Wayans brothers give Scary audience

Marlon (l) and Shawn Wayans take a dig at Hannibal

By the BBC's Joanna Wilson

Last year's small-budget spoof Scary Movie - which poked fun at Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer - was a box office smash around the globe.

Now the Wayans brothers - who wrote, directed and starred in it - are back for a second stab at success.

But far from being a case of mad, bad and dangerous to know, the brothers' philosophy seems to be crude, lewd and anything goes.

Marlon and Shawn Wayans (alias 'Shorty' and 'Ray') spoke to us about the making of the sequel.

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The First Scary Movie poked fun at teen slasher flicks and this one focuses on supernatural films. Was that planned, or was it a natural progression?

Shawn: Yeah, we figured that was the natural progression of the films to parody, because we'd already tackled the slasher films.

So next in mind was the supernatural because, especially with the resurgence of them - the re-release of The Exorcist, and The Haunting, What Lies Beneath, etc - we figured that was what we should go for.

Is it true that for your research, you trawled through lots of old films?

Shawn: Yes, we watched over 100 movies!

Marlon: There were probably three good ones. The rest were horrible.

How long did it take to make Scary Movie 2, and was it as good fun to make as the first one?

Marlon: This one was more intense - we had to write, film and promote a movie in a year, which is unheard of.

We wanted to really focus on the humour and make sure we gave them good laughs, because at the end of the day if they're not laughing, it's not good.

No-one ever comes out of a parody, and goes 'you know, the story kind of bothered me'. If you give them a dose of laughter then they're happy.

Scary Movie was very successful, did you feel any pressure to produce another hit?

Shawn: The pressure we put on ourselves, that we always put on ourselves, is to be funny. Everything else will come as a result. So, that is stuff we can't control. All we can control is how funny our work is.

What about people who criticise 'gross-out' humour, and say it's going too far - what do you say to them? Is there anything that you wouldn't put in your films?

Marlon: Let the audience tell you when you've gone too far. They'll give you an "Ohhh!" and they won't laugh, but if they give you an "Ha! That was nasty!" then as long as they're laughing, it's not too far. It's too far when the audience goes, "Ugh!" - and then you take it out and put it on a DVD!

What is it like making films with your family? (Five out of the 10 siblings are involved in the movie business!) Does it get quite tense sometimes?

Marlon: No, never tense.

Shawn: It's comforting - it's fun.

What's it like having your older brother, Keenen Ivory, directing you? Is he very bossy?!

Marlon: Hey, I mean, he's bossed us around his whole life. At least we're getting paid for it now!

Shawn: No, it's easy.

Any plans for Scary Movie 3?

Marlon: Not right now. It has to come out and grab us - and right now we don't see anything out there to really parody in terms of the Scary Movie.

So we'll close this chapter and who knows, if something comes up, great - but if not... Right now me and Shawn are focusing on this buddy comedy.

Tell us more about that.

Marlon: We have this movie, this action comedy that we're writing right now. It's basically about this cop (Shawn) and security guard (me) and they're estranged.

And Shawn's character's partner gets killed at my job and the only way I can help identify who killed her, is if he (Shawn) takes me with him on a crime. So, he's stuck with me for 90 minutes, teaching me how to be a cop! The movie's called Black and Blue.

How's the production on that going?

Marlon: Well, we should be finished with the script in two weeks and then we're going to take it out to the market.

Any film stars that you would love to work with - anyone that you would love to get in your movies?

Marlon: Yeah, I'd love to work with Eddie Murphy - that would be fun. He's an idol of mine.

He's one of my heroes, amongst my brothers and my family - they're my heroes too.

Anything else that you'd like to achieve away from film, now that you're successful?

Shawn: Honestly, I just want to be consistent. Just to continue to do what we do and have fun.