PIZZA MAN WEEK, DAY 2: Director Joe Eckardt Interview

Interview by Craig Byrne

An important player making sure “Pizza Man” delivers is director Joe Eckardt. The director, whose past credits include “Shock” and “Black River,” has been helming the film for the past weeks in the Los Angeles area, and now he’s taken the time to talk to KSiteTV about the film. His interview follows, in which he reveals an actor in the cast that hasn’t been announced yet – someone who happens to be the “hetero lifemate” of “Silent Bob.”

KSITETV: Can you tell me a bit about what “Pizza Man” is about?

JOE ECKARDT: Pizza Man is your local neighborhood pizza boy working at the family-owned pizza shop, who becomes a super hero to save the neighborhood.

KSITETV: Is “Pizza Man” a superhero with powers?

ECKARDT: He’s a superhero with powers. Without giving too much away, he inadvertently delivers a pizza to a university lab where they’re developing a super serum, and he gets infected with the serum. So now he’s a super hero and he self heals.

KSITETV: Is it true his costume has something to do with the pizza parlor where he works?

ECKARDT: Matt’s mom, played by Shelley Long, creates a costume for the pizzeria so her husband could go and try to get more customers into the shop. Now Frankie, who plays Pizza Man, gets the costume, and that costume becomes his costume to fight crime in.

KSITETV: What lured such big actors to this movie?

ECKARDT: We have a great cast. Frankie Muniz, Corbin Bernsen, Diamond Dallas Page, Michael Gross, Shelley Long… we’re getting a whole bunch of cameos that will start leaking soon. We just got confirmation Jason Mewes is going to do a cameo for us, and a couple others that we can’t say yet. We’ve been calling people, telling them we’ve got a great movie and they should come on board. It’s a good script, and a great crew, and everyone just kind of fell in love with it.

KSITETV: You worked with Jason Mewes on a movie before, didn’t you?

ECKARDT: I did. Called “High Hopes.” I love working with him. He’s a class act.

KSITETV: What has been the best part of the Pizza Man shoot so far?

ECKARDT: So far, it’s been working with an incredible crew. Everybody’s just phenomenal. The talent on this set is just tremendous.

KSITETV: How did you become involved with this project?

ECKARDT: The executive producer, Dr. John Kapoor, he approached me to check out a script and see if I’d be interested in producing and directing it. I checked it out; I loved it as soon as I read it.

KSITETV: Can you tell me about Frankie’s casting in the role?

ECKARDT: We went over the list of who would be good for this role. My brother George and I were talking, and he said “You know, Frankie Muniz would be great!” So we looked him up, and realized that everything about him was perfect. I called his manager, and told him I had this role for Frankie if he’d be interested. He said he’d send it over. Two days later we got the “yes.”

KSITETV: Does the film have a distributor yet?

ECKARDT: No distribution yet. We’re going to make the movie first, and then start shopping it around.

KSITETV: Had you always wanted to do a super hero movie? Have you been a comic fan?

ECKARDT: Hell, yeah. I’m mostly a Green Lantern fan. So when this one came about, I thought it was going to be a lot of fun, to do some supernatural and superhero stuff.

KSITETV: Do you have a particular favorite superhero movie that you’ve seen?

ECKARDT: I liked the Green Lantern animated movie [First Flight]. I just got it on Blu-ray; I keep watching it.

KSITETV: Can you talk about the creative collaboration of the movie?

ECKARDT: It’s a great collaborative effort with these guys. Right now in a scene we just did, Corbin Bernsen kind of re-wrote the last line, adding a bit in on his own. It worked perfectly for the character and for the story. We loved it, and told him to keep it.

KSITETV: Is there anything that you’d like to add?

ECKARDT: This is a superhero movie in a way that we haven’t seen yet. It’s different from what the studios are doing with superhero movies. We don’t have a $35 million dollar budget, but we look like we do. It’s going to be amazing.

KSITETV: What can you tell me about the visual effects?

ECKARDT: We have an amazing effects crew; [folks who worked on] Lord of the Rings are doing our effects. The visual effects team is just phenomenal.

Thanks again to Joe Eckardt for taking the time to do this interview. Come back tomorrow for an interview with Pizza Man’s writer, Marco Mannone!