Director Ray Griggs discusses how he came up with the idea of a a comic book movie, the best & worst parts of film production, and his next project, a movie adaptation of The Wind In The Willows.
Suite101: How did Super Capers develop into a feature film?
Griggs: I sat down and thought about doing my first feature as an independent film that I could afford it. I said, why don’t I pay tribute to all the filmmakers that inspired me to be a filmmaker? I was a big comic book fan, into sci-fi & fantasy so I just started writing this spoof. I put in all these ties to great 80’s films from Spielberg, Lucas, and others, but yet I didn't want to do a direct spoof. It’s its own movie that pays tribute to other films. I wrote the script and was so inspired that I put everything on the limb and ran up the credit cards, got an investor, and green lit Super Capers.
Suite101: How does this movie differ from other movie spoofs such as Austin Powers?
Griggs: This movie has a lot of heart and it’s a family film. If you’re a big comic book or sci-fi fan, you can see me paying tribute to a lot of these genre films back in the 70’s & 80’s. From Adam West driving the Batmobile to our hero driving the Back to the Future Time Machine. So it makes you feel like a kid again.
Suite101: How did you attract some of the name talent in this film?
Griggs: They were attracted to the script because they could see it was a family film and the way it was cleverly written. We managed to get actors such as Adam West, Doug Jones from Hellboy, Justin Waylan who was Jimmy Olsen in Lois & Clark, Danielle Harris who has a huge following in horror movie. Again, they fell in love with the script and thought, "Wow, I can show my kids this because it’s a fun type of movie."
Suite101: Which filmmakers most inspire you?
Griggs: That would be George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemekis, and Peter Jackson. As a kid, it was the whole sci-fi genre that these guys come from and their ability to take you to another world. They could make you believe in something and take you away for two hours out of the day.
Suite101: What was the best and worse part of this production?
Griggs: The best part was showing up everyday and seeing the amount of crew involved and how hapy they were to be there. It was the people that made it the best because we were like a bunch of kids with childhood dreams.
The worse part is getting the movie distributed. You make this great film, you’re inspired by it, your crew is inspired by it, and your audience loves it. People are saying, “I want to see this film! I love Adam West!” You have all these great responses from people and they’re mad at you because it’s not at the theaters. The studios have different mindsets, agendas, and look for different things. That’s the frustrating thing.
Suite101: What’s next for you in your career?
Griggs: I managed to take care of the legal rights and wrote a screen adaptation of The Wind In The Willows. If you’re familiar with the story there are creatures such as a Badger, Mole, Toad, and Rat. I want to make them animatronic and life-like with a warm look to it because there’s a lot of emotional drive to that film. I’m hoping to do the film in New Zealand with an estimated budget of $30-$40 million. Richard Taylor who won five Oscars for Lord of the Rings has already signed on as the Visual Effects Supervisor.
Visit the Super Capers Movie Website
Ray Griggs is the Award-Winning Director of the short film, Lucifer. Ray's first feature film is Super Capers, which stars Justin Whalin, Tom Sizemore, Adam West, and Clint Howard. His is CEO of RG Entertainment, a film production company in Beverly Hills, CA.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
