Connect with us

News

Exclusive Interview With David Ury From Rob Zombie’s ’31’

Published

on

Rob Zombie announced a few days ago that filming for 31 has finished. Over the past couple months, he’s been making casting announcements, with a few more still to come. One of those was David Ury, whom many know best as Spooge from Breaking Bad (the meth head that got his head crushed with an ATM fairly early in the series), who will play the role of Schizo-Head.

Update: Check out a pic of Schizo-Head from the film

Ury has been in numerous films and on even more TV shows (including Grimm and American Horror Story). He also co-wrote a children’s book for adults, wrote and directed a horror short, and works on all kinds of stuff really.

We caught up with Ury to ask him about 31, his love for horror, and the rest.

iHorror: I understand you’re a big horror fan. What are some of your favorites?

David Ury: There were a few movies that I used to watch over and over again starting when I was about 7 years old.   Motel Hell, Creep Show and  The Return of the Living Dead (Which had a great soundtrack) were ones that I probably watched more than a dozen times.  As well as The Stuff, Children of the Corn.  As far as more modern stuff, I like a lot of the Japanese films Ring, The Grudge, Chakushin Ari.   American film-wise I like Eli Roth’s stuff, I loved Slither, and of course The Devil’s Rejects.

iH: So 31 is done shooting. Without giving anything away, do you have any interesting or fun behind-the-scene stories from the project?

DU: Well,  when I got the job I had no idea that film legends Malcolm McDowell and Tracy Walter had also joined the cast.  I don’t have fan-boy moments too often anymore, but I had a pretty severe Clockwork Orange obsession in college, so I was a bit giddy to get to work alongside “Alex”. It really helped sharpen me up and made me ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.

iH: What are your thoughts on working with Zombie? What’s he like as a director?

DU: Working with Rob Zombie is pretty much as good as it gets. He’s a very warm and friendly guy and he makes an effort to make sure that all his actors are comfortable on set.  He is very inclusive.  It’s quite fun to watch him work, you can tell that he is laser focused on his vision.

iH: In 31, you and Lew Temple are playing a pair of murderous brothers who live in Murder World. Anything else you can tell us about your character(s)?

DU: Well, I can’t really give you any details just yet but I  will say it’s certainly the craziest s**t I’ve ever done on film.

iH: I was looking at the set photos from Breaking Bad on your website and it occurred to me that Spooge actually looks perfect for a Rob Zombie movie, complete with the “Wine her, dine her, 69 her” shirt. I actually went back and watched the ATM scene again, and I could easily see Spooge in one of Zombie’s films. Are there any similarities between Spooge and Schizo-Head?

[youtube id=”etInps8K6Gk” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

DU: Hmmm. I could definitely see Spooge walking off the Breaking Bad set and into a Rob Zombie movie.  But character-wise they’re not too similar.  Spooge definitely uses the word “skank” way more that Schizo-Head.

iH: In Breaking Bad, you played one of the most memorable small roles on the greatest television drama ever created in my opinion. Please tell me about your experience working on the show and with that cast and crew.

DU: Only the first season of the show had aired when I started shooting.  It was critically acclaimed but it hadn’t quite caught on yet.  I don’t think that , at that time, anybody suspected it would rise to the legendary status it has achieved today.  It seemed like it was flying under the radar, but on set you could tell that everyone knew they were part of something special.  The actors and crew I met were all really happy to be there and there was a certain undefinable energy humming through the place.  Aaron Paul was great to work with, and I also got to do a scene with Charles Baker “Skinny Pete”  who’s a fantastic guy/actor.   It was a really fulfilling job, definitely one of the highlights of my career.  I’m a huge fan of Breaking Bad and Walking Dead.  They’re pretty much my two favorite shows.  Hence this video.

[youtube id=”DBCq94ocNeY” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

iH: What was your experience like working on American Horror Story?

DU: I had a very tiny role on the show and I was only there for a day.   I was in a scene with Eric Stonestreet who had been my improv comedy coach back when I first moved to LA, so that   was interesting. It’s always fun to end up working with one of your teachers.  I’m hoping to get another shot at working on AHS as I’d love to take on a meatier role…maybe alongside Pepper (Naomi Grossman).

iH: You’ve appeared in a number of movies, but it seems like the vast majority of your work is on television. Do you prefer one over the other?

DU: I don’t really have a preference as long as it’s a fun project to work on.

iH:  You wrote/co-directed a horror short called Augustine? The premise sounds very fun. What can you tell us about that project?

DU: I wrote Augustine with actor Tahmus Rounds (The Crazies) who I met on the set of Bones in 2011.  On Bones we played two guys working on a corpse farm where scientists study how human bodies decay.   Tahmus is a crafty artist who had been working for years on these crazy robotic toys. He’d always wanted to do a project with them so we wrote a little short around them. We wrote in a role for ourselves as a creepy pair of brothers.  Soon Co-Director David Neptune came aboard and camera man Otis Ropert (The Shield) and we shot a 10 minute short horror/comedy.  It’s sort of an homage to the low budget horror that we grew up with like Evil Dead.  We used the classic 80’s horror plot of a group of drunk and horny college kids heading to an abandoned cabin…and then they die. The leads are Shelby Young (A.H.S. season 1, Nightlight)  and Reid Ewing (Fright Night, Modern Family). David Neptune and I had previously worked with them on a little commercial parody that won a comedy award years ago.  Augustine will be available on line after it finishes its festival run.  We will make sure to let all you iHorror readers know when it’s posted.

iH: Tell us about your book Everybody Dies. How did you get involved with Ken Tanaka and that project?

DU: Everybody Dies: A Children’s Book for Grown Ups is an illustrated parody of a children’s book that helps adults understand the inevitable fate that awaits us all.  It should appeal to all you sick and twisted horror lovers out there.

 We also made a funny promo for the book with some Breaking Bad cast members (Skinny Pete/Charles Baker   and Marco Salamanca/ Luis Moncada)

[youtube id=”SjoIDBuVAGo” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

Co-Author Ken Tanaka is my long lost Japanese identical twin brother who I met through YouTube (long story) and in the past few years we’ve collaborated on various projects together. He illustrated the book and we wrote together. He’s a very good looking chap. We’ve done a lot of YouTube videos together. “What Kind of Asian are You?” is our most famous with over 7 million hits.

[youtube id=”DWynJkN5HbQ” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

We followed that up with a zombie parody of the video that nobody watched but iHorror readers might dig it.

[youtube id=”FlBoHVcWblA” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

iH: Any other projects you’re working on that you’d like to talk about?

DU: I play the coroner Dr. Death in Playstation’s new series Powers. This was a really fun project for me because I got to be a good guy. I’m almost always playing a sketchy perp of some kind (except on Disney/Nick shows)  so getting to be a professional who works for the police was a fun change.  You can watch it for free on PS plus or buy the episodes/season on their website.  The first episode is free on Youtube and Crackle. It stars Sharlto Copley (District 9, Chappie) and the amazing Susan Heyward, Eddie Izzard, Phillip Devona and a slew of other talented folks.  Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a Playstation to watch the show, you can buy the episodes in their store and watch on your computer.  I also play the venomous “Sir Pent” in the film Little Boy out April 24th with Kevin James,  Tom Wilkinson, and Ric Sarabia.

For more on 31, check out our post 31 things we know about 31.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

on

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

on

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

on

Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading