Interview with Brett Piper about Bacterium, his upcoming full feature.
Brett Piper is the man behind features like “Shock-o-rama”, “Bite me!” and “the Screaming dead”. All of them are extremely low budget films having one thing in common: they all star Misty Mundae. But besides that, there is more to link those films. One link for sure is the fifties b-movie attitude that comes with his pictures and that is not different for his upcoming picture “Bacterium”.Reason enough for Razor Reel to sit down and talk with the man and let him explain his vision on politics, nuclear warfare, economical disasters and French fries… or should we stick to movies?
RR : Can you tell us a bit about you last movie, Shock-o-rama. From what I heard it definitely moved something amongst the genre fans in the states and it was featured on Cinema Wasteland amongst others. On the other hand here in Europe there is no word of Shock-o-rama? Are you going to come to the European festivals with this film next season?
Shock-O-Rama is an anthology film, similar to Creepshow (but more similar, on reflection, to a “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween episode of The Simpsons). It hasn’t received a wide release yet but has been screened at a couple of festivals and seems to be getting a very good reception from fans. I’m not sure if there’s any plan to bring it to European Festivals. That would be a question for the EI Marketing Department.
RR : As soon as we got the word, that you were making a new movie we got interested but from what I heard this one will take it even further into the fifties b-film. Is this correct? And what is Bacterium about?Bacterium is about a government germ warfare project that gets out of control, unleashing a mutated killer organism. People are comparing it to The Blob although it actually reminds me more of The Quatermass Experiment. I suppose it has something of the fifties B-movie feel I’m becoming associated with. That’s fine with me, I love that stuff.
RR : I heard Christina Christodoulopoulos is once again involved in this film. As I’m correct she was also involved in some other films of yours. Furthermore I take notice that Bacterium will be your fourth film for Ei-independent Cinema and that some of the actors of your previous films are showing up again for bacterium. It was a common thing to do in the forties & fifties to work with “stack” actors for one studio. Was this done on purpose to recreate the complete b-movie scene or is this just something that is happening?
Christina produced Bacterium, as well as serving as production designer (and assistant director and a dozen other jobs, just like everyone on a micro-budget production). She’s been involved in all my films at EI. She started out as prop person on Screaming Dead, was the first person we hired back for Bite Me (this time as production designer) and finally ended up designing and effectively co-producing Shock-O-Rama, which led quite naturally to her being hired to produce Bacterium.
Bacterium features less of the EI “stock company” than my other EI productions (no Misty Mundae or Julian Wells, for example) although many of the supporting players (John Fedele and Michael Thomas, for example) show up in smaller roles. This isn’t so much a tribute to the regular contract players that populated many forties and fifties movies (and also the Hammer Films of the fifties and sixties) than simply a reflection of the fact that these people are available and reliable. It’s always good working with them.
RR : On the teasers I saw, there's an ingenious slimy blob monster, a helicopter chase and a very believable car crash. On first sight this cannot really be a low budget film? Isn’t it?It’s a very low budget film. I’m not at liberty to divulge the actual budget but I think you’d be shocked if you knew what it was. Getting car crashes and helicopters and blob monsters on the screen is really a matter of spending your money wisely and working your ass off.
RR : When do you expect this movie to be out? And do you plan anything special regarding it’s marketing? Targeting Europe maybe?
I’m not really sure when Bacterium will be released. I’m still working on post production now. My guess would be late in 2006. It would be great to target Europe (although that phrase has unpleasantly warlike connotations!) but, again, that’s up to EI’s Marketing Dept.
RR : Well here at razor reel we like to thank you for your time and really hope to see more of bacterium in the near future. Meanwhile don’t hesitate to keep us updated!
You’re very welcome.