We ended the last segment with Robert telling us that KNB went from the kings of gore to getting more mainstream films:

HOH:  So what work during your KNB days are you most proud of, what do you hold in your heart as your prize accomplishment?

RK:  My personal guilty favorite as a KNB show is Army of Darkness, prior to KNB it would have to be Evil Dead 2, it was just a bunch of guys set on location, we all lived together and it was just one big party all the time.  And Army of Darkness was just like you couldn’t believe you were here in this castle in the middle of the desert and your standing there with a puppet with a stick up it’s ass and your jumping around, blowing things up left and right, it was just fun and it was also great because there was just no downtime.  The biggest killer is having a couple of gags on the movie and you sit there for weeks before you even get to it.  Army of Darkness was none stop, we would get to set and had 100 effects going on and the days just flew by.  Other than that, I loved Bride of The ReAnimator, the bride, I was really happy with that, other than that, I don’t know.  There are little things here and there

HOH:  Tell us a little bit about your transition into directing.

RK:  It was about a 10 year transition.  When I first got out there I was like, I want to be a director and then you get on a movie set and you realize that you have no idea of how things work, so it was kind of good having years to pick up how things are done.  I was doing a lot of stuff on Tales from the Darkside and Jason Goes to Hell where they were letting me supervise and storyboard and letting me kind of run the show, directing second unit effects and then I just got the bug and wanted to do it.  That when I came up with Dusk about 1988 and it took 10 years to get it off the ground. And then Demolitionist came about because I wanted to come back here and make a movie, come back here and make a low budget movie so I wrote up this script and then the man who produced Little Witches and Vamp and Children of the Corn and we did a movie with him called Doppelganger with Drew Barrymore it was the same kind of thing we were on set pulling off two units at the same time doing all these effects and he was like, you know we have talk sometime about doing a project together, do you want to direct something? Years later he asked me if I had anything and I sent it to him with a piece of artwork with The Demolitionist on the front and he called me like two weeks later and said I got financing for this and I was like, whatever, bullshit and he was like no really I got financing but I want  to bring two writers in and do a polish, make it a bigger movie set in the city instead of a small town atmosphere which is what it was, a revenge picture set in a small town and I said, Alright and it was right around the time Dusk was going after that whole fiasco of 10 years getting it off the ground and all the ups and down of that and at that point I was so sick of it that when Robert Rodriguez decided to do it I was like, hey I don’t care if I direct this thing or not because now it going to be a cool bigger movie and I am going to go make my little million dollar movie with less stress so around the time I left I was doing prep on Dusk I started working on Demolitionist , we shot the same summer.  That’s way Savini is in it.  He had done a part on Dusk and then came right over and did a small role on The Demolitionist and then it was just taking that around till I got another gig, until I got Wishmaster, so it’s a long haul every time you do it unless you get that blockbuster success you have to come up with the project and pitch them or attach yourself to projects that you think might get made and then shop it around to every place in town hoping to do those bullshit meetings where two guys are sitting there twiddling their thumbs and  listening to your pitch and taking phone calls and it’s like, ugh….no respect (laughs)

HOH:  Wishmaster, I think is an amazing film.  It has been several years between directing jobs for you, was that out of choice or because you haven’t found the right project?

RK:  A combination, you really should have your next project set up before your movie comes out its kind of what everyone tries to do, people do that they’ll have 4 or 5 movies in the can right after they make a big movie they’ll have a butt load of movies set up right after the movie and then they’ll get stalled in development hell and you can waste a ton of time with that shit.  I have had a ton of projects that I have been attached to and we shop them around town and then I sold a movie to Dimension with Wes producing and its just sitting there after they spent all this money and its called Junk, it’s a family picture with Sci-fi elements and that part of the process is just a pain in the ass.

HOH:  There is only so far you can take it and then?

RK:  Well with Junk we optioned the script and built all this presentation and they bought it saying this is perfect for McDonalds Happy Meals and I’m like, this is the one,  it’s going to go and then you go through well, we want to bring new writers in and we like your story but we want to change the story and then it becomes months and months of meetings and your like, this is never going to happen, its just going to sit on Dimensions shelf and never get made.

Check out Part One of our talk with Robert Kurtzman by clicking here.