Corey Grant talks Bigfoot: The Lost Coast TapesBy Wilson Morales
October 18, 2012
Coming out this week in limited theaters is the horror found-footage film, ‘Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes.’
Directed by Corey Grant, and starring Drew Rausch, Rich McDonald, Noah Weisberg, Frank Ashmore and Ashley Wood, the film is set in 2011 with found footage of a group of investigative journalists who disappear after traveling to a site in Northern California to verify the discovery of a dead Sasquatch.
For Grant, this is the second film he has released in 2012. Earlier in the year, the Illinois native directed the romantic comedy ‘Dysfunctional Friends,’ which starred Keith Robinson, Meagan Good, Stacey Dash, Tatyana Ali, Essence Atkins, Vanessa Simmons, Erica Hubbard, Hosea Sanchez, Wesley Jonathan, Jason Weaver, Datari Turner, Reagan Gomez, Persia White, Stacy Keibler, Christian Keyes, and Terrell Owens.
XLrator Media will release BIGFOOT: THE LOST COAST TAPES in theaters on October 19, 2012 in Los Angeles, October 26, 2012 in San Diego and November 2, 2012 in San Francisco and Seattle.
Blackfilm.com got a chance to speak with Grant as he spoke about ‘The Lost Coast Tapes,’ found footage films, and his work on ‘Dysfunctional Friends.’
What was the attraction to doing this movie?
Corey Grant: It was something different. It was definitely that I had never done before. The fact that it was Bigfoot. Bigfoot is known worldwide on different continents. Everyone has their own way form of describing him. The producers and I saw the concept and the script and said that this is something that we need to do and would be fun. Over the last year and a half, the Bigfoot phenomenon has just taken off. I’m very happy with the project we have.
There have been a lot of films lately centered on “found footage” genre. How many films have you seen?
CG: When we shot the film, I had only see ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Cloverfield.’ I like those movies but I wasn’t a fan of the found footage. I didn’t know that found footage had a big following and that there were so many films in the pipeline. The reason we shot this found footage was because it was an element to the script that was in there.
Were there any challenges on the production?
CG: There are always challenges. First, there’s shooting on a remote location for one. And two, with found footage, this is a story and with the horror and thriller genre in general, music plays a major part in being able to bring the viewer in and get them in where you need them to be; and with found footage, you can’t do that. It has to be natural. In general, doing a movie like this and being one of the first African Americans to tackle this type of a genre was a challenge. I’m just happy with the final product that we have. I’m a filmmaker who likes to tell stories. If you like horror, action, and fantasy and if you are a fan of those particular genres and you have the skills to direct that type of film, you should. It shouldn’t be that you can do certain types of “black” movies. Although I consider myself an African American director, I’m a filmmaker first and I’m going to all sorts of stories.
Can you talk about the cast in the film?
CG: Well, this is probably one of the hardest movies I had to cast because we didn’t have any major names. Because of the nature of the story, we didn’t want any celebrity to overshadow the story, especially a found footage movie. My casting director Phaedra Harris brought over Drew Rausch, Rich McDonald, Ashley Wood, and Frank Ashmore, who plays Drybeck. Ashmore is more familiar to folks because of his appearance in the ‘V’ miniseries from the 80s. He has a big following and I was in awe just to be able to work with him. The cast did an excellent job.
What’s a good reason to see Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes?
CG: I have a lot of friends who expect a certain type from me based on my previous stuff, but this particular still has my style and some comedy; but it also has the thriller and the supernatural elements. That’s definitely a departure. If you want to get in the Halloween spirit and frightened out your butt, this is the film you definitely want to go see.
Earlier this year, another one of your films, ‘Dysfunctional Friends,’ was released in theaters and didn’t do well at the box office. Were you disappointed by that?
CG: I was disappointed by the financial returns because the thing about it is that we put that movie in 2 theaters ourselves. There was no promotion behind it at all. We just knew it was a good movie and none of the major studios wanted it or at least they didn’t want to put any P and A behind it, so we did it ourselves. I take pride in knowing that if we had the proper promotion or was released by a major studio, I think it would have been a big hit, especially with the following the film has picked up. I’m very pleased. What it shows is that no matter what the obstacle is, if you have a good product, people are going to find it and then are going to respond to it. That’s what happening with Dysfunctional Friends.
What’s next?
CG: I’m doing a romantic comedy set in the fashion world. It’s not a sequel to ‘Dysfunctional Friends,’ but it’s related in terms of style and characters. It’s in that same world. You might see some familiar characters.
