{"id":77263,"date":"2016-10-13T07:41:57","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T07:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2016\/10\/13\/exclusive-director-james-demonaco-talks-purge-election-year-blu-ray\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T02:47:09","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T02:47:09","slug":"exclusive-director-james-demonaco-talks-purge-election-year-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/exclusive-director-james-demonaco-talks-purge-election-year-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Director James DeMonaco Talks The Purge: Election Year Blu-ray"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: Director James DeMonaco Talks The Purge: Election Year Blu-ray<\/strong>Posted by Wilson Morales<\/p>\n

October 13, 2016<\/p>\n

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Currently out on Blu-ray combo pack, DVD and On Demand from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Director and writer James DeMonaco<\/strong> is The Purge: Election Year<\/strong>, the third chapter in the thrilling and successful franchise.<\/p>\n

As the government prepares for its annual Purge, the one night a year when all crime is legal, America\u2019s New Founding Fathers are faced with strong opposition from a presidential hopeful and her supporters who wish to abolish the country\u2019s violent tradition.<\/p>\n

It has been two years since Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo<\/strong>) stopped himself from a regrettable act of revenge on Purge Night \u2013 the 12 hours of lawlessness. This year, the annual ritual comes at the eve of a heated presidential election with the nation deeply divided between those who are pro- and anti-Purge. As head of security for Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), Leo\u2019s mission is to protect her during her controversial and contested run for president. But when a betrayal forces them onto the streets of Washington, D.C. on the one night when no help is available, they must stay alive or both be sacrificed for their sins against the state.<\/p>\n

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The Purge series (The Purge<\/strong> (2013), The Purge: Anarchy<\/strong> (2014) and The Purge: Election<\/strong>) Year has grossed over $318 million in the worldwide box office from a combined budget of $22 million.<\/p>\n

Blackfilm.com recently spoke with writer-director James DeMonaco on the success of the last film, Election Year and if a fourth film is in the works.<\/p>\n

You’ve had a very successful three films. How does that feel? Your last one keeps outpacing the previous one and the previous one.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James DeMonaco:<\/strong> Yeah, we’ve been very lucky, man. It’s been crazy. Still, it’s good. I can’t lie. It’s nice.<\/p>\n

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Talking about this last film. It’s done well, and one of the reasons it did well at the box office was probably because look what’s happening now. To have an appropriate title like Election Year. What was the thinking behind writing this particular film and using that title?<\/strong><\/p>\n

James DeMonaco:<\/strong> Well, various things. I can’t take any credit for any of it. I wrote the damn thing at the end of 2014, before any of what we’re going through, this circus, is unfolding. It was way too early to even know the players on the stage, other than Hillary. We all know Hillary would be around. I guess I knew a little bit about Rubio and Cruz, but Donald was even off the grid at that point. I can’t take any full credit, other than maybe, like my producer says, I had some weird magic ball that I was seeing the future. I kind of just wrote what I thought was the natural extension. I wanted to get into the political arena with the third film.<\/p>\n

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In all honesty, and I should do this, but my agent’s going to yell at me\u00a0but\u00a0I fought the title of Election Year because it looked like we were making a cash grab. My original title was Purge: Assassins. The studio’s like, “No, we have to call it Election Year.” This was in the middle of editing. I was editing here in New York and I’d been getting the call. I was like, “No, no, it’s going to seem like we’re just trying to cash in on the election.” They’re like, “No, no, it makes sense.” Originally, I fought the title, which I couldn’t have been more wrong. So there you have it.<\/p>\n

How much of a challenge is it going from the first film to the second film to continue to have something where you stay consistent with the themes of not just purging, but you’re adding politics to it as well<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

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James DeMonaco:<\/strong> How can I explain it? The Purge is a tough idea. I see it from various angles. I can see how it can easily be misconstrued. The intent of it, what I’m trying to say behind it, all the kind of pretentious writerly stuff I try to put in there … They’re sometimes often misconstrued by the audience. I guess the idea was always … It’s hard. You’re reconceiving something, but you want to hold on to what people liked. It’s an interesting thing, because see, the studio’s making sure that you have everything in there that’s going to bring the audience back who liked the previous film, yet as a filmmaker, I’d like to introduce new themes and values and things to speak about as we move forward.<\/p>\n

For me, I always want to change the nature a little bit of the genre. The first one’s home invasion. On a very simple level it’s home invasion. In the second one, the canvas is bigger on the streets of America, kind of like in a Warriors-like way. We’re crossing a city with these people. The third one, I was trying to hark back to the old political conspiracy thrillers of the 70s. For me, I don’t know if that’s something the audience can see. I was entering each one with a kind of different part of the genre, a different palette that I was playing within.<\/p>\n

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Then, coming up with the thematics, and with the third one I wanted to truly make a moralistic tale. I wanted to show the morality of the people who are dealing with this on a daily basis, so I created the Safe Zone, and safe communities come together to fight against this night. I wanted to play the morality of it, make it a little more clear that a lot of people are anti-Purge, that this is not a thing that benefits all. I think I just wanted to tell a truly moral tale in the third one. I hope I answered the question. I don’t know if I did.<\/p>\n

Is there a level of violence that you won’t go to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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James DeMonaco:<\/strong> Yes. I’m not a fan of gore. I’m not a huge fan of gore. Listen, I grew up watching gory movies in a more playful way, but I don’t ever really try to go closeups of gore. Everything’s done in kind of a wide. I shoot a lot of wide angles. Everything’s done on very wide lenses, on the 20 or 17. The violence is usually from a far-off point. I do want the violence to be somewhat impactful, not playful, so I do want it to be scary.<\/p>\n

I think that’s the tough thing for me. I find violence very scary, so I make it easy because I’m terrified, upset, I don’t like the guns in\u00a0it. When I watch the movies, I’m scared. But I do listen. We preview these movies, and I see that there are people who are titillated by the violence. I am presenting the violence to be scary. I know people are yelling and screaming and falling, and then I see that there’s many people in the audience who are titillated by it, so it’s a very fine line, but for me, it’s never going into truly gory. Anything that appears to be very gory, I’ll always go to a wider angle.<\/p>\n

Folks seem to like\u00a0the fact that you brought in back Frank Grillo. The audience likes the character, even though he was different from the second\u00a0film. Did you have to bring him back for the third one, or did you want to bring him back because you saw that there was a fan base that liked the character?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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James DeMonaco:<\/strong> You nailed it. The truth be told, the third film can actually be told without Frank being Leo Barnes, the character from 2. What we realized is, I fell in love with him as just a director to actor. We just got along very well. I thought the guy was amazing to work with. He’s, I think, a very rare breed amongst American actors right now. Frank’s not only a very good actor, Frank is actually very tough in real life. I feel like there’s not much of that left in that type of guy. We don’t have our Charles Bronsons anymore, really. There’s not many of them left. We often go to the Brits or Australian guys to play our really tough guys. I like that about Frank, that he exudes this true machismo.<\/p>\n

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We wanted to, man. Even the head of the studio I remember calling me, saying, “You’ve got to bring Frank back, James. No matter what you do, bring Frank back.” Frank was cool enough to play a part that he knew this could be someone else. That could be a different bodyguard, but he liked the idea that it wasn’t directly about him. He was a part of a story that it wasn’t just a continuous story of the Frank Grillo character. It was one thing, man. We just wanted to work with the guy.<\/p>\n

Since all three films have done very well from start to finish, what has that done for your career as a director. Are you getting more offers to do other work? Are studios trying to sign you to long-term deals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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James DeMonaco:<\/strong> It’s been good. I can’t lie. Just so you know, I made an indie before this with Ethan Hawke and Vincent D’Onofrio that was a little of the opposite. It didn’t do very well and it didn’t bolster my career much. Then I made the Purge films. No, they have, they definitely have pushed everything forward. I get offered much bigger films. Right now, I really like to write when I’m directing, so I’m trying to focus on that. I have a couple of things I want to do next, but the offers have been cool and I appreciate them and I think maybe one day I’ll direct something that I didn’t write. Yeah, it’s been good. When you have a financial hit\u00a0even though I love my first film more than all these, to be quite honest, it’s financial success that gets people to want to work with you. Which I understand. Listen, we’re in a medium where you need a lot of money to make these things, so people need to recoup their profit.<\/p>\n

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Is there a fourth Purge in the making?<\/strong><\/p>\n

James DeMonaco:<\/strong> There is, my friend. Yes, there is. The studio wants it, I have an idea for it. I won’t be directing it, but I might write it. It’s an original idea I have, and hopefully it’ll continue the franchise in a cool way. I hope that each idea is new and something that people want to see. It’s in the works. Nothing has been fully written, but it’s in development, I’d say.<\/p>\n