For the first time ever, some of the cast and crew of 2001 Maniacs: Beverly Hellbillys appeared in public to talk about the film and Bloody Disgusting was on hand to get the low down. Writer/Director Tim Sullivan brought his maniacs to the red carpet of last week's Eyegore Awards, which kicked off this year's incredible Halloween Horror Nights here in Hollywood, CA. You can read all of the juicy bits inside.
“ We’ve got our Mayor here for the first time (Bill Moseley),” writer/director Tim Sullivan says with a giant smile on his face after just completing principal photography. The highly anticipated sequel went through hell and back just to get made, and Tim talks a bit about avoiding being the boy who cried wolf. “It is done. For years we had been talking about how we were going to make this thing and it just – Hollywood , things happen, deals fall apart – it was ridiculous. I thought if I announce this thing, I’d be the ultimate boy who cries wolf, so we figured lets just yell “It’s Done” and then just show you pictures and that’s what we did. We went to Iowa and got Ahmed Best…”
Best, who plays Crow in the sequel, chimes in, “It was fantastic. Iowa was great; the people were wonderful, we met a couple nice wrestling twins that were extremely excited about us (Tim cracks up). We shot on the Missouri River.”
“We got bit by a lot of Mesquites,” Sullivan adds.
“I play Crow, who is the second of a dynamic duo. We play two very scary string minstrels,” Best reveals to BD.
Sullivan continues talking about the cross pollination of genres in BEVERLYY HELLBILLYS.
“This is like a horror movie that probably has more music in it than anything since ROCKY HORROR. Lynn [Shaye] has this amazing minute and a half dance that’s called ‘Cannibal,’ a rip-off from the ‘Maniac’ thing from FLASHDANCE.”
“ I don’t know how much you wanna know about it,” Shaye jokes, “it’s hilarious, we actually choreographed it very close to the original FLASHDANCE idea. There are some surprises in it,” adding, “it’s very funny [and] it’s creepy…”
Sullivan jumps in talking a bit about the gore and the level of fun injected into the horror comedy, “…down to the end where she pulls a bucket of blood on her…and she’s in her 80’s leggings. We really pushed the envelope on this one. Over the years we learned that it’s really a comedy - it’s splat stick, like if the guys from ‘South Park’ made a horror movie. We’re not trying to be scary, it’s creepy its disturbing, it’s off, there’s a lot of comedy, there’s a lot of nudity, there are a lot of jokes, murders and music dance numbers. A Little bit of everything,” he injects with a smile.
Shaye continues talking about the experience and how much fun Sullivan had shooting the sequel. “Tim was jumping up and down being his camera, he was so happy and fulfilling his own fantasies and expectations of what he was hoping the movie would be. The best thing as an actor, and that I love about Tim, is that I’ve always had ideas, for better and for worse, he always listens and happy to say ‘yes or no we can’t do it because I’m jump cutting from there to there and don’t need it…’ ”
“This was the best experience I ever had,” Sullivan interjects. “We only had 12 days, I think the budget is like what the catering is for one day on TRANSFORMERS. We did it. Everyone brought their ‘A’ game, we worked with a crew in IOWA - there were all these young kids from film school - there was all this energy I have never experienced before.”
It was originally announced that two sequels would be shot back-to-back, which isn’t what ended up happening. Sullivan talks a bit about how possible the third film, THE HILLBILLYS HAVE EYES.
“I hope so, I mean, yeah, everyone’s already talking about it. Let’s strike when the iron’s hot. You know, it’s really cool.” He continues, “There’s a really good chance (that it’ll shoot before we see the second released). We already know what it’s going to be. ”
Before Tim finishes, Bill Moseley walks on over… “Lets just say the opening scene of the movie… bring out the barrel roll…”
“ I am Mayor Buckman,” Moseley reveals to Bloody Disgusting. “First, I owe all of this to Granny, all to Robert Englund, and wheel it all to Herschell Gordon Lewis, the original, original, original creator of this pleasant Valley pandemonium.”
He continues talking about how he becomes Mayor, “What we do is we end up actually finding that our sheriff is letting us down, he’s not really doing his job. He doesn’t seem to even be softened by the charms of the Milk Maiden…”
“Christa Campbell and her healthy bounties…” Sullivan adds.
“If you’re not softened by her charms, you gotta go! So we give the mayor a little barrel ride,” Moseley says with exclamation.
Sullivan explains, “The barrel has a few knives sticking in, we got to tickle him a little on the way down.”
“It’s a game, just cutting and stabbing would be so boring, you know, so they come up with creative ways to do things,” states Moseley.
As for fans finally being able to see the final product, Sullivan has good news. “We’re going to have it ready to show at AFM [in November], and have it ready to show by next year. Were very happy about this.”
The wait is over for THE HELLBILLYS, it’s in the can, now it’s time to look forward to THE HILLBILLYS HAVE EYES.
Bill Mosley is one of the greatest actors there is PERIOD... that being said it will be very hard for him to pull off the character the may that Robert Englund did he is amazing, and it is always hard to replace the main actor in any movie.
Robert Englund was 2001 maniacs, but i will give Mosley the benefit of the doubt, he is great and I CAN"T WAIT TO SEE THIS MOVIE.
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