CON: Corey Feldman

The first official day at the 2008 COMIC-CON was a blast. I met the great Thomas Jane last night, sitting by his lonesome in a booth for THE MUTANT CHRONICLES, and today I met Corey Feldman, a guy who’s a legend in his own right, and a guy I grew up watching on the big screen. He’s here pimping LOST BOYS: THE TRIBE (which premiered here at the CON Thursday night, and released on DVD July 29th), and he was cool enough to sit down and chat up THE TRIBE, the long-lost film THE BIRTHDAY, and what his take would have been for the upcoming FRIDAY THE 13TH remake. And away we go!

Q: First of all, we’re big fans of yours at JoBlo.com. All your movies from THE GOONIES to STAND BY ME to…

Corey Feldman: THE BIRTHDAY. Do you know about that one?

Q: Actually, I don’t know about that one.

Feldman: Well, there are a few people over at JoBlo that are big fans of THE BIRTHDAY. It’s a little horror / sci-fi / David Lynchian type that I did in Spain with a very talented Spanish director named Eugenio Mira. And he’s become very good friends with Guillermo del Toro, who is also a big supporter of THE BIRTHDAY, and apparently they’re trying to set up a screening right now through JoBlo for England because somebody at JoBlo is such a huge fan and so is Guillermo. They really just want to get this movie a theatrical release after so many years.

Q: When did you film it?

Feldman: We filmed it like three years ago in Barcelona, Spain, and it’s a great real-time adventure kind of movie. Very stylized, very artistic, and apparently it’s got quite the cult, underground fanbase going for it.

Q: You did another horror movie not too long about called TERROR INSIDE—where is that one at?

Feldman: I have no idea. Good question. It was actually a cute little script, a good little story, and Susy made her debut on screen. Awesome actress in the film. It was just done very very cheaply. It was like a quarter million dollar budget or something. It was for the film school in Orlando, Florida, which was apart of their required units—to collaborate with real filmmakers and try to make something that looks like a real film. It was shot on Hi-Def in twelve days and done very cheaply. But it was a good little script. Tanya Manning, who was in it, was a great actress. There were certain high-points and some seedy elements to it, but at the same time it was a very low-grade production, so I just don’t know if they’re ever going to get it released or not. At the very least, it should be some sort of straight to video / cable thing. When you have a bunch of film school kids that come together and make a movie—this is where they get their start and go on to something bigger and better.

Q: What’s it like playing Edgar Frog again, a character you played over twenty years ago? Are you trying to do a fresh take on it?

Feldman: Not at all. I’m trying to re-hash the same thing I did twenty years ago. I hope I get it right.

Q: Why fix it if it’s not broken, right?

Feldman: Exactly. You know, it’s a bit nerve-racking. I mean, this whole process is a bit nerve-racking. I’ve seen some early reviews from leaked copies that have made their way on the streets … First of all, I have to say that this is not a film you want to watch on a 5 inch screen out of two tiny speakers. It’s something that you want to see, in all best and intensive purposes, on the big screen, with 5.1 audio sound. It’s well shot, it’s well photographed, I think they did a great job with the special effects, it’s got the punch of a regular movie, and the sound mix on it is great. I’m not a huge fan of the soundtrack…. but that’s my own musical taste…

Q: Didn’t they redo the song “Cry Little Sister”?

Feldman: Actually, that one’s not bad, I like the remake of it. I think that the guys did a great job; however, that said, the rest of the movie has got music that’s not really to my liking. They would have been much better off with TRUTH MOVEMENT soundtrack if you ask me, but… that’s me.

Q: With the return as this character, has there been any other characters you’ve played in the past that you would want to come back to? Have you ever considered returning to the role of Tommy Jarvis from FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER?

Feldman: Well, I did. The thing is, I actually had a meeting with Platinum Dunes about it. At one point, when they were getting ready to gear up for this new FRIDAY THE 13TH movie that they just shot, one of the original ideas was to bring Tommy Jarvis back. One of my ideas from ten years ago was, wouldn’t it be great to erase everything that happened in 5, 6, and 7, pretend those never happened, then bring back Tommy Jarvis kind of H20 style. Tommy meets Jason as an adult, he’s grown up, and his character has evolved since. I think that’s the only one that I thought would be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, they didn’t take my ideas, they went and did the movie without me, and shame on them for doing that.

Q: Maybe they’ll bring you back for the sequel.

Feldman: That’s right. Although, again, I’d only want to do that if it stood alone in and of itself. I wouldn’t really want to keep re-hashing the same ideas over and over and over again. So I guess it really just depends on where they go with it. I’ll certainly be watching to see what happens. And that’s the only one. I mean, aside from that—it’s not like we’re going to redo STAND BY ME, we’re not going to do another BURBS, GREMLINS I think has kind of run its course—I’ve heard rumors that they’re trying to do something with that. That said, I don’t see a sequel in it. GOONIES, I’d always support doing another one if they had the original cast, and Warner Bros gave us a huge budget—it would be epic. Bring back Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg, and that’s the only way they’d be able to do another movie. To, it makes a lot of sense. You got Sean Austin, Josh Brolin, I would love to be a part of it, and Spielberg has always been down, Donner’s always been down, it’s so obvious — Warner Bros, wake up call, do the movie and make it right.

Q: Maybe now, with LOST BOYS 2, it might happen.

Feldman: The thing is, I would never want it to be a straight to DVD movie. I wouldn’t it to have a new cast and do all this other stuff, I’d be very particular, but obviously those choices aren’t up to me. As with this film that I keep trying to reiterate to all the press: I’m not responsible, I’m just a guy who was hired to do a job. I think I did the job as best I could, and hopefully people will enjoy it, hopefully the people will enjoy the film for what it is, and take it for what it is. Don’t try and raise it to the mark that it’s got to be LOST BOYS—it’s not gonna be LOST BOYS, it’s LOST BOYS THE TRIBE, it’s its own entity, and I think it’s a good little movie for what it is. I think people have to kind of tune out that other stuff, and they have to take it for what it is as itself. I think Angus does a great job, Kat does a great job, Autumn does a great job, PJ does an amazing job as a director—it’s got a great style, a great look—the first one, when it came out, it was something no one had seen before. It was original and it was shocking. This time around we’re trying to recapture some of that glory, and also make it a new beast, and I think it’s done effectively. All I have to say to the fans out there is don’t read the reviews from people who got underground copies that are frauding the movie industry by leaking this stuff and spreading it around the internet. Get your own copy, put it on Blue-ray, stick it in your Playstation 3, turn up the 5.1 sound, and watch the movie the way it was meant to be seen. And be entertained.

Feldman and some bum off the street.