Interview: J.R. Bookwalter: Past, Present, and Future. - Part Two
J.R. Bookwalter's Tempe Entertainment has been a driving force in the no-to-low budget independent film industry. Sycowalt gets inside J.R.'s head and shows us what he's thinking.
L-D: Let's talk about Tempe as it is right now. Why was this summer the right time to strike out on your own?
JRB: The decision was actually made at the beginning of this year, and I signed the deal with Ventura back in February or March. I made the decision to finally break away from Full Moon/Shadow after DEADLY STINGERS, this giant scorpion flick I directed and produced for Charlie Band at the end of 2002. But the truth is, I had started doing the DVD thing in late 2001...I took baby steps to see what worked and what didn't, so by the time I signed with Ventura over a year later I felt confident in what I was doing.
Actually, in all honesty I picked the worst possible time to do this...the DVD market is totally beyond saturated and few people are making any real money, let alone surviving! But we got off to a good start...in late May we went national with our TOWNIES Special Edition DVD and right out of the gate had a nice Best Buy and Musicland order, there have already been re-orders so it's selling well. The verdict is still out as to whether or not that's a fluke...
L-D: What was/is the relationship between Charles Band and yourself? Was your split from Full Moon amicable?
JRB: No, it was not amicable. Things started to come to a head around the time I was hired to produce & direct DEADLY STINGERS...making that movie didn't help matters. But the final straw was they owed us some additional monies for the release of SKINNED ALIVE and STREET ZOMBIES. It became clear that once I decided to part company with them, no effort was going to be made to pay us. I did eventually get the money, but I had to be clever about it and it wasn't paid voluntarily, let's put it that way. (laughs)
L-D: Tempe will not be releasing any of their current or new titles on VHS. Isn't this DVD-only strategy a tad overzealous, epsecially when you're just trying to get "your foot in the door" so to speak with rental and retail chains?
JRB: No, VHS is history. When I licensed SKINNED ALIVE and OZONE (aka STREET ZOMBIES) to Charlie Band for the Wizard Video label in late 2002, the big retailers were buying about half VHS and half DVD. By the time STREET ZOMBIES came out in January of this year, Hollywood Video chose to only take DVD, which they also did for GROOM LAKE. I had done both formats for my own SKINNED ALIVE and TOWNIES releases in 2002, and the VHS version was a resounding dud. It's simply not worth the extra expense to do it anymore, although I would certainly grant any retailer's request to make a VHS version available if they were ready to buy in a substantial quantity.
When I signed with Ventura, my goal was not to really even mess with rental...in my opinion it's a dinosaur anyway. I haven't rented from a video store in years...I'd rather support a company like Netflix, who has found a smarter way to do it. At any rate, I had my sights on sell-through only, with sales to Best Buy, Musicland, Suncoast, et al. We're keeping our retail prices low to encourage people to own the titles.
L-D: Will Tempe be actively looking for films to add to its stable, or is the Tempe label just for your films?
JRB: As a label, Tempe DVD was designed to get our catalog titles out as Special Editions...I like to think of it as "proper burials" for our old movies, many of which were finished at a time when the technology hadn't quite caught up to where we are now. So this is a chance to go back and fix some mistakes, spiff the movies up a little bit and present them to a new audience. We're trying to take full advantage of modern technology, and most of our SE discs have 5.1 surround mixes — not the bogus kind where they take a stereo mix and try to spread the sound around, either. We have painstakingly rebuilt the sound from the original elements and have done full 5.1 surround mixes. I don't know of any other underground company who has even attempted such a thing!
Thus far, Tempe DVD has only released films that I have produced, with one exception: TOWNIES. That was made by my old friend Wayne Alan Harold back in Ohio, and it was a film I liked very much. I also have the DVD rights to EDDIE PRESLEY, an unreleased "dramedy" directed by Jeff Burr (LEATHERFACE) which we'll be releasing early next year. I'm in talks with a few different people on other acquisitions for the label, but for the immediate future it will primarily be these films and the rest of our existing catalog.
L-D: Will Tempe continue to specialize in horror and cult films, or will the the genres in the stable diversify?
JRB: I'm afraid the retailers don't have much interest in horror these days, and to be honest my own interest has been waning for years. I'm still a fan and always will be, but I'm not too impressed with the horror being made these days. So, we'll definitely be diversifying...probably a lot more than our competition, in fact. There will be a few titles that people will be wondering why the hell we're putting them out, but I'm trying to go against the traditional marketing mentality. Most of the other underground labels seem content to focus on amateur gore and white trash lesbian movies, but I'm more interested in the quirky stuff that takes a little more work and TLC to get out there.
TOWNIES is a perfect example...it's a $300 movie shot on Hi-8mm and processed as black & white, with no nudity and a comic book cover. It's not even a horror movie...it's more like an early John Waters flick! But yet it's selling and it's getting good reviews. Last year at this time when I first released it I was pretty disappointed in the sales, but with Ventura's help the movie is finding its niche. In this day and age, I don't know too many distributors who would have the stamina to tough it out with something like that. But the bottom line was, I liked the movie and I believed in it. And it's now the best-selling Tempe DVD yet!
L-D: How does the Splatter Rampage imprint fit into Tempe's new marketing plan? And what do you think will set Splatter Rampage titles apart from their competition?
JRB: My initial idea for Splatter Rampage was to create a series of no-budget gore flicks in the old H.G. Lewis tradition...those plans are still on the back burner, but in the meantime I launched the label with some of Chris Seaver's splatter comedies. As crudely made as his flicks are, they're really funny and over-the-top...I was introduced to MULVA: ZOMBIE ASS KICKER! by Debbie Rochon while making DEAD & ROTTING, and eventually the tape got passed around the set and everyone thought it was hilarious. So I made a deal with Chris to include it on my HELL ASYLUM Limited Edition DVD, and during that time he shot FILTHY McNASTY with Debbie so that wound up as an extra on the DEAD & ROTTING Limited Edition DVD.
Well, before I knew it, Chris' following grew and some of the reviews of those discs even favored his flick over the one that was supposed to be the main feature! So I figured giving those titles their own Double Feature DVD was in order, since I had originally cut 15 minutes out of MULVA for the HELL ASYLUM release and Chris was willing to put together some new extras. At that time, Chris also offered me QUEST FOR THE EGG SALAD, which I figured was a no-brainer since it was a parody of LORD OF THE RINGS. It's not as gory as the first two, but there's definitely "splatter" in it. (laughs)
The third release in November, 2003 will be SPLATTER RAMPAGE WRESTLING...I was offered a cool little flick called MIDNIGHT SKATER and these kids had a trailer on the same tape for this crazy backyard wrestling video. I threw out the idea of putting it out as well, since the matches get pretty bloody and it had a different take on this whole extreme sports thing. So I wound up licensing both titles from them. I think Splatter Rampage is going to grow over time...the best is yet to come.
L-D: One thing that Full Moon always received accolades for was the amount and quality of content on their DVD's, which your Fat Cat Post service had a hand in. Should customers expect the same high level of content from a Tempe DVD?
JRB: I have to point out that the Full Moon DVDs sucked pretty badly until we started working on them! Step one was to throw some commentary tracks on a few discs like HIDEOUS! and HEAD OF THE FAMILY, and when I heard that Charlie planned to release TOURIST TRAP on DVD, I harassed him until he agreed to let me track down the cut negative and do a new anamorphic 16:9 transfer. He liked the idea so we did the same thing for his movie BLOOD DOLLS, which had even more extras.
After directing WITCHOUSE 2: BLOOD COVEN, Charlie knew there was no way I was going to settle for a bare-bones DVD! With the help and encouragement of their VP of DVD, I kicked things up another notch...WITCH 2 not only had a great 16:9 transfer but also a 5.1 surround mix, which was a first for Full Moon. And I busted my ass to create the most extras they'd ever had up to that point. It was the debut of the Lunar Edition, and we did similar work for HORRORVISION and THE VAULT. By that point, it was becoming financially unrealistic to keep giving Full Moon free extras — they were only willing to pay for a making-of featurette and commentary — and I was ready to take my own plunge into DVD.
I negotiated for the Special Edition DVD rights to WITCHOUSE 3: DEMON FIRE, HELL ASYLUM and DEAD & ROTTING, and those were the first 3 official releases. I'd say WITCH 3 is probably the best disc we've ever done, but really it's hard to choose because we've pushed the envelope to deliver as much quality with as many extras as possible. SKINNED ALIVE followed, then TOWNIES, which was the first non-Tempe movie to be released from us. And that leads us to the latest release, BLOODLETTING. In all cases, we have spent an extraordinary amount of time and money to remaster the older movies from the best possible materials. This was something that Full Moon was reluctant to do.
L-D: The 2003 release schedule will feature mostly reissues and remasters of Tempe's older works with just a few additional titles thrown in. What's in store for 2004?
JRB: The first title up in 2004 is the OZONE Special Edition — originally planned for this September, but the market was so slammed with horror titles that I decided to postpone it, which was a shame because the disc is done and ready to go. It's got the same remastered picture and 5.1 sound from the STREET ZOMBIES release, but a ton of special features...I really think it's probably our best disc yet!
Also on deck from Tempe DVD are Special Editions of EDDIE PRESLEY and POLYMORPH...we're mixing the 5.1 surround for POLYMORPH in August, and that's definitely a movie that will benefit from a new mix! The rest of the year will include some older stuff like THE SANDMAN and ROBOT NINJA, plus the new film from the director of TOWNIES, called ABERRATION BOULEVARD. There's also a great documentary on scream queens called SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT, which will be tied to the DVD release of the old SHOCK CINEMA series. Splatter Rampage will be unleashing a gory flick called MIDNIGHT SKATER, as well as the DVD debut of GHOUL SCHOOL, and there are one or two others pending.
I think the most exciting news is our October, 2003 launch of BAD MOVIE POLICE. This is an idea I've had for years, which started as a joke I used to make that someday there'd be a knock at the door and it would be the Bad Movie Police coming to arrest me for crimes against humanity. (laughs) So, I developed the idea into a series of comedy sketches that introduce truly bad movies, sort of in the MST3K tradition but with our own slant. Ariauna Albright (BLOODLETTING) and Lilith Stabs (CREMAINS) star as a pair of dominatrix cops who head up a task force dedicated to putting away bad filmmakers, of course looking sexy while they're doing it! Everyone we've shown the first two "cases" to so far have loved them, so I'm hoping we're really on to something here. There's nothing else like this out now, that's for sure. We've already got a third episode in the can for release in early 2004 and I'm hoping to shoot two more by the end of the year.
L-D: Is Tempe still accepting unsolicited submissions of finished films?
JRB: My mailbox has been filling up with screeners from all over as soon as the news broke...and I have yet to ever solicit screeners from anyone! Of course the initial idea is to get all of the older flicks out as Special Edition DVDs, and there are a few acquired titles sprinkled into that mix for good measure. I've been getting a lot of the overflow from places like E.I., Sub Rosa and Brain Damage...there are only so many places for these underground movies to wind up, after all. But for the most part I'm avoiding taking on anything that resembles what those labels are handling...we've got a few smaller in-house productions planned, and I'll probably direct a feature next year for release by Tempe as well. So it will be a mix of acquisitions, catalog titles and new stuff.
L-D: What is the status of the sequel to DEAD NEXT DOOR?
JRB: Sadly, there is no status. After a few deals have gone sour, I've pretty much put this one to bed for now. Usually we get interested parties, then either they don't come through with the money or they want too much control for the money they are willing to give. I feel that THE DEAD NEXT DOOR has a solid enough reputation behind it that we should at least be afforded the same luxury I had on the original...to be left alone to make the movie. I'm perfectly willing to do it for cheap, as long as "cheap" is more than the first one. So I don't have a lot of faith that this one will ever get made, but who knows...stranger things have happened.
Earlier this year, I briefly flirted with the idea of remaking the original DEAD NEXT DOOR. I can't really stand to watch the original anymore because it's a very amateurish production and I've done so much better work since. But, there's something about the original that people like, and I don't claim to know how to capture that lightning in a bottle again. We could remake it, but it would certainly be a different movie...I'm 18 years older and wiser now. (laughs) I talked myself out of the remake as quickly as I thought about it...the fans have been tortured enough with all of these awful remakes!
L-D: Will you be behind the camera anytime soon?
JRB: As of this writing, no. DEADLY STINGERS really sapped me of the will to get back in the saddle again anytime soon...I rarely direct more than a movie every couple of years anyway. The whole industry has changed, and I'm a little too educated for my own good now to just go run out and make a new movie, knowing the way things are. I'll probably direct something next year for release on my own label, but it will likely be a black comedy...as I mentioned, my heart is just not really in horror now and I feel confident enough after the two WITCHOUSE sequels to take a stab at something else. That's not to say I'll never make another horror movie...but I do need a break from it.
L-D: Let's discuss some other aspects of your career. What was it like being part of the all-star B-movie cast of the upcoming ZOMBIEGEDDON? How did you get involved in the project?
JRB: I have to confess, I only agreed to be in that movie because I figured no one would see it! It hasn't been released yet, but it's getting talked about everywhere and my name keeps getting brought up as a "selling point". (laughs) I knew one of the producers through a mutual friend...he approached me about coming out to do a cameo, so I reluctantly agreed to it.
My part is very small, I'm just a "crazed man" who runs out looking for help from the two leads...I turn out to be something I'm not and I wind up losing my head. (laughs) They also wanted Ariauna Albright, so together we flew out to Kansas City, then had something like a 4-hour drive to the location. I think we pulled into town around 2 am, and they wanted me in makeup at 5 am or some crazy hour! I got a little sleep, then it was off to the set. I spent an hour or so in makeup, then we shot for what seemed like 10 minutes before I had to go remove the makeup and do the first part of my scene. I think I was done within 2 hours, including travel to the set and makeup! (laughs)
I can't really say much about working with the rest of the cast, because my scene only involved the two leads — Paul Darrigo, who I've known for years and co-starred in WITCHOUSE 3, and Ari Bavel, who I had met at a convention prior to the shoot. But those guys are both cool, and while they shot Ariauna's scene we went across the street to have some lunch. It was all good fun, something quick and simple. I haven't seen my stuff yet, but I can assure you that I suck...despite what the producers keep telling me. (laughs)
L-D: Do you like acting? Would you consider doing it on a regular basis?
JRB: Oh dear God, no! I'm not an actor. I hate it! Of course I did it in my old short films because you were always hard up for people, and on DEAD NEXT DOOR I took one of the small supporting roles after two different people bailed on me and I got fed up with looking for a third. After that I made a habit of throwing myself in there somewhere, just as a goof...but the last one was OZONE, shot in 1992! Probably my biggest cameo was in STEEL & LACE, in a scene with David Naughton and Squiggy from LAVERNE & SHIRLEY! I pretty much "retired" after that except for a voice cameo in CURSE OF THE PUPPET MASTER. I don't plan to do much of it anymore, especially now that so many people are singling out this cameo in ZOMBIEGEDDON! (laughs) I'm also a zombie extra in DAY OF THE DEAD, which probably remains my acting highlight.
L-D: What's a day in the life of an aspiring movie mogul like?
JRB: Probably pretty boring! Actually, I don't consider myself an "aspiring movie mogul"...unlike everyone else in this business, I have no interest in doing whatever it takes to work my way up the cinematic ladder. I'm perfectly happy doing things in "baby steps" as long as there's forward motion. It's amazing because I've had many people in my past stab me in the back or try to slit my throat to "get ahead"...it's really dumb, because the business at this level is very small and none of these people have ever gotten anywhere from this approach.
I just keep to myself, in my little corner of the underground. I do keep in close contact with a few other filmmakers, and I know many others from being around so long. It's a small world, believe me. I spend a lot of time on the computer — probably too much! I live a pretty peaceful, solitary existence by choice...I don't drink, smoke or do drugs so that pretty much rules out much of a social life. (laughs) Ask my cat and she'll tell you I'm probably one of the most boring people there are!
L-D: Do you watch movies regularly?
JRB: Yes, definitely...almost nightly! I am a huge DVD nut...I timed my move from Ohio to L.A. to correspond closely with Warner's original DVD launch back in 1997, and I've been voraciously collecting ever since. In the last couple of years, I tend to only buy the stuff I really know I'll watch more than a few times...the rest I rent from Netflix, a company whose system I can't praise highly enough. I don't get to the theatre all that much...I prefer to wait for DVD because I hate the hassle of standing in line and dealing with obnoxious audiences. But I did get out to catch THE HULK and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN recently, both of which I dug. So yes, I definitely watch a lot of movies. Right now I'm trying to get through a backlog of the DARK SHADOWS discs...I loved that series as a kid but I've never seen them all.
L-D: As an artist and a viewer, are there any people doing inspiring work? Is there anyone out there you'd like to work with before it's all said and done?
JRB: I have to confess, as I get older I become less interested in what's new and trendy. Most of the stuff people are raving about online tends to be the stuff I shy away from. I suppose I'm a bit old-fashioned, but the older stuff holds up and I can still watch it now and feel the same way I did about it when I first saw it. I read about movies online like MAY or HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES that everyone is hyping up, then I see them and it's a bit depressing...they don't hold much interest for me. I guess I'm just turning into an old fuddy-duddy. (laughs)
The one person who has never disappointed me is George A. Romero...okay, I confess that I thought BRUISER was not his best work when I finally saw it, but as I always say, I'd take a "bad" Romero film over most people's "good" movies anyday! But Romero is the one guy who has inspired me more than anyone...it's a goddamned shame that he's being shit on right now. They're remaking DAWN OF THE DEAD but he can't get his own DEAD movie off the ground? It's criminal.
As far as actors go, I'd give up a testicle to work with folks like Jennifer Connelly, Gene Hackman, Nicole Kidman, Ben Stiller, Asia Argento, Alec Baldwin, Christopher Walken, Ed Harris...how much space do I have? It's a long list. (laughs) But I'm very happy to have worked with many of the people that I have, and most of them are great actors in their own right!
L-D: Are there any up-and-comers out there working in B-cinema that you think has truly underrated talent?
JRB: I wish I could say yes, but the truth of the matter is I don't follow a lot of the stuff now, except what is sent to me as a distributor or occasionally what filmmakers will send to me asking for my opinion. Wayne Alan Harold is doing some great stuff, as I mentioned before I liked TOWNIES a lot and the new film he's working on now looks like it will also be cool. I gave Danny Draven his first break on HORRORVISION and HELL ASYLUM and he's come a long way with his most recent efforts, DEATHBED and DARK WALKER. Somebody needs to give this kid some real money! There are also these crazy kids back in Kent, Ohio — Andy & Luke Campbell, they're brothers — who did MIDNIGHT SKATER and the wrestling video we're distributing. They've got a lot of potential.
It's hard for me to cite many others...there are many that don't come to mind at the moment, but honestly many of the movies that get sent to me I have a hard time watching more than a little bit of them. There are so many people making movies now and it's a little depressing to find that most of them don't even know the mechanics of what makes "real" movies work — I'm talking about camera angles, editing, pacing...the nuts & bolts kind of stuff. And don't get me started on the bad scripts and acting, or lack thereof! (Iaughs) It just takes a little more effort to find that "diamond in the rough" now...there are only so many hours in the day.
L-D: Do you have any final thoughts for our readers? Any predictions or pearls of wisdom?
JRB: I wish I could say something really enlightening and positive, but I think the world is in such a bad state right now...and I don't just mean the movie biz! I predicted years ago that the advent of camcorders would bring us a lot of really terrible movies, and that when that happened, there would be no fans left to support them, because they'd all be too busy making their own movies. And that about sums up where we are in 2003!
It took a lot of things to make that happen...THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, higher-quality camcorders, Apple's desktop video push. Taken individually, these are all great things...but the underground in particular is now saturated with a lot of crappy movies! In the past few of them ever got distribution, but sadly there are now more outlets for this stuff than ever before. The result is, the retailers are cutting back because the stuff either isn't selling or buyers are complaining. And that affects everyone who's making the stuff, and it becomes harder for the good stuff to get seen.
There's certainly nothing wrong with folks picking up a camcorder and doing it themselves...hell, I have encouraged many to do it for years. Uncle Ben said it best in SPIDER-MAN: "With great power comes great responsibility." These filmmakers need to do their homework first! There's more to making movies than pointing a camera at someone and saying "Action!". When I was a young pup starting out, we made Super-8mm short films in our backyards and they didn't get distributed...hell, they rarely got seen outside of friends & family! I made something like 50 short films over 7 or 8 years before I ever tackled a feature. Practice makes perfect...before you inflict your dubious talents on others, learn your craft and have something to offer. Please!!! (laughs)
I'm going to misquote a line from JURASSIC PARK that sums it all up...I think it was Jeff Goldblum's character that stopped to muse, "They were too busy figuring out how to do it, and nobody stopped to think if they should." •
