Your upcoming movie Deimosimine - in a few words, what is it
going to be about?
It's about a girl in her twenties who is a heroine addict, she faces a
traumatic experience that ends in her best friend being raped and
murdered. At this point she is desparate to get clean. She meets Dr.
Winters, who has come up with a drug called Deimosimine. After getting a
dose of the drug if an addict takes a hallucinogen they begin seeing
strange things, almost like entering your worst nightmare over and over
again. The drug is supposed to scare the patient straight. Well the girl,
Cindy, has some issues and side effects with the drug and things don't end
up going as planned, and things get a bit bloody. How did the project fall together to
begin with? It's kind of funny. My wife actually pitched me
the basic storyline and I loved it. I just had to make the movie at that
point. What can you tell us about your writer and
producer Andrew Thompson, and what's your collaboration like? We
have a great working relationship. He is also co-owner and editor and
chief of LeglessCorpse.com. So I can almost trust him with my life. But it
was a fairly easy collaberation. I basically pitched him the storyline,
told him some key elements I wanted to include and he just ran with it
brilliantly. He brought in aspects that I would have never thought about
and kept the story grounded in realism as best you can with a film like
this. All motives and situations are based on things that make sense and
if this situation were to arise, it makes sense logicalcally. Do
talk about your movie's approach to horror (as in suspense vs sudden
shocks, atmosphere vs all-out gore and the like) for a bit! I
want to make a film that people will be talking about ten years down the
line. Today's horror films are forgetful. We don't talk about them like we
talk about films from the 80's and early 90's. As far as tone, it's a very
dark story, very dark. But in every great horror film there is comedy or
light-heartedness involved. So I want to keep the dark tone of the
narrative, and bring the fun and some comedy aspect to the creatures and
the gore, go totally over-the-top. I kind of compare it to Starry Eyes
meets Evil Dead 2 in feel.
You
of course have to talk about your creature Mr Ballz, and how is it
achieved? And how much of a say did you have in the creation of your
monster? Oh Mr. Ballz... He is talked about a lot, he is
what everyone wants to see, and is one of the major set pieces in the
film, but there are more creatures in the film, he is just the biggest.
Mr. Ballz is being achieved by money, haha it's a pain making
a full scale practical creature on a low budget film. But he's getting
there. I actually enlisted a great art designer, Justin
Talarski, to do some concept sketches, because I had no idea what the
creature should look like. I just didn't want it to feel like a guy in a
suit. Justin came up with an awesome design
that is just gorgeous. So I didn't have much say in the design to be
honest it was all Justin. I gave him some things that Mr. Ballz would be
doing within the film and he came back with a
design that I loved.
We have a great artist working on Ballz, John
Harris and his company Magic's FX out here in Huntsiville, AL. Just the
molding of the head is over 30 molds, so he is working his ass off
and we are getting ready to get him on camera for the first time here
SOON! What can you tell us about the overall look
and feel of your movie? Dark!! A very dark film with a lot
of crazy camera set ups. As a director shooting a film that has so many
scenes based upon a hullucinary world, you have to be creative. You have
to let the audience in on what's going on inside a character's head when
they are tripping out. As I said earlier it's going to be dark with a lot
of over-the-top FX set-ups that will be fun and those 80's and 90's horror
fans will certainly dig. I want to paint a smile on their face with every
creature and every kill. Bring them back to the Cellar
Dweller and Pumpkinhead days, but at the same time drain them emotionally with
the darkness of the narrative. Do talk about your cast for a
bit, and why exactly these people?
We set up traditional casting and some came in and met us, did the
audition, and others submitted via video. I have to give Andrew credit
on most of the casting. He really worked his ass off finding the
perfect actors for most of the parts.
Our lead Rhianna Howell,
who plays the lead Cindy, has this sarcasm about her that I loved and
a dry humor that I really see Cindy having. Because as these things
start happening to Cindy, she knows they aren't really happening but
she just embraces the situation and goes with it, in a way. Rhianna
is a fantastic actress and I know people are going to be blown away by
her performance.
Tom Hagale, who plays the detective in the film, he
just had the look. When he walked through the door I knew that was our
Dectective Travis, and it works out that he's a fantastic actor as
well.
For Chico, we got Richard Chandler [Richard
Chandler interview - click here] to play. He's also a
writer/director and his film Gilgamesh was the first film
LeglessCorpse
Films put out. He also acts in the film and his performance was
so outrageous and fun, I certainly knew he would be able to pull of this
total dick part with no problem, and he can look intimidating when he
wants to which was huge for the part.
You
are currently also still raising funds, and in a rather unique way, too -
please elaborate! Yeah we'll probably be raising funds
throughout the production with all these crazy FX and creatures. But
anyone who pre-orders anything from the film at www.deimosimine.com
will not
only get their item when available, they will be paid back for their
investiment. Like a traditional film investor, which hand over a glob of
money then get paid back their principle plus a percentage of the films
profit, which is their Return On Investment. We are doing the same thing
but just on a much smaller scale. The investor with us pre-orders a Blu-ray
for $15 bucks, they get their Blu-ray shipped when it's ready and then once
the profits start coming in they will be paid back either through PayPal
or check. After all they are helping get the film made, putting their
faith in us not only to make the film, but to create a film they will
enjoy. We think that is worth something, and we think this is the best way
to repay that. Not only will they have invested in the film production,
but they are a part of the film at that point. They will be rooting for it
to make money so they can get their money back and hopefully that will
enthuse people to help promote and talk about it once the film is
released.
So what's the schedule once sufficient
funds are raised, and even if it might be waaay too early to ask,
any idea when and where the movie might be released onto the general
public yet?
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Well we are moving ahead with the production,
regardless of meeting the funding. If we shoot the entire film and then
have to wait and go back to shoot the expensive FX stuff that's what we'll
do. We aren't going to rush anything, we want the film to be something
great and not just rushing to get it done. However, I am set to get the
film completed and shipping by the third quarter, that's the absolute
latest I'd want the film to be complete. As far as where. Itwill be
available at www.LeglessCorpseFilms.comm on DVD and
Blu-ray and we already have
distribution set for major VOD including ITunes, Amazon Prime, and Google.
So it's not like we have to get the film finished and wait another year
for distribution. Things will move quickly once we are finished up. Which
is why we are offering the investment reimbursement. We already have
distribution. Any future projects beyond Deimosimine? Yes,
we have a few things coming up. I have a short film I'm currently shooting
and Andrew has one ready to go. Plus we have another short film in the
works, another creature film but much more managaible as far as budget.
Then I have 2 features I want to shoot, both horror films and again
wouldn't require the budget in scope as Deimosimine. Our goal is to shoot
2-3 features a year under the LeglessCorpse Films banner, with shorts in
between. We decided to start out with Deimosimine because it would allow
us to jump in with a bang instead of a wimper. What
got you into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject? Well I got interested in makeup FX
before I was out of high school. In my senior year my cousin and I got
hired on to Wayne Kramer's Blazeland as makeup FX guys. Being on that set
is where I really fell in love with filmmaking. Seeing all those
incredibly talented artsist all working together to make something. It was
inspiring. So shortly after high school I did enroll in film school. But
during going to school I went to a Fangoria convention where I met Robert
Rodriquez, who was awesome and I talked to him for a while. He said, don't
waste your money on film school. Take that money and spend it making a
film, that will be the best film school you'll ever get. So I did, and I
started shooting short films and just had a blast.
What can you tell us about your
filmwork prior to Deimosimine? I made many short
films. I stopped making films back when I lived in California just because
of the false promises of people and the bullshit involved. But all the
films I made where pretty much within the horror genre. One was called
Irreconcilable Differences, where a wife comes home to find that her
husband has caught a burglar and is chopping him up in his bathtub, another is
The First Date where a girl invites a guy over to her house for a
first date but she knows he has killed her brother, and she's really a
cannibal and actually has him for dinner. Yeah my stuff is always pretty
much out there. I like weird, dark, and fucked up stories. How would you
describe yourself as a director? Laid back haha. Making
films is stressful, more so than must people know, it's not always fun and
games, it's a job. A job that you really can't mess up on. But I try to
take things in
stride. I don't stress out. I mean with Deimosimine we lost some money
with the first creature designer, and then right after that my father
passed away, but I just went with the flow,
took some time off to get my head straight and then jumped back in when I
could focus. But I like to have fun as well, that's the main thing that
everyone on set has fun. In indie
filmmaking you aren't going to get rich, so you have to take away
friendships, professional relationships and experience as your wealth from
that particular project. If you have an
asshole running things, you won't take any of those things away once it's done. Filmmakers who inspire
you? David Fincher, Michael Walker (Chasing Sleep), Brad
Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola, Marcus Nispel, and so many more. Your favourite movies? Anything
by David Fincher, Sling Blade, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003),
Cellar Dweller, Pumkinhead,
The Borrower (by John McNaughton), The Thing, again
so many more. ... and of
course, films you really deplore?
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Not going to touch that one. Because it's suggestive, and I don't want
to piss anyone off, I'm a lover not a fighter haha. Your/your movie's
website, Facebook, whatever else?
www.deimosimine.com
www.facebook.com/Deimosimine
Twitter: @Deimosimine
www.LeglessCorpseFilms.com
www.facebook.com/LeglessCorpseFilms
www.LeglessCorpse.com
www.facebook.com/LeglessCorpseHorror
Twitter: @LeglessCorpse
www.HorrorInsideTheBox.com
www.facebook.com/HorrorInsideTheBox
Twitter: @HorrorInTheBox
Anything else you're
dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? No I
think you nailed it. Great bunch of questions! Thanks
for the interview!
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