EXCLUSIVE James Wan, Leigh Whannell/Saw Interview by Paul Fischer at the Toronto Film Festival.Not that long ago, Australian film students James Wan and Leigh Whannell were these two aspiring film makers from Melbourne. They were the best of friends and like all film students had an idea to make a commercial thriller, part horror, and then be allowed to make their dreams come true. They did, and what began as a hopeful, low-budget Australian film, morphed into a low-budget and equally terrifying Hollywood film. Still as young and idealistic as ever, the result, Saw, received initial attention at Sundance, then more recently at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival. Saw revolves around two men (Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell) who wake up in a windowless bathroom, shackled at opposite ends of the room. A tape-recorded voice tells that them one of them will have to kill the other in the next eight hours, or they'll both die. There's just one snag: the only way to get out of their manacles is to use a hacksaw on their ankles...
The buzz surrounding the film has been infectious, and nobody is more surprised as its enthusiastic director James Wan and co-writer and co-star Leigh Whannell, whose film is the toast of Hollywood. Literally fresh off the plane from Melbourne, tired but ebullient, Wan and Whannell sat in the corner of Toronto's Intercontinental Bar with PAUL FISCHER to talk about the film and what its imminent success might mean to these guys who were more impressed at the sight of director Todd Solondz, than any movie stars who happened by.