DAVID MICHAEL LATT INTERVIEW by Maurizio Macchi

"Transformers" and "Transmorphers", "Snakes on a plane" and "Snakes on a train", "I am legend" and "I am omega". And the list doesn't finish here, but it's still very long! These movies, whose titles imitate the sounds of the ones of last Hollywood successes, are called mockbusters (the term was first used by Empire Magazine) and the film studio which produces and distributes them is the american The Asylum, founded by David Michael Latt, David Rimawi and Sherri Strain in 1997.
The same David Latt answered to our questions.

First. On your MySpace, about your favorite movies, you say: «The real list would be movies that I hate... since there are so few. I find that I enjoy most movies (even the bad ones)». A powerful sentence that could be useful to educate the unbelievers that are going to read our interview about The Asylum and (old and new) b-movies. When was your passion born for this kind of cinema?

I don't know what this kind of cinema means. I will say that I just love a good story. I don't care about the budget, the visual effects, the star power. I don't care if the filmmakers won awards or if it were made in someone's backyard. A good story is a good story. I'm not precious to any particular genre, I love it all.
Not surprisingly it's how I approach food as well.

The Asylum is very well known for its mockbusters. Why and how they were born?

There is a bigger picture here. The Asylum is a hungry, hungry machine, we produce a film every month. Why? Are we that greedy? (Yes.) That egotistical? (Yes, yes.) That crazy? (YES!)
We do it because we are a cash flow business and that means that we produce a film, put it out into the marketplace, collect sales receipt and then... we use that cash to make our next film. You see, we are our own investors. There is no outside money. That means that we need to put a film out every month in order to cash flow the expenses of the company (keep the doors open!) and produce another film.
Ok, knowing that model... We need to maximize our audience share. That means we need to find genres, stories, stars, etc. that will entice you to rent the dvd, buy the ppv or illegally downloaded from the Internet (you know who you are!).
Mockbusters came about because "War of the worlds" did incredibly well. We followed that with "King of the lost world", and that did well... Everytime we tested the waters, the mockbuster titles did better than the non-mockbusting titles. It wasn't bulletproof, but it was helpful to hedge out bets in that direction.
Mockbusting also allowed us to open up the genres. We weren't tied down to horror anymore. We were making action, thrillers, disaster, sci-fi, comedy and even a musical.

Often your mockbusters are criticized and accused of opportunism, but the matter about a mockbuster nature is certainly more complex. Regarding this, could you comment your following declaration that I find absolutely interesting? Here it is: «I'm not trying to dupe anybody, I'm just trying to get my films watched».

Well, mockbusting is opportunistic. If it didn't work we wouldn't do it. Same principle applies to (practically) everything ever sold ever. Including souls.
About my declaration: as a filmmaker, you want to reach the largest audience to tell your story. So, how does a no-name, non-studio, non-A list star driven movie get your attention? Marketing. A cool box art, a catchy title: two important ingredients. Hopefully what's in the dvd case is something you're going to enjoy... but you wouldn't know it if you didn't pick it up from the shelf...

I admit this next question could appear deliberately provocative... This way of making movies and sell them it's ok from a legal point of view. At the same time it's very clever and - let's say it all - extremely funny. But isn't it a bit unfair to the audience?

Marketing product and exploiting the strengths of a show has been going on with majors and independents for years. We haven't invented anything. We're just more obnoxious.

And now let's talk about the production, starting from the main rules of a mockbuster: 1) Follow Hollywood; 2) Shooting with low budgets; 3) Realize all in short times; 4) Release movies directly to dvd. Is it all correct? Are we forgetting something?

You forgot sacrificing goats.
But on a serious note, we get our cues from our buyers. Half of our product comes from ideas shared from our domestic and international partners. For example, our japanese buyers might was a giant shark that destroys a bridge, while our domestic buyers want a giant octopus that pulls airplanes out of the sky. In the end we will make that movie; not because we were so inspired by Hollywood making MEG, but because our partners needed a film like this for their marketplace.
Then I will go out and make that film. Our goal is to make the most entertaining shark eats a bridge/octopus attacks planes movie out there. And hopefully you will enjoy it.

Until now we've talked about mockbusters, but we've to say that The Asylum begun to realize this kind of movies quite recently, from 2005, while it was founded about a dozen years ago. During that first period the production of your studio was focusing especially on low-budget horror movies (however, you still continue to produce ad distribute them). Can you talk about those early movies? Why predominantly horror?

The Asylum started out producing and distributing Arthouse films. How do we like that?! We were young and we needed the money. We were releasing 6/10 critically acclaimed Arthouse films every month for almost three years. We had over 400 titles in our library. But then we realized something: no one wanted critically acclaimed Arthouse movies. There is no market. So go ahead and stand on a soap box and proclaim to the world that Arthouse films rule and that they are important to advance our society... but 99.9% of the average Joe will rent "Die hard" over "Drylongso".

Let's talk a little about pre-production, production, post-production, distribution. How does it born, grows and finally arrives on the market a The Asylum movie?

My partners tell me the story they need… I go, contract the writers and assemble the key teams. We talk about stars and I will go out and make the deal. A script is written in about 2/6 weeks, prep for 3. Our average production schedule is 12 days, post 8 weeks, marketing is almost done immediately. My partners usually have the name and key art while the show is in prep, they begin pre-selling the show right away. Because of our long history with buyers, it's not a hard sell. Everyone knows what they will be getting.

Among the actors that often participate to the The Asylum movies (known as asylumites), there are also famous names, such as Lance Henriksen ("Aliens"), Edward Furlong ("American history X"), Mark Dacascos ("Crying Freeman"), Udo Kier ("Andy Warhol's Dracula"). How were they involved in these projects and how was filming with them?

There are good actors and bad actors, but mostly good. If they are in one of our films it's because they enjoy acting. Believe me, they could be making a lot more money on some other project. And most of our actors are in more than one of our films because (hopefully) it's fun for them... no big dramas (or divas).

Who does buy your movies? What's your kind of audience?

Everyone! Unfortunately more and more people illegally download our films. It's a sad reality and it's putting independents out of business. The market is so tough on it's own... but losing such a big percentage to BitTorrent is sad. And the crazy part is that most people think that if it's on the Internet, it's not stealing. Relatives of mine have said: «Hey, I just watched X and it was a lot of fun! I just downloaded it last night». I just don't get it. You wouldn't go into a car dealership and steal a car, would you? WOULD YOU?! Oh, well, I wouldn't...

You, David Rimawi and Sherri Strain are the founders of the studio. Who else is The Asylum? When and how have they joined to work with you?

There are 8 amazing people that work full time and that are on the corporate payroll, but there are about 30 people that work from show-to-show. It's a nice big family. We also brought in Paul Bales about two years ago. In addition to his 10 years as a SAG executive, I've known Paul for 20+ years and David Rimawi grew up with him in Michigan. They are childhood best friends. It's awesome.

The Asylum is a blog too, a blog dedicated to news about the studio productions, but also a place where you can find real rarities. Besides, before of being flooded by that hateful shit called spam, there was a forum too (in particular the Ask Latt section). Now it has been replaced by the homonymous blog feature that, added to the fact we're doing this interview, shows how The Asylum is very open, very fan friendly. How much is important for you to have an exchange with your users?

Well, I think it's great. The problem is that 98.28% is spam. How do you have a conversation like that? But I've since told my dad to stop, so I think he gets it.
Outside of that, I love to talk... I have a big ego and I like telling people what to do.

Let's end with a curiosity of mine: how does it feel to be the Roger Corman of new millennium?

I don't think we've earned that title yet. But we'll get there.

Maurizio Macchi