by Dov Kornits
The Adelaide filmmaker makes the jaw-droppingly entertaining documentary Mockbuster about the making of his feature debut with renowned trash film studio The Asylum (Sharknado), The Land That Time Forgot.
When did you start the documentary?
“Both ideas were kind of simultaneous – that I should make an Asylum film and make a documentary about me making the Asylum film. When I initially spoke to The Asylum about it, it was under that guise – ‘I want to make your film and also do this thing about it’. That was always part of the play.”
In Mockbuster, it seems like all you had to do was ask to direct one of their films. But do you think that you making a documentary about it made them more interested in giving you a directing gig?
“I’m not too sure actually. I’d have to ask them. I think probably fifty/fifty. I think someone just asking was part of their business model too. A few people who’ve directed for them, like one guy I met, Adrian, who has directed three or four films now. By day, he’s a truck driver.”
How do you feel about being on camera in the documentary?
“I don’t actually enjoy being on camera that much, but I like that style of documentary a lot and it’s just easier because there’s fewer moral qualms if I’m the idiot. I can make myself look like a fool and it’s fine.”
In Mockbuster, you say that you watched Asylum films. Who’s the audience? Are they stoners?
“I think it’s ironic hipsters, like myself, who kind of just love bad movies and you just want to get together with friends and laugh. The way that The Asylum explain it is: ‘we’re making movies for the guy who’s been driving a truck for 16 hours, he goes to Walmart and he just buys DVD because it’s $5. He goes home, he watches it and then he never has to think about that movie again’.
“Also, according to The Asylum, it used to be cool to hate their films because they were like the antithesis of art, but now they’re cool because they just stuck around for so long that people can start to see that their whole body of 350 films is kind of punk rock.”
But are they [founders David Michael Latt, David Rimawi, Sherri Strain] driving Ferraris? Are they getting rich off your blood, sweat, and tears?
“I haven’t been to any of their houses or anything, but they’ve all got nice cars and stuff. I feel like they put in the hard work…”
As you touch on in the film, the budget you were given to make a feature film was ridiculous. There must have been times when you may have been exploiting your collaborators on the project?
“Actually, everyone was so enthusiastic because it was like a crazy thing to do. I don’t think anyone felt exploited because we’re all in on it for the story. We paid award rates. The Asylum paid over actually, not by much, but they were very happy to stick to our rules and regulations. In Australia, for example, you need an armourer and they didn’t want to pay for an armourer. So, they just removed all the guns and made them axes instead. They removed all the night shoots just because people were getting paid basically award minimums and didn’t want people up to 3am shooting for that. They were actually quite good in that regard. No one was being exploited financially People were on their feet the whole time running around like crazy, trying to make sure that we made our days.”
Would you have done things differently with The Land That Time Forgot if you had to do it again?
“I don’t want to George Lucas it too much, but every movie has its issues. And The Land That Time Forgot just has more than the average movie. But that’s its charm too. When I spoke to Anthony Ferrante, the guy who directed the Sharknado series, he says that what’s special about The Asylum films is that they have an energy of desperation because you can tell that the filmmakers are trying so hard to keep this thing afloat and that reflects in the film and that’s where that fun comes from. I think if you start to add more money and give it more days and the movie might be better, but then instead of being a two out of 10, it’s going to be a five out of 10 and who wants a five out of 10? So yeah, I think if you ruminate on it too much, you would kill it.”
Mockbuster features two of our heroes, Eric Roberts and Michael Pare, with the latter appearing in The Land That Time Forgot. Do you think that they’re both in on the joke of The Asylum films?
“It’s really hard to say. I think Eric gets it. The day we interviewed him, he shot in the morning, came home, interviewed with us, and then shot another film in the evening, because he just loves it. He loves acting. He loves being in front of the camera. I think he would take any role just because he loves the craft of acting so much; nothing else matters beyond that to him. I think that’s so cool that someone in that stage of their career still loves it that much that they’d do a student film just to do it. Michael, unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to really kind of dive in with him and discuss that because he was in and out so quickly.”
Revelation Perth International Film Festival is screening Mockbuster and The Land That Time Forgot as a double feature. Do you love that?
“It was kind of built into the DNA of the project, but watching the documentary first sets up these weird jokes that are paid off in The Land That Time Forgot. There are moments that if you just watched The Land That Time Forgot, you wouldn’t laugh at, but if you’ve seen it in the context of the documentary, it’s really funny. The film’s distributor, Umbrella, have bought the rights for The Land That Time Forgot, so I really hope it happens because it works surprisingly well.”
So, in the future, are you going to make more films for The Asylum or will you stick to documentary?
“I love documentary. I always wanted to be a scripted filmmaker, write scripted comedy, but then I fell into the rabbit hole of documentary. I just realised that real people are so much more fun and funny than anything you could write. I fell head over heels with documentary. So, that’s where I’d like to stay.”
Mockbuster and The Land That Time Forgot are screening at Revelation Perth International Film Festival on 18 July 2026. Grab your tix here.
