The Grey, starring Liam Neeson, pulled in over $50 million earlier this year, but its theatrical gross only tells part of the story. Chronicling the fight for survival by a crew of oil rig roughnecks after their plane goes down in the remote Alaskan wilderness, director Joe Carnahan’s movie belied conventional wisdom about early January releases, winning overwhelming critical praise that has distributor Open Road pondering a re-release in October timed more to awards consideration. Pegged to the film’s home video release, I had a chance to speak to Carnahan one-on-one recently, about the movie, swapping in Neeson for Bradley Cooper, getting in trouble for eating wolf meat during production, and the remake of Charles Bronson’s iconic Death Wish that he’s currently penning. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read. For an update on Carnahan’s long-gestating plans to adapt James Ellroy’s White Jazz, meanwhile, click here.