Joe Dante is such a "quiet" filmmaker. Most of his contemporaries are out in front, and he's very much in the shadows. It was nice to hear his thoughts and see him interact with Mick.
Just found this video and I love how it’s framed as a horror show with all this dark imagery and this video is ultimately two sweet older men talking about movies and their lives. This is amazing!
Thanks a lot for uploading this. I wonder if Joe Dante will one day collect his early film writings in a book? His contributions to cinema with his films and to film history through his talks, his TFH site, and DVD appearances, is invaluable.
Matinee is one of my favorite movies, I just rewatched it with my kids who were seeing it for the first time last week. This was a great interview, I loved hearing how his childhood influenced his art.
Fine interview with a favorite film maker, who, I'm delighted to see, remains a fan at heart for all the struggles that an independent-minded creative faces today in the business.
Many thanks! Be sure to check out our POST MORTEM podcast interview with Joe and John Landis about politics in horror films, as well as all new interviews of other genre greats.
Hi & Wow!! I am amazed and thrilled to say that the theater, glimpsed briefly at 1.54, is the downtown SENATE theater in Harrisburg, PA. in which I grew up watching UI sci-fi (sometimes in 3-D), the Disney RKO releases, THE THING (which terrified me) and most exciting of all, a surprise reissue of KING KONG. So I very much relate to all of Mr. Dante's comments (also on Trailers From Hell) and I think we sort of had a very similar and memorable childhood. (Even up the the later Philadelphia theaters which I attended when I was in college.) So thanks Joe & Mick! BTW this theater had a very sci-fi electric eye door, which kids loved. It was under the VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA poster.
Mick Garris Interviews thank you so much for replying, you just made my whole week! You ask the best questions! My favourite interview you did was with the amazing Frank Darabont, a spectacular guy!!! Love him!
Great interview. Love Joe's work, and his dedication to film preservation. I hope he can join fellow genre director George Miller in delivering classic thrills to a new generation.
Hearing someone with Joe Dante’s resume talk about decade long struggle to get a small film made is a strong argument for bare bones brass tacks no budget approach!
Many thanks! Check out our new POST MORTEM podcast on Podcast One and iTunes. We've done Rob Zombie, Joe Dante and John Landis, and our latest one, with Karyn Kusama and Jovanka Vuckovic!
Joe seems like a really intelligent guy with a passion and personality similar to Scorsese but more grounded in monster movies and Chuck Jones presentations. His genuine broad interests and anarchic film style is a personal influence on me as well. Brilliant man, filmmaker and mind. I enjoyed your conversations, Mick. Thank you for sharing!
Can someone please get all these directors who had polio and/or asthma together to talk about their experiences and compare notes? There's so many from that era! Coppola had polio, too. Milius had asthma (hope he's improving, I've been afraid of checking on his status). Scorsese drew storyboards, too, which are essentially comic books. There's gotta be more of them. Regarding the monster kid phenomenon, I love how Famous Monsters unites us all. Joe has maybe 15 years on me and our childhoods share much in common thanks to FM, though of course Joe was/is a monster kid "star," one of the ones we all envied and looked up to (and still do!). Matinee is a perfect movie about the monster kid era and in the last scene it becomes one of the great movies about Vietnam. One of, if not the, greatest uses of popular music in all of film history.
Joe Dante is a quite strange filmmaker. His movies often combine cartoon comedy and the style of 1950s B-movies. He is the creator of the movie Gremlins.
Awesome! It's been so long. Please keep up the good work. Crossing my fingers for a new Stephen King mini-series. Also, I love the Masters of Horror series. I really wish they'd bring that back on Netflix or something. Big fan here!
It would've been cool to ask him about his involvement with The Mummy with a script by Alan Ormsby which was re-written by John Sayles, and you're also involved with a new re-written draft in the 90's before the Sommer's raiders in the lost ark version.
There were a ton of MUMMY versions. I did a script for Clive Barker to direct in the eighties, then after Romero moved on, did a script for myself to direct in the nineties. That one had a long and twisted history!
8.00 also what happens nowadays with technology, in regards to watching movies randomly years ago on TV, is that you'll watch a movie from a streaming site and that movie will be oddly familiar . You'll realise you've seen it before, maybe once on TV many years ago, or as a one off as a child somehow. These movie memories had been buried in the mind all that time. It's always weird then it happens.
I spoke to you on Facebook about this Mick I would love to see the directors about the films of the films scores of there great films like the howling gremlins a nightmare on elm street scream I think the scores are so much important of those films .
1st of all Mick you are one of my favorite directors though some of your work is hit and miss much like any director to be fair. but i love Joe Dante he's been a favorite of mine prolly since i think Innerspace came out in (1987) i wish he was still active in hollywood and getting the releases he used to but sadly i think Looney tunes back in action which was a decent movie to be honest but not one of his best. it really saddens me that he isn't getting his stuff more wider released now. i also would love a Gremlins 3 and NO CGI shit either but have DIck Miller and Jackie Joseph while we still have them in it as well. and if possible get as much of the Original cast back if they can. i don't want a remake either to be honest. thanks for interview as well i wish you could have asked him if he will ever put The Movie Orgy or try to anyways get it released on blu-ray? that would i'm sure take a long time with copywrite shit and all but i'd still love to actually see that thing