John Moore - Interview

by Staci Layne Wilson

After Horror.com's extensive coverage of The Omen remake in 2006, I've been eagerly awaiting director John Moore's next project, Max Payne. The flick opens this Friday, and while it's not a horror movie, there are some horrific creatures in it: winged demons modeled after the Valyries of Norse myth, which come to life via hallucination and appear to those marked for death.

The action-fueled neo-noir stars Mark Wahlberg, who was in The Happening (read our review here) and will next be seen in Peter Jackson's supernatural drama The Lovely Bones, which is based upon Alice Sebold's novel of the same name).

There's been a very public fight between Moore and the MPAA to garner a PG-13 for Max Payne. While Wahlberg admits he wouldn't want his own children to see Max Payne (they're all under the age of 13), he's less comfortable with sex in movies than he is with violence. "I've always been a prude. Just because I've run around in my underwear doesn't mean that I'm not."

Wahlberg added that he probably wouldn't make a movie like Boogie Nights now. "In America sex is not as accepted as violence. I don't care if my kids watch violent movies. But I don't want them to be doing nothing that has to do with sex, especially my daughter. That's just the way I was raised, and it's the way I feel. Sex is something that's just not as acceptable."

Director John Moore is less touchy on the touchy-feely subject, and he talked about that — as well addressing an untrue rumor on his upcoming horror picture, Virulents.

Q:  How does the ratings board differ from the ones in Europe?

John Moore:  In the US it's PG-13, which is what we wanted. They tried to slap an R on us, you may have read, but we were not having that.

Q:  So there is no sex in the movie at all; is that what the criteria is?

Moore:  There's no sex.

Q:  Why was it so difficult to the get the PG-13?

Moore:  That was my question. They said that the movie feels odd, and I objected to that. I said, "You're here to judge content, not intent. It's not my fault that I can do a good magic trick and make you think that I shot the guy in the head. I didn't." 

We got into a heated battle, and I also thought we were comparatively treated unfairly when you look at Batman, I am Legend, and stuff like that. I was like, "You're shitting me."

Q:  It was because of the poor dog in I Am Legend. That should have earned it a R right there.

Moore:  Yeah!  They killed the fucking dog!  [laughter] But we tried to be so faithful to noir tradition. We didn't want bad language because it just didn't feel right to pull from noir tradition and then have mother-fucker this and mother-fucker that. We were quite dismayed when they put the R on us, and we fought and we won. I'm saying we fought and we won!

Q:  So this is purely on atmosphere?

Moore:  That's what I was objecting to. "The movie feels wrong," they said. I said, "You cannot do that. You have to tell me exactly what's wrong."

Q:  There are precise criteria?

Moore:  No. There are no published rules. The board is made up of revolving volunteers as if being a volunteer somehow resolves them of moral judgment. I just find the whole thing very unbalanced and bizarre.

Q:  Is it true that you're going to make a movie about zombies in Afghanistan, next?

Moore:  No. They're not zombies! I want to make that clear. I'm developing a movie called Virulents, which in my mind is a brilliant political satire. You know the Virgin comic books?  They have a graphic novel division. The editor-in-chief is a guy called Gotham Chopra who's Deepak's Chopra's son. Believe me, this guy is smart. He makes these very limited run graphic novels, and I read one of them and thought that was a smart little movie. So, yes, but they're not zombies.

Q:  What are they, then?

Moore:  They are the spawn of  Ramayana, who is the original Indian devil goddess who only ever comes about at the time of great malfeasance in mankind. To me, it's a very smart parable because what happens in the story is a month after 9-11, American bombers are bombing Afghanistan, and when they bomb the Hindu Kush, the mountains, they wake the goddess, who's been imprisoned. It takes a great act of evil for her to emerge, and then a bunch of [these spawn] come along. It's great.

 Q:  Does it worry you to mix fantasy with reality? You seem to like that theme in your more recent movies, but it polarizes fans.

Moore:  No, not at all. Why should it? I don't think reality is sacred. I don't think Aesop, when he was trying to think of a great way to make his point would be worried about making up a fable. The whole Bible mixes reality and fantasies, so why should I be afraid?

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