With Don’t Breathe 2 opening in theaters this weekend, I recently spoke with director and co-writer Rodo Sayagues and co-writer Fede Álvarez about making the sequel to the huge hit from 2016. If you’re not aware, the first Don’t Breathe was made for around $10 million, and it went on to gross an impressive $157 million at the worldwide box office. In the sequel, which takes place several years after the first film ended, Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang) is living a quiet life with a new daughter figure (Madelyn Grace) when his past sins catch up to him. As you can imagine, you’re going to get plenty of action-horror sequences that feature brutal and bloody violence. Don’t Breathe 2 was produced by Sayagues, Álvarez, Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert.
During the interview, Sayagues and Álvarez talk about the success of the first film, what people would be surprised to learn about the making of both Don’t Breathe and Don’t Breathe 2, how Stephen Lang is the nicest person until he’s on set getting ready to work, if they’ve had a lot of battles with the MPAA, how they’re always five frames away from an NC-17, the editing process, and more.
Check out what they had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about.
Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues
- What did they hope the first film would do at the box office?
- What would people be surprised to learn about the making of both Don’t Breathe and Don’t Breathe 2?
- How Alvarez wasn’t originally going to direct Don’t Breathe and why he agreed to do it.
- How Stephen Lang is the nicest person until he’s on set getting ready to work. He’s the type to stay in character.
- Have they had any battles with the MPAA?
- How they’re always a few frames away from an NC-17 rating.
- What was it like editing Don’t Breathe 2 and if it went through any big changes?
- How the way they wrote their movies makes it hard to cut scenes out from them.
