Nakata Has Ring Deja Vu

From:Sci Fi Wire
Date:09-MARCH-05

Simon Baker, who stars alongside Naomi Watts in the upcoming horror sequel The Ring Two, told SCI FI Wire that he observed an episode of deja vu in director Hideo Nakata, who also helmed the original Japanese Ring films. "I witnessed something very interesting the day we were doing a camera test," Baker said in an interview. "You know how Samara, the little girl with all the hair in her face, does the backwards walking thing?" he said, referring to a technique in which the girl is photographed walking backwards and the film is reversed to give her an otherworldy gait. "We were doing a camera test for that, and I looked over at Hideo. He had his hands sort of up on his face and he was just shaking his head quietly."

Baker (Land of the Dead) added: "I said to him, 'Are you OK?' And he said, 'This image ... this walking ... .' And he said it was seven or eight years ago, or however long, when he first did it in the Japanese Ring [entitled Ringu]. He said, 'Now here I am on a Hollywood soundstage and still doing it. Now I'm camera-testing it [again].'"

Nakata is the originator of the hit Japanese films that spawned 2002's hit supernatural film, which starred Naomi Watts, and the upcoming English-language sequel. Gore Verbinski directed the first U.S. Ring, and Nakata makes his English-language directorial debut with the new Ring Two.

Baker said, "It was interesting to watch him have that little moment and think, 'Wow, he came up with that': filming it backwards and having the Samara character do that in the very first Ring. They've made two in Japan, and now they're onto their second one in America, and he was there when they came up with it. It was very cool." The Ring Two opens March 18.

From Sci Fi Wire