Rob Zombie is gearing up for the release of his new movie 3 From Hell, the final part of the cult horror trilogy that started with House of 1000 Corpses and continued with The Devil’s Rejects. But while fans might think the ‘3’ in the movie title refers to the three original protagonists of the trilogy, namely Otis, Baby and Captain Spaulding, that’s apparently not the case.
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director revealed the following:
“The movie that I prepped to make, and was getting ready to start shooting, it was Captain Spaulding, Otis, and Baby, the three originals,” Zombie explained. “But three weeks out from shooting, I got a call from Sid Haig. He had been in the hospital, and he had just had surgery, and he was now recovering in a rehabilitation facility. I’m like, holy sh—, this is a serious business. So, I went to see him, and he had changed drastically from the last time I saw him. Because Sid, he’s big and burly, and now he’s tiny as a skeleton. So, I was like, oh man. I kind of realized, yeah, he’s in rough shape. So, at that point I was kind of f—ed.”
As Zombie was forced to discard the initial idea of continuing to explore the history of Captain Spaulding in the final part of the trilogy, he instead came up with a new character, as the director further reveals:
“I created this charter Foxy for Richard Brake. I had just worked with Richard on a movie called 31 and I knew he would fit the vibe. He was on another movie in Spain shooting. He flew right from that movie to L.A. and started working instantly. A lot of the scenes with Foxy were supposed to be Spaulding and I twisted things around so I didn’t have to rewrite every single thing. It was the funniest situation and the sh—tiest situation. Because, I went from one moment thinking, ‘This is the most prepared I have ever f—ing been to start a movie — everything is locked down tight’ — and within one phone call, the entire production went into complete chaos for three weeks. But at the end of the day, it all worked out great.”
As happens so often with actors in Hollywood, it seems that Haig’s misfortune ended up benefitting Richard Brake. What this means is that the version of 3 From Hell that Rob Zombie initially had in mind has been revamped, and fans will instead get to see a new character take Spaulding’s place in the terrible trio of leads.
Still, we will get to see some of the fan favorite in the film despite Haig’s injury and the risks involved in getting him to work again, as Zombie was determined to have the actor in the final part of the trilogy he’d helped establish.
“I knew it was so important he be part of the movie. Lionsgate was fine with me sort of sneaking him in one day to shoot as much as I could. It was on me to make sure that nothing went wrong. So I got him in, I shot everything I could shoot.”
Fans will no doubt appreciate getting to see Spaulding in his old haunts again, even if it is for a shorter amount of screen time than was initially planned. Meanwhile, audiences also have a whole new character in the franchise to look forward to now when 3 From Hell releases on September 16th.