Μύ In 1980 director John Carpenter scared the pants off moviegoers with The Fog and serves as producer for this an unnecessary remake by British helmer Rupert Wainwright. Once again a malevolent mist lays siege to a small coastal town, this time in pursuit of TV stars Tom Welling (Smallville) and Maggie Grace (Lost). Inevitably the critics hated it and it sank pretty quickly at the box office.
Haunted By The Past
"Go ahead, make me rich", was John Carpenter's cynical response to producer David Foster when approached about the remake. Both men talk about their involvement in three behind-the-scenes featurettes, but there is no direct behind-the-scenes access. Whiteout Conditions also hears from Wainwright and screenwriter Cooper Layne on the process of adapting the story for a modern audience. Basically this involved changing the motivation of the ghostly lepers who sought a gold cross in the original film. Wainwright explains, "It seems more likely that a ghost would come back for a person they're in love with rather than a piece of gold." Says you, Rupert...
The cast have their say in Seeing Through The Fog, but this just amounts to dull descriptions of their respective roles in the story ie Grace waffling on about being an "empowered female" - not mentioning the wet t-shirt part, obviously.
The most important character in the film is, of course, The Fog itself. Wainwright and the film techies give us a fleeting insight into how they achieved its various guises in Feeling The Effects. Wainwright tells us that "sneaky fog" was made from steam and dry ice (shocking) while "angry fog" consisted of men running around with lights in clouds of asbestos. (Don't try this at home, kids.)
Lost In The Haze
In his commentary for seven deleted scenes, Wainwright explains that trying to balance "character stuff" and the need to move the plot along is really difficult, because "those two things are often at loggerheads." Or it could be because the character stuff is really boring eg Elizabeth (Grace) confronting her mother (Sara Botsford) after a long absence. Elsewhere there's a close-up of someone being burned to death, which was cut because Wainwright says, "The studio was uncomfortable with the way it was shot."
Wainwright's commentary for the main feature is perfunctory, giving a brief explanation of how key scenes were staged and where in Vancouver they were shot. On the matter of working on water, he insists, "It's harder than you think", eg getting a boat to pitch and roll when you need to, but there's nothing especially fascinating about his methods.
The closest we get to any juicy behind-the-scenes trivia is the suggestion of competition between Maggie Grace and Selma Blair when it came to the underwater action. Apparently Blair had done all her own stunts and, Wainwright recalls, "Maggie was determined to outdo her."
For those who enjoyed the film, this batch of extras provide a few interesting insights, but when it comes to the finer details of production, it's pretty nebulous.
EXTRA FEATURES
