Adam Green is among the most prolific of the current crop of modern horror directors. Not only has he created the successful Hatchet franchise—of which he directed the first two installments—but he has also directed films like Frozen and Digging Up the Marrow. He is also the showrunner and star of Holliston, which ran for two seasons on FEARnet and will continue on GeekNation in the near future.
Green also owns his own production company, ArieScope Pictures, which not only produces all of his films—and Holliston—but broadcasts several online series as well, including 20 Seconds to Live, Adam Green’s Scary Sleep Over, Horrified! And more.
And then, of course, there’s The Movie Crypt. A podcast initially created to tie-in and raise awareness for the second season of Holliston, the show—which consists mostly of Green and co-host Joe Lynch talking to other filmmakers about their time in the industry—has grown into something much bigger. It’s an incredibly important resource for all up and coming filmmakers. Hell, you don’t even have to be a filmmaker to listen to it, you just have to like movies and experience the occasional struggle that you don’t think you’ll be able to overcome. And everyone does, so The Movie Crypt is for everyone.
Now Green and Lynch are doing something truly amazing and kind of unfathomable, hosting a three day long, uninterrupted live broadcast of The Movie Crypt this weekend to raise money for Save a Yorkie Rescue, Inc. The event will include live script readings, commentaries, guests who have never been on the podcast before and much more, which you can read about below.
You can donate to The Movie Crypt’s Save a Yorkie Rescue Marathon here.
Wicked Horror: How long has the live podcast been in the works, in terms of planning?
Adam Green: We first thought about it a little over a year ago. It was the first time that I’d worked with Save a Yorkie Rescue, which was at an appearance at Monster Mania in March of 2015. I came back from that and I was telling Joe all about it and we had been trying to think of something we could do with the charity, something for good, like a two hour special about Substance Abuse and Addiction, which helped a lot of people. Last Christmas we did a two hour interview with Santa Claus, which really brightened a lot of people’s holidays. But we wanted to do something to give back, and so it made sense on a number of levels given that both Joe and I are dog rescuers ourselves and that Arwen, my Yorkie, is the face of our show.
We were originally hoping to do it by Christmastime, but there’s a lot of technology involved with it in doing the live broadcast and we were working with GeekNation to have that stuff set up, but then Joe became busy with production with Mayhem. So, finally we found a weekend where we could finally do it and it’s probably been a solid three months of working heavily on it, just trying to program it the best way possible and make it so that we’re always kind of doing something different every hour or every two hours.
It’s hard enough just doing a weekly podcast, getting the guests together, but trying to get everybody in the same place on the same weekend was not easy.
Green: Well, the good thing is that everybody, as soon as they heard about it, everybody wanted to do it. Not a single person that we reached out to said no. They say “yes” and they request a time slot and then two days later, that time slot won’t work and can they have this time slot? And you have whatever it might be, like forty, fifty people doing that. So it’s been hard, especially these last few days leading up to it, I’m expecting that a lot of stuff like that is going to happen.
So far, so good, and…
Joe Lynch: I’m here to inform you that I’ve actually cancelled my appearance at the marathon, sorry.
Green: Well, Joe Lynch has cancelled, so…
Lynch: You’re on your own, pal. I hope you enjoy forty-eight hours of talking to yourself.
Green: Wouldn’t be the first time.
Lynch: I was gonna say, this is probably going to be a very easy thing for you. Thank you for having me, even though I kind of just bombed it. I Skype-bombed you.
Green: We’re doing a live test in a few minutes just to make sure everything’s working, so we’re both in the same place at the same time.
WH: Okay. Wow. So, okay, I know you want to both keep a lot of surprises for this weekend. But I know you’ve announced a couple of things already, so what are the things you’ve already come out and said or can say as to what will be going on during the podcast this weekend?
Green: Well, okay, let’s see one of the biggest things will be that we’ll be doing a live script reading of a very early draft of Chris Columbus’ script for The Goonies.
Joe Lynch: Just call it Chris Columbus’s Goonies.
Green: It’s very different from the movie we all know and love. Same story, most of the same characters, but for instance, Mikey who was played by Sean Astin in the movie is actually Chinese in the original draft. And Data is black. And there’s a couple of crazy scenes with a rhinoceros, uh, I don’t want to ruin it.
Lynch: This is actually, what we’re trying to do secretly is kind of kickstart the idea of making this the reboot of The Goonies. Incredibly un-PC, but with a diverse cast, obviously.
Green: Yeah, diversity’s in!
Lynch: This could be the one. If Richard Donner can’t do it, we’re gonna take the mantle.
Green: I just think it’s cool that here you have a movie that everybody knows and loves and then to get to hear the original draft and see just how different it actually was…. In terms of script readings, another thing we’re doing that will be exciting, a lot of people know that I had written a draft of Cabin Fever 2 back in 2004. We had Ti West on the podcast and if people listen to his episode they can hear the whole fiasco with what happened, but I had written one and there were all these politics and that whole deal. And then it was a few years that went by and Ti was working on his version and that didn’t turn out to be the best experience ever so now for this weekend—it’s going to happen late on Friday, on that first night—we’re going to be doing a reading of my Cabin Fever 2.
It’s a much more traditional sequel. It starts where the first one ended and goes on from there. It’s going to be really cool for horror fans and especially fans of Cabin Fever to get to hear the movie that might have been. And we’ll be ending the entire weekend with a reading of an episode from season three of Holliston. The whole cast will be there except for Dee Snider. He won’t be there because he’s performing at a show in Germany this weekend. But the rest of us will be there and it will be the first new Holliston material that fans have heard in two years.
So that’s exciting. We also have musical performances, Rudy Sarzo, from Ozzy Osborn and Quiet Riot, is coming to play some music for us and Jesse Snider who does our theme song is coming to play some original music. Jason Charles Miller, who a lot of people know from the band Godhead, now he does his own solo country stuff. He’s coming to play. We have lots of interviews. All of the interviews we’re doing are with guests who have never done the podcast before. A lot of comedians, a lot of improv.
We also have some film commentaries. There’s only one that we haven’t announced yet, which we should be announcing tomorrow, we’re just trying to get it in stone. We’re going to be doing a commentary for Fright Night and Tom Holland will be joining us, we’re doing a commentary for Candyman with Bernard Rose and just announced today we’re doing a commentary for The Devil’s Rejects with Sid Haig and Bill Moseley joining us. So those will be really fun. And then another thing that we’re doing that we think is really cool is that a clairvoyant is stopping by.
I know that’s going to be pretty polarizing for people, because you either believe in the other side or you don’t. Typically, unless the clairvoyant is doing a reading for you specifically, it’s hard to fully believe it. But I’ve known this woman for fifteen years now, Marilyn Kapp, but Joe’s never met her and she’s never met Joe. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens there. Another interesting thing about Marilyn is that she can communicate with animals, so the fact that she’s going to be able to tell us what’s really on Arwen’s mind is going to be pretty fascinating.
Clive Barker gave us a story for us to read. Joe Hill gave us a story to read. It’s going to be pretty eclectic and it’s going to be hard, man, to stay up that whole time, but I think the fact that we know what’s coming next, the adrenaline is just going to keep us going.
WH: I know you guys have said that you never expected Movie Crypt to be so big, starting as essentially marketing for the show, but did you always have it in mind to make it sort of an inspirational tool for up-and-coming filmmakers?
Green: I mean, I think that’s just sort of our nature. I think from doing conventions sort of right out of the gate, and festivals… if you’re going to do an appearance and people line up to speak to you afterwards, as filmmakers, if your only an actor a lot of time people tell you they loved your work, or whatever. But when you’re a filmmaker who has somehow successfully gotten a movie made, a lot of the time it’s other filmmakers who speak to you and ask “how do you do it?” And “what should they do?”
Everyone is so quick to always tell you how hard it is. “Don’t do it.” Or “it’s not gonna happen.” And both Joe and myself have always tried to be the guys who say “Look, if we did it then you can do it.” All you can really do is share your experiences. Where I think the podcast has become really inspirational is that you have these artists on who people would perceive as having made it because they’ve gotten movies made and people can watch them and know them and hopefully enjoy them. But I think it helps when they hear how hard it was for them and that everyone’s journey is different and that the struggle continues. There’s never a point for most people where you’re like “Well, I did it, now I can just coast.”
The business is constantly changing. So I just think it helps when you can hear that. And the fact that fans can ask questions and have these various artists answer them. Which is really exciting about the live event, because typically what we do is pre-record the episodes and then air it. But we’ll be doing this in real time, so people will be able to ask questions live on twitter. Or if it happens to be during a time when we’re doing Periscope or some sort of other live chat, they’ll be able to speak directly to us and the guest. Which I think is going to be pretty exciting.
Ultimately the whole goal is to save as many dogs as we can. Our usual listening audience fluctuates between 5 and 6,000 people a week. So I don’t expect that many people to tune in for this live event, but a good number of them will be. And a lot of them are even planning on staying awake with us for the whole thing, which is pretty exciting. Hopefully those same people don’t just take advantage of the entertainment that we’re giving out for free and that they do make a donation.
We’ll be able to see in real time as people make donations, so that’s gonna be pretty cool. So to make a donation and then to hear us say “Thank you, Nat, for making a donation.”
WH: I know you’ve also got the Holliston comic book coming out, Friendship is Tragic, how did that come together?
Lynch: I don’t know, Adam, why don’t you tell us how that came together?
Green: Well, over the years, I’ve been approached by a lot of artists and different comic book companies that were interested in that property. Usually, I would hear them out and then sort of politely say no because that project is so near and dear to my heart.
Lynch: You were just very skeptical that they wouldn’t be able to get your voice.
Green: Yeah. But what I didn’t want was to say yes and then create all this work for myself where I have to keep rewriting them and fixing it, where I was going to have to write it because I didn’t have time for it. And then especially when Dave Brockie passed away and FEARnet went under, I was in such a dark place with the whole thing.
But when Travis McIntire from Source Point Press contacted me, there was just something different in speaking to him. Where it wasn’t just “I’m interested because the show has a big following, you guys will promote it and we’ll make money.” He really, really loved the show for all the right reasons. He showed me the writing samples and showed me what the art would be like and together we came up with the story would be. I really just let them try.
When I read that first draft, I’m sitting here with the pen and paper out, ready to just have notes on every single thing. But before I knew it, it was over, and I just enjoyed it. I still had notes, of course, but it wasn’t anything that big. I mean they really understood the show.
Lynch: You gave me more notes than I think you gave them notes. You were always going “Wow, that’s so impressive that they nailed it.” Everytime I would come in, you’d be like “Jesus Christ, they’re still getting it.” It was really impressive.
Green: They did a really good job. And I think the difference is that Source Point Press is a newer company. Same thing like when we did Holliston with FEARnet. It’s important to be with a place that needs a success and is really hungry for it and that has something to prove. Because if you go to a place that already has a number of successes going, they sort of make things and throw them against the wall and see if they stick. You don’t want to end up in that pile, so Holliston was very important to them and they really needed it to be a success. They stepped up in ways I never thought possible.
Lynch: The art! The art was amazing.
Green: They came to me at a time when I’d become disenchanted with it and basically took what I had created and pushed it back in my face and it made me able to enjoy it and love it again. It drastically affected the writing process for the upcoming season. It saved me. The hope is always that the creator of the property will give it their endorsement. But I love, love this comic. It’s so good. Fans of the show are going to absolutely love the comic.
