The first original screenplay to be produced by Platinum Dunes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is the result of collaboration between Michael Bay and his producing partners Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. The trio liken their working relationship to that of graduate students developing and nurturing a project with the support of their college professor (Bay) overseeing every step of the process, giving them the benefit of his experience, instinct and success, not to mention his ability to connect with an audience.

“Starting Platinum Dunes was a whim,” says Bay. “It started off as an idea to help young directors break into film. So I put it together with two of my best friends, but we had no idea we’d be as successful as we were with our first two movies. We just wanted to make lower budget movies where the film is the star, and horror movies are much more of a director’s medium.”

When the Platinum Dunes partners completed their 2003 version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, they had no expectations of its success or of making another movie in the same vein. But over the years, people would approach them to talk about the strange antics of the Hewitt family, peppering them with questions about how the family came to be such methodical and violent killers. Finally, during pre-production of their recent remake of The Amityville Horror, Form and Fuller began brainstorming about the Hewitt family history, determining how interesting it might be to explore their origins. “The fans wanted another Chainsaw, it was that simple,” says Bay. “But then again, it wasn’t because we cut off the bad guy’s arm at the end of the first one. So the storyline was definitely a challenge, but once we decided to make a prequel rather than a standard sequel, the possibilities were endless. We just had to keep ourselves in check and not go too far out there.”

Brad Fuller adds, “Andrew and I sat down with Michael and discussed whether or not the family’s story was compelling. Is being a family of killers enough of a base on which to build a movie? We knew the first step was finding a writer to help flush out the details.”

The filmmakers contacted Scott Kozar, who penned the 2003 remake, but he was tied up with other commitments, so they immediately turned to Amityville writer Sheldon Turner. To get things rolling, the producers gave Turner a copy of the 2003 film and asked him not only to come up with some ideas, but also to come up with answers to questions posed by the original story, such as: How did this family become the people they are? Why is Uncle Monty a double amputee? Why does Hoyt have no teeth and how in the world did he become a sheriff? And, of course, why does Leatherface do what he does, and what’s up with those horrific skins he wears?

The producers were thrilled with the answers that Turner devised and shortly thereafter found their director in Jonathan Liebesman

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