SAN DIEGO — With summer coming to an end, it’s the perfect time for a movie to scare you off the beach. Here to do it is Shark Night 3D, from Snakes on a Plane director David Ellis.
Metro caught up with Ellis and one of the flick’s stars, American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee to see what secrets about the film they’re willing to spill. As it turns out, not many.
What can you tell us, without giving too much away, about Shark Night 3D?
David Ellis: There’s sharks in it. (laughs) It’s really weird. And a lot of the movie takes place at night.
Katharine McPhee: I’m in it.
DE: Kat’s in it.
KM: My character’s name is Beth. That’s all I know.
David, you’re no stranger to genre movies. What’s the appeal of them as a filmmaker?
DE: For me, I think it’s just fun to be able to entertain people — for them to be able to go and escape from everything crazy that’s going on in the world for an hour and a half and go have fun, To kind of scare them and make them laugh and make them cry, and just kind of play with their emotions.
KM: You like making people cry.
How was the Shark Night experience for you, Kat?
KM: Oh, it was so much fun. I love going to set. I love getting up early. I mean, on a regular basis, you will never find me up early, but I love when my alarm goes off and I get to put on my pyjamas and get to set and get my coffee and my food and get in hair and makeup. I love everything about it, so for me just the whole experience is great. We shot in Shreveport, La., and even though it’s not a particularly exotic place, it was gorgeous. And I just love being in new places and feeling like you’re starting something new.
DE: I love the free food part. Like, every day when you go to the set and they have all this free food. But what made it so fun for me was that we had an amazing crew and we had a cast that was into it 110 per cent.
Were you afraid of sharks before you made the movie?
KM: I’m one of those people who, especially as a kid, would spend hours in the ocean swimming. I love swimming. But always in the back of my head there was that fear of a shark coming and getting you. I could say, yeah, this has definitely made it a little bit more of a threat.
DE: For me, I grew up in the ocean as well — my whole life in Malibu — and I’m aware of them, you respect them. But you have a better chance of getting hit by a coconut than getting killed by a shark. But it’s a primal fear for people.
KM: It’s just not a way you want to go. There’s a couple other ways I could think of wanting to go other than sharks.
How creative do you get with the deaths in the movie?
DE: Pretty creative. Each one is different and unique. And what’s cool about it is we had so many different types of sharks. We have hammerheads and great white sharks and bull sharks and cookie-cutter sharks…
I’m not familiar with that one.
DE: You will be when you watch Kat. They’re friends of hers. So yeah, they’re unique. Besides the characters in the movie, we have so many different characters in the sharks.
