INT: Seth Landau

Last Updated on July 27, 2021

We’ve been following the little film that could BRYAN LOVES YOU for a
while now on the site


(read our review of it here),
and in light of the film recently locking its domestic distribution (Anchor Bay
baby), we decided to hunt down its director SETH LANDAU, gag and bind him and
force him to yap BRYAN LOVES YOU “then and now” with us. Here’s how it went
down!

What
was the trigger that prompted you to put fingers to keyboard and write the Bryan
Loves You screenplay?

BLY is my
second movie, and after my first, a comedy, I didn’t wanna make something funny
… again. Or at least nothing funny the next time around. Plus, the story I had
in me at the time, the one I felt most passionate about, happened to be a
combination of my experiences growing up in Arizona and real cults covered by
the media, of which I was a member for five years from ’95-2000. I can’t write
something, let alone see it through the production, distribution, press and
marketing, unless I feel extremely passionate about it. Like, I’ll make this movie
or die trying kind of passion.

It’s
said that the film is based on the true story of a cult that took over a small
Arizona town in 1993. How much of that is accurate?

All of it.
Much like every movie takes different pieces from different places, BLY is a
combo of personal experience and scary real-life stuff. Due to certain concerned
parties, we haven’t yet been able to make the actual town in Arizona part of our
press materials. Also, we’re kind of under fire right now because of an incident
that happened during our commentary track recording. It seems weird going-ons
and adversity has been with us from the very beginning. I think it’ll be a
long time before I tackle controversial subject matter like this; especially
subject matter about real stuff.

How
long did it take you to get the film off the ground i.e. secure your financing?

Not very
long since we made the thing for very little money. It’s supposed to look like a
million dollar indie, but really, truth be told, I’ve never had a million
dollars to make a movie. However once our menial budget was secured, it was a
“Go” and everything fell into place within I’d say about 6 months or so, from
securing the first crew until Day 1 of the shoot; then the shoot was 3 weeks;
then post was about 8 months and marketing and such was about a year, so like
most indies it ended up being about a 3-year endeavor.

You
wound up casting some fan favorites: Tony Todd, George Wendt, Tiffany Shepis,
Brinke Stevens and Lloyd Kaufman. How arduous was it to get these fine peeps to
commit to the project?

All of our
stars has their own story as to how they met me and agreed to work on the show.
Essentially it boils down to partially the Hollywood maxim of “it’s who ya
know”. Through some degree of connection I was able to reach our stars, convince
them to look at the script, and they liked it. For Tiffany in particular it was
a chance to play a malicious hospital administrator/executive. For Tony it was a
chance to play the kind of role that would preface the old-school horror movies
he grew up watching. Also Lloyd plays a different kind of role: an intimidating,
forceful orderly you’d see in “Terminator 2” or something. George liked the back
and forth of his main scene, between his character, a schizophrenic mental
patient, and the character played by me, the therapist who gets caught up in the
end of the world feel of so-and-so town, Arizona.

On top
of having written and directed the picture, you also have a lead role in it. Was
that always the plan? What was the logic behind that move?

If I had
all the money in the world, I would not have played this role. It’s very
demanding and it relives a lot of childhood trauma. Not to mention that during
the BLY shoot I was in the process of ending my relationship with my then
long-term girlfriend. The logic was that I know I’m reliable, can get my lines
down and show up on time (since I was on set every day anyway. Heh), and my rate
was a SMOKIN deal! I charged the production 0 dollars to play the lead role. Oh
wait, I AM the production (meaning the producer).

What
was the toughest barrier you faced during production and how did you overcome
it?

Toughest
was some of the resistance we encountered indirectly from groups that did not
want this story to be told. Sometimes they fucked with us by using the media to
try and sabotage a shooting day; sometimes the assault was via phony MySpace and
YouTube pages claiming to be either myself or the movie and presenting me or the
movie in a really vile and inaccurate way. Personal and professional attacks I
guess come with the territory when one is trying to get the truth out.

The
film seems to have an odd aura around it in the sense that weird things have
happened to you since you began work on it. Care to share some of them?

To expand
on the above, which kinda answers this question, when you put an idea or a
message into the public eye, you’re going to face logistical and emotional
problems. I think anyone who is trying to make a movie come to fruition needs to
believe in themselves and trust their inner circle of confidants and the combo
of confidence and support will pull one through.

You
recently locked domestic distribution (via Anchor Bay) – what kind of goodies
can we expect on the DVD?

If the
commentary track makes it to the DVD, it’s going to blow people away. I can’t
reveal why since we’re still finalizing specs, but hopefully we can get more
specific very soon. I will say this, though: the audio commentary is unlike
anything anyone has ever heard before.

What’s
next for ya? Any other flicks in the pipeline? Bryan Loves You Part 2 perhaps?

Hopefully
once BLY is released in September, that’ll make distributors wanna check out my
other movie, the comedy “Take Out” about a guy who eliminates fast food. And
once both my initial features are on the market, it’ll be time to get into
production once again. Two more installments of BLY are planned for the future.
And the sequel is not really a sequel or like any other movie, it’s very
different. Details soon.

What
was the first drink you guzzled at the Bryan Loves You wrap party?

If I
recall correctly, I think it was an Empire State Swizzle. There were so many,
though, so don’t hold me to that.

Are you a tit or an ass man?

This is by
far the easiest question I’ve ever been asked about BLY. Both, of course! Picking
one would be like asking, “Would you rather have air or water?” My answer to
both of these questions, the air/water and tits/ass, would be, “I need both to
live, so choosing one would be futile.”

READ OUR BLY REVIEW HERE

VISIT
THE OFFICIAL BLY SITE HERE