FIRST OF ALL, I just got in the early numbers for the SLiTHER DVD, and it's performing far, far above Universal's expectations. People kept telling me that it was going to do well on DVD, but I would never assume that would be the case. But this is very good news (especially for our investors).
SECONDLY, I've been trying to clean up my office over the past couple of days and, in doing so, I came upon a CD full of SLiTHER photos that I don't remember getting. I thought I'd share a few of them with you here (NOTE: the below photographs may have some SLiTHER movie SPOILERS.)
One of my favorite parts of doing SLiTHER was goofing around with the two strange, funny little girls who played Emily and Jenna, Kylie's sisters. That's Amber on the left and Matreya on the right.
We'd often meet in a huddle so the key players would know what was happening in a scene. L to R: Marty McInally, the cameraman, Brian Knight, the AD, Stephanie Rossel, my script supervisor, Brad Van Arragon, the production manager, me, and Greg Middleton, the Director of Photograpy
Sometimes I'd act out stuff for the actors; here I'm being Grant screeching at Bill Pardy.
Many of the effects in the movie were a combination of prosthetic and digital. With Grant's arm, a puppeteer would swing it around, and then we'd digitally remove the rod and the puppeteer from the shot - still much cheaper than making a realistic CG arm.
Sometimes the prosthetics didn't look how I wanted. Here, the dead dog looked too much like a bear to me, and didn't really look dead. So we reshot it later, and also messed with the shot digitally in post a bit.
This photo hasn't been fucked with, but the sky was so fucking blue that day! I remember being very happy as so many of our days were rainy. This particular day of shooting was very easy - until Nathan got an eye infection later than night.
I love working with animals, even though they're a pain in the ass. This was a trained dairy cow who was very tame and would nuzzle you until you pet her. It's for reasons like that I don't eat cows. Oh, and Elizabeth looks cute here.
This is the exterior of the Henenlotter Saddle Lodge (named after BASKET CASE director, Frank Henenlotter), which was never seen in the final cut of the film. On the DVD outtakes, you can see Bill Pardy put down the two rednecks who fuck that inflatable deer.
Margaret gets gleeked on. Shots like this are a pain, because if you don't get it right the first time it takes a half-hour or so to clean the actor up before you can shoot them again with the phlegm-gun.
Some cute pics of my wife as Shelby Cunningham. Before...
And after.
At the SLiTHER premiere after-party, we had huge posterboard photos from the film all over the walls. One of the posters was this, which I took from the party, and now have hanging in my office.
We called this huge puppet "Tandoori" because he looked like a piece of Tandoori chicken. This puppet didn't look so great close up, but you can see him in the wide shots in the film coming through the field. He was surrounded by puppeteers in black ninja costumes, who we digitally removed. It was a heck of a removal process, because we had to deal with removing puppeteers from every frame in-between all the blades of grass.
Another view of Tandoori (and another view of me in my red fuckin' hat - and don't think I didn't read that Paddington Bear crack on the JG Appreciation page.)
Me and Gregg Henry. Gregg as the Mayor is one of my favorite parts of the movie, and the test audiences love him. I think he only had one line cut from the final film. MORE TRIVIA ABOUT GREGG: He's the consummate professional. When we first did the gag reel, he wasn't in it at all, because he'd never be the one to crack up during a take. So I had them add lines he said in the movie as segues.
Sometimes Nathan looks like a big elf to me. Here's a good example.
On a horror movie set, the absurd becomes normal after awhile.
I love carnage!
ALSO,
There are a few links you guys might be interested in.
The wonderful Staci Wilson has posted an interview with me and Rooker at About.com, right here: http://horror.about.com/od/oncamerainterviews/v/vid_slitherdvd.htm
She's also posted two more clips from the Visual Effects segment of the DVD extras, here:
http://www.slithermovie.net/media/slither_creatureslife_1_700k.mov
And here:
http://www.slithermovie.net/media/slither_creatureslife_2_700k.mov
Another nice SLiTHER review from the good people at Dread Central: http://www.dreadcentral.com/index.php?name=Reviews&req=showcontent&id=1142
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
"How did the whole 'I'm Bill Pardy' mantra get started?" - Ambra
Well, I believe this was something Nathan originally just mumbled to himself to get into character. (This wouldn't be noticed – he's always mumbling to himself. He's one quarter homeless man in that way). The first time I ever heard him say it was on the corner outside the school when Trevor and Margaret approached him and he forgot his line; you actually see it on film in the 'Who is Bill Pardy?' segment. From then on, Nathan said it whenever he was in the slightest bit of trouble.
There was another catch phrase on set, which was, "Hey, everybody, look at me, I'm Nathan Fillion, and I'm a fuckin' asshole!" In place of Nathan's name, you could put whoever you wanted to fuck with.
"Is it true that Nathan Fillion is going to be on lost?" - Peter
Yes. He'll be in Kate's backstory. I know more details, but I'm not sure what's out there yet, and don't want to ruin it for you. Right now I really only watch four shows - The Office, 30 Rock (which is fucking great), The Wire, and Lost - so I'm stoked myself.
That's it for now. Remember to watch SLiTHER this Halloween. And, if you're in L.A., come see me in the Upright Citizen's Brigade show this Sunday.
Go with Goo,
James