CraveOnline: You were shooting real dialogue scenes. Did no one notice there was a performance going on?
Randy Moore: No.
Even if you did a retake, no one noticed it was the exact same dialogue?
Randy Moore: No.
Lucas Lee Graham: You have to remember that people move through the park like an ocean. Unless you’re in line, they don’t really stand in the same place. So you do a take and by the time it’s over, there’s a whole new group of people. It’s pretty rare for other people to be in one place for the same time unless they’re having lunch or something like that.
Why did you decide to black out the Neosporin?
Randy Moore: That was a decision we made after Sundance based on the recommendation from one of our attorneys who felt that we were misrepresenting Neosporin, so it would be safer to change the name.
Of all the things in this movie, that’s what’s going to nail you?
Randy Moore: Because we weren’t parodying Neosporin. We weren’t making any social comments about the brand Neosporin.
So parody is protecting you for the Disney stuff?
Randy Moore: That’s what we felt.
Lucas Lee Graham: That’s the theory.
You don’t entirely know yet?
Randy Moore: No, that’s our case. That’s how we got insurance. That’s what we believe. Anything could happen but that’s how we feel.
Is your dream that the movie be shown with an actual intermission?
Randy Moore: I would have loved that. At Sundance we had an intermission montage after the intermission. It sort of recapped everything up to the point of where we left off, sort of like the beginning of Superman II does getting you up to speed which was great and it even had some weird scenes that weren’t even in the first act of the movie. And it was three quarters of the way through the movie so it was like the shortest movie ever with an intermission and it started at 70 minutes into the movie and there was only 30 minutes left, but we were really trying to get the movie down time-wise to about 90 minutes.
Lucas Lee Graham: I miss the intermission.
Randy Moore: Everyone [does], I miss it too.
How much longer was the Sundance cut?
Randy Moore: 14 minutes longer.
What else has come out?
Randy Moore: Most of it was just heads and tails of scenes, walking into scenes and walking out. It’s amazing how much can really come out. There were no major scenes that were taken out. By the time it played at Sundance, the picture had been locked for almost a year. Obviously when you watch something for that long, you wish I could just open it up and make some changes, so everyone, me, had a long list of things that I wish I could have done at that time. Then after Sundance when we had the opportunity through our sales agency to go in and actually make some changes, finally I was like okay, we can cut out this because that’s always felt like it was running a little long.
Did you start with the idea to shoot in Disneyland and then come up with a story for that? What was the order?
Randy Moore: It wasn’t like I’m going to go write a movie in Disney World. Both the story and the location sort of manifested themselves together at the same time.
How have you responded to the phenomenon Escape From Tomorrow has been since Sundance?
Randy Moore: You know, Twitter can be pretty evil and I try not to check it too often because it’s an emotional roller coaster. You get every single person’s opinion and it can be too much. I spent a summer in Kyrgyzstan which is in Central Asia working on something new. I’m just waiting for this to pass and start something less stressful.
Lucas, are you working on the next film too?
Lucas Lee Graham: Hopefully.
What is your next film going to be?
Randy Moore: It’s going to be a period movie. I don’t know why I didn’t ever plan to do this but it’s going to touch on a lot of American folklore. And maybe twist it.
You seem like you’re still nervous and concerned. Is that just jet lag and travel, or do you still have some anxiety about Escape from Tomorrow?
Lucas Lee Graham: That’s just his personality. He’s a pretty high-strung guy.
Randy Moore: Maybe that’s just my personality.
Lucas Lee Graham: Wait ‘til he gets in the car when I drive. You think this is nervous?
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
