Greg and Colin Strause’s SKYLINE has only been out for ten days, but to some it may feel like an eternity!
By some, I mean them (Colin and Greg), as well as the writing/producing team of Liam O’Donnell and Joshua Cordes. You see, the world hasn’t been too kind to the independently made alien-invasion epic…our own John “The Arrow” Fallon being no exception. Sure the film has already made its money back, but at what expense? Addressing such a topic, not to mention the head scratching reception the film has largely received, is both Cordes and O’Donnell. Check it…
When asked point blank how difficult is it to read negative reviews and NOT take the criticisms personally…O’Donnell and Cordes lamented:
Liam O’Donnell: “It’s like being exposed to any kind of venom: It takes a while to build up your immunity. People tell you not to read the reviews, but I tried to read every one. Even more important: I would search the movie on Twitter and see the feedback from everyday people. So it was extremely painful initially, but now I skip over a “Skyline. Worst. Movie. Ever.” tweet without it even registering. You need to take your lumps and read the feedback because it makes you stronger and it motivates you to do better.
The irony is that we both really wanted to screen the movie for critics because we stood by the movie and then when the first Hollywood Reporter review came out we were kind of shocked by the level of animosity towards the film. I mean, it’s not a perfect film by any means, but it’s a fun end-of-the-world monster movie. I think we were both expecting it to be more embraced by the horror and monster loving community. We’re an indie production that did this because we love this stuff and I think you can feel that sincerity in the film.”
Joshua Cordes: “Yeah, I was pretty floored by the response. I’m a big boy. I know the Internet can be a mean place. But to be honest, I always felt like I’m part of the online movie community. And I sincerely made a movie that I wanted to see, and hoped they’d want to see, but apparently that wasn’t the case. And it hurt, because I love movies and people who love them, and were getting reactions like we made something that came out of some dark intentions. A soulless cash grab? Shamelessly capitalizing off the latest trends? Homogenized Oscar-bait? None of those were true.
‘Skyline,’ warts and all, was always meant to be a harmless fun time. Pretense be damned. I know it’s not a perfect movie, but I’ve enjoyed plenty of movies with flaws before. It takes a lot for me to completely damn a movie. Maybe it’s because I appreciate how much it takes to make one every step of the way. I wasn’t a huge ‘Transformers’ fan, but I marveled at the technical achievement and enjoyed A-list actors taking something so inherently silly and selling their performances. And our movie cost what their craft services budget was, and some of the reviews said we didn’t have a single redeeming value to our film. So, definitely it was personal. But, you know what? My mom and dad didn’t raise a crybaby. I can take it.”
Yup yup…you can cry yourself all the way to the bank. Really, who cares. Even the best films have their detractors…the key is to make a better film the next time out. Hopefully the SKYLINE crew dusts itself off and gets going!
To read much more from O’Donnell and Cordes, click HERE.