interview

When the trailer for Ben Hibon's animated zombie epic A.D. debuted earlier this month (check it out here), the Internet got excited. While the project is still in the early stages of the development process, there's no denying that the clip looks amazing. To paraphrase one YouTube commenter, "it's like Pixar grew balls."

The guys over at Machinima's web show ETC got a chance to sit down and interview three of the film's producers along with director Hibon and screenwriter Haylar Garcia. The eight minute clip turned up on YouTube recently (thanks to Bloody-Disgusting for catching it and sharing) and you can check it out for yourself beyond the jump.

Hearing Hibon and Garcia talk about their vision for the film is inspiring stuff. A.D. looks like a videogame--albeit one that doesn't require you to pick up a controller and complete hours of arbitrary tasks to see the next story interlude. The animation is impressive and the fact that the film doesn't use physical actors or sets would seem to make it easier for the filmmakers to pull out all the stops in creating their horrifying vision of the zombie apocalypse.

No word on when we might see a finished version of the film. As one producer points out, they're still in the "seeking financial backing" stage of the development cycle. Let's hope some adventurous investors get on board soon, because this is one film I really wanna see.

It's funny how the interweb works--most of the time, we're all on the cutting edge of breaking news, finding out things almost as soon as they occur. Then, there are times like today, where everyone finally discovers a story that should have appeared months ago and we all look at each other and wonder "how did we miss this?"

Writer Patrick Melton sat down for an interview with UK radio station 107.5 Demon FM last November (!) and had a lot to say about Jigsaw's life and times (thanks to Latino Review for sharing). The most interesting quote dealt with a potential end to the long running franchise. Here's what Melton had to say about it:

"I mean, I think it's going to end with Saw VII. I have a very strong feeling its going to end with Saw VII. That's something we're debating now. You saw in previous interviews or discussions where we thought Saw VIII would be the last one where we had the first trilogy and the second trilogy and then sort of a grand finale wrapped up in two films. But frankly because Saw VI hasn't performed as well as we anticipated, the idea is well why make two movies when we can make one really excellent movie that wraps up as best we can? And it's going to be in 3-D which sort of adds to the spectacle. So if you had to ask me, I don't own the franchise, nor do I run the studio, but I have a feeling, a strong feeling that it's going to be Saw VII which will be also known as Endgame. And nothing's official yet, but that's where we're hoping things will go."

Interesting if it actually comes to pass, but I suspect we'll keep getting Saw films for as long as they make money. The glimmer of hope here is that there may in fact be an end in sight.

I'm exceedingly proud of the team we've put together here at HorrorSquad, so when I was trying to think of a fun feature to run on Halloween night, the answer was easy: Talk to the Squad members! Gathered below you'll find some thoughts, opinions, and memories from each of the H-Squadders, and believe me when I say these are some true-blue, old-school, no-bullshit horror fans.

And once you're done reading all the questions and answers, feel free to offer your own responses in the comments section. The horror fan community is a wonderfully inclusive one, and on behalf of the entire team, I'd like to thank all our readers for supporting us in these early stages of the Horror Squad's global domination. We'd also like to thank our colleagues at Fangoria, FEARnet, Dread Central, Shock, Twitch, The Arrow, and Bloody-D for being so cool to the new horror blog on the block. (Big love for smaller blogs like The Vault of Horror, Final Girl, and Day of the Woman as well!) And of course, much thanks is due to our friends at Cinematical and Moviefone, for without them we simply wouldn't be here right now.

And with that ... the Horror Squad speaks!!

Originally posted on Cinematical, 9/23/09

Tim League founded the Alamo Drafthouse with his wife Karrie in Austin, Texas back in 1997, and since then it's become a mainstay for mainstream films with a brisk sideline business for film geeks who require a steady diet of sci-fi, horror, fantasy, Asian, cult and ... the plain weird flicks. They've become known for their offbeat programming as much as they are for the fact that you can get a cheeseburger and a pint of beer during the movie, and this week marks the start of their fifth annual Fantastic Fest film festival.

Besides being the owner of the Alamo Drafthouse, League founded the fest with Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Matt Dentler, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies. These days, League is usually busier than "an octopus with hives," as my uncle used to say, but we caught up with him during the relative calm before the hurricane of film geekery and all-day screenings begins. Read on after the break for the full interview, and of course stay tuned to Cinematical for all of your Fantastic Fest news.

By Todd Gilchrist

After just a few short years in Hollywood, Eli Roth has managed to create a genuinely multifaceted career, not only as a writer and director, but a producer, and most recently, actor as well. After a few small roles in his own films and a brief appearance on both sides of the camera in Grindhouse (he not only directed the fake-trailer Thanksgiving but played one of the guys getting Jungle Julia drunk in Death Proof), Quentin Tarantino enlisted Roth to play Donnie Donowitz, also known as "the Bear Jew," in his WWII opus Inglourious Basterds. If appearing in a second Tarantino film wasn't enough, this time he's sharing the screen with a literally international cast, headed up by none other than Brad Pitt, with whom he shares the majority of his screen time.

Cinematical recently spoke to Roth in an exclusive telephone interview, where he acknowledged his good fortune thus far. In addition to talking about his role in Inglourious Basterds, Roth talked at length about how playing Donowitz rekindled his creative fire behind the camera, and he also reflected on what makes the horror in horror movies last once they've left the screen.

Cinematical: In Hollywood, directors don't usually say, "what I really want to do is act."

Eli Roth: I'm actually at a photo shoot, so I'm going from director to actor, now a model, and what I'll end up as is a waiter.

By Jenni Miller

Peter Sarsgaard made his big-screen debut in 1995's Dead Man Walking as the murder victim Walter Delacroix, but his breakthrough performance was in 1999's Boys Don't Cry as John Lotter, one of the killers of transgendered man Brandon Teena. Since then, he's become famous for his nuanced performances in a wide variety of films like Shattered Glass, Kinsey, Jarhead, and the upcoming An Education.

If you have missed the ubiquitous and creepy posters for his new movie with Vera Farmiga, Orphan, let me give you a quick synopsis. After Kate Coleman (Farmiga) has a stillborn baby, she and her husband John (Sarsgaard) decide to adopt Esther, a deadly serious Russian orphan who wears ribbons around her neck and wrists and old-fashioned ruffly dresses played by Isabelle Fuhrman. But things keep going wrong when Esther's around... hence the tagline in those ubiquitous and creepy posters with the tagline "There's something wrong with Esther."

After a long weekend of interviews and roundtables, Peter Sarsgaard was kind enough to talk to me over the phone about his favorite horror movies, the Orphan protests, and much more.

By Todd Gilchrist -- 5/28/09 -- Cinematical

As encouraging as it must be for a filmmaker to be recognized or associated with just one iconic film or franchise, Sam Raimi is the creative force behind two of them. He launched his eclectic career almost 30 years ago with the original Evil Dead, a horror classic that spawned two sequels and countless imitators, and then established himself as an A-list adaptor of comic book material with Spider-Man, which also begat sequels, and perhaps more importantly, several billion dollars or so in worldwide grosses. His latest film, Drag Me to Hell, is a return to the genre material that helped make a name for himself, albeit with the sensibility of a guy who survived one of Hollywood's biggest franchises, and took a few lessons away from the experience to boot.

Cinematical recently sat down with Raimi to discuss his new film, and the director demonstrated that in addition to being a hit machine with the mind of a born moviemaker, he's also a smart, generous, and remarkably humble fellow. While discussing his work on the film, he took time to respond, and kindly, to folks who both love and hate his legacy, before deconstructing his acrobatic cinematic style, and finally, digging deep to find a few films that meant something special to him as a young cineaste. And while he managed to pick consummate summer movie experiences that, quite frankly, didn't actually happen during the summer, the convenience of a Google search and the forgiveness of a grateful nation lying in wait for his films more than makes up for his lack of seasonal accuracy.

Read the rest right here!