An exclusive chat with the actors, new footage revealed
In the hectic schedule that is WonderCon, Shock Till You Drop wound up with an exclusive interview with Dylan Dog: Dead of Night stars Brandon Routh and Sam Huntington, but wound up conducting it backstage as the actors prepared to present two scenes from their film to the con’s Masquerade ball. As always, Routh and Huntington were in high spirits and the discussion was made all the more surreal by rehearsing cosplayers (including a singing and dancing Medusa and Batman’s Bane practicing his fight choreography) being corralled by exhausted stage managers.
Shock Till You Drop spoke with the actors about their new film, based on the hugely popular Italian comic book series, and actually paused the interview midway through to check out the footage with the crowd. Check out what the pair had to say as well as our description of the newly-unveiled footage from Dylan Dog, hitting theaters on April 29th.
Shock: It’s been awhile since you shot ‘Dylan Dog’ —
Sam Huntington: Yeah, fifteen years.
Brandon Routh: Fifteen years. (laughs)
Shock: Clearly you guys are pretty good friends in real life, which is pretty fantastic because you’re Superman and Jimmy Olsen.
Routh: That’s why we wanted to do this one together, because we are friends.
Huntington: That’s why it was a priority to do this movie together.
Routh: And we had fun because of it. It really fit the relationship between our two characters. It really works as well as it does because we were able to bring our actual friendship to it.
Shock: Tell me about what we’re about to see tonight.
Huntington: It’s a couple of scenes. A couple of the more humorous scenes, which is good. A scene in a crypt.
Routh: We’re trapped in a crypt. That speaks for itself. Comedy ensues!
Huntington: Lots of loudness. Big character moments.
Shock: Did you guys both know the original comic going in. They’re no so well known in America, but they’re huge in Europe.
Routh: I knew of them because I have a friend who is very into them.
(One of the backstage cosplayers suddenly screams)
Routh: That wasn’t me. Just so you know.
Huntington: Can you please transcribe that scream? That would be really great.
Routh: Anyway, I have a friend who lived in Italy who loved the comics and when the script came along, I said, “Oh, I have a friend who’s into this. This is really cool.” Then the script was great, even without that knowledge. But it made it really cool because I had a little background.
Huntington: I did not. I was unaware of it and read the material after finding out about the project, boning up a little bit. For me, it was different, though, because my character isn’t in the comic. It was sort a whole new world.
Shock: And you get to inject some levity into it.
Huntington: Yeah. The movie itself is a comedy. It’s a horror comedy. So it’s goofy. It’s a little silly. So yeah, he’s definitely a caricature. So that was fun for me, going on set every single day, getting to play around and be a goofball. That was great.
Shock: You guys both have these connections to fandom. Not just Superman but, for you, Brendan, “Scott Pilgrim” and for you, Sam, “Fanboys”, which was really about this kind of geek culture.
Routh: It funny. People are always kind of involved with their own thing. There’s a lot of people dressed up, so there’s a lot of stuff to look at and you can kind of slide by, really. A couple people here and there have their eyes peeled enough to catch us walking by, but it’s exciting as we’ve both done more and more work to be recognized for different things. When I went to Comic-Con last year, people were talking about “Chuck” all the time. “Chuck” and “Chuck” and “Chuck”. That was really neat, to be recognized for something else. And Sam was getting recognized for “Being Human”, which is awesome. So it’s fun to have multiple things that you’re getting recognized for.
Huntington: Yeah, it’s true. But it will never be normal. Can you image some stranger coming up to you on the street and going, “Hey! How’s it going?” and feeling like they know you. It’s really awesome, but it’s so, so weird.
Routh: It’s not a normal life.
Huntington: But at conventions it’s great because it’s all such big fans. It’s all love. There’s never any negativity. That’s the reason these things are so much fun. And people really, really love “Fanboys”. People love that movie more than I love that movie, which is really cool.
Shock: Speaking of fanboys, when was the first time you met Kevin Munroe?
Routh: I met Kevin at Scott Rosenberg’s house, actually. Kevin had come aboard the project and he was pitching me and I was pitching him at the same time. We had a really good rapport right from the start. I could tell how excited and passionate he was about the project. We kind of gelled right there. I mentioned Sam at that moment. So we were good from the outset.
Sam: Yeah, he’s just such a fun guy. Such an affable guy to talk to and hang out with. He is a tremendous fanboy. He speaks so eloquently and affably about the nerdyness of the whole universe. I had auditioned way early and then Brandon signed on and it was like, “Oh, yeah! I already know about that project. We should definitely do that together because we really fit these roles.” And we were looking for something to do anyway.
Suddenly, mid-interview, Brandon and Sam have to rush out to the stage, joining director Kevin Munroe to present two clips from the film to a packed house. With a weekend of mega-budget blockbusters wowing the crowd, the Dylan Dog are wisely chosen to get a very different reaction by aiming for laughs.
The first clip has Sam’s character, Marcus, waking up in a shopping cart being pushed by Brandon’s Dylan. Marcus is saying that he’s not feeling well and begins to freak out when he realizes that his left arm is actually someone else’s, surgically attached to his body.
“It’s black!” he protest.
“It’s just a loaner,” Dylan tells him.
Marcus is a zombie now, Dylan explains, and he needs to start taking care of his body to make sure that it doesn’t deteriorate. He’s tossing household cleaners into the shopping cart that Marcus is going to need (pine-sol for his teeth, bleach for his skin, etc).
At the checkout, Marcus is desperately hungry and tries to grab a plate of free samples. Dylan tries to stop him, but he eats them anyway and gets a horrified look on his face, no longer about to process the food of the living.
The second clip has Dylan and Marcus waking up to find that they’re trapped inside a crypt. Marcus tries to use his cell phone to get help but has trouble explaining to the police where they are before his service cuts out. While Marcus freaks, Dylan keeps his cool and reminds him that, “Zombies are great diggers.” Marcus looks at him angrily and starts to object, flatly refusing to dig them out.
The clips seemed pretty confident in their aim at dark comedy and the crowd responded in kind, laughing loudly throughout. As soon as they finished, it was backstage again to wrap up the interview:
Shock: That seemed like a lot of laughter.
Huntington: Good! That was the intent.
Routh: He’s the funny guy. I just make faces.
Huntington: I watched those clips and they’re so up here, but there are moments that are down here. But those two scenes are way, way up. So for me, it’s a little [cringe], but you’ll have to see how it works into the full film.
Shock: Well it’s sort of nice because the audience all weekend has seen such big, exciting clips from different films, but there hasn’t been anything that’s really funny until now.
Routh: We’ll bring the funny!
Shock: What’s coming up next for you guys?
Huntington: I just got picked up for a second season with “Being Human”, so we’re going to start shooting that in July. The last two episodes are the next two Mondays. so I’m kind of psyched for the finale. I haven’t seen them yet.
Routh: I am anticipating a movie I did last year that had a very successful film festival run.
Shock: What about dream roles?
Huntington: Well, he’s already played Superman and I played Jimmy Olsen.
Shock: Now you can switch roles.
Huntington: That’s it! That’s exactly what I was going to say. But I love the character that I get to play on “Being Human”. That’s a close one for me. There are certain movies that I’d love to do, but we’ll see. But I don’t hold the cards.
Routh: I look forward to any good movie. I’m looking forward to doing more comedy in the future.
Shock: It’s turning out you make a great villain, too.
Routh: Yeah, I did have one on “Chuck” and in “Scott Pilgrim”, but that was only a small part. But those opportunities are coming around to me. There are a few kind of things that are circling, so we’ll see.
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night hits theaters on April 29th.
Source: Silas Lesnick
