Were the Saw films strictly a means to an end in realising Repo?
Yeah, it was. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I’m guessing that I ever will do, because it’s so different. The Saw films were a cakewalk compared to this. After Saw 2, it was a franchise – they knew there would be an audience for it and I had all the support in the world from everyone. With Repo I wanted to make a musical where everyone sings and there is no talking – and I want to cast Paris Hilton! Every studio in the world freaked out, saying there’s no way we’re gonna make this. Knowing that if I went back and did Saw 4 I would have had three big box-office hits, and I had the luxury of doing a movie like this…I could never have done this movie if I wouldn’t have done the Saw films, because it’s too risky, it’s too out there and quite frankly it could have hurt any chance I ever could have had of being, you know, a big director. The Saw films gave me the kind of flexibility to show that I can do these kind of movies, that I can turn round a big box-office number. But R
