Can you talk a little about your love of superheroes and comic books? Did “Dark Man” foreshadow doing a “Spider-Man”?

Sam Raimi: I’ve always loved comic books and at the time I was trying to get the rights to “The Shadow” and I couldn’t get… Well I went in and met with the writers and Universal, but they wouldn’t give me the job on “The Shadow.” So I thought I’ll make my own Shadow then. I’ll call it “Darkman”which is just an obvious Shadow ripoff. [Laughs] I wrote basically a version of “The Shadow.” That’s really what “Darkman” was. Liam Neeson did a great job. I loved working with him and Francis McDormand in the picture and I had a great time making it but I don’t know that it foreshadowed “Spider-Man” as much as that was an expression of my love for the comic book genre. One of the other comic heroes that I’ve always loved besides Batman was Spider-Man so when I got the news that Columbia Pictures was looking for a director of Spider-Man, I put my name in the hat. I was way, way down the list but I just kept waiting and waiting and eventually my name came up.

Can you talk about hiring David Slade? What were your initial impressions when you first saw “Hard Candy” and what did you see in that film that made you go okay, this guy has the chops to do something like “30 Days of Night”? That film was so sparse versus what “30 Days of Night” offers.

Sam Raimi: Well I thought the acting was great in “Hard Candy” and the strength that I wanted to be realized in “30 Days of Night” was the characters of Eben and Stella and their love story, that relationship at the center of the piece that Steve Niles had written about. I didn’t know if I was in love with David’s directing or the young actress in “Hard Candy” but something there worked really well for the length of the picture and I thought that’s what I want to have work in our picture. The heart of the thing was working in a way that’s hard to explain but I just felt that things had been thought out. It led me from one point to the next and the next in a real exciting way and I thought that would drive this machine even if he didn’t have the experience with production design or effects and it turned out that he did because when I got to know him a little bit, he had this great commercial background. He knew about production design which was my very next interest. I wanted the look of the graphic novel to be preserved and fortunately that was David’s desire too. I never put that upon him. I just had hoped the director would have that desire and he did.

Well even “Hard Candy” has a very diverse color palette. Each room has different colors so to carry that over for “30 Days of Night,” you’re also trying to tap into a certain color scheme.

Sam Raimi: Oh I didn’t know that. Each room in the guy’s house?

Yeah. The guy had like a red room and then there was another scene where there were just painting. It was blue. It was very simple so I just didn’t know if you…

Sam Raimi: I didn’t pick up on that.

How did you oversee this film? Did you go to the set a lot or did you have enough time?

Sam Raimi: No, all I did was choose the material and beg Sony and Ghost House Pictures to buy it for me and then chose Josh Hartnett and begged him to meet with David Slade, chose the director with my partners and the New Zealand location that we’d been shooting in before, and then didn’t have anything to do with it except when the dailies came back gave notes and editing notes and screening notes and sound design notes, but other than that, no.

Was it a fight at all to get Steve Niles on board as a screenwriter? He had written the graphic novel but you don’t often find comic book authors being brought on to write scripts.

Sam Raimi: It was just how I had presented it at first. It was all part of the package. If they wanted to work with us, they had to accept Steve and it was not a fight. It was just part of the package and it went down smoothly.

What did Stuart Beattie do? Just clean it up a bit?

Sam Raimi: Stuart contributed a lot of new character insights. What about this character? What about these interactions with these characters? How about following this subplot more? And all of them were helpful and none of them were right. They just highlighted, emphasized different aspects of the stories, different focuses. And then when David came aboard, I think he took some of each of the drafts and worked with his new writer and brought the final script to fruition. Pretty much I think, in my opinion, a combination of all that had gone before.

How malleable are the conventions of the horror genre? For instance, do you tinker with the basic vampire formula at your own risk because audiences come with certain expectations? For example, they have to have darkness. Does anything go or is there a rule book you try to follow to keep the vampire fans happy?

Sam Raimi: That’s a good question maybe more fitted for the writer than myself. I think Steve Niles gave us such a good mythology and so clearly defined his own version of the rules he liked and the choices he made that created a realistic world for these characters to come out of and I think what we tried to do was stick to that, stick to the fact that they did not survive the sun. I don’t think that the cross meant anything to these particular vampires. He chose certain aspects of the lore and I think lived within that.

Can you talk about some of the film that have scared you and some of the special effects that have inspired you in your career?

Sam Raimi: Sure. I think the film that scared me the most was “Night of the Living Dead,” George Romero’s classic zombie movie. I was brought to the theater underage. I was 10 years old. My sister, damn her [laughs]. She brought me to that thing, snuck me in under her coat or something and I was never so scared in my life. I thought a crime was being committed against me as I was watching that film. It was so awful and terrifying. It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare come to life.

The attic scene in “30 Days of Night” is very reminiscent of that film. Do you sort of feel that?

Sam Raimi: Yeah, now that you mention it. I didn’t think of it at the time but yeah, similar to them in the basement of the house. That’s true.

What would you say is your favorite goriest scene in the movie?

Sam Raimi: For me, it’s when they’re battling near the muffin monster and they throw that bald creature into the grinder and not only that moment but then the fellow turns around, the deputy, and he’s missing his arm. It’s just awful, like “Oh my God.”. I don’t know why that one, but that is really a freak out moment for me.

Q: Well that decapitation is one of the best put on film.

Sam Raimi: Which one?

Q: The decapitation right after the muffin monster where the guy changes and he just starts hacking away.

Sam Raimi: Oh yeah. It just becomes a nightmare at that time, a never ending nightmare for a little while. I liked that.

Q: Your name had been brought up in connection with possibly directing “The Hobbit,” but now it looks like Peter Jackson and New Line might be able to get somewhere with that. Can you update us on your feelings about that project?

Sam Raimi: I think there’s no better choice to direct “The Hobbit” than Peter Jackson. I’m a giant fan of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and Peter Jackson is a brilliant filmmaker and he would be the guy I think everybody would like to see direct it. I hear they’re talking too from reading the trade magazines. I don’t really know first hand but that’s good. Hopefully he will direct and give us his great version of it.

If he doesn’t direct it, is that something you would consider doing?

Sam Raimi: If he doesn’t direct it and decides just to produce it, I’d love to be considered as the director.

Isn’t that what’s being talked about now? That he’s actually coming back not to direct but to produce and you would direct the film?

Sam Raimi: I don’t know if that’s being talked about. I don’t want to presume to know what’s happening in those rooms. I know that Peter Jackson always loved “The Hobbit.” I’m assuming he’d want to direct it but I don’t want to make any claims I don’t have any knowledge of.

Are The Three Stooges still a big influence on your work? Do you still go back and watch them a lot?

Sam Raimi: No, I haven’t been watching them lately but I do have a great DVD collection and I would love to start watching them again. A weird thing has happened since the 60s when I would watch them. My folks were fine with me watching them but I was showing them to my kids a couple years ago and my wife came in. She heard these horrible sounds of men on the TV screaming and she says, “What are you watching?” I said, “The Three Stooges.” And she said, “Let me see.” And she watches as Moe unscrews a light bulb, hits Curly in the stomach, his mouth opens, puts the light bulb in Curly’s mouth and he uppercuts Curly and he closes his teeth, and she shut it off. And she said, “What are you showing the children?” I suddenly realized how violent it was. I was having to explain that when he had put that gauze light bulb in and he shattered the jaw shut, it was funny. I got confused at that moment. I haven’t put them back on since but I’ll find my center again and put them back on when she’s not around.

Do you see yourself ever directing another comic book property besides the “Spider-Man” franchise? Is it true you were offered “The Justice League”?

Sam Raimi: I don’t want to say what I was offered or not offered because I don’t think it’s proper for people who work on those projects but I would absolutely consider directing another comic book story if they’d have me. Yeah. And if I had the love of the character and the knowledge of the character and thought that I could do it better than anybody else. [If] I knew this guy or girl who was the star of the thing, that I really understood what they were and had to bring that to the screen, I would fight to do the comic book, a different comic book. Yeah.

Is there a property that’s close to your heart besides Spider-Man?

Sam Raimi: There are a lot of them. I mean I love the Bruce Wayne but that’s been taken and done and it’s in great hands right now so I’m really enjoying watching those. Superman, I feel the same way. Brian Singer is doing a great job with that. There are a bunch of them actually.

Could you give us an update as to what you’re producing right now? What’s on the fast track?

Sam Raimi: Yes. Right now the screenplay for “Grudge 3” is being written. We’re hoping if we get the right script to go into production but the writer’s strike may impact that. It may impact everything I’m going to say, I’ll just say that. Currently “Drag Me to Hell,” we’re hoping to go into production on that. That’s the Curse movie directed by Jeff Lynch , a first-time live action director. Hopefully that’ll go into production this winter also. And the sequel to the Rise movie, “Rise 2,” that’s on the fast track to production written by Ben Ketai. So those three I think. Ghost House Pictures.

Q: What’s your relationship at Ghost House with the internet because spoilers start showing up and rumors get around that could affect people’s enjoyment in the theater or maybe that’s part of it? Do you find that you need to have a symbiotic relationship with the internet?

Sam Raimi: I don’t do it enough if I’m supposed to. What am I supposed to do now? A symbiotic relationship? [Laughs]

Knowing that the core audience for scary movies is also very tied into the internet and so they may be discovering things about the film that you don’t want them to know until they buy the ticket and see it in the theater.

Sam Raimi: Oh, I see.

So sometimes people throw out diversionary bait to say “Okay, you think this is a spoiler.”

Sam Raimi: I don’t even follow the original discussions about it enough to throw out the diversions to know what they shouldn’t be paying attention to, to just…whatever [laughs]. I don’t follow it enough. I just assume that the stuff is out there about the movie once it’s had a preview. I’m assuming that reviewers are writing to Ain’t It Cool news and all the websites that the kids read about reviews and they know everything about the pictures. I mean I wouldn’t know how. No, I never would think about sending some weird thing like diversions out.

Do you try to protect things?

Sam Raimi: In the movies that I’m directing I try not to let the secrets sneak out of the storyline because I think as a director I do try and protect that. They’re best seen in the theater. I want to have a chance to be the storyteller and not have some guy who’s seen the movie do a mediocre job of telling the story to others, kind of giving away what I really worked hard to do. It’s my job to tell the story. I want to be the one who tells the story. So I do try to hide the details of the movie, not in any nutty way, but as much as possible so that the audience sees it for the first time in the movie theater.

“30 Days of Night” seems to raise the bar for Ghost House Pictures. Were you aware of that during the development of it and does that influence these future projects you’re talking about?

Sam Raimi: I didn’t know it raised the bar. [Laughs] We’ll try and live up to the high standards set by that picture. Scaring people is always a low carnival job in my opinion. I don’t ever want to get too high-falutin or fancy about it. If you can jump out and scream “Boo!” and they jump, I’m for it even if it was unfair and he shouldn’t have hid outside the booth and you should have stayed inside the haunted house. I mean anything that scares them good and loud and really freaks them out, I’m in favor of whether it’s considered a low thing or not. So I’m glad that it raised the bar. I’d like to see more character in the movies that we make. That’s what I think Steve Niles’s comic book had in it. But I didn’t know that it raised the bar. I’m glad that it did.

Q: Do you still speak to Bruce Campbell and would you like to do a project with him? Will we see you guys team up again?

Sam Raimi: I love Bruce. I don’t speak with him enough. Just occasionally I speak with him. He’s up in Oregon. I’m so busy with my kids and making my movies. I usually just get a chance to see him when I give him a part. Then I’ll hang around on the set and I get to talk to him for a day or two. I’d love to work with him again and I’m definitely going to. I just don’t know what it is yet.

Q: Do you think it’s just the nature of the business that you’re both so busy that you don’t get a chance to connect as often as you’d like to? You guys were pretty tight in Michigan.

Sam Raimi: It’s more like he moved to Oregon.

He bailed on you?

Sam Raimi: Yeah. [Laughs] So that and I think me having these five kids. Every night is about “Did you brush your teeth?,” “Are you sure you did your homework? You’re hiding your homework sheet from me, you know.” That’s what I’m spending my time on versus sticking Bruce’s scripts. That’s how I spend my evenings. Our different lives have led us apart a little bit. I’m still crazy about the guy though and miss him. I scold myself often for not going up and taking the time and spending a few days with him. I just don’t want to miss any days with my kids though.

What’s your advice for that kid in Detroit who wants to be a filmmaker now and has that much more technology in his hands than you did when you were starting out? What do you want to say to that kid?

Sam Raimi: I think you’re right. The kids right now have a great opportunity in Detroit and elsewhere to make films. They’ve got free editing programs on their computer. A lot of the Macintoshes or IBM computers will have a simple editing program or you can go to the library and use a simple editing program that they have or in a school. So you can cut for free and even build sound tracks and usually at a school library you can borrow a camera for free or a public library or you can get a used camera for like $30 and some video tape, so it’s a great opportunity. The tools are in everybody’s hands right now all across the world. So I think we’re going to see an explosion of these young filmmakers hit the scenes any minute now who’ve been training and practicing and my advice to them is make a movie every day and show it to groups of people and charge money because once you charge a quarter for your show like in the school auditorium, you get a real critical reaction. “This sucks!” Or they’ll laugh if it’s funny. Or if it’s slow, the next day you show the movie you’ll end up cutting out that slow part and re-shooting the gag so it works a little bit better. That’s what we did and it really helps to show your movies every day to a paying audience and keep re-editing them and keep re-shooting them and be in an interaction with the audience every day. You’ll know what the audience wants better than anybody.

Someone like George Lucas seems to keep going back to films that he already made 20 years ago and it seems like these things never seem to get done. At a certain point it seems like filmmakers are just doing it to put out another DVD for the movie.

Sam Raimi: That very well might be true but I’m actually talking about more of a learning process with the audience because young filmmakers have to be able to show things, realize things aren’t working, try and understand why from the audience’s reaction, and make changes and show them again. I’m not talking about the screening process in Hollywood but just the learning. How does the audience react to this? How do they react if I hold on that close-up longer? Does that have more impact on the audience? As a process of learning, I think you’ve got to be able to show your movies again and again and be able to enact changes and understand how those changes are affecting the audience. But I’m not talking about professional filmmakers. I mean obviously they don’t need to do that.