Linkin Park D.J. Joe Hahn Discusses His Directorial Debut ‘Mall’

Linkin Park’s Joe Hahn is best known for his work as the band’s resident DJ, though apparently the guy has quietly cooked up his first full-length directorial effort.

In case you haven’t heard, Hahn is all set to release his indie drama Mall in the coming weeks. Starring Vincent D’Onofrio and Peter Stormare, the film tells the story of five people who come to terms with a tragic shooting at a nearby mall. The film is presently slated for release in North America on October 17.

Although the Linkin Park D.J. has spent quite a few years crafting music videos, Mall is the first proper cinematic endeavor from Hahn. Instead of tackling a story of his own design, Joe decided to adapt writer/actor Eric Bogosian’s novel of the same name for the big screen. Vincent D’Onofrio reportedly co-wrote the screenplay.

During a recent interview with Billboard magazine, Hanh discussed the music videos he’s created for Linkin Park over the years. After cutting his teeth on these short endeavors — he has more than 30 under his belt as of this writing — the D.J. decided to take his skills to a full-blown motion pictures. It sounds like Hahn knows what he’s doing.

“The music videos, they’re all experiments in themselves. The songs themselves indicate some kind of structure that you’re able to easily follow – you can choose to construct a concrete narrative or an abstract narrative, then experiment with some visual techniques to help punctuate the emotion. So I took that attitude into the filmmaking, where the script has to be really solid, just like the way a song has to be solid for the videos to be even greater for what the song is by itself. It’s just all about building blocks and having an idea of what you want to do and mapping out a plan and how to achieve it.”

According to Mashable, the Linkin Park D.J. debuted his full-length directorial effort during this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego. Hanh revealed that he had only 18 days to shoot the flick, though he was more than willing to accept the challenge. What’s more, he seems completely enamored with Bogosian’s 2001 novel.

“I find it refreshing to see this kind of point-of-view in contrast to today’s society that interacts digitally. The thing with life though devices, Internet and apps is that people are self-editing themselves. They are picking the best selfies and showing how cool they are, very one-sided… When I read this script, it felt real and refreshing to show how ugly people can be as they hide their inner beasts after cracking their facades.”

Are you planning to catch Linkin Park D.J. Joe Hanh’s directorial debut Mall later this year? What do you think about his music videos?

[Lead image via Mashable]