Quibi’s 50 States of Fright: Interview with director Alejandro Brugués

1428 Elm: How were you approached about directing Destino, and had you spent any time in Miami prior to your involvement with 50 States of Fright?

Alejandro Brugués: We have another project that I still can’t talk about with Sam Raimi and his TV producing partner, Debbie Liebling (which by the way, are the two loveliest people you can work with in this business) and one day I got the call and they asked if I wanted to do this. How do you say no to that? So Gregg, Ed and I sat down and came up with this idea and pitched it to them and that was it.

And about Miami, I’m Cuban, which means I have a bunch of family there. I have four brothers in Miami, my grandma lived there most of her life, and yes, I’ve been there a lot. And by the way, the episode was shot in Vancouver. In November. We did Miami in Vancouver during the winter. The art department was running with palm trees all over the place. I’m very happy about the result. I also don’t recommend the stress.

1428 Elm: Tell us about some of your current or upcoming projects.

Alejandro Brugués: Well, my new movie just came out April 3rd, an episode of the Blumhouse series Into The Dark for Hulu. It’s called Pooka Lives! And it’s the sequel to Pooka!, the Christmas episode directed by another good friend, Nacho Vigalondo, back in 2018.

That’s a horror comedy, it’s super fun, and has a great cast. I was actually shooting Pooka Lives! and prepping Destino at the same time, they picked me up from the set on my last day and I went straight to the airport and to Vancouver to shoot Destino.

And now that both things are out (and you should watch them!), I’m trying to figure out what’s next. There’s a couple of really cool things that are happening, I don’t want to jinx them.

Plus, no one knows when we’ll be shooting again and what’s it gonna be like, so right now the best thing we can do is stay at home and healthy and hope one day we come back to normal.

1428 Elm: Thank you so much for your time, we look forward to seeing a lot more from you in the very near future.

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