The kings of gross-out talk Scary sequels, sibling spats and why critics don't spook them
by Anderson Jones | July 3, 2001
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How it is working with siblings? |
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For a couple of guys who live for laughter, Shawn and Marlon Wayans are awfully serious about their work.
Of course, as kingpins of Hollywood's latest show-biz dynasty, they've got a lot at stake. And they obviously believe the family that sticks together, stays together.
After Marlon, 29 (the youngest of the 10 Wayans kids), and Shawn, 30, worked on In Living Color and starred in their own sitcom, The Wayans Brothers, they pitched the idea for a horror spoof, Scary Movie, to big bro Keenen.
With him in the director's chair, the flick took in a phenomenal $167 million just in the U.S.--Miramax/Dimension's biggest hit ever.
At the premiere, the studio asked for a sequel, so Shawn, Marlon and a team of writers went to work immediately on a pop-savvy follow-up. The result? Scary Movie 2, which relentlessly skewers supernatural flicks like Exorcist and Poltergeist with the same reckless disregard for taste and propriety as its predecessor used to slice slasher flicks.
Their decidedly un-PC sense of humor attracted stars like James Woods (filling in for an ailing Marlon Brando), Andy Richter, Chris Elliott, Tori Spelling and Natasha Lyonne. Naturally, the brothers return as well, as pothead Shorty (Marlon) and sexually confused Ray (Shawn).
But these two have no interest in resting on their very promising laurels. Shawn and Marlon promise that even if the sequel breaks box-office records, they're anxious to get back to work on other projects, including an action-filled buddy movie, a boy-band spoof and an animated feature called Roaches.
So, since you guys finished Scary Movie, you've been working nonstop.
Marlon: First of all, I did three movies [Requiem for a Dream, Dungeons and Dragons, The Tangerine Bear] the year before filming Scary Movie, so I never had a break. After Scary Movie was done, we promoted Scary Movie, did the press for it and did the MTV Music Awards. And we had to write all the skits for that, so there's still no break.
Shawn: Then we went to Europe to promote Scary Movie.
Marlon: And somewhere in between, we had to write Roaches.
So, when you approached Scary 2, were supernatural movies the first thing that came to mind?
Marlon: It was the natural progression of the genre. It was the idea that you can't do the same genre again because you did that already.
Shawn: For a sequel to a parody, you have to find something new to parody. So, it's kind of like for Hot Shots: Part Deux, the natural progression was to Rambo. So, that's what we kind of did on this one.
You were in such a hurry to meet a July 4 release date, did you have enough time to test Scary Movie 2 to try out your jokes?
Shawn: We test-screened it a couple of months ago to see what works--what the audience likes, what they didn't like, take something out, go reshoot something, put something back in.
Marlon: It's kind of like working on a stand-up act. We approach it like comedians. You know, if a joke don't work, you go, "Damn, why didn't that work?" You gotta reshoot something to sell the setup better so that it helps the punchline. Or, sometimes shit ain't funny and you just gotta take it out.
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Wild Bikini Week:
The True Hollywood Story on Carmen's headlong thrust for fame; 9 p.m.
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