Interviews
Tommy Wirkola’s “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” TV Spinoff to Have New Creatures and Cast (Exclusive)
Aside from his latest film What Happened to Monday hitting Netflix today, Dead Snow director Tommy Wirkola says he’s been busy the past six months working on a variety of projects – mainly, preparing Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters for the small screen.
“I had an idea for the sequel story so I wrote the first draft of it, but that was it for me, but as far as I heard now, the film is pretty much dead, but what we’re doing now, I’m back on board with the producers Kevin Messick and Adam McKay and those guys, and we’re developing it into a TV show with Paramount and MGM, who are the studios who financed it, so Mark Verheiden is writing the pilot as of now, Mark, of course, is a big writer, lastly he did Daredevil and Evil Dead and as of now, he’s writing a pilot right now, and we’re hoping to take it out to networks in the near future.”
According to Wirkola, he will not only oversee the television adaptation in its entirety, but he will also direct the pilot episode, and possibly some thereafter.
“I will be involved in that whole process, and I will direct the pilot, so I think it’s very exciting, it’s an idea that really suits television, just the nature of it, in that world you can really go to a lot of different places and have fun with it, so it’s exciting, we’re writing a pilot right now and we’re having fun with it.”
Although Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton originally starred as Hansel and Gretel in the Wirkola directed R-rated film, he says that the TV show would bring on new actors, but maintain the same bloody, gritty nature as the original feature.
“It’s gonna be re-cast and it’s gonna be a little bit of a reset on that front, but both Paramount and MGM have been really supportive and really encouraging actually to push the tone as much as we want and keep it R-rated, and even doing the film, there was still some restraint on how far we could push it and how far we could go, but now, they’ve been saying to us, go out there with it and have fun, so we’ll see. But so far they’ve been really supportive of how far we wanna take it.”
Wirkola also mentions that there will definitely be more than just witches in the television show, especially since the format allows for the story to shift in several different directions.
“I think it’s natural that in that world, there would be all different kinds of supernatural beings and creatures, it’s just in a way, it’s a fairytale world and we’re living in it, so there are no limits to where we can go.”
As far as his other upcoming projects, Wirkola says he’s been working tirelessly on a comic book adaptation of Irredeemable for Adam McKay. In the original comic, a superhero named Plutonian goes mad and begins wreaking havoc on the citizens of earth, attempting to wipe them out completely from existence. His former allies attempt to put a halt to his mischevious deeds, but their efforts are seemingly no match for his overwhelming power.
“Right now, what I’m doing is I’ve been writing the past few months, in addition to writing the pilot for Hansel and Gretel, I’ve also been writing a superhero movie for Adam McKay called Irredeemable, but he’s directing it, it’s a super R-rated fun crazy superhero movie based on a comic called Irredeemable and it’s such a fun experience and really crazy source material that’s so timely, and it’s so relevant right now because of the situation of superhero and superhero movies, so I’ve been basically writing the last six or seven months on these two things. As far as directing, I’m not sure yet, but I’m developing a couple of things, and I’m reading scripts, so I hope to be behind the camera again soon.”
Wirkola’s What Happened to Monday is now streaming on Netflix.
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.