Interviews
[Interview] ‘Bushwick’ Filmmakers On the Film’s Political Inspiration
The directing duo of Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott came storming into the scene a few years back with the now way cult classic Cooties. Cooties is the rare horror-comedy hybrid that actually happens to be equal parts scary and equal parts funny. We called it a relentless riot. Their latest film, Bushwick (read our review from Sundance), takes on a much different tone. This film takes place during a modern civil war — a truly frightening concept given the current political climate.
Murnion and Milott were kind enough to chat with Bloody Disgusting about Bushwick and what it’s like to work as co-directors. Please note that this interview was conducted via email and the duo handled the answers much like they do director duties, as a pair.
Bloody Disgusting: The premise of Bushwick is very relevant to the modern world. Was there one specific event that helped shape the film or was it a combination of things?
Murnion & Milott: This movie was originally inspired by a quote we saw in 2009 from the former governor of Texas, Rick Perry. He “joked” that Texas should secede from the United States. This was when Obama was in office so there was an undercurrent of racism in his statement. We then thought about what would transpire if Texas followed through on this “joke”. We also wanted to explore how it would feel if American military invaded U.S. cities the same way they invaded other countries around the world.
BD: Piggybacking off that first question a bit, how much input on the overall story did you two have as directors? You worked with two wonderful writers in Nick Damici and Graham Reznick. Did they have most of the story fleshed out or was there a lot of collaboration between all parties involved?
M&M: They are indeed both fabulous writers and we were lucky to have them work on this project for us. We had written the story for the film before meeting them, but then they both brought a tremendous amount of new ideas to both the story and the characters when they worked on the script. We then also worked a lot with both Dave Bautista and Brittany Snow on their characters Stupe and Lucy.
BD: What impact do you hope the film has? When an audience gets up to leave after watching the movie, what do you want them to take away?
M&M: First and foremost we hope people leave feeling that they sat through an exciting, tense, thought provoking experience like none they’ve watched before. We also hope this movie comes across as a cautionary tale for what can happen when people turn to violence instead of peaceful protest. War is never the answer.
BD: The cast of the film is wonderful. Dave Bautista seems destined to be an action star and in fact if this were the 80’s I think he’d be a lot more popular than he already is. What was the experience like working with him?
M&M: We totally agree! But we think he’s even better than those 80’s action stars – he has a rare combination of strength and vulnerability that those stars didn’t have. He can be indestructible in one scene and completely broken in the next. He’s lived a very unique life that he brings to the characters he plays. Dave is a director’s dream to work with – he’s extremely dedicated and is always looking for new ways to make the movie better. There’s a big scene towards the end of the movie where his character, Stupe, opens up for the first time to Lucy. Dave told us he had a story he wanted Stupe to tell. He told us the general idea of the story but none of the details. So what you see on screen is directly from Dave’s heart and it was the first of three takes. It’s very raw and real, which is very much who Dave is.
BD: My last question isn’t specific to Buschwick, but just the two of you in general. What is the balance like when directing as a pair? Are their specific tasks each of you handles on every film? Do you mix it up? Both of you just do everything? What is the dynamic like?
M&M: We’ve been working together for over fifteen years so we’re like brothers. We work together on everything we do. We collaborate on a project from start to finish. During the actual shoot we’ll divide up the scenes so that there is one person that the actors and crew can look to for major decisions, but we’ve already worked things out between us in pre-production. It’s so helpful to have someone else to bounce ideas off and to discuss things with. There have been SO many times where we’ve helped each other that it’s hard for us to imagine what it must be like for all of those solo directors out there.
Bushwick is currently available in select theaters and on VOD.
Interviews
“I Don’t See Retiring from This” – Joe Bob Briggs Talks New “Last Drive-In” Format and the Show’s Future [Interview]
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.