Despite the poor (ok, downright shitty) reviews that the updated version of Deathrace 2000 is getting, I’m still a bit intrigued with the idea of the Mad Max style vehicles in a super race with the speed and the “real” mash-ups, devoid of any special effects… and of course the hotties. Throw in Joan Allen, Jason Statham and “Deadwood’s” Ian McShane and yeah, I’ll go see it eventually.
Then I read an interview today with director Paul W.S. Anderson in which he talks a little about the making of the film and how they managed some of the cool smash-em-up scenes. It’s all real crashes and real guns. No models or crappy CGI. This was the real deal. In the interview, there are references and inspirations to everything from Mad Max to Two Lane Blacktop to Bullitt to Black Hawk Down and more. This intrigues me further.
But how they get some of the shots is by actually running over and smashing some of the cameras:
I wanted to get the cars to drive into the cameras at high speeds, so we built one of my favorite rigs. We built a rig that had a camera and was completely ringed with basketballs. So it was this big giant ball. We stick it in the middle of the road, and the cars would drive at it. There is a shot in the very first race, when the original Frankenstein drives, where the car slides around the corner, and it looks like it hits the camera, and it does. And then the continuation of that is really funny because the camera just rolls away, bounces away, and it hits the wall.
Cool.
