ames Wong and his longtime partner, Glen Morgan, have carved out a career
in genre television, starting with The X-Files and continuing with
their short-lived cult SF series, Space: Above And Beyond. A stint
running Chris Carter's series Millennium led to a deal to develop
and produce shows for DreamWorks Television and NBC Studios. And that has
led them directly to their current jobs, running DreamWorks' and NBC's
upcoming paranormal thriller series, The Others, which airs
Saturdays at 10 p.m. starting Feb. 5.
Wong is also awaiting the March 17 premiere of his first feature film,
Final Destination, formerly Flight 180, which he directed and
Morgan co-wrote and produced. The movie, starring Devon Sawa and Ali
Larter, tells the story of a high school boy who narrowly escapes death
after a premonition about a plane crash.
Wong recently took a few minutes to chat with Science Fiction Weekly
during production of The Others.
Tell us about The Others and how you got involved in it.
Wong: The Others is a show that's basically sort of a ghost
story every week. It's centered around seven characters, one of whom is a
professor who doesn't have any psychic abilities, or abilities to see the
paranormal, but who is very interested in it. He's the organizer and
manager of the group. The others range from a doctor to a famous medium who
helped people in World War II, to a college student, Marian, who's …
the focus of the pilot. She has this gift that's unrefined, very raw, but
very powerful: the ability to channel and to see. … We're going to explore
the paranormal in our world.
You were asked to produce this show by DreamWorks founding partner Steven
Spielberg?
Wong: Yeah. We were doing a movie up in Vancouver, Flight 180
… and we got a call from people who said, "We want you to do this show,
would you look at the pilot?" They had already shot the pilot, and Mike
Ferris and John Brancato [The Net and The Game] were the
creators of this show. They had limited television experience, and they
thought we could help. We looked at the pilot. … We thought it was pretty
cool, and we really liked the idea of working with Spielberg. He's like my
idol. He's done movies that we've been kind of copying forever [laughs]. So
the opportunity to work with him and see how that would work was really
attractive.
This seems to fit with what you've done in the past, both The
X-Files and Millennium in particular.
Wong: A little bit. … I think we do that kind of thing well, and
we're interested in the topic, so it's easier that way.
What interests you about paranormal and weird stuff?
Wong: I don't know if I actually believe in the paranormal, although
I think anyone with a sort of intellectual curiosity would tend to be open
to it. … I would love to see anything that we've actually written come to
life in front of my eyes. … Maybe not the real scary stuff [laughs]. … But
I think that element of the unknown has always been interesting to me. It's
just a great way … to bring out your characters. You put them in a
situation that's so unusual that it brings out what they're all about. You
put them in a crucible. Space was like that for us, a war situation.
You put your characters in a screw, and turn the screw, and see what comes
out.
How involved is Steven Spielberg in the production?
Wong: He's pretty involved. He was literally just here, an hour ago;
he was looking at the cut, making changes and talking about stuff. He reads
every script and makes notes on every script, looks at every cut and makes
notes on that. ... He's very involved, and it's really great.
This seems like a director's show; you have some pretty high-profile
people directing.
Wong: Absolutely. Bill Condon [Gods and Monsters] just did
show three. ... Tobe Hooper [Poltergeist] is doing show five. ... I
don't know whose idea it was, but I think Steven's involvement makes it
much easier to get high-profile directors, because people always want to
work in his company.
Tell us about your movie, Final Destination.
Wong: We had a couple of previews that went pretty well. The studio
wanted us to shoot another ending, because they think that the hero not
dying usually helps the box office, I guess [laughs]. So they wanted us to
shoot another ending. We'll test that and see which one tests best, and go
with that. They're happy with the movie. They're very much behind it, and
we have a March 17 release date.
Is this the first feature you've directed?
Wong: Yeah, it is. … At the first preview, I'd never been more
nervous. Because that was the first time an audience saw it, and the first
time New Line executives saw it. So it was all that one night. … I think
I've never been more anxious. ... I didn't throw up. But it's not about that
kind of physical reaction for me. For me, it's like this focused intensity.
I'm sure I was a terrible lunch guest to be with. ... But it was really
gratifying. There were a couple moments … Glen [Morgan]
was sitting right next to me, and when something happened, and the audience
just rocked, it felt like, wow, that worked. There are a couple of moments
in the movie where it's never failed to elicit a response, and those
moments are wonderful.
Do you have another feature project coming up?
Wong: Nothing set. We have a project with Jodie Foster's company
that we're trying to set up. It's called Hangman. But you never know
when those things are going to happen. … It's an action drama. … The
Mark was Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's
thing; we wrote a script for it, and it had Will Smith attached. … After we
turned in a first draft, that was the weekend before The Matrix. And
Will had just seen the premiere. And there's a pretty … almost exact theme,
though done totally differently. This guy who doesn't think he's the guy
who saves the world. And Will said, "This is too much like The
Matrix right now." I don't know where it's at. Dean and Roland are
doing The Patriot, so they haven't got around to working with it. As
far as I know, it's pretty much dead.
Any chance of resurrecting Space: Above and Beyond?
Wong: No. Not that I know of. No one's ever talked to us about it.
I'd love to do it, though. ... Starship Troopers kind of blew
it for us.
They borrowed a lot of stuff from you, didn't they?
Wong: I know! I couldn't believe it! It's so crazy. We were out way
ahead of them. Somebody must have seen it, even if they didn't
intentionally borrow. ... The art direction, the costumes, the spaceships,
looked pretty much alike. ... I was stunned. You would think, just for their
own vanity, they'd come up with something new. I just didn't get it. All
the fans on the Internet were ... pissed when it came out.
Do you have any feelings about what happened with Millennium?
Wong: After the second season, we weren't involved at all with it.
...The first season, people were unhappy because it was the serial killer of
the week. The second season, we took it, I thought, to a more interesting
place with the Millennium Group and stuff, but the ratings didn't improve
that much. So I think they tried to go back and do something else for the
third season. I think it became ... another hybrid. Either you go with the
direction, or you don't.
