JOY RIDE
© 2002 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

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Riding in Cars Part Two

JOY RIDE producers Chris Moore and J.J. Abrams (ALIAS) are hoping their film, which did mediocre box office during its theatrical release, will find its true audience when it hits home video and DVD this week. The film follows two brothers, Lewis (Paul Walker) and Fuller (Steve Zahn), in a cross-country trip to pick up a friend of Lewis', Venna (Leelee Sobieski). On the way, they find themselves harassed by a surly-voiced truck driver called Rusty Nail, who is soon following them cross-country in true road movie/thriller fashion. Today, the filmmakers continue their discussion of the picture.

Abrams mentions the importance of good characterization and storytelling in any type of film, much less a film traditionally based on insinuation and shock value.

"I love combining genres in small intimate personal stories," says Abrams. "You normally wouldn't find that but in JOY RIDE we were trying to do that. To tell a story you might want to watch even if it weren't a genre picture."

If the producers had kept the original ending planned for the picture, they say, they would have felt as though they were betraying the characters and the entire film up to that point. The feel of the film would have shifted significantly.

"In the original ending there was a fight that felt like a wrestling match," explains Abrams. "It didn't feel at the same level as the rest of the movie. Now it's much more about the suspense of it and finally a kinda kill or be killed moment rather than three guys behind a hotel fighting."

Moore agrees, "When it sort of went over the cliff and became wrestlemania behind the hotel it lost its cleverness. I think everybody agreed with that across the board."

The question now is, with the way they did end the film, whether or not there are plans for a sequel.

"It was definitely not about there being a sequel," confirms Moore, who is not totally against the idea yet can't fathom a scenario where that might work.

JOY RIDE

© 2002 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

"Unfortunately it wasn't as successful in the theaters as we would have liked," says Moore. "If you see the movie you love the movie and there are a lot of fans of this movie. I am excited about and really grateful that we got the platform to allow people who haven't seen the movie to see it but as far as a sequel, it's about whether there are characters or a story that could carry on. In all honesty, my view of it creatively is this is one moment in time with a group of characters that fell together through unusual circumstances. And if we tried to force these people back together again it's going to feel like we did it to make a sequel. The likelihood of them being on the highway and pissing someone else off with their CB is zero."

But what about Rusty Nail coming back and scaring up the highways? Not likely, says Moore.

"How do you market that as a sequel?" says Moore. "Rusty Nail is back! It works to some extent with Freddy and Jason or somebody like that but I am not sure we created Rusty Nail in a way that he is a psycho rolling around looking for other people to screw with."

Still, if someone had a great idea for the characters, Moore would not be averse to listening to it. In fact, he says, he would be "the first guy beating down the door if I thought there was a good idea."

"If it had made 200 million or 100 million I think they would be trying to get us to figure out how to do it," says Moore. "I think it's in the middle road position where it didn't make enough money to make it business-wise so we can say JOY RIDE 2 on a poster. But also creatively we aren't driving that hard because it's a hard one to solve because it is just one of those situations."

What pleases both Abrams and Moore is this exciting second chance for a film they poured a lot of time and hard work into now being released on DVD - with extras including commentary and the four alternate endings - and video.

J.J. Abrams, writer of JOY RIDE, Peter Staddon, SVP of Fox Home Entertainment , and Chris Moore, producer of JOY RIDE

© 2002 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

"What I love about DVD is even people who aren't necessarily interested in the process of making a film can discover it and actually realize they are interested in it," says Abrams. "For me sitting down with Scorsese and hearing him talk about his films or watching behind-the-scenes of James Bond movies, it's the coolest thing of all time. I wish it had been around when I was younger. Just to be a part of that process is a thrill for us."

Although Moore is also very happy about the release of the DVD, it is a bittersweet occasion. There is a big part of him that still wishes the turnout at the theaters could have been bigger in the first place.

"I wish it had done better," says Moore. "I wish more people had seen it cause I am very proud of the movie. I worked hard on the movie. I've done many other movies that nobody saw and I am sad that this is another one that a lot of people didn't get a chance to see. But I really feel like people discover movies on DVDs a lot more than they did before."

No matter what, at the end of the day the producers can walk away knowing they did put their heart and soul into the film, especially focusing on what some say is the most important part of this type of film... the ending, which Moore continues to stress.

"The ending is that last four minutes when the person leaves the theater and that's a big piece of what they are going to tell their friends whether it's good or bad," says Moore. "So because DVD is much more a part of our lives a lot of our product that we make can now be judged later at home."