THE NEW MUTANTS director Josh Boone had plenty to say when speaking IGN about his upcoming horror film based in the X-Men universe. Boon talks about a plethora of things, including what the main influences were, how the film was shot and how it connects to the world of X-Men.

Below are interesting bits from the interview, but definitely head over to the site to read the whole thing, as there are many interesting details given.

What inspired the tone?

“Our whole pitch for this series was based on Bill Sienkiewicz run with Chris Claremont [The New Mutants vol. 1 #18–31, 35–38], so it’s very much when New Mutants became dark and surreal and more horror driven.

“We were incredibly inspired by the Demon Bear story which is probably the best, well-known New Mutants story. We also drew on movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Stephen King stuff, and even Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.”

Practical effects vs CGI.

“90% of this movie was shot on real locations. We did as many of the effects practically as we could. It has some big visual effect stuff as well, but we really tried to do everything we could possibly do real so it would feel a little bit more like those movies we liked and were inspired by. 10% of the movie was green screen and nothing else really. We shot on in a 150 year-old mental hospital that’d been closed for 50 years.”

Demon Bear isn’t main baddie.

“Nah, I wouldn’t even go so far to say that. I’d just say it’s very much inspired by that run on the comics.

“I wouldn’t want to give away too much. Although I will say there’s stuff you’ll never see in the trailers that are big parts of the movie.”

The time period setting.

“It takes place present day.”

How it connects to X-Men.

“I can just say it is connected to and a part of the X-Men universe, and will continue to be a part of the X-Men universe and will be a part of that as it opens up in the next movies and all that.”

Characters planned for sequels.

“Every video complains online about characters that aren’t in it right now. I will say we’re going to introduce new characters in the next movie as well. Characters like Karma and Warlock, and all that will be in future movies.”

A horror trilogy.

“These are all going to be horror movies, and they’re all be their own distinct kind of horror movies. This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie.

“Our take was just go examine the horror genre through comic book movies and make each one its own distinct sort of horror film. Drawing from the big events that we love in the comics.”

Read much more at IGN.