In the film Deep Water, directed by Renny Harlin, a plane flying from Los Angeles to Shanghai suffers an explosion and goes down in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. However, the survivors discover it’s not over yet, as the waters are infested with sharks. Ben (Aaron Eckhart), the First Officer, must fight to stay alive and lead as many of the surviving passengers as he can to safety.

Gene Simmons, who served as a producer on the film, decided to do the project because of the script and director. “I'm 100% sure it's the same thing that got a truckload of creative, wonderful people who wante to get involved in the film, from the bit players to the special effects people to the scenic designer, the cinematographers, special effects, everybody, it's that script,” Simmons told SciFi Vision, adding that Harlin as director is the “heart and soul” of the film.

Harlin also spoke with the site during the interview about creating the crash scene for the film, and highlighted the importance of small details in such a scene. “It's [tiny] details that make it really palpable and makes the audience relate to it and feel the reality of it,” said Harlin.

Watch the full interview and read the transcript below. Deep Water is now in theaters.




SCIFI VISION:   Let's start with you, Gene. What was it that made you want to be a part of it?

GENE SIMMONS:   I'm sure, I'm 100% sure, it's the same thing that got a truckload of creative, wonderful people who wanted to get involved in the film, from the bit players to the special effects people to the scenic designer, the cinematographers, special effects, everybody, it's that script. That script, invariably, which is a big word like gymnasium, attracted Academy Award-winning Sir Ben Kingsley, who got the highest awards from England, and Aaron Eckhart, great actor. They're both on there, but the first question they're going to ask before they commit is, who's directing? And that goes to the heart and soul of the movie, and that's Renny Harlin, the director, who's the chef who takes all the ingredients and makes the cuisine that we all react to. In the hands of somebody else like me, you'd get mush.

SCIFI VISION:   I wanted to ask you specifically, Renny, talk about filming the crash and the plane filling with water also, because I would think that that would be definitely difficult, so I'm kind of curious if you could talk about that.

RENNY HARLIN:   Yeah, absolutely. I happen to love making movies that are complicated and that involve exotic locations and harsh conditions. I get a lot of satisfaction from that. And of course I've made movies like this before. I think I've probably blown up more planes than is legal in most countries. So, you know, it all starts, obviously, like Gene said, it starts with the script. Then I do my storyboards, I plan my shots, and then I talk with my production designer and all the people involved, and we map out how do we accomplish this sequence, what are the details. And when I say details, I really think that the importance of a successful scene is the details. I would say, for example, something like when the plane is falling apart and the walls are ripped open and the seats fly out, it's the close-up of the seat, the bolt that is holding the seat to the floor. It's that kind of little, tiny details that make it really palpable and makes the audience relate to it and feel the reality of it. It's those little things, and I plan everything around those things. Obviously, you can't shoot in a real plane, so we had to build it. We built the plane, and we built it in several parts, some of them submerged thirty feet underwater and some of them on a hydraulic platform and so on, so that we can create the shaking and trembling and all those different things. And I like doing things kind of old-school way, so that the actors are real, the stuntmen are real. There's no ditzy doubles or AI-created anything. It's really happening in front of your eyes for real, because I think the audience can tell the difference, and that's what hopefully makes the movie very effective.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, it was very tense. I was hoping everybody was going to survive…

GENE SIMMONS:   By the way, it's worth noting, you get so engrossed and carried away by the action and caring about the actors and the roles they're playing. These actors were tortured. Some of the scenes were not only underwater. The actors had to be underwater, holding their breath, some thirty feet underwater upside down. You had like these frogmen, you know, with oxygen coming in, giving them stuff. Keep breathing until the director yells action, and then you take it away. They're underwater, and the people you see swimming underwater holding their breath, they're our actors. There are no I don't know, mannequins or any of that stuff. It's real.