Introduction
Mickey’s Mouse Trap is the creation of Into Frame Productions partners as well as director Jamie Bailey and star Simon Phillips (Netflix’s FUBAR with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lionsgate Survive the Game with Bruce Willis, Amazon Prime hit TV Shows Age of The Living Dead and No Easy Days, Blood and Snow, and the wickedly brilliant dark comedy Stealing Chaplin). Mickey’s Mouse Trap garnered huge press attention when its teaser trailer dropped on January 1st, 2024, on Simon Phillips’ personal YouTube account and has since been seen by millions of people worldwide.
Meet Simon Phillips
Simon Phillips is an award-winning British actor, probably best known for the Netflix show FUBAR with Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Witcher Season 3. He has also cited and won awards for his gruesome portrayal of Santa Claus in Christmas Horror features Once Upon A Time At Christmas and The Nights Before Christmas. His Feature film Butchers, garnered high praise from The Guardian newspaper stating:
“It’s Phillips’ performance that keeps the film’s pulse going. His Owen is exhilarating unpredictable, alternating between moments of meticulous villainy and sheer lunacy – one moment he will be refitting a spooky music box while eyeing his oblivious prey, next he will be whacking his victim bloodily, channeling a kind of biblical righteousness that makes him slippery, fascinating and, most importantly, terrifying to watch”
Phillips has appeared in feature films with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Mark Hamill, Robert Englund, Rutger Hauer, Richard E. Grant, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, John Malkovich, and Mel Gibson. Phillips stated:
“We have a childlike excitement to show the world the film! We love the amazing work Walt Disney created here and we love the creative freedom the character coming into public domain provided. Fun. That’s what we had making it and what you will get watching it.”
Interview
(Edited for content and clarity)
Glen Dower:
Mr. Phillips, how are you, good sir?
Simon Phillips:
I’m good, Glen. How are you?
Glen Dower:
I’m good, thanks. Let’s start with the initial trailer. Most of our readers will know about this film because of the crazy media response that took place back in January when the teaser dropped and the furor and confusion about what’s all this about public domain and Mickey is suddenly a killer. Was that a really exciting time for you?
Simon Phillips:
Yeah! We knew it might be newsworthy because Disney lost the copyrights and passed them into the public domain on January 1st. So, I kind of knew in advance that it would be topical on the day and that it would be news straightaway. And they probably weren’t expecting someone to use that copyright instantly, but we’d been prepping everything. So, on January 1st, we dropped and we go, ‘Ah, funny you should mention that. Here’s what we did!’
We had shot the whole movie before that. We shot the movie last year and we just knew that we couldn’t utilize it until it was copyright-clear to do so. So, we had a whole six-month warning on it and we moved from script to screen very quickly, but six months is not a long time to shoot a movie. But we do that and we knew we couldn’t tell anybody about it or do anything with it until January 1st, 2024. So, it was all quite well planned, but I mean, we couldn’t predict the response. So, we weren’t sure.
Glen Dower:
I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but as the writer you go for the ‘Columbo’ approach to murder mystery, instead of the ‘Scooby-Doo,’ because we know the killer from the off and we see the journey. Was that structured in your script or was that played with by a director? How did you decide on that chronology?
Simon Phillips:
It’s the only time we’ve been compared to Columbo! Good stuff, Glen. I love Columbo. But I think sometimes when you’re making a movie, you have to know what movie it is you’re making, you know? We were fans of slasher movies. So, in slasher movies, you’re aware of what the killer is right from the outset. Sometimes in the slasher movies, you get a bit more detail about why they’re doing what they’re doing, but there are a bunch of 90s slashers where you never got that detail.
Along the lines of, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream, you know, the person in the mask is ever-present. Maybe you get some more detail on that later, maybe you don’t. Is it important? Usually not. You know, it’s the threats and how the people being threatened respond to it. So, I mean, that’s, you know, we’ve done masked-based horror films before, so we kind of know the formula to play with and what works.
It’s a bit like Jaws, you shouldn’t see the shark too often. You know, it’s little bits, and, you know, really what you’re watching is the relationship between the other kids, the teens, as it were, on this one. So script-wise and structure-wise, that’s an important…Knowing. It’s reverse engineering for us, Glen. We know what we’re making and we work backward, so you go, well, this is the type of movie we’re making, and then you just have as much fun as you can with that.
Glen Dower:
The script itself, there are references, it knows it’s a slasher movie, and the two’ idiot detectives’ reference that. It’s like, we’re a in slasher here, dude. You have a really interesting final girl and I enjoyed her performance, Mackenzie Mills as Rebecca.
Simon Phillips:
Yes, we loved that. I will tell you a little bit about that. When we got to the final edit of the movie, it didn’t include that bit, with the two idiot detectives, as it were. And we used it as more of a narration, like a storytelling device, you know, to slow the pace of the movie down, because it happened originally all in one night. The audience needed a bit of a break sometimes from what was going on, so we added that bit of the story later. Mackenzie had kind of naturally risen to the top in the cast as somebody interesting, and we thought, without giving any spoilers away, that Mackenzie might make an interesting ally to Mickey, you know, future stuff.
Glen Dower:
Because she is an unreliable narrator, as well. So she could be the Minnie next time? But is that what you’re planning? Did you have ideas being sown as you were writing, going, oh, I’ll save this for next time, maybe?
Simon Phillips:
I couldn’t possibly say that right now, but it’s an interesting idea that you came up with independently!
Glen Dower:
We should look at that, should we not? And I’m a big Donald Duck guy. I would love to see Donald just run rampant! Could we see an Avengers-style team-up of all these mass-murdering beloved characters?
Simon Phillips:
There’s a whole load of characters coming into the public domain – I’m sure you know this – in the next few years. I mean, even Superman is coming into the public domain in 2034. It’s not that far away. The director, Jamie Bailey, would like to, in a proposed sequence, open that world up just a little wider, like in a multiverse-type fashion. So it’s something interesting. Aren’t all these things a little crazy? I call them ‘popcorn films’. They’re a pretty ridiculous idea. They’re not to be taken too seriously. You just have fun with them. That’s what it’s all about.
Glen Dower:
Of course! Let’s talk about your career as well. You’re from Galway, Ireland originally?
Simon Phillips:
That’s right. Where are you from, Glen? I’m detecting an accent there.
Glen Dower:
I’m from Belfast myself.
Simon Phillips:
Ah! Yeah, me and my family, we moved over. I was born in Galway, but I lived there until I was about 10 years old. But then I went to London, my family moved to London. So I spent most of my formative years in London. I went to school there, and so on. I went to drama school there, and that’s where I studied. And I started being an actor, indeed, in London. My mom was a bit of an actress. So it all kind of stemmed from out there.
And eventually, I made the move over to the States and winded back up in Canada, which is where you find me these days. So, because Canada does a lot of American work. If you’re filming American projects, they tend to take place in Toronto or Vancouver. So it’s a bit of a mini America sometimes!
Glen Dower:
Let’s talk about some of those projects. Some of our readers might know you from FUBAR, of course. Mr. Schwarzenegger’s first TV foray. Am I right in saying you shared dialogue in his very first scene? Is that right?
Simon Phillips:
His first ever scene in his first ever TV show, unbelievably. They’re like, this is his first scene in the first ever show he’s done. I was like, well, what an honor! Nobody can ever take that away from me now. No, wow.
Glen Dower:
And how was he? Was he a bit green?
Simon Phillips:
Ha! No, do you know what? He was 74 or 75 when we did it…he had boundless energy! And he also had time for everyone. He knew everybody’s name, you’ve got to think, the guy seems like he meets a lot of people. He walks in, shakes hands, and says hello to everyone. But it takes five minutes for him to do that. But it’s sort of a thing. And you’re like, oh, that’s how that guy conquered everything. He’s very good with people, just very good. And everybody felt important. He’s sort of empowering them in that fashion.
Great work ethic. And I hope half the energy he has when I’m 74. Like, holy hell. That guy conquered the world for a very good reason. He was never far away from a cigar, for sure. But he was very personable and chatty. He was just absolutely lovely. And very good. He knew what he was doing. He was very calm about it, very sure about it. But his game isn’t to make other people feel intimidated. He views it as a collaborative team effort. But really, you all know you’re here for him. But he doesn’t add that to it, which makes the world a difference. Because I’ve been around other people who don’t share that wonderful ethos.
Glen Dower:
Let’s talk about another project our readers might know, The Witcher, season three. You played Bandit!
Simon Phillips:
Yeah, it was great. Just cool. And I was like. Yes, I’d love to do that. Just to be in the Witcher universe. You know, it’s just really, really epic if you could be involved in that. Just for, you know, you get a little piece of history that belongs to your little piece of pop culture. You know, like, yes, that was a real easy one. Real fun. And again, that’s filmed out in London. So I had to fly back there. Interesting story here. I filmed my episode of The Witcher and my episode of FUBAR in the same week.
Glen Dower:
No way.
Simon Phillips:
Yeah, I don’t know how! I had to fly between them. FUBAR was filmed in Toronto and The Witcher is filmed in London. And there was a small overlap between them. And I was like, ‘You’re both Netflix shows. Can one of you talk to the other?!’ But they may as well not know each other. They operate very independently there. I was like, oh, you’re both big Netflix shows. Does nobody talk to the other show? So I nearly wasn’t able to do FUBAR because I was still on The Witcher, but then they let me go!
Glen Dower:
What have you got coming up then, Mr. Phillips? What can we see you in next?
Simon Phillips:
Apart from this film, which comes out on August 6th, we’re working on a few different things. We have our Deinfluencer films, we’ve got two sequels to our movie from last year. Again, it’s about a guy who wears a mask going around scaring people, but he’s a very anti-social media guy. So he makes social media influencers jump through a series of hoops for their life, a bit Saw-esque. So that one’s out.
We’ve got two of those films. We shot two sequels, but that’s coming out later this year. And What Lurks Beneath, a bit more of a horror movie on a submarine, about a small crew on a submarine, and they pick up a stowaway, and the stowaway is not all she seems to be. A naked, beautiful girl turns up on a submarine. You wonder why, how she got there, and what she’s doing. Is she a mermaid?! A lot is coming up there. So I’m looking forward to it.
Glen Dower:
Well, Mr. Phillips, it’s been an absolute pleasure, sir. Thank you so much for your time, and best luck with the release of Mickey’s Mouse Trap.
Simon Phillips:
Thank you so much, Glen. Thank you for having me.
“The Mouse Trap” will be released across North America (USA & Canada) on all TVOD/digital platforms on August 6th, 2024, and on DVD/Blu-Ray on August 13th, 2024.
