Locked in Greed: Joe Russo & Chris Lamont Discuss THE INHERITANCE

Image courtesy of Vertical

By Shannon McGrew

In THE INHERITANCE, directed by Alejandro Brugués, on the eve of his 75th birthday, billionaire Charles Abernathy invites his estranged children back home out of fear that tonight someone or something is going to kill him. He puts each of their inheritances on the line to ensure they'll help keep him alive.

For the release of THE INHERITANCE, Creepy Kingdom's Shannon McGrew spoke with co-writers Joe Russo and Chris Lamont. During their chat, they discussed everything from how the Trump family inspired the story to their collaborative writing process.

Hi guys! Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me today. To start things off, how did the story of THE INHERITANCE come to be?

Joe Russo: My go-to composer, John Jesensky, and I were coming up with different ideas. It was the height of the first Trump term around 2018, and I thought, wouldn't it be fun to lock the entire Trump family in a haunted house? That was really kind of the germ of the idea. I also love Vincent Price's House on Haunted Hill, and it has been almost 20 years since The Dark Castle remake. I was like, man, it would be fun to take that structure and an Agatha Christie-like murder mystery and marry it with that kind of initial germ of the idea of dropping the Trumps in a haunted house. Chris and I started fleshing it out, and I think we realized we really wanted it to be just a meditation on greed and how that rots everything in society and then finding another character on the other end of the spectrum who could represent family and good values and then block those two ideas inside a ghost story with each other.

With Donald Trump on your mind, were there certain characters in the movie that represented each family member?

Joe Russo: I don't think it was quite that 1:1, though there was a point in the process where one producer said something to the effect of, I don't think Ivanka is that mean, and I was like, uh [Laughs].

Chris Lamont: We didn't want to target it and say this is the Trump family. We wanted to play a really interesting family dynamic. That's why we have the twins; we felt that it was a really interesting take on sibling rivalry to the nth degree. As Joe talked about, the character of Hannah was the good that was coming into the situation. We didn't want Drew to be the atypical, heavy-handed, rich brat. We wanted to give him a good job. It was really great to be able to play in this sandbox and find what we feel are some great moments to make characters that, yes, are in the 1%, but I think that you can sympathize and relate to a number of the different conflicts that those characters are going through.

Image courtesy of Vertical

When it comes to co-writing a movie together, what is the process like for the both of you?

Joe Russo: That's a good question. Our process is a lot of blue-skying, ideating, and brainstorming. We have endless conversations, stress testing an idea and seeing if there's a movie there and fleshing out an outline until we feel like we have a really good picture of what the movie will look like. Because I'm a little anal-retentive and the director of the duo, I have my vision for what I think the scene should be laid out like, so I'll usually take a first pass at a scene. Then, we start passing it back and forth, and then slowly, over days and weeks, it'll form into a 90 - 100-page screenplay. At that point, Chris and I got on Zoom because I was in Los Angeles, and Chris was in Phoenix. We went through the script line by line and argued mercilessly about every word [Laughs].

Chris Lamont: We have strong opinions here [Laughs].

Joe Russo: We beat it up and put it through its pieces. Chris is revising my stuff, I'm revising his stuff, and then we do it together. By the time we've gone through that whole process, what would normally be a first draft for someone else is more like our second or third because we've been tinkering with it so much. That's the process to get a solid draft on which we're at least comfortable getting notes from friends.

Chris Lamont: A lot of notes and then a lot of rewriting as well. The core of this craft is taking really good notes and coming up with the best script we possibly can. We are really excited about this script and what the producers and Alejandro, our director, were able to do to bring this movie to life.

The film's themes focus on greed—one of the seven deadly sins—and features the demon Mammon. Was there a time when either of you thought about utilizing another sin or going a different route other than greed?

Joe Russo: I think thematically, just based on the characters we were talking about using, greed always seemed like the natural exploration thematically for it. Trying to find a supernatural entity that could speak to that was really important to prop up the story, the theme, and the characters. Whenever we try to crack a horror movie, we try to find a way to tie the supernatural being into the themes we're exploring. This one had a natural click, you know?

Chris Lamont: We did the research, too, because we really wanted to make sure we got the demonology right. We know there are a lot of people out there who have their own grimoires and are constantly looking at demonic references in pop culture, so we really wanted to make sure we're on their good side.

Lastly, as horror fans yourself, what are you excited for the fans to experience with this film?

Joe Russo: I feel like we've got a hell of an ending, and I don't want to spoil anything, but I was really excited about how many layers there are to it. I really love where it goes and where it ends up. I would say that of all our scripts that have been produced by or directed by other filmmakers, Alejandro really stayed true to the story we crafted and the ending we laid out, which made it through all of the production rewritings. It was really great to see that work. I guess that proves the thesis that maybe some of the other filmmakers should have stayed truer to our screenplays, too [Laughs].

Chris Lamont: For me, I'm just really excited to be able to take this story that people think they know what it is going into it looking at the trailer, and I think that we're really going to be able to give it a different spin than what they're expecting. I feel like there are some really smart choices. I don't think our characters make dumb decisions. They're all smart, well-rounded characters, and I really feel like you are in this situation with them. You're locked in that house. What do you do? How do you work through that? I think it's going to be very identifiable. I think that people will be emotionally engaged and, hopefully, want to see how it happens. Joe's right; I love the ending and am excited to see the response when the movie comes out.

THE INHERITANCE is now in select theaters and On Demand