TC: How did your film company come to form?
Cezil : I'd come back and forth from film school and I'd share with Lydelle some of the ideas I was working on. One day he approached me about an idea of an 80 year-old man who believes he's a superhero but he's suffering from a mental illness. It was a 1 part comedy 2 parts sadness type of an idea. And I was like, "Word, we should write that together!" And we did. Few years later, we were thinking about a name for our company. I had the name TCT Pictures in my head but it was stupid. Lydelle came up with BAPart Films.
TC: I understand your first feature film is coming out. Could you tell us a little about that?
Lydelle: Yep, well, going into this film we knew that we wanted to turn the horror genre on its head. So we decided to make an "art-house horror" film. It may sound pretentious to say, but we believe that there's a lot of potential in the horror genre that has not been tapped into yet. What we've created, hopefully, can appeal to the classic horror fan, as well as someone who's into 'artsy' films...you know, the kind of dudes who do anything in their power to avoid pop culture, and refer to movies as "film"... people like ourselves, the BAPartists, haha. Anyways, the film's dark...real dark. Very serious and brooding, nothing campy about this film at all. Just hardness, through and through.
TC: What is The Taking about?
Cezil: Some hard shit...j/k It's about two people living in heartache, who must find solace if they are to escape the clutches of a demonic cult before their souls are taken.
TC: Who do you have starring in The Taking?
Lydelle: Our film is lead by John Halas. He's a phenomenal actor, he's got a lot of conviction, and he's almost as handsome as us. This is his first feature film but he's been on television, shows like Cinemax's Girls Guide to Depravity . We've also got Alana Jackler playing the female lead as well, she's an amazing actress. Great camera presence, she takes it to the next level with her performance. Horror fans may be familiar with Gordon Price, he was the villain in The Watermen, a horror film that came out last year with Jason Mewes, he's also recently been in Tyler Perry's Good Deeds, if you check that out he'll be the homeless dude getting beat up by Thandie Newton. Last but not least, we've got Lynn Mastio Rice playing a villianous role, she'd previously played a hell of a bad guy in "Children of Invention" she was so good at being sinister that she got a standing ovation at Sundance. Glad to have these guys and all the others with us. Everyone who worked on this film is amazing and the world will see that fact soon...I hope!
TC: What gave you guys the idea for The Taking?
Cezil: I (Cezil) have been terrified of demons entering my body and taking my soul since the age of 11 (when I watched "The Exorcist"). Having a demon inside of me has always frightened me. Throughout my teens I had numerous night terrors where I believed a demonic presence had entered my room and was wanting to claim my soul. Sometimes I thought it was Satan. FYI, one time I was in a 400mm race with Satan, this was a dream of course (I'm not that weird), and I beat him and so he choked me for it. That's when the night terrors began:( Anyway, I was like, "We should do a demonic possession film...the rest was history."
TC: How did you first get involved in the Horror genre?
Lydelle: We wrote our first horror story back in 2007 or so. It's called the Dark Maze, we'd originally hoped to find half a million dollars to make it with...I don't know what we were thinking! As first time filmmakers who don't come from money, that's just not going to happen...either way, we finished the script and, hey, it's for sale to anyone interested in it! You can find some info about it on our website...ahem... Anyways, the Dark Maze was simply too big for our modest means. So we began writing comedies and dramas. However, when we finally worked up the nerve to do our own film, I mean write, direct, produce, finance, etc, we came back to horror. What I personally like about horror is that it's a genre that has great potential for creators. The horror crowd is very supportive, and the most willing to experiment, I think. So, for two dudes who like to test waters...Horror was a great place for us to kick off our film making careers.
TC: When is The Taking going to be released?
Cezil: It will be done Summer 2012 and we will do a festival run across the country and world wide for 2012 & part of 2013. Expect it to be out on DVD/Blue-Ray late 2013.
TC: Is there anything else you would like to say to the fans of Twisted Central?
Lydelle: Yes, check us out on Facebook and Twitter. We're also working on other projects like music videos and maybe a few smaller pieces. We're friends with some big porn stars too and so we may do some experimental stuff with them, as well. Facebook: The BAPartists twitter: @bapartists
You can also check out our website:
http://www.bapartfilms.com/
Sounds great, can't wait to see it!!
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