I think I was thumbing through the EW summer movie preview when I realized that Chris Sivertson was directing the July studio release, I Know Who Killed Me. For SXSW audiences, Chris is also the director of the dark, stylish, and controversial feature, The Lost, which premiered at SXSW in 2006. That Jack Ketchum adaptation found itself a slew of supporters after SXSW, with many indie distributors trying to figure out a way to release such a gruesome film to the masses. While The Lost sat on the shelf (up until now), Chris directed I Know Who Killed Me with a bigger budget and one very controversial star: Lindsay Lohan. I emailed Chris a couple weeks ago about doing something on this blog that allowed him to open up about the film, since Lohan's most recent arrest suffocated all the press that was to go into its release.

The film has now opened to not-so-great reviews and not-so-great box office. But Chris, ever the adventurous filmmaker, is moving forward with a handful of new indie projects. He also took some time, now that I Know Who Killed Me is out in the world, to answer my questions. He checks in about how he came to this project as well as what the "morning after" has meant following not-so-great press. Plus, he has some exciting news about The Lost:

Me: How did you get involved with I Know Who Killed Me?

Sivertson: After SXSW last year I signed with CAA and immediately started reading tons of scripts and going out on meetings. I wanted to try my hand at being a director-for-hire. I’ve got my own scripts that I’m going to make, but I wanted to get out of my own head and direct something that someone else had created. I really clicked with this wonderfully bizarre script by Jeff Hammond (I Know Who Killed Me). I read it in early September, had a meeting with Frank Mancuso Jr. a week later and had the job two weeks after that. Less than two months later we were shooting. I was in and out of the project in ten months, which seems incredibly fast after spending years on various projects in the indie world.

Me: What were some of the big differences for you as a filmmaker, between this film and The Lost?

Sivertson: It was really nice to just be the director and not have to simultaneously produce it like I did with The Lost. The Lost was a juggling act of just trying to keep the production alive while I was also wearing my director’s hat. On the flipside, I was able to work much longer days on The Lost than I was on I Know Who Killed Me. On a union shoot, the overtime is so significant that it gets extremely expensive to work over ten hours a day, so I usually couldn’t go much past that. On The Lost, fifteen-hour days were the norm. I like shooting long days. My favorite scenes in The Lost were shot at times when everyone was too tired to think about what they were doing.

Me: You seem drawn to material that is fairly dark or scary or intense. What about this style of storytelling appeals to you the most?

Sivertson: Ultimately I’m most influenced by fairy tales – all of which are very dark and fucked up. Those are the stories I like the most. I just like extremes. So I think it’s kind of natural that the stories I want to tell are extreme in one way or another. I’m also interested in the weird ways that people react when confronted with life-and-death situations, and how strangely humorous those situations can become.

Me: Any favorite horror films or thrillers for 2007?

Sivertson: Roman by Angela Bettis and Lucky McKee. I liked Hostel: Part II. Ti West’s Trigger Man is really good. I was at the New Zealand Film Festival a couple weeks ago and was completely blown away by a Brazilian film called Manda Bala (Send A Bullet) – it’s a documentary about all the kidnappings in Sao Paulo and the whole culture and business around them. It’s more unnerving than anything I’ve seen in a long time.

Me: Please give us an update on what's happening with The Lost.

Sivertson: It was picked up by Anchor Bay. They will do a limited theatrical run followed by the DVD. Mark Ward was at the first screening at SXSW and has been such a strong supporter of the film the whole time, so I’m really happy that they’re the ones putting the thing out there. And they’re releasing it unrated, which is a huge bonus to me.

Me: What is it like to have your first big studio film opening up, and there's all this publicity out there about your star, but for reasons that have nothing to do with the movie?

Sivertson: Well, what can you do? We try to get well-known people in our movies to get some awareness going and to get attention, and then I guess you can’t really complain when the attention takes an unwanted turn. The only thing that bums me out about the entire experience is that it didn’t make more money. I don’t mind being hated by the critics. It’s interesting to see how the press covers it. After the opening weekend, they were happy to proclaim that we had “tanked.” Bratz and Hot Rod came out the next weekend and when you look at the amount of screens they were on, they basically had the same box office results we did. But come Monday morning, those films “had difficulty finding an audience in a crowded marketplace.” Well, at least they didn’t tank! But whatever, you know, press and publicity is so fleeting that it’s hard to take seriously whether it’s positive or negative. The only thing to do is ignore it and make more movies.