By Daniel Casillas, MWN
DreamWorks Animation presents its new production based on the book of the same name by Aaron Blabey, in which five famous criminals try to carry out their most complicated mission to date: to behave themselves.
The film, which pays homage to some films by Quentin Tarantino and Steven Andrew Soderbergh, but adapted for children, was shot almost entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the crew to work remotely.
In this new movie, we will meet the leader of the gang Mr. Wolf, sarcastic Mr. Snake, the quiet master of disguise Mr. Shark, the muscular Mr. Piranha and the expert hacker Ms. Tarantula, among others, who have made a deal to go good to avoid serving prison time.
Metro talked with director Pierre Perifel, as well as producers Damon Ross and Rebecca Huntley to learn what went into creating this film.
Pierre, this is your first full-length movie as a director. How do you feel about that?
Perifel: I’m feeling great, actually. It was a fantastic experience, well it’s not fully finished, but continues to be. Obviously, you know it was a film making process that happened during the pandemic, therefore, we had a bit of an added pressure on delivering the film, but it actually couldn’t have gone better in terms of how this movie was done with one of the most talented and committed and friendly teams you could dream of. DreamWorks is such a special place in that regard. It was a dream come true making a film I love that I really care about, telling the story of these characters being able to execute it in the best possible circumstances with the best possible partners.
Rebeca, tell about the challenge of adapting the books into an animated film.
Huntley: Damon (Ross) actually found the property, found the books, we talked about it and found a way to honor the books while also translating it into a film that all audiences will enjoy. It was about finding the sweet spot of honoring the written material and bringing it to the big screen and upholding the essence of the characters, while also being able to find the movie’s own voice.
Ross: We call it a book plus experience, so if you’re familiar with the books and you’re a fan, you’re going to see a lot of elements that are familiar and you’ll be comforted with what you see in the movie. But you’re also going to enjoy a lot of stuff that you didn’t expect because it’s not in the books.
Damon, you were inspired by Tarantino movies, right?
Ross: Yeah. It was the first book. Its cover screams “Reservoir Dogs,” doesn’t it? We were all thinking this could be a gateway movie to the Tarantino crime genre. When we started this process, Pierre read the script and tried to get under the hood of the race car that is this genre.
Perifel: We ended up making a small trailer just to get the flavor of where that could take the script. We were making it a viewer experience that adults will enjoy. There are references to Soderbergh and Tarantino’s films that stuck with us so much, that we all love.
Do you think there’s a lot of Tarantino‘s essence in this film?
Perifel: There is some. You can’t really turn Tarantino into something for kids so easily. The opening sequence is a direct homage to ‘Pulp Fiction’, so we have a lot of those vignettes saying, ‘Thank you, sir, for all the inspiration you’ve been providing so many years, to all the audiences.’ But again there is an element of coolness an element of the dialogue kinda witty and sharp, there’s clearly part of the filmmaking style, referencing some of those movies in the way he films.
What were the challenges you faced while working during the pandemic?
Huntley: It was a shock when you realize you all will have to be home and connect and the concern that came with that. But it really only took us two weeks to get back on our feet and get people connected. We found a lot of unexpected positive experiences of working from home and the nature of what we do is via computer anyway. Remote reviewing was the biggest challenge but remote work amplified communication because we suddenly had many more people in meetings. You are limited in capacity in certain meeting rooms when you’re physically together but virtually we could have 50 people in a meeting and it allowed a greater commutation.
The part that wasn’t that great involves all those short conversations you miss because now that required a phone call or a meeting.
The Bad Guys will be released on April 22.
