There were some eyebrows raised when Daniel Radcliffe took the lead role of Ig Perrish in Alexandre Aja’s (Switchblade Romance, Piranha 3D) upcoming adaptation of Joe Hill’s novel Horns.
Ig, a character wrongly implicated in the violent death of his girlfriend, is a pretty extreme change of pace for Radcliffe, but when SciFiNow spoke exclusively to Hill about the upcoming film, he told us that he can’t wait to see Radcliffe explore his dark side.
“I haven’t seen it, I’m tremendously excited and I think it’s great that Daniel Radcliffe decided to step into the title role because he’s such a great match for the part and he instantly brings so much humour and humanity to the role of Ig.
“I’ve seen some of the footage, I know that there’s a rough cut that’s been pulled together, I know that everyone who’s seen the rough cut has been pretty exuberant, that they feel like there’s really something there. And especially they feel like there’s great chemistry and great feeling between Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple [the Killer Joe star plays Ig’s girlfriend Merrin].”
While anyone who has read the novel might wonder about how exactly such a dark and strange vision might be adapted for the screen, Hill tells us that he was impressed by the screenplay. “I thought the finished script was very strong, I liked it the way it adhered to the book and I liked some of the places where it departed from the book and became its own thing.
“I’ve seen some of the footage, and my impression is that Alexandre Aja isn’t just directing a film but kind of painting one, it’s a very painter-looking picture. So I’m hopeful. You never know what you’re going to get, you know.
“You hope it’s going to be good and I think it has a chance to be good but you know, there’s not much, it’s really easy to come up with something like Woman in Black that’s great, but there are other adaptations that great creators went into with the best of intentions but wound up very flat and dead on the screen, so we’ll have to see, but I’m hopeful.”
Hill is also impressed by the film’s director, Alexandre Aja. “I talked to one person who had seen the picture who said he thought it was so far and away Aja’s best work that he had jumped to a completely different level. Of course that’s what I want to hear so you hope that that’s true. But I think he’s an incredibly sweet and decent guy, and hard-working.”
“I used to love boxing and there were boxers who would fight every four months, real punchers, and then a lot of boxers who sometimes would only have a single fight every two years. And you always wondered about those guys, you always wondered about how good are they really, they’re not testing themselves against many fighters, and Alexandre Aja likes to fight.
“Some people jump into film and then they talk and they make deals and stuff, and Alexandre Aja loves to make movies. So very prolific, very enaged. Spielberg’s that way.”
Horns is playing at the Toronto International Film Festival and is released on 11 October 2013 in the US, no UK release date has been announced. You can buy Horns in paperback for £6.47 at Amazon.co.uk.
