The Cabin in the Woods

Fran Kranz, who plays the character Marty in the horror movie The Cabin in the Woods, told reporters that weather at the film’s Vancouver, Canada, location is proving to be an irritation, part of the "chaos" producer Joss Whedon described in an interview on Tuesday.

"You know, it rains a lot in Vancouver, and it doesn’t rain a lot in our movie," Kranz (Dollhouse) said in a group interview on Wednesday night in Hollywood, where he was part of a panel discussing Dollhouse at the Paley Festival. "So we’re a bunch of kids, we’re going out to a cabin in the woods, a fun little weekend of partying. It’s supposed to be sunny. It’s supposed to be nice out. Look, Vancouver’s a wonderful city. Amazing food and friendly people. When it’s nice out, I cannot be inside, it’s so beautiful. That might be what Joss is talking about. Otherwise, this movie is going to kick ass."

The following Q&A features edited excerpts of our interview. MGM is set to release The Cabin in the Woods on Feb. 5 2010.

Have the weather conditions caused any scenes to change?

Kranz: No, no, no. Certainly not. It’s just that we have to take our time or switch what we wanted to do in the schedule. If I ask for a schedule, they would just walk away. They’d laugh at me. If I was like, "What are we doing next week?" They’d be like, "No, no, no, sorry."

Has it been scary to shoot?

Kranz: Oh, yeah, sometimes it’s definitely creepy. Absolutely. I’ve never done a horror film or anything like this for that matter, and it’s really, really exciting. I really am not supposed to talk about it at all, but I just walked into one of the makeup trailers one day and saw one of these guys that we’re coming up against, and it was pretty scary. It was. I was very uncomfortable.

Isn’t it weird for a horror movie to keep the monsters a secret? That’s usually the selling point.

Kranz: Well, you know Drew Goddard is directing it, co-wrote it with Joss, he obviously was one of the guys behind Cloverfield and wrote Cloverfield. That was a movie where you’re kind of wondering what is this thing? What’s it’s all about? It’s a monster movie, but what is the monster? Where did it come from? What’s the whole idea behind it?

I don’t think this is so much that. I think there’s a concept behind Cabin in the Woods, and I think that’s sort of what’s really exciting about it. It’s definitely what’s original about it. Obviously the title, you’re thinking, "Wait, I’m sure I’ve seen that movie before," but that’s sort of the point. It’s sort of giving you the convention, and then turning it on its head. There’s going to be moments where you’ve seen this before, but we’re either satirizing it, undermining it or giving a new take on it. It’s going to be fun. So, yeah, there’s definitely some bad guys, but it’s not all about the bad guys.

Will we say, "Don’t go in there?"

Kranz: I’m sure. I think I say that, or "maybe we shouldn’t be here." Stuff like that. Like the rules from Scream, they’re all broken.

Who do you play in the film?

Kranz: The character’s name is Marty, and he likes to have fun. Not playing with dolls and computers. He likes to have fun in the outdoors and plants, different kinds of herbs.

How does Marty compare to Topher, your character on Dollhouse?

Kranz: It’s always tough to go from one to the next. As much as I like to transform and I respect diversity, I think the term character acting is weird, because that’s what we should be doing. We should be playing characters. We shouldn’t just be playing versions of ourselves. So I try my best to be completely different, but it’s always hard not to have little Topherisms lingering around, but I think it’s pretty damn different.