Geekscape Interviews: ‘All Superheroes Must Die’ Writer/Director/Star Jason Trost!

Jason Trost is a name we use a lot here at Geekscape. Whether we’re featuring the admirable artist on the most alcohol fueled episode of the podcast EVER, or simply showing off his anticipated next project, Jason’s is a name we keep an eye on around these parts.

It all started earlier this year with The FP. We name-drop this one pretty consistently too, so if you still haven’t seen it… what the hell is wrong with you!? Watch the trailer below, and you’ll see why The FP is something special:

I’ve shown the film to countless individuals, who have each reacted in the exact same manner; 10 minutes in they’ll beg me to turn it off, but by the end, everyone begs for more. Sadly, there isn’t any more (yet), but on the bright side, JTRO’s All Superheroes Must Die hits VOD in just a few days!

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Jason and talk about the new movie (along with a few other topics)! Check out the transcript below, and when you get a chance to see All Superheroes Must Die, make sure to let us know what you think of it!

For those who don’t know, in your own words, describe All Superheroes Must Die.

Jason: Saw meets The Running Man. Everyone else is comparing it to Battle Royale, The Hunger Games, or this, that and the other thing. For me it always started with Running Man because that’s what I loved when I was a kid so it was definitely a huge influence.

It’s like a superhero movie with a little bit of a Verhoeven take which I wanted to do. Basically James Remar, the bad guy for me just plays a Paul Verhoeven villain. He’s just classic Robocop. 

Essentially the movie is about these four superheroes who get tossed into an abandoned town, are stripped of all their superpowers, and are forced by their arch-nemesis who is supposed to be dead to play games and compete against each other to try and survive the night.

It’s really that classic 1980’s, 80 minute romp against the clock. It’s like The Warriors in that we’re not going to spend an hour setting up these superheroes, it’s more like you’re dropped right in the middle of this superhero series, and this is episode 250. You’ll find out who these characters are through the actions they take throughout the movie, rather than bogging it down with an hour of origin story, which is really driving me nuts with all the superhero movies today.

Where did the concept come from? Was it another high-school/college short like The FP was, or did you come up with it later?

Jason: I came up with this one later. I think I was about 23 when I thought of the idea. We had finished The FP, the editing was done and we were just waiting in limbo while nobody wanted to buy it. I had nothing to do and was just sitting there one boring spring afternoon. I was doing a music video and thought “you know what would be cool? Running Man with superheroes.” It was really just as stupid as that. When you’re on set for twelve hours and have nothing to do and are just staring at the walls, that’s just what happens.

That’s where it started out and we just ran with it. Then we had a little bit of money and a really short time window before Lucas went off to do X-Men and we were really sick of not doing anything so we thought “how do we make this work?” We just went on back to the FP and shot a movie in different parts of it, and some similar ones too, you’ll recognize some locations from the last film for sure.

The movie was originally titled Vs. Why the name change?

Jason: That got changed because Image (the distributor) believed, which I agree with, that it would be more marketable with a title like All Superheroes Must Die.

Vs. is kind of a vague title; if you’re going to sell a movie like this you need to think “what are you going to watch when you’re stoned on Netflix in the middle of the night? Are you going to watch something called Vs. or something like Surf Nazis?” I think that’s the case with this one: if it’s three in the morning and you’re drunk or something, you’d watch All Superheroes Must Die over Vs. any day.

We touched on this a little bit already, but to me, All Superheroes Must Die looks like one part Saw, one part Battle Royale, and a whole lot of Jason Trost. Have you heard any other interesting comparisons?

Jason: There’s a lot of Kick-Ass going around, and I get it. When you see the movie though you’ll realize that it’s really nothing like Kick-Ass at all. Kick-Ass is about a bunch of people that don’t have powers but just want to be superheroes. These people really did have powers, and it’s more about what you do when you’re trained to do and think a certain way for your entire life, and what you do when that’s no longer possible. It’s a ‘what makes a superhero super’ kind of conflict; is it just powers, or is it something more than that?

The movie started filming back in 2010. What was the development process like?

Jason: I pretty much got the idea, wrote the script a week later, and then found out we had about $20,000 and a very short time frame to do anything with it. This was all in April, and we knew we would have to shoot in June before Luke left a week later for X-Men. 

It was a spur of the moment idea that just kind of happened. The development process was really short. With The FP, I had been working on a script since I was about 16 and we finally made it when I was 21. This one was a very short turnaround, with the final cut hitting less than a year after the idea came up, which is nuts!

I’m seeing a lot more publicity for All Superheroes Must Die than I did for The FP. As you’re becoming more of a household face (at least in the houses I frequent), do you find more people recognizing you on the street?

Jason: Yeah I’ve been getting a little bit of that if I’m in the right circle. When I went to Comic-Con it was insane, and I didn’t really expect it to happen at all. There was even someone dressed as JTRO walking around, and I thought that was quite the commitment. Someone even asked my if I was “dressed like the guy from The FP,” and I just said “yes I am.” It’s been a blast!

A lot of your family members were involved with The FP. Is this also the case this time around?

 Jason: Yeah it was definitely the case. We used the barn that was The Foundation in The FP. We used it basically as a stage for different sets in this movie.

My dad did some effects for us, and my sister did the costumes right before she went on to do Project Runway. We literally had to finish all the costumes for the movie in two weeks; she was basically getting a bag put over her head and being driven out to New York to be on that show with no contact for six weeks.

How’s working with James Remar? Rickshaw sure seems a lot different from the Harry Morgan that I’m used to seeing. 

Jason: He’s awesome. I love James. I’ve been friends with him since I was ten years old because my dad was doing effects of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. We were over in London and Thailand for four months when I was in fifth grade. I was on set doing nothing, and I had a Game Boy and we bonded over playing Tetris and now here he is in my movie all these years later.

What were some of the challenges you faced while making the film?

Jason: It was definitely the money factor. We had to figure out how to make this movie for what the budget of food is on most independent movies. Constantly trying to create things out of nothing, taking things out of the script or condensing them because they were impossible to do due to time or money constraints. It was a constant struggle of trying to keep the movie cohesive and not a total piece of shit. I think we achieved that in the end, but it was definitely very hard.

Conversely, what was the most exciting aspect of being a part of this project?

Jason: I loved being in a superhero costume. I’ve been dreaming of it since I was a kid. I’ve been Batman probably ten times for Halloween. It was just awesome going to work and putting on a superhero costume and holding a gun and getting makeup scars across my face. It’s everything you want to do when you’re six years old, and I just got to do it. It was awesome.

This one’s right from Jonathan: Has Luke sold out? Are you happy for him, or would you like to kill him in his sleep?

Jason: (Laughter). I don’t think he’s necessarily sold out. If he has, thank God, because it’s what’s selling our movie. I’m definitely happy for him, and I hope they don’t just give him the shaft on the next X-Men. 

How is All Superheroes Must Die different from other superhero films?

Jason: I’m not really sure that it is totally different. It’s a lot of what you’ve seen a million times, just told in a very different way. It’s shot as though it’s a dark indie movie instead of a typical blockbuster comic book film. Really it should have come out in the 1980’s, and it’s kind of weird that it didn’t.

I can’t wait to see it. When will we be able to check the movie out?

Jason: It comes out on VOD on January 1st, and then will hit theatres a few days later on the 4th. On the 29th it’ll hit Blu-Ray, DVD, and iTunes. It’s all coming out very quickly.

How about an update on Hatchet 3?

Jason: That was so much fun. I went to New Orleans and shot that which was great. I didn’t know it was possible for there to be so many bugs in one place. Of course we were shooting in actual swamps, and I had to have bug spray on three layers of clothing just to avoid being eaten alive.

It was awesome though. I get to fire a gun, I get to be a stupid southern cop, and I had no idea I was going to have an accent until the first take. I just looked around, and everyone else was doing one, and I didn’t want to seem out of place, so I just went for a mix of Shane from The Walking Dead mixed with Tommy Lee Jones, and there it was.

That’s all folks! All Superheroes Must Die hits VOD this Monday! When you’re hungover on New Years Day, make sure to check it out!