Starring Dylan Walsh, Penn Badley and Sela Ward
The only tangible difference blue-eyed, strong-jawed actor Dylan Walsh appears to see between his weekly role in F/X’s saucy hit TV series Nip/Tuck and his turn in Screen Gems’ The Stepfather is, “It’s just about bigger knives.” Walsh is only joking, of course, when Shock visits the set of the remake currently lensing under the gun of director Nelson McCormick. The project reunites McCormick with scribe J.S. Cardone; nearly a year ago they were on L.A.’s Sony lot, albeit on another soundstage, killin’ teens in the upcoming Prom Night remake.
An update of the 1987 thriller – itself inspired by the dirty deeds of Michigan-born elusive killer John List – starring Terry O’Quinn (Lost) and uber-horror hottie Jill Schoelen, The Stepfather now finds Walsh in the titular role, a fella who slips in and out of broken families. If they don’t suit his expectations, he slaughters them, leaving his so-called “home” behind with a pile of bodies inside. And he always makes sure the front door is locked before he leaves.
The face may have changed for this new incarnation, but the twisted motivations remain the same: “There’s a stuffiness [to him], he’s stiff,” Walsh says of his second skin David Harris. “I imagine he’s had these different families and he’s tried different things, there’s a repertoire of tricks and they hadn’t worked before and he’s trying to make this one work – that’s what his flaw is, he’s caught up in this old-fashioned way. He’s well-meaning, it’s just that he wants to control every facet of it. He’s got this 1950s thing, he demands to be the head of the family and what he says rules.”
Explains producer Mark Morgan: “It doesn’t stray too much from the original. This isn’t so much horror, per se, it’s more of a thriller, it’s got a lot of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle in that it’s got that creepy sorta feeling you get that are not exactly visceral or violent by nature. We wanted to elevate it to some degree.”
When the audience is first introduced to Harris, he’s entering into a new relationship with Susan Harding (Sela Ward) and her son Michael, played by Gossip Girl‘s Penn Badley. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane‘s Amber Heard rounds out the cast as Badley’s girlfriend and primo piece of jailbait for Harris’ “pervo” gaze.
“We’re taking the journey with the son, Michael, who has just returned from military school,” Morgan elaborates. “He has been there for approximately two years. His father, his real father, had left for a younger woman, Michael has been rebellious, he has never wanted to accept it. A problem kid. His mother had no other thing she could do but send him to military school. When he gets back, he’s sorta bitter. He still wants his dad in a way.” Michael, naturally, begins to turn a suspicious eye towards his “new pop” Harris and begins to discover some nasty secrets.
When it came to finding the right guy to play the psychotic patriarch, Morgan says they sifted through a number of candidates. Walsh rose to the top. “He has that personality that is nice, jovial and trust-worthy. When you watch [his performance], it’s delicate and subtle, a small movement in the face, or where his smile dips for a second and then dips back up – which is freaky. When he turns and gets really angry in the more violent scenes of the movie, you’re like, Holy shit! He goes zero to sixty. I think you’re more scared of someone you don’t expect that from.”
Original “Stepfather” O’Quinn was approached to do a cameo, however, his success on Lost has propelled him into a different stratosphere monetarily. Morgan expresses he’d still like to try and get the actor before shooting wraps.
As for the inevitable, “Why ‘Stepfather’?” and “Why now?” queries, Morgan answers, “The divorce rating is escalating near 60%, and there are many women out there who have children but haven’t remarried, and are sometimes easy prey. They don’t exactly know who they’re letting into their house. I think it will cross over for those in relationships or older women because it is such a prevalent thing in our society, divorce in general, and it is such a broad concept.” He adds it will play predominantly to the younger crowd, too (expect a PG-13 rating). “I get the feeling that when people leave the theater, especially those with stepfathers, they will be a little weirded out in the car on the way home or second guessing things.”
Source: Ryan Rotten
