Chances are , Joseph Kahn directed one of your favorite music videos : He ’s worked with U2 , Britney , Eminem and Lady Gaga . He ’s just finished shooting a time - move around horror comedy promise Detention , and he gave us the privileged scoop and sole photos .
Spoilers ahead .
We ’ve been excited about Detention since we first protrude discover it distinguish as “ Back To The Future meets Scream , with a powerful dose of John Hughes teen movies . ” From what we ’ve hear so far , it ’s about a 17 class onetime who ’s given detention on the dark of her senior prom , and then a fancied movie serial killer originate kill her friends . And somehow , there ’s a clip - traveling element . The motion picture star Josh Hutcherson , Dane Cook and Shanley Caswell , and it just wrap filming recently . ( Caswell is figure above , Cook is below , under Cinderhella . All exposure by Adam Sheridan - Taylor . ) So we were stoked to get more details from Kahn himself . Here ’s what he told us .

How long have you had the idea for Detention in your heading ? Where did the estimation come from originally ?
I wrote the movie with Mark Palermo , a Canadian film critic from Halifax . We started it about three age ago on a trip to the Coachella medicine fete , where I stated I wanted to make a moving picture about high school . It took a year to beat out the story , then another year to compose it . To be bonnie , I was officious with with my day job doing picture and commercials so the written material was sporadic .
But one day the Virginia Tech massacre happened , and then I finish reading a book about Columbine . I got really angry about these untested psychopath , finally have a go at it what our movie was about . I flew Palermo down and devote two

calendar month . We hashed out a real draft over lots of risky diner food at 2 AM .
Here ’s your first spirit at Cinderhella , who ’s likely the motion picture ’s fictitious slasher image . She front like a suitably tongue - in - nerve prom - queen pastiche of Chucky and the like .
What horror film are a heavy influence on you ? Do you remember it ’s still possible to keep revulsion comedy wise after we ’ve seen so many of them ?

I ’m not really a Brobdingnagian revulsion fan to be fair . I wish monster motion-picture show but slasher flicks grate on me with their blatantly misongynistic hang ups with women . I had a job wrapping my head around some of the bad things I had to do to some of girl in this picture show to gibe that facial expression of the genre , but hopefully I think we made a focused degree out of it . That said , Detention is n’t really a repulsion drollery . It ’s kind of indescribable genre wise .
It sound like your flick is about the popular kids in high schoolhouse , rather than the outcasts . Is that true ? Do you opine that changes the “ repulsion of high school ” musical theme a routine ? Were you one of the popular kids in high shoal ?
Detention is about both . The popular kids and the pariah , and also how those lines can be blurred . I was an outcast in highschool , but I got a quasi - popularity because everyone liked the video I was making then . Could never get a date or interact at a party , but I amused people . It ’s a fine production line sometimes between disregard and like . When you are lonely , it all feels shitty .

Without giving away too much , how do you equip time locomotion and a slasher into one gamy school clowning ? Is this like Hot Tub Time Machine or more like Groundhog Day ?
Maybe both , and mayhap neither . Its definitely not what you expect it to be . This is not conk to be an promiscuous watch . You ’re travel to have to think and keep track of stuff and nonsense as you watch over it . Definitely easier to look on on repeat viewings .
Also were you kid when you tweet about it being “ the Citizen Kane of Asian nerd in love with blackened girl movie ” ? Because that sound awesome .

Not kidding . But it ’s not the main plot .
How did you get people like Josh Hutcherson and Dane Cook to be in a low - budget indie movie ?
They liked the script .

It seems like a mess of the most interesting picture show directors these 24-hour interval came out of music videos — what do you remember translates from one to the other ?
I do n’t intend euphony TV really have in mind that much in a modification of filmmaking styles . There are plenty of euphony video director who now direct feature picture show and tv set who have piss poor boring style . What I do think is that videos are a large training footing in that you just get a lot of on specify practice run a crew . This is the backbreaking part of the Book of Job : knowing how to be a leader and do things to a schedule . It ’s a very technological way of looking at it , but filmmaking costs a lot of money , and producers want not only creative visual sense , but people who know how to pull things together on a budget . People do n’t just belt down out bang how to do that , and video directors who shoot fresh projection every two weeks are good candidates for that conversion .
When someone puts out the “ making of Detention ” book 30 years from now , will there be tons of stories about how you almost ran out of money and everybody was having breakdowns on set , or was it a somewhat easy shoot ? What was the biggest logistic incubus of doing a low - budget self - financed film ?

Well aside from all the quitting , we went from a 31 to a 51 day shoot . It was a very arduous shoot and it was finance hebdomad to week , including now in post . I could have cut corners but I wanted to make it outstanding .
You were in line to organise the flick of William Gibson ’s Neuromancer before Vincenzo Natali was given the nod . Can you tell us anything about what your version of Neuromancer would have been like ?
In a nutshell , I wanted to make Trainspotting in the Sprawl . I do n’t want to go into too many details because I may transport stylistic option to another skill fable task . It ’s not what anyone was thinking , but I ’m off it now . You may all pass off a suspiration of relief .

What are you hope to do next after detainment ?
At this rate I make movies once every eight years , and I scrub my itching with a lawn lawn mower , so I ’m going back to videos and commercial message .
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