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Your upcoming movie Easter Casket - in a few words, what's it
going to be about?
Basically all hell
breaks loose when Peter Cottontail aka The Easter Bunny hears that the
Catholic Church is about to do away with all Easter rituals not pertaining
directly to the resurrection of Christ. That means no bunnies, no eggs, no
candy, etc. The Mega Pope (secret leader of the Catholic church) smells
something fishy going on when a nun is murdered under mysterious
circumstances. He sends Father Asher (a warrior priest with retractable
armor) to investigate. From there it's all out warfare and lunacy with
Asher trying to defeat The Easter Bunny and his minions before time runs
out. Basic question of course: Why the
Easter Bunny? Partially because he's a familiar face. He's
a recognizable character who has rarely been treated as a threat. We see
killer Santa Claus movies all the time, but the scariest Easter Bunny
movie is Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Also there have been horror films
about killers in bunny costumes, but I don't think anyone has cast the
actual Easter Bunny as the antagonist.
Other sources of inspiration when writing Easter Casket, and what got the project off the ground? My
main source of inspiration are the low budget films of Japan. I'm trying
to use their philosophy of going nuts and holding nothing back. I shopped
the concept around a bit and either found no interest or the deal just
wasn't right. Finally I found an investor who was willing to put forth
enough money to get the film made. Now I'm running a campaign on Indiegogo
(www.indiegogo.com/eastercasket).
This is basically a pre-orders. We are trying to raise at least $5000 in
pre-orders to put back into the production. Essentially the more
pre-orders we get the bigger the budget for the movie is, but it will be
made regardless. What
can you tell us about your actual bunny, as in, your creature effects,
yet? He will be a puppet. I am in the design phase right
now. I'll be building him over the next couple of weeks. He won't be a
complicated animatronic because we don't have the budget. He'll be more
like a Muppet from hell with a lot of personality. Related to that, and since I know quite a few of my
readers are gorehounds, any cool gore effects planned yet you want to talk
about? The movie will be very bloody. We have
decapitations, razor sharp carrots, exploding Easter eggs, a graphic egg
laying scene, and lots of other cool gags. I don't want to spoil anything
specific.
From what I have read so far, of all your films, Easter Casket
seems to be the most closely related to Zombie
A-Hole - is there any truth in this, and what can you tell us
about Easter Casket's projected look and feel as such? That's
probably accurate. We have Josh Eal starring again as a religious hero,
and it definitely has a grindhouse feel to it. It won't have the faux film
scratches or anything, but it's completely insane and full of magical
weirdness like Zombie
A-Hole was. It will be shorter and an overall better
movie, but it will have just as much nudity I think. Another thing is that
if we raise enough money I am going to include Selwyn (the creature in the
box) from Zombie
A-Hole. Everyone seems to love him and I am always asked to give
him his own movie. I have to rebuild him though, because a fan bought him
and has him displayed. What
can you tell us about Easter Casket's projected cast, and why these
people?
Nothing is set in stone yet, so I can't say much
except that Josh Eal will be playing Father Asher. The film is basically
cast, but until contracts are signed I don't want to say too much. I will
say that we have some great actors and actresses, and a few familiar faces
for people that attend horror cons. As I said there will be plenty of
naked girls in the film as well and they will be absolutely lovely. You are currently running a fundraiser for Easter Casket
- so what can you tell us about your fundraising efforts? Well
like I mentioned before: We are doing pre-orders via www.indiegogo.com/eastercasket. The movie will be made regardless, but the more pre-orders we get the
better the movie gets. We can afford better fx, better pay for the actors,
maybe some of the crazier scenes we would like to include but can't afford
to. $10 gets you a DVD and from there you can get posters, t-shirts,
signed merch, and even producer opportunities.
As
far as I know, none of this film has been shot yet, but you plan to
release it as earky as next spring - so yeah, what's the actual timetable
... and man, how do you manage to work that fast?
Well with
this one we will be self distributing it at least at first to make that
date. They will be available to order on www.eastercasket.com
on March 26th. I work that fast because I write my scripts for my budgets
and I edit while we are filming. I've worked out a pretty good workflow.
It's going to be difficult and there will be sleepless nights, but we have
to get this out by Easter to capitalize on the holiday. I am in
pre-production right now, we film in January, February I will be finishing
it up, and then March 26 it is released to the masses. It's a crazy way to
work, but it's mostly out of necessity right now. One day I'd like to take
my time again like I did with Puppet
Monster Massacre (which took a year), but it's not in the
cards right now. You
plan to make/release quite a few other films the next year as well. Want
to talk about any of those for a bit - and what keeps you going, actually?
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Night
of the Tentacles comes out January 22nd, Bath Salt Zombies comes out
February 19th. Those are both finished and at the distributor.
We
are in the middle of making Kill that Bitch and Skinless Pete. They are
both about half filmed. We pick Skinless Pete back up in February and
Kill
that Bitch in March or April.
Filmmaking
is my job so I have no excuse to slack. I do the best I can as quickly as
I can with the money I have. It's not a perfect system, but it beats
rotting in an office. My motivation is to keep making movies. That's it. I
don't have delusions of going to Hollywood or getting filthy rich. I just
love making movies and I will do whatever is necessary to keep doing it. I
have to make movies or I will die.
Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo, whatever else?
Website:
www.eastercasket.com
Indiegogo:
www.indiegogo.com/eastercasket
Youtube:
www.youtube.com/eastercasket
Facebook:
facebook.com/eastercasket
Anything
else you are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Not
that I can think of. Thanks, Michael! Thanks
for the interview!
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