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Sex, Death and Daniel Waters
June 24, 2008

In the words of its writer/director, Sex and Death 101 (available July 1 from Anchor Bay) is “a comedy and a thriller and a psychological examination; it has a one-sentence storyline, but it’s the sentence that keeps on giving.”

 

The writer/director is Daniel Waters, whose dry wit and caustic dialogue launched his career when he penned 1988’s Heathers. He subsequently scripted such not-nearly-as-fun film as Hudson Hawk (1991), Batman Returns (1992) and Demolition Man (1993), not to mention his first directorial effort, 2001’s Happy Campers. With Sex and Death 101, which concerns a ladies man (Simon Baker) who receives a

mystical email that lists the names of every woman he has ever—and will ever—have sex with,  Waters returns to the kind of indie-styled dark comedy that made Heathers such a breakthrough 20 years ago.

 

“I had a very specific movie I wanted to make in terms of a sex farce, like Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice,” Waters told me in a phone interview. “That movie wasn’t off-putting--they were adults and they dealt with sex” It’s not like the premature ejaculation stuff that you see in movies like Porky’s.

 

Not that Waters doesn’t enjoy the sex comedies of today—he just doesn’t think about the subject in same terms as other contemporary filmmakers who are mining the same territory.

 

“Judd Apatow has got a good niche going about sex. We have two different theses--his says that all men are sex-obsessed beasts and beneath that there‘s a nice guy,” says Waters. “My thesis is that there’s a guy who’s a nice guy, but beneath the nice guy is a sex-obsessed beast.”

 

Co-starring in Sex and Death 101, in a storyline that run parallel to Simon Baker’s bed-hopping adventures, is Heathers’ own Winona Ryder, who portrays Death Nell, a mysterious femme fatale upon men who are guilty of sex crime against women. Waters was excited about conscripting her for the part

 

“I love the idea of Winona playing this role,” he said. “Whatever enigma or mystery was going on in her life at the time, it dovetailed into the role quite nicely. Nothing is easy with dear Winona.”

 

Waters speaks candidly (and enthusiastically) about Winona Ryder, whom he’s known for some 20 years (he met her on Heather, natch!) and considers to be a good friend and outstanding performer.

 

“She’s the last actress who has that old movie star sensibility--she’s the last connection to that old time craziness.”

 

“I’ve known Winona  for quite a while now,” he said. “Going to her house is like going to Sunset Blvd. as directed by John Hughes.”

Posted by Laurence Lerman on June 24, 2008 | Comments (0)