Carpenter will only be executive-producing the project, which pretty much means his doing some basic overseeing and happily collecting a paycheck. Decidedly "hands off" he puts his confidence wholly in director Rupert Wainwright ("Stigmata") who plans on adding more action and suspense to the story, and has brought in a cast of young, hot actors from television and movies. Tom Welling from "Smallville", Maggie Grace from "Lost", and Selma Blair from "Hellboy" will star in the roles previously played by Tom Adkins, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Adrienne Barbeau, respectively.

When filming was about halfway through, Horror.com and some other selected online outlets were invited to visit the set and interview Carpenter, Wainwright, producer David Foster, and the three main stars. On that day, we got to see a scene being shot in the soundstage — although, practical locations are also being used, chief among them the lighthouse — which takes place inside the Town Hall, after the ghosts have infiltrated the town. It is an intense scene involving Grace and Father Malone (Adrian Hough), when the secret is revealed that the victims have their forefathers to blame for all the horror that has descended upon them.

After the scene was shot, our interviews began. (In case you’re wondering which questions Horror.com asked… They’re the smart ones, of course!)

= = =

Q: For Tom Welling. I'll start with a simple question. What drew you to this role?

TOM WELLING (Actor, "The Fog"): Uh —

SELMA BLAIR (Actress, "The Fog"): Jerk. He's not good at the play along.

WELLING: What drew me to this role? I think it was the —"The Fog," the original "Fog." Rupert, I was a big fan of Rupert's (gestures toward man with glasses to actor's far right). John Carpenter, the script was fun. I —I knew that visually, Rupert would bring a lot to it and I —and I just —you know, I found the script interesting because I wanted to do it. And I wanted to do it because I found out it was interesting.

[laughter]

WELLING: Clean up —clean up on aisle seven! [Referring to Maggie Grace, sitting to his right side who apparently spit up drink while laughing.]

Q: You must be aware of the cult status that Tom Atkins has in the horror genre, and now you’re playing his role.

WELLING: I wasn't. John Carpenter started to talk to me about it, but then we were interrupted by an A.D.

Q: He's got fan sites.

WELLING: Really?

Q: T-shirts of him. I mean, like this huge cult following. And I was wondering how the new Tom, what he's going to bring —you know — to stand up to the old Tom.

RUPERT WAINWRIGHT (Director, "The Fog"): Well, I guess he'd have to have a lot more acne to start.

BLAIR: What? He had acne?

WAINWRIGHT: What other movies was he in?

Q: "Creepshow," "The Creeps," "Escape from New York," "Halloween 3."

WAINWRIGHT: Apart from those.

Q: "Lethal Weapon."

WELLING: Well, you know, this —this version of "The Fog" is updated. It's more modern. I mean, the other one was great for what it was. But obviously, as you can see us all sitting here, it's like taking the ages of the original characters and dividing them into.

BLAIR: In my case, we added.

WELLING: That's not true. This film, this is younger. It's quicker. It's a little bit edgier, I think. And I think all of us together are gonna bring that to the film.

I —I didn't really —you know —the character he played wasn't anything that we're modeling, wasn't anything I'm doing after. I think this film is making its own—taking its own direction.

Q: Well, his character in the original film, he always plays kind of like the smoking, drinking womanizer.

WELLING: Right. That's Father Malone in this film.[laughs] Am I wrong?

Q: Selma, what happened to your face? [Referring to her bloody makeup.]

BLAIR: One too many. I'm a drunk driving campaign —what? It was —actually this is from Stevie's accident. She gets in an accident. I'm a wordsmith, what can I say? She's in the fog trying to save the son, 'Get out of the fog, I'm coming home.'

WELLING: Car accident.

BLAIR: Car, inside, stall, hit. I can't talk about the rest. It's too painful. Was I not supposed to say that Rupert?

WAINWRIGHT: No, no, no. It's all good.

MAGGIE GRACE (Actress, "The Fog"): The absolute word.

BLAIR: I feel like I look a lot worse right now, than —

WELLING: Horror, hor-or [emphasizing proper pronunciation of horror, not whore].

Q: So the Stevie character leaves the lighthouse in this version. What else has been ramped up a little bit in the new version?

WAINWRIGHT: Well, see, there's a much more interesting escape, which she barely escapes. We've moved the ending out of the —a lot of this movie is really about the heritage of the town. And before, obviously the journal was found in a church, so it's centered around the church.

And here, one of the things that we really focus on is sort of the nexus of the past and the present, and how the past has come back basically to destroy the present because of what happened then.

So the scene that we're doing right now, which you can see, is in the town hall which is kind of like a museum to all of the things that these townsfolk are so proud of. It's a little like when you go to Monterey or Carmel, it's like all you ever hear is, 'John stood there, and Fred stood there,' and 'this toilet roll is precious because —' blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you're like, 'For crying out loud!'

And that's kind of what this island is like. But in fact, it's hiding a horrible, horrible secret that eventually comes out during the course of the movie.

Was that an answer?

Q: It's a good answer. I have a question for Maggie. Which is, you play Elizabeth Williams, so —in the film. And that was a role that could essentially be attributed to Jamie Lee Curtis, and her character was sort of more of a scream queen than anything else.

How are you different from Elizabeth in this version of "The Fog?" What have you taken from her, and which way are you departing from that role?

GRACE: Well, at Tom said, it's really a very different movie from the original. There's significant plot changes. And really, the character comes into the story with a very different —she's got a lot of unfinished business in town and history with —with Nick.

So she's very much more —she's more invested in the situation than before. It's —it's —she's part of this. She is also descended from the perpetrators of the crimes of which you speak.

So she's a —she's implicated in a much greater way.

Q: Can you say what the unfinished business is?

WELLING: Oh, come on! It's best you see the movie.

GRACE: Yes.

WAINWRIGHT: She's from the town. She's left, she's coming back to the town for a variety of different reasons. And part of that is —is what —there's a sort of deeper reality to her character, which eventually gets involved in the world of the town.

Q: When we walked into the stage down there, the first thing that I noticed was the smell...

WELLING: Oh, no.

Q: ...of the fog.

WELLING: Oh.

Q: Have you guys —have you guys had to breathe that stuff in the whole time? Has it been difficult?

WELLING: Yes. They laced it with —on different days, they put lavender, sometimes sage, and it helps...

GRACE: Sometimes chemical drugs.

WELLING: ...keep the mood on set. It's Canada. There's a lot of smoke. What can I tell you?

BLAIR: That makes no sense. Canada is so clean.

WELLING: Vancouver.

BLAIR: Yeah.

Q: Has this been a problem or a frustration for you guys?

BLAIR: You ain't gonna catch me complaining! I'm a saint. Go ahead.

WELLING: Was that for me?

Q: Well, the three of you.

BLAIR: Do you get a headache from the fog? Are you thinking of suing Sony? I think that's what she seems to be getting at.

Is "The Fog" scary on the real set? Yes.

WELLING: I don't think we're allowed to talk about that —with our contracts, right?

BLAIR: Right.

WELLING: Right. That's lawyer stuff.

GRACE: Business affair.

Q: Are you still filming "Smallville" right now while you're doing this?

WELLING: No.

Q: You're done with "Smallville?"

WELLING: Last Thursday.

BLAIR: That's the "Smallville" camera right there. [Points to area directly in front of her across table.]

WELLING: Yes. Actually, Selma —I didn't know this, but we wrapped last Thursday on "Smallville." A lot of times, doing our scene, I don't know if you saw it today, they'll have two cameras going. And I didn't know this for the first couple of days.

Selma actually just told me. She said, 'See that camera over there?' I'm like, 'Yes.' She said, That's "Fog." I said, "OK." She said, See that camera? That's "Smallville." And they're just getting some footage to use later.

BLAIR: It was funny on that day, because we laughed cause we do and forget it.

Q: In the original, your character doesn't really interact with anyone else. How happy were you in this one that you seem to be doing more with everybody else?

BLAIR: Yeah, that was a relief. When I saw the original right before I went into audition, she really was obviously very isolated. And I'd never —I really love having the energy of other people around me. That kind of gets me going, for better or for worse. But, you know, that's what I'm used to and love. So I was really scared and intimidated just to be in a room by myself, talking on a microphone.

So it was great when they had some —some scenes. Wow, and you without your journal [turns toward Welling]. It's a great answer.

No, I was. I was very relieved. I wish we had more. I wish we had more scenes with —with these guys. But it's great to have the kid —it's great to have that little kid.

Q: Yeah, because you don't get —

WELLING: What's his name?

BLAIR: His name's Cole, I hear. So he's Andy —what? I don't do what?

Q: Oh, in the original, you don't save your son from the ghosts.

BLAIR: Oh, right. I don't interact with him much in the original, right? I've gotta see that movie.

Q: Who's idea was it to go with PG-13 on this? I mean, lately, a lot of the remakes —you know —"Chainsaw," "Dawn of the Dead," "House of Wax," "Amityville" have all gone R and have been very successful.

Why is it that when Sony recently —I mean, was it your decision or was it Sony's decision to go PG-13 like "The Grudge," or "Bogeyman?"

WAINWRIGHT: They already decided that it was going to be PG-13 when I joined. So that was kind of like—you know —a non-starter.

I —I think that —I mean, the original is in many ways, it's a haunted —haunted town story. It's also basically a slasher movie. I mean, guys coming with big-ass hooks to scare the living daylights out of you.

Q: So is that a challenge to make a slash and hook movie with a PG-13 rating?

WAINWRIGHT: It's beyond the challenge, yeah. So there's a variety of other layers that work in the movie, as well as scares. But there's a variety of other things that we can do now —you know —with CG, with fog. So there's a whole variety of other things that we can do to make it scary, and ominous and weird, and surprising.

WELLING: And even things you don't see, right?

WAINWRIGHT: Yeah, exactly.

Q: I mean, in the original movie, it wasn't even that graphic. And yet, it was an R, you know.

WAINWRIGHT: Yeah. It's fairly graphic for a mainstream movie. But there's a lot of just ice picks and eyeballs, and hooks right in granny's —you know —coming out of I don't know what.

Q: There's not much more you see really, it's just more suggestive.

WAINWRIGHT: Right, right.

Q: But it still got an R.

WAINWRIGHT: Right.

Q: You seem to be indicating that there's going to be a CGI element to the fog?

WAINWRIGHT: Oh yeah, absolutely. We've been shooting —you know —all practical fog so far. But there's certain things that we have to sort of replicate. With real fog, there's like this scene, for example, when someone's out on the beach and there's a huge fog bank on the horizon.

Well, unless you just sit there for a month and get lucky and having the actors sitting there and just burning film, that's not going to happen.

There are certain things that the fog does that it just can't do. But there's a lot of times that we get the fog to do pretty weird stuff. And we give this to the CG guys and we go, 'OK, take that. That's how we'll do it in this situation.' So in other situations, just copy that exactly.

Q: Going back to the PG-13 thing. These days, sort of the trend is a movie comes out on DVD and there's like the regular version, there's like the unrated version. Are you taking this into account now as you're filming?

WAINWRIGHT: There's a very hot scene between Selma and Maggie, which I've just done the most basic coverage on so far. But this evening, I'm going to go a little bit more —you know.

Q: I have another question. Is John Carpenter being involved in this as an executive producer, have you looked to him for any sort of guidance on doing the remake, or does he —

WAINWRIGHT: John didn't really want to be that involved. I mean, I had a drink with him at Musso & Franks, and he goes, 'It's your movie now!' And that was basically it.

Q: Do you like that? Or would you have wanted more guidance from him?

WAINWRIGHT: I don't think it was really an option.

Q: How did you feel about it?

WAINWRIGHT: I felt kind of relieved.

Q: OK. How has this film been particularly physically challenging? Has there been anything particularly challenging to you?

WELLING: Well, we spent —I'm sorry.

BLAIR: No, please.

WELLING: We spent —last week, we did night shoots. We'd go to work when the sun goes down, and you —and you're home when the sun's coming up. And the good thing about that is you're kind of going against rush hour traffic.

The bad thing is you have this constant like jetlag feeling, in a sense. And even when we would go in, we would leave, Rupert's still there before us and there after. And I don't think he even went to sleep last week… did you?

WAINWRIGHT: I go to bed.

WELLING: Yeah. I mean, it was like —that was —that's physically demanding on everyone, the crew, everyone. It's difficult.

Q: But even in the case of action physicality, is this film particularly grueling. There are a lot of fights.

WELLING: We had to move a bookcase today, DeRay and I.

BLAIR: That was tough.

WELLING: Where is DeRay?

BLAIR: Well, Tom is so tall, and I had this scene where I had to kiss him on the cheek. And that was like really hard. So it's been like really taxing, because I really wanted to kiss him on the cheek, but I just couldn't like get up there.

No, it's been great. This has been, for me and I know Maggie has a little underwater stuff. This has been a really, really —

Q: Selma's being modest.

WAINWRIGHT: She —I'll tell you about one of the scenes where her car is crashed into and it rolls down a cliff, and it falls into the water. And she's unconscious because the car rolled down the hill. And we go underwater with her. And we don't know if she's dead or alive, or unconscious.

And so we had this car that was 20 foot underwater. And we were like, 'Well, I guess maybe we got like a few shots of her and we'll do the rest of it with stunt guys.' It was sort of like a pop here and a pop there.

And she was underwater non-stop, I guess, for like 11 hours inside the car, underwater, with no breathing thing. You know, with a stunt safety breathing person way off- camera with her stuck, with the water level rising, with her getting the last grasp of oxygen from underneath.

We couldn't believe it. We were like watching playback on set, going, 'We can't believe we're doing this to her!' We felt terrible!

But it was so cool, we kept on doing it to her.

BLAIR: No, I really loved it. It was great fun. I had such a great safety team on this —on this movie, as there usually are on all movies.

But they've been great.

WELLING: They did a great job today.

BLAIR: Is it —oh, I got —yeah.

WAINWRIGHT: We should get a donut for our services.

BLAIR: But —yeah, Maggie. You have a little bit of underwater stuff coming up, don' t you?

GRACE: Coming up. I'm lost for a while, as well, going back and forth. (Inaudible-low volume at source), going from days to nights and back again.

WELLING: Now, Maggie's being modest. The first day that we worked together was on a Saturday. And I worked on "Smallville" the night before. I get to the set that morning, so I'm like 'I'm used to working like this.' She goes, 'Yeah, I just flew in this morning.' And I'm like, 'Really, from Hawaii?' And she's like, 'Yeah. I said, 'So when do you go back?' She said, 'Oh, in about three hours.'

So she came in literally, for like the workday and left, and went back to Hawaii.

GRACE: I'm going to Hawaii, so I'm like, 'Yeah, Tom. I'm flying to Hawaii in three hours.'

WELLING: Rub it in!

Q: So is the characters that Janet Leigh and Nancy Loomis, are those characters not in this version? Or is someone playing those characters from the original film?

WAINWRIGHT: The Janet Leigh character is, and is the mother of Maggie. So —which is obviously an original—she wasn't the mother on camera, but —but she doesn't have an assistant in this, no.

Q: Is the John Houseman character in?

WAINWRIGHT: John Houseman character, no. Yes, what am I talking about? John Houseman in playing Macon. Yeah, the guy who's doing the thing with the watch at the beginning. Yes, there is, absolutely. I'm getting him confused with Hal Holbrook.

So yes, there is. Macon is in the movie. And Father Malone is —is a much younger version of the Hal Holbrook character.

Q: There have been a lot of horror remakes coming out in the last couple of years. Have you seen any of them?

WELLING: I haven't seen any.

BLAIR: You haven't seen any horror movies?

GRACE: Remakes.

BLAIR: Remakes. I don't know if I have either. Should have got someone else. This is so not my genre. That's more of a Rupert question, I guess.

Continue to Part Two...