5-ish Questions with Brett Piper about "Triclops"

1) How did you get the idea for Triclops?

Triclops 'eyes' Samantha Katzman (Erin Waterhouse)

Brett: I wanted to do a real throwback to 50s drive-in movies (I mean even more than I usually do). I'd have liked to do an actual remake of Bert Gordon's The Cyclops, because the concept was so brilliant in its simplicity, but then I realized that the basic idea --- a bunch of travelers trapped in a cave by a weird eyed giant --- wasn't really Gordon's it was Homer's and goes back around five thousand years so it was pretty much up for grabs. So Triclops is not a remake of The Cyclops --- they're both remakes of The Odyssey.

Pre-production sketch by Brett.

2) How was the cast of Triclops to work with? Tell us about something memorable from the shoot.

Brett: All great. No trouble at all. Probably the most memorable event of the shoot was Ken Van Sant bashing his head and nearly killing himself. He jumped over a fallen tree but his foot got caught and he landed head first on solid rock. It was pretty scary. For a moment we thought we might have lost old Ken, but he's fine now.

Erin was willing to crawl through mud to star in Triclops.

3) Why do you think people like watching giant humanoid figures duking it out with other giant beasts? Is it something humans will ever tire of?

Behind the scenes: Triclops battles parts of a prehistoric beast (later to be combined with the stop-motion model)

Brett: There's something fundamental about it, isn't there? It has a mythical quality, giants and titans fighting grotesque monsters. I don't think it'll ever go out of style.

Behind the scenes: Triclops gets bloodied up for his close-up. 

4) What part of the film are you most pleased with?

Brett: I'm pleased with little pieces here and there, but on the whole its the things that don't work that stand out. All the little flaws. I think the airplane flying through the chasm works pretty well, especially considering how tiny the model plane was. And the attack of the flying rats. I think that may be the most successful sequence in the movie.

Riley tries to keep a prehistoric monster away from the plane.

Ken Van Sant and Rich Lounello as Carlton Denning and Riley.

5) What was the most challenging aspect of making Triclops?

Brett: Turning a bunch of fields and back yards into a primitive lost world. Especially if by "challenging" you mean "frustrating".

Check out Brett's work in Triclops for yourself at:

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/triclops

I wish my backyard had a bad-ass cave like that.