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TIFF Interview with ‘Freaks’ Co-Writers/Directors Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein

Published

6 years ago

September 11, 2018

Kelly: I understand this is the first feature film that you guys have directed as a team. If you were to give any advice to new or up-and-coming filmmakers that want to collaborate, what advice would you give them on that new collaboration process?

Adam: That’s a really good question.

Zach: The key – to begin with – is to pick someone you can collaborate with without ego. The collaboration needs to be completely candid, so you need to be able to tell each other your worst ideas, and tell each other that that is the worst idea. And be honest when you don’t like something, and be honest when you think something is really important and your partner doesn’t.

Try and basically just have the strength in your relationship – as with any partnership – where you can just be completely candid. Because out of that comes new ideas that neither of your would have ever come up with on their own. And that’s really why we chose to start co-directing and co-writing. We just finished our second film as co-directors. It’s harder work. It’s a lot easier when you’re by yourself and you can just say “this is best!”, and you end up convincing yourself that things – that you know deep in your heart probably aren’t good – you won’t notice that. But your partner always does.

Adam: And that’s why, sometimes, the product can be better because you’re calling each other on it. Stuff that might have skated by if it was just you, doesn’t get by. And problems that crop up – because there’s always problems during shooting – get quick solutions together that were better than what we would have done separately.

Kelly: You catch things that might have been dropped by the other person, and vice versa.

Adam: Yeah. So for advice, I would say choose your partner carefully and make sure you’re always honest and open with each other. And try to – like [Zach] said – go without ego.

Zach: And we did a lot of small stuff together first. So we did little short films and commercials, and YouTube series and stuff. So each time we did it, you learn more tools to help it be successful. It takes a lot of work.

Kelly: Zach, I know that you have a background in visual effects – did you get to stretch that muscle a little bit with the special effects in Freaks?

Zach: Yeah, this film really starts to grow in scope and scale near the end, which often takes people by surprise. And it is a science fiction film, so it has a spectacle to its visuals. But we really wanted this film to feel grounded, so we didn’t want the visual effects to feel like they took you out of the movie or were too artificial. So at the writing stage, we only thought of things that visually we knew we could do very much in a way that almost felt like you were just capturing them authentically, rather than a lot of CG creatures or anything like that. We really wanted to come up with visual effects and visuals that almost looked like they were in a documentary. So that was kind of our approach and it really works.

via Horror Fuel

Kelly: When you were writing and making Freaks, what were your influences or inspirations when coming up with this idea? Obviously, new parenthood was a big part of it.

Adam: That was kind of the initial nugget. As we got into the story and figured out who the characters were and what they were facing, we also started weaving in a lot of thematic inspiration from current events and from terrible things going on in the world related to Xenophobia, discrimination, and police brutality, those sorts of things found their way into the movie.

Zach: Those are the biggest takeaways people get from the film. They go in expecting just a straight thriller maybe about family – and that’s very much what it is – but other than Lexi’s performance, the other big takeaway is a new perspective on a lot of the issues.

We started writing the movie during Trump’s initial campaign thinking a lot of those issues were going to go away as soon as he wasn’t elected. And some of the things we wrote as science fiction have actually started coming true in the last few months – with the imprisonment of children and stuff like that.

At the time we thought, will people really care about these issues a few years from now, by the time this movie’s at some awesome film festival? And it’s only become more and more relevant. And a lot of the interviews we’ve done have focused on that messaging that we put into the DNA of the script, but we hope it also just stands on its legs as a movie and a thriller and a good science fiction film.

Kelly: What’s the next project that you’re working on?

Zach: We just wrapped shooting Kim Possible for Disney, which is very different from Freaks but still has its similarities —

Adam: It’s still a kickass female lead!

Zach: It was such a privilege to take on that source material. The cartoon is so strong and so much fun, and we had so much fun directing it. And in the same way, that movie also has an incredible discovery in Sadie Stanley who plays Kim Possible. This was her first audition ever, and she played the title role of this great franchise, so we’re excited for people to see that.

Amanda Crew, Adam B. Stein, Zach Lipovsky, Lexy Kolker, Aleks Paunovic – via IMDb

For more, read Jacob Davison’s review of Freaks on iHorror!

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Russell Crowe To Star in Another Exorcism Movie & It’s Not a Sequel

Published

16 hours ago

April 22, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Maybe it’s because The Exorcist just celebrated its 50th-anniversary last year, or maybe it’s because aging Academy Award-winning actors aren’t too proud to take on obscure roles, but Russell Crowe is visiting the Devil once again in yet another possession film. And it’s not related to his last one, The Pope’s Exorcist.

According to Collider, the film titled The Exorcism was originally going to be released under the name The Georgetown Project. Rights for its North American release were once in the hands of Miramax but then went to Vertical Entertainment. It will release on June 7 in theaters then head over to Shudder for subscribers.

Crowe will also star in this year’s upcoming Kraven the Hunter which is set to drop in theaters on August 30.

As for The Exorcism, Collider provides us with what it’s about:

“The film centers around actor Anthony Miller (Crowe), whose troubles come to the forefront as he shoots a supernatural horror movie. His estranged daughter (Ryan Simpkins) has to figure out whether he’s lapsing into his past addictions, or if something even more horrific is occurring. “

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Movies

New F-Bomb Laden ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Trailer: Bloody Buddy Movie

Published

20 hours ago

April 22, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Deadpool & Wolverine might be the buddy movie of the decade. The two heterodox superheroes are back in the latest trailer for the summer blockbuster, this time with more f-bombs than a gangster film.

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Movie Trailer

This time the focus is on Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman. The adamantium-infused X-Man is having a bit of a pity party when Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) arrives on the scene who then tries to convince him to team up for selfish reasons. The result is a profanity-filled trailer with a Strange surprise at the end.

Deadpool & Wolverine is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. It comes out on July 26. Here is the latest trailer, and we suggest if you are at work and your space isn’t private, you might want to put in headphones.

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Original Blair Witch Cast Ask Lionsgate for Retroactive Residuals in Light of New Film

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2024

Cameron McFarland

Jason Blum is planning to reboot The Blair Witch Project for the second time. That’s a fairly large task considering none of the reboots or sequels have managed to capture the magic of the 1999 film that brought found footage into the mainstream.

This idea has not been lost on the original Blair Witch cast, who has recently reached out to Lionsgate to ask for what they feel is fair compensation for their role in the pivotal film. Lionsgate gained access to The Blair Witch Project in 2003 when they purchased Artisan Entertainment.

However, Artisan Entertainment was an independent studio before its purchase, meaning the actors were not part of SAG-AFTRA. As a result, the cast are not entitled to the same residuals from the project as actors in other major films. The cast doesn’t feel that the studio should be able to continue to profit off of their hard work and likenesses without fair compensation.

Their most recent request asks for “meaningful consultation on any future ‘Blair Witch’ reboot, sequel, prequel, toy, game, ride, escape room, etc., in which one could reasonably assume that Heather, Michael & Josh’s names and/or likenesses will be associated for promotional purposes in the public sphere.”

At this time, Lionsgate has not offered any comment about this issue.

The full statement made by the cast can be found below.

OUR ASKS OF LIONSGATE (From Heather, Michael & Josh, stars of “The Blair Witch Project”):

1. Retroactive + future residual payments to Heather, Michael and Josh for acting services rendered in the original BWP, equivalent to the sum that would’ve been allotted through SAG-AFTRA, had we had proper union or legal representation when the film was made.

2. Meaningful consultation on any future Blair Witch reboot, sequel, prequel, toy, game, ride, escape room, etc…, in which one could reasonably assume that Heather, Michael & Josh’s names and/or likenesses will be associated for promotional purposes in the public sphere.

Note: Our film has now been rebooted twice, both times were a disappointment from a fan/box office/critical perspective. Neither of these films were made with significant creative input from the original team. As the insiders who created the Blair Witch and have been listening to what fans love & want for 25 years, we’re your single greatest, yet thus-far un-utilized secret-weapon!

3. “The Blair Witch Grant”: A 60k grant (the budget of our original movie), paid out yearly by Lionsgate, to an unknown/aspiring genre filmmaker to assist in making theirfirst feature film. This is a GRANT, not a development fund, hence Lionsgate will not own any of the underlying rights to the project.

A PUBLIC STATEMENT FROM THE DIRECTORS & PRODUCERS OF “THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT”:

As we near the 25th anniversary of The Blair Witch Project, our pride in the storyworld we created and the film we produced is reaffirmed by the recent announcement of a reboot by horror icons Jason Blum and James Wan.

While we, the original filmmakers, respect Lionsgate’s right to monetize the intellectual property as it sees fit, we must highlight the significant contributions of the original cast — Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Mike Williams. As the literal faces of what has become a franchise, their likenesses, voices, and real names are inseparably tied to The Blair Witch Project. Their unique contributions not only defined the film’s authenticity but continue to resonate with audiences around the world.

We celebrate our film’s legacy, and equally, we believe the actors deserve to be celebrated for their enduring association with the franchise.

Sincerely, Eduardo Sanchez, Dan Myrick, Gregg Hale, Robin Cowie, and Michael Monello