Screenwriter Jeff Miller Talks Clowntown, Working with Robert Kurtzman and Gunnar Hansen, and More
The Technology and Innovation Library at Yale did a study a few years ago surveying 250 children about their opinions on clowns; all 250 kids in the study reported that they were scared of clowns. Screenwriter Jeff Miller is tapping into that fear with the small town psycho circus free-for-all Clowntown.
When Dread Central spoke with Miller, he talked about his experience working on the film and also had a lot to say about FX guru Robert Kurtzman; the late, great Gunnar Hansen; and even Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Clowntown will first be seen in limited theaters on September 30; it then heads to VOD and DVD on October 4.
DC: What gave you the idea for Clowntown, and how did you describe their look in the screenplay? Did you envision them looking the way they turned out in the finished film?
JM: The Bakersfield, California, clowns that were in the news in 2014 gave me the initial idea. People were showing up dressed as clowns and carrying weapons and chasing a couple of people. In the script, we didn’t describe their makeup but did say they were in jeans or overalls or mostly regular clothes, not big shoes and rubber noses and such. I guess more like Juggalos (Insane Clown Posse fans), though I admit I don’t know much about them.
DC: How often were you on set during filming, and do you usually like being there to make any changes or protect what’s important in the script?
JM: I was there just the first few days of principal photography. As a producer on the film, I’d coordinated our production base at Robert Kurtzman’s Creature Corps in Ohio. I’d shot part of Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan there, so I wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly. I trusted Tom Nagel and his brother, Brian, so I knew they’d respect the script. I wasn’t disappointed.
DC: The big city is usually more dangerous, but most horror movies take place in remote places in the country or small towns. What’s scarier to you?
JM: Small towns. Definitely. Less chance for help to arrive.
DC: Were you disappointed at all that you didn’t get to put a little clown makeup on yourself and join in on the fun? The makeup and overall look is really effective.
JM: Thanks! I thought David H. Greathouse did a great job with the clown makeups. So successful, actually, that a Halloween mask company just licensed rights to the clowns’ likenesses for a line of masks next year! I have a small cameo early in the film as I do in many of my films, but it didn’t bother me that I didn’t get to play a clown. The clowns we had – House, Chris Hahn, Ryan Pilz, Beki Ingram, and Alan Tuskes – did a wonderful and creepy job.
DC: Did the main group of actors interact with any of the actors playing the demented clowns in between takes, or did they want to keep their distance?
JM: There was some interaction, especially since some of the clowns doubled as crew. I know Katie Keene hates clowns, and I think some of the clowns took advantage of that sometimes.
DC: With Rob Zombie’s 31 now available to rent, do you think this will help or hurt Clowntown when it hits theaters September 30th? Are horror fans in danger of suffering from clown fatigue?
JM: I don’t think so. People seem really excited about the upcoming remake of IT, and clown sightings have been all over the news lately. We always knew about Rob Zombie’s film while we were making ours but knew ours would be different enough.
DC: What town did you film in? It looked completely deserted.
JM: Crestline, Ohio, for the majority. That’s where Bob Kurtzman’s company is based. The warehouse scenes were shot in Cleveland, and the house scenes were in Westlake, a suburb of Cleveland.
DC: Robert Kurtzman, the FX legend originally from KNB, is listed as a co-producer. How involved was he with the film?
JM: We based our production out of his shop, and many of the people there – like House, Beki, Al, and John Schneider – worked on the film. We also shot our “clown camp” scenes out back behind his shop. I met Bob years ago through mutual friend Gary Jones, and he has turned out to be a good friend and collaborator.
DC: Were you close with Gunnar Hansen before he passed? If so, how did you come to know Gunnar?
JM: I worked with Gunnar in South Carolina on Freakshow and Hellblock 13. I have a few good stories about him I hope to tell in my friend Mike Kallio’s upcoming documentary, Dinner with Leatherface. Gunnar and I had coffee and hung out a couple of times after I moved to L.A. and tried to get his script The Last Horror Picture Show made. I last heard from Gunnar in late 2014 when I sent him a Christmas card with a small check for a screenplay option that I owed him. It was a very tiny check, maybe ten or twenty dollars, but I knew I was late paying him and I didn’t want him to think I was a deadbeat! Always a good sport, he sent me a card in return saying he always knew that script would pay off.
DC: What’s next for you in the horror world?
JM: This has been the busiest time of my career. Edgar Allan Poe’s Lighthouse Keeper, a cool ghost story, comes out in March. Inoperable, a hospital horror thriller starring Danielle Harris, is in post-production and should be finished this fall. Strange Nature, an eco-horror thriller from makeup wiz Jim Ojala, should be finished any day now. And Angels Fallen, a “good angels vs. bad angels” movie like Legion, should be finished by November. Some of those I’m more involved with than others. In a slight change of pace, I’m currently in Biloxi, Mississippi, helping executive produce a Jean-Claude Van Damme action movie called Kill ‘Em All. Meanwhile, the Clowntown gang and I are currently working on a new script – a supernatural thriller called Toybox – that we hope to shoot in the next few months. So I feel very grateful.
Clowntown tells the story of a group of friends who get stranded in a seemingly abandoned town and find themselves stalked by a gang of violent psychopaths dressed as clowns. It is loosely inspired by the clowns who terrorized Bakersfield, California, in 2014.
It stars Brian Nagel, Lauren Elise, Katie Keene, Andrew Staton, Jeff Denton, Greg Violand, Maryann Nagel, Kaitlyn Sapp, and more. David H. Greathouse, Chris Hahn, Ryan Pilz, Beki Ingram, and Alan Tuskes play some of the murderous clowns. The film was directed by Tom Nagel.
Clowntown was produced by Jeff Miller, Tom Nagel, Brian Nagel, Christopher Lawrence Chapman, and Ronnie D. Lee. Robert Kurtzman (creator of From Dusk Till Dawn) co-produced. David H. Greathouse (Syfy’s “Face Off,” Tusk) handled the bulk of the makeup FX.
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