Feature Category: Interviews

With over 200 episodes of The Office (US) to his name, Rainn Wilson has dominated TV screens globally for over twenty years with his genius take on Dwight Schrute. With a balance of clever comedy and serious moments, the series can be watched on repeat, and it has established itself as one of the greatest TV shows ever made. Outside of this, Rainn has taken on many other brilliant roles, from one of his first major movie projects as Lahnk in Galaxy Quest through to The Leaping Lord in Hitpig! His acting portfolio is superb, and before his appearance at Liverpool Comic Con, STARBURST talks with Rainn to reflect on an incredible journey through TV and film…

STARBURST: Galaxy Quest was one of your first major movie projects. How did you get involved with it, and what was it like to work alongside such a huge cast, such as Sigourney Weaver, Tim Allen, and Alan Rickman? Incredible.

Rainn Wilson: I had spent ten years doing theatre in New York, and I moved to LA with this comedy troupe that I had called The New Bozena. We were doing this show we had created and run off Broadway, and we were bringing it to LA. So we were performing The New Bozena in Los Angeles, this sketch comedy, crazy, clown, post-modern show. It’s like Pee-wee Herman meets The Mighty Boosh, and I couldn’t get my agents to call me back. So they sent their assistant to go and see the show, which is always a death nail, when the assistant gets sent to go and see the show that you’re in. I was annoyed that they brought the assistant, but the assistant brought this friend, who was like 23 years old, this young woman, and she was like “Oh my god, the show was so funny, I’m going to bring you guys all in for this pilot!” So we all came in for this pilot that was happening at NBC, about naked and indestructible androids, and it’s one of the worst pieces of TV. You can still find some scenes from it on YouTube. It was called The Expendables, and long before, The Expendables franchise with Jason Statham was a dream in someone’s head. It was god awful, but after 5-6 auditions, I actually booked it. All of a sudden, because I booked a pilot, my agents were calling me back and took, of course, full responsibility for landing me the job, even though it happened to be this assistant’s friend, who brought us in.

Right after that, I booked a part in Almost Famous; I did Almost Famous and Galaxy Quest in the same month. Those were my first two movies, both DreamWorks films. All of a sudden, I was kind of on the map. My agents could say “Hey! This guy came in from New York, he has got a part in Almost Famous, he just booked a pilot for NBC.” So all of a sudden it perks up. So I was able to get an audition for Galaxy Quest. I was supposed to have a much larger role in it, as one of the main aliens, along with Jed Rees, Enrico Colantoni, and Missi Pyle. But, because I had booked this NBC pilot, they were afraid that the NBC pilot was going to need me to shoot, and if they picked up the show, then I couldn’t commit to too much. So, I was only in three of four scenes of Galaxy Quest. What an incredible experience, as essentially a first movie. There’s a scene that I was in that was cut, that you can see on YouTube. It was a deleted scene with myself and Tony Shalhoub, and in it I have a string of unintelligible, gobbledegook, and I kept going up on the line, I couldn’t remember the line, it was horrifying. Sigourney Weaver was there, Alan Rickman was there, Sam Rockwell, Tim Allen, and I couldn’t remember my line; it was humiliating to me. As a theatre actor, you pride yourself on remembering your lines. Everyone was very kind, but the scene was cut from the movie. I loved being a part of it, When you do a movie, you never know the longevity of it whilst you’re working on it. Like another movie that I did around the same time, was House of 1000 Corpses, it was dumped by Universal, it had a budget of four million dollars, and no one thought it would amount to anything, and it has a huge fan base, and lives on, some twenty years afterwards. It’s the same as Galaxy Quest, you never know when you’re going to be a part of those projects that will resonate with an audience. I’m so lucky that I got to have been a part of the Galaxy Quest universe.

So, jumping into The Office, how did the idea for Threat Level Midnight come about, and what was that whole special episode like to work on for yourself? As you’re playing a character, within a character!

That was one of the greatest episodes of The Office of all time. There was an earlier episode where Michael Scarn’s screenplay was mentioned, and then later on, they always had it in the back of their mind, like “That would be so much fun to actually shoot Michael’s screenplay.” Yeah, I got to be the robot butler, it’s a dream come true! It’s like, Dwight Schrute acting in any role would be delicious to play, but then getting to play a robot butler, which is a role I imagine he loved playing, that’s like his dream come true. It was great, and I’m very proud of that episode; it’s absolutely hysterical. The only drawback to that was that I never got to dance in the Scarn! I never got to do the Scarn!

You’ve returned to animation once more with Hitpig!, voicing The Leaping Lord! What can you tell us about this movie, and why should readers watch it?

Hitpig! is one of those projects that came along – again, getting to voice a villain role. I really love the artwork of Berkeley Breathed, and I’ve been a fan for decades. I wanted to be a part of his world. If you’re a Berkeley Breathed fan, or a fan of graphic novels, graphic comic books, and just want to see eye-popping art that you don’t normally see in animated films, it’s a real wild ride. That’s why you should go and see it.

You worked on Monsters vs. Aliens in 2009; has the creative process for voice acting changed much since then?

Animated is the same thing. You meet with the directors, they show you the character drawings, they show you some scenes. Oftentimes in animated films, it’s not like a completed script. When you’re shooting a live-action film, it’s pretty much a locked script. Sometimes they’ll make some last-minute changes here and there, change some dialogue or whatever. It’s hard to describe, but with animated movies, it’s just a very different process. They’ll have a couple of scenes worked out, and some sequences. They’ll show you some animatics. Usually, one of the animators is doing a temp track of the voice, so they’ll play you that, and they try to give you a sense of the world. With Monsters vs. Aliens, I was going in for a year and a half, doing voices, and re-doing scenes, and then they’d be like, “We’ve scrapped all of this, we’re doing it differently.” Sometimes they’re like, “Yeah, we’re going to take it in a different direction. This is too dark, so we need to make it a little more kid-friendly here.” It’s a crazy process, but it hasn’t really changed that much, in terms of the voice acting.

How excited are you for Liverpool Comic Con, a lot of your fellow cast members from The Office are there as well! Not failing to mention Nicholas Hoult, who will be Lex in Superman: Legacy! You can share notes!

I don’t think he needs any notes from me! He is such an astounding actor, I love his work so much. I’m a huge fan of the Manchester music scene, and I do know that Manchester is not Liverpool. I’m excited to see various regions of the UK. I’m excited to see the city of Liverpool, and meet the fans out there. It’s a very strange thing. When The Office started, there were so many UK Office fans, and they were mean. Like, “Our show is the best! Why are you even trying to do it?” There was this antagonism, and this aggression; they were trying to review bomb us. It took a long while, but then as our show percolated over there in the UK, there have been so many fans that we’ve brought over to the dark side, who have enjoyed watching the 201 episodes of The Office vs the 14 episodes of the UK Office, over and over again. Both can exist! Both get to exist in the world and be enjoyed, and both are brilliant in their own ways.

Absolutely! Also, huge congratulations on the 20th anniversary of The Office! That’s an incredible milestone.

It’s pretty amazing. I never thought when we were doing this weird little mockumentary with bad lighting, poorly dressed actors, and rough cubicles that we would be making something historic. We’re so grateful.

What other projects do you have coming up on the horizon, and can you share anything or tell us about them at this point?

I have a new movie coming out in September called Code 3. That’s with Lil Rel Howery, a great comedic actor, who has been in a ton of stuff. It’s about down-and-out ambulance drivers on a night from hell. It’s a serio-comic, crazy misadventure, and I think folks will really dig that. I don’t know where it airs in the UK, but in the US on Peacock, I did this travel show called Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss last year. It’s about mental health, and looking for happiness. I hope that UK fans of The Office will look for that in the UK, wherever it might exist.

Find out more about Liverpool Comic Con.

Follow Rainn Wilson on Instagram

Hitpig! trailer:

Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss link trailer

Paying homage to the cheeky Confessions comedies of the 1970s, Secrets of a Wallaby Boy follows a horny young gay chap who thinks his new job as a cycle courier might help score him some action. But he has no idea about the sinister truth behind Wallaby, Inc…

With the film now available on Prime Video and Tubi, we spoke to some of its key cast and crew, including hardworking producer Pete Tomkies…

STARBURST: Many readers will be familiar with your award-winning 2018 horror short Once Bitten, which you directed; what prompted your move into the world of producing?

Pete Tomkies: I’m not sure it was ever a conscious decision! As soon as I read the script for Secrets of a Wallaby Boy, I told Kieron [Moore, director] I wanted to do whatever I could to help get the film made. After we’d met a few times to put together our plan of action, I just kind of fell into the role. It also meant that during the production phase, Kieron could focus solely on the actors and crew, while I managed things behind the scenes.   

Were you familiar with the genre that Kieron was paying homage to when he pitched his idea to you, or did you have to research those early movies?

I knew of the Confessions films but still haven’t watched one! I grew up with the Carry On films, however. They’re similar in style and feel, just a bit less bawdy. As a lover of all things horror, my favourite is Carry On Screaming, of course! But Kieron’s vision for the film was so strong, and with the inspiration of his script and storyboards, I always knew we were on the same page creatively. 

What kind of budget were you working with on Wallaby, and what route did you go through to pull it together?

A very, very small budget! We went through a few different costing exercises and eventually shot Wallaby Boy for under £20,000. Finding the funding for an independent film is always a challenge so we had to use a number of sources. We ran a Greenlit fundraiser campaign and were lucky enough to get FAB Global Media on board to support us as well. In addition, we had some private funding we could use.

Every production has its fair share of challenges, but given your budget limitations we’d imagine you had to wrestle with more than your average film; of them all, what would you say was the most demanding challenge you had to overcome?

Usually with low-budget films, you restrict the size of the cast and the number of locations, but we had twenty-two actors and over forty locations! As a result, sourcing locations was probably the biggest headache. We got some for free, including Tim’s [played by Brandon McCaffrey] flat which was actually Kieron’s home at the time! However, finding larger locations such as Argyle the MP’s house and Bruce’s lair, aka the Wallaby server room, were more of a challenge logistically and financially. One of the things I am most proud of is that, apart from a few intern and background actor roles, the crew and cast all got paid. We made sure everyone got fed as well!

And can you recall a particular shot or scene that proved the most difficult to pull off, whether it be budgetary limitations or otherwise? 

We shot the whole film in 14 days plus one day of pick-ups, so every day was a challenge to stay on schedule. However, we had a fabulous cast and crew who always delivered, and our AD Becky kept us on track. In pre-production, my biggest concern was probably the lair given our budget and resources. Thankfully, our production designer Katie was an absolute star and built a wonderful space to film in. The look of that scene is one of my favourite parts of the film.

From a producer’s perspective, what’s the most important lesson you learnt from your first feature? Any cautionary tales you can impart to those wanting to follow in your footsteps?

I learnt so much! As a producer, I could study all of the crew and cast interactions much more than when I‘m directing or behind the camera. Filmmaking is always a team effort and understanding how that all comes together is so vital. However, looking back, one thing I would have planned differently was the shooting schedule. We filmed for seven days, had a week off, then filmed for another seven days. In hindsight, seven consecutive days was too long, and we should have had a break after six days.

Outside of the Wallaby-verse, what other genres would you like to explore in the future either as a producer, director, or writer? Or all three, of course!

Since I was a child, horror has been my favourite genre, and my own projects have been horror-themed. However, they also always had elements of comedy along with the scares and gore, so it was great to explore that aspect much more with Wallaby. As a writer, my scripts will always tend towards horror, but as a director and producer I would love to find more non-horror projects to work on.

What projects have you got lined up next?

I’m currently working on three feature scripts – two horror, one not – and will be looking to develop them into production soon. I’m also looking forward to reading Kieron’s next script!

Secrets of a Wallaby Boy is now available to stream on Prime Video and Tubi.

Paying homage to the cheeky Confessions comedies of the 1970s, Secrets of a Wallaby Boy follows a horny young gay chap who thinks his new job as a cycle courier might help score him some action. But he has no idea about the sinister truth behind Wallaby, Inc…

With the film now available on Prime Video and Tubi, we spoke to some of its key cast and crew, including Billie Hindle, who plays the key supporting role of Jade, housemate and best pal to the hapless Tim…

STARBURST: Secrets of a Wallaby is your first feature film; is acting something you’ve always wanted to pursue?

Billie Hindle: Technically it’s not my ‘first’ feature film, but it is the first feature film I’ve acted in in a professional capacity, i.e. getting paid and it’s actually going somewhere [laughs]. Back in 2016, when I was 19, I had a cameo role in a feature called Bastion, but it wasn’t really the best film. Wallaby is definitely the first film I genuinely enjoyed and felt was properly worthwhile for my career. And since Wallaby, things have been coming in steadily – I just finished working with Universal on a feature!

But yeah, acting is something I’ve always innately wanted to do. Even as a small child, I was just drawn to it. I don’t actually know why and don’t know what the original inspiration was, but as I grew, there were definitely shows that kept the fire alive. Doctor Who was definitely one, Downton Abbey, and various cartoons – I’ve been getting super into voice acting lately – like Sonic X, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Fairly Odd Parents. There’s also lots of different theatre performances I’ve seen over the years. 

How did you come to get involved in this particular project?

In the latter part of 2021, I was approached by Kieron [Moore, director] on the casting website Mandy, inviting me to audition for a comedy feature film. He sent the pitch and I at first thought it was quite strange, but the more I read of it, the more I realised it was in fact… strange. But in a good way! I accepted the invitation, sent a self-tape, and then about a month later he informed me I’d got the role and that we’d be filming in 2022!

Were you familiar with the genre that Kieron was paying homage to when he pitched it to you, or did you have to research those early movies?

I knew of those films, but I must admit I hadn’t seen any. I vibed with the script and took Kieron’s direction to achieve the performance I gave. As a result, I think Jade came across more kitchen sink than many of the other characters, but that works! It makes sense and the juxtaposition adds a good contrast to Tim, Bruce, and the others. Their performances are all well rounded, but in a different way. The Guardian called me “nicely deadpan”, so I like to think I achieved what I set out to do.

The film has just enjoyed a long festival run in its lead-up to its official release; how did you enjoy that experience of seeing it play before crowds?

So my schedule was very full on and, as a result, I only managed to go to two screenings. The first one was the cast and crew screening in February 2023. That was the first time I’d seen the entire film put together and I remember being blown away by the finished product. The crowd loved it, as did my best friend who I brought as my plus one! The other screening I attended was the public premiere after it had finished with festivals. A full crowd in Fab Cafe, Manchester, in March 2024, watched the film and loved it, too. It felt very good to see the public appreciate the film.

Q&As are part and parcel of these types of screenings; what’s the most interesting question you’ve been asked about during one of those panels?

My favourite moment was when we were asked if we were familiar with the genre. Brandon [McCaffrey, who plays Tim] gave a very long, heartfelt, thought-out answer about the genre of films and then I just answered with “no”, which made everybody crease with laughter.

What was your favourite scene to film?

The scene later on in the film where Jade and Tim are awkwardly waiting in the lift. The palpable vibes of awkwardness and the snappy way Jade shuts Tim down is just so funny to me. I felt it really summed up mine and Brandon’s chemistry. A shout-out also to the scenes with Mark Benton as Roland. It was wonderful working with him. He is genuinely so lovely.

And, for whatever reason… least favourite?

So, there were no scenes I’d say I didn’t enjoy. But if I had to pick a least favourite, it would be the scenes in the park. Not because I don’t like those scenes, but I was absolutely FREEZING. It was cold and windy even though it didn’t really look like it, and while Brandon was riding his bike, I was sitting on a bench, covered in a sheet to keep warm, munching on cold pizza. Becky our AD tried her best to make me comfortable, bless.

If you could convince Kieron to make a sequel, where would you like to see Jade and Tim? What are they up to in the aftermath of Wallaby?

I’d like to see Jade develop her own delivery app to fill the gap in the market left by Wallaby. Could cause some tasty conflict if Tim has to work for her!

Do you have a dream role? Or a particular franchise you’d kill to be involved in?

My dream has always been to be a version of the Master. I wanna play a villain! Pretty much anyone in Doctor Who though. I can dream!

What projects are coming up next for you?

I can currently be heard in Season 2 of The Magnus Protocol – the sequel to The Magnus Archives, in which I play Alice Dyer, one of the leads. Like I hinted at earlier, I’ve just finished filming a role with Working Title and Universal, in the upcoming romcom CC: Emily! I’ve also been cast in a supporting role in an upcoming feature film by Brando Pictures, and I’ll be reprising my role as Rose in the second season of folk horror audio drama Partial Veil.

Plus my theatre company – Octavius Theatre Company – are in the pre-production phase of a stage version of 1984 by George Orwell. I’m a busy bee! I’m always looking for more projects though, so to any casting directors reading this: “Hey, ‘sup?”

Secrets of a Wallaby Boy is now available to stream on Prime Video and Tubi.

Paying homage to the cheeky Confessions comedies of the 1970s, Secrets of a Wallaby Boy stars Brandon McCaffrey as Tim Coaster, a horny young gay chap who thinks his new job as a cycle courier might help score him some action. But he has no idea about the sinister truth behind Wallaby, Inc…

With the film now available on Prime Video and Tubi, we spoke to some of its key cast and crew, including lead actor McCaffrey…

STARBURST: Casting your mind back, can you remember what it was that originally made you want to become an actor?

Brandon McCaffrey: We’re going back nineteen years now since I first made that decision, but I still remember it clearly – I was watching Doctor Who for the first time, The Long Game, and saw Christopher Eccleston and thought, “I want to do that!” Turns out travelling in time and space wasn’t viable. So, I thought becoming an actor was the next best thing. It’s my goal to play the first Northern Irish Doctor!

How did you come to get involved in Wallaby?

I first worked with Kieron [Moore, writer/director] back in 2018 on his anthology film Spectrum, in which my character goes to meet a vampire for a hook-up and quickly finds it awkward trying to leave. Three years later, Kieron messaged me asking how I’d like to play the lead in his new feature film. How could I say no!

Were you familiar with the genre that Kieron was paying homage to when he pitched it to you, or did you have to research those early movies? 

I was more familiar with the Carry On series, having seen them all multiple times with my mum every Easter. The Confessions movies I was less aware of, but I did go back and watch some, with the original sticking with me as a firm favourite. So many genuinely laugh out loud moments!

Wallaby was produced on an incredibly tight budget; compared to other roles you’ve had, what were the biggest challenges that presented?

It was certainly a tight budget, but I don’t think it ever felt like that when filming or even now. We very much made do with what we had and the passion for the project overtook any worries anyone would have had. I think my biggest challenge was that this was my biggest project to date. I was working with people who I’d watched for years and looked up to as a performer, so I think my challenge was to myself, about proving I could do it and not feel like less of an actor next to these names. Mark Benton had a great chat with me and Billie [Hindle, who plays Jade] and really made us feel like all actors are in the same boat, no matter how many roles you’ve done.

There’s a fair amount of saucy stuff in the movie, and although it’s all done in humour, was there anything you were called to do that crossed a line for you, and you had to tell Kieron, “Nah mate, I can’t be doing that!”?

The egg scene [laughs]. I very much say I’m an actor who will do anything to get the best shot and I’ve no fear on who I kiss or what I do, as it’s just acting at the end of the day. But when filming that egg scene, it was wondered if I’d be okay having my bum out. I was a bit nervous mostly as I’d only met my scene partner Nicholas [Eccles] an hour before. So, we compromised on Becky [Casey], our first AD, pulling my boxers down just enough that you could see the hills of my butt and no further!

I’ve often wondered if actors have any anxiety over their friends or family having to watch their more edgier scenes… was there any worries that your mum would have to see you get that love egg shoved up your rectum?

I was slightly worried to how they would react, yeah, especially my mum and my dad. Dad is also an actor, so he knew that it’s just acting, it doesn’t matter. Mum, on the other hand, was a bit worried, but she ended up becoming the film’s biggest fan! I remember bringing it home for her to watch and she watched it once laughing throughout, and then wanted to watch it again ten minutes later, but this time with a running behind-the-scenes commentary!

You said upfront that you’re a big Doctor Who fan; how much of a thrill was it to share the same billing as the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, who voices Bruce the AI wallaby?

I’m probably one of the biggest fans out there – see if you can spot my TARDIS tattoo in the film! If I’m not watching Doctor Who, I’m listening to a Big Finish audio. It was terrifying when I heard Colin Baker was going to be my antagonist. Kieron called me up to tell me and I screamed! Having my first feature film as a lead and my antagonist being the Doctor, I think that’s a Whovian’s dream come true. I’m still laughing about it to this day. Although, when recording with Colin over Zoom, I may have said I’d only seen bits and pieces, not letting him know he was one of my favourite Doctors, as I wanted him to know me as an actor first and a fan second.

If you could reprise Tim in a sequel, where would you like to see him? What’s he up to?

Kieron and Pete [Tomkies], our producer, know exactly what I would do here! I would love to play Tim again but, like all great sequels, I feel we need to broaden our horizons, with Tim, Jade, and Roland getting a “free” trip to go round Europe. This time, it’s Travels of a Wallaby Boy, and there’s plenty of jokes and hijinks that I won’t spoil in case it happens. I would love for him to meet a nice boy though and see how he’d deal with keeping the relationship in his life. 

While we wait for you to convince Kieron and Pete to get working on Travels of a Wallaby Boy, what projects are coming up next for you?

I’ve been busy on tour all over UK and Ireland with a short film called I Made the Time Machine from Cinescope Pictures. You can also see our new Doctor Who sitcom Wholigans on YouTube. Six episodes are being released and it’s packed full of references that are sure to have fans laughing!

Secrets of a Wallaby Boy is now available to stream on Prime Video and Tubi.

With Disney’s Steamboat Willie entering public domain, there have already been a few horror iterations. Screamboat is the most faithful to the original animated short, with a group of late-night revellers and ferry workers facing the ire of a resurrected, pissed-off mouse. We caught up with co-writer/director Steven LaMorte to find out more about his homicidal rodent… 

STARBURST: Other than Steamboat Willie being in the public domain, what was it that drew you to Screamboat?

Steven LaMorte: I’ve always wanted to make a horror film on the Staten Island Ferry. I’m a lifelong New Yorker. I grew up in Staten Island. I’ve taken that boat at least 10,000 times in my life. After the success of The Mean One, our last adaptation of a popular children’s character, I knew I wanted to make something different. I didn’t want to start with a character and slap them into something where it didn’t belong, I wanted to go with a story that I was really excited about. There’s something about being trapped on a boat with a monster that’s always intrigued me, and where better to set the miniature murder mouse’s killer comedy rampage than on the Staten Island Ferry with the backdrop of New York City! Once the idea came together, I started doing some research, and I saw that Steamboat Willie was going to go into the public domain, and that the Staten Island Ferry used to run on Steam, I said, this is a matchmaking heaven. We have to make this movie!

Did you use an actual ferry?

The whole film was shot on an actual decommissioned Staten Island Ferry. The main thing kept me from making this film for the last 10 years that I’ve had this idea is that there were no privately owned Staten Island ferries, or any commuter ferries in the New York area. I was very fortunate to be able to film on one. Most of the film takes place on a decommissioned boat that was docked, although it did move! If a large freighter from China came by, the whole boat would start to shake and move, and so we’d get seasick, even though we were technically still on land. Some parts of the movie were shot on actual Staten Island ferries, real working, functional ferries, to help us get the vista shots and to help us make the whole movie feel like we really are on the boat. There were a lot of late-night ferry rides making this movie.

At what point did the animated sequence come into play? Was that always in the script?

It was the animated sequence was always in the script, especially when you consider Steamboat Willie is an animated character, and our version doesn’t look exactly the way the way the cartoon looks. So I felt like we needed something to explain what happened to Willie, to take him out of his animated realm and into the real world. What better way to honour the most iconic animated character of all time than with an animated flashback? We’re still an independent film, but it allowed us to open the film up and expand the scope by making the flashbacks animated. Now we could do shipwrecks; we could do big waves. We could do storms and a lot of really cool things that I wanted to incorporate into the film that were better left to the animators.

Which of the Posey brothers were cast first?

We started with Jesse Posey. He came in to read for the role of Pete, who’s the heart of the movie. He comes in, he works on the boat. He’s actually not the most heroic of guys, but has to grow into that role as the night progresses. He just brought a real fun charm and a goofy vulnerability to the part that I thought would be so much fun to watch on screen and someone you could really root for. Then once we started exploring the different other facets of the different characters that are in the movie, the different sides of New York, it became clear that there was a great opportunity to incorporate his brother, Tyler Posey – very famously of Teen Wolf – into the film. Tyler tends to play more stoic characters, the more traditional leads. It was really great to show this different side of Tyler Posey, let him be a little snarky, and have a little fun and get him to play a New York City worker. Having them both in the same movie is such a gift. It was a lot of fun, absolutely.

Do you have a favourite kill of the movie?

You know, they all sprung from my strange and unhinged brain, so I have a love for all the different ones. One of the ones that I think always has an impact – that people really seem to connect with – is the two members of the birthday brigade and the forklift. You think it’s going to be over quickly, and the fact that it draws out and they’re saying these ridiculous, crazy things, and the mouse is trying to hit the button. He’s trying to turn the key. It’s not even really about the kill. It’s about just torturing the audience; having them wait and wait and wait and then it pays off. It never fails to get a laugh.

If you could pick a character that is not in the public domain, who would you like to turn into a horror icon?

I had this idea for a Yogi Bear horror film. I think it would be really cool. I also think, if I wanted to do more Disney, you could do the Matterhorn Mountain, and do a Yeti or something like that. I think would be really cool. Maybe a horror version of Star Wars. That’d be pretty that’d be pretty awesome to go. There are lots of creepy crawly things in Star Wars that I think would make for one hell of a horror.

Maybe they’ll call on you soon.

Now that Disney owns Star Wars, I’m not convinced I’m on top of their list. That doesn’t mean that my phone isn’t on. You know, I’m happy to take whatever meeting and say whatever apology is necessary, for sure!

Screamboat hits Vue cinemas on April 2nd.