Chances are, if you haven’t heard of The Asylum directly, you’ve heard of their films.  Producing what the press has lovingly dubbed “mockbusters”, they’ve produced direct to video classics including Snakes on a Train, Transmorphers, Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies and even some original titles such as Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus.  They’ve faced the wrath of Warner Bros. legal team, with their film Age of the Hobbits, later released as Clash of the Empires, but they keep moving on, producing low budget films at a quick pace.

On July 9th, their next big film hits DVD and video on demand, titled Atlantic Rim.  Chances are, if you’ve been reading this site, you have a pretty good idea of what film it may be related to.  Seeing our regular coverage of Pacific Rim, and our prior mention of Atlantic Rim, the director Jared Cohn (previously of Bikini Spring Break fame) offered us an email interview.

We ask about the inner workings of The Asylum, how Atlantic Rim came to be, and really, how do actors like Treach and David Chokachi approach such a project.  Enjoy!

Our questions are in bold, with Jared’s responses following.

Jared, looking over your IMDB page, you’ve had a wide variety of projects under your belt - what brought you to Atlantic Rim?

First of all thank you so much for having me on Blast-O-Rama. I appreciate you helping out independent filmmakers like myself.

What brought me to Atlantic Rim was the wonderful company The Asylum, I’ve done 9 movies with them, as both an actor and writer/director. They asked me if I was interested and I of course said yes… Giant Robot and Sea Monsters, there was no way I would turn that down. Besides, it was an opportunity to work with amazing, talented actors and a chance to go to Florida for a month, so for me it was a no-brainer. At the end of the day it was an opportunity to make a cool movie, which I happen to love to do.

With a “mockbuster” like this, there clearly is a level of business related decision making leading to Pacific Rim being chosen as the movie to “mock” - why Pacific Rim?

I don’t think Atlantic Rim is “mocking” anything. People throw around the word Mockbuster or other phrases or words that compare one show to another, but for me, it’s a completely different experience. I had nothing to do with the making of Pacific Rim, so with Atlantic, for me it is it’s own thing.

Bring me into the creative process - what’s the typical turn around time for an Asylum project? How soon do you pick the film to pay homage to, how long does the script writing process take, and how long is filming usually?

Filming was 12 days on Atlantic Rim, with a lot more time spent on post production and also there was a good amount of time for me spent on pre-production. The movies that get selected are picked by the producers who know what the market is looking for. They decide on this quite some time before the show goes into production. The have been making motion pictures for 15+ years and are very successful, so one would be foolish to assume they aren’t extremely smart about this process and the details that surround it.

The cast of Atlantic Rim is a unique mixture of actors, including Dances With Wolves' Graham Green, one time Baywatch star David Chokachi and even Naughty By Nature’s Treach - do they typically know what they’re in for? Do they embrace the irony, or do they play it as they would any other film project?

The cast embraced it, they were really cool and did not play the roles with some weird irony or anything like that. They took it very seriously as I would expect from professionals like themselves. Graham Greene is an Academy nominated actor, so there was no doubt that he is a pro. Everyone on the cast and crew are dedicated to their craft. People that think we don’t care about making a good movie, or we are just a bunch of jokers, well those people are very wrong! As for the crew who work with The Asylum, those guys are hard working and very down to earth. There is a lot of misconceptions about what goes on behind the scenes on a show like this.

Have you heard from anyone involved in the production of Pacific Rim? If so, what did they think?

I have not heard from anyone, I’d be happy to talk with someone from the PR camp though, hit me up if you want!

It seems that much of the Asylum business model seems to have built on the “confused grandma” market, especially in the era of Blockbuster - how have things changed since the conversion to Netflix?

The “confused grandma” idea is completely ridiculous. Nobody is that stupid where they would rent the wrong movie! Really?!! Does that ever really happen or is it true that people are interested in the same subject matter?? For instance, if a big Ninja movie comes out, and I happen to love Ninjas, I would rent more than one Ninja movie. Especially if I enjoyed the first one. A lot of companies make cheeseburgers, but I’m not going to walk into a Burger King when I want McDonalds. My thoughts are that idea is an argument that companies fabricated that are losing money and want a scapegoat. It’s a tough industry, it’s not for everyone.

The films of the Asylum have grabbed the “Bad Movie Night” crowd - is Atlantic Rim written to their tastes, with a wink and a nod?

I can’t speak for anyone outside myself. I like to believe Atlantic Rim is a good movie! However, if the Bad Movie crowd embraces it, which I hope they do, then it’s a win-win. ;) (nod).

Finally - what films, past or present, would you want to make a “mockbuster” of?

When The Last Samurai came out, I would have LOVED to have made The Last Ninja.

We thank Jared for joining us here, and to see how it turned out, click play below for the latest trailer of Atlantic Rim. Be sure to check it out when it hits DVD on July 9th. Jared can be followed on Twitter at @Traplightmedia.