Today I had the pleasure of talking with the super cool Bruce McDonald, the director of Pontypool. If you haven't seen Pontypool yet, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!? Check it out ASAP but in the mean time read my interview.



It’s safe to say that before starting the production you read the novel by Tony Burgess. After reading it what attracted you to make a film adaptation?

I thought it was a pretty original notion of this virus in the English language. It seemed pretty fresh and weird and hilarious, so that’s what kind of hooked me.

Yeah it is definitely an original idea. I’ve never seen a movie before where a virus transmits itself and infects through speech.

Yeah yeah I’m a big zombie movie fan so it was kind of like “oh ok here’s the new twist on it”. It gave us a license to enter the zombie derby.

I’ve heard the movie be compared to 28 Days Later and zombie films such as Dawn of the Dead but it isn’t a regular zombie movie. It really is its own thing.

Yeah even in the script we didn’t really call them zombies. I think we ended up calling our infected people “Conversationalists” but you know they are sort of cousins of zombies.

Now was Tony on set at all during the shoot and ultimately what did he think about the final product?

Well Tony actually has a cameo in the film. There is a scene in the film where this small town theater company comes and sings a song on the radio, so Tony plays the character Lawrence of Arabia. But he was there everyday of the shooting and couldn’t be happier. It was his first experience on a set and it was his first screen play. There was a lot of new things for Tony and he had a fun time hanging around, talking with the actors and watching how the process went. It’s always nice when the writer ends up loving the product haha.



Pontypool isn’t a typical horror film that audience nowadays are used to. Instead of in your face violence the viewer is treated to a brooding atmosphere and is left a lot to use there imagination. To me, this way of making a horror film is far more effective, would you agree with that statement?

I totally would, you know I think our imaginations consequently have always created much more frightening and disturbing images than any movie can. It’s scary because its like the reason people are afraid of the dark, they can't see anything so they tend to frighten themselves. I mean there are great horror movies but there is often a disappointment when you see the monster up close and go “oh its made out of latex!”

Haha I know what you mean.

We're all big fans of these old movies like The Tenant or Rosemary’s Baby, where they are horror movies, but its more of what you imagine than what you actually see in front of you.

I can honestly say after I watch Pontypool I felt very refreshed; in a time where there is just never-ending remakes, us fans crave originality and it delivered the goods.

Wow alright thanks Clint.



Also how does it feel to know that this film is receiving all this praise and almost every review I‘ve seen has been a positive one?

We’re all thrilled you know because it goes back to Tony’s original concept and his very original premise. I think for myself that attracted me to it and for people like yourself and other writers writing about the film, they are refreshed by it too because it isn’t a remake or retread of something old. So we are all excited about it.

So you are in talks about directing the sequel “Pontypool Changes”.

Yeah “Pontypool Changes” and “Pontypool Changes Everything” kind of like a trilogy.

At what point did you know you wanted to do these sequels?

In a way the sequels were actually written before the original was made. Tony and I had worked together for a number of years on this, what I would call, main event and it takes place on the same day from the original. Instead though, we’re out about in the town and we experience things a bit more viscerally. So yeah we had that written before we made the original and we thought “Hey if this goes well then maybe we’ll make the new one in the winter time.”

So is it likely there will there be a wider scale of the infected in the sequels?

I think so. It’s different characters and we are going to see how far out we can go. While the third one is going to be about rehab, people learning to be social and better communicators. There is a lot of stuff to explore with this idea and will definitely be a bigger scope.



When is "Pontypool Changes" going to start filming?

Well if all goes well it will be January, this coming January we start pre-production. We are still right now just in-talks with people about financing and figuring out whose going to be the actors, which is always fun. See what kind of small army we can put together. As General Patton said “ you never go to war with the Army you want but you go to war with the Army that you got or you lose the country.”

Hahaha that's right. Well Bruce it was great talking with you and us fans cant wait to see what you have in store in the future.

Yeah it was awesome and I appreciate you checking in!