CraveOnline: Did you have strong opinions about entering this sort of genre, which has that stigma attached to it?
Mike Mendez: Yeah, I mean, of course. When I first got this script and it was Dinospider my immediate reaction was like, “God, I really don’t want to do this stuff. Has it come to this?” And the God’s honest truth was, I realized, “I’ve got to be honest with myself, yes, this is the kind of stuff I’m getting now. So how am I going to try to get out of this?” I felt the only way to get out was by trying to move forward and trying make the best product I could with what was given to me.
So it was certainly a gamble but now that I’m on the other side of it, it was a wonderful choice. When I first started off on this, I was kind of like, “Am I going to want to use another name? Am I going to want my friends to see it? Am I going to try and promote it?” And then, through the course of it, and really getting into it, it ended up being something I’m very proud of.
So will you be doing more films of this ilk, or are you moving into another field right now?
I would hope that the only time I’ll be revisiting this genre is if we make a Big Ass series. If Greg and Lombardo are in there playing Alex and Jose, then I am on board. I hope that I’m done for now with this kind of creature of the week type thing. We’ll see. I mean, again, as I had to make peace with the fact that this is my calling in life. It’s better than digging ditches, but this is not what I aspire to necessarily.
So you clearly – at least at some point – thought about doing this as a series. Would it be like Big Ass Mantis, or would it be like Bigger Ass Spider?
The original ending of the script was that little baby spiders survived, and I thought that was very cliché and typical. While making the movie it became really clear that the sequel and the franchise was not in the creature, but was with Alex and Jose, our two lead characters. So I’d like to see them on further adventures. To me it’s an endless possibility: Big Ass Cockroaches, Big Ass Ants, Big Ass Centipede. I think there’s a lot of places we can go, but it would be more about the extermination team trying to battle large creatures.
There’s a weird subgenre of movies that takes a job that people don’t think much of, and makes it badass. Like Raiders of the Lost Ark or El Mariachi.
Sure.
I can totally see that working with exterminators. They could actually go on adventures to like, Uruguay…
What I really wanted to do, and we’ll see how it goes – it’s always harder when you’re making an independent film – but what I really wanted to do was turn it into a television series. I kind of look at Big Ass Spider as a pilot for a television series to continue on their adventures, helping the government battle creatures all over the world. That’s what I would really like it to be at the end of the day, but again, that’s a tall order when you’re making a small, indie film for half a million dollars. But you never know.
On the other hand, the SyFy Channel really needs some decent “sci-fi” shows, so it could work great.
That’s the thing. I hope they see it that way. I mean, it’s going to air eventually on their channel. I have a feeling if it does well that we might have a shot at at least pitching that. So we’ll see. But at the very least we’d all very much like to make another film, but the bottom line is it all comes down to economics. If it does well and merits a sequel and is profitable, I think no one will hesitate to do it. But that’s a big “if.”
If you were to pitch that series, would it be a half-hour “Jack of All Trades” kind of series, or would you try to do an hour-long?
I’d go hour-long, kind of in the vein of “Fringe,” or more comical. Almost as if the Ghostbusters had their own [live-action] television show. Yeah, no, I think I’d rather go on an hour-long thing. “Mini creature films” is how I’d look at it. 47-minute creature films, or whatever.
