Cinema Scholars interviews Alberto Belli, director of the new supernatural comedy Gatlopp. The film is written by and stars Jim Mahoney. Gatlopp also stars Emmy Raver-Lampman, Jon Bass, and Sarunas J. Jackson. XYZ Films will release Gatlopp On Demand and on Digital starting June 23, 2022.
Introduction
Summer is here! Kids are out of school, temperatures are rising, and people are finally able to enjoy a relatively carefree summer compared to the past couple. What better to usher in the new season than a laugh-out-loud comedy? Heeding the call, director Alberto Belli brings the freaky funnies with a twisted new comedy called Gatlopp.
You might be wondering, “What in the heck is a Gatlopp?” In the (new) tradition of films like Jumanji and Zathura, Gatlopp is a story about a group of friends who get stuck playing the strangely-named titular game. Unlike its kiddie predecessors, however, Gatlopp is played by adults and involves copious amounts of drinking, facing past enemies, and reconnecting with old friends. But as always, there’s a catch.
(L-R) Sarunas J. Jackson as Troy, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Sam, Jon Bass as Cliff, and Jim Mahoney as Paul in the supernatural comedy, “GATLOPP,” an XYZ Films release. Photo courtesy of XYZ Films.
Synopsis
In Gatlopp, a group of thirty-something friends gathers to rally around an old pal who is going through a nasty divorce. Though some members of the crew have lost touch in the years since their carefree twenties, it is apparent that they all share a special bond. When one of the friends suggests they play the mystery board game he found in a recently acquired second-hand credenza, the group discovers that they have a lot more to unpack than just a casual catch-up. Soon, the questions on game cards become chillingly specific and the crew discovers that they must carefully navigate their way to the end or else be stuck in the game forever.
Cinema Scholars’ Rebecca Elliott recently spoke with Gatlopp director Alberto Belli about the triumphs and challenges during the making of his new twisted comedy.
Interview
Elliott: Hi Alberto, thank you so much for joining me today. I appreciate your time.
Belli: Hi Rebecca. No, thank you for taking the time to watch the movie and have the interview.
Elliott: Absolutely. It was so much fun! In Gatlopp, you reference Alfred Hitchcock and OuterLimits, and even Black Mirror. Then there are more apparent nods to game-inspired films like Jumanji and Zathura. Can you talk about some of your inspirations and how your film is different?
Belli: For sure. Yeah. I mean, obviously, Jumanji was one of those. I love Goonies, you know about the friendship and challenges, but I guess the grown-up version of Goonies. So I think what makes this, hopefully, this movie different is obviously we didn’t have that huge of a budget. We tried to make sure that the challenges were all about the acting and the characters and building the relationships among themselves rather than trying to do something spectacular. So hopefully people will connect with that more than the usual effects of all these big blockbusters and it’s more about going along the run with these characters and then how they’re connecting at the end.
(L-R) Jon Bass as Cliff, Sarunas J. Jackson as Troy, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Sam, and Jim Mahoney as Paul in the supernatural comedy, “GATLOPP,” an XYZ Films release. Photo courtesy of XYZ Films.
Elliott: Absolutely. I mean, because really at the core it’s a beautiful story about friendship, but I think what also sets its apart from the other is that it is legitimately laugh-out-loud funny; a straight-up comedy. Something else that immediately grabbed my attention and sort of set the vibe of the whole movie is the incredible opening title sequence. Was that on the page originally or is that something that you developed and can you just talk about that incredible title sequence?
Belli: Oh, thank you. I love the title sequence too. It was not on the script, but we always had that idea that on the opening we needed to kind of establish that this game was… Highlight its power, and try to tell it in a simple, entertaining way. So we worked with an agency in Argentina that also created the board game. It was mostly about how can we tell the story in a simplistic way? Like, oh, you have to skip this game, otherwise, a green light is going to kill you basically. And then so how that’s, that’s how. And I love fun opening title sequences. It was my dream to do something like this.
Elliott: And that score, oh my gosh. Kenny Wood is the composer?
Belli: Yeah.
Elliott: It’s such an incredible score. It’s very Elfman-esque. It just hits all the right notes, but then also you have this incredible sort of combination with contemporary songs. Can you talk about collaborating between you and your composer and your music supervisor?
Belli: Yeah. Love, love Kenny, so I’m glad that you brought up the score. I love working with him. Kenny and I met in film school and we’ve been working on shorts since then. And what I love about Kenny is he’s able to create… It’s not an easy feat to be able to combine comedy with sometimes horror with some adventure and then Kenny was just the right person for this job because he’s able to create all of those.
And I’m a huge, huge score fan. I always said, I probably became a director because I wanted to create scores. I’m horrible with music, but I just love scores. So I love that Kenny is able to do all of these. And then, creating the themes for me was also something very important to have. Like the Gatlopp theme, which we play at the title sequence and it keeps it evolving.
And then, the music supervisor (Phil Canning), we knew we wanted to have the one song that hopefully will remind people of 10 years ago. And then that’s how we found the song Pompeii, by Bastille. I remember 10 years ago it was huge. So it was like, we got really lucky that they also loved the movie and they were okay, gave us the rights for basically nothing, because of course it’s a small budget movie. So that was for sure one thing. And then the other ones were more like artists and had the right vibe for the movie.
(L-R) Sarunas J. Jackson as Troy, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Sam, Jon Bass as Cliff, and Jim Mahoney as Paul in the supernatural comedy, “GATLOPP,” an XYZ Films release. Photo courtesy of XYZ Films.
Elliott: It all worked so well together. We already touched on the story about friendship and all the dynamics and water under the bridge. Your cast is incredible and not terribly well known. But, man, there are some wonderful performances. Did you guys workshop a lot before? Can you talk about preparation with your talent?
Belli: Yes. Thank you. I feel very lucky to have had this cast. The truth is, it was during the pandemic at the height of the pandemic. The first time I met them was actually on set and we had very insane protocols because it was when we were starting to discover how to work with the COVID and all that stuff.
It was more about them, somehow it’s this magic that happened, they all connected right away when they met in person and they were just having fun. And it was more about having fun on set. I think it was very important for me and Jim [Mahoney], the writer, to have a very easy, fun set.
So they were able to explore things that we didn’t really have the time or the opportunity to rehearse because it was COVID and you couldn’t really do anything really except shoot. Yeah, it was just something that came naturally to them.
Elliott: And I guess probably working with the writer on set too, so intimately, probably was a different kind of collaboration too? Can you talk about that a little bit?
Belli: Yeah. It was fun because what I love about Jim, is he was always…obviously he wrote it and he knew the story, but he was always also open to making it better when we were there, or stick to the script because that’s very important to tell the story. And it was a wonderful collaboration.
I’m very good friends with Jim. So it was like we were able to transition from friendship to collaborating and make sure that the story was making sense. And like, does the dialogue make it funnier or less funny? And it was a lot of open minds and also sticking to the script at the same time.
(L-R) Sarunas J. Jackson as Troy, Jon Bass as Cliff, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Sam, and Jim Mahoney as Paul in the supernatural comedy, “GATLOPP,” an XYZ Films release. Photo courtesy of XYZ Films.
Elliott: You kind of get to use all manner of visual tricks in this film, just because of the nature of the story itself. There are really cool dolly zooms and all these fantastic transitions and even sped-up shots, but then you get to do this like wacky sort of like jazzercise sequence. What was it like packing in all these fun tricks and then also sorting a full-on dance scene?
Belli: Right. I guess the transition and that, it’s kind of like my style coming from a commercial background. I do love those kinds of like flash transitions. It was important for me to be able to differentiate the past and the present with a fun trick, which is the Polaroids, which is all about the friendships. The Polaroids signified the friendship they had. So it’s like, how can we use that to visually tell the story? And that’s how the Polaroid kind of vibe came about.
And then the jazzercise…I love musicals and the gym too. So we’re like, we felt like we needed some sort of break out of it all, so it’s not always at that same home place. So we just had a lot of fun creating this thing inspired by… We were watching all those eighties music videos. They were fun, cheesy and it’s like, how can we embrace that and make it as funny as we could while throwing back to those eighties jazzercise things? And it’s so fun and ridiculous that I hope it translates.
Elliott: You get to have a dance sequence in the middle of your crazy movie! It’s super fun. And, you’re right, it does break up the single location because essentially this is a single location film. Even the flashbacks take place in the same place. Any claustrophobia with that while shooting?
Belli: It was funny. It was kind of like, I think we had… I can’t remember how many days, but maybe two days that we were not shooting in that house, so when we were outside, we’re like, “Oh my God, thank God we don’t have to be in that place again.”
But we got lucky that we found, I feel like the perfect house, which was like not too small, but not too big that it feels like the character was like a billionaire or something. So it was a fun house because he had these different pockets where we could shoot different scenes.
And we keep trying to choose scenes in different places of the house, but it was definitely… especially with the green light, like towards the end, the climax where everything becomes green, people were getting sick because it was like this green thing was so intense that it was kind of not pleasing to the eye. So we were all happy when we got out of it.
Elliott: I bet! Well, thank you so much. I think my time is up. Congratulations on such a delightful film. I hope everyone gets a chance to see it and good luck with the rest of your interviews!
Belli: I really appreciate it. Have a good day.
XYZ Films will release Gatlopp On Demand and Digital on June 23, 2022.
