Joe Dante has long been
one of the leading directors
in the sci-fi/horror genre,
having expertly leapt
between low budget
terror (1978’s Roger Corman-produced
Piranha), classic creature features
(including 1981’s The Howling and 1984’s
Gremlins) and more innocent fantasy
romps (such as 1985’s Explorers and
2003’s Looney Tunes: Back In Action).
Recently the filmmaker has channelled
his talents towards the small screen,
helming two episodes of the hit Masters
Of Horror television series – including
this year’s ‘The Screwfly Solution’, which
is due to hit UK DVD soon. So, when
SciFiNow caught up with Dante it was to
look to the future as much as it was to
chat about the past…
Tell us about your latest project,
‘The Screwfly Solution’, which is
part of the second series of Masters
Of Horror…
It is a short story that has been in a lot of
anthologies and it is about a plague that
drives men to rape and kill women.
That doesn’t
really sound
like a Joe
Dante movie…
No it is not (laughs).
It has very little
humour – almost
none in fact. It
is even shot in
a completely
different style, I did
it in hi-def, and it is
all handheld. It is
sort of a departure
I guess.
Your last
Masters Of
Horror entry,
‘Homecoming’, was a very angry
piece of work – a zombie film that
aimed its barbs towards the current
American government…
Yeah, it filled a need. I did not see
anything like it being made anywhere
else. I think that with the gravity of what
is going on in the world somebody should
be doing something like this. Somebody
should be making a drama or a comedy
about it. So it just filled a void.
So presumably you’re not so keen
on the current US administration?
I don’t hate them. I just think that they are
ruining the country (laughs).
Right now some critics are saying
that films such as Hostel and Saw
are also reflective of the time – and
that they are using torture to reflect
the situation in Guantanamo Bay
and Iraq. Do you agree?
Yeah – I think that a lot of the direction
horror movies take has to do with the
politics of the era in which they are made
and it is no accident that torture is on
everybody’s mind seeing as how in our
country we seem to have legalised it
and we seem to be promoting it. It is not
surprising that people would suddenly
find this a good subject for horror movies.
It always has been – but usually we would
have been the good guys and now we are
the bad guys (laughs).
Your early work under Roger
Corman, such as Hollywood
Boulevard and Piranha, were done
very quickly and on tight budgets.
Can you draw any parallels between
that and doing Masters Of Horror?
It was actually nice that these pictures
were done very quickly. When you were
working for Roger Corman there was a
feeling that your film didn’t have a lot of
shelf life so you could be fairly topical
because it would be out in a couple
of months. So, yeah, this is really the
same thing – you shoot for ten days on
Masters Of Horror, your postproduction
is about six weeks and then you mix it
and two weeks later it hits television. So
you can still be current, which is good
because usually a movie takes a year
and a half to get made and if you make
any topical jokes you worry that it might
not be topical any more when the film
comes out.
You had your first really big hit with
The Howling. Yet, over the years,
you have been very critical of the
book that the movie is based on…
No, I learned my lesson, I was a little
more arrogant in those days and I was
giving interviews and I didn’t really think
the book was very good and I forgot that
there is a person who wrote the book and
who might read these things. And so I’m
doing interviews talking about all that
stuff – how the book isn’t much good and
how we’ve improved it – and one day I’m
at the Hollywood Scriptwriting Institute
and it’s some kind of lecture series. I’m
talking and I start bad-mouthing the
book. And this guy raises his hand from
the audience and he says, “So you don’t
like the book huh?” and I said, “Well no,
not really” and he says, “Because I wrote
that book” and there he was – Gary
Brandner the guy who wrote the book.
Plus I think it was televised, I think they
were shooting it for some reason. So I
was caught, I was had – there’s no doubt
about it, he got me. And he never had
a particular love for me after that. On
the first page of The Howling 2 script a
woman is walking her dog and the dog’s
name is Dante, so that gives you an idea
of the type of guy that Gary holds me
up as...
Did you keep up with the sequels to
The Howling?
Oh no – who could do that? Honestly?
Now, who could really watch those
movies? No I have not kept up – I don’t
even know how many they are up to. I
was at some market a couple of years
ago and there was a poster for either
Howling 8 or 9 or 10 or whatever that I
guess somebody was trying to get off
the ground but, you know, jeez – talk
about a misused franchise. I mean, half
the time the pictures aren’t even about
werewolves… it just has no direction
whatsoever. Anybody who can buy the
rights can make a picture and stick that
title on it...
Were you offered The Howling 2?
No, the title was owned by one of the
producers and the writer of the book. So
no one ever offered me The Howling 2.
I don’t know, someone must be making
money off these pictures but it certainly
isn’t me. I am not even making money
from the first one! I got offered other
monster movies though. I got offered
Humanoids From The Deep and Orca
2 as well – which they never made, I
talked them out of it. I got offered giant
turtles and giant alligators (laughs). I had
an earache at the time from going into
the swimming pool so the last thing I
wanted to make was another underwater
movie but, yeah, that is what happens. If
they had been making a lot of werewolf
movies after The Howling then I am sure
they would have offered me more of
them. But I think that the wham bam of
American Werewolf and The Howling was
enough for them to say “okay, okay – that
is enough.”
You never got to do the sequel to
Piranha either…
Uh... no, that was Jim Cameron who
did that. That was actually a whole new
group of people – it was an Italian guy
called Olivia Assonitis and he apparently
kicked Jim out of the editing room at
the end. I remember Jim did run me
the picture and he was very solicitous
as to what I thought of it and I told him I
thought the piranha stuff was pretty silly
but that the human stuff was actually
good and that he had nothing to be
ashamed of. I guess he wasn’t happy with
the cut.
And then they remade Piranha,
of course…
Yes – and the guy who directed the
remake for Showtime actually called me
up and asked me if I wanted to be in it. I
said, “Thank you but no.” Then I said, “So
where are you shooting it?” and he said,
“Well just around here in LA” and I said,
“Well we had to go to Texas – we couldn’t
find any water around here – where’s
the water coming from?” He says, “Oh
that’s all coming from your picture.” I
couldn’t really complain because my first
movie was catalogued from about five
or six other movies – I just wished him
good luck. I saw the movie and the only
problem was that they remade the movie
but they remade it straight so it wasn’t
funny. All these lines, which were comedy
lines in the first movie, are now played
totally serious. It didn’t work for me.
Does the continued merchandising
of Gremlins surprise you? Gizmo
toys are still everywhere…
Well the merchandising of the first film
was an afterthought. They expected
it to be a horror film and studios don’t
merchandise horror films. Then they saw
Gizmo in the dailies and they suddenly
decided they could merchandise it
and that went into overdrive. They
were frantically trying to get all of
these products out in time for the
movie’s release.
You made fun of the merchandising
when you did Gremlins 2…
In Gremlins 2 we just made fun of
everything so we didn’t want to skimp on
the merchandising, although Warner Bros
certainly did not think that it was very
funny (laughs).
Who came up with the Gizmo song
in Gremlins?
Oh, that was Jerry Goldsmith. I think
it was hummed by a little girl from
his synagogue.
In Gremlins you have that joke about
Santa Claus and then you reveal that
he does not exist. Considering the
movie was advertised with Steven
Spielberg’s name figuring heavily,
did you have any upset mothers
and fathers?
I think there were some people who were
unhappy about the Santa Claus gag but,
you know, it seemed to me that it wasn’t a
movie for eight-year-olds anyway – I mean
it’s really for older kids. But there was
much more concern about the microwave
scene – you know, “The kids are going to
watch the movie and put the poodle in the
microwave and watch it go splat.” And I
just said: “You know what, you guys are
crazy. Kids are not stupid! If a psychotic
kid puts his poodle in the microwave it is
not going to be because he saw it in this
movie, it’s because that’s what he did – I
guarantee you no one is goin
g to put their
sister in the microwave.”
Are we going to see Gremlins 3?
I heard a rumour that they were trying to
make Gremlins 3 but I don’t know. I think
it’s too late – it’s been too long, and also
if you make Gremlins 3 today with CGI,
I think you’re sort of stumped, because
the other movies were created around
the limitations of the special effects. They
were all puppets – there’s only so much
you could do with them. There was a little
bit of stop motion, a bit more stop motion
in the second one, but for the most part
there was a limit to what you could do
and you had to work around those limits
and that’s what caused the pictures to
be what they are. Now there’s no limits,
now they can do anything – they can fly,
they can jump up and down, there can
be hundreds of them all over you... and I
don’t know what the story would be that
would go with that.
We have heard they plan on
remaking The Howling…
Sure, they will remake The Howling. I
get a call every week asking me about
the rights – which is very complicated. I
am sure that someone will also remake
Gremlins – they will remake everything
eventually (laughs). They are talking
about remaking Explorers just now at
Paramount and that was a complete flop!
It lost a fortune. Now it does have a small
cult of admirers but it is like, “Why would
you want to remake a movie that you
wouldn’t let us finish in the first place?”
What about a director’s cut of
Explorers? Seeing as how you never
got to finish the movie…
Well a couple of years ago a friend of mine
and I tried to go to Paramount and
ask if we could do a director’s cut
of Explorers and their attitude was “You
are lucky it is even coming out on home
video.” So the answer is no.
So what is next for you?
I just worked on a feature called
Trapped Ashes, which was a favour
to the producer. Sean Cunningham,
Monte Hellman and Ken Russell are also
involved – and the effects guy from The
Matrix, John Gaeta. It’s good to see Monte
Hellman back because it’s been 17 years
since he made a picture. I also have this
movie I want to do about Roger Corman
directing The Trip and I think it is a good
script. I have been spending a lot of time
hawking that around. But these days
when people come to me with a film it is
usually something that I wouldn’t want to
see let alone make (laughs).
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