Leigh Whannell is an Australian screenwriter, producer, director, and actor. He is best known for writing films directed by his friend James Wan, including Saw (2004), Dead Silence (2007), Insidious (2011), and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). Whannell made his directorial debut on Insidious: Chapter 3, released in 2015.
Whannell and Wan are the creators of the Saw franchise. Whannell wrote the first installment, co-wrote the second and third installments, was producer or executive producer for all the films, and appeared as the “Adam Stanheight” character in four of the installments.
Leigh started his career off working on Australian TV on shows such as ABC’s Recovery, Neighbours and Blue Heelers before moving in films including The Matrix Reloaded.
His second feature film Upgrade has just been released to incredible reviews both from critics and cinema-goers take a listen to our interview with him below.
Grey Trace, a technophobe in a utopian near-future when computers control nearly everything – from cars to crime-surveillance – is paralysed in a freak mugging that leaves his wife dead. But when a billionaire technologist offers him an experimental paralysis cure – an implanted computer chip called STEM – Grey finds that the chip has a voice and a mind of its own. Together Grey and STEM embark on a mission to avenge his wife’s death.
Upgrade is now in cinemas.
Transcription of the interview is coming soon.