Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island arrives in UK Cinemas on March 6th, and we recently had the opportunity to talk to the cast of Sony and Blumhouse’s new horror movie. In this big screen reimagining of the classic TV series, the enigmatic Mr. Roarke (this time played by Ant-Man star Michael Peña) makes the secret dreams of his lucky guests come true at a luxurious but remote tropical resort.
However, when the fantasies turn into nightmares, the guests are forced to solve the island’s mystery in order to escape with their lives. The man in charge of this new take on the beloved property is writer and director Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2), and we recently had the opportunity to talk to him about what it was like to bringing Fantasy Island back to the big screen for a new generation.
The filmmaker also delves into the biggest challenges he faced while making the movie, why Tattoo didn’t make it into the reboot, whether he would consider helming sequels ot a small screen spinoff, and much more. Needless to say, we want to say a huge thank you to Jeff for taking time to talk to us, and make sure you check out Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island this coming Friday.
Hey Jeff, how’s it going today?
I’m doing very well. I can’t complain. I’ve got a movie coming out that I’m very excited about and proud of, so I guess you could say I’m top of the world!
Awesome. Well, I wanted to kick off by asking you what made Fantasy Island the right next project for you after working with Blumhouse on Truth or Dare?
I had a really great experience with Jason [Blum]. After Truth or Dare came out, he said to me, ‘Buddy, you can make one movie with me a year for the rest of your career if you want’ and I said, ‘That sounds good to me!’ We have a really productive, collaborative relationship. I love working for Jason, and I’m happy to take him up on his offer if he’s being serious. As far as specifically Fantasy Island, I was developing a TV show with another producer that was sort of inspired by Fantasy Island, and Jason is a little competitive and has always loved the TV show, so when he heard I was developing this other project that was ruefully drawing on some of the ideas from Fantasy Island, he called me up and said, ‘I hear you like Fantasy Island? You want to do the movie version?’ I said, ‘Hell yeah!’ and he said, ‘Okay, go!’
Fantasy Island feels like a concept where you can go to some really twisted places, so were there any ideas you wanted to include in the film that you didn’t because they were too dark, or did you get to do everything you wanted?
I very much did everything I wanted. I did it all. I like horror because it’s clever, I don’t like horror because it’s over the top, in your face, and gory and grotesque. I respect those films, but they’re not the kind of horror movies I’m drawn to, and certainly not the kind of horror movies that Jason makes. For me, it was all about twisting and subverting audience’s expectations and the guest’s hopes and dreams for their fantasies. To come up with the fantasies, I worked with Chris Roach and Jill Jacobs, my co-writers from Truth or Dare, and we ran it like a little TV writers room. We started listing fantasies and twists on fantasies and came up with about ten or twelve. We then picked our top four and started working them into the film.
Talking of the TV series, what were some of the biggest challenges when it came to paying homage to that show but also reinventing it for an audience who might have never seen it?
First of all, I think Fantasy Island is the perfect kind of thing to be adapted for the big screen right now because it’s been a while. A lot of people don’t remember it, so it’s not like we’re just drafting off something people loved. The majority of the moviegoing public don’t remember the show, but that’s just half of it. The other half is that it’s just a great idea at its core. If nobody remembered the show, and this was like that movie Yesterday where we all woke up tomorrow and no one remembered Fantasy Island except for me, I would still want to make the movie because it just has a great idea at its core. As far as adapting it and being faithful to the show while also trying to offer something new and breathe new life into it, honestly, my guiding principle was Marvel. You look at Marvel and what they do with their underlying material, and they don’t really completely faithfully adapt their Marvel characters to the screen. They identify what the iconic parts of the property and character are, and that’s what you see on screen. In Iron Man, even in the comics when I was reading them as a kid, his arms are all muscular, and he had a very different look but it was gold and red armour. So, in the movie, it had to be the same. In Fantasy Island, I knew that Mr. Rourke had to have a white suit and we had to be on an island. Somebody had to say, ‘De plane’ and Mr Rouke had to say, ‘Smiles everyone.’ While it was a case of establishing those icons and sticking to them, there was a lot of room to reinterpret and come up with entirely new ideas.
Talking of Mr. Rourke, what was it about Michael Peña that made him the right choice to play that iconic character in Fantasy Island?
It was really a microcosm of what I was just talking about when it comes to identifying what was important in the original show and having room to interpret and do something new. It was very important to me that we get an actor of Latino descent because the original was such an icon for the Latino community. I didn’t want to have an actor who wasn’t Latino, but at the same time, I wanted an actor who was going to do something different. Ricardo Montalbán’s take on the character was very buttoned up and proper, and what I love about what Michael has done with Mr. Rourke is that he’s given it a looseness to add to his mysteriousness. You don’t feel like you can pin him down because he doesn’t wear the tie and his shirt is untucked. He has an island time vibe, but yet he’s still walking around in a white suit. It almost begs more questions in his interpretation and that’s the kind of thing Michael does so well. He really explores characters and makes interesting choices.
Something that really got talking when the film was first announced was whether Tattoo would be included, so is that something you considered or do you think it just doesn’t work for today’s audience?
Well, like I said, there is a character who says ‘De plane,’ but we do our own version of it. It’s a whisper that has a wistfulness to it, so we are honouring Tattoo in that way. The more we talked about it, the more we realised he was just a part of Fantasy Island. He wasn’t in the last two seasons and to my recollection, he wasn’t in the 90s update either so he didn’t seem like an overly necessary part of the iconography associated with Fantasy Island. Also, sometimes there are certain portrayals with certain characters that are so unique, you’re not really sure how to approach them. What’s the new thing you’re going to say or do with that character? How are you going to honour the older version while also offering something new, and we never could quite crack it. There’s an homage that some people will catch, but you are correct, he’s not part of our film.
There was a time when we’d see a lot of horror movies crammed into a busy October, but that’s changed in recent years (with Blumhouse, in particular), but what would you say makes Fantasy Island a good date night movie for Valentine’s Day?
What makes it a great date night movie? I think it’s got something for everyone. It’s got the scares, some emotional moments which will resonate with men and women, it’s got a really good looking cast for both guys and girls. It’s funny, which people are really surprised by, and there’s just a lot of twists and turns, and like with most great relationships, our movie has a surprise ending [Laughs].
Would you be interested in spinning out a film like Fantasy Island into a TV series, or do you think it has more potential on the big screen moving forward?
It’s funny, with the exception of X-Force, I by in large don’t really think in terms of sequels or TV spinoffs. I try to leave it all on the floor so every good idea I had for Fantasy Island is in this movie and if this is the only version I ever work on, I will feel very good about that and very satisfied and proud of it. That being said, it is a whole world, and there are some incredible stories you can tell with new guests arriving with different pasts, agendas, and fantasies. Certainly, there is a lot of potential there not just for sequels, but another take on the TV show.
Finally, I know we talked about people forgetting the TV show, but for those long-time fans or followers of the series, what do you hope they take from your version?
I hope they remember the dark and mischievous side of the show. I think it got a little Love Boat in later years, and people remember it being kind of soft, but I remember it being a little bit scary. I recall the episodes with Roddy McDowall playing the devil with great affinity and I like the episodes that have that kind of feel, and the feeling of our movie. I hope fans of the show realise we’re not reinventing it, but honouring some of the most unique ideas from the original show.
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