This comes from the always entertaining Bloody-Disgusting...
With Green hot on the heels of production of HATCHET 2, the writer-director reflects back on some of the HATCHET woes.
" From the day I wrote it and my agents told me they didn’t believe in it, from the now infamous rejection letter I received from a major studio that said “though the writing is brilliant, unfortunately this film will never get made because it’s not a remake, it’s not a sequel, and its not based on a Japanese one”, to the ridiculously short amount of time we were given to shoot in, to our post-production process being fumbled and destroyed by crooks, to our triumphant moment of getting a coveted U.S. theatrical release… only to be met at the finish line with a crucifixion that saw me forced to stand trial and defend my film and my character before the MPAA… it’s no wonder that by the night HATCHET opened in theaters on Friday September 7, 2007, I hated the movie about as much as any anonymous troll on a message board. I felt like I had literally gone to war and all I wanted to do was be done with it.
Though a sequel was always in the cards (the first one was shot and especially “ended” in a way that was conducive to making a sequel) I needed to go do other things before I would be able to go back that way and let Victor Crowley loose again. As cliché as it may sound, the first HATCHET was a selfish film. I thought of it and invented Victor Crowley when I was only eight years old, so twenty or so years later when I got the chance to shoot it, I merely made the type of movie I wanted to see on the big screen again. But after all of the battles I fought along the way (some were won, many were lost) it was the community of horror fans that carried HATCHET over the finished line. A literal “army” of friends, brothers, and sisters that I never knew I had that rallied behind it and (even without the proper financial support in marketing from it’s distributor) turned HATCHET into one of the biggest successes worldwide of the last decade. I’ve done conventions and film festivals everywhere and seen firsthand the love that the fans have for what we did. I’ve sat through theatrical screenings of HATCHET with sold out auditoriums of kids and adults that can say every line along with the cast. And while creatively I am chomping at the bit to get back to Honey Island Swamp and finish what we started, this time around it’s not just about me anymore, it’s about YOU. It gives me great joy to say that HATCHET 2 is for fans of HATCHET 1 and those fans only. It’s going to be everything you want the sequel to be. Didn’t like the first film? Excellent. Skip this one then, you’re not invited to our party. Liked the first one? You’ll love this. Surprises, plot twists, and swamp boat loads full of gore await you next Fall!"
HATCHET 2 begins lensing next week. Read the entire blog with images over at MySpace.