The Gospel According to
Luca - A Rockula Online exclusive interview with Rockula director Luca Bercovici
Rockula Online: Is it true that Rockula was originally intended neither as a comedy nor a musical?
Luca Bercovici: Yes, it's true that Rockula started as more straight-ahead "monster" movie -- it was a story about star-crossed lovers, Romeo & Juliet, if Romeo were a vampire.
Although Rockula pre-dated "The Vampire Lestat" by years, the original script was very Anne Rice-ish in tone.
Jeff Levy and I had written the script, sold it Cannon, went into re-write hell. The problem was, the scipt and the title fought each other, the script was serious, but "Rockula"...well, need I say more. Cannon finally decided to go ahead with the movie, put us in pre-production -- and told us to make a comedy.
What happened with the soundtrack?
There are a couple of reasons why a soundtrack was not released -- some people on the executive level dropped the ball -- and Cannon was bought by Pathe, which was run by Gian Carlo Parretti and Florio Fiorini -- who were later brought up on massive fraud charges. In any event, after Pathe took over, literally overnight, we found ourselves to be the orphaned stepchild that nobody wanted. They could cared less about a soundtrack album -- so one wasn't released.
Was Rockula released theatrically?
Rockula was released theatrically -- but only enough to satisfy certain contractual obligations -- but Pathe gave it no support, and pulled it as soon as they could.
Cannon would have done a better job -- but they weren't in the driver's seat anymore.
Considering the fact that Rockula is a vampire comedy musical, would you say it was the most creative project you've ever worked on?
I don't know if it was the most creative movie -- but it certainly was the most fun.
Does it surprise you that Rockula hasn't received more attention (or that it received any attention at all?) Are you a fan of these kind of cheesy musicals?
Well, the reason the Rockula has remained a largely undiscovered cheesepuff is because it never really had a release. There are some fans out there. And yes, I guess I am a fan (of sorts) of cheesy rock musicals.
Were there any scenes or songs that didn't make the cut?
Actually, we added things for Toni, Thomas and Bo D. In fact -- we shot a piece with Thomas Dolby doing a very warped cover of a Tom Lehrer tune -- that later got cut out of the movie.
We shot a court room scene -- where Ralph is tried by a jury of his peers -- Frankenstein, Wolfman, etc, (peers, get it?) -- for being a total wimp. That got cut out.
What was the original budget of the film?
The budget was around $1.5M -- something like that.
Looking back, what are your feelings and memories about the film?
What are my feelings about it? For what we had, I thought we did a pretty good job -- and had fun doing it -- most of the time. There was some pretty fun, tricky stuff -- like making the whole "reflection" thing work -- utilizing doubles, and sets that were mirror images of themselves -- heck, we had fun.