Robert Burnett, the co-creator of “Free Enterprise” talks to Horror Crush about his latest project, “The Hills Run Red” and the state of horror films today. EXCLUSIVE!! Robert Burnett has provided with the first look of his teaser animatic that helped get “Hills” funded.  Click here to check it out!

HORROR CRUSH: Well, let’s start with that very interesting story behind “The Hills Run Red”. What is the story?

ROBERT BURNETT: The story really begins in the summer of 1989.  I’d just left my senior year of college, which I spent in the USC School of Cinema Television, and got a summer job as the art dept. assistant on New Line Cinema’s LEATHERFACE - THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III.  The film was written by David J. Schow, who’s work I was already a fan of.  He’d coined the phrase “splatterpunk” in the mid-eighties in reference to writers of extreme horror, such as Clive Barker, John Skipp and Craig Spector and himself.  He’d also written novels like “The Kill Riff,” numerous short stories, and a regular column in Fangoria magazine, “Raving and Drooling,” so I was already a huge fan.  We became friends on that movie, and over the years I’d hang out with him at House of Pies in Los Feliz or go to his house for some terrific parties where I’d hobnob with other horror luminaries.  In addition to his continuing to write novels and short stories, Dave eventually went on to write THE CROW and a number of other movies and television shows.

Director Dave Parker and I worked together as editors in the promotions dept. of Full Moon Entertainment in the early ninties, working on such memorible titles as THE LURKING FEAR, ARCADE and SPIRIT OF THE NIGHT.  When I founded my own company, Ludovico Technique in 2002 to produce DVD special editions, I brought Dave on board as my regular editor.  Together, we worked on the DVD special editions of THE USUAL SUSPECTS, X-MEN and X2 and SUPERMAN RETURNS for director Bryan Singer.

In 2004, I took both Dave Schow and Dave Parker with me to New Zealand to cover the entire behind the scenes of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE for the eventual DVD.  Dave Schow covered WETA down in Wellington while Dave Parker covered the principal photography in and around Auckland.  This was sort of a trial run for the three of us working together.

It was always my intention to have Ludovico start producing movies and in the back of my mind I’d always sort of believed I’d be making them with these two guys in some capacity.

Then, in the summer of 2006, Fever Dreams, a subsidiary of the New York-based Media Blasters, came out to Los Angeles to meet with various production companies about producing two of their screenplays, WICKED LAKE and THE HILLS RUN RED.  They were planning on shooting each of these films for around $350,000.00, much like their previous feature, FLESH FOR THE BEAST.  However, FEVER DREAMS hoped to attract better talent which would take their productions to the next level of creative success.

I saw this as a perfect opportunity for Ludovico Technique to produce its first motion picture and for me to fully produce a feature film.  I’d previously co-produced both AGENT CODY BANKS features for MGM, but my involvment on the actual production of those films extended only to developing the screenplay for the first one, so I was itching to take a film from beginning to end on my own.

Dave Parker responded to the original HILLS screenplay, so it made sense he’d direct it and I’d produce. Both of us felt as currently written, the script needed A LOT of work, so Dave and I tapped our friend David Schow to do what was essentially a page one reimaging of the original Fever Dreams material to which Fever Dreams readily agreed.  The two Daves worked for a number of months re-crafting the HILLS script into what it eventually became.  Both Dave Schow and myself are avid readers, so there were many times we discussed Theodore Roszak’s terrific novel FLICKER, which definitely became an influence over the screenplay.

During this time, Fever Dreams also wanted us to create a “teaser” trailer for the film which they could later use to promote it to potential foreign buyers.  I also think the Fever Dreams principals, John Carchietta and Carl Moreno, wanted to see a bit of Dave Parker’s directing chops before they fully committed to his vision of the film.  So Dave and I discussed using the image of the movie’s masked killer, Babyface, and the “Theater of the Dead” location to sell the kind of film we wanted to make.  Dave went ahead and wrote a short script which was quickly approved by both Fever Dreams and myself.

As if we were shooting a commercial, I insisted Dave storyboard every shot in the teaser so we’d know exactly what we needed to get during our one-day shoot.  Dave was able to convince Michael Broom, an incredible illustrator who’d already made a name for himself on movies such as THE MIST, to board Dave’s teaser script.  After we had the beautiful boards, I then made Dave cut the boards into an animatic, add sound effects, and create as close an approximation of the finished teaser as possible.  This finished animatic was very effective and everyone who saw it became very enthusiastic about working on the teaser itself, which is how we were able to get favors from our very talented group of friends, including ace cinematographer Ron Levy.

We did a one day shoot inside the Vine theater on Hollywood Blvd to create the teaser.  We tapped many of our friends in the horror community, including Ryan Rotten from Shocktillyoudrop.com, to come be extras for the day.  We needed an entire movie theater filled with mutilated corpses, so we were lucky our friends were eager to help out.  The makeup effects company Monster EFX agreed to do the makeups for us gratis because of their previous relationship with Dave Parker.  Our good friend Bryan Singer even dropped by to see what we were up to.

The finished teaser really turned out well and served to illustrate Dave Parker’s clear vision for the film.  After seeing the teaser, Bryan Singer suggested we take the material to Warner Brothers, specifically to their direct-to-video division Warner Premiere. So Bryan called up Warner Premiere president Diane Nelson on our behalf and asked her to take a meeting with us.  So Dave and I took the finished teaser and Dave Schow’s new draft of HILLS to both Diane Nelson and executive Matt Bierman for consideration.  The meeting went great and after a few weeks, Warner Premiere decided to make THE HILLS RUN RED as part of their ongoing deal with Joel Silver’s Dark Castle Entertainment.  What began as a small project for fledgling company Fever Dreams was now a Warner Bros. movie Executive Produced by the legendary Joel Silver!

So, in May of 2008, Dave Parker and I went to Sophia, Bulgaria to shoot the film.  We shot for 24 days and I think the final result speaks for itself.  The final film was completed in April, 2009 and had its world premiere in June 12th at the Seattle International Film Festival.  It will play at various festivals throughout the summer before being released on DVD just in time for Halloween.

HC: You are the Producer of ”The Hills Run Red”. Do you prefer producing over directing?

RB: It’s really a completely different animal.  Many people have asked me what a producer does and I tend to give them a military analogy.  Moviemaking is like going to war.  Your objective over the course of many weeks is to manage your people and resources to complete your shooting schedule…to win the war in a sense.  The director is the General, with a vision in his head of just how to achieve this objective, which is to capture on film during the alloted period the best material possible.  The producer’s job is to make sure the Director has everything he needs on the battlefield, people, equipment, locations, food, etc. to achieve this objective.  Its a very challanging task, with obstacles at every turn, such as schedule, weather, budget…you never know when a new crisis will pop up that needs to be solved immediately.  One small item overlooked, whether it be a location agreement, a broken camera lense or a thuderstorm, can cost you a day off your shooting schedule.  You just have to be ready to deal with anything at any time.  But when you succeed, there’s nothing better.

That being said, what I really want to do is direct again.

HC: It is the 10 year anniversary of your film “Free Enterprise”.  Any celebrations in the works?

RB: Not really, although we are having a 10th anniversary screening at the San Diego Comicon this year which I’ll be attending.

HC: We think you were the first to cross boundaries with “Free Enterprise” in that someone didn’t have to be a Star Trek fan to enjoy the film. Was it easier to get this film made because of that?

RB: It absolutely was.  While my co-creator Mark Altman and I used our own obssession with Classic Star Trek as a jumping off point, we were always aware the film had to appeal to a mass audience.  So even though the specifics the characters discuss might be lost on those in the audience who don’t know Trek, they can still understand these guys are just really, really obssessed with their own interests.  Everyone understands or even knows someone that is immersed in something, whether it’s sports, rock and roll or whatever.

HC: So….FREE ENTERPRISE - THE WRATH OF SHATNER. Wow! Do tell.

RB: Mark and I have a script.  We’ve met with Shatner in May and he’s very interested.  We’re currently putting the finishing touches on the screenplay and we have some strong distribution interest.  With the recent success of JJ Abrams reinvention of the Trek franchise, there’s never been a better time to make a sequel, to paraphrase the Romulan Ambassador from Star Trek VI.

HC: I’m sure you don’t want to disclose too much, but if you can get Leonard Nimoy on board, what will his role be?

RB: We’ve never actually approached Nimoy to be in the film, but let’s just say, for a moment, he was in fact, a part of the script.  Obviously, his almost half century of professional and personal association with William Shatner, including insights only he might have into Bill, would have to play some kind of  role in our story, or so I’d like to believe.  Maybe.  If Nimoy were a character in the story and I’m not saying he is.

HC: As the ultimate Star Trek fan, what were your thoughts on the J.J. Abrams film?

RB: I have notes!  Actually, I thought the cast was terrific, the direction and production values were amazing and it reintroduced the franchise to audiences in high style.  The film did a tremendous job of serving both the longtime fan and those who may never have seen an episode of the original series.  I love the fact that 10 year old kids who see it can then go watch the remastered versions of the original series and discover what I loved about Trek when I was a kid.  But I sure would like to serve as a creative executive during the development of the sequel script!

HC: Do you feel partially responsible for the success of the Star Trek films because you re-introduced the franchise in a hip way before it was cool again?

RB: I wish!  In my mind, the original series was ALWAYS cool.  I believe people have always loved Kirk, Spock and McCoy, which is why going back to those characters for the latest movie was so inspired.  What really “did in” the franchise was the lack of creativity exhibited in the two later series, VOYAGER and ENTERPRISE. The characters in those later shows became Star Trek cliches.  The half-human, half-alien character, the artificial life form, the rookie crewmember.  The shows no longer worked as allegory but were increasingly insular about nothing more than Star Trek itself.  The final Next Generation feature, NEMESIS, was a watered-down version of Wrath of Khan and offered audiences little they hadn’t seen already countless times before…and better.

HC: What new Horror Films have spoken to you?

RB: American horror films frankly suck.  I think they’re in the worst state they’ve ever been in, at least since I’ve been alive.  They’re not really about anything anymore.  They have no subtext, they’re certainly not disturbing and have nothing to say about the human condition.  We desperately need new visionaries making horror films once again.  I’d love to see the next crop of Romeros, Cronenbergs, and Carpenters.  And I don’t mean remaking something that was already made once.  Unless you’re bringing something completely new to the material, as Carpenter did with THE THING and Cronenberg did with THE FLY.   That being said, there are a number of terrific horror films being made abroad.  I think THE DESCENT, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, INSIDE and especially MARTYRS are terrific, with MARTYRS absolutely being some kind of masterpiece.

HC: What about Sci-Fi?

RB: The same is true of Science Fiction.  Aside from gems like CHILDREN OF MEN, SUNSHINE and Soderberg’s remake of SOLARIS, very few real science fiction films are even being made today, unless they have some major action component to them, such as TERMINATOR: SALVATION.  However, I’m really looking forward to Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION.

HC: Now for our lightening round of questions:

Picard or Kirk
Kirk

Deep Space nine or Babylon 5
DS9

3 stooges or Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy

New York or Los Angeles
New York (But I do love LA)

Mexican Food or Thai Food
Mexican

Red Bull or Monster
Red Bull

Halloween or Christmas
Halloween.

Errand of Mercy or Amok Time
Errand of Mercy.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ROB AND THE HILLS RUN RED PLEASE VISIT http://www.ludovicotechnique.com/

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