five with frights:- Ben Templesmith
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Mr. Frights got to talk with BEN TEMPLESMITH, the genius artist/writer behind stories like '30 Days of Night' and 'Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse'...
www.templesmith.com
MR. FRIGHTS: Aside from building the basis for the movie with the terrific comicbook, how much input into the movies for 30 Days of Night have you had? And are you happy with the process?-
BEN TEMPLESMITH: Absolutely none. I did get to meet and hang with the director and have some amazing life experiences on set etc though... but that was all after the horse had bolted and very much not by anyone's design.
Any good stuff visually that happened to be "me" in the film I definitely owe to David Slade, that's for sure. -
MR. FRIGHTS: Any plans for other work in comics to evolve on to the big screen or even something for TV or DVD? Maybe an animated Wormwood series?
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BEN TEMPLESMITH: No plans. Plans imply I deliberately want it to happen. I'm happy just to do the comics and then if anything *does* happen, well great...but I don't live for it. I am increasingly curious about online/motion stuff though. Maybe doing some work tailor made for such things...
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MR. FRIGHTS: Have you considered doing any screenwriting?
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BEN TEMPLESMITH: In passing. But No time as yet. I prefer to flesh things out and do them as comics first anyway.
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MR. FRIGHTS: What drew you to work in horror/dark fiction?
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BEN TEMPLESMITH: It's easy aesthetic? I'm really a quirky dark sci-fi guy who just happened to fall into a big vampire book first time round. My favourite book is a cross between
Doctor Who and
Hellboy really. (
Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse )
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MR. FRIGHTS: If you were to do a comicbook series version (artwork or writing) of any horror movie out there past or present, what would it be?
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BEN TEMPLESMITH:
The Thing.
Hit the Grab Bag Questions below to go on with the interview...
GRAB BAG QUESTIONS
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MR. FRIGHTS: Is there anything gory you've come across that you really don't like to draw for whatever reason (degree of difficulty, it really grosses you out), perhaps a particular internal organ?
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BEN TEMPLESMITH: To draw? Not really. I don't like drawing horrific violence towards women particularly I guess. The French movie
Martyrs still gives me pause for thought. Tough film.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Which is scarier... being hunted by vampires or working with Steve Niles?
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BEN TEMPLESMITH: Am not touching that one.
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MR. FRIGHTS: The artwork you do seems inherently dark and twisted... even the tamer pictures have a hint of violence about them. Where do go mentally to find that imagery? (what inspires your work?)
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BEN TEMPLESMITH: I'm sure I have something very dark inside me somewhere...since otherwise I'm a perfectly happy chap generally with no life traumas.
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MR. FRIGHTS: You recently visited Barrow, Alaska. Did you happen to notice any suspicious characters lurking in the shadows?
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BEN TEMPLESMITH: No, just frozen balls.
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MR. FRIGHTS: If you were to write your own demise into a comic, what would it be?
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BEN TEMPLESMITH:Death by a thousand high class hookers?