SXSWORLD

From left to right: Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Holden (Jesse Williams), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Marty (Fran Kranz) and Dana (Kristen Connolly) in The Cabin in the Woods. Goddard and Whedon Invite Horror Fans to Th e Cabin in the Woods by Mike Sampson At the time, writer Drew Goddard was fresh off a successful stint working on Lost, and Th e Avengers was still just a twinkle in the eye of his friend and collaborator Joss Whedon (who had just spent the better part of a year working on an aborted Wonder Woman project for Warner Brothers). It I 28 was the perfect time for a creative reboot. Th e duo, who had gotten their start working together on the fi nal season of Buff y the Vampire Slayer, would frequently bat ideas around, but there was something about Th e Cabin in the Woods, an original con- cept Whedon had hatched for a horror movie, that stuck with them. Maybe it was that unlike most of their ideas, it contained a tight struc- ture. Or maybe it was the killer (ahem) third act. But really, Goddard SXSW ORLD /FEBRUAR Y 2012 need to have a scene with her making out with a wolf head!" Th at was four years ago. away from a cabin in the woods (a Santa Monica hotel) to fl esh out the story. Th e pair split the fi lm's scenes (Goddard called dibs on the wolf head French kiss) and wrote separately in the afternoons, meeting over breakfast and dinner to discuss their progress. Whedon explains the process: "He took the upstairs, I took the few months, it took just three short days to write the 105-page script. "It's everyone's dream to be able to write something that fast," says Whedon with a chuckle. If only everything had come together that quickly. Th is should not be breaking news to fans of their work, but both Whedon and Goddard are horror movie buff s. Yet at 47 and 36 years of age respectively, they are old enough to feel disillusioned by recent horror downstairs, and every day we basically worked it out." Th ough they had been nurturing and developing the concept for a explains, "we just wanted to make a 'cabin movie.' It wasn't any more complicated than that." In the interest of staying spoiler-free, Th e Cabin in the Woods can best be described in just two brief sentences: Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. Of course, you might bet that there could be more to it than that, especially considering that one of the producers of Lost is involved. To write the fi lm, Goddard and Whedon holed themselves up far DIYAH PERA

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