{"id":528,"date":"2009-04-27T17:07:43","date_gmt":"2009-04-27T23:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=528"},"modified":"2013-12-15T21:41:28","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T03:41:28","slug":"five-easy-question-cyxork-7-mastermind-john-huff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=528","title":{"rendered":"Five Easy Questions: “CYXORK 7” MASTERMIND JOHN HUFF"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"c-7_poster\"CYXORK 7<\/a> <\/em><\/strong>, the hilarious and inventive movie about making a movie in a fading sci-fi franchise, coming May 15 from Monogram Releasing<\/a>, is one of the Best Movies of 2008 you’ve never heard of<\/a>, according to Popmatters and according to me, too. Prolific and amiable writer\/director JOHN HUFF<\/a> gave us the lowdown on this artful satire, and much more…<\/p>\n

Will the Thrill<\/em><\/a>:\u00a0 You wrote 3 episodes of the classic series Kolchak: the Night Stalker<\/em><\/a> (“The Sentry” “Mr. R.I.N.G”. and “Bad Medicine”); can you talk a little about your experiences with that show (one of my personal favorites)?<\/p>\n

JH: <\/em>Thanks, Will, it was one of the luckiest experiences of my life to be able to break in on that show.\u00a0 Darren McGavin<\/a> had seen a spec script I had worked on with my writing partner, L. Ford Neale<\/a>.\u00a0 Darren liked that script enough to give us a chance to pitch for his new series being built around the wildly successful Nightstalker<\/em> TV movies.\u00a0 We worked with Paul Playdon, David Chase <\/a>and ultimately Cy Chermak<\/a> but always under the guidance of the McGavins.\u00a0 We were lucky.\u00a0 McGavin could dismantle and reassemble a script idea with the best of them.\u00a0 It was always better after his transfusions.\u00a0 \u201cBad Medicine\u201d was the first.\u00a0 We got to go on a Nightstalker set at Universal and, of course, we were like fools going to the circus the first time.\u00a0 Neon signs above us that said, These dorks are new!<\/p>\n

I, like the giraffe at the party, opined to Cy Chermak that Richard Kiel<\/a> (I only knew him from his Thriller<\/a><\/em> appearance and the \u201cTo Serve Man\u201d episode of the Twilight Zone<\/a><\/em>) would make a neat Diablero-witch-monster for our upcoming episode.\u00a0 Cy crisply informed me casting decisions weren\u2019t the prerogative of\u00a0 writers, which I knew, but, interestingly enough, Richard Kiel got the part.\u00a0 That was a lesson to me.\u00a0 Make the pitch.\u00a0 All they can say is, No. But then they still might do it anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr R.I.N.G.\u201d was re-concocted in the home of the McGavins, Darren and Kathy.\u00a0 I remember somebody holding a brandy snifter the size of a volleyball.\u00a0 Since we were doing Frankenstein<\/em>, Darren, asked if we knew what the original Mary Shelly novel named the monster.\u00a0 He had asked that question for years, he said, and no one ever knew.\u00a0 \u201cAdam,\u201d I blurted.\u00a0 McGavin held me in awe for a nano-second.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t reveal I had learned that literary fact from Forrest J. Ackerman\u2019s Famous Monsters of Filmland<\/em>.<\/a> (I recounted this incident to Mr. Ackerman years later.\u00a0 He laughed.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sentry.\u201d\u00a0 Ohhh, what it\u2019s like to write the last episode of a canceled TV series.\u00a0 Jump the Shark <\/a>my ass.\u00a0 One P.A. openly drank vodka from a bottle.\u00a0 He then said, in perfect French, \u201cOu et le docteur?<\/em> (sic) \u2013 (Where is the doctor<\/em>?)\u201d and chugged some more vodka.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t pretty.\u00a0 We had been invited to the set by Darren that day. It was part of his education for us.\u00a0 The respected Seymour Robbie came in to direct.\u00a0 The entire episode is done in the lobby and parking lots and garages of Universal.\u00a0 The Black Tower has never been so revealed in its nether regions.\u00a0 I wanted better makeup for the monster.\u00a0 But that really didn\u2019t matter.
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\nThrill: H