Early this morning – about 10 am, which is early to any movie blogger – I sat down with director Breck Eisner to talk about The Crazies. It was a unique situation for both of us. I had spent 4 of the last 12 hours of my life running a crash-course on the 27-year existence of The Crazies, watching both George Romero’s 1973 original and Eisner’s remake seemingly back-to-back. For Eisner, today is opening day. The film is in the can, the marketing machine has been rolling for months, and mine was one of the last in the long line of interviews standing between him and his opening weekend gross. We met early, at a rarely quiet spot in Downtown Austin known as The Speakeasy on Congress. We were two men, both exhausted and fulfilled because of the same cinematic property. Though one could argue (fairly) that his journey was much more arduous than mine.
In the 12-minute interview embedded below, you will see that we talked about that journey. Eisner spoke candidly about the challenges he faced in some of the film’s more intimate moments, the experience of opening weekend, the reasons why he wants to make Flash Gordon, and why each and every moviegoer should take remakes of their favorite films one at a time. As he’s proven with The Crazies, no two remakes are the same. And if you have a good enough reason to resurrect and reinvent, you should do so.
The Crazies is in theaters today (February 26). My conversation with director Breck Eisner is below.
