NZ article on Director Ellory Elkayem [Archive]

Agent Pat (Agentpat)

05-27-2002, 03:43 PM

&#34;NZ director gives Hollywood the creeps&#34; The Sunday Star-Times &#40;Auckland&#41; By Robyn Mclean May 26, 2002 He&#39;s just finished filming a $30 million blockbuster with some of the biggest names in Hollywood - but our latest hotshot movie director is virtually unknown at home. Ellory Elkayem of Christchurch is thrilled his first feature movie Eight Legged Freaks - starring David Arquette - will be launched in July, the US summer movie season and the domain for Hollywood&#39;s most hyped films. &#34;I was surprised it became a summer movie because they are &#40;usually&#41; mega budget like Star Wars.&#34; Elkayem, who directed and co-wrote the film, was put on the fast track to fame after meeting film bigwigs Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, producers of Godzilla and Independence Day. They were keen to work with Elkayem after seeing his New Zealand-made 12-minute spider film, Larger Than Life - produced by The Lord of the Rings co-producer Jamie Selkirk. &#34;We clicked really well, it was really exciting. &#34;Of course it was intimidating because not long ago I had been sitting in an Auckland cafe reading about them in magazines thinking &#39;Wow, these guys are amazing&#39;. To be sitting across from them a year later was quite incredible. &#34;They also loved the same movies I did, the giant bug movies of the &#39;50s. We all got along well because we were sci-fi nerds . . . without their enthusiasm this would never have happened. They really pushed it though and believed in me.&#34; Elkayem, 31, said the film&#39;s original title - Arac Attack - had to be changed after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. &#34;The name sounded a little too much like &#39;Iraq attack&#39; and the studio was concerned. At the time no memos were allowed to go around with Arac Attack on them, it was just called &#39;the spider movie&#39;. &#34;There were bomb threats on the studio at the time and they were just a little paranoid about the whole thing. &#34;I think the new title is a little more fun and captures the tone of the movie better anyway. The title came from David Arquette when he ad-libbed the line &#39;get back you eight-legged freaks&#39; during filming. The studio heard it and said &#39;that&#39;s our title&#39;.&#34; The story centres on a small town under siege by spiders which become contaminated with a toxic substance which causes them to grow. After graduating from a private Christchurch film school, Elkayem headed to Wellington and knocked on the door of Peter Jackson&#39;s production studio where he learnt from Jackson&#39;s former producer Jim Booth. After stints on short films and commercials, Elkayem received funding from the New Zealand Film Commission for Larger Than Life, which he made in 1997. The short film was a hit at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival in Colorado and he signed with an agent the next day. Elkayem hopes to return home for Eight Legged Freaks&#39; New Zealand premiere in September, and is now deciding what project he will tackle next. &#34;I&#39;m reading scripts and meeting people, pitching ideas and developing ideas but I haven&#39;t locked in anything specific yet.&#34;