Your upcoming movie Horror Icon: Inside Michael's Mask with Tony
Moran - in a few words, what is it about?
A documentary telling the story of how a few moments on screen can last
a lifetime. Tony Moran is best known for, and credited as, playing Michael Myers in John Carpenter's horror classic
Halloween (1978), and is the older brother of Erin Moran who
played Joanie Cunningham on Happy Days.
I want to show Tony for who he is, a father, a friend, an
actor and a horror icon. Tony is a passionate man with a big heart and
like all of us, Tony has his ups and downs.
We followed Tony around during different apperences such as
horror conventions, haunted attractions and at times continued filming
after hours and long into the night. We traveled to West Palm Beach
Florida, upstate New York, Salem Massachusetts and many other places.
With the
original Halloween
being a focus of your movie, what does that movie mean to you both
personally and as a filmmaker?
Personally, it hits close to home as I was born in October
1978. So as a kid, Halloween
and my birthday seemed to go hand and
hand. At a young age, I wasn't allowed to watch those type of movies but
the halloween season always stayed with me.
As a filmmaker, I have spent the majority of my time focusing on the horror genre, so being able to get inside the life of the man behind
the mask has been quite the journey. It's a strange feeling and
coincidence that I was born just days after Halloween
was released and
here I am, along with a great team, decades later creating a documentary
that wouldn't exist without that film.
Of all those involved in Halloween,
why make a movie about Tony Moran? And connected to that, how do you
answer people who claim "He's wearing a mask all throughout the movie
and doesn't talk - anyone could have done that"?
I first met Tony in 2008 when he was the lead in the film Beg.
At the time, I was working as a police office and the production was using
the station. During a day off, a few officers came in to be extras in a
scene. After that, I spent some more time helping on set and eventually
became Tony's stunt double in the movie. Cause of that, I'm in a lot of
memorable scenes.
During the time of filming this documentary, I was Tony's
manager and at many times found myself defending that exact comment. There
were a handful of people who wore the outfit of Michael Myers but Tony is
the person under the mask when Jamie Lee Curtis rips it off. He's in
a couple other moments right before and after that but that moment is, in
my opinion, the money shot. Going with this is why I came up with the
tagline, "A moment on screen can last a lifetime."
How
easy was it to track down Tony Moran, and what was your collaboration with
him like when shooting Horror Icon: Inside Michael's Mask with Tony
Moran?
As stated above, I have personally known Tony since
2008. Before the documentary was even thought of, I had contacted Tony to
see if he'd be interested in a role on a movie I was a producer on called Provoked, directed by Jordan Pacheco. The idea of the
documentary came to me after Provoked wrapped and the three of
us discussed it.
At the time, our (Tony and I) collaboration was very close
and one of the factors I asked Tony before going forward with this was
seeing if he had any closed topics. Tony immediately said something to the
fact that he's an open book with no secrets.
A few Tony Moran-facts you have learned when
shooting this that might not be well-known within even the horror
community?
There was a time in Tony's life when he was living in his
vehicle. Like all of us, Tony is human and has his good and rough.
Tony has a large "Moran" family crest tattoo on his
back. There is footage of that in the documentary.
Oh and Tony wears boxer-briefs.
The Halloween
series has not stuck with Tony Moran as Michael
Myers - any explanation for this?
Tony's footage from the original Halloween
was used in the
second film so Tony was credited for that as well. Tony has stated
in the past that as an actor, he did not want to wear a mask anymore.
I think you mentioned that point above when you stated he's
wearing a mask anyone could have done that..
Do talk about
your other interviewees for a bit, and what were your interviews usually
like?
We were fortunate with meeting other celebrities who didn't
hesitate willing to say some words about Tony. There are some funny
stories along with some sad stories. Plus you get to hear from up and
coming actors, radio hosts, stunt coordinators and others who all have
stories about Tony.
How would you describe your overall directorial
approach to your topic at hand? Jordan Pacheco and I are
co-directors on this. I've produced other films but this was my first
credit as director. I wanted to be sure that we had strong crew
support so I knew right away, I wanted Kerri Parente as our assistant
director. Our goal was to tell a story and not just have a bunch of
great footage thrown together. A lot of that will also come from the
editor, Alex DiVincenzo, working with us to put the story together.
Plus, it needs to be exciting with never-before-seen footage so the
viewers get to watch something special.
One of our approaches was when Jordan and I (along with some friends),
drove straight through from Massachusetts to West Palm Beach, Florida to
get footage of Tony at a horror convention... then drove back a couple
days later.
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The $64-question of
course, when and where will the film be released onto the general public?
Horror
Icon: Inside Michael's Mask with Tony Moran will premiere fall of 2015
plus it will be submitted to film festivals and horror conventions. Any
future projects you'd like to share? It's been busy, which
I feel very fortunate about. I will be directing a comedy short,
Cones, in spring 2015, then directing a horror feature towards
the end of 2015. The feature is really shaping up to be pretty badass,
can't share much yet other than Alex DiVincenzo's screenplay is up there
with some of the best I've read. Along with the new projects, Dead Bounty will
premiere this year [Dead
Bounty interview - click here] along with John Rodas' short horror film
Devil's
Work.
I'm also a producer on Richard Chandler's Witch
Hunt [Richard Chandler
interview - click here] and acting in Dystopia Capitol City directed by
Janet Llavina and David McDonough's Groundhog.
Your/your movie's
website, Facebook, whatever else?
Please check out the IMDb page and look at those who've
helped out. It takes a team and I could never do it on my own:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2904690/combined
Our official poster was designed by the incredible graphic
artist, David Ellsworth. Please take a moment and like his Facebook
page: https://www.facebook.com/DavidEllsworthGraphicDesign
Coming Soon: HorrorIcon.com -
Paul Flebotte is the extremly talented website designer who is creating
this site.
Twitter:
@NewEnglandIndie (my personal one)
@InsomProd
@LiDProductions
Thanks for the
interview!
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