Andy Fickman Interview, Race to Witch Mountain

Andy Fickman is the director of Race to Witch Mountain starring Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino. Below you can read an interview where he discusses working on the remake of the classic family tale. Race to Witchmountain Just hit DVD.

RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN is a thrilling action-adventure about a hard luck Las Vegas cab driver Jack Bruno (DWAYNE JOHNSON), whose life is thrown into chaos when apparent ‘runaway’ teenagers Sara (ANNASOPHIA ROBB) and Seth (ALEXANDER LUDWIG) jump into his taxi. He soon realizes his two fares are children with exceptional paranormal powers whom he must protect as they elude a collection of ruthless enemies.

QUESTION: What is it about the Witch Mountain franchise that makes it such juicy material to return to and re-imagine?

ANDY FICKMAN: I was a huge fan of the original Witch Mountain movies in the '70s, and the opportunity not to remake but really to continue the franchise 30 years later, with a whole new set of characters, a whole new adventure, as well as include some touchstone moments from the original films was too good an opportunity to miss. We were able to take Kim Richards and Iake Eisenmann, the original kids, and put them on Jack Bruno's journey. So, if you're a fan of the franchise, like I was, the notion of being able to continue the story 30 years later was very intriguing.

QUESTION: You were born in Roswell, weren't you? How did that shape your attitude to this project?

ANDY FICKMAN: I think if you're born in a place like Roswell, New Mexico... because of its reputation of being a UFO centre and there's such mythology out there, you just spend your whole life with people always asking you: "Do you believe in UFOs?" Or: "You're an alien!" So, from the time I was born I've always had an interest in the subject matter and by the time we started doing this movie and sitting down with Dwayne, Ciaran Hinds and the rest of the cast, one of the things I wanted to do was not so much make it about my opinion, but one that shared as much information as I had from videos and books.

QUESTION: When did you realize the uniqueness of Roswell, the place you grew up in?

ANDY FICKMAN: Right away! My earliest memories were that something was unique. Roswell is a very small community, so when you would hear about it on the news or in a magazine when they’d talk about The Mystery Of Roswell…you’d think…Mystery? There are three stop lights! The mystery is what light’s going to work. I’d ask my parents about the mystery of Roswell and my dad, who was a geologist, encouraged us to explore the paranormal because he figured it was a way to get us interested in science. So he would bring in tons of UFO stuff and then stuff about the space programme and astronomy. He used it to educate. But I can remember putting up a map of the world in my bedroom and sticking in red pins any time I heard about a UFO sighting.

QUESTION: Do you believe there is other life out there in space?

ANDY FICKMAN: I honestly believe that we have made so many discoveries in astronomy that it is more a question of when we find other life rather than if we do…whether they turn out to look like humans or some bizarre form of life. But there is so much rock floating out there that it feels egotistical to think we are IT! So I have a very open mind.

QUESTION: Did you feel under pressure when you took on a film that was as fondly remembered as Witch Mountain?

ANDY FICKMAN: Yeah I felt a lot of pressure in wanting to deliver a movie that I, whom I consider to be the biggest fan of Witch Mountain, would want to see. It was important that it was not a direct re-make. This had to be a slight homage to Witch Mountain while still creating our own world. It was also important to track down the original Witch Mountain kids, Kim Richards and Iake Eisemann, who played the alien children in the original movie, and lure them back into the world. Paris Hilton is Kim’s niece and by chance my girlfriend and Paris were close and had worked together, so I asked Paris if I could speak to her aunt. She was happy to put that together and I talked with Kim on the phone. At first I think she wondering why I was bothering her but I asked to take her to lunch at Disney. She had a rush of memories but she still wondered why she should revisit something that was so special. But the more I told her about our version, the more she got excited. Ike was living in Florida so I found him and asked if he would come out of retirement and play with us. Once they signed on it was like a family reunion that just felt so right.

QUESTION: How did you decide on AnnaSophia and Alexander?

ANDY FICKMAN: The minute I read the script I was thinking of AnnaSophia. I had a meeting with her and we talked about aliens, UFOs and being 15 and at the end of the meeting I asked her to be in the movie. The change was to find the boy. We had a nationwide search and when Alexander came in, I turned to the producer and said…that’s the kid.

QUESTION: How would you feel about this becoming a film franchise?

ANDY FICKMAN: I would love that! We built this story with other stories in mind. It would be lovely if we came back and did a sequel.

QUESTION: Is it easier to make a film aimed at younger audiences, or harder because kids nowadays know if you're talking down to them?

ANDY FICKMAN: You've got to make it for more of a general audience because kids are smarter now. When the first Escape To Witch Mountain came out in 1975 that was before Star Wars, before ET and before Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. So, it was revolutionary to us watching them as kids, but once you saw Star Wars your life sort of changed and you were like: "Oh, movies have to look like that..." I think had we done a movie for kids, I think a role like Ciaran Hinds', or Dwayne's or Carla's would have had to be slightly dumbed down as opposed to doing a movie that's more for a general audience and then letting the kids come for the ride.

QUESTION: How easy or otherwise is it to contain Garry Marshall?

ANDY FICKMAN: Well, Garry has been a mentor of mine for about five years. For all of us, he's one of the true great directors. So, when he was on the set you're working with this guy who did Happy Days and Pretty Woman and it's amazing. That being said, Garry is a force of motion himself and was so funny on the set. So, when I was working with him you kind of let Garry do Garry's stuff. That's why you want him in the movie and then you hope that it all cuts together, which it did. I think everyone had really fun memories of working with Garry.

QUESTION: Is there a lot more of him that had to be cut?

ANDY FICKMAN: He's just really funny with the improvisation. But that was kind of why we cast him and we prepped everyone that Garry was going to kind of go off the page. Sometimes, the page comes back nicely and sometimes the page almost goes into Jane Austen's Escape To Witch Mountain! But it also helped that when he was doing scenes with people like Dwayne and Ciaran they were able to bring him back on track.

QUESTION: How hard was it to keep on top of all the special effects in the film?

ANDY FICKMAN: We always communicate from the very beginning. Once you lay out the vision for the actors and for your crew... our key was making sure that they understood what was real and what wasn't. So, when they were inside the big giant spaceship they were actually physically inside this massive spaceship that was built up on a gimbal and giving them a rollercoaster ride. So, we'd try to give them as much reality as we could. But we also had a great visual effects team, and we had brought in the stunt team from the Bourne Identity movies, so we would always say what would be real - such as when Dwayne is driving, or when Ciaran is driving, or when the crash happens for real and when it becomes green screen. I think the more we could communicate, the easier it was for everyone. It can go off-course otherwise.

QUESTION: It sounds like you're a sci-fi fan and the film contains some great convention scenes that felt like you were affectionately mocking them rather than completely. Have you ever been to a convention as a fan boy?

ANDY FICKMAN: Yes [pretends to hang his head in shame]. But what do you mean mockingly? Yeah, I've gone to plenty of them... sometimes you walk into them and go... "This is the best convention!" And sometimes you're like... "I'm wearing a costume at a convention and I sure hope nobody ever asks me that question some day and there's not a photo!" One of the things we did that was important was not talk down to the fans. World-wide there are tremendous amounts of people that believe, at least, in the potential for UFOs and for aliens, and so we didn't want this to become a spoof at their expense. So, when we created the UFO convention we actually went outside the box and invited everyone within the UFO community to come and be there. So, the convention you see in the film is actually manned and all those booths are real booths from UFO conventions. We put the word out and everyone showed up, and we got people like Bill Burns, who hosts a show called UFO Hunters on the History Channel and publishes UFO Magazine. So, what would happen during the week that we were shooting, we'd yell "cut" and the convention would start. Sometimes, it felt like we were almost getting in the way of the convention because they'd all be talking and we'd have to tell people to get back to their booths.

QUESTION: What costume did you wear at the sci fi convention?

ANDY FICKMAN: We have Renaissance festivals, which are cheap attempts to recreate Ye Olde England and for five years I was the head court jester with an amazing costume with bells on the toes and everything. Then when I had to go to a UFO convention I didn’t have a costume but I did have this beautifully made jester costume. So I strapped on some Star Wars weaponry and some green paint and became a gun slinging court jester from another planet. When I walked in, everyone said they loved my costume. They thought I had put a tremendous amount of effort into making the court jester outfit, unaware that I had made a living out of it for five years.

QUESTION: What’s your secret for maintaining a happy atmosphere on set?

ANDY FICKMAN: I consider it such a gift that we are involved in the world of entertainment. It is a fine tradition, dating back to court jesters and I am comfortable with it. To have a creative environment you have to create a place where it is ok to try and to fail. You need to have laughter. Twenty four hours will not end any faster if we are all angry. If we have a good time and people get along then that helps if you need to squeeze more out of the time you have. That has been important for me.

QUESTION: What’s next?

ANDY FICKMAN: I am doing a big graphic novel movie called Monster Attack Network for Disney. It is going to be a massive movie that will take me a year to build and create. It is about like a military unit that is designed to stop giant monsters from destroying the world. It is going to be live action and I would like to start filming it in 2010.