Please Don’t Spoil The Movie By Adding Your Own Soundtrack: An Interview With Mike Nelson

Popshifter: When you choose a movie to do a RiffTrax to, do you have to first obtain some sort of royalties before you do the RiffTrax?

Mike Nelson: No, only on those that we do mesh together and then offer as video on demand. And in those cases, I don’t think we’ve had to pay a royalty on those because their either public domain or Legend Films, who I work with, they own the rights for it. Otherwise it’s just considered a commentary. Because the user is doing it on their end, there are no rights to get for them.

Popshifter: Have you spoken to or received feedback from any of the movie producers of anything that you’ve done a RiffTrax to?

“Star Wars,” sand sculpture, 2006
by the Zigura Brothers

Mike Nelson: I never have, which I’m kind of surprised about there. But we’ve actually talked to movie studios and executives about getting the rights to these things and they don’t object. They’re only nervous about the movie stars and directors that they have to deal with. Most people are pretty good-natured about it because this is not a cynical act of taking apart somebody’s work. There are a few cases where we generally don’t like a movie and a little bit of that leaks into it but those tend to be layered with a good-natured approach because who wants to see somebody just trash on something? Definitely the people who were involved have a pretty good sense of humor about it and nobody’s ever really complained.

Popshifter: Well that’s good! The first RiffTrax that I listened to while watching a movie was for Episode Three of the Star Wars prequels.

Mike Nelson: Oh wow, and you made it through the whole thing!

Popshifter: I did, yeah. I actually own the movie and enjoyed quite a bit so I wanted to see what your take on it would be and I just laughed so much that I had to get the first two. All the recurring jokes like Anakin hating sand and all that.

Mike Nelson: That was my favorite part of the entire series—it’s such a strange line! Admittedly, we’ve ridden that pony all the way through the series.

Popshifter: Well, there are so many bad lines in the series, unfortunately, and yeah, that one is kind of applicable across the board.

Mike Nelson: Yeah, but I do think that it is an enjoyable thing because I’ve tested it out with movies that I like. I quite like the Lord of the Rings series and we did those, and I like them! It still works. You can really like a work of art and recognize it through the elements and laugh along with it. I can still take them seriously. The work isn’t ruined for me and I can still sit down today and watch The Lord of the Rings and really like them on their own, so I think that if you have a movie that you really love and it’s on our list, I wouldn’t even be afraid to watch it because I don’t think it ruins it.

Popshifter: That’s true. So how did you hook up with “Weird Al” Yankovic for the Jurassic Park RiffTrax?

Mike Nelson: Just got a hold of his agent. I’ve always loved his stuff and I really like his approach to humor and how he seems to want to appeal to the most people that he can, just to make them laugh. He seems to enjoy that. And that’s my approach, too. I’m not trying to do this for a little club of insiders that we can poke fun at our little secret thing. This is just trying to make people laugh. And he liked the idea right away and was pretty easy to get him. He was a great guy to work with; he’s hilarious.

Popshifter: Cool! That’s about all the questions we had, so was there anything else that you wanted to add for the readers of Popshifter?

Mike Nelson: It’s worth it to make it to the Comic Con and the live show and we’ll be there at the Comic Con so you can come up and say “Hi.” I always like meeting the fans and the people who’ve traveled far so come stop by! [The Comic Con in San Diego took place on July 26.—Ed.]

Popshifter: And as far as RiffTrax Live goes, that’s by no means a one-time thing. You might be doing more of these in the future, I’d imagine.

Mike Nelson: We definitely will. We have one coming up, not for sure but almost for sure so I’ll mention it. It’s in San Francisco again in January and there may be more again!

Additional Resources:

For a list of all the RiffTrax commentaries, and to watch clips from select episodes, please visit the RiffTrax website. Be sure to also check out their blog, on which all the Riffers frequently post.

RELATED LINKS:

The Geeks Shall Inherit The Jokes: Cinematic Titanic, Popshifter May/June 2008 Issue

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