You are also the writer. Has the director part of you had to dramatically tweak the 'filmed' story to accommodate the requirements of budget and location? If so, what type of impact did it have on your originally written storyline?
One great thing about the experience was that I didn't have to make too many adjustments. We had amazing locations, many of which were on the same piece of property, a place called Bonanza Creek Ranch just outside Santa Fe. We did have to make some changes — for instance, renting a real cannon turned out to be really expensive, so we used a pot-bellied stove instead of a cannon for an explosive gag. But the movie's being a comedy made that kind of "problem" not so much of a problem... you just use what's at hand, and the problem becomes part of the storyline. It doesn't hurt to have really funny, flexible actors, either...
What has been your biggest challenge so far in directing this film?
We ran into some interesting budgetary situations about halfway in, and those did present a challenge. But again, the (probably apocryphal) thing about "challenge" and "opportunity" being the same word in Chinese or whatever was truly the case. Let's say we weren't going to be able to (insert ridiculously expensive gag, like have a train go off the rails or whatever); that became an opportunity to run another comedy scene with characters that weren't serviced well enough in the original script. Our bad guys, Matt Besser and Chris Coppola, were hilarious, and some of the constraints imposed meant that I got to write new scenes for them during the shoot, which was totally a blast. Again: very nice to have funny, flexible actors!
What makes this story unique? What makes this film a must-see for horror fans?
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