{"id":191273,"date":"2021-08-08T00:10:28","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T07:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/?p=191273"},"modified":"2021-07-31T15:30:56","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T22:30:56","slug":"fantasia-international-film-festival-2021-interview-richard-bates-jr-talks-king-knight-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2021\/08\/08\/fantasia-international-film-festival-2021-interview-richard-bates-jr-talks-king-knight-exclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasia International Film Festival 2021 Interview: Richard Bates Jr. Talks King Knight (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_191277\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-191277\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/King-Knight.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/King-Knight.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" class=\"size-full wp-image-191277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/King-Knight.png 888w, https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/King-Knight-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/King-Knight-768x428.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 888px) 100vw, 888px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-191277\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actor Matthew Gray Gubler stars in writer-director-producer Richard Bates Jr.&#8217;s comedy, &#8216;King Knight.&#8217;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Embarking on a soul-searching journey back to their hometown is often a powerful rite of passage for many adults as they start reflecting on their pasts in order to prepare for their futures. That&#8217;s certainly the case for Matthew Gray Gubler&#8217;s protagonist in the new comedy, &#8216;King Knight.&#8217; The movie follows the actor&#8217;s character as he contemplates how his previous choices, as well as his spirituality and devotion to his tight-knit group of like-minded free spirits, will influence his next major life decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Genre veteran Richard Bates Jr. wrote, directed and produced &#8216;King Knight.&#8217; In addition to Gubler, the film also stars Angela Sarafyan, Andy Milonakis, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/exclusive-video-interview-barbara-crampton-talks-sacrifice-blu-ray-release\/\">Barbara Crampton<\/a> and Ray Wise.<\/p>\n<p>The comedy is having its virtual world premiere today at 7pm ET at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2020\/09\/04\/fantasia-international-film-festival-2020-interview-jason-neulander-talks-fugitive-dreams-exclusive\/\">Fantasia International Film Festival<\/a>. It will have its second virtual screening this Tuesday, August 10 at 9am ET.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;King Knight&#8217; follows life partners Thorn and Willow (Gubler and Sarafyan), who are high priest and priestess of a coven of witches in a small California community. When Willow discovers a secret about Thorn&#8217;s past on the night of their Beltane celebrations, their lives are thrown into turmoil. As a result, the duo, as well as the rest of the members of their coven, must learn how to trust each other again and move on with their lives.<\/p>\n<p>Bates generously took the time recently to talk about writing, directing and producing &#8216;King Knight&#8217; during an exclusive interview over the phone. Among other things, the filmmaker discussed that he wanted to make a unique genre movie about the lighter elements of witchcraft in the heightened sense of reality that has become his signature style. He also mentioned that he&#8217;s thrilled that the comedy is having its virtual world premiere during this summer&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2020\/08\/31\/fantasia-international-film-festival-2020-video-interview-amelia-moses-lee-marshall-and-lauren-beatty-talk-bleed-with-me-exclusive\/\">Fantasia International Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The conversation began with Bates discussing why he was inspired to pen the movie&#8217;s script. &#8220;The inspiration for this movie came after I finished my last movie, &#8216;Tone-Deaf.&#8217; I was trying to figure out what exactly to do next, and with all of the political and social turmoil going on, everything seemed so ominous. So I knew that I needed to make something that would make me happy, and hopefully make other people happy,&#8221; he shared.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I knew that I needed and wanted to go in a lighter direction, so I tried to figure out exactly what to do. I had been pitched for a movie about an evil witch, but I kept thinking, I really like witches,!&#8221; the scribe revealed with hint of a laugh.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So I thought, okay, I&#8217;ll make a witch movie. But the witches are going to be the protagonists because frankly, some of the loveliest people I know are witches,&#8221; Bates continued.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So the idea was to start from there. Most of my movies take place in a heightened sense of reality. But I also usually take a cynical approach. With this movie, though, I knew I had to strip myself of all of that cynicism,&#8221; the writer also shared.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was trying to think of a movie that makes me happy, and I went back to John Waters movies from the &#8217;90s. There&#8217;s one called &#8216;Pecker&#8217; that I&#8217;ve watched so many times. It&#8217;s silly, provocative and occasionally perverse, but it&#8217;s also sweet, and that&#8217;s what made it special, and why I keep returning to it,&#8221; Bates added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You can tell that (Waters) loves every character (in &#8216;Pecker&#8217;), despite their flaws and insecurities. So I had to make sure that I also loved every character in my film,&#8221; the scribe noted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Having grown up in the South, the very idea of witchcraft is evil. So a reason to make this movie was to show audiences that witches are no different than anyone else; quite frankly, they&#8217;re searching for the same answers to the same questions as everyone else,&#8221; Bates pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I knew the only way to win people over was to not preach to them, and make the witches holier-than-thou; instead, I knew I had to treat them like normal characters in any comedy I would make. So that was the inspiration for the movie,&#8221; the writer added.<\/p>\n<p>Besides scribing &#8216;King Knight&#8217;s screenplay, Bates also embraced the experience of directing the feature. &#8220;I knew that it was going to be hard to find financing for a movie about nice witches, in which there aren&#8217;t any murders, and no one dies. So I said, &#8216;I&#8217;m just going to make it myself.&#8221; I used my own money and took out a loan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That afforded me the opportunity to do what I wanted on the movie. Sometimes when you direct a film, you don&#8217;t always have control over everything. But by also producing this movie, I got to have more control,&#8221; the filmmaker shared.<\/p>\n<p>Bates then further delved into the process of being both the helmer and a producer of the film, which he admitted with a laugh was &#8220;a lot of work! There was a lot more work than I had anticipated. The last time I had really gotten into producing was years ago,&#8221; on his 2015 horror comedy, &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2015\/03\/08\/interview-richard-bates-jr-talks-suburban-gothic-exclusive\/\">Suburban Gothic<\/a>,&#8217; which also starred Gruber.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Producing is a lot of work. My friend, Colin Tanner, helped a ton on the movie, as he was also a producer,&#8221; Bates continued.<\/p>\n<p>Despite all of the hard work that went into producing &#8216;King Knight,&#8217; the filmmaker divulged that as a producer and the director, he appreciated that he had the authority &#8220;to pick every single member of the cast&#8230;I even negotiated the contracts with the actors&#8217; agents.<\/p>\n<p>Bates added that &#8220;The members of the cast all got the movie. The approach was, no matter how ridiculous anything was, they weren&#8217;t acting in a comedy; we treated everything straight for comedic effect, and everyone got that,&#8221; he revealed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The movie really is a comedy, and you can call it alt-comedy. What&#8217;s funny about it is that it&#8217;s very deadpan, and (the characters) treat all of the situations very seriously,&#8221; the filmmaker continued.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you do something like that, everyone has to be on the same page&#8230;and play it straight to earn the laughs very organically. Everyone was down with that; no one was trying to outshine the others,&#8221; Bates added.<\/p>\n<p>Further speaking of the actors, the helmer delved into what the experience was like of working with them on the comedy. &#8220;I&#8217;ve worked with a lot of these actors before, but there were also some actors who I have never worked with before,&#8221; he noted. &#8220;But overall, no one did this movie to get rich; they did it for the love of making a movie. Everyone was fantastic.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I cast the right person, I don&#8217;t like to micro-manage them. I let them bring their own magic to their characters, so there&#8217;s a whole lot of trust,&#8221; Bates added.<\/p>\n<p>Once production on &#8216;King Knight&#8217; began, the filmmaker cherished having the opportunity to also work with the cast on creating their physicalities for their characters. &#8220;I worked with both the cast and the costume designer to figure out the physicality. Once we decided on the characters&#8217; motivations, or what they represent in the film, we worked with the costume designer to figure out how they would move and look.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But overall, I let the actors really take that part of their characters and run with it&#8230;I wanted them to bring their own special magic to their characters. At that point, I tried not to step in unless they&#8217;re doing something that I thought was wrong for the story,&#8221; Bates revealed. &#8220;But other than that, I really trust them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now that &#8216;King Knight&#8217; is having its world premiere today at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2020\/08\/30\/fantasia-international-film-festival-2020-interview-filmmaker-chino-moya-and-the-cast-talk-undergods-exclusive\/\">Fantasia International Film Festival<\/a>, the director expressed his appreciation to be able to return to the festival with his latest project. &#8220;I love Fantasia so much. Every movie I&#8217;ve ever made has played at Fantasia, including my first short film (the 2008 horror short,) &#8216;Excision,'&#8221; which inspired his 2012 feature film writing and directorial debut of the same name.<\/p>\n<p>The festival&#8217;s director, Mitch Davis, &#8220;actually wrote me to say how much he liked (rhe &#8216;Excision&#8217; short). When you make a short film, you can drive across the country to see it at a festival, and there may only be five people in the audience, and then you just keep going,&#8221; Bates noted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But when someone like Mitch tells you that you&#8217;re not have bad at this, it really does motivate you. So I have an extreme amount of love for Fantasia; it&#8217;s the most fun festival in the universe, as far as I&#8217;m concerned. It&#8217;s always an honor, and frankly, a joy, to be there,&#8221; the filmmaker concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embarking on a soul-searching journey back to their hometown is often a powerful rite of passage for many adults as they start reflecting on their pasts in order to prepare for their futures. That&#8217;s certainly the case for Matthew Gray Gubler&#8217;s protagonist in the new comedy, &#8216;King Knight.&#8217; The movie follows the actor&#8217;s character as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":191277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2021-08-08T07:10:44Z","apple_news_api_id":"0f6f7b33-6c63-4fd5-80f9-fae9941ac891","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2021-08-08T07:10:44Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AD297M2xjT9WA-frplBrIkQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":["https:\/\/news-api.apple.com\/sections\/a256d957-d5f8-3bec-b93f-7f862cadbf92"],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8,1],"tags":[31325,12669,44613,22576,36006],"class_list":["post-191273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-movies","category-news-release","tag-andy-milonakis","tag-fantasia-film-festival","tag-king-knight","tag-matthew-gray-gubler","tag-richard-bates-jr"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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