“Ralph Breaks the Internet” directors/writers Phil Johnston & Rich Moore and talks about Johnston’s Minneapolis ties, former KARE anchor Diana Pierce joins Tim to review “Ralph Breaks the Internet” as does Mike Bryant to review “Creed II.” Tim also opens his interview vault to a 2012 conversation with Sarah Silverman for “Wreck-It Ralph.”
Category Archives: Interviews
Interview: Screenwriter Gary Dauberman talks ‘The Nun,’ The Conjuring Universe, more
Fall movie season officially got underway last weekend with the release of the horror thriller “The Nun,” which debuted with a smashing $54 million take at the domestic box office and $77.5 million overseas for a worldwide total of more than $131 million, a particularly impressive number for an R-rated film.
Those who caught the film likely were delighted to find that in addition to the film’s unnerving displays of tension, horror and gore, are scenes in “The Nun” that were broken up with comic relief — something that screenwriter Gary Dauberman feels is essential to give moviegoers the complete package.
“I’ve been banging that drum for a while that you need comic relief. If you can have those moments of levity, it makes the scary parts even scarier, and the funny parts even funnier because you have a contrast,” Dauberman said in phone conversation Friday from Los Angeles. “If you go too far in one direction and just stay there, you run the risk of it flatlining. So, if you can throw humor in there you have to do it. That’s why I love horror because you can get away with that stuff. You’re not switching genres, but you get to play around with different things — and other genres you don’t necessarily have the license to do that.”
Interview flashback: Patrick Wilson talks ‘The Conjuring’
“The Nun” is the fifth movie in what has come to be known as The Conjuring Universe, where all the films — “The Conjuring” and its sequel, “Annabelle” and its prequel “Annabelle: Creation,” and now, “The Nun” — have been tied together thanks to some indelible supporting characters who have taken on lives of their own. It began with Annabelle, the creepy, demonically-possessed doll introduced in the opening scene of “The Conjuring” that got a solo movie and was further explored with the prequel “Annabelle: Creation”; and in the interim, the character of Valak — evil which takes the form of a nun — made her unnerving debut in “The Conjuring 2.”
Dauberman, the scribe who co-wrote the 2017 blockbuster “IT,” is a key contributor to The Conjuring Universe, having written the screenplays to both “Annabelle” movies. He also wrote the screenplay and is an executive producer on “The Nun,” based on a story he co-wrote with The Conjuring Universe architect James Wan, who wrote and directed both “Conjuring” movies.
“What I like about being in the Universe, and James says it is accidental and it really is, is that it’s happening organically,” Dauberman said. “If we feel there’s a movie that’s a supporting character that established in another movie, we go after that. But I don’t think we go into any of these movies, saying, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can find something we can spinoff into another movie.’ I like that it’s unfolding organically and at a pace where we are allowed to dig in and come up with some cool stuff. I also think one of the reasons why The Conjuring Universe has had the success that it’s had is because we’re just really genuine fans of it ourselves. We’re very protective of it.”
Directed by Corin Hardy, “The Nun” stars Demian Bichir as Father Burke, a priest dispatched by the Vatican in 1952 to investigate the suicide of a nun in a remote abbey in the hills of Romania.
Accompanied by a novitiate, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), Burke and the young nun in training soon encounter the demonic spirit Valak, who appears in the physical world as a ghoulish nun (Bonnie Aarons), and learn of the gateway from hell from which the evil entity emerged.
“The Nun” has everything horror fans love about the genre, a distinctive villain, moments of piercing tension followed by jump scares, gore used in a judicious and not gratuitous manner, and of course, the welcome element of humor. On top of that, the film has a sense of dread bubbling just under the surface to keep its audience members ill at ease thanks to its foreboding atmosphere (with great shots of fog rolling in a graveyard, etc.) and a Gothic setting reminiscent of the great Hammer Horror films of the 1960s and ’70s.
“I think approaching the corner is far scarier than turning the corner and seeing what lurks there and shining a spot on the monster. I think knowing something’s under the bed but not seeing it is far scarier. It’s theater of the mind sort-of thing that you can play around with,” Dauberman said. “I give all the credit in the world to Corin Hardy, as well as Maxime Alexandre, the director of photography, who did a fantastic job just painting these beautiful pictures like the fog in the graveyard, and Jen Spence, who continues to knock it out of the park with her production design. It was really just a great team who we worked with before that we’re comfortable with an have a shorthand together.”
While Dauberman is no doubt celebrating the big opening weekend of “The Nun,” he can’t leave the champagne uncorked for too long.
He is also the sole screenwriter on “IT: Chapter 2,” which is currently in production and slated for a September 2019 release, and is taking on dual duties of writer and director of the next, yet-to-be-titled “Annabelle” film, which goes into production in October just as “IT: Chapter 2” wraps shooting.
Until then, Dauberman said he’ll be remaining in the company of a pair of unforgettable props from The Conjuring Universe, dreaming of how to frighten people next.
“I’m sitting in the offices of ‘Annabelle 3’ right now and I have Annabelle the doll sitting across from me, and I have a painting of ‘The Nun’ hanging on the wall to help inspire me as I help craft the scares for the next one,” Dauberman enthused.
Thankfully, when Dauberman leaves for the night, he leaves his scary plaything and painting behind; but that’s not to say his creative mind doesn’t play tricks on him.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say that when I come back in the morning, I go, ‘Is everything in the right place? Did anything move?'” Dauberman quipped. “It’s the equivalent of checking under the bed at night.”
Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com
NECA unleashes Possessed Ashy Slashy to haunt Dana DeLorenzo (again!)
Without question, one of the most entertaining scenes during the three-season series run of STARZ’s “Ash vs. Evil Dead” happened in Season 2 in 2016, when star Dana DeLorenzo’s kick-ass Ghostbeater, Kelly Maxwell, encounters a Muppet-like hand puppet in villain Baal’s insane asylum. Named “Ashy Slashy” after the institution’s newest resident Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), the foul-mouthed, wise-ass puppet was first introduced as a warm and fuzzy therapy companion to Ash, but quickly turned to the dark side when he met Kelly.
Two years later … just when you thought it was safe to go back to Sesame Street (or more appropriately Avenue Q) … movie and TV collectibles-maker NECA has released its second full-scale version of the Ashy Slashy hand-puppet, the Possessed Ashy Slashy. Unlike the first release of Ashy Slashy last year, the possessed version has jagged teeth and a chainsaw with its own set of teeth sticking out of its blade. In short, he’s battle-ready for those who dare to bring him to life to take a bite out of anybody who gets in his way.
In a phone conversation about “Ash vs. Evil Dead” earlier this year, DeLorenzo fondly recalled her time filming with the fuzzy little bastard, or as she famously called him in the scene, “you felt f—k!” The scene began with Ashy Slashy trying to sweet-talk Kelly, until he bares his choppers, starts up his chainsaw and an all-out throwdown begins.
Among the most memorable – and disgusting – parts of the scene was Ashy smashing Kelly’s face into a used bedpan. As it turns out, DeLorenzo recalled, producer Rob Tapert didn’t think Ashy Slashy splashy bedpan sequence “wasn’t gross enough” and had her blow bubbles to enhance the effect.
“The blowing bubbles in the bedpan was added later. It was an insane, intense 13-hour day of shooting the original scene with just the puppet, it was exceptionally complicated, it was all crew on deck with stunts and blood rigs, like when Ashy’s puppet head exploded from the gun at the end — that took almost a hour just to set up. So weeks later when Rob Tapert said, ‘We need to reshoot the puppet scene,’ and my stomach dropped, and with big eyes I asked, ‘The whole scene?’ and Rob said, ‘No, just the bedpan scene. We’re going to add something to it … we need you to blow bubbles.’ I guffawed because this is what it means to be an actor on a show called “Ash vs. Evil Dead,” DeLorenzo mused. “But hey, at least the scene was with a puppet! Not many people can say that they were in a scene where they got their head slammed into a bedpan they had to blow bubbles in by a demonic, perverted puppet.”
Of course, the duel ultimately ended with DeLorenzo saying the classic line, “Always bring a gun to a puppet fight,” where Ashy Slashy was effectively reduced to a bloody stump with Kelly’s decisive kill shot.
“That’s one of those lines that you know is sooo good and you have to resist the urge to show that you know it’s a good line and try not hitting the gas, or put your weight on it. I recalled the lessons I learned from Bruce Campbell, which was, ‘Just let it be, say the line,'” DeLorenzo recalled. “Since we filmed the scene in sequence that day, by the end I was exhausted and a little sore so it came out in a authentic way, and I think we got it in one take. What a great line. I’m in perpetual awe of writers, particularly ours.”
As it turns out, DeLorenzo said filming the Ashy Slashy fight scene was one of her favorites during the entire series – and lucky for her, she’s been immortalized in world of toys and collectibles since NECA put a photo of her kicking the puppet’s ass on the both sides of the Possessed Ashy Slashy packaging.
“Filming the scene was one my biggest challenges, but like life tends to be, the biggest challenges end up producing the biggest rewards,” DeLorenzo enthused.
•How Sam Raimi saved Dana DeLorenzo from possessed escalator
•Flashback: Bruce Campbell talks original ‘Evil Dead’ in 2002
•Interview: Dana DeLorenzo talks Kelly Maxwell’s journey
•Interview: Dana DeLorenzo talks ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’ Season 3
•Interview: Groovy Bruce Campbell talks ‘Hail to The Chin’
•Interview: Bruce Campbell talks ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’ Season 2
Oddly enough, the Ashy Slashy scene was somewhat wish-fulfillment for DeLorenzo, although she originally imagined being a part of a much more innocent puppet scene.
“My first seedling of being an actor and an entertainer when I was 2 came with watching ‘Sesame Street,'” DeLorenzo recalled. “There were kids on there talking to puppets, and I was obsessed with Big Bird, and Bert and Ernie, so it’s always been a bucket list item. The Ashy Slashy scene was not quite that, since I never knew my puppet dreams would come true by grabbing myself in the thigh and giving myself Charley horses, but man, it was pretty close.”
Look for DeLorenzo to be sharing her stories about Ashy Slashy and other memories from “Ash vs. Evil Dead” at a pair of upcoming horror conventions in the coming months. From September 21-23, she will appear with fellow “Ash vs. Evil Dead” cast members Ted Raimi and Lindsay Farris at the New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival in Atlantic City, New Jersey; and on October 27 and 28, DeLorenzo will appear at Crypticon Minnesota in Minneapolis along with fellow “Ash” cast member Lee Majors.
Until then, fans can now see the complete “Ash vs. Evil Dead” series with the release of “Ash vs. Evil Dead” Season 3, new on Blu-ray and DVD (STARZ/Anchor Bay).
As for the real Possessed Ashy Slashy, the puppet went for $5,102 in an “Ash vs. Evil Dead” prop auction earlier this summer via VIP Auctions. Sorry, fans: The puppet’s demise in the show was just a stunt — and a bloody good one at that!
Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com
Interview: Hayley Atwell talks Winnie the Pooh tale ‘Christopher Robin’
Film fans are about to take another trip back to the Hundred Acre Wood, but thanks to the magic of technology and the magical filmmaking sensibilities of director Marc Forster, they’re about experience Winnie the Pooh like they never have before with “Christopher Robin.”
Ewan McGregor stars in the title role in “Christopher Robin,” a new, live-action take on the famous A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepherd characters that finds Christopher as a working-class adult. Overwhelmed by his adult responsibilities, Christopher is suddenly revisited by his childhood friend, Pooh (voice of Jim Cummings), who once again helps him enjoy the wonders and joys of life.
Hayley Atwell also stars as Christopher wife, Evelyn, and in a post-production interview, the star of the “Captain America” movies and “Agent Carter” TV series said the film version perfectly captures everything fans loved about the animated tales of Pooh, his animal pals and of course, his human friend Christopher.
“It’s very true to the tone of Winnie the Pooh and has what we love about Winnie the Pooh, as how it represents the naivete of childhood that allows us to play with an open mind,” Atwell said.
Atwell sang the praises of Forster, who as the director of the 2004 Best Picture Oscar-nominated film “Finding Neverland” told the enchanting tale of how author J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) was inspired to write “Peter Pan.” Before that, Forster directed Halle Berry to her Best Actress Oscar for “Monster’s Ball.”
“Mark is such of a unique filmmaker in how he can go from something like ‘Monster’s Ball’ to Winnie the Pooh, and I love that,” Atwell enthused. “I think the way he can tell stories is really interesting.”
Atwell also loved working with McGregor, who she called a “natural, charismatic leader” for the project.
“He plays the grown-up Christopher Robin, and like most of us when we grew up, he wonders what’s going on with the world and gets a little bit cynical because of it. That sometimes can be healthy and sometimes not, like when we focus too much on the things that shouldn’t really matter, like money or status,” Atwell said. “At the heart of the story is what Winnie the Pooh can teach us, even as adults.”
“Christopher Robin” opens in theaters nationwide on Aug. 3.
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com