Interview: Dan Myrick (Skyman)

Dan Myrick is brilliant and multi-talented as a writer, director, producer and actor. He has directed THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, UNDER THE BED, SOLSTICE and more. He took time to speak with Horrornews.net for an exclusive.

Hi Dan, How are you?

Dan: I am doing good.

Tell us about “Skyman” and the Indiegogo project and what you are hoping to accomplish?

Dan: “Skyman” is based on a compensative of childhood stories that revolves around a guy who claims he was visited by an alien when he was ten years old and now thirty years later he is obsessed with claiming he is going to have a reunion with this alien in the desert. We are basically covering the whole journey. It is a small, contained film that has been in the works for a while. I felt on one level, I wanted to try a crowd funding solution to this also from a marketing stand point.

But I just liked the idea of engaging the audience real early on with our process and the film itself. At the same time retaining as much creative control as I could. There are two primary reasons why I have taken the Indiegogo approach on this movie. I wanted to kind of go back to my “Blair” roots a little bit and have it be a more direct connection with the audience.

“The Blair Witch Project” has become sort of a cult classic film. Were you thinking about that type of inspiration with “Skyman?”

Dan: Well I have always been fascinated with UFO sub-culture and a lot of that was inspirational for Blair Witch as well because there is a lot of overlap with the paranormal, Big Foot and a lot of those shows back when I was growing up like “in Search Of.”

Those influenced Blair Witch and so they had the same kind of influences as “Skyman” and so it is sort of in the same wheelhouse as Blair Witch but it is more of a sci-fi, thriller-drama kind of thing rather than a straight up horror. It has got the same basic DNA and I have always found that fascinating. There is a passionate, body of study and research in this world that whether you believe in it or not. There is just a lot of intriguing stories that have been told by people that are honest believers.

Do you have a cast lined up yet for “Skyman?”

Dan: Not yet, but what we’ve done which is what I have done on one of my last movies is we are now holding an online audition process through the website. I have already done a few interviews with people who have had UFO experiences so we are reaching out to authentic, real people as well as actors to tell us their stories and audition online right on the website.

A lot of those will be cast as supporting roles but the three main characters we haven’t officially started casting for those yet. I am going to put up sides for people to read and audition for those roles in the coming weeks. I really like the idea of going with unknowns all the way across the boards. But right now, I have already gotten lots of auditions through the website.

Did you ever have a personal experience with a UFO?

Dan: I mean in retrospect I can make the analysis that it may have been something explainable. I lived in Florida and occasionally there would be some off things in the sky. I had a UFO club when I was thirteen. Me and my buddies would go out at night and look up at the stars and try to spot certain phenomena in the night sky.

There were a couple occasions where we saw some unexplainable light. We had one episode in the neighborhood next to ours where there was an alleged impression in the grass in a field where some claimed it was a flying saucer impression or not. We went and checked it out. It was nothing definitive but at that age it was compelling. Years later, who knows what that was? We believed it at the time. I am one of those people that is a little bit agnostic. I am a firm believer that there is intelligent life out there somewhere and whether or not it has reached us or not it anyone’s discussion or anyone’s debate.

What would you like to say to the fans and the audiences that will be watching “Skyman” when it is released?

Dan: The main thing is I am attempting to make a very honest, authentic film that is a character study of a guy that is really obsessed about finding and reuniting with what he believes is an alien life-form. It is not going to have the Hollywood persona on it. It is going to be risky, intense at times and I hope that is going to be a refreshing change from a lot of stuff that is coming out. Mainly it’s a film that engages and involves the audience on a lot of levels and it is honest. That is what I loved about Blair Witch, it was a film that came from the heart. It was authentic in its execution and I want to do the same thing with this.

New film SKYMAN Indiegogo page