Monsterwolf Cast & Crew – Interviews

Monsterwolf is a step up in terms of its visual style. The film was lensed in 35mm, what pushed you to shoot film instead of HD like many similar genre offerings?

Todor Chapkanov: Every movie should be a good looking movie. You can choose great locations, the perfect time of the day, perfect lighting, and then only the 35mm film can let you capture all those perfect things in the best possible way. Every time we talk about HD some compromise has to be made in order to achieve something good, and at the end of the day it’s not worth it, because we all want to see a good looking movie.

Daniel Lewis: Our customers in the domestic and international marketplace demand a high quality product that can have a long lifespan and have a rich, beautiful, high quality look and sense of style. Even though new technology continues to make shooting and delivering movies cheaper & easier, we feel it is important to deliver the highest quality movie possible to our customers to allow for a more enjoyable viewer experience.

Jason, Yale is an interesting character that seems to be happy living the simple life. Was it his laid back attitude that attracted you to the role?

Jason London: I grew up in small towns and have always been fascinated by those people that are content staying in one place. Personally, I couldn’t imagine not seeing the world and all it has to offer. And getting to make out with Leonor wasn’t a bad thing either.

Chase is Monsterwolf’s comic relief, and probably my favorite character in the film. Do you see yourself doing more comedy or can you see more dramatic parts in your future?

Griff Furst: I love humor and try to bring it to all my characters regardless of the genre. Sometimes it’s very difficult to bring humor to a dramatic role (or vice versa), but it is crucial to find a way to do so because you can’t have the dark without the light. So the answer is; no, I have no preference. The work the actor puts in is essentially the same in drama or a comedy. Its really about knowing the piece, and making choices accordingly.

Jason, are there going to be more SyFy films in the pipe, and if so can you tell us what they are and a little about them?

Jason London: I am currently working on the Syfy original Weather Wars.  I never thought it would be possible to have a better time than we had on Monsterwolf, but I am having the time of my life.

How was the experience of shooting in Louisiana?

Todor Chapkanov: It was absolutely great. I really liked the people, the crew, everything. I love the houses, the trees, the nature. I love the food, the music and again I should say that the people that I met and worked with made the difference.

Daniel Lewis: Louisiana is fantastic. It is hard to explain to people how amazing it is to shoot in this great state. The people are what keep us coming back again and again. Also, the food and the beautiful landscape that is hard to match anywhere in the world. I was born and raised in Louisiana and it is great to see actors and crew members begging to come back again and again because they have fallen in love with Acadiana and the rest of Louisiana.

Jason London: I have done five movies in the last year in Louisiana,  the mayor even made me an honorary cajun. I love this place. I did my first movie here many moons ago and coming back truly feels like coming home. I’d live here in a heartbeat.

Griff Furst: I love Louisiana. It’s my second home. I actually just tattooed a Fleur de Lis on my ass. Go LSU. Who Dat!

I’m a huge fan of practical effects and preferred the scenes where the wolf wasn’t CG. What are the possibilities of making a creature feature without the CG creature?

Todor Chapkanov: Well, we tried to use the practical Wolf as much as possible, but at the end you can use it only to a certain point. I really hope one day we’ll be able to do a movie like Alien without anyone saying — without CGI it’s not Syfy enough. It can be done, just a few more people need to believe in it.

Daniel Lewis: It is always more visually effective using practical elements as opposed to mixing in CG elements with the practical elements or creating the creature entirely using CGI. The complicated part of making a creature feature without CG is getting the practical creature to work quickly & effectively in every shot. It can be done, but typically it comes down to a lack of time and manpower with our schedule/budgetary constraints. We continue to try to use more and more practical elements as we get smarter & more efficient with each film we produce.

Todor, Stark is a standard issue villain, but he’s played with the perfect blend of attitude and sleaze. Did you always have Robert in mind for the role?

Todor Chapkanov: I met Robert for the first time the day before his first day of shooting. I knew he had some questions and suggestions about the character, but after I told him what I think about Stark, and after changing some of the scenes with him, Robert just said “I don’t think there’s anything for me to say.” Robert was Stark and from day one everything he did was just perfect.

Griff your also a director, do you prefer your time in front of the camera to your time behind it, or are you equally as passionate about both?

Griff Furst: Equally passionate. By the time I’m finished directing a movie I’m itching to get back in front of the camera. Directing is probably the most stressful and grueling thing anyone would ever want to put themselves through. Its a war against time (at least at this budget level it is). That said, there is nothing more fulfilling than going home at the end of a long day knowing that you got everything you needed to make the movie that you set out to make in the first place.

The lines between science fiction and horror have become pretty blurry. Do you think Monsterwolf appeals more to science fiction fans as opposed to horror fans, or do you feel that it is broad enough to satisfy both audiences?

Daniel Lewis: I think that the movie will appeal more to the science fiction audience. It is a bit tricky to make movies that will appeal to the science fiction audience because in order for it to be a sci-fi movie, it has to be far fetched and removed from reality completely…but, at the same time, it all has to make sense. Their must be logic to the creatures origin, its strengths, weaknesses, its motives. It is always fun to put these projects together, but it is a bit more methodical than people may think. We work closely with the team at the SyFy network to feed off of their experience. I think the horror audience enjoys a bit more blood and guts and having a creature that is entirely practical to give a more realistic feel to it and enhance the scares a bit. I think there are moments of intensity and scares that will feed the horror audience, but overall, this will likely appeal more to the sci-fi audience.

Todor Chapkanov: From my point of view I just didn’t want to do a horror movie with all the blood and gore and stuff. Yes, we have some of that, but I still believe that we did more a Spirit Wolf then Monsterwolf. It’s a legend, a fairy tale, science fiction first and horror second.

Griff Furst: Horror/sci-fi!? This is a family movie.

What was most difficult part of shooting Monsterwolf?

Todor Chapkanov: The difficult part was that we were on locations the entire time, but the shooting it self wasn’t hard or difficult at all. The hot and humid weather, the mosquitoes, the mud and on the night we shot the opening of the movie with the rain it was freezing cold, but then again, nothing we couldn’t handle. Couple of days we were on hurricane alert, but we never even got a single drop on us. The most difficult location was the oil refinery at the end of the movie, but after all we did some nice looking shots there. I’m still surprised how well we did considering it was my first movie with people I never met or worked with before. Makes me think we can only do better from here.

I think the market for creature features is an ever expanding one that I’d like to see more of, but I’d like to see them made with a little more passion than they have been in recent years. Where do you think Activity and Bullet fit into this market and what can we expect from you in the coming years?

Daniel Lewis: Following Monsterwolf, we produced a film titled Swamp Shark that will air on the SyFy channel and international television marketplace in 2011 starring Kristy Swanson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), D.B. Sweeney (The Cutting Edge/Fire in the Sky), and Robert Davi (Die Hard/The Goonies). We continue to try and improve with every film that we do and I think that people that follow our company and product will take notice as we put passion and effort into making the product good on every level. Currently, we are working with the SyFy channel and our international customers through our foreign sales agent, Echo Bridge, to bring several disaster movies to the marketplace. We are currently producing a film entitled Weather Wars starring Jason London (Dazed and Confused/Out Cold), Wes Brown (True Blood/Trauma), Erin Cahill (Boogeyman 3), and Stacy Keach (Mike Hammer/Titus). All of our films will be very visual effects driven that I think many disaster movie and science fiction fans will enjoy.

How long did Monsterwolf take to shoot, what were some some of the behind the scenes highlights?

Daniel Lewis: Monsterwolf is a SyFy Original Picture, so we spend a lot of time with the network executives to develop the right product for their audience. We typically spend 6 months on the front end developing the project and 6-9 months on the back end in post production, sound, CGI, and delivery. The actual shooting period of Monsterwolf took right around five weeks including reshoots/inserts. As far as behind the scenes, our director, Todor ”Toshko” Chapkanov and director of photography, Lorenzo Senatore kept everyone constantly laughing and in positive spirits. The teamwork that was displayed on set was a direct result of their leadership and professional attitude. Toshko and Lorenzo make magic together and we were lucky to have them shoot Monsterwolf together. Jason London (Yale), Leonor Varela (Maria), Griff Furst (Chase), and Robert Picardo (Stark) made their job much easier as they were all amazing to work with and very talented.

Is there a possibility of a Monsterwolf 2?

Daniel Lewis: As long as the ancient land remains protected, I think everyone is safe from the spirit…for now.