That man is seated opposite me, smiling and scruffily unshaven in a black Rolling Stones baseball cap. I like him. It seems absurd that he could attract such severe slander – even online, where level-headedness isn’t exactly a plentiful resource. During our time together, I find no Boll-like contempt for his own paying public – I see no exploitative profiteer. He might be one of the most prolific film producers on the planet – not to mention the object of much fanboy ire – but right now, Courtney Solomon is just a guy who’s valiantly battling fatigue.
“Everybody here has been really nice,” he smiles wearily. By “here” he means Australia. Given the libel I encountered during my pre-interview message board trawling, I can’t help but wonder how this differs to the US. “The US is the US,” he shrugs. “It’s a very competitive market.”
And that’s that.
Solomon is in Australia to launch After Dark Originals – a new DVD line of original horror movies all produced in-house by his own After Dark Films. Melbourne is his second and last stop on the Australian press circuit. He’s spent the last few days in Sydney. A Popcorn Taxi event at Paddington’s Chauvel Cinema showcased Seconds Apart, a new After Dark Original, in its Australian premiere. “There were some really good questions in the Q&A,” he enthuses. “Everybody was genuinely enthusiastic. I think they’re happy to have a horror brand here in Australia. It was nice.”
After Dark is what showbiz types consider a “mini-major” – a production company/distributor whose scale and market presence is considerable enough to net talent like Diane Lane, Michael Douglas, Lena Heady and Tom Waits, but whose humble successes won’t exactly have the high-rollers at Disney or Warner Bros. shaking in their Louis Vuittons. It’s exactly where Solomon wants to be. “We’re a pretty high-level horror brand for an independent [company]. We’re the number one producer of horror product in the US, and the number one distributor of it.” For Solomon, After Dark is less about profit and more about sustainability. So long as the company can continue to self-finance, he’ll be happy.
After Dark Originals grew out of After Dark Horrorfest, an annual nationwide horror film festival that commenced in the USA in 2006. Each year, eight independent horror movies, all acquired for US distribution by Solomon’s company, were screened. The event even counts two Aussie efforts amongst its alumni: Tassie-set cannibalism schlocker Dying Breed, and the chilling, near-brilliant Lake Mungo. “[The After Dark movies] all go theatrical in the top ten to 15 markets in the US,” Solomon explains. “It’s one weekend only. But it’s a weekend where you get to watch eight horror movies in a cinema. We put filmmakers there and have Q&As, and bring the casts out to certain theatres. We try to make it into a weekend-long social gathering. But [because] it’s only there for a weekend, there’s no possible way to make money on it. It’s for the fans. That was always the intent behind it.” After the mania of the Horrorfest weekend, the films would then release on DVD under the banner ‘8 Films to Die For’.
After four seasons of distributing other people’s movies, After Dark changed the Horrorfest paradigm for the 2011 event. From this year on, the festival and its subsequent DVD line will comprise the eight entirely new horror feature films produced by the company – hence the rebranding to After Dark Originals.
While it might sound like every filmmaker’s dream to head their own studio, the change has meant a significant spike in Solomon’s already busy workload. “We learnt a lot doing [this] first series,” he admits. “Some people just churn ’em out when they do a business like this – just to make product. We try the best that we can. Not all of our movies end up great. So far, I feel we run like a 75/25 percent [success rate]. We’re trying to get it 90/10 percent. If we can get it to 90/10 percent I’ll be happy.”
As Solomon sees it, the benefit of being CEO and founder of a mini-major, as opposed to a major studio, is the level of hands-on involvement that he’s able to retain with the films his company produces. “You can’t be on set for every single one of them,” he concedes. “But I work with every director, to some extent.”
Solomon himself is a director. In 2000 he released his feature debut Dungeons & Dragons. An American Haunting followed in 2005. Despite this, he says he hasn’t yet felt sidelined or creatively frustrated in his capacity as either producer or executive producer on the first wave of After Dark Originals. On the contrary. “I prefer it [this way] when we’re doing so many at once. I have to focus all my attention and give all the babies equal love. But I do have my films that I wanna [direct]. It’s just a matter of what’s best for the company.”</p
