Christopher Garetano interview: What lies beneath Strange World

Going Beyond Montauk and Friendly Advice

1428 Elm: I looked at your resume on Travel Channel and you have worked with one of my favorite directors, Sam Raimi. Can you tell us anything about the show he is producing, 50 States of Fear? You are directing an episode. When can we expect it?

Christopher Garetano: I want to tell you so much about how that came about. So, let’s just say I wrote a screenplay that is a fictional take on the Montauk Project. It takes place some years ago and it focuses on a group of strong characters.

I think they will get an audience real excited and want to follow them through an entire series. The former MTV president runs DIBA studios and he was really interested in working with me on something.

So, we met a few times and they read the script for that project. They had 50 States of Fear that they were working on with Sam Raimi and they said why don’t you direct the New York episode and we can start there about making it into a series.

I just spoke with them the other day and I told them that what I really want to do is go forward with the series. We’re in discussions to expedite that and I think its time now. It’s the perfect timing for it and the perfect way for me to exit the whole Montauk thing with this great fictional take on it.

Fans of Stranger Things would go wild over this. Its different enough from the show that it would be very fresh for them. I can’t say much more about it.

1428 Elm: Do you have any advice for budding filmmakers that have an unusual story to tell or are interested in pitching an idea to Discovery or Travel Channel? Do you have any tips for them on how to get noticed?

Christopher Garetano: I do. The best way I can tell you is how I did it. I worked construction jobs when I made Montauk Chronicles. I paid for every penny of it. But I always knew throughout that process that I was a filmmaker and I was making a movie.

No matter what anyone told me, I made that movie every day. I knew where I was going. People would laugh sometimes but guess what? Those people are watching my show right now! (laughs) And they remember when I told them I’m going to make a series.

Make something. Go out and put your time in. Be like Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. Do it on the weekends with friends. Don’t care what anyone thinks of you, you don’t have to be in L.A. You can do it in Iowa on a farm.

Just make your thing. Focus on it. Make it wonderful. Take as much time as you need.

Once your project is done, you can make things happen. That’s my recommendation.

1428 Elm: Any other projects that you are working on that your audience can expect in the future?

Christopher Garetano: Yeah, there are a few things. I have a short horror film I made, The Terror Just Off of US 1. That I am giving out to everyone this October.

South Texas Blues is my take on Tobe Hooper making The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1973. It’s a graphic novel that was originally published in Fangoria throughout 2012. Now Trevor Cook, the artist I decided to work with is illustrating my screenplay. We’re releasing the graphic novel this fall.

Eventually, I want to make that a movie. The other thing I am working on is my first feature horror film. I will be shooting it later in the year.

It’s one of those things where I am in a good position where I can finance it myself and work on it meticulously, in secret, and make the best thing I can possibly make. And then surprise everybody when its finished.

A huge thank you to Christopher Garetano for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat with us.

You can catch Strange World every Monday on the Travel Channel at 11 p.m.

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