MFM: How did you end up finding the cast and crew interview subjects for the film? PD: It was remarkable how simple if was to track down a majority of the interviewees we ended up with in the project. I initially figured that since a lot of the cast and crew were no longer active in the industry, the chances of finding them were slim to zero... BUT thank God for Guilds! We got a majority of the crew through the various Guilds in the UK, and regarding the cast, there was always an agent who had a friend who knew the person we were after. So we were very lucky. John Landis was one of the first people we heard back from (Jan 3rd). I'd gotten in touch with him through a mutual friend, Mick Garris (Director of THE STAND and SLEEPWALKERS), and John's initial reaction was "I'm flattered, but why? And what do you expect to do with it?" My naivety lead me to believe that if we made the very thing that was swimming around in my head then we would be able to probably get it on television in the UK and maybe on a new DVD release of AWIL considering the last one was in 2001 and Universal aren't afraid to double dip from time to time. Of course I knew that the rights would be an issue, but I also figured that if anyone can put me in touch with the right people then it would be Landis, and he did, and guess what? They turned it down!
Rick Baker Working on Griffin Dunne for American Werewolf in London.
MFM: Despite the initial rejection from the studio, why did you decide to continue and complete the film? PD: That huge blow didn't deter us. We started shooting all our location stuff on March 8th 2007 and began shooting our scheduled interviews (with Jenny Agutter, John Woodvine and several others) later that month. With every interview in the can I would send a photo to Landis to show him who we had found and who was taking part. He seemed to be incredibly impressed by it and actually encouraged us not to stop. With that, and NEEDING to secure John's involvement, I called the licensing department at Universal Studios Home Entertainment in LA and inquired as to how much money we would be looking at to achieve what we wanted... well, suffice to say we couldn't afford it. The price was mountainous! Something like $80,000 for 25mins of film footage. The lady I was speaking to then asked exactly what the project was and once I explained it in detail, she feared that there may be a conflict of interest if we did go ahead and make an independent documentary about a property owned by Universal Studios. With that she then, off her own back, offered to talk to those in charge at Home Entertainment to see if she could muster some interest on our behalf... and guess what? She did, and it worked! I had an email merely an hour later stating that we should finish the piece, with their blessing, and send it to them when it's done. With that in writing, I forwarded the message on to Landis who then revealed that he would be in London in April and that he'd like to see what we had done at that point. By this point we had already gotten confirmation that Rick Baker was interested to take part, but in addition that David Naughton wasn't interested at all! Bummer!
MFM: How did that first meeting with Landis take place and was he encouraging upon seeing your progress? PD: We met John at the very end of April in 2007 (meeting Landis for the first time was a whirlwind experience in itself!) and showed him a 5 minute reel that he seemed genuinely impressed with. He was so excited and enthusiastic every time a different member of the cast or crew popped up - "I didn't know he/she was still alive!" he yelled on occasion. After spending two glorious hours with the director, he cemented his involvement with us and agreed to do an interview when we got to LA in June. In addition, he also agreed to get in touch with David Naughton and turn him around on the project, and as it turns out, David had totally gotten the wrong idea about the project. He was told that it was an official documentary for Universal which would mean sitting in a studio etc - which he didn't want to do again (he did the commentary for them in 2001). Once John explained that we were literally filming wherever we could (Jenny in her dressing room at the Gielgud theatre for example), Naughton agreed to take part.
