THE DISASTER ARTIST: James Franco, Ari Graynor, Paul Scheer, Scott Neusatader, Michael H. Weber World Premiere Interviews

      James Franco speaks with Robert Mitchell at The Disaster Artist World Premiere

The Disaster Artist was one of the most anticipated films premiering at the 2017 edition of The Toronto International Film Festival. The movie lived up and exceeded expectations. Robert Mitchell was on the red carpet and spoke with James Franco, Ari Graynor, Paul Scheer, screenwriters Scott Neustader, Michael H. Weber and Composer Dave Potter.

THE RITUAL World Premiere Interviews David Bruckner, Arsher Ali, Sam Troughton,

  David Bruckner speaking with Robert Mitchell at the world premiere of The Ritual

The Ritual based on the novel by Adam Nevill had it's world premiere at Midnight Madness 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film marks the feature film directing debut of David Bruckner (V/H/S, Southbound, The Signal. Robert Mitchell was on the red carpet and spoke with Mr. Bruckner as well as actors Arsher and Sam Troughton.

BODIED World Premiere Interviews Joseph Kahn, Dizaster, Alex Larsen aka Kid Twist, Charlamagne Tha God

                Dizaster speaking with Robert Mitchell at the world premiere of Bodied.

Bodied, the new film directed by Joseph Kahn and written by Alex Larsen aka Kid Twist was the opening movie of the 2017 Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival and it rocked the Ryerson Theatre. Robert Mitchell was on the red carpet and spoke with director Joseph Kahn, writer/actor Alex Larsen, Dizaster, Charlamagne Tha God, Calum Worthy and Rory Uphold.

THE MIND'S EYE: Interview with Writer Director Joe Begos [From The Archives 09/10/15]

    Larry Fessenden speaking with Robert Mitchell at The Mind's Eye world premiere.

Joe Begos returns to the Midnight Madness program with his sophomore film The Mind's Eye. His first film Almost Human the alien abduction, slasher film threw a bunch of blood and alien slime upon the Ryerson theater screen. I recently I had the opportunity to speak to Joe about the making of The Mind's Eye. -- Robert A. Mitchell

Where did the idea for The Mind's Eye come from?

It just sort of organically evolved from me wanting to do a really violent, badass telekinesis movie. There are really far too few of them. I was itching to do a revenge movie as well, and the two seemed like a match made in heaven, and I built the story from there. Like my last film, I wanted to make something that I would KILL to see.
 
You have assembled quite a cast for the film. Larry Fessenden (Stake Land, You're Next) Noah Segan (Deadgirl, Brick) John Speredakos (The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers). You are also working again with Graham Skipper who played the lead in Almost Human. What was the casting process like? Did you write parts for specific people?

The casting process was pretty awesome. I wrote the lead for Graham from the start, and then handful of the roles were written for specific people, and the rest of the roles were filled out by me picking up the phone and giving someone a call. I have a love for actors that look supremely blue collar, to me it makes there movie more realistic, so it was important to get actors that are recognizable to the genre, but can also act their asses off and don't look like a cosmopolitan model. I think we hit a pretty good balance, as everyone was able to turn in a phenomenal performance, and to me, look like they could be believable civilians in 1991 New England.
 
What did you learn from making Almost Human and how did you apply that to The Mind's Eye? Did you expand upon your usage of practical special effects?

Yeah, there are so many effects in this movie my SPFX guy, Brian Spears wanted to kill me on numerous occasions haha. Not only did we have practical blood and gore, but he had to coordinate with a few other departments as we had tons of wire work, pyrotechnics, squibs, breakaways, you name it. I learned what was possible and how to stretch the budget on almost human even more than I had on any of the shorts I had made in my life. I was determined to take whatever extra money we could get for our budget and put it ALL in front of the camera.
 
Both films are set in the winter. What do you like about this season as a backdrop to your stories?

I love when seasons give movies a specific characteristic and atmosphere to the point where the season IS almost a character. I had actually planned to shoot this film in the fall, with all of the beautiful autumn colors, but we weren't able to obtain money fast enough. So therefore the movie was pushed to winter, and we were (un)fortunate to have almost 100 inches of snow during shooting. This was a MAJOR pain in the ass, but man does it look awesome!!
 
What kind of cinematic experience awaits the Midnight Madness audience who enter into this world of telekinetic people?

My biggest goal is making sure people have an absolute fucking blast when watching one of our movies!

Originally Appeared 09/10/15 Midnight Madness Blog

RIGOR MORTIS: Director Juno Mak Interview [From The Archives 09/10/13]

                               Director Juno Mak speaking with Robert Aaron Mitchell

First of all, I would like to say I feel very honored to be able to participate in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival ”midnight madness” section. I'm writing this email in Venice at the moment, where the film will be premiering here tonight. -- Juno Mak writing from Venice
 
What do you like about genre films?

I guess what’s fun about genre films throughout cinematic history is mainly because of the specific ”sets of rules” that apply to them. Such as zombies, you have to shoot them in the head. Vampires with silver and all. And then we have ”gueng si”, the traditional hopping vampires from Asia. Glutinous rice, wooden swords, yellow amulets, taoist priest, etc., etc. These rules only apply to this particular genre. A funky, yet special, type of rules, may I say.

But these genre rules have been evolving throughout the years too. It's a sort of evolution amongst us storytellers.

How are you putting your own spin on genre storytelling?

I want to explore the evolution of this genre. More humane, more focused on the drama, the sadness. We have also gathered the original elements from the genre, deconstructed and reconstructed it. Giving it a new touch, and most importantly, I, personally, wanted to explore the emotional side of it. The struggles these characters go through in life. The main theme of this film is about ”the fear of being forgotten” or even the fear of losing youth. Some sort of loneliness among us as humans. The world changed, everyone changed and adapted to a better life. But these characters they didn't.

What did you like about the original Mr. Vampire films that were apart of "gueng si"genre?

To me, the original Mr Vampire films represent not only a big part of my childhood. But also a golden time period of the Hong Kong cinematic history. Anyhow, the ”gueng si” genre has been gone for almost 30 years now.

You cast a lot of the original actors from the Mr. Vampire films, what made you decide to bring them into the film and what was it like to work with them?

What really fascinated me was the wrinkles on the actors and actresses faces after so many years. It, for me, represented their sorrow, their struggles in the most powerful, yet subtle way. I'm sure they have been through a lot being on the film set of RIGOR MORTIS. I sensed that this was not only a sort of revisiting the genre for myself as a director, or even a script writer. It was  a revisiting for every one of them. A bond that belonged to them. I'm glad to be among the original actors.

What would you say you have done with the "gueng si" genre conventions and made them your own?

RIGOR MORTIS itself is not a remake of the original, nor a sequel or prequel. To me personally its more like some sort of a revisit to the genre. The film is about life, not purely a gore slasher, but also an evolution of the genre, with a heavy yet dramatic twist on the story. I have personally taken out the comedic element from among the elements in the original. There might be some sort of humor in RIGOR MORTIS, but the film is not purely a comedy.


Originally Appeared 9/10/13 Midnight Madness Blog

BASKIN: Pushing Boundries Interview with Director Can Evernol Interview [From The Archives 09/07/15]

 Actor Görkem Kasal speaking with Robert Aaron Mitchell at the premiere of Baskin

Although Baskin marks Can Evrenol's first feature film he has been behind the camera for many years. He has made several short films including To My Mother and Father (2010) which won The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival Special Jury Award for Most Disturbing Film. In 2013 he wrote and directed the short Baskin which was the genesis for the feature length movie. As well as the controversial Don't Text PSA The Pencil. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Can. -- Robert A. Mitchell

You have said that the idea of Baskin came from Cthulhu are you at liberty to elaborate upon that answer?

I'm like Eric Zahn. Ideas come to me while I sit by my window at Rue d'Auseil
 
You have made several short films, and have a successful commercial career. How steep was the learning curve as you took Baskin from the short film into a feature? Could you share some insight into what you have learned?

It's like almost two different valuable schools for the short films and the commercial work. My short films were where I experimented with every aspect of filmmaking on it's most basic form. Production, scheduling, editing, pasting, sound design, foley, you name it... I was on my own with everything, but I was good at finding a couple amazing friends to collaborate on each project. With each short film I was setting a bigger task for myself, slowly increasing the scale of things. It was more like a hobby or a game to me. On my 5th short film, To My Mother and Father, my producers James & Russ (Neer Do Well) + prod designer Sara Sensoy + D.O.P. Stephen Murphy have set up this amazing guerrilla set in the storage room of in a secret Central London location.

It looked and felt like an actual film set! It was one of the best weekends I ever had in my life. At some point in our 2nd day of shoot, looking at the beautiful blue set lights in awe, I suddenly had this very happy and confident feeling that if can run this set, then I could very well run a music video or commercial video set too. There I decided I would be a film director for the rest of my life. Being a commercial filmmaker, I later found out, is more about human relations, and practicality. (Of course I can only speak for the industry in Istanbul, which is big, but lately too formulaic) Mostly I was the most inexperienced person on the commercial sets. Yet everybody had to treat me with respect.

Every Day 1 morning was a test for me to gain the trust of the set. I just treated everyone as I would treat my friends in my short films. And luckily, nearly all my sets were very fun. It was like being a systems manager, as Seth Brundle puts it. You have a team of artists and crafts people who are better at their job than you are; and you manage to collaborate them into a single goal which you shape in your head. It was through 3 years of TV commercials, I met with many people on sets, and built up a like-minded and very talented crew to shoot my first feature film. It was the best formula. Indy attitude, with a commercial discipline.


Baskin has the distinction of being the first film from Turkey in the 27 years of the Midnight Madness program. Can you talk about the current state of film making in the country? Censorship seems to be a major issue, has this affected your film making in Turkey?

If you watch First Blood on Turkish TV today, -even in pay per view- when Rambo stitches his own arm, the wound will be pixelated. If you're watching True Detective, the beer bottles and cigarettes will be blurred. It's out right Orwellian, North Korea style bonkers. Unfortunately it has been a slow but sure decline in the freedom speech in Turkish media, which I fully witnessed.

When I was 7, it was a single government channel in late 80's Turkey. It was a bit fascist, but also liberal. Every Sunday morning it was 2 hours of classical Western orchestra. Unthinkable today. The whole nation had only one option to watch and it was 2 hours of classical Western orchestra. It has become a kind of joke really. And it was a good example of how out of touch with the general public, yet intellectual the authorities were at the time. With the Gulf War, suddenly we had private TV and cable. Everything was colorful with the arrival of Transformers, GI Joe, MTV, Eurosport, and crazy game shows. It was an era where TV and entertainment industry went crazy. No foundation, but tons of Western stuff to copy from. The result was pure craziness.

Soon after, when I was 10, we had Playboy TV, Tutti-Frutti (Italian Striptease game show), Batman, The Fly, Tremors and all the box office movies uncut and all kinds of other good and bad craziness on prime time TV. There was no regulations. We had these crazy domestic crime shows (eg. Sicagi Sicagina) where a news crew would enter a crime scene before the police and put a microphone on a crying kid's face whose father has just been murdered by knife. So things got ugly and degenerated extremely quickly. It was a premature pop culture. And soon after, following a huge economic crisis, the religious conservative party took over and day by day things started to get censored. I stopped watching films on TV a long time ago. Nowadays my wife and I don't even watch TV at home. Only dvd, bluray or YouTube.

Censorship in Turkish cinema is much better for now, although cinema culture in this country completely changed in the last decade. Ultra shallow and ultra popular native TV shows completeşy took over. The only box office hits are silly comedies, religious exploitation so-called-horror films, and other shallow garbage.

There is a huge gap between a handful of very talented filmmakers whose slow paste Tarkovsky-influenced films get negligible distribution (but get significant recognition at top international film festivals) and the garbage at the box office. I am extremely curious about how Baskin will be received by Turkish audiences. We are at the brink of war with Syria. Just last night 60 soldiers were killed in a terrorist attack. Traumatizing. It will be a coincide of real life horrors and fantasy, when Baskin gets a cinematic release in Turkey in 2 months.
 
You are no stranger to pushing the boundaries as your 2012 Fright Fest Don't Text PSA The Pencil can attest to. How important is it for an artist to push boundaries. What is like to encounter the firestorm of criticism that can accompany pushing the envelope?

What's the point if you don't push any boundaries? I hope I can always afford to just close my ears to that type of criticism, and go about my own work. When The Pencil played at Empire Cinema at Leicester Square, right before Film 4 Fright Fest's midnight screening of Maniac, the 1200+ audience had such a strong positive reaction that I couldn't believe my ears. Even when it was over and opening credits of Maniac began, the laughing and giggling in the audience has still not died out. I am shocked that with all the communication and social media and the horrors of war and life is ominous, people still can get shocked with films like Human Centipede and Pencil. I honestly don't get that.
 
Baskin is already being described as a visceral cinematic horror experience on par with a film like Martyrs. How do you feel about the comparison? What cinematic experience awaits the Midnight Madness audience?

I would say it's more like a glimpse of Frontiers, than Martyrs. I wanted to make a film that begins like a modern low-budget Turkish/European art-house festival film, which then slowly becomes a dark and cold urban fairy tale. I hope enough people dig it. It's a slow burner. It's best if you watch it without knowing anything about it.



Originally Appeared 9/7/15 Midnight Madness Blog

CUB Director Jonas Govaerts Earns His Feature Film Merit Badge Interview [From The Archives 08/28/14]

One of the most exciting aspects of the Midnight Madness program is the the emergence of new cinematic voices and talent from around the world. A film and director to look out for this year is Cub directed by Jonas Govaerts. After directing several short films, Cub marks Jonas' first feature film and the first horror film produced in Flanders. I recently had the opportunity to speak with him. -- Robert Aaron Mitchell

Director Jonas Govaerts speaks with Robert Aaron mitchell at the premiere of CUB.

Using one or two sentences can you tell me what the basic story for Cub is?

Cub is the story of a summer scout camp gone horribly wrong, seen through the eyes of Sam, our twelve year old protagonist.

Where did the idea come from? Were you, yourself a Cub Scout?

I've been jotting down loose ideas for this story since I was a cub scout myself. I had some wonderful leaders back then, who introduced me to the world of underground comics, horror movies and alternative music; it seemed only fitting I would set my first film at a scout camp, since that's where my imagination was first triggered. My scout totem is Imaginative Toucan, by the way--no lie!

You have made several short films. Cub is your first feature length film. How was that transition? What were some of the difficult aspects of production you had to overcome?

All of my shorts were based on existing short stories I loved: at least there I had the security of a decent script. On Cub, which I co-wrote, I was often second-guessing myself: do we need really this scene? What am I trying to say here? Also, the ambition and scope of the film far exceeded anything I had done in my earlier work. Luckily, I had my movie family around me: most of the crew have been with me since my first short, Mobius. I actually went to film school with my cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis (Michael R. Roskam's Bullhead & The Drop, John Hillcoat's upcoming Triple Nine): he flunked after the first year, while I needed six years to finish school!

There is that old adage in show business, never work with kids or animals. Obviously your film is centered around a story featuring kids. How difficult was the casting to find the kids to play the characters? What was it like to work with these young actors?

If I hadn't accidentally seen Maurice Luijten, who plays Sam, in the music video The Gift by Ralf Demesmaeker, I wouldn't be talking to you right now. He really was a gift from the movie gods. He looked like a young River Phoenix or something - that same effortless charisma. Once Sam was in place, it was really a matter of mixing and matching: for the other cubs, we saw a couple of hundred kids, and we tweaked the parts to fit their personalities, specific talents and looks. We didn't find Gill Eeckelaert, who plays the Masked Feral Child, until very late in the game: in his audition tape, you can really see my face going from absolute exhaustion to huge relief!...Animals, though, are another matter entirely. The most grueling part of the shoot involved a dog - of course, I had to pick the dumbest breed in existence. Safe to say, I'm in no big hurry to work with dogs again - though I doubt I'll get offered many animal movies after Cub comes out!


What would you say to folks looking at the film selection of why they should see Cub?

As a life-long horror fan, I've been disappointed with the direction the genre has taken lately, at least in main stream cinema: loud bangs, cheap CGI, grubby shaky-cam, cardboard characters... It's just not my thing. With Cub, I've tried to bring back those elements I miss most in modern horror: a decent build-up, some humor to contrast with the violence, a certain visual poetry, characters you can actually relate to... Oh, and a cool, Carpenter-style title font, of course!



Originally Appeared 8/28/14 Midnight Madness Blog

 

THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS: Director Nick Simon Interview [From The Archives 09/11/15]

                                              Director & Writer Nick Simon

The Girl in the Photographs is set to have it's world premiere at the 2015 Midnight Madness program. The film was co-written and directed by Nick Simon. The film also has the amazing Dean Cundey (Jurassic Park, John Carpenter's Halloween) as it's cinematographer. The late Wes Craven was also an Executive Producer on the picture. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Simon about the movie. -- Robert A. Mitchell

You were born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. What initially drew you to film making and how did you pursue this passion?
 

What drew me to film initially was just how big it all seemed. I was four years old when I saw Star Wars for the first time and that changed my life. It wasn’t until I saw the poster for Escape from New York that I became obsessed with film.  That film was my gateway into the genre. Growing up in the 80’s and being adverse in all things sports, the cinema quickly became my church.  My mother is a big fan of horror and true crime novels about serial killers.  That had a huge impact on me as well.  I purchased more than a few copies of Halloween and A Nightmare On Elm Street on VHS when I was a kid. The tapes kept wearing out.

Where did the idea for The Girl in the Photographs come from?
 

Oz Perkins and I started working on The Girl In The Photographs right after we completed my first film, Removal.  It was always sort of a hobby spec script that we kept going back to. We both went on to write other scripts while continuing to revisit Girl. The initial idea was to try and come up with a current story that had the same pace and feel as an 80’s horror film. It wasn’t until Wes Craven read the script and loved it when it became something I actively tried to get made.
 

The still I have seen for the film looks very haunting and ominous. What was the look you wanted to bring to the film?
 

Capturing the look and feel and tone of the picture was extremely important to me.  I really wanted this picture to feel like the films I loved growing up. I wanted to be very specific about where the camera was pointed at all times, yet still give the picture a moodier look while being beautiful at the same time. Hiring the right cinematographer was essential to the process.
 

You worked with legendary cinematographer Dean Cundey (Halloween, Jurassic Park) that must have been an incredible experience. What was it like to work with Mr. Cundey?
 

I’ve described working with Dean Cundey as a biblical experience. Every day in prep and on set was like a master class in cinema.  When I first approached Dean to shoot the picture, I remember saying to him, “I can hire a DP and show him all of your films, or you could shoot this picture!”  Luckily, he loved the script and understood what I was trying to achieve.  I hope to work with Dean again. He shot some of my favorite films of all time.
 

Wes Craven was an Executive Producer of the film. As you have said he was your mentor. Could you share something that Mr. Craven imparted on you about film making and life?
 

Wes was instrumental in getting this picture made. He was there every step of the way.  He had some ideas on a few script tweaks, he was involved in casting, every day he would watch dailies of our principle photography and gave me weekly notes on the edit. His notes during editing were always geared towards what the audience will see and learn in each scene.  He was very aware of how people watch horror films. Wes is a master filmmaker and having that kind of feedback was invaluable. He is one of the reasons that I am making film and his work has been such a huge influence on me. This film is for Wes. I’m happy that he wasn’t disappointed and loved the picture in the end. 

 

What kind of cinematic experience awaits the audience of The Girl in the Photographs?
 

We all worked very hard to give the audience a throwback horror/thriller with modern story elements.  I’m hoping that the audience enjoys the film and they are able to laugh as well as be terrified. I hope they will see the influence and impact that the horror films of my youth had on me.


Originally Appeared 9/11/15 Midnight Madness Blog 

THE LORDS OF SALEM: Interview with Director Writer Rob Zombie [From The Archives 9/11/12]

                Rob Zombie talking with Robert Mitchell at The Lords of Salem premiere.
 
THE LORDS OF SALEM marks Rob Zombie's first time at the Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival. I don't think Mr. Zombie is given enough credit of how good a filmmaker he is. THE LORDS OF SALEM shows a filmmaker who definitely growing as a storyteller. I have always believed Zombie is a consummate visual stylist. Lords reaffirms this for me -- a film in which Zombie sits the camera down and sets up well composed shots influenced by Kubrick. His casting choices are always inspired and pay respect to the history of the horror genre. I recently had the opportunity to ask Mr. Zombie some questions.

Being born in Haverhill not far from Salem Massachusetts have the witch trails always a point of fascination? What was it about the witch trials that sparked your imagination and set in motion the writing of The Lords of Salem?

Growing up in Massachusetts I always thought the state had a cool spooky vibe and the reality of the witch trials certainly fed that vibe. The inspiration for the movie was an accident really. One day I just happened to buy a book on the witch trials in the gift shop of a hotel I was staying at. That book got me thinking about it and that was the beginning of the project.

 

You shot the film, then went on tour and then returned to edit the film as well as produce your next album. How did that gap between production and post help you approach what you shot as opposed to jumping right into an editing suite? What were some of the benefits of the challenge of balancing both projects?

In some ways it drove me crazy because I really just wanted to keep working on the film until it was done, but in other ways getting away from it helped me to solve problems that you can't solve sometimes just because you get too close and can't get any distance from the project. All in all this method worked out great.


The cast you and Monika Mikkelsen have assembled is a who's who of genre films. How do you approach casting? Do you write with certain actors in mind or seek out actors through more traditional methods, like auditions?

All of the above. For some roles I have a specific person in mind and for others I do typical auditions. Whatever it takes to find the right person for the role. One example of an audition that blew me away was Judy Geeson's read for the role of Lacy.


Watching your films and videos over the years I believe you are a consummate visual stylist. How did you approach the look of this film with cinematographer Brandon Trost?


We basically just talked about it over and over and over then decided on a course of action. I was always a big fan of handheld camera work, but suddenly it started to look like TV to me since so many TV shows use that style. So I wanted to do the exact opposite. Very steady camera work with all the camera moves being motivated by the action on screen. No shakey camera just for the fuck of it.

How has your approach to directing evolved from House of Thousand Corpses to The Lords of Salem?

Well, with each film you hopefully develop a better set of skills that you can apply to the next film. If you watch those two films back to back I don't think you would never think the same person made both films. Lords is a far more sophisticated production.


I have been reading that The Lords of Salem is your darkest film to date. Is there anything you can tell the audience of the experience that awaits them upon watching The Lords of Salem?

Be patient and pay attention. It is not what you think it is.

Originally Appeared 9/11/12 Midnight Madness Blog

THE FINAL GIRLS: Director Todd Strauss-Schulson Interview [From The Archives 09/09/15]

The Final Girls is set to close the 2015 Midnight Madness program. The film is full on rollercoaster ride. Full of laughter, chills, thrills nostalgia. The film that Todd Strauss-Schulson directed is a perfect way to close out the midnight screenings at our beloved Ryerson Theater. I recently had the opportunity to talk to Todd about making the film. -- Robert A. Mitchell

             Malin Åkerman talking to Robert Mitchell at the premiere of The Final Girls

When you first read the screenplay written by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller what attracted you to the story and made you say I want to direct this movie?

It touched me. I was immediately stuck by the heart and how full of feeling it was. To me it was always a movie about a girl who got a second chance to be with her dead mother. To see her again, to have one more day…

A few weeks before I made my first movie my Dad died. He was my best friend, and he was so supportive of my filmmaking, and he died, he missed me booking that job by a matter of weeks. So that was difficult. And while I was working on my first movie, I would dream about him all the time. I still do. Happy dreams where were riding around on a bus through New York, or eating pizza and strolling around the lower east side… my father would visit me in my dreams… and that is what Final Girls is to me. That is what I saw in the script. The reverbs of grief and that wish to get another day. And Max (Taissa Farmiga) gets this second chance to see her Mom in this 80’s horror movie… which we made feel almost like a dream. It’s consciously hyper real and ethereally beautiful. And really, the idea of the horror movie was very much consciously linked to the emotional concept… I loved the clever idea of a story about the emotional aftermath of a death in the middle of a genre that doesn’t take death very seriously… in fact a genre where big bigger the body count the more fun… so we’re USING genre to tell that emotional story… not the other way around.

The secondary thing that really attracted me was, as a movie lover… and I LOVE movies … the big fun conceit of getting stuck IN A MOVIE. That’s just a delightful idea. And the opportunity to deconstruct a movie, to almost turn the movie into an antagonist. It lent itself to a lot of visual playfulness and stylistic flamboyance and comedy. And I really felt this could give me an opportunity to flex some of those cinematic muscles in a way that was integrated with story. I really love when a film can perform WITH the actors, its not just a capture medium... it’s a performance medium too. And Final Girls really lent itself to that kind of filmmaking.

So, tons of heart, a very personal story, and this really fun cool container was what appealed to me… its almost like All That Jazz, a personal story about death and humanity in the body of a delightful musical full of pizzaz and showmanship. I loved that tonal mash up.

Final Girls blends horror and comedy. Was it difficult to strike a balance between these two elements?

I look for movies where the telling of the story is as integral as the story itself. People have been saying to me for years that Final Girls has a tough tone to pull of... but I just never saw it that way... I think if you're doing your job, and telling your story, and telling it in your own voice, you can kinda go anywhere and do anything. The movies that I love the most are the ones that are tonally all over the place. And that's true to life...  The best stories a friend can tell are the ones that start off where a happy thing happened, and then a horrible thing happened; then this person saw someone get their purse stolen, but then you ate a delicious scone at a new coffee shop and saw an old family friend out of the blue who is really beautiful... but then they told you their cat has diabetes...and then you wonder if dating them is gonna be too intense cause you're gonna have to deal with that cat all the time so you get anxiety... It's what any random day in your life is like, it's tonally and emotionally all over the place. Its funny, its sad, its scary, its beautiful, its lonely.

I remember being a kid and my mom took me to see Spalding Grey do a live monologue at Lincoln Center, and he talked for three hours. Just sat and talked on an empty stage and it was as riveting as any movie. He did the craziest tonal shifts, I felt every emotion, I went with it, I was connected, because he was so sure and steady about what he was saying and how he was saying it, he would go fast, then slow, he would go on a weird tangent that seemed to meander, then race back to the point...it all held together. One of the reasons why Final Girls is so flamboyantly visually stylish, the colors, the set design...and what the camera is doing... it's not subtle,  But a lot of that is in service to hold these disparate tones together, the horror, comedy, heart, magic, weirdness... To feel that strong hand of a storyteller, to have the specific cadence to the storytelling, of me telling the story and pushing you ahead. It's what my favorite movies do: What Kill Bill does, what Magnolia does, what One From The Heart, Hudsucker Proxy, and Obsession do.

This film features a large ensemble cast, what was the casting process like?

I really wanted to be able to feel the TONE of the movie in the casting The tone is wild, it’s a comedy, its scary, its cool, it’s a melodrama… and I wanted you to feel that when you looked at the ensemble. So you have Adam and Thomas and Alia and Angela who are bringing a lot of the comedy, you know them from comedy. But then you also have at the center Taissa who is such a wonderful and grounded actor. She has such fragility, such a grounded and raw emotion… and she tethers the movie. And then you pair her with Malin who is a terrific actor. She’s really able to do the comedy, but she also has this incredible depth of emotion. I loved her in Happythankyoumoreplease.

It was about putting together a group of young and talented actors who could all be friends. Who I wanted to go to camp with. and they would be campers and I was head counselor. And they all ended up almost perfectly falling into their dynamics as we were shooting, we became a family out there. It was the best experience ever.

You and your team were shooting as many as fifty shots in a day. How did you keep up the focus and energy of the cast, crew and yourself?

I think enthusiasm is the key. Being a fan. Of other people and also of your own ideas. Especially if you’re trying to do something special or different you kinda have to convince a lot of people that these things you want to do are gonna be great!

Ambition is my favorite quality in a movie, I really hate when a movie isn’t trying to do anything new or special. And I think people can feel that. I think people galvanize around that kinda enthusiasm and ambition. It’s exciting to be working on a movie that is trying to be disruptive and do something new… tonally or visually.

I always love when I'll meet a person and when I’m around them I feel so interesting, so smart, so funny, they somehow bring out the best in me. They are interested, and kind, and able to make me feel instantly comfortable… I try to be that for other people. I want to bring out the best in everyone around me and make it feel the way it felt for me when I was 14 making movies in my living room with my sister. There is a cool Lorne Michaels idea that has been coursing through SNL for years that the sketches are really designed to let the hosts “score”. I love that. That you are really creating opportunities for the people around you to score. When I read the script I thought I could score with this movie. I thought my dp Elie could score, I thought Katie Byron our intrepid production designer could score… Taissa and Malin could score in their goodbye scenes, Nina on that dock has this big moment to score… Greg our composer gets to play around with this crazy music and score… I just loved giving these amazingly talented people around me these big challenging things to pull off so that they could score. I think that is an infectious vibe on set and it gets people to give you their best.

…also shotlists…

Final Girls is roller coaster ride and really taps into the joy of movies. What does cinema mean to you? What cinematic experience awaits the Midnight Madness audiences?

Final Girls is the kinda movie I personally love. Its ALL the feelings. ALL OF THEM. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get scared, you’ll feel nostalgic, you’ll be dazzled by how pretty it is, how weird it is,  it’s fucking BADASS, you’ll cheer, you’ll yell at the screen, you’ll see things in this movie you haven’t seen before… it’s the full range of human emotion!!!

I think you should walk out of a movie feeling better than you did going in. I think we go to movies looking for a human experience, and I think you want to laugh and cry and in some kinda subconscious way, touch that tender part of you that gets cemented up throughout the day with irony and anxiety and sarcasm and fear and just endless thinking… I think what a movie can do almost better than anything else is connect you back to yourself,  to make you feel a little more connected and empathetic. I think if they are working, movies can be an antidote to the rest of your life. I think that's what they're capable of… I don’t go to movies to “escape” my life, I go to reconnect to it.

Originally Appeared 9/9/15 Midnight Madness Blog

BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 Vince Vaughn, Udo Kier, Dan Amboyer Premiere Interviews

Last month I attended the North American premiere of S. Craig Zahler's (Bone Tomahawk) new film BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99. Mr. Zahler has written and directed one hell of pulp, crime, prison movie. He even wrote several of the songs that play in the film. Vince Vaughn's transformation in playing Bradley Thomas is an amazing performance. I was able to speak with Mr. Vaughn, Udo Kier, of which I can confirm his stare will burn a hole into your very soul, as well as actor Dan Amboyer on the red carpet at Midnight Madness at the Toronto Intentional Film festival.

COVERED IN BLOOD!!!! Interview With Eli Roth [From The Archives 09/09/12]

Eli Roth is no stranger to the Midnight Madness programme of the Toronto International Film Festival. His first film as a writer and director Cabin Fever received its World Premiere in 2002 and instantly became a genre favorite. He would return to Midnight Madness in 2005 leading a new direction in American horror films with the extremely intense, visceral film Hostel. 2012 marks the return of Eli Roth to Toronto’s midnight showcase as the lead actor and producer in Nicolás López’ AFTERSHOCK. I recently had the opportunity to ask Eli some questions on his latest film project.

How did you meet Nicolas Lopez? What did you see in his previous films that made you want to collaborate with him?

In 2004 I was invited to the Los Angeles Film Festival to be on a filmmaker panel, and after the event I was about to leave when the programmer Rich Raddon said "Don't go! There's a movie you HAVE to see. The director loves Cabin Fever - he told me to find you, he's this hilarious 21 year old Chilean kid, he made a crazy teen comedy, you can't miss it." That was Promedio Rojo. I remember Nicolas' introduction was so funny he had the whole audience rolling before the credits even started. 90 minutes later I was a huge Nicolas Lopez fan. We hung out that night and turned out we had a lot more in common than we realized.

Specifically, we had made out with the same girl from this one particular film festival in Europe. (Different years of course.) After that we were pretty much bonded for life. The more I got to know Nicolas, the more I realized what a genius he was. At the age of 16 he produced Jorge Olguin's horror film Angel Negro, and then wrote, produced, directed and starred in his own MTV show called Piloto MTV," where he's a director who every week he had to do come up with a new show for MTV. It's totally nuts, and if you speak Spanish I recommend tracking it down on youtube. Piloto was a massive hit in Latin America and aired on MTV after Jackass. Nicolas had accomplished all of this by the age of 17, and by that time had a regular column called Promedio Rojo in the major newspaper of Santiago, where he wrote about what was going on in his high school. This wasn't like writing for the school paper, he was writing for the equivalent of the Los Angeles Times about his high school and exposing all kinds of things, which Que Pena Tu Vida they threw him out for.

Nicolas wanted to make Hollywood style movies from the get-go, which was the antithesis of most of the artier festival type government funded films being made in Chile. I was amazed at what he had accomplished by 21, I didn't make my first film until I was 29. And over the years I've seen him grow into an incredible filmmaker. After Promedio Nicolas was the hot shot new director in Hollywood for a minute and everyone was throwing projects at him, but he went off and made this wild VFX comic book-style movie called Santos. It was a complete disaster, it totally tanked in Spain and Chile, and for the first time in his life he felt he had failed. He felt washed up at 23, and then just buckled down and wrote Fuck My Life, a romantic comedy about how difficult it is to break up when everyone is so connected and we're reminded of our exes every time we use twitter or facebook or instagram.

He shot Que Pena in 11 days for $100,000 on a 7D and it out-grossed The Social Network in Chile, which was a massive hit there. It was box office smash, taking in fifteen times its budget. We talked about doing a film together, something high octane, in English, something scary and violent. I went down and visited him in Chile and we just started writing and scouting locations. It all came together very fast, but really sprung from our friendship and mutual admiration of each others' work.

You have produced several films before. What unique obstacles did you and the production team face on AFTERSHOCK? How did you overcome them?

I wanted to do AFTERSHOCK in the same way that Nicolas had made his Que Pena Films, which is down and dirty and fast, shooting all in Chile, with a Chilean crew. I had just spent several months in China shooting Man With the Iron Fists, and had nearly an entirely Chinese crew, so I was used to working with foreign crews, especially after the "Hostel" films which I shot in Prague and Iceland with local crews. I love going into another country and figuring it out. It's exciting to me, and with each system you can take something you learned onto the next one with you.

I even had that experience on Basterds with the German crew shooting Nation's Pride. One of the major unique obstacles was getting a completion bond, which financiers require. It had never been done before in Chile. AFTERSHOCK is the first bonded film shot in Chile. It took a lot of education and trust and showing them that the team down there knew what they were doing, and the bond company was great and we came in a day ahead of schedule and under budget. I had to put up half my salary as collateral, which I got eventually, but it took me bonding the bond company, if that makes sense. The biggest obstacle was adjusting to the Chilean style of making movies, which I actually prefer in some ways.

For example, there are no trailers - you just share a room to change if you need to. There's one make up artist for everyone, not a big makeup trailer with lots of chairs. It's just how it is. Things moved so fast it reminded me of what it was like to make a movie with your friends when you're a kid. There's no unions, so everyone's just picking up helping out. Nicolas and his producing partner Miguel Asensio have assembled a great team there. I also produced it with Brian Oliver and Mac Cappucino and Jim Holt, whose company Vertebra films were financing. We were all there, on the ground, bridging the U.S. system with the bond and the exchange rate and all that kind of stuff, plus I was acting in the film which took up most all my time. I had to go from writer to producer to actor, and then back to producer. It was a lot, but it was so much fun. It felt like we were breaking new ground, kind of re-learning everything we knew at the same time. It was a combination of adjusting the Hollywood culture and the Chile culture to create a new style that accommodates both.

How difficult is it to act as well as produce in the same film? Are there moments when you are in a scene and CUT is called and a phone is handed to you in regards to a producing concern? How do you stay in character?

Yes. It's very difficult, way more so than I anticipated. I want to do every job at the best of my abilities, so I tend to go all in and completely immerse myself no matter what it is, if it's writing directing, producing, or acting. I want to give in a great performance, and that takes intense concentration and preparation. But the way I can produce at the same time is to produce the film with good partners who can take over those duties while you're acting.

They knew what my acting in the film meant, and we were prepared for it. Miguel, Mac, Jim and Brian were handling producing duties when I was acting, and if something needed to get done we just dealt with it. It's never an ideal situation and they don't want to bother me when they don't have to, but more often than not I was taking phone calls and signing contracts and solving problems completely drenched in fake blood, dust and sweat. It's also hard to shut your brain off, so after a while you just kind of give up on sleep until you wrap. It was like this on Basterds when I was acting and shooting Nation's Pride at the same time, it was really hard and just took all my focus at all times. After we wrapped photography we all got sick - it's like our bodies were fighting it and once we knew we were allowed to shut down we spent a week in bed not moving.

Can you describe what the process was like to write the screenplay with Mr. Lopez and Guillermo Amodeo?

We wrote the script over skype, and a lot of it was like a volleyball game, where we'd just bat it around back and forth. Guillermo had worked closely with Nicolas on his other scripts, and he's great with story and structure. I'll come up with a ton of ideas of ways to kill, as does Nicolas, and Guillermo can help wrangle them into an escalation of events. But really it started with Nicolas describing the earthquake to me and what he went through.

He just took me through the events of the night, and the stories that happened to people he knew, and it was all there. It was horrific - the total collapse of society. The whole country shook violently for 3 and a half minutes, it was a notch under the Tokyo earthquake. It hit at 3:30 in the morning on a Saturday on the last weekend of their summer, so most of the young people were out at bars partying, dancing. Thousands of people drunk, girls in heels and tiny dresses, suddenly getting hands chopped off or having pieces of ceiling collapse on them.

One of our leads Lorenza Izzo was in a club when it hit, and said when we were shooting the earthquake it was exactly what happened to her. In the very club we filmed at people were killed when the speakers fell on them. One kid lost both his hands and had his friends looking for them, but they couldn't find them and had to leave because the structure was collapsing. The prisons broke up, violent criminals got out, there was looting - and nobody could communicate. No police, no fire - it was chaos. A lot of the country is still destroyed from the earthquake, so we used real locations. The Santiago cemetery let us film in a wing that was too damaged from the earthquake to be usable, so while we were shooting we suddenly realized we were surrounded by broken open tombs with bones falling out. We didn't have to set dress it, I was lying on the ground and all around me were dust and bones that were rattled in the earthquake. It was crazy.

 
As well as your directing and acting you have been quite prolific as a producer, what do you look for in a story before jumping on board as a producer?

I generally don't look for something, something grabs me, if that makes sense. It usually sparks from conversations with other filmmakers, or sometimes an idea just pops in your head and you know you have to make it. I hear a story, often based in fact, and then I say "we have to do that!" But one thing in common is I like to put a fresh spin on genres or types of films that people haven't done in a long time.

Cabin Fever was my love of 80's horror, really gory R rated kids in the woods horror which had all but evaporated by the 90's, and was way too sanitized and politically correct for my taste. With Hostel  I wanted to bring the unflinching brutality I had seen coming out South Korea and Japan to American cinemas. I wanted to push the R rating as far as anyone had ever done. I wanted to make the movie people were afraid to see. With Man with the Iron Fists I just loved RZA's story, his whole conception of how to modernize and do an updated version of the films we loved watching on Saturday Kung Fu theater, and with AFTERSHOCK I realized there hadn't been a good realistic, violent earthquake disaster thriller since the 70's.

We wanted something that was real, but a high octane, roller coaster thriller, something that when it hits just doesn't let up. So many disaster films are done with CG, which is fine, but we had the opportunity to do something that was modern and do it real by actually destroying things. Most everything you see we really did. A lot of the takes I closed my eyes because I was terrified someone would get crushed. Thankfully no one got hurt, but the film was made with that kind of energy. Nicolas would look at me after a take and just shake his head and say "Someone's watching over this movie." And you feel it when you see it. There's no substitute for the real thing.

AFTERSHOCK was shot in Chile, what were some of the unique aspects to making a film there as opposed to Los Angeles?

In Los Angeles, everything is union. It's much more expensive, and the departments are segregated into very specific jobs, and no one crosses over and does the other person's job. In Chile, it's non-union so everyone just pitches in and does everything. Also there's no agents, no managers, none of that. None of the Chilean actors are in SAG, so you're not dealing with overtime and turnaround issues, which is after an actor wraps you can't bring them in the next day until 12 hours later. People just do it for a flat weekly rate and that's it. It was really like a family, but that comes from Nicolas and Miguel Asensio his producing partner. They've all made so many movies together they're all friends and everyone gets along great. I was lucky to be able to just plug into their system, that was always the idea. And they are fantastic, we're planning to shoot a bunch of movies now. We call them Chilewood movies.

Why should folks check out AFTERSHOCK at Midnight Madness?

Nicolas Lopez is one of the most exciting talents out there, mostly unknown to English speaking audiences. His movies are very, very fun, I think people are going to be shocked and thrilled by what we did. There's nothing like AFTERSHOCK. You're discovering a new talent for the first time, and after I think people will track down his Spanish movies on Netflix.

He's going to be a major force in genre cinema, and you can be there to be part of that moment when he crosses over and help support him. He deserves it. Also if you're a fan of my acting, you see me covered in blood for a lot of the movie. This is the first film I've starred in, and I wouldn't just do that with any director. I was offered lead roles in movies after Basterds and turned them all down because none of the projects excited me. Nicolas is one of the few directors I really trust as an actor, and I hope people will be surprised by what they see me do on screen. Plus the other cast members are superb - Ariel Levy, Lorenza Izzo, Andrea Osvart, Nicolas Martinez, Natasha Yarovenko - they're incredible. The audience who sees this will really be discovering exciting new talent.

                                          Robert Aaron Mitchell interviewing Eli Roth

Midnight Madness and the Festival have marked crucial points in your career having launched the world premieres of both CABIN FEVER and HOSTEL. Can you talk about your relationship to the Festival and Toronto?   

Toronto is the place where I was officially born as a director. I had a made a movie but somehow it wasn't official until I saw it in a theater with a paying audience. That first premiere at the Uptown 1 is one of the greatest memories of my life. When the doors opened it was like being at the center at the buffalo stampede from Dances with Wolves except with rabid horror geeks.

My whole life I had dreamed of that moment and for the first time I really felt like everything I had envisioned since I was 8 years old was coming true. I had heard so many stories about being the hot film at the festival, I had always wanted that to happen. And the fans were so receptive, they went crazy, and the bidding war ensued and the rest is history. I feel like Cabin Fever helped buyers realize what a goldmine Midnight Madness is. There were many great films at the festival, but when Cabin Fever played a lot of buyers would leave halfway through the festival.

After Cabin Fever sold and Lionsgate's biggest hit of the year for them, people got fired for not bidding on movies at midnight madness. The whole psychology shifted - especially when Saw played the next year. And now it's where people look to find the next big thing in horror or genre. Colin Geddes has such great taste in selecting an exciting, diverse program that give attention to films that really need it and deserve it. So my career is forever tied to Toronto, and I love that, that's why I wanted to bring Hostel there. Even when I shot Hemlock Grove in Toronto I moved into the TIFF Lightbox building because it felt like home for me.

The Toronto fans welcomed me before they had seen a frame of my film - they gave me a chance and welcomed me with open arms. Many film festivals the audience is somewhat hostile, they want you to impress them, but the Toronto fans are genuinely appreciative you brought the movie there and they want to see it in the theater with a wild crowd, which is why we make them in the first place. And that's why it was important to premiere AFTERSHOCK here as well. I want Nicolas to feel the same reception I felt. I can't wait to show this to the Toronto Midnight Madness audience. It's one of the best audiences you can show a movie to.

Originally Appeared 9/9/12 Midnight Madness Blog

MIDNIGHT MADNESS 2017 Photo Gallery Ft. James Franco, Vince Vaughn, Dizaster, Joseph Kahn, Coralie Fargeat, Ryûhei Kitamura, Sôichi Umezawa

Here is a photo gallery of Robert Aaron Mitchell and Sarah Dillard Mitchell's adventures at the 2017 Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival. Here is a link to a New York Times piece about the programme. Photos by Ian Goring, Sarah Mitchell, Daniel Pearl & Dominik Magdziak.

  Talking to Dizaster at the world premiere of Bodied. 09/07/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

Speaking with Director Joseph Kahn at the world premiere of Bodied. Photo by: Ian Goring

Talking to Director Joseph Kahn at the world premiere of Bodied. Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

In conversation with actor Calum Worthy at the world premiere of Bodied. Photo by: Ian Goring

Interviewing writer Alex Larsen aka Kid Twist at the world premiere of Bodied Photo By: Ian Goring

 Speaking with Charlamagne Tha God about his role in Bodied Photo by: Ian Goring

Interviewing actor Rory Uphold at the Bodied world premiere. Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking to Director David Bruckner at the world premiere The Ritual 09/08/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

 Speaking to actor Sam Troughton about his role in The Ritual Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

"Crank-styled" interview with writer/director Brian Taylor at the world premiere of Mom & Dad Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking to writer/director at Mom & Dad premiere 09/09/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

In conversation with Anne Winters about her character in Mom & Dad. Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 Anne Winters at the world premiere of Mom & Dad. Photo by: Ian Goring

With cinematographer Daniel Pearl (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) at the premiere of Mom & Dad Photo by: Daniel Pearl

Talking to writer/director Coralie Fargeat actor Matilda Lutz at premiere of Revenge 09/10/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

Talking to James Franco at the world premiere of The Disaster Artist 09/11/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

Talking to James Franco at the world premiere of The Disaster Artist Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 Speaking to Ari Graynor about portraying Lisa in The Disaster Artist Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 

Talking to screenwriters Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 

With Vince Vaughn at the world premiere of Brawl In Cell Block 99

09/12/17 Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Interviewing actor Dan Amboyer at premiere of Brawl In Cell Block 99

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Speaking with the Let The Corpses Tan writers/directors Bruno Forzani & Hélène Cattet

World Premiere 09/13/17 Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 With actor Hervé Sogne at the premiere of Let The Corpses Tan

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking to The Crescent Director Seth A. Smith 09/14/17

Photo by: Ian Goring

Speaking to actor Danika Vandersteen at the world premiere of The Crescent

Photo by: Ian Goring

 With director Ryûhei Kitamura at world premiere of Downrange

09/15/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

Talking to actor Graham Skipper about Downrange & Sequence Break

Photo by: Ian Goring

Speaking with Anthony Kirlew about his character in Downrange

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Interviewing Kelly Connaire at the premiere of Downrange

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking with Downrange actor Rod Hernandez-Farella

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

In conversation with Stephanie Pearson at the Downrange premiere.

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking to Alexa Yeames at the Downrange premiere.

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

With actor Jason Tobias at the Downrange premiere.

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell 

Talking to Tamotsu Kimura, director Sôichi Umezawa & Asuka Kurosawa

at the world premiere of Vampire Clay 09/16/17

Photo by: Ian Goring

Robert & Sarah Mitchell 

Photo by: Ian Goring

 Robert & Sarah Mitchell Midnight Madness Progammer Peter Kuplowsky Photographer Ian Goring

Photo by: Dominik Magdziak

Nicolas Cage

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell