YBMW Exclusive Interview: Fraggle Rock Director Cory Edwards

YBMW: I’m a huge fan of Hoodwinked. For me, as far as an animated film that’s got a fairy-tale type tie-in, I like it a lot better than the Shrek movies.

YBMW: So, what’s going on with the sequel?

Cory: That’s a very interesting question. I ask that question about once every two months. ‘Cause I don’t know. First of all, thank you for even knowing that it’s even different than the Shrek movies; people wrote us off pretty quickly in a lot of reviews, but we tried very hard to make it different.

We knew Shrek existed, we knew we couldn’t have better looking images than Shrek. We didn’t have the money or the muscle to do that with the CGI that we had. So tonally with a color palette and with a style of shooting, we kind of went back in time a little bit to the action comedies we grew up with. I would hope people see references to movies and genres and styles like film noir and 80’s action comedies like Fletch. The people that love it get it.

But to answer your question about the sequel, Todd and Tony and I – the original writers and directors, we wrote it. A cut of the movie is finished so now I guess they’re still trying to figure out if the movie’s done or not. They’re still trying to figure out if there’s anything else they wanna do to it. Once it leaves our hands as writers, we don’t have a whole lot to do with the movie.

YBMW: Is it going to be a theatrical release, do you know, or is it going straight to DVD?

Cory: I am still hopeful for a theatrical release. There was every intent that it be a very big, splashy theatrical release. If that has changed, no one has told me. I did get to voice the character of Twitchy the Squirrel again, which was a lot of fun. So I’m glad I was able to do that.

YBMW: How did you go from that to getting involved with the Fraggle movie?

Cory: Well after Hoodwinked – I’m glad you love Hoodwinked so much, a lot of people in the industry love it. They love the tone that it set, they loved the jokes and the kind of banter it had. We always talked about the Muppets when we were writing Hoodwinked. And the Jim Henson Company noticed, and it became a favorite film over there, and they told me so, and they- it’s funny, at Comic Con is when I got to meet the Henson people. I’d always go into their panel, but this time I got to go behind that curtain and meet Lisa Henson and meet a lot of the people involved with the Jim Henson company.

It was very exciting, you know, to have grown up with this, this is like a childhood entity that has always influenced me. And now to be part of it is tremendous.

And the first thing they talked to me about was the Dark Crystal sequel, and if I could help do a rewrite on that. Now that’s not a comedy by any means, like Hoodwinked, but they just kinda liked where I was coming from, after they talked to me a while. When the Dark Crystal thing didn’t pan out, they turned to Fraggle Rock and said, “well my gosh, it’s so similar to what we kind of saw on Hoodwinked. We see a Muppet-like tone and the same kind of tone coming out of you that came out of Jim Henson – would you like to take a crack at this?”

And I was really reluctant at first, because I did not grow up with the property. I’d always heard about it, I didn’t get HBO as a kid. So I really had to kind of invest myself in Fraggle Rock for a while. I had to watch the DVDs. They had a very broad idea for a plot about the core cast of characters meeting our world for the first time, and really having an adventure out in the world. Having it be equal parts adventure in Fraggle Rock and the real world. And seeing how the real world and Fraggle Rock could affect each other, in a big movie plot kind of way.

But they didn’t know what the plot would be. They’d been through several treatments, and so when I came up with my ideas for what the movie could be, then I became very invested and very excited. And I went back to things like Dr. Seuss Books, and The Gods Must Be Crazy, and Douglas Adams books, where they take characters from a fantastical world or a foreign place and have them take a child-like look at our world. You’re able to really analyze what’s wrong with our society, and what’s right with it.

So I got very excited about the project. This could be more than just another Alvin and the Chipmunks or Smurfs where we just take a property and have new modern movie fun with it. This could also say some big things about our world and how we take care of each other.

And how we take care of our environment. And how we abuse it. And at the same time, we can still have a great fun adventure that any 10 year old will love. The 30 year old in the audience hopefully is gonna get like a little bit of goose bumps on their flesh thinking “I’ve got a lot to think about that I’ve never thought about this way.”

That’s what the greatest films do – even family films and kids films – and that’s why the Pixar films resonate with everybody of every age. So, I’m not saying I’m Pixar by any means, but you might as well have that gold standard to shoot for.

YBMW: Excellent. What’s the goal for the movie as far as practical puppetry versus CGI?

Cory: I would say I am dedicated to do 99% practical puppetry, and I’ve said this in other interviews. And the Hensons are in agreement. I believe the Weinsteins are still in agreement. There’s so much amazing work being done in CGI performance now, but I think everybody who watches the Muppets watches them to see the magic of live puppetry on the screen. And to believe I’m watching a real live performance from a foam rubber creation. There’s something charming and magical and unequaled about watching a puppet. That you- there’s a lot of great blending of technologies now.

And I’m not opposed to using animation or using performance capture or puppet performance capture, but for the most part, I want to be able to proudly say when this movie is done, “what you’re seeing is real puppets doing this stuff.” Because we’re gonna try to do some stuff with camera work, and with modern effects to hide the puppeteers and hide the controls. You’re still seeing the real puppetry, but we’re gonna be able to hide the puppeteers in new ways. And I hope that we get to a point where you forget they’re puppets, but you still are saying “I can’t believe I’m seeing a puppet do this.” You know, whether in an action scene or running across the road. We’ve talked about many ways that we will use CGI to enhance the puppet performances. But we’re all dedicated to in-camera puppet tricks.

YBMW: Yeah. I think everyone was sort of a little bit afraid after Yoda.

Cory: Yeah, yeah. I mean, the CGI Yoda had some great moments. Who didn’t get up and cheer when Yoda went berserk in Attack of the Clones and pulled his light saber out and kicked everyone’s butts? I mean, that was a great thing. But I’m with you guys – I miss the rubber puppet Yoda. It’s like when you watch Jackie Chan and you know it’s really Jackie Chan really doing that stunt, there’s an extra level of respect and commitment to the movie, an investment of the movie that you have as an audience member.

So I think people will be excited if they go “let’s go see the Muppets really do what the Muppets do best.” Which is old-school muppet tricks, mechanical tricks, in-camera tricks, and I think it’s just gonna be a lot of fun. Now, I have a lot of interesting ideas that we’ll see how it pans out, but about ways to use CGI, to better enhance the story we’re telling. ‘Cause there’s a lot of things around those puppets that we can do, as far as extending the environments of Fraggle Rock and doing some magical things with characters like the Trash Heap that we could never do before.

But it’s a marriage of puppetry and all the modern toys and tricks we have at our disposal today. I’d be a fool not to use all the tools we have today. Because it does have to compete as a movie with every other movie out there. But again: what we have that no one else has is the charm, and the warmth of a live performance. And I think people responded to that in movies like Where the Wild Things Are. Even though that was CGI-enhanced puppetry, it was still a physical creature. And time and again, I will run into people – and I’m talking about anyone from a fan boy sitting at a coffee shop to someone in the industry – everyone seems to long for an analog performance, a live performance, a real performance.

I loved Avatar, and I love what Andy Serkis does with motion capture as Gollum. There’s magic there, too. But I know that people have a hunger for tactile characters right now. I think the pendulum is swinging in a direction where people want to know they’re watching something real on camera, something that they can reach out and touch.