GVN: That is good, I am glad to hear that. Good to know everyone is doing well. I was going to ask you about Gremlins and since you brought it up, can you give us an update? As a fan of the film and growing up in the 80s, news of this project hit home and I am really looking forward to it.
TZE: Yeah. I could talk a little about Gremlins definitely.
GVN: Have you actually began the process of shooting the series? It is an animated series, correct?
TZE: That’s right. So it’s an animated series that we are doing with Warner Bros. Animation and Amblin for HBO Max. It tells the story of the old Chinese man, Mr. Wing, who runs the shop where Peltzer first gets Gizmo. He is kind of his protector and our show is actually an animated prequel that takes place in 1920s China. It follows young Mr. Wing when he was only 10 years old. He meets Gizmo and they go on adventures in China. It is a very serialized story. It is against the backdrop of Chinese mythology, that time period, with a lot of Mogwai mythology as well. It won’t premier until sometime in 2021 but we’re pretty deep in the process right now.
GVN: In the movies we only got to see Gizmo, of course you know he produces the Gremlins when he got wet. Will we see other forms of Mogwai? Will they have a totally different look than Gizmo did?
TZE: We will see evil Mogwai. But I think that is as much as I can say for right now. But what we really wanted to do was create more stories set in the Gremlins universe. We also wanted to service the fans . You know the fandom for Gremlins is so strong for movies that have been around for almost 40 years. We definitely have a lot of kind of Easter eggs and Gremlins mythology that hopefully will satisfy long term fans while also bringing in new fans. The idea is to this will be a co-viewing show. Some of the models that we are looking at are Pixar, studio Ghibli movies, things that adults, kids and teenagers can all watch together.
GVN: Will we see Howie Mandel return to voice Gizmo?
TZE: Howie Mandel is not returning to voice Gizmo. But we will have some casting announcements soon.
GVN: That sounds good. Thank you for giving us an update on Gremlins. Can you share any updates on actors from the original film that might make an appearance?
TZE: There is definitely going to be some exciting cameos from people. What has been really exciting is that Joe Dante is a consulting producer on the project. He looks at scripts, he looks at the artwork. It’s been really amazing. And I know that a lot of people on the crew and the writers are huge huge Gremlin fans. So it has been really great.
GVN: Can you say exactly what kind of art style you are going for? Is it all 3D generated or will it be normal animation? Are you going for a particular style?
TZE: We are doing a hybrid. They have been calling it kind of a 2.5D and also there is certain technical things that we are doing because we wanted a very cinematic look. For some of the references were movies like Goonies and Indiana Jones. We certainly want to move the camera in a cinematic way but we ant to try to get the best of both worlds. The show has a lot of heart, so I want to make sure that the acting is really excellent as well. In terms of animation, very early on the supervising producer and I talked a lot about creating a very organic look and making sure that it does not necessarily have that kind of CG look to it, even though there will be portions of it that are in CG. Some other visual references are Spirited Away.
