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    Mondo Cinema

    Big laughs! Big Excitement! Director spills secrets of Big Ass Spider! creature feature

    Joe Leydon
    Oct 18, 2013 | 11:16 am

    And now… in the tradition of Snakes on a Plane, Penn and Teller Get Killed and Death of a Salesman… another movie with a title that tells you all you need to know: Big Ass Spider! (At the Alamo Drafthouse Vintage Park, Friday and Saturday, and on VOD.)

    One of the most amusing guilty pleasures displayed last spring at the SXSW Film Festival, this latest tongue-in-cheek creature feature from filmmaker Mike Mendez (The Convent) is a briskly paced and surprisingly clever riff on B-movie monster mashes that is all the more enjoyable for not going entirely over the top. To paraphrase the classic line from Rocky: The protagonists don’t act like they’re in a homage – they act like they’re in a real horror show.

    "But I think that’s what makes this film different from a lot of movies like it: The people who made it cared a lot about it."

    The plot by scripter Gregory Gieras calls for a romantically challenged insect exterminator named Alex (Greg Grunberg) and a wisecracking hospital security guard named Jose (Lombardo Boyar) to become unlikely heroes when a humongous arachnoid, the unfortunate byproduct of a military experiment, runs amok in Los Angeles. It’s a dirty job, but what the hell, somebody has to do it. Besides, the army officer (Ray Wise) and the eccentric scientist (Patrick Bauchau) charged with leading the hunt for the 50-foot predator clearly aren’t up to the task.

    We caught up with Mendez a few days ago, and asked him to spin a few stories about Big Ass Spider! He graciously complied.

    CultureMap: Perhaps the most surprising thing about Big Ass Spider! is its relative restraint. It’s hardly the sort of wink-wink, nudge-nudge concoction that such B-movie homages often are.

    Mike Mendez: Yeah, that was our intention. We wanted the audience to be laughing with us, not at us. It seems to me that, lately, there’s been kind of a movement toward movies where, you know, it’s so bad, it’s good. Like this whole thing now where you have the mega monster of the week on cable TV.

    But that wasn’t the kind of thing we were interested in making. We honestly were interested in making something that was legitimately entertaining, with legitimately likable protagonists. The aim was to take these kind of oddball characters, and put them in a grade-B monster movie. To me, the collision between these two things – the oddball characters and the sort of archetypes and conventions of B monster movies – would lead to a lot of fun, and make it interesting.

    CM: What’s really extraordinary is that, if you could somehow digitally lift the performances by Ray Wise and Patrick Bauchau, and place them in a quote-unquote “straight” sci-fi movie, they’d be right at home there.

    MM: Exactly. Ray Wise’s performance as the military guy – that was something straight out of a B-movie. That was part of the whole idea of crafting this B-movie world, and then having these oddball characters who are not normally in a B-movie sorta crash into it. Hopefully, it’s all of a piece, and it all feels like one film. But it also sort of feels like Alex and Jose are on the wrong track, or the wrong trajectory, while the military people are doing their own B-movie. The fun comes jamming those things together.

    CM: Considering your limited budget, your production values are quite impressive.

    MM: Well, yeah, that was something else we hoped would set us apart from the companies that make these B monster movies for cable and DVD. They tend to churn out maybe 10 to 15 of these things a year. Which is great from a financial point of view. But we figured we’d take a different approach.

    I mean, we have the same budget as any of those films, about a half-million dollars. But we had the attitude of, “Hey, let’s just try to make this one the absolutely best movie we can, no matter how long it takes.” Maybe we didn’t have the money to do that. But we sure took the time. We literally spent about a year-and-a-half in post-production on special effects. Now, I’m not gonna say our effects work so fabulously well that you can’t distinguish Big Ass Spider! from Gravity, because it’s still a far cry from that. But I think that’s what makes this film different from a lot of movies like it: The people who made it cared a lot about it.

    CM: So has any thought been given to a Return of the Big Ass Spider? Or maybe Bigger Ass Spider ?

    MM: There’s definitely a kernel of an idea for a sequel. But I would say the sequel probably would not feature a spider. What we came to believe while we were shooting was that, if people really did want to see a sequel, it would be because they’d want to see our two lead characters, Alex and Jose, going off to have another adventure.

    My fantasy – which I know may not happen, but I can dream – is a television show. A kind of Ghostbusters Meet Men in Black on the Syfy Channel television series. Like, whenever governments have bad accidents, and you have giant insects or other creatures come out to wreak havoc – who you gonna call?

    Big Ass Spider! is a briskly paced and surprisingly clever riff on B-movie monster mashes that is all the more enjoyable for not going entirely over the top.

    2 Mondo Cinema Big Ass Spider October 2013 spider climbing building
      
    Photo courtesy of Epic Pictures
    Big Ass Spider! is a briskly paced and surprisingly clever riff on B-movie monster mashes that is all the more enjoyable for not going entirely over the top.
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    bigger and stronger

    Winner of Ren Fest lawsuit plans to keep the event mostly unchanged

    Jef Rouner
    May 14, 2025 | 2:34 pm
    Texas Renaissance Festival
    Photo courtesy of Texas Renaissance Festival
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    The Texas Renaissance Festival will soon be under new ownership, but will remain much the same as it has been for the last half century, attorney Anthony Laporte of Houston law firm Hanszen Laporte tells CultureMap.

    "All of the vendor contracts are in place for 2025," says Laporte. "Everyone who was already there will be there this year. Maybe one Dippin' Dots guy here and there will be swapped out with another, but we're sticking with what works. Even when the litigation was ongoing, they're having entertainment auditions. Both the old owners and the new ones are planning to give visitors a great time."

    Founder George Coulam has owned the Texas Renaissance Festivals since 1974. Now in his late 80s, Coulam has teased selling the festival multiple times, a process chronicled in a recent HBO docuseries. After pulling out of the latest sales agreement, the prospective buyer sued Coulam for breach of contract. Grimes County Judge Gary W. Chaney ruled against Coulam on May 7, paving the way for the sale to finally go through.

    The identity of the new owner was a mystery for some time. Court documents listed only the corporate entities RW Lands, Texas Stargate, and Royal Campgrounds. The prospective new owner is Meril Rivard, a real estate investor with no prior festival experience who sought to purchase the fair for $60 million. However, Rivard's son is married to the daughter of Geoff Wilson, owner of several Greek food establishments in the festival. Wilson's clan, referred to as "The Greeks" in the HBO documentary, were one of the groups featured in the show trying to buy the fair.

    "This is a family business now," says Laporte. "He has family that lives it, works it, and is part of it."

    According to Laporte, an appeal by Coulam and his counsel seems unlikely. He reports that all parties mostly feel relief that the case is over, though until the judgment is finalized in the next couple of months there is still the possibility that Coulam will try one last time to remain king of the festival.

    The rough final sales price of the Texas Renaissance Festivals is $60 million, Laporte says. This includes the intellectual property rights, some physical property owned by the festival but not strictly part of its grounds, and other assets. The festival is also partially owned by some of the larger business owners. The recently-settled lawsuit does not change those arrangements.

    "It's hard to say what will happen [to the partial owners]," Laporte says. "This judgment does not affect them, per se, but there will be ripple effects. However, no one wants the festival to fail."

    Coulam will no longer have an official role in the running of Texas Renaissance Festival, though he may advise in an unofficial capacity. Laporte did say there will be no more parades in his honor. Coulam has repeatedly been accused of sexual harassment by former employees.

    Until the judgement is finalized, no official date for the transfer of ownership will be set. In addition to the money changing hands for the sale, Coulam owes Rovard and the other plaintiffs $22 million in damages and another $1 million in attorney fees, the judge ruled. None of this is projected to impact the October opening of the festival in any way.

    "Everyone is ready to make Ren Fest bigger and stronger," says Laporte.

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