HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: Director, Producer R.W. Goodwin Talks Alien Tresspass!

The first thing you need to know about Director/Producer R.W. Goodwin is that he is the man who directed all the season finale episodes of the first 5 seasons of one of my favorite shows of all time – The X-Files for which he received four Emmy Nominations for Outstanding Drama Series and won Three Golden Globe Awards.  So of course I had a love fest going on (and he produced the series Tru Calling). The 2nd thing you need to know is that he is really open and talkative, you ask one question and he’ll go on for a few minutes. The third thing you need to know is that he recently directed and produced a weird (in a good way) little sci-fi film called Alien Tresspass.  The movie is a throwback and homage to 50s sci-fi films, starring Will and Grace’s – Eric McCormack.  Everything from the sets, to the special effects, to the acting style is straight out of the 50s.

For a few minutes I actually believed the marketing campaign that this was some long lost 50’s sci-fi classic that was recently discovered. Hey, I never watched a second of Will and Grace so I didn’t know who Eric was.  The movie is a combination of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob and the Day The Earth Stood Still put into a blender. The fourth thing you need to know is this is a pretty long and involved interview that starts a bit abruptly…

EM
I think I’m a Masochist [when referring to my brief 3 year attempt at producing a tv show]

RW
I finally laid off of producing television series because it was becoming too much of a drag and I was working with a lot of people I didn’t like. A friend said producing television is like waking up every morning being chased by Coyotes.

EM
Wouldn’t producing a series be easier? You already have your people, funding in place.

RW
Yeah, but then you have to deliver it and it’s hard. When you are doing a series you are prepping one episode with one director and editing two others, it’s a never-ending cycle. With a movie there is definitely a beginning, middle and end.

EM
Would you ever do another series?

RW
Sure, I recently shot a pilot on spec. We call it The Codine River Show. It’s these two guys in Washington who do off the wall sketch comedy. They do song and dance, puppets, mime, I call it Monty Python meets Moulin Rouge in the 21st Century, that’s my pilot.

EM
Who would the target network be? And do you have any contacts at any networks?

RW
The target network would be cable. I’ve been around long enough that I know a lot of people who I can show this to. If I don’t know somebody, I know someone who can introduce me to them.

EM
Yeah, the whole Six Degrees of Separation thing.  I like to joke that now I’ve done so many of these interviews that I’m Six Degrees from everyone in Hollywood. By talking to you, I’m Six Degrees from David Duchovny.

RW
[laughs] There you go.

EM
Let’s talk a little bit about the movie.  I’ll admit I was confused, I read all the press materials about how this film was a lost classic, restored to its pristine original condition. I bought the entire story hook line and sinker.  I was like what is this? Is this a real old movie, or is it a scam? Then I watched the first 10 minutes with the cheesy black and white 50s news real footage and for a minute I thought it was real. So can you talk a little bit about the marketing campaign for this film?

RW
We identified so many different niche groups who like this movie. So there are several different approaches. One of our targets is Sci-Fi fans and they really liked the whole baloney story about how it was made in the 50s and recently discovered at a construction site. Everyone knows it’s just a joke.

EM
I didn’t know, I thought it was real! I actually went on the internet last night after I watched the opening few minutes and checked.

RW
[laughs and shocked] You did? Even after you saw Eric McCormack, Robert Patrick?

EM
After I watched it yeah. But the initial marketing materials had me convinced it was an old classic and the newsreel footage got me.

RW
Did you go to the website first?

EM
No, I went to IMDB.

RW
If you go to Alientresspass.com you will see right away that this is a put on. That approach is really with the tongue firmly in cheek. For other people, Film and Nostalgia buffs we went the nostalgia route, “Oh the 50s were so much fun, filled with optimism and terror.”

EM
The funny thing about the movie is that it is so serious about itself and so perfect in how it’s a throwback film. When you watch it, you can imagine viewing this in the 50s, everything from the acting style, set design, sfx is spot on. As a director how do you maintain that tone throughout the film?

RW
We used War of the Wars as a model for our colors and look. My friend James Swift came to me with this original idea and wrote the outline came to me and asked me to get involved he knew that I’ve always loved these type of films as a kid.  We became friends about five years ago and turned out we went to the same elementary school and Jr. High school in Washington, went to the same theater in Inglewood but didn’t know each other.  When I got involved in the project I looked at a bunch of the classic sci-fi films and most of them still held up, but where so funny because they were so out of date. I was laughing and thought this would be fun, let’s do it this way.  If we did it dead serious, the right way only with a complete 50s feel to it, it would be funny.  That’s what I was after in the beginning, that inadvertent humor.

EW
At any point in the Production did you go, this is so goofy that you thought about hamming it up a bit?

RW
From the day I started I made sure Jim was on the same page and everyone else in the company was to. I made everyone watch The War of the Worlds, The Day The Earth Stood Still and It Came From Out of Space because those three films were the model for this one.

EM
That was another thing I noticed that instead of choosing one, you threw them all into the same movie.

RW
That was Jim’s idea. I had those three films in the office and required everyone to watch those three movies. Whether they did props or acting, we wanted everyone to get feel for what 50s movies were like.  The acting was the hardest part, because if you watch them, the acting was really good and they were really earnest about it. But if you watch it there was still a holdover from the 30s and 40s theater acting before Brando and Nicholson came along with a naturalistic style.

EM
There was definitely a certain style in those films, how difficult was it for modern actors to imitate?

RW
The cast was great they had the ability to do research and look at the film.  Eric played the hardest part; he plays the leading man who gets taken over by an Alien who is experiencing everything for the very first time.  Fortunately Eric started in Drama and went to Comedy and just a brilliant actor.

EM
How did you get him for the leading role?

RW
We brought in Steven P. Fisher who had written the script based on Jim’s outline. He’d never written a script before so it was over 260 pages he had a wonderful sense of character and dialog.  The three of us worked together for a year until we got a working script. We hired a casting director named Susan Edelman who gave us 50 names, all of them great, but we wondered why they would want to do our tiny little movie. I said since none of them are going to do it then let’s go with our first choice, let’s pick Eric. He got it and immediately responded. Once he was on board, I wanted Robert because I had worked with him before and knew he could do comedy. Most people don’t know that the Terminator is actually funny and a sweet guy. I had worked with Dan Laurie for years.

EM
How long was the actual shoot?

RW
The actual shoot was only 15 days.

EM
Wow!

RW
Most people are surprised by that, I’m glad that I worked on the X-Files for five years because it taught me how to shoot feature quality work on a television schedule.

EM
I’m currently writing the great novel length, X-Files/Roswell crossover fanfiction story right now. I’m a huge fan of the show, but only the Mytharc eps.

RW
That taught me a lot. The first season I was very instrumental in setting the cinematic look and directing style of the show because I directed a lot of the first season episodes. It taught me how to do quality work fast and the secret is craft. You really have to be detailed and thorough in your craft. You have to know what you are doing when you get on that stage, I have shot lists that are longer than the script and I make sure everyone has a copy, even the caterer if they want one. So everyone knows what they need to do.

EM
I’m going to ask a question that all of us X-Files fanfiction writers want to know the answer to. Describe Charles Scully, the missing brother. Why is it he never appeared on the show, what is his job, never appears at family events and most importantly would he like Mulder?

RW
[At first is confused by the question, then laughs] I tell you what you got to ask Chris Carter. The mysterious Chris is the only one who can give you real answers to that. He kept everything so tight to the vest that he never told anyone anything they didn’t need to know. I had all kinds of questions, but he wouldn’t give stuff away. But there was one time when he said something that was “telling.” I was five years with the show and I always directed the season finales. I did one called Anasazzi where Mulder was going crazy from LSD being put in his water.  He ends up at an Indian Reservation where he discovers all of these Alien Bodies. He’s trapped in a Box Car where the CSM burns him alive. Chris was out there the day we shot the scene and he turns to me and asks “I wonder how he’s going to get out of there.”

[Editor’s Note]

There is another 20 minutes to this interview, but I think I’ll end it here. I may post another part to this in a few days, the rest of it we talk a lot about working in television.  Alien Tresspass opens Friday, April 3, 2009. Check out the official website here. http://www.alientrespass.com/.