Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on October 13, 2011, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
As a trio of law enforcers, played by Avatar’s Sam Worthington, Watchmen’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Take Shelter’s Jessica Chastain, try to get to the bottom of a longtime (and based-on-fact) murder spree whose victims are dumped in the Texas Killing Fields, this high-powered cast had a promising up-and-comer guiding them. The film, opening from Anchor Bay Entertainment, was directed by Ami Canaan Mann, who spoke about the movie, its real-life basis and its ensemble with Fango.
The daughter of veteran filmmaker Michael Mann, who was one of Fields’ producers, she started her own career writing an episode of the acclaimed NYPD Blue and directing the 2001 drama Morning, and directed 2nd unit on her dad’s Heat, among other credits. Texas Killing Fields, originally titled The Dark Fields, follows Worthington’s local boy Detective Souder and Morgan’s transplanted New Yorker Detective Heigh as they investigate the brutal crimes, with Souder’s policewoman ex-wife Pam (Chastain) also on the case, and Chloë Grace Moretz as a young girl caught up in the unpleasantness. Suffused with dank atmosphere thanks to the cinematography of Stuart Dryburgh, it’s a serial-killer film with extra resonance due to its tragic true inspiration, which in large part remains unsolved.
What led you to this project?
This was a script that Michael had been developing for several years with the terrific writer, Donald F. Ferrarone. They’d had it in development for about 10 years, and it had gone through various permutations; then it was given to me, and Don and I started shaping it, and here we are.
You directed your last feature, Morning, 10 years ago; what had you been working on since then?
I was directing short films, directing television, rewriting a lot of TV pilots and doing studio feature scripts. I was basically a writer for hire.
What was it about this film that particularly sparked your interest?
First of all, the incredible writing by Don. And when the script came to me, it came with a package of research materials, an initial batch of newspaper articles. And one of them had a map of the killing fields, with images of some of the victims next to where the bodies were found. When I was looking at that, I felt that if there was anything I could do to help tell this story, I should do it. The movie is told from the perspective of two detectives who are real detectives and live in Texas City, Texas. These crimes have occurred outside of Texas City for over 40 years. There are just under 60 bodies, and currently, I believe, just over half of them have been solved. So there are quite a few cold cases there.
You mentioned that your father had been developing the script beforehand; what did you do differently when you took over the project, and how does your filmmaking outlook in general compare and contrast to his?
I don’t know exactly what I did differently from the other drafts; I didn’t read them. I was just given the one draft. Don and I both very much wanted to elevate the character of Little Anne, played by Chloë Grace Moretz. And then what I discussed with Don—because the subject matter was so intense and dark, and all the more so because it was inspired by real events—was that I felt the way into that subject matter was to treat the film almost like a ghost story. And treat the killing fields less like a true-crime location and more like the haunted house down the road that you’re both repelled by and compelled to know what happened there. That way, we could create a situation where the audience wants to know about something that is ostensibly very difficult to know about. That became part of the shooting of the film as well.
Would you consider this a horror film or a thriller, or would you even categorize it within a particular genre?
I would go with not necessarily categorizing it within a particular genre. I mean, it has horror elements, it has thriller elements, it has police-procedural elements and it has straight drama elements as well.
How graphic is the movie’s violence, and what was your approach to the violent scenes in general?
My approach to the specific scenes of violence, very similar to my approach to the overall violence of the story, was to be less literal and more evocative with it. The theory was that that would be, hopefully, more compelling.
You got a great cast in the film. Were all the actors your first choices, or did you audition people for the different parts?
I have an extraordinary cast. I was incredibly fortunate to get them, and they’re all ridiculously talented and the depth of the research that they did was phenomenal. We were so lucky, because we had access to both the actual detectives and detectives from the LAPD. So we went to actual crime scenes and studied how you handle them, and we went to the morgue. There was, collectively, among the cast, a level of respect for the treatment of the material that really shows in their work.
I read on-line that Bradley Cooper was at one point involved in the film…
Briefly, yeah.
Who wound up taking that role, and what happened to his involvement?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan ended up taking over Bradley’s part. There was a scheduling conflict, unfortunately. Sam Worthington was the first to sign on, then Jeffrey.
When you cast Jessica Chastain, had she done The Tree of Life or any of the other films she’s now getting attention for?
She had shot Tree of Life, but we hadn’t seen any of it. I was given an independent film of hers called Jolene, and she was just stunning in it. So I got very lucky to work with her.
Chloë Grace Moretz has a fairly intense role for someone her age. Was the fact that she had done Kick-Ass and Let Me In beforehand helpful, or an inspiration in casting her?
The inspiration for casting Chloë Moretz was Chloë Moretz. She came into the room and started reading, and I knew right away she was the girl. I don’t exactly know how she does it; she’s just an extremely talented person. For being, at the time we were shooting, 12 years old, she had such craft, and total control of it. And in terms of embodying Little Anne, she had this ability to be in the moment of the character, and understand, almost intuitively, how to carry that with her through the story. She had no self-pity. She brought this understanding that Little Anne is a girl who’s going through tough circumstances, and her objective is to move through them and get out. That was exactly what this character needed.
Growing up with Michael, did you always have an interest in becoming a filmmaker yourself?
I actually grew up with my mother, in Indiana. But I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to work as a production assistant in the art department on his television show Crime Story, and I was sold [laughs]. I had always done photography and always written, and done music and theater, and as soon as I stepped on a set, I realized this was the way we could put it all together.
Speaking of which, there are a lot of crime stories and police procedurals on television and in the movies these days. Would you say that Texas Killing Fields is driven by the procedure, or driven by the characters?
I would say this is a story that is driven by the characters, who are in circumstances that present them with tough obstacles. And we watch the way that they move through them.
