Fright Night - Behind The Scenes - 40th Anniversary Original Cast Table Read

All right, Bill, I mean no, do you because we
just saw we want any exactly however you want to
bring it is how we want to get Well, I'm
just wondering what the expectation.
I didn't recognize you with that.
I know finally end up bringing my mom your mothers.
Mothers will always thank you for doing this year absolute.
Can I get this to put on my Facebook page?
It's so nice of you.
Thank you.
So all right, ladies and gentlemen, Hello, I've met all
of you on Mark executive producer, Sean executive producer, Jack,
executive producer.
We're here for Tom just as you are.
He brought this idea to us and as you guys do,
we love this this this guy. So thank you all
for helping to make this way what it is going
to be.
We're doing a little reporter thing here, so we've got
some questions that we might throw shootout answers.
How this is, Sir Ruthie.
SIRRUTHI works for our PR department, Manifest Media's prior PR department.
I'm gonna step out of the way. She's gonna do
what she does. So does this from dread Central. He's
just going to be asking a few questions.
Hi everyone, Hello, I'm Bill up.
Hello all the.
Way from Beverly Hills. Congratulations on today and congratulations on
the reunion. I've been a fan of Frida Night ever
since I saw it in college way back when. And
it's to me maybe, no, no, I'm not gonna even say
maybe the best vampire movie ever made.
Yes, yeah, so.
Heck yeah, sir, Tom, What is it like for you to,
nearly forty years after the release of that film to
see it have still such a life to it in
a way that so many non cinematic universe, non franchise
films do. What's your take on its endearing popularity?
Oh, it's incredibly moving personally.
I've been you know, I've had some other big successes,
but nobody what's happened to Fright Nights has become multi generational.
People will say to their grandchildren, I want to introduce you.
To a family movie.
Call it Fright Night an introdition to monsters, and so
it's become it. You know, I get three generations at
a time telling me how much they love the movie,
and I don't. That doesn't happen with Psycho too, and
they don't say that with Child's Play, you know, but
with Fright Night, Yes, And they love the characters. And
I think it's because it's my love letter to the
horror movies that I grew up with when they had
horror hosts like in ol Viron stagger Lee and you know,
and that Super Vincent is and uh, it's it's just
I couldn't.
I wanted to be Charlie Brewster.
I couldn't think of anything greater than than then becoming
convinced as a mad horror fan. But there was a
vampire living next door, you know.
And it's funny.
You could hear you could hear them laughing now.
But it has humor and Friday Night has is laced
with humor, and at the same time it has heart.
Peter Vincent is the heart. Charlie Brewster, Bill Ragsdale is the.
Engine that drives it.
And uh, it's just it's just a warm, fun loving movie.
And people people love horror, who love love Fright Night
because because it's just a wonderfully entertaining, fun experience.
And I am blessed. I am so lucky, you know,
I really am brobo.
I also saw on your im TV that you did
a Friday Night in twenty eleven, but not as Jerry
Dander as a victim.
This was the Colin Farrewell one. Wow. Yeah, it was
a remake.
His word, it was more of a reimagining because he
really care.
It was totally different.
Yeah, it was close.
Same character, yeah, same same character names and rough outline.
Why have I never heard of it? Probably because this
one just eclipses everything.
Oh well. David Tennant played played uh, oh.
It's Vegas Angel type of Vegas one, Colin Farrell played Jerry, yeah,
and Tony Collette played uh Judy and Judy yello?
Right?
What was the passed away yellis?
Yeah, so you were in that one, but as ad
a camel.
That was funny.
My daughter and I went to see it because we thought,
you know, let's go see it. And then all of
a sudden he shows up and he's playing drunk.
Charlie jumps up to help Peter as the bat turns
and sinks his fangs deep into a screaming Charlie's arm.
Peter pulls it back into an errand shift of light
coming from the shattered window.
Can you take that sentence again? Peter pulls it back
into an air.
Shaft the light, so just Peter pulls it, yes, into
a shadow. Yeah, yeah, I gotcha, all right.
Charlie jumps up to help Peter as the bat turns
and sinks his fangs deep into a screaming Charlie's arm.
Peter pulls it back into an errand shaft of light
coming from the shattered window.
Is evil and really not dead?
And that's the sequel line, Tom, Yeah, is evil dead?
At the end, when evil edge red eyes appear next door,
does that mean he's not dead?
And you're setting up a sequel?
He said, still alive, all right, Peter.
Peter Vincent inadvertently pulled the steak out of it.
To go fight Jerry and Billy Cole.
And if you turn into the next chapter, come back.
There's also a.
Question between when you held out the crucifixion, Jerry crushes it,
meaning you didn't have faith, but later you do it
and you've gained faith.
Is that what?
Well, Peter holds out and gets it, he crushes on.
Peter has his hand, So I don't have faith you
did then.
But later later, especially because when you put it on.
The head, Yeah, exactly, okay.
And need to talk with the fright night fans bore
they know more than any.
Of its another ever about Billy. But he must be
in human because all the green Google and all.
That, you know what he is?
I get, you know, the fans asked me all the time,
the writer, that's the writer because I have no idea.
Hey, Tom, if if Billy Cole isn't a vampire, what
is he with Google dripping down.
His well, you can argue it.
You can argue the general term is a goal, which
is which is which is somebody who's been bit by
the vampire but hasn't been turned so he can be
his protection during the day.
Which means he had no idea.
Really, wait Field in Bramstone, Stracula's insane.
Wow, he's crazy vish he could commute by.
The only prior vampire.
Uh.
The experience I have was on what we do in
the Shadows. They sent me a script.
They said they want you to play a part, and
I thought, oh, it's going to be like the high
school principal extra.
Labor Jerry the vampire.
It sort of exemplifies their humor, you know, something as
grand as a vampire instead of calling them blood.
Jerry.
Unless Jerry gives Billy Cole some of his blood.
Billy Cole is not a vampire. He's a familiar who
has only one thing in life.
He wants to be a his master, but Jerry Danvers
won't give it to him.
He wants a slave.
Okay, who would.
I love what you said there about this story, this movie,
this table read, whatever form it takes, being a celebration
of not just the horror genre, but the horror fan
and Charlie, especially as as our hero is somebody who
is obviously a horror fan, and in when this film
came out in nineteen eighty five, it was a little
still a little rare to have a horror fan not
be treated as like the weirdo around the block who
nobody wants to talk to. Obviously, things have changed in
the forty years since. Do you think it would be
easier in you know, today's world to day's horror fandom world,
for Peter Vincent to be more easily convinced that vampires
are real, for a Charlie to be more easily accepted
or even evil led.
Yes, I mean when I was, when I was, when
I was in.
High school, back in the dark.
Age, just there was there were maybe there were three
or four other guys.
There were no women.
Maybe three other four, three or four guys in high
school who were in the horror. And we stay up
on Friday nights and watch the Friday Night Frights, which
is a the local television channel at eleven o'clock, and
that was the only place you could see anything. And
then we had we had ec comics, which got banned
in nineteen fifty four or five. Anybody who remembers that, Yeah,
they were banned.
They were banned. You couldn't.
We used to take ec comic books and we put
them in plastic wrappers and hide them around the high
school so you could go out behind the trees or
whatever and read the newest issue of whatever EC comics were.
This is Stephen King, that's this is all of Stephen
King's short stories.
Same thing. But so it wasn't. There was, and I was.
When I came out with Friday Night.
Which is the first movie that I directed, everybody in
Hollywood told me I had to get out of horror
right away because it was considered this is nineteen eighty
four or five.
It was considered the red headed step child. Nobody wanted
to be associated.
With horror now, as everybody knows, it is the most renewerity,
the biggest independent genre that's supporting movies today.
The most interesting movies are.
Made in the horror genre, and they're coming out all
the time, and people are creating them and then some
of them really really work and they get a chance.
To get into the mainstream.
No other genre is doing that. Rom com is dead.
Comedy is dead.
You can't you can't do comedy in your room.
You gotta see comedy with a whole audience to really
get it, you know.
So I've my lifetime has.
Been watching the horror genre grow so where now is
just huge and I'm so happy. And it's also one
of the reasons that that that Fright Night has become
increasingly popular. We're talking about a movie is forty years old.
I mean, nobody can remember a movie from last year,
and here we are with's frightening.
I'm blessed, We're all blessed.
Thank you to the public out there for.
This and for loving Fright Night.
Absolutely yeah, in that in that vein obviously one of
the enduring things about As I said earlier, it's the
best vampire movie. But the vampire as a horror creature
is obviously enduringly popular. It's so evergreen in your own words.
And this is anyone who wants to answer, but certainly you, Tom.
Why do you think the vampire is still so popular
these days?
Well, I don't know. I got in. I got I
wrote a movie called Cloak and Dagger, and I said,
which was a remake of the Window. And I said,
if you really want to do a movie with the
kids seeing something out the window next door, do make
him a mad horror fan and do it with vampires.
Haven't see a vampire next door? And Universal threw me out.
Of the office.
Okay, I mean vampires in nineteen eighty five were dead,
dead dead, And I don't mean just.
Beyond dead, I mean dead.
I mean the last gas have been the George Hamilton
movie Love It First Bite, which is a a spoof.
And when they start doing when they start doing comedies
about the genre, it means the genre is exhausted. And
that's where Fright Night, when Fright Night came in and
I just got very very lucky that guy Malchlwayne at
Columbia gave me the godhead. It was because I was
so hot as a writer. But you know, I like
to think that that Frida Night began the resuscitation of
the vampire genre, which now, of course is absolutely h
but so is any monster. But anyway, it's been a
hell of a trip.
My wife said, when will you be home? I said,
it's eighty pages. We started eleven, we've been by twelve thirty.
I'll see at noon. Meanwhile, who knew? I mean, it's
turned into an epic.
It is, And thank god you're a good storyteller because
you'll be able to remind us when we're all losing
our mind.
Of how great it was.
Countdown to me losing mind.
And we appreciate crosstop.
We appreciate you'll overlap on wines if you can't.
We want as natural a.
Uh do you want sound effects with kissing and moaning
as well?
I'm just going to use you.
Lunch is back out where we had charcouterie, so we'll
do a longer break, have some lunch.
I'm gonna do a little toast and I'm gonna get wild.
Sweet, but not too wild because you've got to come back. Yeah,
it's four. Be careful.
Well, we know, yeah, but I.
Didn't bring anything to do that.
No, it's one eighty.
And if everybody hasn't met Jack Daniel, our narrator, Jack.
Has done a few of these for us.
When you hear his voice in the finished product, you're
gonna go, holy crush. That sounded like that.
So when you hear it now, though, it's gonna sound awful.
No, I sounded like you when I woke up this morning.
Oh I remember there. You.
I know the tune.
It's the whistler that's not working.
Anybody whistle.
I can't go.
Too high now I'm more now now I'm worn out.
However, and everything.
Originally the whistle song was gonna be whistle while you work?
Remember that? And Disney wanted fifty thousand dollars.
Yeah, and that's why we use strangers in the night.
That's why you, and that's why a whistle while you
work with my original idea.
I got everywhere I look. I gotta tell you, I
think all of you are just wonderful.
I mean I had cast that not just for horror,
but also because you could do comedy. Every one of
you made me laugh at something in the reading. And
that's why you're here forty years later. In your mix
still making me laugh.
You have assembled an incredible reading cast here. Obviously so
many of the original cast members from the original film,
as well as mister Mark Hamill and mister Zaria Dawson.
One person, of course, who can't be here because he's
the dearly departed, Roddy McDowell is just such a key
figure in the original movie. He's such an amazing actor.
He's got a rich history. Do you have any special
memories of him you might want to mention at this time?
Well, I could go on for an hour. Roddy was great. Roddy.
Roddy was a walking film history. He was an oral
history of the film business because
he started when he was like eight years old.
I think he did. He did.
Mark Hamill just told me he did. How great was
my vallet when he was ten? Yeah, Roddy lived in
perpetual fear they would never cross over from being a
child actor to being an adult actor.
And he felt that way when he was well in
his fifties.
You know, he was kind, he was giving.
He had me and my wife over so many nice
to his house, and we met so many of my heroes,
famous people, famous directors.
You know, I asked, Roddy, did you get nominated for Cleopatra?
He said, you know, there's a funny story about that.
I was submitted by twentieth Century Fox in the Leading
Actor category, and when they realized their mistake, they tried
to correct and the Academy said it's too late. There
passed the process, so they took out a full page
ad Fox did in the trades, apologizing to him, saying,
you know, your performance was lauded by critics all over
the world, as you know, an essential part of the
success of Cleopatra.
But I think he enjoyed.
I knew so much about his career because I was
asking him stuff about what was.
It like being on Batman?
You know, I just fan boyed out because it was
my only connection to the Golden.
Age where he was a little boy.
And working on last He come home and with Elizabeth
Taylor and oh my god, I mean.
He introduced me to Elizabeth.
Oh yeah, yeah.
The one I missed was Betty Davis, okay, because she
would go over there. But she this is not not
being polied. She was stroked out, so you know, so
he was kept with I kept asking about the directors.
Green was my Valley. What was it looking with him?
Can you imagine?
Yes?
You know, and you know he wasn't He wasn't easy Tyrant. Yeah,
he john Wayne was scared of john Ford. Yeah, but
Roddy had all those stories. And as I said, we walked.
I walked MGM the last day it was open with Roddy,
and Roddy told me he could tell me what movies
have been filmed and what sound stages. He could look
at the prop shops. There were two prop shops, and
he could say what props were made and what shop.
He could look at the dressing rooms and tell me
who was in them, and he could tell me about
the ASTI nations.
About who was having an affair with whom on the
MGM stars.
He showed me where Catherine Hepburn had met Spencer Tracy
outside the Thalberg Building. And I kept saying, right right,
you're right an autobiography, and he said, I can't I
really know where the body's Yeah, and he did he did.
I mean, I've never met anybody in life. He loved
only as much as we did.
And he was also an extraordinary friend wherever he was
in the world. I remember once getting a birthday card
from him from Prague, just on my birthday.
Well, he adored, adored Bill Ragsdale. He gave him, He
gave him the bench outs in the hallway. Didn't he
give give you this? That's mine, that's yours, He gave
it to you.
But I remember over this this pew from a church
on Hudson Street in New York City, and he got
the pew and he gave it to us just before
he died.
Oh God, I felt like I had a connection to him.
I mean it really comes through.
Think a TV movie together.
Well, we did a TV movie together and we wound
up sharing the same trailer and Cindy Williams was the star.
So we'd have our.
Ninety minutes alone time and I just couldn't stop asking
about his career.
And he was forthcoming because he.
Knew I was interested, and he would tell me stories
about Elizabeth Taylor making Last He Come Home. He was
twelve years old when he made How Green was My Valley.
Don't you wish you'd had a taper?
Oh?
Yeah, because I mean I didn't really have a contact
with the Golden age of Hollywood, certainly.
Not like him.
Yeah, And this would have been in the eighties, so
he would have been probably in his fifties early fifties.
So he was so personable.
And I did the voice of the Joker on the
animated Batman, and he had done Matt Hatter on the
Adam West Batman, and then they brought him to the
animated series. He had four episodes and I said to
the writers, I said, you team me up with all
of these other villains, team me up with the Mad Hatter.
I want to work with.
But he had a good heart and I didn't think
anybody could ever take us place. And then four years
ago we did a reading Zoom and Mark Hamill was
kind enough to stand in for Roddy and he worked
with Roddy in Great Britain in the TV movie and
he knew him and he did he somehow became Peter
Vincent Mark Hamill, and he made Peter Vincent work. As
you know, a part of it was Roddy, but but
it was also.
Mark being Mark. And that's why when.
I saw that, I realized that I had to get
get the cast back together again to do at that.
You know that that had really high sound quality that
I got with Manifest Media and Jack Levy and then
we worked and I don't know, love, I'm working for
four years to get this together, and this is this.
What you see here in front of you is the
result of four years of work, and I'm just through.
I can't have so happy. I can't.
I'm nervous.
It looks like it's gonna go off with that a hitch.
How's that process been putting this whole show together? Has
it been like putting together a radio show in a way.
Oh, it's been like putting together a feature film?
Really? Yeah?
This this is Look at this. I mean, this is this.
This is called deficit financing. So you're out there people
watch this. We're gonna need the money to pay the debt, you.
Know, before we all leave.
After this, I have a couple of things I'd like
to get signed by the cast.
All right.
I have very reasonable rates them, Master and goods are preferred.
He's gonna be selling these as long as you don't.
Ask me to sign.
I like when you sign a universal and it's on
before you get home, too, and.
They say, don't put it to anybody. It's a gift. Yeah,
I might as well say best wishes.
eBay, your wife's told me about that we're gonna make
specific against.
That, and it's not I don't take it because I'm
so great. It's become a merchandising.
Entity.
So these people, anything you sign goes up in value.
So wherever you go out in public, you're besieged, not
by fans, by dealers, and they are relentless.
They follow you right to your car and they're waiting.
On the car. But one time let you alone.
Oh, they followed me all the way home.
I was afraid that where my house was, so I
stopped just before the last turn off.
And just pled with them.
I signed everything they had because I didn't want to
mad at me. But I said, if I sign everything,
when you.
Go away, and they agreed, So forty five minutes later
I did and they did.
Wow.
Yeah, what I want to know is where did the
vampire kit go?
Where did the vampire killing kit go?
You're talking about the one from gon machawayne.
An the way he cared you.
We want to one from the movie.
A lot of his stuff would be you.
But I haven't gotten up there yet.
Yeah.
Well, before we're gone, please do take some pictures.
What about having a Joseph Parol exhibit at the Academy
where they have all the costumes and do a Fright.
They just did John Waters. They should do Joseph Pearrel
and and the costumes from Fright and I want to
do well, that'd be great.
I don't know if it could assemble them because they've
all been auctioned off. I saw where you're where You're
leather coat. Sherry d Andrews's leather coat went for a
lot of money to somebody in Canada, really who put
it up on up on up, put it up in
their screen.
I had a lot of that stuff for years and
then I just you know, it went away.
A fan and a con had his coat, Peter's coat.
You have what my outfits? Oh you have your outfits?
Or you were smarter than the rest of us, Will
you have yours? I have your silks?
How I oh boy, Amanda, Amanda, they just sawn they
have sold your your painting.
I bid twelve thous I bid up the twelve thousand dollars.
Wonder about who's got that painting?
Yeah?
I bid up the twelve thousand dollars on that painting
about a year ago, and it went sitting in a
prop house Mark. It went for twenty seven thousand dollars
in Britain.
Why why should get a commission? Why I should get
a commission?
Well, I'm the one to talk the paint pride.
You didn't keep that for yourself.
I at that, at that moment in time, there was
there was no there was no people were not collecting
screen used props. I just saw a Chucky, A screen
used chucky go for eighty five thousand dollars.
And finally, uh, what do you think is there? I
know there's obviously been the nineteen eighty eight you know
that part two, and then there's the twenty eleven remake,
and uh, there's been various books and comics.
We have Julie Carmen here from Friday Night too.
Yeah, that's fantastic. But what to you, Tom? Do you
think there might be more for Fright Night down the road?
They're sure is from going to be coming from me?
Because I wrote this as an original and I was
held and own the rights to Fright Night dramatic, literary
and musical, and yes, this this this I if you've
been with us last night of the New Beverly and
see what happened there? Yes, I've got more Friday Night
Stories with me. You can find the first one on
Amazon called Frida Night Origins, and that's that's there. And
we're coming out with a new one called Friday Night Aftermath.
And I am I'm going.
Into my dotage writing Friday Night Stories and I'm so blessed.
I'm so lucky that I have it.
I think we're blessed to Tom. Thank you all so much.
Congrats on the show today, break.
Legs, God bless.
Wilcome to.
Night mhm.
For real, that is my favorite line. Sorry. Sorry,