CraveOnline: Tell us about this Maze Runner prequel comic that you co-wrote for the DVD and Blu-ray.
Wes Ball: That was fun. We did two comics, and it’s one of those things where you’re making a movie and you’ve got all of this backstory that was created about the characters for myself and the actors that we worked through to make the place very real. What we came up with were stories that I either didn’t have time to film or that the movie, in terms of pacing, just couldn’t support.
So I thought it would be really fun to just expand on some of these characters and their histories and make a comic out of these things to get these stories out. Because these were very cool stories. The first one we did was about the character Alby and the first boy who ever got stung by a Griever. We put that out at one of the comic cons and it echos in the movie and you can see some of the things that happened in the comic through passing nods to them in the movie with the name wall and the grave that Thomas finds.
It’s fun that these ancillary stories connect to the movie if the fans really pay attention. It’s in there, The second comic that we came up with… I always wanted to show more maze. I didn’t have enough budget to actually show more maze. So I thought it would be awesome to tell the story about Minho, the runner and how he first got his break throughout the maze, his journey through this place and his adventures out there to discover the code that’s out there in the maze… and how he came across Ben, the character who winds up in the first movie. It was just a fun experience to tell more stories that enrich some of the characters that you meet.
Were there any scenes that were painful to lose when you were cutting the movie?
Yeah, there were actually. There’s a couple of scenes… It’s usually more about pacing than anything. You know, when the movie starts to drag or your feet start to get restless and you have to start cut something even if they’re great scenes on their own.
There’s little scenes within a chapter and extra scenes with Thomas and the rest of the group. But for the most part, I think that movie that we’ve put out is the right version of the movie. I wouldn’t want to go back and put those scenes back in.
No?
No, I wouldn’t. I think we cut them for the right reasons. As good as those scenes might be on standalone, as a whole in the movie we had to make cuts.
Did those lost scenes make it on to the DVD and Blu-ray?
Yep! They’re on there.
This was your first feature film. Did you have any nerves going in?
Not really. Only the nerves of just trying to do something kind of ambitious and trying to do a good job, especially for the fans. I wanted to make something that they were proud of. But it wasn’t like “Oh my God! What am I doing?!” I felt pretty comfortable because of my background I have at least some knowledge.
I had a fantastic team around me. I had some really good producers, and my DP and my editors, and all of those guys were veterans. I could lean on them if I needed them for support. So I didn’t feel any kind of nerves in terms of being a first timer, it’s just the same kind of nerves I have making the second movie and just trying to do a good job with the time and resources at hand.
What was the most important lesson you learned while making this film?
Honestly? I’d probably say it’s the script. The script is so key to making a good movie. But everything is against you when you’re making a movie: the logistics of putting a crew out where you need to go, whether the light is fading, if the weather’s not right, something’s wrong. Everything is always against you when making a movie, and if you don’t have a solid blueprint that the entire team can get behind, and understand, and then execute then you’re going to be lost on the set.
And that’s probably where you get movies that just don’t work. They’re searching for the movie, they’re chasing the movie. I always knew the script was important, but I didn’t realize how important until you get out there and just deal with the issues of putting a movie together. It’s amazing that anything works, to be totally honest.
That is really important and really the key. I didn’t even fully understand it until after the movie came out. After that, it’s been the lessons of how to shoot a movie and how to put one together as efficiently as you can. We’ll see on the next one how it goes!
What was the most challenging scene to film in the first movie?
There’s two different answers there. There’s one that was challenging technically and logistically, and then there’s one that was just challenging on an emotional level. Probably the latter scene was Chuck’s death. That was the toughest because you’re asking these [actors] for maybe a day or two days to be in this really low, very emotional state.
And it’s not easy. It’s a lot of stress in terms of when people are getting [emotionally] spent… and we had to do coverage of the scene. That’s a very stressful time, and it was also in the last few days of filming and we’re all kind of feeling the exhaustion that sets in by the end of production. That was really tough, as a director.
The technically difficult [aspect] was probably some of the big VFX scenes, where there really isn’t very much out there for the actors to take in. So you have to really work with them and make them understand and see what you’re ultimately going to be creating. It’s all difficult, but it’s all incredibly fun at the same time.
We’ve heard that you’re a big Jurassic Park fan. How excited are you about the new Jurassic World trailer?
It’s pretty good, man. We’ve had a lot of great trailers lately! You’ve got Jurassic World, you’ve got Star Wars… It’s like I’m back to my [childhood] again. All of these great movies that got me inspired to make movies in the first place are gonna come back around. I’m excited and I can’t wait.
Jurassic Park was definitely one of my big influences to make movies. It was one of those perfect movies that was the blend of spectacle and a really good story… it was great! It was one of the first movies that really used CG. There was also Terminator 2 ahead of that, and The Abyss before that. But Jurassic Park was the first one where they were inventing it on the spot. Those shots still hold up because they’re making a movie, not a visual effects movie. Know what I mean? It’s Spielberg and he’s one of the greats.
That’s one of those movies that I always look back to this day, and at least once a month I’ll probably watch that movie and just study it because it’s the perfect eruption of just good entertainment that actually still has heart that sticks with you. That’s the goal for me, to make those kinds of movies.
Special thanks to Crystal Lewis for the assist with the questions!
