Steven Goldmann Interview

Director Steven Goldmann made a killer film called Trailer Park of Terror that plays out like a horror movie from the good old days.  The days before PG-13 became the rating of choice, when zombies made a mess and movies could make fun of themselves.  The film has a great soundtrack, an amazing cast, and is just plain fun, so check out what the man has to say about it and then if you haven’t seen it yet pick it up ASAP.

Donny Broussard: First of all I wanted to say that I really dug the flick.  It made me feel like I was a kid again, watching awesome horror movies on late night cable.  When you set out to make this movie were you shooting for the drive-in vibe?

Steven Goldmann: I set out to make the film I would have loved to see when I was a kid – so your response really touches me.  I kept saying to everyone – “what would 15 year old me like?” The only thing that really bums me out is that I did not get to shoot some boobs.  We had a body double for Haley Marie Norman, but we ran into overtime and we simply could not shoot the scene as planned.  On an 18 day schedule it is practically impossible to pick up something like that once you lose it on the day.

Donny:You have a pretty strong background directing music based projects, is the rock n’ roll aspect of Trailer Park what attracted you to the project?

Steven: Well the fact is – the project did not have anything musical about it.  I was just handed 13 comic books and asked to come up with a pitch.  I pushed the musical aspects because I just thought it would be real cool. I  am a fan of the Cramps and number of Psychobilly bands – some of the art in the comics made me think of Cramps Album covers.  There was also a Zombie  character in the comics that wares an Elvis toupee and bowling shirts that got me thinking about  how much fun we could have if this movie rocked.  I have such close friends in the music world – and I am a music junky.  Jonathan  Bogner  - the Producer just asked that I shoot scenes with and without music if we felt what I was trying did not work.  I really had not seen anything quite like it in awhile and with a name like Trailer Park Of Terror – I just felt we could go for it – be a little out there musically.

Donny: Were you a fan of the comic book before you signed on to make the movie?

Steven: I had never seen the comics.  The producer – Jonathan Bogner – had originally looked at my work for another film he was trying to make. I was a long shot.  He gave me  a script to read never telling me about the comic.  I googled the name and found the comic online. I read a bunch of the panels and was truly bummed to then read the script and find that it has nothing to do with the spirit of the comic book.  I was totally relieved to learn that Jonathan hated the script as well when we met.  I was prepared to turn the job down.  Instead he asked me to go away with the comics and come back in a couple of days with my take.  I won the gig over lunch with a verbal pitch.  The film that we made is filled with elements of that pitch – but what Tim Dolan ( the Writer ) did was take them and marry them to Jonathan’s desire to make a film that played with the classic formula of kids in jeopardy.  So with that we began to channel Hershel Gordon Lewis… I mean if you are going to make a bloody Southern fried movie crib from the master.

Donny: The actors you chose were a perfect fit for the flick, did you have any of them in mind from the beginning or did you find them all through casting calls?

Steven: It was all casting.  In this scenario my 8 years of living in Nashville and shooting throughout the South and working with a lot of Southerners helped me hear things that others might miss.  It was something I harped on – I wanted to find real Southern actors – or actors that could convince me they were Southern.  We did very well.  On top of that, they all really bonded.  We had fun improvising shit – I mean something you just can’t write it just comes out of a real Southerner’s mouth – like;  “STANK,  NEVER KICK A FRESH TURD ON A HOT DAY.” I mean what more can I say?  Nicole Hiltz is a dream come true – she may not be Southern but she through herself into the part like no one else would even dare.  She should have a huge career. She has to.  Then there is Lew Temple – quickly becoming a go to guy in genre films but also a real indie character actor in demand. I was blessed to have him lead the band of merry monsters.  Fill out the film with actor finds like Big Ed Corbin – Myk Watford, Trisha Rae Stahl and Michelle Lee and you have the beginnings of my own little company – I would work with these actors again and again if I could. And you haven’t even asked me about the group of kids… each one of them found something special in what were essentially cannon fodder roles – they came to work and had fun. They brought it. I was really blessed.  There would have been no way to make the 18 day schedule without this team ( and the make-up FX team behind them ).

Donny: How did Trace Adkins get involved with the Trailer Park?

Steven: Really simple.  I had directed a couple of videos for him, and we worked out together at a gym during my days back in Nashville.  I had also become close with his management, so I asked if he would be willing to work for a day playing Satan.  He read the script and asked me to promises not to cut the scene where he was peeing steaming hot acid and he would do it.

Donny: Besides the obvious obstacles of time and money, what where the most difficult aspects of shooting Trailer Park of Terror?

Steven: Big dreams versus time and money – always the same.  The toughest part was having as many monsters as we did working as much as we did. It is just so hard and they don’t really eat flesh – they eat time and money!!.  You end up having multiple sets going at the same time and re-writing on the fly – and I have to be everywhere at once.  Then you don’t really have the time to prep and build a whole trailer park to be ready to shoot day one – they build all the way through – hoping to be ready when you need it. It was really hard.

Donny: I would love to see these characters again, are there any plans for a sequel?

Steven: If it becomes a big DVD cult hit.  I hope so – because I would too.  Just don’t know how to get word out on the film more then we have.  Getting a horror film to grow with out a wide theatrical is near impossible these days.  

Donny: Finally Steven, what projects are you working on now?  I know that I can’t wait to see what you do next, and I’m sure our readers are interested as well.  

Steven: A couple of films are close and keeping me busy;

The Mountain 

Written By Aaron Saylor

THE MOUNTAIN is a dark story of betrayal and vengeance, loss and redemption, set against the backdrop of an Appalachian crime syndicate.

In the small town of Sewardville, crime lord Walt Slone rules everyone and everything. The delicate balance of Slone’s hand on the town comes undone when he orders his son-in-law, and presumed heir to the syndicate, to murder his own brother, Jimmy.  Part GODFATHER, part WALKING TALL, THE MOUNTAIN reminds us once again that blood may be thicker than water, but greed is what flows through some men’s veins. 

They say keep your friends close and your enemies closer…but what do you do when it’s family?

The Human Fly 

Written By Tony Babinski

The true story behind the legendary Marvel comic book character of the same name.  It takes place in 1976  - kind of SUPERBAD meets BOOGIE NIGHTS  in that tells the story a bunch of guys on the ride of a lifetime. A two-bit con turns into a big deal when a regular Joe pulls off a death defying stunt and the world takes notice.  As the comic book noted; the Human Fly – The Wildest Super Hero because he is real!  To quote the comic; “you may have read of his exploits, featured in newspapers and on tv from Montreal, Canada to Milano, Italy. You may have heard, with a sense of awe and wonderment, of a young Canadian who was hoisted to the top of dc-8 jet aircraft which proceeded to take off on a 200-mph flight over the burning Mojave desert…with the human fly still standing up top!! You may have heard and dismissed it as impossible - but it happened pilgrims! The human fly is real!”  The move tells the story behind all of this and more!!

And finally I am hoping to do another horror film.  I am trying.  I have a number of irons in the fire and am working with and talking to some very cool people in the genre world who loved Trailer Park Of Terror and have reached out to me.  But I do have a personal fav horror project  – because I have helped develop it.  It is another Southern monster film called FIEND – and it is just looking for a home. Also written by my friend Aaron Saylor, it  tells the story of a state police detective who  while haunted by his own personal loss, investigates the disappearance of his fellow officer in the rural town of Goffs Corner.  There, he uncovers a horrible secret:  the town’s forefathers are drug dealing monsters - succubae, and they’ve settled into a symbiotic relationship with the people in the town, trading them pills in exchange for the blood of children.  While investigating, the detective descends into a hellish personal nightmare; in doing so, he learns of his own connection to the monsters, and the truth about the inner ghosts that haunt him.  

Donny: Thanks for talking with Killer Film, and know that we are eagerly awaiting your next film.  

Steven: Hey thanks for letting me ramble!!

Interview: Yung Chang

On November 18^th, director Yung Chang’s documentary Up the Yangtze comes out on DVD (it’s out now in Canada) after a successful theatrical and festival run. It was an official selection to the Sundance Film Festival, won Best Feature Documentary at the San Francisco Intl. Film Fest, and won Best Documentary Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Killer Film sits down with Yung Chang to talk about the film and other things.

Jon: Thanks for taking time to sit down with Killer Film, as I loved the documentary. Can you explain what made you take the leap to being a graduating student from Concordia University to documentaries? Is there something you like about telling stories in the documentary form than narrative form?

Yung Chang: Hi Jon - Thanks for having me. I’m inspired by real events with real people. I think there is very little differentiation for me between doc and narrative. Both rely on strong characters and storyline. Both can be considered as an interpretation of reality. But I think the transition for me into the documentary medium came mostly out of practicality as well. In Canada, there is strong support for the documentary film with cultural institutions like the National Film Board of Canada. Up the Yangtze has received quite a bit of feedback as a sort of film that feels very much like a narrative but is documentary. Even the great Andrew Sarris in the New York Observer commented that, “Yung Chang’s Up the Yangtze crosses the very thin line between fiction and nonfiction films with the use of real-life people in the massively ongoing spectacle of the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam, which is causing the displacement of three million inhabitants from the banks of the fabled Yangtze River.”

I think we’ve reached the point, in cinema, where we can have this sort of dialogue about filmmaking. From Italian neo-realism to Iranian cinema, to documentaries by Jia Zhangke (Useless), the expected notions of documentary are being pushed to the limits and I encourage this exploration. Although, for the record, nothing in my film was scripted or re-enacted.

Jon: I read an article from IMDB in which there was a statement about how many high profiled documentaries (Taxi to the Dark Side, Chicago 10) weren’t making much money at the box office. Has that affected your film in anyway, such as getting distribution or release schedule?

YC: So far, we’ve been very lucky with our theatrical release and box office. Over USD1.5 million worldwide and still going! It was very unexpected that the film would be received so well. It’s hard to pinpoint what makes a successful box office. I think it’s a combination of luck, timing and relevance. A strong festival release and positive reviews also helps. We released the film in North America in the winter/spring of 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics, which I think had an influence on its success. The other thing that we didn’t realize was that we were tapping into a niche market where hundreds of thousands of people have traveled to the Yangtze River and taken a cruise ship, like the one in my film. They actually came out in droves to see the film.

Jon: There’s a handful of fascinating people the film could have easily followed. When did the film start taking shape and when did you find that Cindy Yu Shui and Jerry Bo Yu were the subjects the film was going to follow?

YC: The film started taking shape during production. I had a handful of different subjects that I was following in 2006. I moved and lived in Chongqing, worked with a Chinese film crew, and devised a production schedule that would allow me to follow numerous subjects. Some of which didn’t make it into the final film. About half-way through production, I realized that Yu Shui and her family were the central characters. Chen Bo Yu’s presence largely came out during the editing process. In the DVD, you’ll find additional deleted footage of other subjects that I followed, including Campbell He and a village of protestors. I wish I could have included all the footage and characters but that would have been a 6 hour version!

Jon: Olivier Alary composed a fantastic score. It sticks out in a good way as I think it helped establish the mood for the film’s subjects. Was there any conscious effort on your part to be involved with the score or did Alary have free reign?

YC: Yes, I worked very closely with Olivier. Just before I moved to China, Olivier (who is based in Montreal and has worked with Cat Power and Bjork) put together a mixed CD for me. http://www.ensemble-home.com/ It had music by Can, Arvo Part, and Simon Diaz…an eclectic mix. It helped me to figure out the rhythm and pace of the film even during production. It also helped to limit the guide music during post and helped Olivier to define his own score. In fact, Olivier came on very early on during the editing phase. He used an Ethiopian scale which is the same scale as traditional Japanese music. In the end, the melody is perfect and it resonates in every composition throughout the film right up to the last scene of the film. Every week, he would send me some sort of rough guide track to work with. I think music is very important for editing as well. Music can add subtext to a scene and should be used sparingly. In my film, I think it really helped to underscore and emphasize emotional moments.

Jon: Your grandfather, Wayne Wu Yun Quan, contributed some music to the film, which people can visit the film’s official webpage to download some of it. Can you explain that process on how you got your grandfather involved and using it with Alary’s score?

YC: I owed to my grandfather since he brought me to China for the first time in 1997. Then again, during the cruise in 2002, my first time to the Yangtze [River]. It’s a very powerful song and I thought it was important to include it because it captures that romantic nostalgia that many overseas Chinese feel about their homeland. My grandfather saw the film - he loved it, but he wishes I could have included the entire song instead of one refrain! Definitely do download his album - it’s free from my website.

Jon: The official website also has a link for support of Cindy Yu Shui and her family. When we first met after a screening in Omaha, NE you gave some information about it. Can you explain that again for people who might be catching up with the film for the first time and how are Cindy Yu Shui and Chen (Jerry) Bo Yu doing now?

YC: Well, after sharing the film around the world at festivals and screenings, audiences really wanted to contribute to help out the family in the film. It was amazing. During the film, I didn’t pay the subjects because they’re not actors. I helped them out in other ways, like buying supplies and stuff. Now that the film has travelled around and played to responsive audiences, I started a fund for the family. It’s a great way to be able to give back to the family for sharing their personal experience and teaching us about the Chinese experience. Since I’ve begun the fund, we’ve raised over $25,000.00. I’m hoping to set-up a long-term fund for the family to help pay for healthcare and school tuition. Yu Shui and family saw the movie. Yu Shui decided to leave the cruise boat and go back to high school we’ve since helped to pay for her remaining high school fees. The father only makes about $200USD / year so the fund will go a long way in helping them out.

They’re still going through hard times. Mr. Yu is working part-time as a coolie. They have no farmland so have to pay for food. You can learn more about where they are by checking out this. Chen Bo Yu saw the movie, and he wished there could have been more of him in the film. He’s currently working on another cruise ship, which I only found out through an audience member at Sundance. Apparently, she tipped him very well.

Jon: Let’s talk about the DVD. It must be an incredible experience to see your film go from an idea to a Sundance Official Selection. What about your feelings now, as it hits DVD?

YC: It’s an amazing experience to know that your film has moved people immensely. I’m very happy about the DVD. There are some great extras (deleted footage, research footage, home video) and I think it will complement nicely for those who wish to learn and see more about the film. Something that we’ve done, that I’m very proud of, is to also create Chinese subtitles. (We saved the pirates the subtitling duty.)

Jon: Was there any thought about DVD extras and what are your feelings about supplemental material, especially for a documentary?

YC: I didn’t want to add a director’s commentary. I felt that was sort of in bad taste. But I did want to include as much footage as possible that I wasn’t able to incorporate into the final edit. I think the deleted footage with Campbell’s story, and Jerry Chen Bo Yu in his home village will be quite illuminating. I also like the additional time-lapse sequences and an excursion I had visiting the White Crane Rock, a historic landmark preserved underwater.

Jon: You shot the film on DV and I noticed advertisements for the DVD talk about a new transfer. Was something needed to be done getting it to look good on DVD?

YC: In fact, the film was shot on HD not DV. A totally tapeless process using the first-generation Panasonic HVX200, which was an ordeal in itself. But the footage is beautiful, the cinematography quite expansive and moving, so Zeitgeist, our distributor, did an awesome job in formatting the DVD to get the highest quality possible. It looks breathless on your home cinema.

Jon: Well, I’ve enjoyed the film immensely and can’t thank you enough for taking time to talk about the film and its DVD. I hope to hear more from you. Thanks again.

YC: Thanks Jon. I appreciate the time to talk about Up the Yangtze with you.

You can reread my theatrical review of the film here and I’ll be re-reviewing the film on DVD soon.

Interview: Terrance Zdunich

A few days after Repo! A Genetic Opera opened; I had the chance to talk with Terrance Zdunich, the co-creator and screenwriter of the film. He also plays the Grave Robber in the film, so I was eager to chat it up with him and find out more about Repo! A Genetic Opera.

 Jon: I want to get back to 1999 where Repo! originated with you and Darren Smith. Where did the idea come up for Repo! A Genetic Opera?

Terrance Zdunich: Oh, it has been a long journey of adaptations for Repo! and the story, it’s sort of fuzzy where the initial germ of the idea sprouted. To the best I can sum it up, Darren Smith and I met each other around 1998, maybe it was 1997 when we first met and we were sort of reformed musicians for the lack of a better word, and we were really into the idea of doing something new and that involved music. We came up with this idea called 10-minute operas, like ten minute short stories with music. One of those ten minute stories was about a futuristic graverobber that kind of grew into Repo! that now exists as a film.

Where did that come from? I not entirely sure. (laughs) I was really big on the macabre and horror aspects and I was toiling away with this graverobber character and it was almost like a Victorian melodrama. Darren Smith wisely said, “Well, that’s cool but I’ve seen that a million times so let’s do it not in the past but the future and it grew out from there. We had a friend who was going through some bankruptcy problems (laughs) and was in danger of getting his things repossessed. So it just kind of clicked and we thought maybe one of the things he sees is this Repo Man and he’s out there collecting body parts. It just kept growing and growing from there.

Jon: In 2002, you guys met Darren Bousman. How was the play doing and what was that fateful meeting with Bousman like?

Terrance: Well, prior to what we met Darren for, Repo! was just coming from a two man thing with Darren Smith and I, coming from an opera and then we starting just expanding the story since that was what the audiences were coming for. They seemed to respond to that story the most, they thought it was cool and so did we. So we started like 45 minutes sets and rock clubs and it wasn’t a full opera yet just and we met Darren Bousman when Darren Smith and I decided to make the leap to stage Repo! as a full stage play, to rent a theatre, to hire set builders, to hire a costume person, you know, a full cast trying to make it into a show, and we needed a director.

We, Darren Smith and I, interviewed several people and met Darren Bousman, who was relatively fresh out of film school and was in L.A. for less than two years. He was doing what we all do, taking bullshit jobs and wanted to direct movies. He wanted to direct a musical movie of all things and which is how we met. We knew he was all about a rock opera and he loved Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy, and we thought, you know, people say anything when they want a job. “Oh, you’re directing a rock opera? I love those things!” was what we were expecting. When we met him, it was painfully obvious this guy was the real deal; he knew every word to every fucking song! (laughs) We did it and we all became friends, as we were figuring out how to do it. We didn’t know what we doing, trying to direct a stage play and one at that that was as complicated as Repo! We weren’t shooting small, we were shooting big, you know, an opera, blood, and we didn’t have any money or any real training. We just did it as we went and as such a bond was formed. The theatre we did it at got great receptions, sold out shows, and it really felt like we were doing the right thing.

It felt like “Wow, we’re onto something”, at the very least it was one of those moments of creation that was like, I don’t know, just put everything into perceptive. It was like this was what I want to be doing and something was magical about the whole experience and we sought to recreate it and we did so in another stage version of Repo! in 2004. There was an Off-Off Broadway run in 2005 in New York and then in 2006 we filmed the 10 minute short to convince and get some financing. We had to secure financing for the movie which was shot in 2007.

Jon: Were you ever surprised or apprehensive about Bousman’s casting choices?

Terrance: Well, you know, because Repo! is such its own thing…did you see it?

Jon: No, not yet, I hope so soon. My friend flew into Austin to see it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m really excited.

Terrance: Oh, wow! (laughs) We’re really excited too! It’s been a long road coming and I’ll answer your question in a sec, but we had our opening Friday and it’s been a crazy road, the whole way, going all the way back to the stage play. Here we are now and it’s our opening weekend and every step of the way fighting, and in most cases beating the odds. How improbably is it to even get the movie made? Unless you’re a Coppola or something, who gets a movie made? On top of that, who gets a movie made about a futuristic opera about organ repossessions and on top of that, gets one made with that type of cast! There’s a good sage way but being there on Friday night, which was on Sunset 5, the art house in Hollywood, kids were down there dressed up as their favorite characters. There was a Grave Robber and I got my pictures with him and it was amazing!

Now, I don’t know if the fan fare there that night was enough to sustain us to lasting and hopefully, expanding from the eight theatres we’re in, but I sure as hell hope so. At least there have been indications that, now there are people that love it and embrace it saying they’re going tomorrow, tomorrow with different costumes, you just go wow!

But your question, because Repo! was so strange and out there, I know Darren (Bousman) wanted the casting to mirror that, so when we all knew Repo! was going forward as a movie, we started getting suggestions by producers and it became clear that they weren’t totally aware of what we doing. Their suggestions were very much like MTV, they were pop singers, I mean they could do it and we felt it was like a mash-up and not for a 21^st Century Repo! which we wanted to do. So, the two Darrens and myself, sort of made our dream cast and that sounds silly, but we shot ideas around amongst ourselves and basically had five people for each role. For a couple of reasons, one we wanted choices and two, match them up to their personality, their archetype if you will so they represented the character. As such, funnily enough, of the eight principle characters in the movie, six of those were from our top five lists, we got what we wanted. Of those other two, we got Ogre and it wasn’t that we didn’t want him, it’s just we were thinking too small at the time.

We were looking at actors and when somebody brought up Skinny Puppy to help with the soundtrack, and it just clicked. Oh my God, Ogre would be the perfect body for Povi and we started crossing off the other from the list. So we had to start convincing the producers about him as the right choice, who of course, didn’t have any acting experience.

Jon: Since Repo! is an opera, Sarah Brightman seems perfect for the material. What was it like working with her?

Terrance: Well, she was a complete professional. I’m not necessary a fan of her solo work but you know, when she was on our list already. She is the most famous female opera singer in the world and the most successful, so it was a no brainer to cast her. We didn’t think she’d do a project like Repo! and little did we know for one she’s totally Goth in real life and two, really cool and into it. She wasn’t just faking it, she really was into it as was the cast, you know, nobody made a lot of money doing Repo! The cast did more hours, more work, than a normal movie. You had to rehearse, you had to do choreography, and the entire thing you had to do before filming and everyone who took the job, including Sarah, fully knew and embraced what they were doing all for something that doesn’t come along every day.

I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but there’s not too many rock operas getting produced in this fashion. You know it’s funny; I’m not that into operas I’m more into rock and industrial, so I didn’t have the ear necessary to hear why this one opera singer is better than this opera singer. But walking on set and watching Sarah, even more so than hearing her, have you heard her? She’s great, but I’ve heard a lot of opera singers, but what makes her stand out from the pack and then you just get her vibe. She’s a total pro. Watching her doing it in her element, is like watching a goddess. It was very clear to why she had the success she does. She’s great, the whole package, she’s amazing to watch and people who are doing rock and roll in our studio, who could care less about opera, we’re all captivated by her as her typical audience.

Jon: As a direct opposite to Brightman, Repo features Poe, Clown from Slipknot, members from Filter, OTEP, Skinny Puppy, and even Anthony Head from Music for Elevators. What did they bring to the musical side of Repo!?

Terrance: They brought a lot! (laughs) The way I would describe it and not to sound condescending, so I hope that don’t come out the wrong way, but Repo! as a whole was not a democracy. What I mean by that is, we were really set to doing this as an opera, and I won’t give away names but their were people who came in as potential candidates for the roles and came in and said: “Cool, but I what to write my own music.” Really? They wanted to write their own songs and that “Legal Assassin” song, we didn’t like the hard rock, so they asked to do this singer/songwriter thing. There were a couple of people who came in thinking along those lines. Those people were talented, I’m not knocking their talent, but if they wanted to do that they should write their own opera.

We’re in the position to do it as a rock opera and so when we were casting these actors and performers, we were playing the soundtrack. We were really, really careful about it. A lot of players on the Repo! soundtrack are in my CD collection at home and it was really, really cool to work with them. We were trying to cast those with the same aesthetics as the song they were to play on. Some of these were the musical godfathers of what we were paying homage too. We had people who knew the material, for one it’s an opera. You don’t have to spend time rewriting when you have Blasko currently from Ozzy’s band, but also from Rob Zombie’s band, you know he’s going to add elements to it that is better than you could think of. So you let him do it and Joseph Bishara, our music producer, was really diligent about directing them to stay true to some of the early demos.

Jon: One of the things I keep hearing is that Repo! has to be seen a few times just to soak everything in. Was it ever daunting taking the theater world and expanding it to the medium of film?

Terrance: Yeah, but first there’s many difference from theatre and film, many we learned that the hard way. On stage, everything’s total, it’s on there. In film, the more you show and the less you tell, makes for a more successful film. That makes for a difficult obstacle for a musical or in our case, an opera; because you do need to tell everything in song, so if you do away with all of the singing, then why make it an opera? Go make an action movie or a traditional film.

I think that maybe is a valid question and one of the negative criticisms of Repo! is that you can’t soak it all in one seating. In general, that’s true with any opera. I think we may have made a mistake in many ways by advertising Repo! as the next Rocky Horror. That’s been a comparison that has been kind of thrusted upon us, but I’ll take it because I like Rocky Horror, actually I love Rocky Horror. If we could achieve a small part of that success, I’d be a very happy man! With that said, I think we might have messed up with that comparison because we are an opera and Rocky Horror is a musical. Even further, what we love about Rocky Horror is the camp, the over-the-top-ness, and Repo! have a lot of those elements.

There’s many times in Repo! that we dive into camp, but with that said where Rocky ends and Repo! takes off, is that we have a real story. I mean, a real human story, with characters who are suppose to care about, with big operatic themes like revenge, murder, lust, and family quarrels, your legacy and your genetics, these big themes, and Rocky Horror really doesn’t have that. Their about the fun, the camp, seeing Tim Curry in garters and that’s what seeing Rocky Horror is about. We have some of that, but it’s actually much more complicated and then you add to the fact that there isn’t much speaking, and Rocky isn’t that way, it’s largely spoken. There’s, I don’t know, like 8 songs to break up the talking, where Repo! has like 50 songs!

If you go see a traditional opera, which is a closer comparison, you don’t understand most of it. When you’re sitting there, for one it might be in a different language, even if it was in English, you are there to witness the grandeur, hopefully enjoy the music, while getting little bits of it. Every opera provides you, when you sit down, with a playbill. That playbill not only tells you who’s who in the opera, it literally gives you a detailed synopsis of the entire play. Tells you who lives, who dies, tells you everything that is going to happen. The reason is to let you enjoy the opera. It’s not about carefully listening to every word, it’s an opera!

We are doing this in a 21^st Century medium in film, we didn’t want to have programs as that felt to outdated and we didn’t want to do subtitles as you see in some operas, I thought that would be distracting, so we added in this element of comic books, which wasn’t in the script as it was in the final film. One, it was like a breather in between some of the songs, so you are not just having song after song after song after song, where they act like the playbill, but hopefully cooler! (laughs)

Jon: Yep, I saw those in the trailer.

Terrance: Oh, right they are there! More over though, I actually like the fact that you have to see it a couple of times, I don’t know if that’s what the general public wants, but look at some other operas and those things still exist, but there not for the Repo! kids but they existed for hundreds of years. For that matter, musicals, why is Rent still running or why has Phantom of the Opera lasted? I think that like CDs you want to listen to them over and over, unlike some films you don’t want to watch in the same fashion. I think it functions in that way and as such Repo! fans will want to see it again and again, becoming a community experience. I think that’s the real comparison we have to Rocky Horror.

Jon: It must be working because your per screen average was the same as Role Models, and that opened at number 2 and in 2,700 more theaters.

Terrance: Well, we’re hopefully that this will open up some eyes and it’s a hard thing. I’m sure you’ve seen some of the reviews…

Jon: …I don’t mean to put you in a weird position, but if I am correct the play version was received positively. What are the film critics missing?

Terrance: Well, I think for a couple of reasons. Repo! as a play was never ever confused with being mainstream. It existed in black box theaters. It was judged and embraced by the actual audience seeing it. I think when you slip out of that, which we were happy to do,  I’ve been a struggling artist my whole life (laughs) and  I’m still struggling to get my movie out there! It sounds ungrateful but if you work on something so had and so long, you want to believe as an artist that whatever you do you want the mainstream to like your work. The reality is, when I look at myself, I take the immediate feeling of rejection…well, I’m sitting in my room looking at my DVD collection now, and book collection and there isn’t anything really popular here. (laughs)

In fact, most of the stuff here is not mainstream, but is embraced by a loyal group of fans and one I think I’m part of. I think that the problem with Repo! is that we almost did our job too well. What I mean by that is our trailer looks really slick. We casted some huge names, Sarah Brightman obviously, Paul Sorvino, Paris Hilton, and so I think people are going in assuming we had a lot more money and two we are trying to be Sweeney Todd. Our fans clearly see that we aren’t Sweeney Todd, it never comes into there minds. Repo! has been perceived falsely I think by the mainstream and this may sound really bad, but I don’t know why we went to the mainstream, honestly, seriously!

What would Ebert and Roeper think? We opened it eight theatres and presented it to them, it’s silly. We competing with Madagascar 2 and it’s silly. Repo! is doing that. Love it or hate it and people have obviously hated it, I hope you can at least walk away and respect the fact that we did something unique. More so, sitting back and seeing that there’s a lot of interesting human stories that got it here. Even now, it’s being dismissed. We’ve seen the Rolling Stone’s write up, which was really hard to swallow. I know Rolling Stone is popular, especially with music and never once in this review, which was scathing by the way, never once did they mention that this was the most music ever recorded for a movie.

You think as a music man, that would be worthy of a mention. The players on the soundtrack, to get that group of people together, on a movie soundtrack was never mentioned, literally never mentioned! When has that ever happened, not being mentioned by the biggest music magazine? Instead Peter Travers chose to focus on Paris Hilton for the entire rant! By the way, if you hate her films, love or hate what she does is this movie, I think she’s fine in it; she’s literally like in the movie for 10-15 minutes! But to focus on her and not to mention the other things is like not seeing the movie. He probably didn’t anyway; he saw Paris Hilton and thought he would talk shit.

We’ve been getting a lot of that type of stuff and it’s hard, because we are so against the wall, a true David and Goliath type of story. The director and I have been personally, I don’t know if you know this, personally been promoting the movie for the last year. We’re leaving tomorrow-you literally called me in the middle of booking hotels-we’re personally taking the film around.

Jon: It’s pretty exciting I think.

Terrance: I am too, I’m excited to do this and I’m not trying to sound like I’m tooting my own horn, but we are really caring about what we are doing. It’s truly a grass-roots movement. Even though, Darren has had success in the Saw films, this is what he really wants to do. You should see the amount of energy and passion he puts into Repo! on a daily basis, it’s like how could you be so cruel and short-sighted in a review? I don’t hear mainstream directors taking their movie around. We are selling out by the way, we’ve sold out all but two, and they’re close. This is with no marketing budget, you’re not seeing Repo! on bus stops or billboards or even the trailer on TV. So to get those types of reviews, it’s completely like they missed the point of the movie. It’s an opera, you know!

An honest criticism I think, would be if they said it’s not for me but it’s totally strange and if you’re into strange things you might enjoy this. But they haven’t even dealt with what they didn’t like about it. The two Darrens and myself got quite drunk yesterday and it’s hard, as an artist, you can’t defend yourself. We had a few pitchers of margaritas at this little Mexican bar in Pasadena, and we’re like how do we combat this? Ultimately, we are thinking about embracing it. Certainly, movies like Rocky Horror got panned. But I think every move that’s come along, certainly movies I have in my house, was critically hated. But all those films have out-lived that and are still relevant. Ones that are praised and made millions of dollars opening weekend are quickly forgotten about.

Jon: I can quickly think of John Carpenter’s The Thing opened in the same year with E.T., and with E.T., it got praised and made a lot of money and The Thing got panned. Looking back, it’s one of the better films from the 1980’s besides Raging Bull, in my opinion.

Terrance: Sure, even more recently a film like Fight Club and how that failed. Honestly, when I saw Fight Club for the first time, well, for one the marketing set you up in the wrong way, more over I saw it and thought “yeah, that’s okay.” But it stuck with me after I left the theatre. I had to see it again and again, as I probably have watched that DVD, easily one of my higher watched DVDs…

Jon: Same here.

Terrance: I love the film, I think is brilliant, I think it’s an important movie, and I think has stood the test of time from that year, what else was there from that year? So you know, I hope we’re in that company, I can’t say for sure as being completely objective since it’s my movie, but love it or hate it, I think, I hope, people can get behind the fact that “wow, they went there!” They managed to get a movie like that made before dismissing it outright and saying “Give me more Madagascar 2! Give me more Alvin and the Chipmunks!”

It’s like well, fuck you (laughs) you know, you’re the reason we have this bullshit, you’re the reason we can only get music at Starbucks. I don’t have any sympathy, it’s empowering to see the fans who are supporting Repo!, coming out in droves, as they definitely understand what we are up against. They are embracing it, they are discovering it, they don’t feel like a marketing firm is telling them to like it and they like it despite of the marketing. To me, that’s the greatest success. Do I hope Repo! makes a lot of money and so that I can get health insurance? Yeah, sure! But I’ll me more content that people really like it, are loyal fans, and liking it for years to come.

Jon: Well, we here believe in what you guys are saying and doing and look forward o support you guys through it. Thank you for talking with Killer Film.

Terrance: Thank you for spreading the word and helping us beat the odds.

Terrance is an awesome guy and really frank and down-to-Earth. Hopefully, Lions Gate sees some potential to expand it. Have you seen Repo! A Genetic Opera yet? Tell us what you think or go here to see where you can go see it.

Interview: Anthony Head

I recently got a great chance to talk with Anthony Head about Repo! A Genetic Opera and his character of Nathan Wallace, the Repo Man and here’s our conversation.

Jon: When I talked to Darren, he was saying that it was a constant uphill battle convincing everyone about Repo! What was it that got you involved?

Anthony Head: Um, somehow I’ve just been writing my chapter on a book. Darren wanted us to write about our experiences about making a cult movie. My experience, there was nothing uphill on my experience, there was no convincing on my part, I kind of came in on the end of the process. What ever uphill battle he had I think it’s because it’s either one of those movies people either love or hate. In my experience thus far it has mostly been a love. Have you seen it?

Jon: No, not yet. It’s opening soon near me. My friend will be seeing it opening night in Austin, Texas…obviously, I’m very excited as I’ve been doing all of these interviews!

Anthony: (laughs) Well, I hope you do like it. Like I said, in my experience you either love it or they don’t get it at all. His main problem, I think, was that he had to convince Lions Gate that this was a movie that they wanted to make and even to the end, I don’t think they realized it was a musical. They didn’t know what to do with it anyway. I happened to be in L.A. when they put the feelers out on me and they called my agent asking “How can we get a hold of Tony Head.” She said, “Well, he’s actually in town right now!” (laughs)

When I met them at the studio to sing, I don’t think it was a done deal. It didn’t take a lot of convincing for Darren. I think it was for Lions Gate, as they were looking at an English actor and they didn’t know my track record of what I can do. As it happens, musicals have played a large part in my career. In fact my first role was in Godspell. But you know they didn’t know that, if they didn’t see Once More with Feeling, they wouldn’t know that I could sing. But anyway, when I did my audition, Darren recorded it and sent them the tape and that afternoon I was at the pub, so it wasn’t too much of an uphill battle. From there on it, it was a question of ironing out the timing because I had another job and I had only like 2-3 days I could record in. Everyone was worried about that. I’ve been in studios off and on all my life so I didn’t have a problem getting back in. So I said, “Look, let’s do the heart of it later rather than earlier to let my voice get back in, um, accustomed, so I did some of the harder Repo! songs towards the end of the sessions. We ended up with like 3-4 days, but then Darren had to go up to Canada to start prepping. I went back to England to do another job.

So when I got to Toronto the tracks were semi-mixed. The first week it was just me and Alexa (Vega) and it was all of the stuff in her bedroom, in the Wallace house. Then we got into the full thing, we did rehearsals with the rest of the cast. Darren has the most extraordinary energy, the most wonderful exuberance; I don’t know what he is like on other films, but this is undoubtedly his dream and he had a rapid tenacity, it was absolutely wonderful to watch him. In rehearsal nobody was quite sure what to do and he would just say “how about we do this”. He would just create whole moves and dances; he had such a clear vision on how he wanted to photograph this. Jay White his DP, is just remarkable, it’s just a beautiful thing to watch. In writing this I’ve just been saying how he wanted to shoot this was with pools of light and darkness that we moved in and out of and that could be a recipe for a very dark film (laughs) you know (laughs).

As it happens he used this camera, Genesis, an HD camera, 35mm camera, I’ve seen it used it several very major movies, but not really to this effect. He used it really as an effect camera, so some of the artwork is absolutely stunning! I’ve have not seen it used to this effect. It was just a blast! If there’s anything I could say, I’ve said it a couple of times, I saw a rough cut that Darren sent to me on a DVD and a bit of the timing was off and this and that, but as I was watching it on the small screen, I recalled going to Spain at this festival and watch it on the big screen with full sound and it was just spectacularly beautiful. I can only urge people to go see it in the theater. For two reasons: the more people to go see it, the more cinemas it will open in and it’s very much a question of trial and error with Lions Gate as they are still unconvinced. I think they’re becoming more convinced as there’s more positive reviews and positive feedback. Nonetheless, it is a question of trial and error. It is very much an indie film fighting for its life and its longevity. The other thing is it’s worth watching in a movie house; I would be very happy to go back again and again, it’s one of those movies where it’s all happening so fast you miss little bits and pieces. So many details and so much to see, as Darren keeps saying it isn’t a movie, it’s an event.

Jon: In the interview I had with him he kept saying that.

Anthony: I think he was very pleased with that… (laughs)

Jon: Bousman said he cast you because you could portray a father figure one moment and a monster next. What was it about Nathan Wallace, your character and where did you dig to get him like that?

Anthony: Well, unfortunately, I have to say that it must be a part of me. That’s the thing about being an actor; you must draw on what you know. We all got those elements in us and it’s a part of us that we can kill. I would find it very difficult to kill another man or woman, anybody particularly. But if they threaten my children, I might find that those areas you don’t necessarily use everyday, but its part of our psyche, it’s the human condition, it’s so complicated and so exciting and all of the rest of it. When I was doing my audition, someone on the table said that this is a great role for an actor because it’s two people you’re playing, two people completely. To add to the complication, Nathan Wallace shot his father; he had slightly his own agenda, protective but nonetheless it was quite distracting. When he becomes Repo Man, he sort of dresses up, kind of a showman, that’s his job as he disembowels somebody, it’s a bizarre showman mode with a little dance. (laughs) Quite a bizarre little dance actually. (laughs)

It’s, you know, he has to recompense himself somehow, not so much as justify his existence but distance himself from it and to the victim. Which as an actor, is a great thing to play, somebody who is tormented like that, it’s fascinating. Probably where Darren saw that was in Giles on Buffy, as Giles was a father figure to Buffy but at the same time he had this dark side. You knew if he finally switched into it, he was nasty. I think it was something Joss Whedon saw in me, somewhere along the lines and I had fun playing with it. He’s the only person; Giles is the only person to kill in cold blood. That’s something that was fun to play.

Jon:  You have a music background especially with Music For Elevators your band, and have done a few duets before again notably in Once More With Feeling, how was it working with Alexa Vega, who doesn’t have that type of history with music?

Anthony: She was a dream. I remember when I went to do my audition Darren said let’s do “Legal Assassin” and “I Didn’t Know I Loved You so Much” and he said they could get Alexa to do it with me. I said, “Oh, okay” because she was already on board and the next morning we did “Legal Assassin” and I asked “is this where Alexa is coming in?” And Darren went, “oh, um, no, no” and then said “hang on a moment” and picked up his phone and called her and woke her up! He said “Hey! Anthony Head is here, do you want to come down and audition with him?” Bless her heart, she got in her car and came, singing her heart out. That was it; she just stepped right up to the plate, so it wasn’t hard developing a father/daughter relationship with her. She was a joy to work with, an absolute joy.

Jon:  Did you wear the Repo Man suit and how was that, or was there a stunt double for that?

Anthony: No! (laughs) There was a stunt double for basically a drop that they did and they wouldn’t let me, but I really wanted to. You won’t see it because it isn’t in the movie and we did two fairly protracted fight sequences…I don’t know, they may make a Director’s Cut at some point or DVD extras. I did have a stunt double but in the end I had to do it. I basically had to do it because I moved different than my double. That was fun; you know I got to beat someone up with an amputated leg-

Jon/Anthony: (laughs)

Anthony: but not mine, I would hate to do that! By and large, I did it, but it was more about Repo, his presence, his costume, Alex Kavanagh designed it and was very open with me. We talked about it extensively and worked through the needs, the sort of what it needed to look like. It needed to be practical, drawing on Nathan’s medical background, its part assassin, part surgeon. It was great fun working through this bizarre piece of merchandise. If the film is successful, someone is going to make the costume I’m sure or action figure.

Jon: That would be great! You already have an action figure as Giles, I believe.

Anthony: I got one as Giles and I got one from the film I’ve been doing over in England which is Merlin. It’s just been bought by NBC.

Jon: Oh, good. I heard the BBC were originally doing it…

Anthony: Yeah and NBC is, I think, going to show it on Sundays. It’s a very, very, cool show and it’s gone down really well here and we just had our pictures taken for the action figures. So, if it goes for a second season there will be action figures before Christmas.

Jon: Finally, the musical genre has been exploding as of late, with Dreamgirls, Sweeney Todd, Mamma Mia, and of course Repo! amongst other, it feels like the 1940s again. What do you think is the cause for the return of the musical?

Anthony: I don’t think musicals ever went away, and as I said, the film companies are still shy of them. Sweeney Todd had no music advertised in the trailers, so people are nervous on how audiences will act. I think when audiences are persuaded to go see a show, they enjoy it enormously and I don’t know how true it is, but I heard that people sort of got up and left during Sweeney Todd when they saw people singing. I don’t know how true that is.

Jon: At my screening, nobody did.

Anthony: Good! (laughs)

Jon: Exactly, I loved that film.

Anthony: But I think with something like this, this is very rare, I have not seen anything like this before. It’s like a protracted music video but with heart, soul, and a story. You just get caught up in it, the narrative drive of it just doesn’t let up and it’s fascinating. Because of its collective mix of musical styles, you never get tired and it’s not like “oh, it’s another song” like watching something like the Phantom of the Opera. It’s got a real hard rock drive, but with a weird mix of Sarah Brightman and Paul Sorvino doing a really classic tenor and it’s fascinating. It all fits. Whether it’s like the ‘40s, or we’re getting back to the ‘40s and a taste for music, I don’t know, but this is definitely outside of the box. It’s not one of those where you say “ahh, it’s a musical like Mamma Mia!

Consequently, it’s probably not for the Mamma Mia! audience. Which is a shame, because Mamma Mia! has made millions at the box office but at the same time there are, I still haven’t seen it I must admit, there are those who feel like they need something more. I hope that this will gives it to them.

Jon: Well, I can’t wait and I really want to thank you for your time this evening over there in England to talk with Killer Film.

Anthony: Thank you. Bye, now.

Repo! is out now in very few cities, so if you’re lucky enough to see it do. By doing that, other people might just have the chance at catching this unique film in the theaters. Keep it here on Killer Film for more coverage on Repo! If you have seen it, tell us what you think in our comment section!

Interview: Bill Moseley - Part 2

This is Part two of my interview with Bill Moseley-you can reread part one here.

 Jon: Have you seen the final cut? What can we expect or is it best to expect the unexpected?

Bill: I’ve seen it a couple of times, in fact about six weeks ago, I saw it when I was up in Montreal for the Fantasia Film Festival. I got to see Repo! on the big screen in front of a packed house, about six hundred people were there. The screening had been sold out, people were buying tickets for huge amounts on eBay and so there was a very enthusiastic bunch there. I guess I’m preaching to the choir but they were all excited, they heard about Repo! and seeing it on the big screen was a fantastic experience for all of us.

That’s the other thing, from what I gather the DVD will be out in January, but what I would absolutely, positively, recommend is how ever far you have to drive or get on a train or plane, and go see it on the big screen. It’s such an extravagant, large scale movie that I think it’ll play great on the big screen and I’m sure it’ll play fine on the DVD, but I would rather see Repo! on a forty foot screen than a forty inch TV. Actually, we were all together watching Repo!; it was Darren, Alexa Vega, Ogre, and I were doing the DVD commentary.  I think that also Darren was going to stick around and do a creator commentary with Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, the co-creators of it. So we had an actor commentary that was really a lot of fun.

Jon: The theater experience really makes it special. Have you seen Rocky Horror Picture Show on the big screen?

Bill: Oh, heck yeah! In fact, it’s so funny because Terrance, his girlfriend, Darren, and I here in Santa Monica, California, there was every Saturday, a very hardcore bunch of Rocky Horror addicts. We showed up and got on stage in front of Rocky Horror and talked about Repo!

The Rocky Horror bunch is probably our core audience. The theatrical, the dramatic, those who love to dress up, talk back to the screen, everything about that the promiscuous (laughs), the anarchistic, those are the people that are going to love Repo! So we showed up at the Newhart, got on stage, showed the trailer and everybody got excited. I love Rocky Horror. I used to take my kid when she was eleven and twelve to it at the midnight screenings of it, I was the coolest dad at the school! 

Jon: You’ve been known to do some improvisation in films like TCM 2 and in the Devil’s Rejects. Did Darren allow any of that or was the script followed pretty close?

Bill: It was more encouraged than allowed, I think. A lot of times a script is like a blue print and sometimes when you start acting out a scene, you find out that they’re reality holes in it. Maybe the dialogue doesn’t make sense or other circumstances that couldn’t be predicted when they did the screenplay. So when that happens it’s always good to have smart actors that are plugged into what make sense and what doesn’t. When working with the director, writer, actor should be collaborative. Certainly people get paid more than others, but ultimately it’s the actors who got their face up there on the screen. We had recorded the whole opera, there was all singing and hardly any dialogue, so there were no chance at adding words since it was all pre-recorded.

There were defiantly some places in the story itself that we had to think quickly on our feet. For me, that’s what so exciting working with directors like Darren Bousman, like Tobe Hooper, Rob Zombie, and Tom Savini for that matter. These are guys who aren’t afraid of collaborating. If it doesn’t work they’ll tell you as they don’t beat around the bush, but if it does work, then they’re happy to have your contribution. That makes me happier than being told to “stand here”, look to the left at my count of three”, you know stuff like that. I don’t mind working like that, but it’s certainly not as much fun.

Jon: Talking about collaborating, what is it with Rob (Zombie), as you worked with him four times and soon on El Superbeasto, is it just that what you’ve been talking about or something else?

Bill: Yeah! The first time we got together was on House of 1000 Corpses and it was less improv because I think it was Rob’s first movie and I think he wanted to stay in control of it, which is perfectly understandable. It still was a lot of fun, a lot of fun! He still had some great ideas and we just had a ball working together. I think with Devil’s Rejects there was more improv, if you want to call it that because Rob was more comfortable now because he had the first one under his belt. I think he basically was more comfortable, especially by then as it was more of an ensemble cast. He was use to me, Sid (Haig), his wife (Sherrie Moon), so you know it ended up with the core of us Rejects, we all got along, there was shorthand and he didn’t have to go elaborate lengths to explain things. He knew what made us tick.

I know that the most improvisation was done on Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. When we began shooting the script was only like 70 pages long and there really wasn’t a third act. There was a, like you said, a lot of room for stuff to be added just to make it a 90 minute movie. The character I had, Chop Top, was so much fun that I disappeared into Chop Top and it wasn’t so much as improvising than it was Chop Top being Chop Top. I’ll stick this line in there; you know it was just Chop Top and not Bill trying to getting brownie points. (laughs)

Jon: A few years ago for you work in Devil’s Rejects, there was an online campaign to get you a Best Supporting Oscar nom for your role of Otis. Were you aware of it and how did you feel?

Bill: I was aware of it, I think someone on my message boards on my website alerted me to it and I was flattered.  I thought it was great, I really appreciated. It’s funny because like 20 years ago in US magazine, Joe Bob Briggs use to have a show on Turner or TMC, it was a drive-in movie show, he’s a funny guy, and hired us to write a funny story about an anti-Oscars or something. He said he would’ve nominated Chop Top for Best Supporting Actor (laughs). So you know, it was more tongue-in-cheek but I thought it was great, I’m sorry I only lost by 47 million votes!

Jon: Well, you should’ve defiantly gotten a nomination over Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man, 2005)…

Bill: So it’s a lot harder now, I don’t know if there is a bias against the horror genre per se. For the most part, you don’t get that type of recognition by working in the horror genre. The last one I remember is Kathy Bates getting one for Misery. That was a studio picture that was Stephen King, James Caan, there was a lot about it that lead itself, I think, to the academy voters watching the whole thing. The academy voters, who are largely actors, directors, and I think that they aren’t horror fans and couldn’t get through Devil’s Rejects (laughs).

Jon: Comedy never wins for acting, so saying that about horror is probably dead on.

Bill: It might be. I’m not done yet, so there might be more happy days ahead! (laughs)

Jon: Next year you have a lot of films coming out like Twisted Pictures The Tortured. How’s that going?

Bill: Great! We actually just wrapped that one and shot that up in Vancouver a couple of months ago. By the way, Vancouver is a beautiful city, I never been there before. I enjoyed it; I was teamed up again with one of the producers of Repo! Carl Mazzocone and of course, Mark Berg from Twisted Pictures, so it was nice to get invited back especially if you’re an actor because actors are like free agents. Acting can be an intense experience and to have people who want to work with you again is always a good sign (laughs). It’s a fantastic script; I don’t want to give much away. It was a great, great script and there are some fantastic actors in it and when it comes out, I’d be more than happy to talk about it then. It will probably come out July 2009.

Jon: Then you got The Graves with Tony Todd…

Bill: The Graves with Tony Todd was really fun and we shot that in Wickenburg Arizona in the summer and my scenes were in the daylight. This was summer in the desert and I think two out of the days I worked were over 108 degrees, so that was its own challenge. Yeah, so you know it was fun, there were beautiful women on the set, that’s always fun and the script was fun. The character I got to play, Caleb, was really a lot of fun. That should be a fan favorite.

Jon: You might not know this that Randy Blythe, the lead singer of Lamb of God was cast as an extra, and did you meet him?

Bill: I didn’t, but I knew about it, unfortunately, our parts didn’t overlap and in fact, this is the second time I worked with Tony Todd, the second movie and I still haven’t got the chance to work with him. In Night of the Living Dead, Tom Savini’s remake back in ‘91, I played Johnny, Tony was part of the bunch in the house and I got killed before Barbara even got to the house. I missed him there. Hey that’s the other good reason to go to conventions, to meet him, I know Tony and he’s a great guy and we’re good pals.

Jon: I really want to thank you for spending time with me and Killer Film about Repo! and we look forward to seeing it and your films next year.

Bill: Thank you very much, I do appreciate it and your enthusiasm for the genre and I do know that Repo! is showing in Austin, Texas…

Jon: Yeah my other Killer Film half (Donny) will be there, I’m actually in Omaha, Nebraska…

Bill: Omaha! I looked up Omaha one time and I found that it meant “He who paddles against the current”…

Jon: We sure do there’s nothing but cornstalks here…

Bill: (laughs) Yeah, you know, Omaha is a great town. I grew up outside of Chicago. Well, thanks!

Jon: More importantly thank you.

Bill: My pleasure, see ya!

As with my Darren Lynn Bousman interview (reread it here) everyone’s excited about Repo! A Genetic Opera and we here at Killer Film are too. Moseley is a fun guy, with a love for what he does and perhaps more importantly, the fans. Keep coming back to Killer Film for more coverage of Repo! A Genetic Opera and be sure to check here for theater showings so you too can go see it!

Interview: Bill Moseley - Part 1

Killer Film recently caught up with Bill Moseley and we chatted about all things Repo! A Genetic Opera which comes out on November 7^th. This is part one of two.

Jon: Thanks for taking time, I know your really busy, to talk with us at Killer Film.

Bill: Yeah, that’s fine. Let’s fire away then.

Jon: When I spoke to Darren Lynn Bousman (reread that here) about Repo!, he said it was a constant uphill battle in convincing the studio and actors about the film. What was it that got you involved?

Bill: I first heard of Repo! a couple of years ago actually when I went to see Repo! when it was a little stage show on Hollywood Boulevard. It was a little store front theater, maybe three, three to four years ago. A friend of mine took me to see this cool play and thought it was fantastic. I didn’t mean Darren, that I recall but I was certainly impressed with the play, I thought I was a lot of fun. Then a couple of years ago I was at a horror convention, I think it was the Fangoria convention up in San Jose, and I was doing a Q and A in a section of a ballroom that had moving walls that created different sections. In the little room next to mine, after I did the Q and A, I heard Darren, who was also there talking to people in his Q and A talking about what I thought was Repo! and he was describing it. Again I was hearing this through a partition and I thought, man I’ve seen that before! As it turned out it was Repo! the show I had seen on Hollywood Boulevard and that Darren was planning on doing it after he finished Saw IV.

I talked to him and said I’d seen that show and boy, if you’re going to do that, to keep me in mind. Then flash forward and I got a call from him saying he’s ready to do Repo! and wanted me to meet with him, and the two creators Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich at the very cool Roosevelt hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. I met with them and we are seemed to relatively like each other. But the big question was that if I could sing. They gave me a song to prepare and I’ve been taking singing lessons for the last fifteen years and so the answer to that question was yes, I can sing. I was able to take that song to my singing teacher and we worked on it so that I could get the notes and get the dramatic presentation to it. I showed up to the studio one night and sang for the assembled director, creators, and the music people of Repo! and did a good enough job so they hired me.

Jon: So conventions aren’t all that bad! You got to meet future collaborators…

Bill: Those conventions are really cool. First of all, you get to meet the fans. Horror fans are the coolest fans of all and there they can meet their favorite movie stars and as I say “kick our tires”. They get to find out if someone is an asshole or not, or someone is cool, so that’s fun. Also, it’s fun to hang out with my “monsters” as I call them, because I am a horror fan. Well, I call them that because I love my fellow “monsters” because we’re trying to get the same job. It’s like a convention for dentists; we all talk shop, who’s doing what, who’s directing and hiring, sometimes there are directors or young filmmakers that want to make it someday, with maybe a cool script, you know there’s a lot of fun stuff that goes one there.

Jon: Yeah I just went to my first convention, Texas Frightmare this past February.

Bill: That’s a good one man, Lloyd Cryer. I remember doing the first two of those. Actually I think the first one was in Grapevine, Texas, with Sid Haig, Tom Savini, Ed Neal, the original hitchhiker from Texas Chain Saw, it cool. It’s just cool to be sitting there and across from you there’s Pinhead, there’s Gunnar Hanson, Leatherface, the hitchhiker, Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead, you think ‘wow, man’ that’s Ashley Lawrence from Hellraiser, it’s cool. You just look around and think it’s cool.

Jon: Tell us about your character, Luigi Largo?

Bill: Luigi Largo is one of the three children of Largo, played by Paul Sorvino, the founder of an organ company called GeneCo. GeneCo. has risen, uh, in the future there’s been a massive epidemic of organ failures and there a company that has found a way to I guess clone organs somehow, I guess they’re kinda artificial or maybe cloned. What we do is sell organs to people who need them. We provide very liberal credit arrangements. The only problem is that if you can’t make your payments, we send the Repo Man to repossess their organs. So if you got a heart and aren’t making your payments, thanks to an act by Congress, the Repo Man can take the heart back even if it kills you and it’s not a crime. (laughs) The crime is not paying back the money you owe.

Of course it’s very topical these days. Congress hasn’t made it legal yet but that might be coming soon.

Jon: Like you’ve said the film has Paul Sorvino, Anthony Head, and Paris Hilton. There’s a pretty eccentric group of actors, actresses and musicians, how was being on set and working with them?

Bill: It was a ball! I was pretty comfortable with my character and to give you a quick thumbnail of him, Luigi is the oldest of the three children, I think I’m the heir apparent and dad’s been coughing lately so I might succeed him. He thinks we all useless trash and we’re very rich and can do whatever we want. I’m just very angry all the time, very intolerant, very frustrated, and I just lash out on everybody. I stab people, I throw them under trucks, and because we’re apart of the most powerful family on earth, dad just writes a check and everything is cool. So that’s who I am, I’m pissed and again I play Paris’ brother and Ogre’s from Skinny Puppy.

In terms of being on set with that type of group, it was really a lot of fun. What I think made it a lot of fun was that it wasn’t a clash of titanic egos, which could’ve happened I suppose, we were all just in love with the story we were telling, we loved the music, there’s was comradely, and there wasn’t a weak link in the cast. We all contributed an equal amount of talent and experience. Also, we loved Darren Bousman, the director. He had such a strong passionate vision of what he wanted Repo! to be that we just fell in love with his enthusiasm and we all worked very hard to see his vision come true.

Jon: Yeah, when I interviewed him, he seemed very naturalistically passionate about the film. It got me excited and I think it’s gathered steam and people are now excited to see it when it comes out in limited release November 7^th.

Bill: Yeah! It’s too bad, I’m looking at this other Twisted Pictures film, and Lions Gate helped Twisted Pictures do Repo! and I’m looking at the landscape of their poster child for the horror business, Saw V. Just looking at the amount of money they put behind Saw V, it opened somewhere in 3,000 theaters. They plugged the heck out of it and my golly! it made it’s $30 million bucks and I only wished there was that type of enthusiasm and money behind Repo! I think we’re opening in only 7 theaters, as opposed to 3,049 or whatever it was. There hasn’t been much of an advertising budget for us; I think we’re considered the awkward step-child. In all fairness to any company, in any publicity department or marketing department, to sell a horror opera to the general public is close to impossible.

I don’t think there is any easy way to do it, so that’s why we’ve just been banging the drum. The marketing has been pretty much just on our shoulders and we’re trying to be as loud (laughs) and wide as possible by sending out MySpace stuff, website stuff, going out through the different media, and November 6^th is our big red carpet premiere in Las Vegas of all places. It opens in seven cities and each theater in those seven cities, but after that Darren and some of his buddies are literally towing a print of Repo! in a van and driving it to another seven cities. Of course all that information and where it is opening is on the website.

Jon: That brings up an interesting point because Bousman brought up that Hollywood does not reward uniqueness and the film is vastly unique. As I seen the trailer, I couldn’t think of anything prior that I might have seen that could be related and that’s awesome. But you guys are taking this grassroots approach to letting us know that this film exists and how do you feel that? You and Bousman are very passionate about it, how do you think the general public is going to respond to it?

Bill: I think there are going to be ones that love it or hate it. I doubt very much that there will be those in between. Whatever website you read, I hope there’s a lot more A’s than F’s, but they’re won’t be B’s, C’s, and D’s. Either you love it or you hate it, ten stars or one star. I think that’s great. I remember Rob (Zombie) saying I hope I get either ten stars or one star. He rather have people hate the movie than people giving it a C, saying it was okay, it wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad. To him that was a kiss of death and the same for Repo!

In part two of the interview, we discuss some final thoughts on Repo!, but also we talk about Rob Zombie, the Oscars, his new films opening next year, and Omaha? Huh? Check back in part two of my interview with Bill Moseley, only on Killer Film!

John F. Beach and Bobbie Sue Luther Interview

 

I heard you were from Louisiana.  Where exactly in Louisiana?

John F. Beach:  Shreveport.  I was born in Monroe and raised in Shreveport, and now I live in LA. I have a bunch of college buddies that live down here, a sister in Baton Rouge, and a lot of family close by.  So this is really cool.

How did you become involved with NOTD, and have you seen the original?

Bobbie Sue Luther:  Of course, of course, and part two which is really good too.  You know, it’s one of the classics, and I’m definitely a horror fan myself.  I love the genre, all sides of the genre; old, new, quirky, campy, the whole nine.  So it was really fun to audition, and get the part, and come out to film in Louisiana.  

John F. Beach:  I went in and read, and I loved the scenes that I had.  Then I went and watched the original so that I could see what they took from that.  The way this script is written is really fun, there’s comedy, and even with the crazy stuff going on it should be really entertaining.  Plus getting to come to New Orleans.

(to Bobbie Sue Luther):  Had you been to New Orleans before this?

Bobbie Sue Luther:  I had.  I was here for two Mardi Gras, a New Years Eve, and Jazz Fest.  I’ve always been in love with this city, and now I’m even more in love with it because I get to spend more than just a five day or seven day week.  I’m here for a month, and I just love the city.  It’s one of the most amazing places on the planet.  It’s certainly one of those cities that you either love or hate, the lines are very delineated. 

What’s it like working with Adam Gierasch?

Bobbie Sue Luther:  He’s awesome! 

 

John F. Beach:  Its been great.

Bobbie Sue Luther:  He’s definitely found his groove and just settled right in.  He’s an uber-fan of the genre, and I think he certainly does this movie justice.  I don’t think you have to be a fan of the genre to be a good horror director, but I think that with something like this where the fan-base is so diehard, you have to know your shit.  And Adam is at the top of his game for knowing his shit about the genre.  

John F. Beach:  Totally.  I remember having conversations with him after he cast me, and he’d be like, have you seen this, or this.  So I found myself going out and renting horror movies, and trying to get up to speed so that I could speak the same language as him.  He’s like an encyclopedia of horror knowledge. 

Bobbie Sue Luther:  Also with movies, and filmmaking itself too.  He’s a filmmaker, he loves moviemaking, and he loves movies. Every genre of movie.

John f Beach:  Yeah, when we were talking about the style he was bringing up other movies in other genres.  Even comedies just as far as like the vibe of the ensemble cast in certain movies, and what he wanted to create with this.  

Bobbie Sue Luther:  I think he’s going to be extremely respectful of the original, but this one is a different demon altogether.   No pun intended. Ir really is, it’s it’s own thing entirely, which is a good thing because it’ll be able to stand on it’s own two legs.  But fans of the original, I don’t think will be disappointed.

Monica Keena and Edward Furlong Interview

What attracted you to night of the demons?

Monica Keena: Honestly, Eddie Furlong.  I met Adam, who seemed pretty cool, and seemed like someone I’d really want to work with, then I heard Eddie was attached, and I thought it would be awesome to work with him. 

Edward Furlong: I gotta say Monica Keena.  I heard she was gonna be in it, and I saw Freddy vs Jason, and I was like, I don’t care what the movie is if she’s in it.  I’m in a movie with Monica Keena, now I gotta get Shakira and I’ll be a happy guy.

You should have tried to get it written in your contract somewhere, that Shakira had to be cast if they wanted to cast you.

Monica Keena:  If Shakira came along with me I’d be the happiest person in the world.  

How is working with Adam Gierasch?

Monica Keena:  It’s been really fun, I have no complaints except for all the blood all over me all the time.  I’m kinda used to it, but otherwise I’ve been having a really good time.  Everyone is really cool, its been really fun, it’s going to look great. I’ve seen some of the footage so far and it looks stylistically really cool.  All of us get along really well, so the relationships between the characters in the movie are tight, and that definitely comes across.  What I like, and think Adam is trying to shoot for is, um, having real people in a surreal situation, but acting as though it was natural and normal.  Which I find interesting because it’s not over the top or silly.

Edward Furlong:  Well maybe parts of it.

Monica Keena;  Well yeah, but you know it’s a horror movie.  But you know what I mean, like, I think that he’s really trying to do something unique.  

 Were you fans of the original?

Monica Keena:  I loved the original.  You know what’s so funny?  I watched it years ago, and I did not put the two together when I read this script.  Then I went back and watched it, and everyone was like that movie is like crazy, and the acting in this one isn’t going to be anything like that.  But, I think that movie is dope.  I think it’s so funny, and entertaining in its own way.  I really enjoyed the original, I’m definitely a fan.

Edward Furlong:  I never saw the original.  I never saw it, but I think that’s alright.  This is sorta like a brand new millennium style version of this thing, and I think it’s cool.  But in all seriousness I think Adam is doing a great job, and he’s got this really stylized kind of vision.  And for the budget, it’s impressive to see all these very long steady cam shots, and the cinematographer is doing this really ridiculously cool stuff.  And you mix our incredible talent in with that, and…

Monica Keena:  You mean ours?

Edward Furlong:  Yeah ours, but mostly mine.  You mix that in with a talented crew, beautiful women, and you’ve got a great movie.

Monica Keena:  Who’s the most beautiful?

Edward Furlong:  Um, well me if I was a chick, but I Monica Keena is the hottest.

Since your not a chick right?

Edward Furlong:  Yeah, since I’m not a chick.  Yeah, she is the hottest.  She’s pretty slammin isn’t she?

Yeah, she is.

Edward Furlong: Wouldn’t you just like fucking….I’m not gonna go there.

Both Eddie and Monica were a lot of fun, and really excited about the movie. Be on the lookout for more NOTD info here at Killer Film.

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