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Your upcoming movie Lycanimator - in a few words, what's it
going to be about?
Lycanimator is about a scientist who discovers
that monsters actually exist and are actually just evolutionary offsets of
humanity. A slight difference in DNA resulting in new different entities.
A group of friends stumble upon this secret, resulting in one of them
becoming something else… which I suppose you can guess is the titular
monster. With Lycanimator
being a creature feature, is that at all a genre dear to you, and some of
your genre favourites? Monster movies, creature
features, those are my favorite movies in the world. I’ve always had a
deep-seated love for monsters. Godzilla,
Gamera,
King Kong,
Frankenstein’s monster, the Gillman, those were all my heroes growing
up. I always knew that those were the kinds of movies I wanted to make. Other sources of inspiration when
writing Lycanimator? Brian Yuzna and Stuart
Gordon were heavy influences. Greg Lamberson [Gregory
Lamberson interview - click here] is someone who has really
influenced my writing. I always looked up to him and I got the opportunity
to work with him on Johnny Gruesome this past summer and learned a lot
about screenwriting from our conversations. Do talk about your movie's
approach to horror for a bit (as in suspense vs sudden shocks, atmosphere
vs all-out gore and the like)? Oh, Lycanimator isn’t
subtle, hahaha. It’s balls-to-the-wall slime, gore and monster violence.
It’s insane, over the top but not comical. It’s just a fun B-movie.
Roger Corman’s 80’s output [Roger
Corman bio - click here] is probably the closest to what we’re
going for. You of course also have
to talk about the creatures in Lycanimator for a bit, and how will
they be achieved?
The main beast itself is going to be brought to life through two
methods. The first is a full body suit being made by Toby Johansen, a
really talented guy who is just really breaking into the business now. The
second is a puppet being built by Dustin Mills [Dustin
Mills interview - click here], a brilliant indie director
who also doubles as an equally brilliant effects artist. He’s another
personal hero of mine, so I had to have him involved. There are other creatures in the world of the film, but they’re only
mentioned and never seen. Maybe if we ever do a sequel, we’ll know more
about these other monsters.
What can you tell us about Lycanimator's
intended look and feel? Very colorful and vibrant. I
like comic book-ish imagery and lots of color in my horror movies. I’m
so sick of the grey, dismal look that became so popular over the past ten
years or so.
Anything you can tell us about Lycanimator's projected cast yet, and why
exactly these people?
Whoo, boy… producer Dustin Hubbard [Dustin
Hubbard interview - click here] and I have joked
about this almost being the Expendables of micro-budget horror and
it sort of is. Dustin has worked with Nicola Fiore for years, so it was a
no-brainer to get her involved. Johnathan E. Smith is someone who has lots
of passion who really wanted to be involved, so I gave him one of the
leading roles. Tyler Hosley has been a friend of mine for years and I
pretty much wrote that character for him. On the bigger level we have Joel
D. Wynkoop [Joel D. Wynkoop
interview - click here], an obvious B-movie icon. Michael O’Hear has a voice cameo
and he’s done so many of these low budgeters over the past 10
years. The biggest name is another voiceover role, Giovanni Lombardo
Radice, one of my favorite genre stars. City of the Living
Dead, Cannibal
Apocalypse, House at the Edge of the
Park, just so many great roles in so
many iconic films. I’m very honored to have him involved.
There are more, but it’s just such a big
cast… Dustin and I have roles as well. As far as I know, Lycanimator
is still in its fundraising stages as we speak - so what can you tell us
about your campaign? Well, I mean the campaign is
pretty much perfect for folks who want to be involved. We have producing
credits up for grabs, copies of the script, you can even have a monster
named after you. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lycanimator-from-melting-man-films-c-word-prods#/ Once the funds are raised, what's
the schedule - and even if it's waaay too early to ask, any idea when and
where the film will be released onto the general public?
We shoot in July no matter what. As for release… well, that’s
up to the distribution Gods, as they say.
Any
future projects beyond Lycanimator? Plenty. Hehe. What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to Lycanimator?
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Seb
and friend |
I’ve been making movies since I was 15. My
first short was called Eating Out and it starred Lloyd Kaufman and Dave
Parker (Headless, Bathsalt
Zombies, etc). My more recent shorts Out of the
Box and The Fix have had decent festival runs and both of those are
actually viewable on the IndieGoGo page for Lycanimator.
Beyond that, I’ve done acting here and there
and even had a lead role in a micro-budget drama called Lavenders Blue. I
also crewed on Johnny Gruesome as I mentioned before. I did
behind-the-scenes documenting and I was an extra. Going through your filmography,
horror seems a genre you return to time and again - pure coincidence, or
is horror a genre at all dear to you, and why (not)? I love horror. I prefer science fiction, I think,
but I do love horror. I love gore and atmosphere and monsters and the cool
quirky personalities that the genre attracts. How
would you describe yourself as a director?
I make what I think would be entertaining to
me. All I wanna do is create things and have a great time doing it, I
suppose. I like to be very stylistically ambitious with low-fi concepts. I
also try to give each actor a good basis for who their character really
is.
Aside from films, I love anime and I read a fair
bit of manga and so I definitely take a lot of stylistic cues from that.
Shows like Devil
Man, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, those all influenced my
taste in cinematography and framing.
Filmmakers
who inspire you? I have so many… I mentioned Dustin Mills
[Dustin Mills interview -
click here] and
Greg Lamberson [Gregory
Lamberson interview - click here] above, but beyond that, Guillermo del Toro is a big one.
David Cronenberg, Ishiro Honda, Lucio Fulci [Lucio
Fulci bio - click here], Bruno Mattei [Bruno
Mattei bio - click here]… More recent
ones would be Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno. My absolute favorite
director is Shinya Tsukamoto. I find it impossible to watch one of his
films without wanting to immediately go out and make something.
Your favourite movies? Lots of tough questions,
huh? Haha. So many… the original King Kong and
Gojira, The Bride of
Frankenstein, Creature from the Black
Lagoon, The Beyond,
Tetsuo: The
Iron Man, Bullet Ballet, Taxi
Driver, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The
Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, James Gunn’s Super,
American Movie, The
Blues Brothers. My favorite movie of the past 10 years is Shin
Gojira.
Virtually flawless genre filmmaking. ...
and of course, films you really deplore? I fucking hate almost
anything by Terrence Malick, Gus van Sant and Lars von Trier. I’m not
too big on a lot of current superhero movies, but I don’t think I hate
them, I really just really hate overwrought, hollow, soulless filmmaking.
And I deplore anything that exploits the most simplistic elements of human
sentimentality. I’m a bit of a misanthrope. Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo, whatever else?
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You can find us on Facebook, and our IndieGoGo campaign is at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lycanimator-from-melting-man-films-c-word-prods#/. Feel free to reach out to me
personally if you have any specific questions, you can find me on Facebook
as Seb Godin. Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Not
really. I hope everyone likes the film or at least has fun with it, when
it’s completed. I’m just a fan who wants to deliver the best monster
movie possible. At the end of the day, that’s what would make me the
happiest. Thanks
for the interview!
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