Bob Schultz Talks to Us About "Below Zero," the Great American Pitchfest & Zombie Coyotes



Bob Schultz & Signe Olynyk


Yesterday we posted audio of an interview we did with Bob Schultz and Signe Olynyk from the new film Below Zero starring Edward Furlong and Michael Berryman. In addition to that interview that Shultz and Olynyk were gracious enough to do via Skype, I also had the pleasure of exchanging a few emails with them and doing a more in depth interview.

Here is the interview with Shultz. The Olynyk interview will be soon to follow!

Christopher Coffel: How did you get involved with Below Zero?

Bob Schultz: It was a pretty rough time for me as a writer. A couple of my best scripts were dead after parallel projects had gone green, leaving me in a dead end creatively and professionally. Signe and I had already worked together for 7 years or so at the time, working as writers and doing the Great American PitchFest (http://www.pitchfest.com/) each year.  She called me with a new direction. They say when a door closes, a window opens, and answering the phone that day was my window. “Here’s what we’re going to do,” she said. “We’re each going to write a movie that we can produce ourselves. ‘Man in a Box’ movies. Very small cast, very few locations, very few special effects.” She wrote BELOW ZERO, and I wrote a zombie thriller called BREAKDOWN LANE. We decided to produce them both ourselves.

CC: What do you guys hope people take away from Below Zero?

BS: A DVD which they paid full price for. No, seriously. Signe wrote such a deceptively intricate script that the movie continues to burble in people’s minds long after seeing it. BELOW ZERO is a thriller in the classic sense of the word. Like THE SHINING or MISERY, there are shocks and scares, but just as in every great script, regardless of genre, a strong protagonist with a clear goal and seemingly insurmountable obstacles drives a great story.

CC: What has the experience been like, not only from working on the film, but taking it around to various film festivals?

BS: Man, it is the dream. So much of film-making is isolating. Writing alone, shooting on a closed set, editing in a dark room. It’s easy to see the project as the whole world. Which is really amazing, by the way. Uniting with other creative people to achieve a common goal. A goal which often seems impossible.

Bob Schultz at the Austin Internation Film Festival

But going to the festivals and meeting fans of independent film is nourishing and revitalizing. Seeing films shot in Kentucky or Scotland or Australia energizes me, reminds me how exciting all these different creative voices can be. Meeting other filmmakers is reassuring too. Like veterans meeting at the VFW Hall. We may not have been in the same war, but only another vet knows what it’s like to have shrapnel in his ass. We trade stories and experiences and congratulate each other for doing it. Making BELOW ZERO was stressful and difficult and challenging and exhausting and preposterous. And I cannot wait to do it again.

CC: How did you get into producing? Was it something you always wanted to do?

BS: Not at all! Like most writers, I think, I always wanted to write my scripts, send them off into the world, collect residuals, and write another script. But it’s a different world now. Writers need to champion their projects from the beginning. Pitch them, find cast sometimes, find all the key elements sometimes. As long as I’m helping make movies I would want to see, I’m happy. I got some great advice from actor Fred Keating (Final Destination, Dark Water). I was saying how much of a movie geek I am, and how it’s difficult sometimes to remember whether I’m wearing my Producer hat or my Fan hat. And Fred said, “Try to make it the same hat.” Never forgetting that I am a fan of movies first informs all of my decisions and choices. I always thought it would ruin the magic to see how movies are made, but every time I meet a new fan at the festivals, when they hear our story and think, “I could make movies. I always thought that would be impossible,” that’s mind-blowing to me.

CC: Do you have any plans to write and/or direct yourself? Are there any new projects you're working on?

BS: We are currently working on producing BREAKDOWN LANE. I wrote it and am directing it as well. I don’t want to give too much away, but the zombie coyotes look positively sensational.

BREAKDOWN LANE, BELOW ZERO, and this year’s Great American PitchFest (June 1-3) are taking up all of my time now, but I have a couple of other Man in a Box ideas I’d like to write and one or two bigger ideas. I’m really looking forward to getting back to the joy of being a writer again.

CC: Is horror a genre you've always been interested in? Any particular influences?

BS: I’ve been a fan of movies as a whole – and horror movies in particular – ever since I can remember. Growing up in a small town used to mean that access to movies was extremely limited. But when I was an adolescent, VCRs were just starting to come into people’s homes. So I could see FRIDAY THE 13th, HALLOWEEN, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, ROSEMARY’S BABY, THE OMEN, THE SHINING… on and on. THE HILLS HAVE EYES totally flipped my pancakes. Imagine the joy of working with Michael Berryman on BELOW ZERO after seeing him in HILLS and CUCKOO’S NEST as a child.

Schultz is a huge Cronenberg fan

But my biggest influence was David Cronenberg. When I saw THE FLY (which I did catch in a theater) my whole world changed. I realized that I needed to see everything this man had made. I went and found RABID and THE BROOD. I somehow managed to convince my Dad to take me to see SCANNERS. I was the first one to rent VIDEODROME when it came out. DEAD ZONE, DEAD RINGERS… I could go on forever. That obsession continues to this day. When CRASH didn’t play in the city where I was living, I drove three hours to see it. I rented LAST NIGHT because I heard he was in it (it turned out to be an amazing film even beyond his appearance). SPIDER blew my mind. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE should be required viewing for every living human. And, of course, we shot BELOW ZERO in Canada. We’re shooting BREAKDOWN LANE in Alberta as well. The fact that I can even be a tiny footnote in the Big Book of Canadian Horror alongside the volumes of material about Cronenberg is my most cherished detail of this whole adventure.

 CC: John Connor (Edward Furlong) plays in your film. That has to be a pretty cool feeling, right? As a movie geek, I'd probably flip out if he were playing a part I wrote.

BS: I had to consult on just a few lines on BELOW ZERO, and we have shot some footage on BREAKDOWN LANE as well. Hearing my words brought to life by Eddie Furlong, Michael Berryman, and the amazing Kristin Booth is a feeling unlike any other. “Flip out” doesn’t begin to cover it.


Bob Schultz is a producer and executive director of The Great American Pitchfest. He's newest film, Below Zero will be playing at the Phoenix Film Festival. For more info and to purchase tickets please visit the official Phoenix Film Festival website.