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Interview By Gavin Schmitt As a child, you believed that no
one could ever become big coming out of Jacksonville,
Florida. Has your impression changed? Is there hope for
those of us from other second- or third-rate cities?
Actually, what I said was people
who live in other parts of the country don’t look at the
entertainment industry as a viable career path so they tend
to discourage those of us with dreams. Some of it is
well-meaning, like parents who want their kids to have
something “practical” to fall back on. Some of it simply
comes from jealousy from those who don’t want to see others
succeed. I think people in show business have always had to
contend with this and always will. The secret is to follow
your heart and not let the doubts of others stand in your
way.
You’ve said your big break was
due to Debra Dion, the wife of Charles Band. How did you
meet Debra and what did she do to give you the break?
I had been doing some sporadic PA
work for Empire Pictures, running errands for productions
like SWORD KILL (released as GHOST WARRIOR) and was looking
to work my way up. I submitted some spec scripts to Debbie,
who told me they weren’t making horror films there. I’m not
sure what she thought GHOULIES was. Ironically, one script
she rejected was an adaptation of Lovecraft’s THE LURKING
FEAR, which they did a version of years later at Full Moon.
In the interim, I met Dave DeCoteau
[director of “Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama”
and various “Puppet Master” sequels] and he recommended me
to write I WAS A TEENAGE SEX MUTANT. Debbie loved my
treatment and script because it was a comedy, not a science
fiction film. Despite her husband’s tastes, she was not a
horror/sci-fi fan. After that, she had me lined up to write
and direct a number of projects for Empire, but the company
did not last long after that. When they formed Band Company
(which became Full Moon), she called me in to write their
flagship project, which was PUPPET MASTER.
In one interview, you said
Charles Band showed Paramount Pictures “Dr. Alien” (which
you wrote), and this was the key to his starting up the now
legendary Full Moon Entertainment. Would you say that Full
Moon indirectly owes its existence to you?
I would never be that egotistical.
DR. ALIEN (which was the title TEENAGE SEX MUTANT was
changed to) was overall a fun, well-made B movie. The script
worked, the cast was great, and Dave did an amazing job
producing and directing on a budget that was well under half
a million. Charlie promised Paramount that he could deliver
unlimited films of that quality. Of course, many wound up
costing over twice that amount and sometimes were not of the
same quality.
Many people probably think that
Charlie wrote “Puppet Master”, but you actually wrote the
first few drafts completely alone, with Charlie only
providing the title. Why did “they” try to take your name
off of “Puppet Master”, and who are “they”?
Charlie came up with a basic
concept for the puppets as well as being in on several story
meetings with Debbie and I. I wrote the first draft on my
own. By the time that I turned it in, David Schoeller was
signed to direct and he wanted to do the rewrites himself.
No one ever tried to take my name off it. When the Guild
arbitrated the credits, it was proposed Charlie and I get
the story credit and Schmoeller get the screenplay, for
which he chose to use a pseudonym. I was fine with this
since it was clear he had made a lot of changes from my
original draft.
I have to call you out on your
claim that no one tried to take your name off of “Puppet
Master”. In one interview you said, “I had to fight for my
screen credit” and in another you said, “Later on, they even
tried to take my name off the picture but the WGA ruled in
my favor, since I was the original writer.” Am I misreading
this?
Hmmm, sounds like something I said
a long time ago. In both cases, I was probably referring to
an instance where my name was omitted from a comic
adaptation of the film. The Guild wound up penalizing them
for that as well as some other errors and omissions. I was
pissed off about it at the time but there really was no way
they could have taken my name off the original film.
You had difficulty receiving
payments for your work on “Puppet Master”. Was there a
dispute, any legal action? As the original writer of one of
horror’s big franchises (by low-budget standards), was there
any justification for your treatment?
Anyone who ever worked for any of
Charles Band’s companies can attest to this kind of
treatment at one time or another. It had nothing to do with
me personally. It was simply the way he did business, which
was not in any way justifiable. I was fortunate enough to
have the Writers Guild intercede in getting the payments
that were owed to me.
You’ve credited David Allen
(”Willow”, “Ghostbusters II”, “The Howling”) as the real
genius behind “Puppet Master”, though I think most horror
fans are unfamiliar with his name. Tell us about David.
I only met him a few times but I’d
read about him in Famous Monsters of Filmland when I was
growing up. He was an extremely talented stop-motion
animator following in the footsteps of Ray Harryhausen and
Jim Danforth. Charlie recognized his talents and utilized
them frequently, even allowing him to direct occasionally.
Unfortunately, David never lived to complete his dream
project, a fantasy film called THE PRIMEVALS. The
live-action footage was shot in the 90s but Full Moon closed
down before he ever completed the effects work.
From another interview, you
pointed out that “the market… is currently being flooded
with a lot of independent horror.” As an independent horror
reviewer, I can fully appreciate that observation. Do you
see this as good or bad for the business?
My greatest fear is that the
over-saturation will cause audiences to lose interest in the
genre, which will be bad for everyone. For certain, a lot of
the independent stuff being made will never find
distribution, which will eventually cause that kind of
production to taper off. With luck, talented filmmakers who
find ways of making something fresh and new in horror will
be able to get their product out there. There are so many
outlets these days like the internet and festivals to give
them exposure. It’s just that the money is spread that much
thinner now.
For a while, you had become
disillusioned with film-making and had gone on hiatus. Some
might say your level of involvement is again rather minimal.
How do you feel about the industry today?
I became disillusioned with the
business side of film and still have little love for that
aspect of it. I re-entered the market a few years ago with
my first totally independent film, which I learned a lot
from. I’m still looking at just where in the marketplace I
want to be and finding a way to do it on my own terms.
Making one independent film at a time is a struggle I’m not
looking to repeat.
What people don’t realize is I also
have a second career as an effects artist and have run my
own studio, Total Fabrication, for the last twelve years. We
do some work for features and TV, plus a lot of commercial
and industrial work. Most of what we do couldn’t be further
from horror films, like creating characters for Nickelodeon
kids show or dressing people up in goofy food costumes for a
TV ad. So, I am very much involved in the industry at large,
just not always horror.
Don’t tell my editor, but we’re
going to move away from horror for a second. You had a role
in one of my favorite comedies, “Fear of a Black Hat”
(basically “This is Spinal Tap” with rappers). I don’t even
know what to say or ask about that — anything interesting
happen on set?
I’m glad you enjoyed it. It still
turns up on cable and I get asked about it often. Some
friends of mine created that project and told me they had a
part for me in it. I asked, “You want me to read for
something?” Their reply was “No, we wrote this for you.
You’re doing it. You have no choice.” I wasn’t sure whether
to be flattered or not since it was a very smarmy character
and they told me to play it “just like myself.” I guess they
were happy with it since they wrote a second scene for me
when they got some extra money to shoot some additional
material. It also got me into the Screen Actors Guild, which
was something I never planned on.
“Carnosaur” (probably the
biggest dino-horror film) came out roughly around the same
time as “Jurassic Park” (the biggest mainstream dinosaur
film). Was there any conscious decision, as a designer for “Carnosaur”,
to try to make your dinosaurs different from those in
“Jurassic Park”?
CARNOSAUR was made before JURASSIC
PARK was released, so all of Stan Winston’s dinosaurs were
being kept under wraps. I was not the creature designer on
the show. I created the full-size T-rex, which was based on
the sculpture used more miniature mechanical puppet. It was
probably the last T-rex to be depicted walking upright, like
a kangaroo, which is the way they had been done since the
silent LOST WORLD. The Spielberg film portrayed their rex
walking parallel to the ground, which is something
contemporary paleontologists believe to be the way they
actually walked.
As someone who has worked, and
continues to work, in visual effects, how do you feel about
the more traditional effects (foam, stop-motion, etc.) being
replaced by CGI? Personally, I’d rather see cheap “old
school” effects with heart than newer effects that turn
things into cartoons.
Of course, I prefer the traditional
types of effects not only because that’s what I do but I
feel they’re more organic. However, CGI is here to stay and
there is no denying it has its place. It makes certain tasks
easy that were virtually impossible before, like compositing
elements into a moving shot.
I never liked animatronics because
no matter how complex they were, they never had the range of
movement a simple hand puppet had. Now, they can animate a
live animal’s mouth to lip-sync dialogue rather than use
some phoney-looking puppet.
My biggest problem is when CGI is
used to create an entire scene, which winds ups looking like
a cartoon, as you said. The the exception of outer space
scenes, which were always created artificially, most
audiences will buy a shot that has a combination of live
elements with CGI. And I’m not talking about shooting a
couple of actors in front of a green screen and placing them
into an artificial environment either.
In “The Halfway House”, a cult
sacrifices topless girls to a tentacled monster. I
understand what the viewer enjoys about topless girls, but
why do you suppose monsters, demons and gods prefer their
sacrifices to be topless (or nude)?
It’s really all about the viewers,
isn’t it? Let’s just say it was a monster after my own
heart. Since the girls were tied down spread-eagle, we had
to leave their panties on or not have any girls willing to
do it at all. I considered doing a shot of a pair of bloody
underwear being spat onto the dungeon floor, like the
monster spits out the clothes in WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, but
never got around to it.
“Halfway House” was your project
in every way — writer, director and producer. How is this
level of control compared to being a puppeteer for “Gremlins
II”?
There’s really no comparison. Being
a puppeteer on a huge movie like GREMLINS II or BATMAN
RETURNS is simply a job… albeit a fun one. You spend most of
your day chatting with cool people, looking at lots of
amazing stuff, and seeing a ridiculous amount of money being
spent. There’s really no pressure on you. My movie was very
small but a labor of love. As for the level of
responsibility, it’s the polar opposite from just showing up
at a job. It was mostly my own money so there was a heavy
burden of constantly making decisions, from big ones to
small ones. I had to arrive at the set with a plan and, due
to the limitations of a low budget and short schedule, had
to continually modify that plan. It’s an exciting process
where you see your concept evolving while finding ways of
keeping it true to your original vision, which I somehow
managed to do. THE HALFWAY HOUSE may not be for everyone,
but it is the movie I set out to make.
Your most recent work in film is
as the character Calver Weems in the upcoming “Gimme Skelter”
— what is “Gimme Skelter” and who is Calver Weems?
Scott Phillips is an old friend who
manages to make really cool films for literally no money. He
asked me to come out to New Mexico to do a role in his new
project. He sent me my sides but I never read the whole
script. From what I gathered, GIMME SKELTER is about a
descendant of Charles Manson with a similar group of crazed
followers who victimize a small desert town. The character I
play is a traveling salesman who stops into a strip club for
a drink and a lap dance and winds up dying horribly. I’m the
first victim and it was actually the first time I’ve been
killed on screen. The character’s name comes from an old Don
Knotts comedy, THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN, which Scott and I
are huge fans of.
What was it like working with
indie favorite Trent Haaga and horror icon Gunnar Hansen?
I did not have any scenes with
either of them but Trent was on set the day I worked. I hope
to work with him someday in the future. Gunnar is a great
guy who I met back in the 80s when he was in LA to do
HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS. I’ve run into him many times
over the years at various conventions.
How much involvement do you
believe David Hasselhoff had in ending the Cold War?
I have absolutely no knowledge of
that whatsoever. All I can say about the man is when I met
him years ago at a party, he was very nice and extremely
tall.
What kind of a party does
someone run into David Hasselhoff at? And what does one say
to The Hoff on this historic occasion?
It was years ago when I was working
with the Landers sisters on GHOST WRITER. The party was at
their mom’s house. Both Audrey Landers and Hasselhoff had
successful singing careers and Germany but not here in the
states, so I assume that’s why he was there. As to what I
said to the man, it was probably something witty and clever
like “hi.”
This is where we part ways. Do
you have any last words or want to mention any other
projects that I may have overlooked?
This August marks my 25-year
anniversary living in Hollywood. There’s been a lot of ups
and downs and I look at myself now as a survivor. I do
intend to continue making feature films, maybe very soon. In
the meantime, I am finishing up a horror short starring Lynn
Lowry. I did it to keep my hand in between projects. I’ll be
putting it out on the festival circuit soon. It’s called
NIGHT VISIT. Keep an eye out for it.
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