Devon brings Stan to life

Fans familiar with Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP" have been waiting since the CD hit their stereos for the rapper to uncork a video for his fan-dementia fantasy, "Stan." The rapper is trying to live up to fan expectations as he finally puts together a clip for the song.

"I don't know that I'd compare it to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" [video] until I see how it comes out, but that's what we're trying to make it," Eminem said on the set of the new video last week. "We're shooting for something of that stature, I guess."

For that ambitious undertaking, the rapper is once again teaming with the directing duo of Dr. Dre and Phillip Atwell for the video, which was shot in Los Angeles. Eminem turned to Dido (the songstress sampled on "Stan") to step in front of the cameras for the clip. He also enlisted the aid of actor Devon Sawa ("Final Destination," "Idle Hands"), who brings Stan to life.

"We were looking at a few different people to be Stan," Eminem said. "We were looking at Macaulay Culkin to be Stan, but he ended up having prior arrangements, I guess, so he couldn't do it.

"But Devon is actually perfect for the role, now that we've watched him do his thing," he continued. "He fits right into it. We were doing something on camera yesterday, and we were watching a tape back, and it was him, and then it was my take to do the exact same thing, and we couldn't tell through the camera which one was my take and which was his."

Eminem will strive for "Thriller"-like video excellence with two versions of "Stan", one a standard-length version, one an extended clip. The project is ambitious in scope but simple in concept, and the rapper did little to change that.

"Most of it was Dre and Phil's idea," Eminem said. "I barely put any input into it at all. I didn't really have to. The story's kind of right there, so all you have to do is follow the story. Basically, that's what the video is doing. If you hear the song and you listen to it and you get a visual in your head, it's probably going to be similar to what you envisioned."

Back 12.31.2007.