Q1 (Ro-matt): What was the inspiration behind the “Castleton” t-shirt?  Did you attend Castleton State College in Vermont, or did someone you know go there?  Or was it simply a cool shirt to include in the movie?

A1: At that time there had been a big demand for the college t-shirt shirt that Eddie Murphy had worn in Beverly Hills Cop (I forget the actual college...)  We approached Castleton for the free wardrobe as we needed five or six matching shirts in various stages of distress to shoot the film out of sequence.  Our wardrobe mistress sold them on the possible promotional value of having the college shirt featured in the film and they went for it.  We got free wardrobe.  Interestingly, there was a run on people buying the shirts not upon the film’s initial theatrical release but when it was first broadcast by MST3K.  By then there were new people at the college and they had no idea why the shirts were suddenly so popular.  People from all over the world have bought that shirt from the college because of the MST3K version of Time Chasers.  We still get a ton of requests for Time Chasers memorabilia so we hope to have the shirts and more available for purchase directly on our website (www.edgewoodstudios.com) by this summer.

Q2 (ash2): Was Bob Evil’s headquarters a library in real life?  If not what was it?

A2: It was a combination of both the offices and studios of radio station WJJR 98.1 and The Howard Bank.  The exteriors were of the local power utility, VELCO.  I was friends with the general manager of the radio station, Sam Gorruso and promised him that if we could get the location for free we would leave it EXACTLY as we had found it or we would have to pay money for the location, we totally cleaned that place when we left but I received a joke letter from Sam a few days later with a one inch piece of gaffer tape someone had left on a wall taped to it.

Q3 (Van Hagar): Were you at whatever party the MST3K guys held?  Was it awkward?

A3: We held a party for the cast and crew for the U.S. premiere at the film’s editor’s home.  Most of us were fans and knew what to expect and we roared with laughter and drank way too much. I had a blast, never laughed so hard in my life.  Some of us, particularly a couple of the cast members drank too much and took it a bit too seriously by the end of the night, but no one has any lasting scars...

Q4 (ChibodeeCrocket): In the destroyed future there is a Back to the Future poster on one of the walls.  Was that supposed to be an in joke or something?

A4: Uh, or something... We thought it was a nice nod to Zemeckis and time travel films in general, which are kind of an odd sub-genre and as an inside joke, it moves by so fast that most people never pick up on it on the TV version.

Q5 (yousonuva): Time Chasers is my favorite MST episode after I actually really got into the movie (kinda fell in love with it actually. but not in a sick way) two years ago when Starz! and Showtime showed it on their programming almost every morning for like three months.  Was this a result of it being featured on MST3K?  Did the MST treatment bring some spotlight onto your movie?

A5: Thanks so much, good thing you can’t see me blush on the Internet.  The film always had a small cult following, but MST3K really helped Time Chasers reach a true cult status.  It had always had a cult following from it’s original theatrical and VHS release but when MSTed, the film really reached a much higher level of cult success by reaching a larger audience, and most importantly, the right audience, one that was already receptive to off-beat and cerebral sci-fi films.

Q6 (Ratso): For the sequel, can you please please PLEASE have skydiving grandmas?

A6: I just saw a story in the news this week about a REAL skydiving grandma, who knew...

Q7 (Detective Mitchell): How did people react to it when it got a theatrical release?  Are you still in touch with any of the cast and crew?  Is there a DVD release on the horizon?

A7: The film was very well received in its initial theatrical release in New England, and the reviews were very good, we were the first dramatic feature ever made by Vermonters, the problem with the theatrical release is one many independent filmmakers face; you are directly competing for space and dollars with the major studios and there is really no way to succeed without a huge amount of capital for prints and advertising to support the release.  I see the cast from time to time, we are all very friendly and I think we all have a unique relationship, kind of what war buddies are like I guess.  YES, THERE ARE PLANS FOR A SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY DVD RELEASE, while we do not have a street date yet, we have been preparing it and I know at this time it will at least include: the first time anyone has seen the Letterboxed version since the Theatrical release, Deleted Scenes that explain the plot and characters’ history much better, a Director and Actors Commentary Track, a behind the scenes featurette on the making of the film, rare behind the scenes stills, the original TV and Theatrical Trailers, and the short film we made to showcase our talents before making the film based on Will Eisner’s Classic Comic entitled Ten Minutes.

Q8 (mst3ktemple): If there is a DVD will there be any extra features like scenes that were cut because they made the plot to confusing?  Why did you, or the distributor, change the original title from Tangents to Time Chasers?

A8: The extra scenes actually to be included in the Anniversary DVD will, I think, clarify the story more.  They were originally cut at the request of the film’s distributor to speed up the film’s pacing.  The title was changed again at the request of the distributor, when the film was sold around the world with the first title, many foreign markets were confused by the original title, Tangents, it simply didn’t translate, in many countries it only has a mathematical meaning.  We changed the title to Time Chasers, which I have never cared for, and it helped the film’s sales considerably.

Q9 (Rex Dart): Was the guy who answered the phone really your cousin?

A9: No, he was the actual Airport Manager, he put up with us a lot as we filmed at the airport for weeks.  The best true MST3K joke was when they said something like “there are the director’s friends who owned suits...” about some of the bad executives – and they were exactly right, that WAS how they got the job, that and the fact that they showed up...

Q10 (eliservo): What’s with the make-out scenes?  Shouldn’t Nick be piloting the plane instead of engulfing Lisa with his butt-chin?

A10: Uh, yeah, dramatic license there, maybe he had the autopilot on.

Q11 (RamMan): I see that Time Chasers is also called Tangents.  Which title do you like better?  What is the story with the dog in the beginning opening?

A11: See the above question on that one, we stopped using Tangents just after the Theatrical release.  We were looking for a logo for Edgewood at the time so we just filmed the producer, Peter Beckwith’s dog in a theater and stuck our company name up there with a countdown, we have since changed it.  That was a great black lab though, that dog would play catch with you for as long as your arm could throw.

Q12 (Udvarnoky): Could you spill the beans on anything Time Chasers 2 that you are at liberty to share?

A12: It has been discussed on and off a lot over the years but I am not at liberty to say much at this time.  I can say that the idea was re-ignited by the huge response and new life the film has discovered because of MST3K.  MST3K truly cemented the film’s cult status.  One tantalizing tip I can drop is the fact that most of the cast has aged and changed a bit that would play a big part in the film’s plotline.  The title we have been using Time Chasers 2: Nick Of Time has already leaked out but I have no idea how in such a small company stuff like this happens, but it did.

Q13 (Forrest): Mike Nelson reported that BBI had a part with the makers of Time Chasers and some of the people that participated in the making of the film were hurt by some of the more harsh criticism against the film.  Can you give us any details on what happened?

A13: I had a great dialog with BBI throughout the process, one of them had spent some time at, I think the University of Vermont, so there were some in jokes they threw in that, you really had to be from Vermont to get them.  Which I think was a nice nod to us. I liked everything about those guys, they were respectful and positive, we even worked together to hatch a plan to have Peter Harrington (Matthew Paul) appear in the episode, but schedules did not allow it.  Of course, I am sure not everyone who worked on the film took the ribbing well, but we have all come a long way since then, the film entertains people (maybe not always in the way we meant), and if you don’t have Rhino-skin in this business, you are dead to begin with.  The only dissatisfaction I have with the Time Chasers MST3K episode is that to meet the broadcast window they had to cut some of the film down for time constraints.  I would love for people to see the full version, it is out there on VHS.

Q14 (Blurryeye): The Brains have said that the makers of this movie were eager to have it given the MST3K treatment.  What were you expecting their jokes to be like? 

A14: Frankly, I was pretty nervous until the night of the premiere when the joke goes something like “A David Giancola Film... is something you do not want to see” and everyone roared (there were, like seventy people there) that is the moment when I decided, screw it, it cant get any worse, and then had great time.  I have always kind of felt that the joke is on them for elevating the film’s profile. Edgewood Studios has a fairly large library of films now and I respond to more e-mails and still do more press on Time Chasers than all of them combined – who knew?

Q15 (DoctorZ): Who was the contact for the re-enactors (18th century soldiers) in the movie?  Were they fun to work with or a pain?

A15: We worked with a few different groups throughout the state over the year, most were great but one of the times we were shooting with them one of the generals objected to our filming.  I showed him our contract that was pre-arranged with his organization and tried to straighten it out but he stayed in period character while I tried to negotiate with him, it was surreal, I had to get a location clearance from a British General from the Revolutionary War period.  How films get made is often more unbelievable than the film itself.

Q16 (bogeyb): If you are liberty, what characters from Time Chasers 1 will be returning?

A16: I can’t really talk about that at this point but I am so flattered at everyone’s interest.

Q17 (Gemini Man): [Which actors] from the original movie will be returning for Time Chasers 2?

A17: Again, this is something I just can’t talk about at this time, it is such an early stage.

Q18 (snoozer328): If you had a larger budget to make the film [the original Time Chasers], would you have included any additional subplots/effects, and if so, what would they be?

A18: OH MAN, IF WE HAD MORE MONEY! What would we do differently? A lot, matte paintings of the future cities, extras, better efx... I am working on a film now called Ice Queen that will be released by MTI Home Video in June ’05 (check www.mtivideo.com) and this film has like 140 special effects shots.  Time Chasers had, what, six or seven, all the double exposures were done in-camera and took a lot of work which you can now do with a few mouse clicks.  I believe the saying in this business “films are never completed, they escape” is true but I have no desire to go back and do a George Lucas-type re-do of the films.  I think what he did to the original Star Wars was a shame, they didn’t need any more work, they were, like Time Chasers, for better or worse, time capsules of a filmmaker’s view within the context of the time and realities in which they were made.  I couldn’t re-create the innocence and perspective of that time if I wanted to now, and apparently neither can George. (He never calls...)

Q19 (yousonuva): Got any favorite episodes of MST3K?  Do you still watch it or too busy?

A19: I watch from time to time, but how can I not love MY episode?  I have a warped view of the whole thing now... I wonder what they would have done with some of our other films?  We now do Audio Commentary on all of our DVD releases and what is interesting is how few people really understand that MST3K is where all of that really started.  The show re-framed for fans and the industry how movies can be enjoyed.  Check out the commentary on our film, Arachnia now on DVD and VHS (www.mtivideo.com)– it consists of the cast of the film and myself riffing on the whole film, it’s better that the film.

Q20 (yousonuva): Finally, any last words you’d like to share about Time Chasers 2 or any other projects you’re working on or anything about MST3K?...or just anything?

A20: We have a busy year, we have a really great horror adventure called Ice Queen coming out on DVD in June ’05 which I am color correcting in Los Angeles as I write this.  This Summer we have a full slate at Edgewood Studios, including Zombietown (a disgustingly graphic horror film), and I am returning to the Director’s chair for the first time in many years with Illegal Aliens, a sci-fi comedy with a hilarious script that can be best described simply as Charlie’s Angels meets Men in Black.  I hope everyone keeps an eye on our website at www.edgewoodstudios.com where we have info on the film, and soon some Time Chasers posters and collectables available for sale.  And yes, it will be the first place to find any info on the release of the Special Anniversary DVD of Time Chasers coming soon, as well as any info on Time Chasers 2: Nick of Time will be released.
      Thank you all for your interest and continued support of Time Chasers, I am very glad and honored that you are entertained and continually interested in our modest film.  Best wishes to you all. -David Giancola 

   

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