His 1971 camp horror classic The Corpse Grinders tells the gruesome tale of pet food made from human corpses and the domestic pussies who by eating it develop a taste for human flesh. Number two in the franchise, to similar effect, hit the video shelves in 2000.

“Now The Corpse Grinders 3 is under way in Spain,” Mikels told the Backbrain. “A new spin on one of my older success stories. I am the executive producer of Corpse Grinders 3, with approval over the shoots and edits. I’m sure it will be as successful as my original and Corpse Grinders 2.”

Directed by Manolito Motosierra and written by Motosierra and Marc Gras, it will be filmed in English and released worldwide, full of cats, fresh corpses and a touch of the monstrous.

Gras, who is also producing along with Mikels, José M. Rodriguez, Sr. Guijarro, Kiko Underground and José Vicente Tomás for Tyrannosaurus Entertainment in association with TVM Global Entertainment, told us: “The film is the official third part of the Ted V. Mikels’ franchise and will be filmed in Spain over three weeks. We hope to have the movie finished and edited by September.”

Just like its predecessors it will be “a low budget camp horror-comedy” sporting a plot that is basically a re-interpretation of the original movie but “with a ‘monster’ touch”.

Synopsis:

An American entrepeneur comes to Spain to build a new Lotus Cat Food factory and establishes the company in a small Spanish town. The new Lotus doesn’t do too well until they accidentally add a special ingredient to the food — human flesh, ground up into a mash. Soon the cats that eat Lotus not only attack people, but also transform into hideous mutated cat-monsters.

As a Backbrain exclusive, Gras has sent some conceptual artwork — an early incarnation of the monster cats:

Cats are notoriously difficult to herd and films that feature them en masse — even the evil cat episode of The X-Files, “Teso dos Bichos” — resort to a lot of tossing of the indignant feline stars at hapless actors and close-ups of pussies that look like they’re more interested in the off-camera tuna supreme than in biting off the heads of their human victims. These days, CGI would allow for considerable advancement in the conviction department, even for low budget productions — so it will be interesting to see if this new one will come up to scratch — assuming, of course, that the monster cats will be digitally rendered. Who knows, maybe they’ll be cats in rubber cat-monster suits!

Source: Courtesy of Ted V. Mikels, Marc Grass and Manolito Motosierra via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.  Official website; Facebook page.

Bonus 1: A Lotus Cat Food factsheet (click to make bigger)

Bonus 2: In case you aren’t familiar with Mikels’ earlier work, here’s a classically 1970s trailer to The Corpse Grinders that will give you some idea as to what we’re in for:

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Returning to our shared office at work the other day, a colleague reached to open the door, shrieked and started back in horror. Why? There was a spider hanging by a single thread from the door-knob. The spider was about the size of a large dust mote but nevertheless the reaction was marked. Being a hero of epic proportions I gently palmed the arachnid menace and released it out the nearest window, apologising to the beastie for the inconvenience as it scurried up the wall.

That’s the thing with spiders: something about their alien appearance is enough to cause cries of terror and dismay, no matter how small and innocuous the spider might be. Obviously the bigger they are, the worse the reaction. I, too, though undaunted by the dust mote, baulked at the hand-sized huntsman that appeared on the wall of my study a week or so ago, opting to leave him in peace (he eventually left of his own accord). Sure, they get much bigger than that  — you know, in jungles and on banana plantations, where they trap and eat birds — and are very scary indeed, but should they grow to be the size of a house they would be objects of extreme horror. Ask Stephen King, who made a giant spider the climactic el supremo monster in his excellent novel It (following in the footsteps of Tolkien, perhaps, who made Frodo face the giant spider, Shelob, on his way into Mordor).

Cinema has exploited humanity’s essential arachnophobia for many decades, especially when it comes to spiders of the giant kind. Hanging from massive webs in prehistoric jungles or blocking the warrior’s path in dank tunnels beneath castles, giant spiders have made cameo appearances in various filmic variations on The Lost World and in fantasy epics like Ator, the Fighting Eagle [aka Ator l'invincibile] (Italy-1982; dir. Joe D’Amato). But mega arachnids really hit the big time with Jack Arnold’s 1955 film, Tarantula, a classic 1950s giant bugfest, the effectiveness of which remains undiminished today despite the dodgy super-imposed SFX. Arnold tried again with a normal-sized spider becoming monstrous relative to the diminishing protagonist of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). Other entries in the subgenre followed, including Earth vs the Spider (US-1958; dir. Bert I. Gordon),  Son of Godzilla (1967) with a Godzilla-sized Spiga, The Giant Spider Invasion (US-1975; dir. Bill Rebane), right through to the big-budget Eight Legged Freaks (US-2002; dir. Ellory Elkayem), which featured not just one species of ultra-giant spider but many of them, all startlingly CGI-rendered. Even though it doesn’t include giant spiders as such, we really should mention Frank Marshall’s Arachnophobia from 1990, which, like the earlier Kingdom of the Spiders (US-1977; dir.  John ‘Bud’ Cardos), has so many spiders in it they surely add up to a couple of Big Ones. Meanwhile, Jeff Leroy’s Creepies series managed to squeeze in an assortment of daikaiju tropes, including giant robots:

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Other more recent giant spider films include Spiders (US-2000; dir. Gary Jones), Spiders II: Breeding Ground (US-2001; dir. Sam Firstenberg), Arachnia (US-2003; dir. Brett Piper), Ice Spiders (US-2007; dir. Tibor Takács), and Spiders 3D (US-2010; dir. Tibor Takács).

Now, to prove that the appeal hasn’t disappeared, we have a new giant spider epic coming soon from director Mike Mendez — Mega Spider.

Mega Spider [a.k.a. Dino Spider] (US-2012; dir. Mike Mendez)

A 50-foot tall alien spider escapes from a military lab and rampages the city of Los Angeles. When a massive military strike fails, it is up to a team of scientists, soldiers, and one clever exterminator to kill the creature before the city is destroyed.

Mega Spider stars Greg Grunberg, Lombardo Boyar, Clare Kramer, Ray Wise, Patrick Bauchau, Lin Shaye and produced by Klaus von Sayn-Wittgenstein, Patrick Ewald, Shaked Berenson, Travis Stevens. The picture below is a wrap shot with cast and crew and eight-legged antagonist.

Director Mendez (previously known for some decent directorial work on the indie horror film The Gravedancers) describes Mega Spider as a “Tremors-style creature feature” (implying, one hopes, that it is good-humoured and intelligently crafted action-thriller, with appealing characters, a terrific script and lots of suspense).

“The script was hilarious, and as we got into the creature design and the casting, we had one objective in mind: fun! I love the tone of this movie and think audiences are going to have a wild time.”

Above: Patrick Bauchau and Ray Wise

Lead actor Greg Grunberg commented after filming was done: “They say never work with animals and babies; I want to add giant spiders to that list. Having such a blast, laughing every day, and yet the movie is scary as shit!”

Above: Greg Grunberg as Alexis Mathis and Clare Kramer as Lt. Karly Brant

By way of confirmation, co-producer Travis Stevens (pictured below in the thick of production) sums it up this way:

“This is a movie about killing a big-ass bug. There’s a lunacy to the concept that we’re really having fun with. You look at classics like Tremors or Starship Troopers, and the humor is just as important as the mayhem. I think we’re finding a great balance between the two.” (Source)

And just to prove that the spider gets down and dirty in the big city, we have this money shot to keep you interested:

Making the Monster:

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Mega Spider is currently in post-production, but I just know all you arachnophobes out there will be dying to see it!

Addendum:

I have no idea what it has to do with the movie, but here’s a video of director Mendez and Make-up artist Emma Jacobs singing “It’s No Good” by Depeche Mode while moving in to the location shoot!

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Art by Elden Ardiente.

Source: Deviant Art; shared by Kean Gilbert via Marianne Plumridge

How many horror films have been set against the background of the fashion industry? And does Showgirls count? I can think of a few that deal with cosmetics, such as The Wasp Woman (US-1959; dir. Roger Corman and Jack Hill) and its 1995 remake. But I doubt that there have been any with the look and credentials of Animal Charm, a satirical tragi-comedy horror thriller directed by Ben Charles Edwards and starring, among others, Boy George — not as a super-model as it happens, but as a policeman. The film has the look and feel of something made by John Waters in collaboration with David Lynch, maybe with Cronenberg in an advisory role.

Synopsis:

During her performance in a tasteless musical based on Animal Farm, ex-fashion designer and fur fanatic, Anne Thrope (Sadie Frost) is kidnapped by a group of animal activists led by her nemesis, Audrey Hoober (Sally Phillips). However, have the activists bitten off more than they can chew? With the help and hindrance of Thrope’s put-upon assistant, Verdell, the police close in on the kidnappers. But is too late? And is it Anne that needs salvation…?

Trailer:

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Animal rights can provide a good theme for horror. Hitchcock’s The Birds was about the wanton cruelty of keeping birds locked up in tiny, gilded cages, right? 28 Days Later… began with experimental animals being released into London and subsequently bringing about a devastating viral apocalypse. But the fashion industry — spiritual heart of the world of glamour — has another curious connection to the horror genre. Did you know that the word “glamour” originally referred to the veneer of magical illusion that sorcerers used to hide themselves and to change their appearance? Werewolves transformed from man to wolf through the use of a glamour. How appropriate this is, now that the word refers almost completely to the veneer of make-up and fashion consciousness behind which women (and men) hide their “ordinary” unadorned appearance.

Extended Synopsis:

Under the glare of stage lights and in the blue moonlight that falls through the windows of an isolated country farmhouse… and finally in the flashing police lights of a strange and horrifying climax, two fashion giants of yesteryear play out their rivalry and take a grudge to the bitter end.  This is a true bonfire of the vanities.

Anne Thrope (Sadie Frost) used to be the biggest in the business and with an ego to match.  Once a much feted and successful fashion designer, the lights of the catwalk have now faded and her glory days are behind her.  In a disastrous attempt to reignite her celebrity and reinvent herself as a West End star, and with the help of her trusty ass-kissing assistant Verdell (Neeraj Singh) she has produced and taken the central role in a new musical adaptation of Animal Farm, entitled “Animal Charm”, which is an unapologetic defence of her use of fur and a vulgar vanity project, and is sinking faster than the Titanic with critics and audiences alike.   But Anne captures the headlines once again when she is snatched from the stage during a musical number; abducted by masked animal rights activists led by Audrey Hoober (Sally Phillips), along with her right hand woman, model/animal rights terrorist Jezebel (Emily Beecham).

Audrey and Anne were friends and came up through the fashion ranks together, until their rivalry and the love of a man came between them.  Audrey’s own fashion career crashed and burned long ago after a particularly hideous fashion faux pas and over the years her mind has gone the way of the cuckoo bird and her resentment of Anne has turned into a vengeful obsession.  Now she has Anne where she wants her… or so she thinks.  Over the course of a single night, while Anne’s assistant Verdel tries to convince butch, non-nonsense policeman (Boy George) to take the disappearance seriously, this conflict reaches its horrible conclusion, and all concerned realise just how much fashion has changed.

Intrigued by the bizarre humour promised by the trailer for Animal Charm and the almost surreal imagery that must inevitably arise from the story’s background in fashion, the Backbrain’s news-robot, Avery Guerra, decided to track down the film’s director/co-writer and get the goss on it.

An Interview with Ben Charles Edwards

Undead Backbrain: Is this a short or feature? If so, is this your first feature film?

Ben Charles Edwards: A featurette, as I call it.  It has full narrative, cast list and an original score throughout, including a track especially written for the closing titles by The Puppini Sisters. However, this film is a miniature feature, coming in at around 30 minutes.

UB: What was the inspiration for Animal Charm? How exaggerated is its depiction of the fashion industry? Were you shooting for satire or a more-or-less accurate portrait?

BCE: Animal charm was written in collaboration with Dominic Wells (former timeout editor) whom I met when he interviewed me for The Times article on my first short film “The Town That Boars Me”, also starring Sadie Frost. We set to work on a peculiar story borne of both of our imaginations based around the central anti-hero, Anne Thrope. Animal Charm is a hyper-real satire.  It’s like a circus hall of mirrors — what you see is real, but exaggerated and distorted.

UB: Beyond the plot, what is Animal Charm about, at least from your perspective?

BCE: Animal Charm is partially auto-biographical in the sense that I drew on personal experience which I then amplified to the point of surrealism: my time working in the fashion industry as a photographer, witnessing the desperation of success and the need to be noticed. Success is a very slippery slope to climb in this industry, and managing to stay at the top is even harder. The humour and jealousy of sibling rivalry between the two leads is also similar to that which I experienced growing up in a large family. I drew from many different films which have stuck in my mind from childhood, and there are plenty of homages paid to these films throughout Animal Charm; films such as Sunset Boulevarde with its satire of the media, which when I saw as a child made me realise that film had no limitations and could be playful, sincere, timeless and brilliantly original all at the same time.  I have an early memory of my father taking me to see Death Becomes Her in our hometown. I couldn’t get my mind around these new special effects and I felt like I was watching magic on screen.  And Serial Mom, a film that I became obsessed with as a teenager — watching it time after time, picking every line, character, set, and marker spot apart until I understood the complete make up of the film’s production.

“Bob Dylan once said the entertainment industry had exploded in our faces. This film is an examination of the mess left behind after that explosion.”

Animal Charm is a regurgitation of all of these things; the experiences, characters and lives of myself and all the people involved. Bob Dylan once said the entertainment industry had exploded in our faces. This film is an examination of the mess left behind after that explosion. It is a parody of the lives of those in fashion or entertainment and the desperation that pushed them hard to shine and stay on top and the depths to which you will sink to get back up there if you fall.

AG: Is the film completed yet or at what stage is it?

BCE: Yes Animal Charm is complete and it is now being submitted to Film Festivals worldwide. All show dates will be listed on my website www.bencharlesedwards.com

AG: Has the film had its premiere?

BCE: Animal Charm had a private press and cast/crew screening in Leicester Square, London, at the W Hotel at the end of January. The response was brilliant, along with the turn out number of guests, the film was screened five times in one evening to allow everyone to see it. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I felt like I had been looking too closely at the film for too long — so the premiere was the first time I could reflect and watch others reactions to the film. There was a lot of laughter. I guess that’s the good side of making a dark comedy — you can measure the success of it based on the amount of laughs.

AG: Are there any other upcoming screenings planned?

BCE: Yes, visit www.bencharlesedwards.com  for screening updates.

AG: Does the film have distribution yet?

BCE: Talenthouse.com, an online artistic community who helped fund the film, have assisted me in distributing it out to all major film festivals worldwide. So I think I will keep this for the festival circuit for the time being.  I just want as many people to see the film as possible. I haven’t made this for profit (as I’m sure you can tell from its rather niché appeal!)

AG: The film is full of such great talent from Sadie Frost (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) to Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), and Sally Phillips (Bridget Jones’s Diary) among others. How did you go about casting the different eccentric characters in the film?

BCE: When I was a kid I watched Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula over and over again.  I just thought Sadie was so beautiful and charming in it, and I thought the animal imagery was fascinating. It really struck a chord with me.

Later in my life, feeling dissatisfied with fashion photography, I decided to make a film – a bit of a leap into the dark as I knew absolutely nothing about filmmaking. However, I went ahead with an outrageous musical, a social satire called “The Town that Boars Me”, about a man/pig hybrid that terrorises a town and attacks women for their high-heel shoes, all in song.  I knew from the beginning I wanted Sadie to play the Queen of the town who has the boy-pig killed and served as the main course at a banquet. And when we met I could see instantly she had the humour and the presence to be queen of that vicious little town, and I thought it appropriate, given her treatment at the hands of the press at the time.

We had so much fun making that film, and Sadie and I had developed a really creative professional relationship, that I knew I wanted Sadie to be in the next project I did, and that’s why I wrote the character of Anne Thrope in my new film Animal Charm specifically for her.

Sally Phillips and I met at the British Film Institute, I showed her the script, which she later said was “so mental that I was drawn to look into the role further” — and so we began on developing Anne Thrope’s Nemesis “Audrey Hoober”.

AG: Were any of the characters based on or inspired by real life?

BCE: Each character was written with the actor in mind. I have always admired Boy George, Sadie Frost and Sally Phillips. And I felt Sadie and Sally would make great nemeses, in the tradition of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis [in, for example, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?]. I felt the parallels between Sadie’s life in fashion, acting and being hounded by the press, and Anne Thrope’s character made her perfect for the role.

AG: The legendary pop icon Boy George plays a rather serious cop character in the film — a rather masculine and bearded one at that, when he is so well-known for being a flamboyant and androgynous celebrity. A bit of irony and a role switch, that is. Was this intentional and if so what was his initial reaction to playing this role? What was he like to work with on set?

BCE: The film was full of colourful pseudo characters as it was. However, in our real world Boy George is the real thing. It would have been lost in the film to cast him as himself, so I drew on Boy George’s personal legal history to cast him as a homophobic police officer instead. George was wonderful to work with.

AG: What would you like the audience/fans to take from Animal Charm?

BCE: I hope the experience of watching Animal Charm is the cinematic equivalent of being punched in the face with a whoopee cushion — a whoopee cushion full of shit. I hope it will leave everyone with something. Preferably a rash.

AG: What’s next for you? Any prospective film projects you care to share with us?

BCE: This year, Sadie Frost and I are going to do our first feature together. An adventurously ambitious story which Sadie has created herself. It’s brilliant!! It’s particularly funny and dark and full of dream worlds and bad haircuts.  We can’t wait.

AG: In closing, is there anything you’d like to add to address the fans?

BCE: Use your time and resources to create something of your own, be it a film or a short story. It doesn’t have to cost a thing to make a new idea reality…  If you make a painting or a film that you enjoy, you will enjoy giving it to other people, not selling it.

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• Source: Ben Charles Edwards via Avery Guerra. Lead-in and editorial work by Robert Hood. BCE’s website; Facebook page.

Addendum:

Animal Charm has “cult classic” written all over it. It has already inspired a gallery of amazing fan-made posters. Check them out.

Steve Latshaw has been around. Most lately he’s been around an enthusiastic cast comprising the likes of James Best, John Schneider, Jennifer Lyons, Rick Hurst, Sean Flynn and special guest Bruce Davison — along with assorted other beauties — to resurrect one of “the worst films of all time”, the 1959 The Killer Shrews, under the straight-up title, Return of the Killer Shrews. (For details see see this update on Undead Brainspasm, as well as these Backbrain articles: First Details; Update 1; Casting Details; yUpdate 2, and the trailer release.)

To quote from his bio:

Prolific is the word that best describes filmmaker Steve Latshaw. With his name on over 40 feature films to date as writer, producer or director (or a combination of all three) he’s found himself in constant demand. As a writer alone, he can claim to be one of the most produced writers in Hollywood, credited with scribing some 25 independent feature films, in a variety of genres, 15 of them in one hectic three year period.

[For Steve's full bio, see below.]

Recently Avery Guerra, Undead Backbrain’s part-time newshound (who works full-time for no money at all, which is double what I get), caught up with Latshaw and put him through the third degree. It’s interesting stuff, so grab a cup of tea or a stiff drink, settle back and read on!

What have been some of the highs and lows of your career?

SL: Working in radio was a high. I still miss it. Being the youngest (16) professional 16mm news photographer for WAND-TV, ABC-Decatur, in 1976, was cool. It was like Almost Famous meets Anchorman. Running TCI Cablevision Channel 33 was the best job in the World … we did every kind of TV show you could imagine, mostly comedies, plus Classic Movies, a horror night Creature Feature. Working with long-time partner (and Shrews collaborator) Pat Moran, along with Keith Tuxhorn, Brad Moore, Steve Wooldrige Cathy Moran, Kevin Cox and the inimitable Janet Hamilton, we did Generic Video Theater (a Pythonesque 1/2 hour TV series), Bad Home Movie Theater (we pre-dated MST3K but used amateur movies instead of real ones), Creature Features From the Lost Planet (PD horror stuff hosted by me and Keith), and Rude Awakening, a morning talk show which, thanks to one-time guest/later SNL writer Bob Odekirk, became the template for Wayne’s World (I kid you not — I can show you video tape evidence). We also did two feature-length movies … a James Bond spoof called Fishfinger and a Republic Pictures Rocketman send-up called Adventures of Captain Astro. One day I hope to return Channel 33 to the airwaves with a website featuring film clips, video downloads, etc. We still have most of the shows in the vault. My favorite film we did for Fred Olen Ray was Biohazard 2 aka Biohazard The Alien Force, because we did it in the style of a 1960s Italian spy movie except that we had a monster. We broke all the rules for a low budget film … multiple locations, large cast unit, helicopters, ‘copter crashes, aerial footage, car chases and scary monster stuff on the Universal Studios Florida NY Street backlot. We had an original Hawaii 5-0 style zoom across the ocean to the beach shot for our main titles (shot from our chopper) … and also aerial footage of a lab explosion which ended up in two of Fred Ray’s other movies, including Hybrid. We also stole an explosion from Universal … their Miami Vice Stunt Show blew something up every couple of hours … we placed two actors in front of it so we could get that long lens shot of actors reeling back from an explosion. We got a still of it on the original VHS video box … you can see the Universal hand-railing below the actors’ thighs. In general, I think every one of those movies for Fred was a thrill, every time we got a new contract. But my favorite notes from Fred came on Biohazard 2 after he viewed my first cut. They said, simply, “Good job. Lock it.”

Biggest career disappointment?

SL: Stan Lee’s Lightspeed. This was supposed to be a backdoor pilot for a series of SciFi Channel movies. I spent a very tough year on the project … trying to incorporate my producer’s notes, the SciFi Channel’s notes and, most importantly, Stan Lee’s notes into a viable script. All three sets of notes were frequently very inconsistent. And then, after a year’s worth of work, the project was turned over to a new writer. I didn’t recognize the final product on screen, other than the design of Python, the villain. The last script Stan and I worked on was spectacular, with a surprise betrayal from the female lead (Nicole Eggert), a Bond-style villain’s lair island complete with volcano and a mano-a-mano final confrontation between Python and Lightspeed as the volcano is erupting and a squadron of Navy bombers are prepping to blow the hell out of the island. Python and Lightspeed both go off a cliff into the ocean far below. I had noted in the script that Lightspeed’s costume was retro Army Air Corps, circa 1942, made up of leather aviation gear he’d found at an Army Surplus store. By the time the film aired, the Python Volcano island had become a two-story mini mansion in Salt Lake City, Lightspeed’s costume was a very metrosexual bicycle suit and Nicole Eggert’s part had been reduced to the girl screaming for rescue … absolute crap! Made no sense. I only recognized one scene in the script … Stan had the brilliant idea to allow Lightspeed to discover his ability to move at the speed of light when he catches a mosquito. A few years later I ran into Stan at Papoo’s restaurant in Toluca Lake. I mentioned Lightspeed and he shook his head sadly, put his arm on my shoulder and said, “Wasn’t your fault, Steve.”

Biggest career thrill?

SL: Making Return of the Killer Shrews with James Best after all these years. The shoot was a complete joy, even though we only had ten days … the most fun I’ve ever had on a set, the happiest crew … everybody was in that “let’s make a movie we love” groove … just like the days back in Florida when we are too young and happy to know any better. And I’ve taken intense pleasure in the post-production process, too. It was nice to be back in the director’s chair after all these years … to know I hadn’t forgotten anything and had learned quite a bit from working as a writer for so long.

Above: Script or prayer meeting? James Best is on the left.

How did you come to know James Best? What was he like to work with on set? Would you like to work with him again?

SL: Working as an entertainment reporter for WESH-TV, Orlando, Florida, in 1989, I did a news story on Jimmie. I’d been a fan of him from Shenandoah, though was not, at the time, a Dukes fan. This is the second feature film and about the sixth production (including documentaries, shorts, etc.) that I’ve done with Jimmie, so we’re old pals. We work together well. He loves independent, grass-roots filmmaking and can get it done fast and cheap as any of us — but he brings an old-school, studio-trained sensibility to the process, so he knows many “cheats” that help make actors look good, films look more expensive, etc. On set he’s always prepared, always ready to give you multiple interpretations, depending on what you need, and always ready to improvise. When he does comedy, non-working cast and crew either bite their hands or walk away to keep from laughing … and when he works serious the whole room is crying. This is a guy that held his own or topped Paul Newman, James Stewart, Lee Marvin, Jerry Lewis, Burt Reynolds, Randolph Scott, and many other great actors … was Norman Lloyd’s favourite actor on Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“The Jar”) … blew away directors like Arthur Penn, Budd Boetticher and Andrew McLaglin … I’ve learned so much from him. I intend to work with him again… we already have a script he’s written that we’re adapting, about the adventures of a couple of old men back in the 1930s.

How did you become attached to Return of the Killer Shrews?

SL: I first suggested to Jimmie that we do a sequel in 1990. For five years he told me I was nuts. And then we traded script ideas for another ten. About five years ago Pat Moran got on board and two years ago it really started rolling.

Above: Pat Moran, Holly Webber and a pile of cash

Why revisit The Killer Shrews now?

SL: I didn’t pick now. It’s been a dream for a lot of years and it’s taken time to get it off the ground. These things don’t happen overnight. The time and place were right and we jumped.

So why make a sequel to a film that is infamously referred to as one of the worst ‘bad’ films of all time?

SL: I like the idea of older guys coming back and kicking ass one more time. One of my favorite movies is The Wild Geese, with Roger Moore, Richard Burton and Richard Harris, about aging mercenaries. I wanted to do Shrews if Jimmie would play Thorne Sherman again. I didn’t want to do it if he didn’t. As for the rep… it’s not a bad film. Like a lot of excellent albeit low budget 50s and 60s flicks, it got a bad rep when the Medved Brothers put out their entertaining but incredibly inaccurate Golden Turkey Awards books. Those guys shoveled more shit and more misinformation about these movies to the general public. Shrews is a tight, eerie, creepy little thriller … first of the horror films where you have a small group of people trapped in a single locale against raging monsters. Watch it and then watch Night of the Living Dead … Romero had to have seen the original.

Why a sequel instead of the more obvious, more predictable route of doing a 3D remake? 

SL: I wanted a sequel, with Jimmie returning as Thorne. That’s what appealed to me. Something you could double bill with the original, which we are planning on doing. As for 3D, really not cost effective at our budget range. 3D is only good if you are guaranteed a theatrical release, which we are not. If HDTV works out the 3D bugs we’ll do a conversion down the road. Right now, the plan was to do the best 2D version we could do. We used the RED Camera system, which was great. We had access to 3D but the process of shooting is lengthy … it would have limited our movement and added four or five days to the shooting schedule, which we could not afford.

Above: James Best, as Thorne, sketching a friend

Why do you think it is that the original has become such a beloved cult classic when so many other films, some arguably better made, have become so forgotten?

SL: Because it’s a really good, scary movie. It moves fast and it delivers. It’s like a quick jazz piece. The plot is simple: people on island, stalked and eaten by the shrews. Have to get away. Same plot as our movie. Everything else in the film is just characters boozing and yelling and riffing off of each other. No bullshit, no long-winded explanations, just fun. Again, same as our movie. We played with it a little bit … added some comedy for a sort of Shaun of the Dead feel. Plus MST3K rediscovered the movie in the 90s and made it a huge TV hit… and by then, James Best had his Dukes of Hazard fame to go along with it. So Killer Shrews is as much a 1990s phenomenon as it is a 1960s drive-in hit.

Why is it that the original is so notoriously known for being such a bad film?

SL: Harry and Michael Medved wrote The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time  in 1978 and The Golden Turkey Awards in 1980. That’s what did it. The good thing is, they made all these movies famous again — gave Ed Wood’s stock company, Vampira, Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, all those folks, new careers. Would have made Ed a star, too, had he lived. Trouble was, the books were all filled with bad information and mistakes. Fun reads/lousy research. And they nailed a lot of films as bad when in fact, like Killer Shrews, they weren’t so much bad as they were low budget. Weird. And creepy.

You mentioned that this new follow-up was in development for several years. When did things really start to get off of the ground for it and why do you think it took so long?

SL: I would say we made a brief, aborted push in 2005. Got nowhere. Went back to drawing board. Pat Moran got involved. Pat is a genius at story construction. As it was, the story was all over the place. With Pat on board we started moving back to the simplicity of the original film — riffing on top of that. Summer of 2010 things started moving very rapidly. We got a commitment from John Schneider, who is still a huge TV name… a name like his really opens the tired, jaded eyes and pocketbooks of distributors. We finished a script. Fred Olen Ray and Kim Ray at American Independent Productions helped us with some initial budgeting, then hooked us up with Line Producer Dan Golden, who was a godsend. Dan got us to our first budget and we began shopping the project, with an eye toward shooting in North Carolina. Roger Corman loved the script and was immediately interested, but at a budget much lower than we anticipated. We shopped it around, trying to gauge foreign potential. One distributor even offered to back the whole project provided we re-cast the entire film with actors under 25, and preferably at least some of the folks from the Disney High School Musical films. Not our movie, naturally, so we passed. In January, we went back to Corman, who decided to pass. I think he did Piranhaconda instead. Shortly thereafter, Sean Hart, who runs Silo, Inc, our effects company, came up with an idea for indie financing and we were off, with the budget slightly altered to fit California. Sean and his partner Devyn Reggio, became our executive producers, along with Rustin Brewer of Advent Clothing.

Above: John Schneider, acting out

The film has an incredible cast and looks to be full of some colorful characters. How did you go about casting the different roles in the film?

SL: Some of the parts we pre-cast. We read a lot of people, took a lot of meetings, held cattle call auditions.

What sort of initial reactions did you receive after approaching the actors to take part in a sequel being made over 50 years later to such a infamous film?

SL: We had a tough time casting the main heavy. We wanted a veteran name actor who could hold his own with James Best. I took a lot of meetings with a lot of very famous actors… some who would surprise you. Made some friends along the way — people who certainly surprised me. But we didn’t end up casting the part until the night before we began shooting. Bruce Davison read it, loved it, and pressed his manager to finalize the deal. He told me, “…everyone else does the set-ups… I walk in and deliver the punch line.”

Above: Bruce Davison, looking… unstable

Is the film completed yet or at what stage is it?

SL: The film is locked, completed. Scored, F/X, everything. Ready to foist on slobbering, shrew-obsessive audiences.

What are your current plans for the film?

SL: We are currently working on the distribution side of things. Apart from the usual television and video and video-on-demand sales, I’d also like to do some festivals, and some limited theatrical. It’s a fast-paced, delightful film with cross-over appeal to many different fan bases. We have the horror/sci-fi fans, and the MST3K fans of the original film. We have the Dukes of Hazzard fan base, with John, Jimmie and Rick Hurst in the film (and a couple of nods to the Dukes in our movie that were done for the fans). John’s got his own fan base for all the great recent stuff he’s been doing, and Bruce Davison, apart from being one of the film business’s great character actors (one producer recently called him a “national treasure”), has that Willard thing going. Willard was a big hit on video in the ’80s and ’90s … and Bruce included some nods to that classic in his own performance. Plus the music. Apart from a great orchestral score by genre vet Jeff Walton, which touches on everything from John Barry to Jerry Goldsmith to Bernsteins’ score for the Sons of Katie Elder , we have the Kings of Surf Music. 2012 is the 50th Anniversary of The Beach Boys. We’re able to take advantage of that … Beach Boys and Jan & Dean vet Gary Griffin wrote and produced some great original songs for us. He did the music for the 2000 ABC TV mini series The Beach Boys: An American Family, and has toured with The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson and Jan & Dean, as well as serving as John Stamos’ musical director on Full House. Gary assembled a team of vocalists and musicians including Beach Boy vets Matt Jardine and Phil Bardowell, Brian Wilson multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory, original Beach Boy David Marks and Dean Torrence of the legendary Jan & Dean. In fact, Dean, along with his talented daughters Katie and Jillian, recorded our ’60s retro theme song, the Gary Griffin/Dave Beard original “Shrewd Awakening”, which mixes the delightfully sick Jan & Dean humor (ever hear Deadman’s Curve — it’s Jan & Dean’s Fargo – a comedy song about a fatal car wreck) with a 1960s Matt Helm/Hugo Montengro beat and the sweetest vocals this side of the Supremes. And rounding out the whole thing, Bruce Davison actually portrayed Dean Torrence in the 1978 TV movie about Jan & Dean, called Deadman’s Curve. We reunited Bruce and Dean in the recording studio — a video snippet of which appears in our closing credits.

Above: Steve Latshaw (on right) with Dean Torrence and daughters Katie and Jillian

What would you like viewers to take from your film? Do you think fans of the original will be able to appreciate it too?

SL: I hope viewers have fun with it. We took a genre-blend approach to the film, mixing both comedy and horror and character development. Shaun of the Dead paved the way for that kind of blend. We hope audiences enjoy ours in a similar vein. As for fans of the original, I am the world’s biggest fan of the original and I wanted to make a sequel I’d like to see, rather than a heartless, faceless remake with no connection to the original other than the title.

Other than the legendary James Best reprising his classic role of Capt. Thorne Sherman from the original I notice actor John Anthony Williams is playing a Harold Rook Sr., which is obviously in some way related to the late great Judge Henry Dupree’s character ‘Rook’ Griswald.

SL: Yes. Without giving anything away, our film re-stages the original Rook’s death scene from 1959, using our modern monsters. It’s all John Anthony Williams on screen — we had him running all morning. He was such a serious, focused actor that he’d studied Judge Henry Dupree’s actual running style before we shot. On the first take with John, after I called cut, I said, “Amazing, you’ve got Judge’s run down.” He nodded. He’d studied. I was very impressed.

Are there other such homages to the original cult classic for fans to look forward to in this new film? What sort of things were kept the same and what were changed? How does this film vary from the original?

SL: There are lots of homages to the original: a couple of flashback scenes, Jimmie wears a variation of Thorne’s original wardrobe, the sort of the thing a charter boat Captain might wear over 50 years, always sticking to the same style. The outside of the compound is almost identical to the one in the original film, right down to the barrels. Fans will be shocked at how close we got — although it’s supposed to be the same place, 50 years later. The interior of the living room is a perfect match to the original, right down to the flimsy bar and the mirror on the wall. Our Designer, Billy Jett, was a genius. He matched the original perfectly. Billy also built a great lab set in Bronson canyon. He asked me about a look; I said “Man From U.N.C.L.E. — 1965 / 2nd season.” He got it. The black-and-white original was shot on six cold and cloudy days in Texas. We worked in the sunlight in Hollywood, in June. And we were using the gorgeous RED system. And the market will not support a B&W movie of this nature. So I said, instead of the grungy, gritty dark feel of the original, let’s make it look pretty and garish, rich primary colors, like if A.I.P. had decided to shoot this sequel in 1963, in Pathecolor and Panavision. And to enhance that theatrical scope look, we shot a lot of it long lens. Makes the movie look big and theatrical.

Where will the film have its premiere? Does the film have distribution yet?

SL: We’re working on the premiere … and distribution. Hopefully by summer it will be out in some fashion. Depends on the needs and windows of the buyers.

Now that you’ve done a sequel to The Killer Shrews, would you ever consider revisiting any other classic films?

SL: Shrews was a special occasion … the right movie and the right cast. In fact, however, we’re talking about Revenge of the Killer Shrews, which we will do if this one is a hit. I have an idea for the sequel that would allow us to work with much of the same cast — which I would love to do. Our cast was great. But to be honest, everyone has movies they’d like to remake or revisit. I’m more interest in stories as yet untold, books I’ve read that I’d like to make into movies, stories about real people that haven’t been heard.

Any other good/bad stories from filming that you’d like to share?

SL: Lots of great moments: running Vegas comedy routines from Jimmie Best and David Browning on the set, Jimmie’s serious déjà vu moment when we got to Bronson Canyon and he remembered all the westerns he shot there; James Arness of Gunsmoke died the day before Jimmie’s first day on set at Bronson — it was an emotional day for him. Discussing philosophy with Sean Flynn — and making him a present of a first edition of his grandfather Errol Flynn’s autobiography My Wicked, Wicked Ways, along with two of Errol’s novels. Bruce Davison singing “Surf City”, “Barbara Ann”, “Linda” and other Jan & Dean songs on the set and at the reunion recording session with Dean Torrence… a happy, happy crew and cast. All great memories, no bad ones. Working side by side with Dorothy Best, which we hadn’t done since Death Mask. Last-minute rewrites with Pat Moran — as the cast got better and better with their parts we rewrote, elevating the script. One of the great days with the cast and crew was the second to last day. Michael and Janeen Damian (Jimmie’s TV star/Broadway star and top movie director son-in-law and his daughter) and the rest of Jimmie’s family came out to the set. Seeing them all as we were finishing this movie that had been a dream for 20 years gave a powerful sense of accomplishment. The last shot of the entire shoot was an insert of a flute going into a rushing river — and then it was over. Cast and crew were crying as we wrapped. No one wanted to leave.

Above: Jennifer Lyons

Above: Jeneta St. Clair and Jason Shane Scott

What’s next for you? Any prospective film projects you care to share with us?

SL: I have various projects in development, as does everyone. You have to juggle lots of balls. I have a project with Jimmie Best in the front burner … and a sci-fi project on a larger scale. We are negotiating a Hollywood biopic right now with a major indie company … and I have a script out on the streets, based on a true story about superstar entertainer Al Jolson’s trip to entertain the troops in Korea, in 1950. A dangerous trip — ultimately tragic. It’s sort of a cross between My Favorite Year and M.A.S.H. And finally, Pat Moran and I are looking for something again like Shrews … something retro-hip, psychotronic, again combining horror with comedy and the whole Tiki/drive-in thing.

In closing, is there anything you’d like to add to address the fans?

SL: I can’t wait for the fans to see it. This is a movie made for fans, the ones like me who grew up watching this stuff on late night TV and reading about them in Famous Monsters of Filmland … the ones who loved Killer Shrews on MST3K and these new download kids just discovering the movie for the first time. And also for the original theatrical fans who predated me — the Mark McGees and Bill Warrens of this world who first caught The Killer Shrews in the theater. I hope you all enjoy it.

Steve Latshaw Biography

Born and raised in the prairie winds and farm country of Decatur, Illinois (soy bean capitol of the world), Steve Latshaw spent the first part of his career working in local radio and television, as a news photographer, DJ, news reporter and radio news anchor and commercial voice-over artist. A move to Florida in the late ’80s continued his on-air work and jump-started his feature film career, landing him a featured extra bit on the set of Ron Howard’s Parenthood.

Speaking parts followed, including a recurring role on the Ilya Salkind/Viacom series Superboy. But Steve’s focus and interest was increasingly on behind-the-camera duties and he soon found himself working in a distinctly Roger Corman-esque fashion, producing and directing a string of successful B movies in the swamps in and around Orlando, Florida. These included the home video/cable hits Dark Universe (1993) and Jack-O (1995), as well as the cult classic Vampire Trailer Park (1991). Relocating to Los Angeles in 1995, Steve continued his career as both writer and director, though on markedly larger budgeted projects. With a filmography well into the double digits, Steve’s recent screenwriting credits have included the SciFi Channel superhero adventure Stan Lee’s Lightspeed (2007), Planet Raptor (2007), featuring starring Steven Bauer, Ted Raimi and Vanessa Angel and Command Performance (2009), an action-packed throwback to classic ’90s adventure movies.  A collaboration with action star Dolph Lundgren, who also served as co-writer and director, Command Performance went on to garner rave reviews and great numbers on TV and home video, and helped lead to Dolph’s return to the big screen in The Expendables.

As Writer/Producer/Director, Steve has just completed Return of the Killer Shrews.  A 50-years-later sequel to the 1959 cult classic (and massive 1990s MST3K hit), Killer Shrews, this go-for-the-throat CGI SciFi epic combines sly humor and state-of-the-art effects as the title creatures rip through the cast of an ill-fated reality show.

Here’s what the press release says:

Following the success of 2011’s Big Arse Comic Book Launch the Melbourne comics community in hosting a second, even bigger event to launch of fifteen (15) new works created by authors from the fast-growing local scene.

These books are published by a diverse array of publishers, from the small press to national publishers, with reach into the newsstands and the global comics market.

Presented by the inimitable, indomitable, inglorious and invincible Bernard Caleo. Big Arse 2 is proudly sponsored by All Star Comics.

And what’s an “underground” comic launch without an advertising poster featuring a gross image of a fat arse, especially if it’s Wonder Woman with loads of cellulite?

Here’s a run down of some of the comics about to be launched at the mega-event, a veritable compendium of local talent.

ALL YOU BASTARDS CAN GO JUMP OFF A BRIDGE (Milk Shadow Books)
From the creator of Egg Story and Eating Steve, and the co-creator of The Sixsmiths, J Marc Schmidt furiously rains down comic stories covering art, romance, religion, anger, pop culture parodies, sex and death.  This book that explores human behaviour and why it can sometimes be so hard to just get along with each other. Features a foreword by Tango’s Bernard Caleo.

BALLANTYNE: WHERE HIDDEN RIVERS FLOW (Pikitia Press)
Ballantyne: Where Hidden Rivers Flow reprints Peter Foster’s collaboration with writer James H. Kemsley, which was featured in the Sydney Sunday Sun-Herald for several years in the 1990s. Based on Kemsley’s vivid memories of working as a patrol officer in post World War Two New Guinea, Ballantyne is a classic adventure strip in the fine tradition of The Phantom, X-9 Secret Agent, and others of the genre. This first volume of Ballantyne is 64 pages of lavish colour.

BLOOD ACROSS BROADWAY (FrankenComics)
Blood Across Broadway is a 70-page comic homage to Nosferatu, The Jazz Singer, and the most prominent Broadway musicals. Set in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Theatre, the story features an old, crippled vampire known as Morlook, who fosters a tremendous love of jazz, theatre and dancing, much to the disapproval of his overbearing son Cartorius. But with the help of a certain legendary dancer, Morlook learns the art of dancing and showmanship, all the while dreaming of being among the bright lights of Broadway, an unlikely setting for an undead creature of the night. Written and illustrated by Frank Candiloro.

CRIMINAL ELEMENT (Black House Comics)
Ten stories about crimes and the criminals who commit them. Gangsters, demons, burglars, nurses, hitmen, saboteurs, slavers, bounty hunters, and furniture salesmen. The mean streets, a post-apocalyptic plague  world, a tram depot and war torn Vietnam. The past, the present, and the future. Edited by Jason Franks.

DIGESTED #5 (Gestalt Comics)
The fifth issue of Bobby.N’s series reaches a turning point in the ongoing story Oxygen, where nothing will ever be the same again for the main character. And for dessert, there’s also a short personal story at the end of this issue.

IT SHINES AND SHAKES AND LAUGHS (Milk Shadow Books)
If you have never set off on a voyage with cult artist Tim Molloy, then get ready to leave this universe… forever. It Shines and Shakes and Laughs is packed to the gills with four year’s worth of silent and surreal comics. Contains the Impy strips, complete reprints of the long-ago-disappeared books, Under the Bed and Saturn Returns, and lots more. Features a foreword by Hicksville’s Dylan Horrocks.

KILLEROO: GANGWAR (Ozone Studios)
Killeroo returns in an all-action story from the past, when he was the leader of a motorcycle gang in the early 80s. This story shows a more savage side to the character than we’ve seen in the past, in a no-holds-barred, good old-fashioned slugfest. Written and inked by Darren Close and pencilled by the amazingly talented Paul Abstruse (Witch King).

KRANBURN #2 (FEC Comics)
Second issue of the brutal Australian post-apocalyptic series by Ben Michael Byrne. Now that you have met our lead character, Brand, it is time to see how much further these urban tribe wars have spread. And what will lead Brand into even more dangerous situations with the ‘Nongs’.

NO MAP, BUT NOT LOST (Milk Shadow Books)
A thick book that collects all of Bobby.N’s previous self-published work and short stories, from the early days where he is finding his voice, up until today. From amateur scribbling to a more refined line. A chronological record of one ordinary guy getting better on paper, by following his heart. Features a foreword by Larry Boxshall from the NonCanonical comics podcast.

PAY THROUGH THE SOUL #2 (Black House Comics)
Pay Through The Soul follows on from Black House Comics 2011 collection of Matt Emery’s The Guzumo Show. Published in an ongoing single issue format that was popular with Indy comics of the ’90′s, Pay Through The Soul is a finely crafted one-man humour anthology for adult readers. Utilising gag strips and lengthier stories, Matt Emery’s comics touch on themes of sexism, racism, homophobia, politics, sex, and religion all served with a dose of the absurd.

THE RETURN OF THE NIGHT EAGLE  (Pikitia Press)
Now retired, Peter Foster had a distinguished career illustrating thousands of pages of comics for DC Thomson in England as well numerous comics and newspaper strips in Australia. In the 1980s it was not uncommon to find a DC Thomson comic with two if not three of Foster’s stories in it. The Return of the Night Eagle is Foster’s re-invention of Carl Lyon’s Australian superhero of the ’40s, The Eagle, as a legacy hero. Night Eagle includes a back-up feature of Orion the Hunter and is packed full of adventure and intrigue with 40 pages of vibrant colour.

SAWBONES: THE TIME BEING
The Time Being sees the thrilling conclusion to the globe- and time-spanning epic as the gang rush to stop the Time Being from tearing the universe apart. Bones, Sawyer, Daisy, Emelia and Martin face off against vikings, ninjas, Nazis, centurions, cavemen and Genghis Khan in a fight to the finish. But who’s Finish? Adventure Zomedy at its best.  Written by Jen Breach. Illustrated by Trev Wood.

STRIPSHOW (Milk Shadow Books)
Forget the sweeping saga of The Sacrifice, or arty The Silence: Aussie comic master Bruce Mutard began his comic life in the slime, evolving slowly through the lizard and ape phases to become the ‘artiste’ he is today. Stripshow showcases these early phases where no holes — sorry, holds — were barred, and humour was the order of the day. This collection of short strips, gags, illustrations and ads are either unpublished, or long, long, out of print in their original publications. Comes with a mea culpa  from the author. For pubescents over 18.

TERRA MAGAZINE #1 (Black House Comics)
Debut of the much-anticipated tri-annual genre fiction comics magazine. Terra Magazine brings together a diverse range of continuing science fiction, fantasy, horror and crime stories by some of Australia’s best talents. Samurai and spaceships; elephants and yakuza; mummies and magicians; cops and cyborgs: if there isn’t something you like in here, you’re on the wrong planet. Edited by Jason Franks.

YOU STINK AND I DON’T #10 (Milk Shadow Books)
The tenth issue of Ben Hutchings’ cult comic, You Stink and I Don’t is now officially ready to hit the streets! Following up from the critical success of his cult newspaper comic Walking to Japan, Ben has created lots of comics about funny cats, silly sports, superheros in people’s bottoms and more.

ZOMBOLETTE (Milk Shadow Books)
A beautifully decaying, giant-sized collection of Scarlette Baccini’s strips and stories featuring a girl zombie and her best friend/roommate/hamster, Cameron. So is the book cute? Maybe. Or filled with gutz and gore? Sort of. Will you get lolz? Yes… yes you will. Meet Zombolette (and Cameron too!).

The details of the event are:

Saturday, March 3rd from 2:00pm
Sentido Funf
243-245 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy
Victoria, Australia

Dinosaurworldwide has just posted a celebratory video to youTube, one that encapsulates all that we love about Danger 5!

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Longer drinks, longer cigarettes, longer bullets, longer episodes!

Victory has a new name!

The show returns on SBS ONE in February. Viewers in Australia will be waiting eagerly. You lot elsewhere might have to nag your local networks to buy the rights to screen the show over where you are. Start now!

And remember to drink responsibly… except when sitting on the lounge watching the show!

• Danger 5 Website
• View all five episodes of Danger 5! The Diamond Girls at the Cinema of the Backbrain.

Life gets difficult enough when you’re a hitman just trying get the job done so you can make it to your kid’s birthday party on time. But things get worse after you stumble across an alien parasite that’s turning the extras into zombies.

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You can only hope you get Overtime (US-2011; dir. Matt Niehoff)…

Synopsis:

Raph (Al Snow) and Max (John Wells) only kill bad guys, and only after their boss Sam, a high-powered attorney, has cashed a nice paycheck for getting her sleazy clients off the hook.

When Sam sends our heroes on a routine hit, they find themselves caught up in a conspiracy they never imagined. But whatever trouble they’ve gotten themselves into is nothing compared to the wrath of Raph’s wife if he doesn’t make it home in time for his son’s birthday party.

Being a good hitman is tough; being a good dad is killer!

The Interview

To find out more about Overtime, the Backbrain’s News Hound, Avery Guerra, spoke to Brian Cunningham — the film’s Writer, Director of Photography and Producer:

Tell us a bit about yourself, Brian.

I’m a freelance director of Photography and producer working in Louisville Kentucky.  I’ve done work for clients such as GE, McDonalds and Papa John’s, but my real passion is filmmaking.  I ran a movie news and reviews blog for three years and have self-published two books about movies and pop-culture. The next project is a documentary about the Haunted House industry entitled “Monsters Wanted.”  (Check out MonstersWanted.com for more info).

Why this particular movie, Overtime?

The idea to make the movie came from my partner, Matt Niehoff.  We really wanted our first movie to be something fun and even a little bit silly. So many young filmmakers seem obsessed with creating work that is going to lead to awards and prestige, but when Matt and I talked about it we realized that the movies we loved as kids were the crazy comedies of the ’80s and the action films of the late ’90s (like Terminator 2 and Aliens).  We wanted to make those kinds of movies because we love escapist cinema, and we wanted the audience to be taken on a journey.  Plus it’s always more fun to blow things up than to shoot people talking.

Above: The movie stars WWE Superstar Al Snow, who gets bloodier than usual…

Any specific influences?

The movie draws heavily from ideas in movies like Aliens and From Dusk Til Dawn.  There’s a lot of Shaun of the Dead in there, tonally, and of course the Hit Man aspect will remind people of Boondock Saints and Pulp Fiction (mind you, I’m not comparing us to those movies … I’d never dream of going toe-to-toe with Tarantino).  What you might not think of, however, is the influence movies like Lethal Weapon had on Overtime.  When it gets down to it, this is a fun 1980s action comedy about two guys trying to balance work and family.  The zombie-alien side of things is almost incidental.

Above: Sebrina Siegel finds herself at the wrong end of a Shooter’s Party rally

Above: Stuck in a corner with blood and cake: John Wells, Sebrina Siegel, Erica Goldsmith and Al Snow

How did the project develop between you and Matt?

The idea for the movie came from Matt.  He wrote a rough draft of the script and asked me to take a look at it to see if I was interested in shooting it for him.  When I read it, I loved the whole conceit. I asked Matt if I could take a crack at changing some things, and he agreed. After that, it really became a 50-50 partnership. We went through a good twelve drafts together before shooting, and we worked together on casting, finding locations and testing out the makeup and effects. It was a really rewarding collaboration with each of us pushing each other every day.  We would rewrite entire scenes the night before the shoot, trying to make things a little more organic, a little funnier, and to take advantage of the talents of the awesome cast.

Above: Avri Ant’juan considers whether to shoot ‘em or… um… shoot ‘em

Check out this Behind-the-Scenes video:

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What are you plans for Overtime?

Our plans for Overtime are to get it in front of as many people as we can. We’ve started a pretty aggressive festival strategy (and it’s recently been announced that it will be  screening in Louisville on February 18 at the Derby City Film Festival), and we’re in the process of contacting distributors directly to try and make a deal.  We know from feedback from screenings and our website that there is a good market for this movie, and people who see it seem to have a really good time with it.

And if hitmen, alien parasites, blood and zombies aren’t enough, don’t forget there are tentacles as well!

Check out lots more pictures and a couple of alternative posters in the gallery below:

Sources: Brian Cunningham via Avery Guerra; Official website/blog; Facebook page; IMDb entry.

Addenda:

Earlier (slightly longer) Official Trailer:

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Outtakes:

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Kaiju Search-Robot Avery added this similarly themed greeting, which I thought I’d share — though we don’t have an actual attribution for the image:

And while we’re at it, some of the people whose work we’ve been featuring sent their greetings:

You can get more information about these exciting re-inventions of classic monster flicks on Undead Backbrain and the Brainspasm site:

• Return of the Killer Shrews: on Undead Backbrain here, here and the trailer here; on Undead Brainspasm here.
• Gila!: on Undead Backbrain here; and on the Brainspasm here.

Well, New Zealand director Patrick Gillies is righting this reprehensible wrong in a short film called Huhu Attack!

In Cold War-era rural New Zealand, two social misfits – a mousy spinster and a traveling magician – find love against a backdrop of small-town prejudice and 40ft-high mutant man-eating Huhu grubs!

Click to enlarge (so you can read the details!)

It’s Baz Luhrmann meets Peter Jackson in what the director describes as “an audacious 1950s-style comedy-horror musical extravaganza, featuring a spectacular score performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.”

Song, dance, romance and…

… giant grubs!

Synopsis:

Rural New Zealand, 31st October 1957.  A Sputnik satellite crashes into the edge of a forest, irradiating the nearby flora and fauna.  When the Army is called in to investigate, their soldiers are inexplicably attacked by a 40ft-high mutant Huhu grub.  At the nearest township, two-bit traveling magician, Miles, falls for the charms of his mousy volunteer, Ngaire, whilst putting on a Halloween magic show for the locals.  Their blossoming romance is interrupted when the giant Huhu grubs invade, decimating the townsfolk.  Knocked unconscious, Miles awakes to find Ngaire nursing him back to health in a makeshift infirmary.  Citing Miles’ knowledge of pyrotechnics, she pleads her reluctant hero to lead the surviving townsfolk in their fight against the man-eating huhu grubs.  However, her faith in him is shattered when local agitator, Derek, arrives with soldiers to accuse Miles of being a Soviet spy, directly responsible for the Huhu grub menace.  Armed with supposed proof of his Eastern Bloc origins, the soldiers proceed with their intention to execute Miles.  After an impassioned and heart-wrenching plea of innocence, Miles is released and the united community rejoices in its new-found tolerance and enlightenment… but not for long!

Check out the trailer:

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 Huhu Attack! was shot on the Red One camera. Principle photography took place in Christchurch, New Zealand, over the course of four-and-a-half days in late November 2008.

Rather than using 3D (computer) animation, the producers resorted to the more traditional techniques of puppetry and over-cranked miniatures to achieve the illusion of the giant man-eating Huhu Grubs.

When asked about how the project got made, Gillies commented: “Some interesting facts for you: in its path to the big screen, the project received 21 funding rejections. Approx 80% of those people who read the script, rejected it. Conversely, about 80% of our funding was received from people who hadn’t read the script!” Then he added with due irony: “The moral = when making a monster film, don’t show people the script!”

So how was the Monster created?

I set out to create the film’s giant mutant Huhu grub monsters via 3D animation, but then early on, decided it would take too much time and effort, so opted for the (overcranked) miniature/arm-puppet route. Ultimately, the puppet also fitted with the aesthetic of 50s horror films … In the end, we did use two 3D animation shots, though: a shot of grubs on a log and then our epilogue shot of a giant … [actually, we might save that bit of spoilage for readers to experience for themselves when they see the film - Ed.]

Above: Early 3D conceptual drawings (aborted)

Above: 3D Huhu grub model stage 2

Above: Huhu puppet stage 1

Check out the gallery at the end of this article for more images of the Huhu puppet and early 3D model. The Gallery also includes more screenshots — and there are even more pictures on the film’s Facebook page.

So where can readers see the film?

Festivals at the moment. Only five festival laurels feature on the poster, but we have been selected for eight fests in total: Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (Panorama), Beverly Hills Shorts Fest (Official Selection), Seattle International Film Festival (Official Selection), Palm Springs ShortFest (Official Selection and Best of Fest 2011: Audience Favourite Comedies), New Zealand International Film Festival (Homegrown: Flights of Fantasy), Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (Official Selection), Traverse City Shorts Festival (Official Selection) and Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.

Addendum: Sample Storyboard Sequence:

Source: Patrick Gillies via Avery Guerra; Facebook page. See this article for more Behind the Scenes pictures and images of the location shoot. You can download director Gillies bio and filmography here in PDF form.

Gallery: