Joe Dante Talks Burying the Ex and More!
Staci Layne Wilson
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In Burying the Ex (review), a nerdy horror fan’s (Anton Yelchin) dead girlfriend (Ashley Greene) comes back as a zombie and wants to continue their relationship forever. Simple and to the point, it would have made a great short film. Oh, wait… it already did! The one and only thing written and directed by Alan Trezza, the 2008 version of Burying the Ex must have caught someone’s eye.
Whose eye, I don’t know – it wasn’t Joe Dante’s. Even though the legendary filmmaker made a full-length version of the twisted tale, he said he never saw the short. And he still hasn’t! “I don’t actually know where to find it,” he told us. “I still haven’t gotten around to seeing it.” It was the script that impressed Dante, and that’s why he agreed to give the feature a go.
Dread Central: Anton Yelchin is such a likable actor. I first saw him on the cable series “Huff” and was impressed. What was it about him that impressed you?
Joe Dante: Well, I think Anton actually is very much like the character in real life. He’s a film buff. He loves film. He’s obsessive almost about it. When I met him, he was into his Douglas Fairbanks phase just watching all of the old canon. I gave him some pointers of some things he could watch, but he was way ahead of me. He’d seen most of the classic horror films. He didn’t really need any coaching. And of course, he is a terrific actor. I’ve seen him in a lot of things, and frankly, every time I go to the movies, there’s another poster for a picture that he’s in. He tends to work quite a bit.
DC: Burying the Ex is more rom-and-com than zom… but there are some horror elements in there! Tell us what you think readers of Dread Central will glom onto.
JD: Well, there’s a lot of insider stuff for horror film fans in the picture. It’s basically for… I guess they used to call themselves “monster kids”… and for people who like to play games. Anton’s character works at a memorabilia store, so there’s lots and lots of horror posters and stuff like that. But what I like about the way the horror is intermingled with humor is that the real life situation that our character finds himself in… I think he’s someone that anybody can relate to. He’s been in a relationship with this gorgeous, but very controlling and manipulative girlfriend. And he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings by breaking up with her. And it’s not good for either one of them. And so when this terrible thing happens and she dies, he feels really guilty about it. And then when he meets this other girl, who is actually the right girl for him because she likes all the same stuff he does, of course, it’ll be complicated. Now his dead girlfriend comes back, and you really can’t get rid of somebody once they’re undead. So I just have a feeling that the underlying drama of that situation is something that a lot of people can relate to.
DC: I see you’re working on The Man With Kaleidoscope Eyes, your long-awaited Roger Corman biopic… and Quentin Tarantino is supposedly going to play him! Also, I see Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog fame is one of the writers…
JD: Well, Tim’s a great guy and it’s a wonderful script. We came very close to making it twice in the past decade. And obviously we’re still plugging away trying to get it made. It’s difficult in this particular, you know, environment to get much of anything made because studios can make gigantically expensive movies or extremely cheap ones. And the indie world is topsy-turvy because it’s streaming. Burying the Ex is only opening in 10 theaters around the country, and it’s mostly video on demand, which is fine if you like watching movies on your computer. Comedies tend to work better when you see them with an audience. And so the idea that most people aren’t going to be able to see the movie with an audience is… it’s disappointing because you don’t make these things to be stared at by only two eyes at a time. You really want them to be seen in a crowd because that’s the way comedy works.
Look for the film on June 19, 2015, via RLJ/Image Entertainment in the UK and the US.
Directed by Joe Dante and written by Alan Trezza (TV’s “Sanctuary”), Burying the Ex stars Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene, and Alexandra Daddario. The film follows Max (Yelchin), an all-around nice guy, and his overbearing but incredibly beautiful girlfriend, Evelyn (Greene). Their relationship takes a nosedive after they decide to move in together and Evelyn turns out to be a controlling, manipulative nightmare. Max realizes it’s time to call it quits, but there’s just one problem: He’s too afraid to break up with her.
Fate steps in when Evelyn is involved in a freak accident and dies, leaving Max single and ready to mingle. Several weeks later he has a chance encounter with Olivia (Daddario), a cute and spirited girl who just might be his soulmate. But that same night Evelyn returns from the grave as a dirt-smeared zombie, and she’s determined to live happily ever after with Max…
Burying the Ex is produced by Mary Cybriwsky, Carl Effenson, David Johnson, Frankie Lindquist, Kyle Tekiela, and Alan Trezza.
Photo Credit: Suzanne Tenner
Categorized:News
