We Got This Covered: So bringing up David Wong, have you gotten around to his new novel This Book Is Full Of Spiders, the sequel to John Dies At The End?
Don Coscarelli: Oh I’ve read it, I think it’s great. I like the slight tonal change.
Paul Giamatti: Is there really a tonal change?
Don Coscarelli: Yeah, it’s a little straighter, a little darker – just really good stuff. [David Wong] is brilliant. The way that he came up with that anti-piracy thing, and every day on Cracked.com he’s generating comic material…
Paul Giamatti: He’s just a fascinating guy…
Don Coscarelli: [To Paul] Later I’m going to forward you this link, it’s gotten like 4 million views, an essay David wrote about how to be a success in life, and why some of your friends aren’t, and it’ll polarize people.
Paul Giamatti: He was at Sundance with us, and he was up at the Q & A, and doing great just talking publicly, and being hilarious – he’s just a character. It was a very, very interesting day.
Don Coscarelli: I hope we can see more movies from his material…
We Got This Covered: Well that was going to be my next question. Is there any interest down the road on adapting This Book Is Full Of Spiders?
Don Coscarelli: People ask about it, but we just need everyone out there to see John Dies At The End through Video On Demand, twice in theaters, buy three or four of the DVDs and we’ll make a sequel. There’s lots of material, this book is great, but we’ve got to get past the commercial hurdle first.
We Got This Covered: You guys mentioned Bubba Nosferatu: Curse Of The She-Vampires before, and being a fan of the original, I have to ask just what is going on with that production right now?
Don Coscarelli: Well, we’re still open to it.
Paul Giamatti: Absolutely, I would love to get something like that done.
We Got This Covered: I know Bruce Campbell has said he doesn’t have much interest anymore, but a while back you [Paul] did mention Ron Perlman might be interested in playing Elvis?
Don Coscarelli: He’s a great actor, and it’s a possibility, but with challenging material it’s not always easy to put the funding together, and especially in the current climates.
Paul Giamatti: Yeah, but I would certainly be willing to get it out there again, to see if people are interested.
Don Coscarelli: We revisit it from time to time in various incarnations, so maybe we’ll find a way.
We Got This Covered: You [Don] mentioned at one point you want numerous Bubba movies where a different actor plays Elvis every time…
Don Coscarelli: Elvis is eternal, he’s going to outlive all of us [laughs].
Paul Giamatti: There are a lot of things you could do with the idea.
We Got This Covered: Â Paul, did you ever think of stepping in as Elvis?
Paul Giamatti: Oh I don’t think I could – I wonder – well maybe I could? Like the old Elvis? I could do that! But no, I was going to do Colonel Parker, who is much more interesting to me anyway. I would love to play Colonel Parker.
Don Coscarelli: It was a pairing that could have been great, because Paul is a big Bruce Campbell fan, but hey.
We Got This Covered: Going back to Don, I know you’ve been asked this a ton of times, but Phantasm V? I know it’s growing in interest right now, do you have any more solid plans?
Don Coscarelli: Yeah, a lot of people keep talking about it, but the problem always has been the higher the Roman numeral goes, the lower the budget goes. Harsh but true. But those actors are still in good shape. Angus Scrimm was in John Dies At The End and he was just wonderful, so it’s something I’m going to look at after the craziness of this release is over so I can figure out a way to make that happen. Hell, Paul might want to get drilled by a sphere I’m sure!
Paul Giamatti: Sure! Absolutely!
We Got This Covered: So you’d want to get involved in Phantasm V Paul? Not that I want to see you get killed.
Paul Giamatti: [Laughing] Oh yeah, no really, I’d love to. Absolutely man!
We Got This Covered: Just one last question before I wrap this thing up. Let’s say you’re stuck in a reality where John Dies At The End is real – would you partake in Soy Sauce yourself?
Don Coscarelli: Oh I think that would be great, to see what’s beyond reality. It can’t just be this, we’ve really got to investigate.
Paul Giamatti: Sure, absolutely.
We Got This Covered: No hesitation?
Paul Giamatti: None at all. There’s got to be something better than this [laughs]. No, I definitely would.
A very special thanks to Paul Giamatti and Don Coscarelli for sharing their time with us, and you can catch their film John Dies At The End when it hits theaters January 25th, 2013 – or right now through any Video On Demand service!
