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[SXSW Interview] Ti West and Jason Blum On Their New Western ‘In a Valley of Violence!’

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SXSW In A Valley of Violence Review

Ti West’s latest film In a Valley of Violence (my review) had its premiere at the 30th Annual SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Conferences and Festivals, and I was fortunate enough to get to sit down with Ti West and Jason Blum the day after the premiere. The interview took place on the back patio of Trio, a restaurant in the Four Seasons in downtown Austin. Rather than bore you with every single piece of dialogue that occurred between the three of us, I thought I would just post the highlights of the interview for you all to read. Enjoy!

Bloody Disgusting: What made you want to do a Western?

Ti West: I grew up with Westerns and it’s just always something I’ve wanted to do. I love the genre and to finally be able to get to do this is just amazing.

BD: I’m someone who didn’t grow up with Westerns. It’s not my favorite genre and it’s just not something I’m used to. That being said, I really liked the film.

Jason Blum: That is fantastic. That is exactly what we want to hear. I’m glad you liked the film.

BD: Westerns are a hard sell for the general audiences. Are you nervous about marketing it?

Jason Blum: You know I [pauses] I know that Westerns are a more difficult sell to American audiences, but I wouldn’t say I’m nervous. We are definitely aware of the challenge it will pose, but not nervous. It’s going to be a platform release. We just aren’t sure of the details yet.

BD: Westerns are sort of making a comeback now with films like Bone Tomahawk. Did you feel like the tide was turning on the reception of Westerns.

Ti West: That’s exactly what I was going to mention. This is the perfect time for this movie because of films like Bone Tomahawk now coming out and getting a great reception.

Jason Blum: We think we’ve caught the trend at just the right time and we’re confident in the film

BD: Was there a scene that you found particularly difficult to shoot or choreograph?

Ti West: Not difficult, per se, but I remember the heat. The very first scene of the movie was our second-to-last day of shooting and it was hot. We were filming in New Mexico in temperatures of 116 degrees and at that point I think that everyone was just so over it. So it’s not difficult in the traditional sense, but it was a very trying day for us.

BD: Jason, I feel like this is very different from a lot of the usual films you put out. What made you want to work on this? And are you seeking out non-genre films?

Jason Blum: I don’t think I’ll ever leave genre films, and those will always be my primary focus, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity like this. Also, Ethan [Hawke] wanted to do a trio of films with me. For reasons that no one, not even myself, will understand, he wanted to do a horror movie, which was Sinister, a science fiction movie, which was The Purge, and a Western, which is In a Valley of Violence. I had sent him a bunch of Western scripts, maybe four or five, and he turned them all down until we pitched him the idea and he loved it.

BD: I’ll try to ask this next question without sounding like a dick

Jason Blum: Oh you can be a dick. That’s alright.

BD: Alrighty, here I go. I’ve seen Taissa Farmiga in quite a few things, and she’s just never really resonated with me that much. Even in The Final Girls, she still plays that same role of the glum teenager and you cast her as this bubbly young woman with a strong personality. Thank you for that.

Ti West: Well thank you, but really it’s all Taissa. As a director I can only do so much. I feel like there are limited roles for young women outside of the ones Taissa has been playing and I was happy to give her the opportunity to play this character. I think she really knocked it out of the park.

BD: I was surprised by the amount of comedy in the movie. Did you know when you were writing the script that it was going to have a lot of comedic elements?

Ti West: Writing the script I infused a lot of comedy in it, but I could only do so much. The actors really saw the humor in the script and brought so much to it. There’s a lot of gallows humor, which I think is fairly typical in my films. I just sort of planted the seed and the actors really helped it thrive throughout the course of the shoot.

BD: This is your first big ensemble film with a rather high-profile cast. Did you hold auditions or did you pitch it to actors?

Jason Blum: Well Ethan we pitched it to, but Travolta had actually read the script once it was done and reached out to us.

Ti West: Yeah, I got the call saying John Travolta wanted to be in my movie, and that’s not exactly the sort of call that I’m used to getting. He is a big, big name and it was wonderful that he wanted to do it. He brought so much to the character. All of the actors brought a lot to their characters. Even James [Ransome] who, as Gilly, is basically the most despicable character in the movie, gives him some endearing qualities.

Keep reading Bloody Disgusting for news on the film’s release. Even though it’s not a horror film in the slightest, we’ll still be covering it (because we’re rebels like that)!

A journalist for Bloody Disgusting since 2015, Trace writes film reviews and editorials, as well as co-hosts Bloody Disgusting's Horror Queers podcast, which looks at horror films through a queer lens. He has since become dedicated to amplifying queer voices in the horror community, while also injecting his own personal flair into film discourse. Trace lives in Austin, TX with his husband and their two dogs. Find him on Twitter @TracedThurman

Interviews

“I Don’t See Retiring from This” – Joe Bob Briggs Talks New “Last Drive-In” Format and the Show’s Future [Interview]

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Hey everybody, have you heard the news? Joe Bob is back in town!

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs has returned for its sixth season on Shudder. While the show’s format has been slightly revised adopting a new biweekly schedule with one film instead of a double feature the beloved horror host’s approach is much the same.

“It didn’t really change anything,” Briggs tells Bloody Disgusting. “We were crowding all of our movies into 10 weeks once a year and then having specials, and we found that people would rather have more weeks. It’s actually more movies than we had before.

“And some of the people on the East coast fall asleep in the second movie,” he laughs. “It’s about a five-hour show when it’s a double feature because we talk so much. Also, it’s hard to get thematic double features every single time. So our specials are still double features, but our regular episodes are single features.”

The season kicked off last week with The Last Drive-In Live: A Tribute to Roger Corman, celebrating the legendary filmmaker’s first 70 years in Hollywood with a double feature of 1959’s A Bucket of Blood and 1983’s Deathstalker. The special was filmed live in front of a fervent audience of Briggs’ fan base lovingly dubbed the Mutant Family at Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree in Las Vegas last October.

In addition to his usual hosting duties, Briggs conducted a career-spanning interview with Corman and his wife, fellow producer Julie Corman. They were also joined by one of Corman’s oldest friends and collaborators, Bruce Dern. In a heartfelt moment of mutual admiration, Briggs and Corman exchanged lifetime achievement awards on hubcaps.

“I’ve known Roger for about 35 years, so I’ve only known him for half of his career,” Briggs chuckles. In his long history of reviewing, interviewing, and talking about Corman and his legendary work, one emblematic encounter sticks out to Briggs.

“I remember the very first time I went to the Corman studio, which was a lumber yard on Venice Boulevard. He had a standing set for a spaceship control room, a standing set for a strip club, and I think he had one other one, and then he had all of his editing facilities there, but it was still a lumber yard. They had not really changed any of the buildings or anything.

“He’s showing me around the studio, and we were walking past a pile of debris, and I said, ‘Roger, is that the mutant from Forbidden World?’ It had just been thrown over in a corner. And he just said, ‘Yes, Joe Bob, I believe that is. He was apparently no longer needed.’ I said, ‘Roger, you gotta get with it! That stuff is worth money.’ But he was like, ‘When the movie’s over, the movie’s over.’ That was Roget to a T.”

At least part of Corman’s longevity can be attributed to his shrewd business practices and pragmatic approach to the industry, which has included working in every conceivable genre of cinema. “I couldn’t think of a single genre he has not made,” Briggs says.

“When we did this interview at the Jamboree, I said, ‘I’m gonna name the genre, and you tell me what you love about that genre,’ and every comment that he made involved money and box office performance,” he snickers. “None of it was involved with love of cinema, although I did get him to say that his favorite genre is a genre that he didn’t dabble in much other than his first movie [1954’s Highway Dragnet], and that was film noir.”

While the fourth annual Drive-In Jamboree is still in the planning stage, Briggs is delighted by the event’s continued success. “The Jamboree is something that we literally just threw together. We’ve had three of them now. It’s something where we just show up and try to come up with programming for each day.

But I really think the Jamboree is more about the mutant family meeting the mutant family. It’s more about people who know each other online gathering and partying with each other in person. It’s not so much about what movies we have. I mean, we always have an anniversary movie, and we always have some special guests and everything, but it’s more about the gathering of the mutants. It’s fun from that point of view. They’re exhausting, I can tell you that.”

The zeal among Briggs’ audience has only grown over the years, from hosting Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater on The Movie Channel from 1986 to 1996, to MonsterVision on TNT from 1996 to 2000, and The Last-Drive-In on Shudder since 2018. “I’m amazed, having been in the business for this many years, that I still have a show at this time, because they say you can’t repeat TV,” Briggs notes.

“Nobody wants to see old TV, and yet I’ve done the same show three times on three different networks, and every time I try to change it everyone says, ‘No, no, don’t change it! That’s the part we love.’ I always want to do something new, and I’m always told, ‘No, you’re the CEO of Coca Cola who went to New Coke.’ You can’t do that. People will revolt. So we’re still doing it.

“It’s one of the few shows that I know of that’s just sort of grown organically over, gosh, almost 40 years. We’ve just added elements to the show. We try things. If something doesn’t work, we throw it away. If something works, we do it forever!”

The mutant family will be happy to know that Briggs plans to continue hosting and writing about movies for as long as he’s able to. “I don’t see retiring from this or retiring from writing. I’m primarily a writer, and the good thing about writing is long after they don’t wanna see you on TV anymore you can still write.

“The difference today, though, is I was pretty much the only guy doing genre films when I started. Now, there are academics that do it. There are entire books written about Dario Argento and Tobe Hooper and even lesser names than those, and there are, of course, a massive number of websites, including your own, so that when something comes out today, there’s immediately a hundred reviews of it; whereas in 1982, I was sort of the only guy, because the movies were considered disposable trash. So I have been surpassed in my deep knowledge, because who can keep up with all that? It’s impossible!”

Diana Prince, who serves as Briggs’ co-host Darcy the Mail Girl and was instrumental in getting him back in the hosting chair, has been promoted to an associate producer this season. “She was sort of always the associate producer, but I guess they finally gave her the title,” Briggs explains.

“Diana Prince is in on all the decisions about programming. I always listen to Austin Jennings, the director, and Diana Prince, the mail girl, because they come from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of what kind of movies they wanna watch, and we try to strike a balance between. You know, she’s not gonna vote for Possession, and he’s not gonna vote for Mountaintop Motel Massacre,” he chortles.

“They’re probably the principal advisors, as far as what we show. Of course, [Diana] has a lot of social media clout, and she’s extremely knowledgeable about pop culture. Wow! She has seen everything. She’s seen more than I’ve seen!”

While surprises are part of the fun of The Last Drive-In, Briggs previews some of what’s in store this season. “The place we normally live is the neglected ’80 slasher, and we still live there,” he assures. “But we’re gonna pay a lot more attention to the ’70s especially. I’ve always thought the ’70s are more interesting than the ’80s anyway. And we’re gonna pay attention to some really recent stuff.”

He teases, “We’re gonna bring back Joe Bob’s Summer School, which is something that we used to do at MonsterVision. And we may have a marathon. There’s a possibility of that. But I’ll be digging this new format of being on every other week between now and at least up to Labor Day.”

While Briggs’ hosting format hasn’t changed much across four decades, the world around him certainly has and that’s why The Last Drive-In remains relevant. He points out, “In the era of streaming, where everything is menus and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of choices, we are that thing called a curator that can direct you to the fun places on the spectrum of streaming.

“Streaming is very confusing for people, and a lot of people don’t like it for that reason. I hope what we’re doing is cutting through the weeds and bringing things into perspective. And, you know, it’s just more fun to watch a movie with us!” he concludes with a Texas-sized grin.

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