MONKEYING AROUND: An Interview with SPACE CHIMPS director, Kirk De Micco

When I arrived to meet first-time director, Kirk De Micco, in the lobby of the St. Paul Hotel in Montreal’s financial district, I was made to wait. It’s not that De Micco actually made me wait; it’s just that he was seeing dozens of press people throughout the day and the guy scheduled before me was running late. So I ordered a latte and I waited to meet the man behind the monkeys that all the kids are talking about. Wouldn’t you know it? The man is a big kid himself.

SPACE CHIMPS is a rarity in the Hollywood production system. It is an independent animated feature. As animation takes a lot of time and a lot of time means a lot of money so independent can still mean upwards of 40 or 50 million to make but that’s chimp change compared to the $150 million plus price tag attached to animated panda or robot movies you may have seen recently. There is something else about SPACE CHIMPS that makes it unique. This is an animated movie for kids. That might sound obvious seeing as one could assume any cartoon is for kids but that just isn’t the case today. Today, studios want to reach out to an audience far and wide so that means parents and young adults too. SPACE CHIMPS doesn’t bother with all that pandering. They’re in it for the little guy.

The little guy in the movie is a little monkey really. Ham III, voiced by Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg, is the grandson of the original Ham that flew into outer space decades ago. His turn has arrived but his impending space voyage is getting in the way of his bustling circus act. You can’t fight destiny when it calls on you though and thanks to SPACE CHIMPS, destiny is now calling out to De Micco.

Before De Micco got down to it, he was taken by the presentation with which my latte was served. The sugar, both raw and refined, was served in squares with circles hollowed out in the center so that they could be spiraled up a short pole. Leave it to the cartoon guy to be distracted by a pretty visual presentation.


Joseph Belanger: First of all, congratulations. This is your first time out directing a feature film and that pretty much means this must be your first time out touring with the project, making the rounds. How are you handling all of this insanity?
Kirk De Micco: It’s been pretty neat, I gotta say. We saw the film this past Saturday at the Fox studios in L.A. A lot of people brought their kids. They all seemed to enjoy it and the kids are really taking to it. Everyone seems happy to have brought their kids to a nice movie. It’s just been a positive type of vibe, which is what we set out to do. Hearing kids laugh, y’know, this is why we were up so late all those nights.

JB: On the subjects of pleasing the kids, there’s a school of thought these days about animation that there are animated films for kids and then there are others that are just as entertaining for adults so they can have fun too. SPACE CHIMPS doesn’t seem to be concerned with making sure Mom and Dad are having a great time. It feels like all you cared about were the kids, which is oddly refreshing.
KDM: If you go to Disneyland with your kids, I would hope that you would have fun on all the rides but the experience is more aimed at the kids and it is part of growing up. The movies I loved as I was growing up may not appeal to everyone else but they mean a lot to me. Animated movies it seems are often lumped together as one type of movie just because they’re animated but with live-action films, there are comedies made just to be comedic and other movies that are for other reasons or groups of people. Animation isn’t a genre; it’s a medium. It’s just got a fun, joyous spirit.

JB: So I would assume you’ve been into animation for a long time.
KDM: I think animation, curiously enough, for me, I was always into Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbara cartoons. I always think of animation in that vein. As much as I love a Disney film, it’s a particular type of film but animation, cartoon animation, is still what I watch over and over again. Television animation seems almost entirely geared towards kids too. If you look at the SpongeBob’s out there and all the things that I love to watch, it always has that rollicking spirit.


JB: And even within television animation, you have your SpongeBob’s that are geared toward kids but you have your Simpsons that kids laugh at but I can never understand how they get the jokes. Still, both of these shows know their audience.
KDM: I know. Nothing is worse than a movie that tries to please everyone and finishes by pleasing no one. SPACE CHIMPS was more like an independent film. We had a limited budget. We made it up here in Canada; we were far away. We didn’t have to deal with studio restrictions to turn into something it wasn’t. I mean it’s coming out on 2500 screens but as far as animation goes, it’s still a little film. Our budget is like a fifth of the WALL-E budget. In that respect the people at Pixar couldn’t be free to make a movie that is just for kids because there is just too much money at play. We just wanted to make a good kids movie with a solid, simple message.

JB: And SPACE CHIMPS has a good message. Slacker monkey overcomes his own resignation to be the best monkey he can be, no matter where that is. He was a little cynical for an animated monkey, mind you.
KDM: He is cynical, yes. Andy Samberg, who voices Ham, has a very sardonic approach. Ham doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He was just gliding alone, pretty happy to be a circus clown, entertaining kids.

JB: How did the idea of chimps in space come to be?
KDM: I was watching one of my favorite films, THE RIGHT STUFF, and there’s this famous line where the Sam Shepard character, Chuck Yeager says, “Do you think the monkey knows he’s sitting on top of a rocket that might explode?” So I started thinking, what if he did? I found that Ham cover from Life magazine 1961 and he’s just sitting there all serious. So I thought what if the never do well grandson has to figure out that he’s got the right stuff. It just sorta took off from there.

Listening to De Micco speak, I couldn’t help but see a little Ham in him too. While he’s certainly not coasting through life, he’s plenty happy just entertaining the kids and he’s most certainly got the right stuff.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: A Bright Weekend for a Dark Knight

I was telling a friend of mine that THE DARK KNIGHT had beaten SPIDER-MAN 3 this weekend to claim the title of best 3-day opening weekend of all time. His response, big deal. Apparently, he’s heard enough of box office record breakers. It seems that every weekend some new movie has claimed the title of best R-rated, live action July opening for a non-sequel in a language other than English. It’s a shame really because all these box office boys calling wolf makes it hard to spot the real deal when it happens. And the records set by THE DARK KNIGHT this past weekend are definitely the real deal.

THE DARK KNIGHT, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, set one record before it even began its Thursday night midnight screenings. Playing on 4,366 screens across North America, THE DARK KNIGHT had the widest release of all time, besting the previous record by PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END, which launched on 4,362 screens. The film then broke another record before its official launch date. Pulling in over $18.5 million from its Thursday midnight screenings, THE DARK KNIGHT bested the $16.9 million taken in from midnight showings by STAR WARS EPISODE III: THE REVENGE OF THE SITH. And that didn’t even include the extra screenings movie houses added at 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM to accommodate for the demand.


Going into its first official day of release with its head held very high, THE DARK KNIGHT then took in an unprecedented first day tally of $66.4 million (including the overnight screenings). These numbers bested the record for one-day take previously held by SPIDER-MAN 3, which took in $59.8 million on its first day in theatres. Prognosticators expected THE DARK KNIGHT to do well before the weekend started (you’d have to be pretty daft not to have figured that out) but it was not expected to shatter record for all-time best opening weekend. SPIDER-MAN 3 claimed that title last summer when it opened to an awesome $151.9 million but the bar has now been bumped up that much higher as THE DARK KNIGHT estimates have come in at $155.4 million.

I can’t say whether the excitement over THE DARK KNIGHT comes from an overwhelming interest in Batman movies, an audience that has grown exponentially since Nolan’s last Batman pic, BATMAN BEGINS (which, comparatively made a scant $47 million on its opening weekend) or whether the Heath Ledger fascination factor made the difference but whatever the reason THE DARK KNIGHT led the way for Hollywood’s most successful non-holiday weekend in history. The overall box office tally this weekend was roughly $250 million, besting the previous 3-day weekend record set on the weekend of July 7-9, 2006, where PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST led the way to a total of $218 million.


Yes, folks, movies other than THE DARK KNIGHT played in theatres this weekend. Musical MAMMA MIA! found its own following, taking in $27.6 million, narrowly besting the opening weekend take of last year’s sleeper hit, HAIRSPRAY. SPACE CHIMPS couldn’t pull any monkey love away from WALL-E, earning a scant $7.4 million.

NEXT WEEKEND: THE DARK KNIGHT faces some reasonable competition but should remain victorious. Well, I guess every X-phile could leave their basement for THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE. Or maybe people are truly desperate to see grown men, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly act like prepubescent punks in STEP BROTHERS … I mean, we’ve NEVER seen that before!
Th

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Hellboy's Fury

This weekend ushered in a rare occurrence at the North American box office. Hollywood decided to unleash three wide releases on the unsuspecting public all at once. Two at a time seems to be Hollywood’s healthy level of comfort. Either one will win or both will find their own audiences. But three? At the same time? Did they really think there was that much money to go around? Turns out, not so much. Two titles succeeded while one was forced to subside – which is a nice way to say that two scored while one flopped hard.

Pulling in over $10 million more in its opening weekend than its predecessor, HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY managed to narrowly squeeze out last week’s champ, HANCOCK. Critics across the board have embraced director, Guillermo del Toro’s follow-up to the Oscar winning, PAN'S LABYRINTH, and audiences followed, proving that the critic’s word is final. Meanwhile, proving that the critic’s word is meaningless, critically panned Hancock managed a very reasonable 47% decline in its second week. Had Sony not passed on the Hellboy sequel, it could have held down both of the top spots this week.

Sure on the surface, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH looks like a cheap way to wet the public’s appetite for more 3D projects and hardly a film that can sustain an engaging story but audiences ate it up anyway. Actually, critics did too. Mostly positive response led to a larger than expected debut in third place this week. And so the future looks bright for 3D thrills. The best part about all of this … the movie magicians have finally found a way to infuse Brandon Fraser with that last dimension his acting has always been lacking.

Now, on to the loser, Eddie Murphy in MEET DAVE. Posting his lowest numbers since THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH, Murphy flops in seventh place with a pathetic per screen average under $2K. You will get no sympathy from me, Mr. Murphy. This is what you deserve for signing on to make a project where you are the captain of a teeny tiny alien ship that crashes on earth into the body of a human version of yourself. In fact, I think you should be happy to have made as much as you did. Now, I don’t want to see you again until they revive the BEVERLY HILLS COP series. Are we clear?

All this success and all this over crowding should have meant a strong overall showing at the box office but ultimately ticket sales were down 17% over the same frame last year. In this case, more certainly did not amount to more.

NEXT WEEK: I think it’s fairly obvious to anyone with half a monkey brain that SPACE CHIMPS will take next weekend by storm. I mean, maybe MAMMA MIA! might manage a strong second place finish if the counter-programming angle works in their favour. What other options are there anyway? There’s that bat movie, THE DARK KNIGHT, but who wants to see that? Wait. This just in … EVERYONE wants to see that little bat movie.