him. "The more animalistic we humans become," he states, "the more we have in common with each other. As you strip away the outer layers of 'civilized' behavior and get closer to the core of each human, you're closer to the original instincts which drive us. You're peeling away layers of restraint and self-control and morals-because animals have no sense of right and wrong. In a way, you can't be evil as an animal, so as a werewolf, you can't be evil, either."
Not that some of these "animals" aren't capable of evil behavior when the moon is less than full: The bad werewolves, led by Claude, perceive themselves as being higher, not lower, than ordinary human beings on the evolutionary scale. "They see themselves as the epitome of evolutionary design, and they exploit this knowingly," explains Waller. "This logic gives Claude his own moral justification for his actions and creates a more interesting character-a villain who is unaware that he is evil. On the contrary, they want to spread their group in order to clean up the world. They see themselves as doing society a service. That's why Claude hosts his 'full moon' parties and invites who he considers to be the scum of the earth," Waller chuckles. "It's a very subjective point of view, since he also happens to include American tourists in that category."
The writer/director/executive producers' remark points up another important aspect of "An American Werewolf in Paris." Namely that it is not just a horror story but a comedy-horror story, like its predecessor. "I love the combination," Waller states enthusiastically.
"Technically speaking, 'Paris' is a sequel," explains producer Richard Claus. "Even though it's a movie that stands completely on its own.
"None of the characters in the first film appear in 'An American Werewolf in Paris,' although we do use similar un-dead characters for comic relief, and we do use American tourists. There is also an off-screen link between the two films that may only be evident to the most sharp-witted and knowledgeable fans. The most important thing for us was not to make a sequel, in the sense of a cheap spin-off of something that had been successful."
Producer Claus and writer/director/executive producer Waller were first brought to the project by another production company that owned the sequel rights to "An American Werewolf in London." The two had recently completed a successful collaboration on Waller's debut feature film, the Hitchcockian thriller "Mute Witness," and were looking for another film to work on.
"Anthony and I were discussing future projects," reveals Claus, "and the picture 'An American Werewolf in London' came up several times as a reference to what kinds of films we liked."
When the production company that had been developing an "An American Werewolf" sequel for several years approached Claus and Waller to create "An American Werewolf in Paris" as a producer/director team-for-hire, both were immediately thrilled with the idea. "We had a couple of meetings, and Anthony and I told them we'd really like to make a sequel to 'An American Werewolf in London.' We liked the concept."
Adds Waller, "They [the other company] had been developing the sequel but we bought the franchise from them and decided to make it ourselves."
Like Waller and producer Claus, many of the principals involved in the production are also fans of the original "An American Werewolf in London," sharing a desire that their movie equal if not exceed the quality of that first film.
"'An American Werewolf in London' is a classic," says star Tom Everett Scott, who portrays Andy. "I always like a good horror movie-but I can't just sit down and watch any old slasher flick. 'London' was a good one."
Scott's co-star, Julie Delpy, agrees. "I loved the first 'Werewolf' movie. I like 'funny horror, so I really enjoyed it. When it's good. It's great. And this is great!"
How do those involved with the sequel feel "An American Werewolf in Paris" compares with its predecessor? "I see ours as being 'lighter,'" says Anthony Waller. "We're certainly aiming it at a wider audience. I consider it even more commercial than the first one."
Tom Everett Scott says simply, "It's a fun movie. I think it's going to be well received by a lot of people."
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
"An American Werewolf in Paris" was filmed on location in France, Luxembourg and Holland. Having only a couple of weeks to shoot in Paris, the filmmakers were forced to duplicate much of the City of Light at Studio Luxembourg, including building their own "Eiffel Tower" on an interior sound stage. Several important exteriors-such as the famous Pere-Lachaise Cemetery where rock music legend Jim Morrison is buried, and the site of one of the film's key "transformation" scenes-had to be replicated as well. According to production designer Matthias Kammermeier, "Because we had only a few shooting days in Paris, we had to use the days as much as possible to show the city at its best. The rest we had to do in Luxembourg. It was very difficult."
The production ended up building a lot more than they had planned, but in some ways it gave them more control over the look of the film. One problem was finding a real church in which to shoot. When the director and producers spoke to priests in both Paris and Luxembourg about using their sanctuaries, the clergy took it all very seriously. They believed that the devil exists in werewolves and were genuinely frightened that the devil would slip into the story's fictitious werewolf.
It turned out that production designer Kammermeier built sets on 70 locations with 21 studio sets. The Eiffel Tower nearly became one of them. Producer Richard Claus explains, "Two weeks before shooting began we still did not have permission to shoot on the Eiffel Tower. Just in case, we had video taped a radio tower in Berlin and a model at a theme park and visual effects supervisor John Grower had come up with a digital version by the time we had lunch with our French co-producer and the lady from the French Government. Luckily by the end of the meeting she could see no reason for us not to shoot there.
"The difficulty all along had been that the Eiffel Tower used to be the meeting place for anyone who wanted to commit suicide. In our script we had a suicide attempt, kids climbing up the sides, a bungee jump and we wanted permission to shoot all over the Tower."
Director/writer/executive producer Waller's team shot in Paris over a period of two weeks. Not only had they been allowed to shoot anywhere they wanted on the Eiffel Tower, but the lights were also left on all night for the shooting. Usually the three giant switches that control the lights are turned off at midnight.
The move to Luxembourg meant production designer Kammermeier's sets had to be ready. "As the studio stages were very low I had to find a factory or warehouse that had ceilings high enough to accommodate the 40-foot green screens," he explains. "It also had to be wide enough to build large sets. We found an abandoned factory at Wecker that had apparently been used to build part of Saddam Hussein's super-cannon. I built the church there, Jim Morrison's grave and the platform of the Eiffel Tower, which was one of the most time consuming efforts."
Thirty feet off the ground, Julie Delpy was asked to jump from the platform. "I'm terrified of everything, especially heights!" the actress says. "This has been the most physical movie I have ever done," she explains, "and doing it helped me conquer a lot of fears."
There were three different underground locations to represent the catacombs connected to the church. A part of them was shot at Trois Glands, a historic site near the European parliament and various sections were built by Kammermeier on the stages at the studio. These included an underground waterworks set with a massive 160,000 liters of water being pumped through it.
The rest was shot in the catacombs of Um Boch. Attracting thousands of tourists every year, they consist of a network of man-made tunnels which were a part of the original, fortified town of Luxembourg, dating back to 974 A.D.
Some additional Paris street scenes were shot on Sundays in the center of the city. The odd passer-by would see open, bleeding wounds and a dislodged eyeball as Julie Bowen's (who portrays Amy) make-up became more and more startling. "I was definitely shocked on the first day," Bowen says, "because I thought they were kidding when they said it was going to take six hours to put my make-up on! It did. It was very uncomfortable and I couldn't see a thing through the contact lenses. I guess the longest I sat there was 8 hours, but at the end it looked incredible. Really gross!"
It was also a complicated production to manage, given that shooting took place in three different countries, with a crew that represented some eighteen different nationalities and the film's numerous and essential digital effects were being created half a world away, in Southern California. Fortunately, many of the important behind-the-camera creative personnel-including director of photography Egon Werdin, composer Wilbert Hirsch, production designer Kammermeier and editor Peter Adam -- were Europeans who had worked previously with Waller and producer Richard Claus on the director's debut feature, "Mute Witness."
According to Richard Claus, "We wanted to go on working with the people we'd worked with on 'Mute Witness.' At the same time, after having done some research, we very quickly came to the decision to go to Santa Barbara Studios in California with the visual effects, because there are only a handful of people around the world who can really do the full CGI creature animation we needed. In Europe, we were working mostly with a crew of people we'd worked with before. We just adopted a couple more people to our 'family' who happened to be Southern Californians.
Waller's and Claus' intention from the beginning was to bring in a team that could push the visual effects envelope in much the same way that the creators of "An American Werewolf in London" had been able to do years before. They soon discovered a soul-mate in John Grower, founder and president of Santa Barbara Studios.
"We were the effects contractor for the whole picture," explains Grower. "All the digital visual effects. There was some puppet work for extreme close-ups and very fast action, but almost every time you see a werewolf for more than eight frames, it was digitally created. Walking, jumping, leaping, attacking werewolves that can run on twos and fours. I doubt anybody will reach the end of the film thinking, 'Gee, I wish I could have seen more werewolves.'"
Like writer/director/executive producer Waller and producer Claus, John Grower is well aware of the inevitable comparisons between the original "An American Werewolf in London" and its new sequel. "It would be hard to do it better than John Landis and Rick Baker did it," states Grower, speaking of the first film's writer/director and special effects wizard, respectively. "But in the first movie you never saw the werewolf from the waist down, because there were puppet rods. We wanted multiple werewolves running and leaping and interacting with actors and doing things you couldn't do any other way than to computer-generate them. That's what's new and innovative about 'An American Werewolf in Paris.' We needed to do fully articulated werewolves that had to work in all kids of camera angels, and we had to do it economically. That was really the most amazing thing, that we were actually able to create totally realistic werewolves, in a timely fashion, without a gigantic budget."
The film's stunning effects, however, created a challenge for director Waller: namely, how to prevent the eye-popping visuals from overwhelming the characterizations and the human element of the story he desired to tell.
His solution? "You don't have to anything which tries to compete against the effects," he states. "The effects are there to underline what the main content of the story and the characters are. For me, an explosion or spectacular special effect has no dramatic effect unless there's an emotion attached. A house exploding can look spectacular, but it can only have a dramatic effect if somebody that you care for is in the house. One has to be aware of the dramatic content within the film and not just think, 'All right, we need another explosion because films with explosions are exciting.' It's about keeping tabs on what it is which gets an audience emotionally involved and excited and scared and laughing, and not losing track of those."
Essential to that is the strength and depth of the characters themselves, as well as the precise casting of those parts. "An American Werewolf in Paris" is a story about several characters who literally undergo major transformations-including the story's central characters, Andy and Serafine.
According to Waller, "Andy is like a puppy dog who becomes a wolf. He's a little clumsy, but he's likable and courageous at heart, and he's got strong principles-all endearing qualities. That he's a softie who turns into a beast, to me, makes for a more interesting situation than somebody who's a macho hero-type from the start. What he turns into is more an extreme opposite of what he starts out as."
Tom Everett Scott adds, "When I first read the script, I remember writing down in the margin that Andy was a romantic, that he was looking for love. He's this romantic guy who, when he finds himself faced with all these crazy things, like this petrifying situation with the werewolves, he just falls right into it. He's not a skeptic or a cynic, he just takes it on. All these crazy things are happening around him, and in a way he becomes the eyes and ears of the audience, representing the audience going through it as well."
As played by Julie Delpy, Serafine, the object of Andy's affection as well as the source of his unfortunate curse, was also carefully drawn and cast. "I wanted someone for the part who was enigmatic," explains Waller. "Where just the pure sight of her makes you think there's a bit more to her than what appears to be on the surface. I didn't want a typical model-type beauty. Julie has more of an 'interesting' face-a very photogenic face, almost angelic, a face that's the opposite of what you'd imagine in a monster. When you look at her, you know that she has secrets."
For Delpy, there was also something of a personal challenge in getting a handle on her character. "It's hard to inspire yourself with reality when you're playing a werewolf," she states. "I really had to use my imagination. I talked with Anthony, and what we figured out is that werewolves operate on a cycle. She develops almost a split personality. The full moon comes once a month, her hormones rage, she becomes more and more frantic. She loses her temper easily. She has to be mysterious and frightening, but at the same time the overall tone of the movie was pretty light, so I had to find a middle ground. It was good to make her mysterious, but she also had to be light, not dark."
Given the many daunting obstacles there were to overcome-the task of crafting a sequel to one of the most popular films of the past twenty years, the logistics of moving hundreds of crew personnel across the borders of several different countries, the responsibility for devising special effects that had never before been realized on screen the same way-which obstacles did the creators find most challenging?
"It's a cumulative effect," says Anthony Waller. "One aspect was the fact that there were so many variables which had to be kept under control. It's the cumulative effect of so many shooting days, so many kinds of special effects, so many different things. With a feature film, there's just this sheer amount you have to keep control of."
Though, in the end, there were also definite rewards. Producer Richard Claus states, "We've had test screenings and spoken to audiences and heard what they think, and lot of people-most of the people, actually, who we interviewed after the screenings-have said they thought 'An American Werewolf in Paris' is even better than 'An American Werewolf in London.' We couldn't be prouder."
