BRUCE KIRSCHENBAUM – LIVE-EVIL
Starring Charlene Amoia and Tony Todd, Live-Evil sees a townsfolk of people banding together to fight zombies. The tone of the film has been described as a comedy-horror, akin to some of the Summer ‘80s blockbusters that Joe Dante and Steven Spielberg use to pump out year after year. We spoke to producer Bruce Kirschenbaum about, what looks like, one of 2016’s horror highlights.
Bruce, how long have you been producing for?
I started producing about 13 year ago in a partnership with my son, writer/director Ari Kirschenbaum.
Now who takes credit for the initial idea? Did someone dream up the scenario before you and Ari set out to make the movie?
No, Ari creates these ideas on his own, which completely baffles me. He has always done so even as a young adult, as expressed in his much of his artwork.
Most zombie movies movies have been influenced by both the film itself and the success of Romero. How much of an influence did he have on this?
It is hard to make a Zombie movie with it being influenced by the great George Romero. A friend since childhood, Roy Frumkes, is a friend of his and made the film Document of the Dead. That is a behind the scenes “making of “ feature about the second zombie film Romero did. So I have heard about the genre and Romero for many years.
And for those that haven’t yet seen the trailer, how would you describe the movie?
We like to describe it as “Ghostbusters” meets “Dawn of the Dead” as written by Rod Serling – When a small college town police station is besieged by “Evil” on a sleepy Halloween night, Pete, the sheriff, and Hancock, his loyal deputy, are thrown into the middle of holy chess-game that could destroy the town, and possibly the world.
How did you handle producing? What were your responsibilities?
I raised the funds, hired the actors, the crew, and handled all contracts for locations, equipment, food, etc. Then I have entered it into festivals (it has appeared in six and won two awards) and hired public relations firm in the process of finding a distributor.
How much say did you have in casting?
I consulted with Ari who held the auditions. We were in different cities so I was not at most of them. For the lead Actress, who was hired just before we started shooting, the audition was by video tape and I handled the interview and contract.
How would you describe the tone of the film?
A real horror throwback to the 60”s. It has an incredibly subtle humor to it which people seem to be enjoying.
Were you already thinking about the next film while working on this one?
We are always thinking that way. Ari has a number scripts we would like to see produced.
What is the next one?
Well that all depends upon funding. The next ones are probably much bigger in scope, budget and in the fantasy action realm. He has written a trilogy based upon the most famous adventure/fantasy book characters
When do you hope audiences might see Live-Evil?
I hope late this Spring.
Thanks a ton for Bruce taking the time to chat with us. Take a look at the Live-Evil trailer below.
