John Gulager came to fame when he was selected to direct the horror movie Feast for the last Project Greenlight project. After an intense screening process, Gulager was eventually championed by the most famous Greenlight producers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Project Greenlight showed the major trials and tribulations of making a low budget horror film and eventually Gulager rose to the occasion and Feast is actually supposed to be pretty damn good. It's played a number of festivals and supposedly The Weinstein Company is going to release it later this year.
Check out the official site for John Gulager
Daniel Robert Epstein: So Feast is supposed to come out this October, right?
John Gulager: We'll see, it was supposed to come out several different times.
DRE: So by the time Project Greenlight started airing, what point were you at with the movie?
JG: We were editing. If you watch the TV show, it seemed like there was no ending. That's how it really was in real life because none of us really knew how it was going to end. They told me later that they're editing shows in like three weeks, which is pretty fast for that kind of deal. They were just sitting around in the editing room, hoping that something interesting or exciting was going to transpire. Nothing like that actually happened. Everything just ended and we kept editing. The camera crew eventually left because they couldn't keep hanging around where we were editing. We ended up with a version of Feast that we showed last October at some film festivals and stuff. It got some okay reviews from people that saw it. Looks like things are going to happen now so it is strange how that stuff happens.
DRE: Of course, Harvey and Bob Weinstein are famous for taking movies away from first-time directors and editing it on their own. Has that happened to you?
JG: That actually hasn't happened because of Project Greenlight. I believe I was somewhat protected. No one wanted to do that on TV. Also we were a pretty small project, budget-wise and stuff like that. Coming from the independent side, it's a lot of money. At the same time, for these guys, we're still a pretty small picture.
DRE: How much did they spend on Cold Mountain, 70 million dollars?
JG: I did like the big explosion, though. You need to have one of those.
DRE: How much are you, the real John Gulager, like the John Gulager we saw on Project Greenlight?
JG: I like to say I was a little worse at the beginning and a little better at the end. I'm probably not as big a dolt and probably not as much the heroic figure as I was at the end. I got a lot of confidence doing the show and the movie and everything. I'm kind of a nerd. That whole thing with the interview at the beginning, that's pretty true. Later Matt [Damon] told me that interview was the worst one of all time.
DRE: My feeling was that Matt Damon wanted you as director because he was mad that they chose the Feast screenplay?
JG: I went back and looked at all the short films that were submitted to Project Greenlight. I did some films that were really good. The acting was a little more natural and conversational in some of our things. The nonsensical script that they gave me to make a short film out of was acted by [Gulager's girlfriend] Diane, my brother, my dad and some friends. It was all naturalistic acting and conversation which I think they responded to. They responded to those elements rather than just a visual approach.
DRE: Judah Friedlander did a little bit at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York where he showed this little short film he made on the set of Feast called The Neck. Have you seen that?
JG: Oh no. I haven't seen it. I've seen the one where he's throwing up all over the place. It was pretty funny.
DRE: No, this is a different one. The Neck is when he was covered in the fake blood and he would push his chin down on his chest and would pull it up, and you would see the two parts of his neck split apart. It was really funny and gross.
DRE: Who did you really connect with acting-wise?
JG: I see Judah now, we became friends. My dad and I just went down and saw him do standup at The Improv. I see him every now and then. We're going to do a panel together at some point. I made some friends on the show. I always have this idea that if we ever do pickups or stuff, I would end up introducing myself again like, "I'm John Gulager." It was a bit of an ordeal and everything you say was possibly going to be broadcast so for me it was a little much. Everyone wants to be a rock star, but at the same time the reality of that was a little much. But I got to say, it was fun. I was actually sad when the cameras left. I wish I had the cameras there all the time. What a lot of people don't understand is the movie people and the TV people were really separate. The only thing that really crossed over would probably be Chris Moore because he dealt with both. But as far as the people making the movie and the people making the TV show, they had different interests at heart.
DRE: Is Feast going to be a hard R-rated movie?
JG: Oh yeah. It was always going to be an R. The original contract for the Greenlight deal said that we would deliver a PG-rated film. Right off the bat, we got together and said, "We need you to say that it should be an R-rated film." I believe at one point there was discussion about making it PG and I think some people internally over at Dimensions started laughing. From what we shot, it was always going to be an R. Not that it's too crazy or too far out or anything. It's just how you make a horror film. If a horror film comes out PG and it's more of a psychological drama or something, that's okay. I'm not into marketing so I couldn't say, "Cut it to make it a PG." I don't think that's something the filmmaker is that aware of. I just tried to make it the best film I could.
DRE: Of course, we saw a lot of the big scenes being made on Project Greenlight what was one of your favorite scenes that didn't get highlighted on Project Greenlight?
JG: It's so hard for me to remember, to know what was on the show and what wasn't. It's all a mishmash and a blur in the end of things. When it all shakes out, you're like, "Was this on the show or what?" Sometimes you'd think something was definitely was going to be on the show because in real life it was such a big deal, but then it wouldn't be on the show. Then something people wouldn't consider too important might be on the show. Sometimes you were surprised in a good way. Sometimes you're surprised that something slipped by or was let go that you might of thought was pretty interesting or exciting or sad. I get confused what was on the show and what wasn't.
DRE: What were some of your favorite scenes then?
JG: I don't want to tell you because I don't want to give it away. There's a few things that are surprises. I like the effects stuff. There's something that happens towards the end of the movie that's probably my favorite thing and I know it's Diane's favorite thing. It's an action shot. It is Krista Allen raised up kind of on a pedestal doing this action thing. We had this blood shooting up and she was bringing the butt of her gun down on something which would spray blood everywhere. We had two cameras going and she actually hit one of the cameras with the gun. It was so cool. It's one long take with two cameras with blood running across the lenses and we ended up shooting through some of the blood.
DRE: When people on the street, do they yell at you, "Gulager!" in the fashion that Matt Damon liked to yell your name?
JG: Yeah, is that how that started? I get that a lot. I wasn't quite sure how that all started because Balthazar [Getty] was doing that on the set. I get that the most around college towns. I went up and shot some footage with a friend of mine up in Palo Alto outside Stanford. I was standing on the corner with a camera, and cars were just going by constantly going, "Gulager!!" I would ask "What, are you a filmmaker?" "No, I'm in the Math department."
DRE: How are you and Diane getting along?
JG: How are Diane and I getting along? Other than going on the SuicideGirls site, we're getting along pretty good.
DRE: I interviewed Wes Craven a couple of times in the past year. I asked him what the conversation was that you and he had and he honestly doesn't remember.
JG: That whole thing was a giant haze. I was so freaked out to go have dinner with Wes. That was where the famous washing of the underarms scene came from. I do remember some of it because he had come off shooting Cursed. It involved a werewolf. He was a little concerned about what were going to end up doing. From the Feast script obviously there's a guy who obviously is going to have a suit on with a big head and he was concerned about "Where was the guy going to look out of? How was he going to be able to move?" things like that. I think he had run into problems and was a little bummed about things during Cursed. Wes is a totally nice guy. He just wanted to help us get past that hurdle. If I remember correctly, he was encouraging me to go in a different direction, but I always wanted to go ahead and have a monster. The Creature From the Black Lagoon type films were always my favorite as a kid.
DRE: Your dad has been in some of the great horror films.
JG: Return of the Living Dead was pretty fun, but I blamed it for every horror film having to be funny after that. I actually went to go see that in Times Square when it opened. Everybody was just screaming and laughing and yelling at the screen. I called my dad, and said, "Oh, my gosh, Dad. This might be a hit or something." Then I went to see it at The Quad by NYU, and people were saying stuff like "What you see is an homage to the films of blah blah blah." Dissecting it that way, but they enjoyed it too.
DRE: Were you destined to make horror films?
JG: I don't know. I'd like to make all kinds of films. I don't know if anyone knows what my sensibility is yet, but hopefully after one or two films, people might come see a film because I was actually involved in it. David Lynch and David Cronenberg make films in all kinds of genres, but they take their sensibilities with them. David Lynch will make a love story and it'll be Blue Velvet or Cronenberg will make a love story and it'll be like Dead Ringers. I admire that type of approach.
DRE: Are you taking offers as a director now or are they waiting until Feast comes out?
JG: No, there are a lot of scripts. I actually have a whole pile of scripts here but nothing that's caught my eye. I'm writing a couple of things. I wrote a TV series that I would get to direct and shoot and actually act in one of the episodes. I'd like to do that. It's for a cable television station. I'm not supposed to say too much more. I'm rewriting a script from [Feast screenwriters] Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. If it comes out the way I want, I'd probably want to direct. One of the good things is people who didn't want me at the beginning of the TV show, all want to do something again. As far as feeling better about what a goofball I am or not, I think that's good.
DRE: Is it a Masters of Horror episode?
JG: Oh I met those guys and that was discussed. Marcus and Patrick want to do something with those guys. But apparently all the directors are coming back next year, so I guess there's no place for me right now. I'm going to go to one of their dinners. They should do a show called The Bastards of Horror and it would be all the younger guys that were raised on all their stuff and now make horror films. We would be the next generation, and we could have another show.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site for John Gulager
Daniel Robert Epstein: So Feast is supposed to come out this October, right?
John Gulager: We'll see, it was supposed to come out several different times.
DRE: So by the time Project Greenlight started airing, what point were you at with the movie?
JG: We were editing. If you watch the TV show, it seemed like there was no ending. That's how it really was in real life because none of us really knew how it was going to end. They told me later that they're editing shows in like three weeks, which is pretty fast for that kind of deal. They were just sitting around in the editing room, hoping that something interesting or exciting was going to transpire. Nothing like that actually happened. Everything just ended and we kept editing. The camera crew eventually left because they couldn't keep hanging around where we were editing. We ended up with a version of Feast that we showed last October at some film festivals and stuff. It got some okay reviews from people that saw it. Looks like things are going to happen now so it is strange how that stuff happens.
DRE: Of course, Harvey and Bob Weinstein are famous for taking movies away from first-time directors and editing it on their own. Has that happened to you?
JG: That actually hasn't happened because of Project Greenlight. I believe I was somewhat protected. No one wanted to do that on TV. Also we were a pretty small project, budget-wise and stuff like that. Coming from the independent side, it's a lot of money. At the same time, for these guys, we're still a pretty small picture.
DRE: How much did they spend on Cold Mountain, 70 million dollars?
JG: I did like the big explosion, though. You need to have one of those.
DRE: How much are you, the real John Gulager, like the John Gulager we saw on Project Greenlight?
JG: I like to say I was a little worse at the beginning and a little better at the end. I'm probably not as big a dolt and probably not as much the heroic figure as I was at the end. I got a lot of confidence doing the show and the movie and everything. I'm kind of a nerd. That whole thing with the interview at the beginning, that's pretty true. Later Matt [Damon] told me that interview was the worst one of all time.
DRE: My feeling was that Matt Damon wanted you as director because he was mad that they chose the Feast screenplay?
JG: I went back and looked at all the short films that were submitted to Project Greenlight. I did some films that were really good. The acting was a little more natural and conversational in some of our things. The nonsensical script that they gave me to make a short film out of was acted by [Gulager's girlfriend] Diane, my brother, my dad and some friends. It was all naturalistic acting and conversation which I think they responded to. They responded to those elements rather than just a visual approach.
DRE: Judah Friedlander did a little bit at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York where he showed this little short film he made on the set of Feast called The Neck. Have you seen that?
JG: Oh no. I haven't seen it. I've seen the one where he's throwing up all over the place. It was pretty funny.
DRE: No, this is a different one. The Neck is when he was covered in the fake blood and he would push his chin down on his chest and would pull it up, and you would see the two parts of his neck split apart. It was really funny and gross.
DRE: Who did you really connect with acting-wise?
JG: I see Judah now, we became friends. My dad and I just went down and saw him do standup at The Improv. I see him every now and then. We're going to do a panel together at some point. I made some friends on the show. I always have this idea that if we ever do pickups or stuff, I would end up introducing myself again like, "I'm John Gulager." It was a bit of an ordeal and everything you say was possibly going to be broadcast so for me it was a little much. Everyone wants to be a rock star, but at the same time the reality of that was a little much. But I got to say, it was fun. I was actually sad when the cameras left. I wish I had the cameras there all the time. What a lot of people don't understand is the movie people and the TV people were really separate. The only thing that really crossed over would probably be Chris Moore because he dealt with both. But as far as the people making the movie and the people making the TV show, they had different interests at heart.
DRE: Is Feast going to be a hard R-rated movie?
JG: Oh yeah. It was always going to be an R. The original contract for the Greenlight deal said that we would deliver a PG-rated film. Right off the bat, we got together and said, "We need you to say that it should be an R-rated film." I believe at one point there was discussion about making it PG and I think some people internally over at Dimensions started laughing. From what we shot, it was always going to be an R. Not that it's too crazy or too far out or anything. It's just how you make a horror film. If a horror film comes out PG and it's more of a psychological drama or something, that's okay. I'm not into marketing so I couldn't say, "Cut it to make it a PG." I don't think that's something the filmmaker is that aware of. I just tried to make it the best film I could.
DRE: Of course, we saw a lot of the big scenes being made on Project Greenlight what was one of your favorite scenes that didn't get highlighted on Project Greenlight?
JG: It's so hard for me to remember, to know what was on the show and what wasn't. It's all a mishmash and a blur in the end of things. When it all shakes out, you're like, "Was this on the show or what?" Sometimes you'd think something was definitely was going to be on the show because in real life it was such a big deal, but then it wouldn't be on the show. Then something people wouldn't consider too important might be on the show. Sometimes you were surprised in a good way. Sometimes you're surprised that something slipped by or was let go that you might of thought was pretty interesting or exciting or sad. I get confused what was on the show and what wasn't.
DRE: What were some of your favorite scenes then?
JG: I don't want to tell you because I don't want to give it away. There's a few things that are surprises. I like the effects stuff. There's something that happens towards the end of the movie that's probably my favorite thing and I know it's Diane's favorite thing. It's an action shot. It is Krista Allen raised up kind of on a pedestal doing this action thing. We had this blood shooting up and she was bringing the butt of her gun down on something which would spray blood everywhere. We had two cameras going and she actually hit one of the cameras with the gun. It was so cool. It's one long take with two cameras with blood running across the lenses and we ended up shooting through some of the blood.
DRE: When people on the street, do they yell at you, "Gulager!" in the fashion that Matt Damon liked to yell your name?
JG: Yeah, is that how that started? I get that a lot. I wasn't quite sure how that all started because Balthazar [Getty] was doing that on the set. I get that the most around college towns. I went up and shot some footage with a friend of mine up in Palo Alto outside Stanford. I was standing on the corner with a camera, and cars were just going by constantly going, "Gulager!!" I would ask "What, are you a filmmaker?" "No, I'm in the Math department."
DRE: How are you and Diane getting along?
JG: How are Diane and I getting along? Other than going on the SuicideGirls site, we're getting along pretty good.
DRE: I interviewed Wes Craven a couple of times in the past year. I asked him what the conversation was that you and he had and he honestly doesn't remember.
JG: That whole thing was a giant haze. I was so freaked out to go have dinner with Wes. That was where the famous washing of the underarms scene came from. I do remember some of it because he had come off shooting Cursed. It involved a werewolf. He was a little concerned about what were going to end up doing. From the Feast script obviously there's a guy who obviously is going to have a suit on with a big head and he was concerned about "Where was the guy going to look out of? How was he going to be able to move?" things like that. I think he had run into problems and was a little bummed about things during Cursed. Wes is a totally nice guy. He just wanted to help us get past that hurdle. If I remember correctly, he was encouraging me to go in a different direction, but I always wanted to go ahead and have a monster. The Creature From the Black Lagoon type films were always my favorite as a kid.
DRE: Your dad has been in some of the great horror films.
JG: Return of the Living Dead was pretty fun, but I blamed it for every horror film having to be funny after that. I actually went to go see that in Times Square when it opened. Everybody was just screaming and laughing and yelling at the screen. I called my dad, and said, "Oh, my gosh, Dad. This might be a hit or something." Then I went to see it at The Quad by NYU, and people were saying stuff like "What you see is an homage to the films of blah blah blah." Dissecting it that way, but they enjoyed it too.
DRE: Were you destined to make horror films?
JG: I don't know. I'd like to make all kinds of films. I don't know if anyone knows what my sensibility is yet, but hopefully after one or two films, people might come see a film because I was actually involved in it. David Lynch and David Cronenberg make films in all kinds of genres, but they take their sensibilities with them. David Lynch will make a love story and it'll be Blue Velvet or Cronenberg will make a love story and it'll be like Dead Ringers. I admire that type of approach.
DRE: Are you taking offers as a director now or are they waiting until Feast comes out?
JG: No, there are a lot of scripts. I actually have a whole pile of scripts here but nothing that's caught my eye. I'm writing a couple of things. I wrote a TV series that I would get to direct and shoot and actually act in one of the episodes. I'd like to do that. It's for a cable television station. I'm not supposed to say too much more. I'm rewriting a script from [Feast screenwriters] Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. If it comes out the way I want, I'd probably want to direct. One of the good things is people who didn't want me at the beginning of the TV show, all want to do something again. As far as feeling better about what a goofball I am or not, I think that's good.
DRE: Is it a Masters of Horror episode?
JG: Oh I met those guys and that was discussed. Marcus and Patrick want to do something with those guys. But apparently all the directors are coming back next year, so I guess there's no place for me right now. I'm going to go to one of their dinners. They should do a show called The Bastards of Horror and it would be all the younger guys that were raised on all their stuff and now make horror films. We would be the next generation, and we could have another show.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
I'm glad Gulager got picked out of the finalist - I tend to root for the underdog!