Barry Sonnenfield Fantasy Island Q&A 1998

Q&A with Executive Producer Barry Sonnenfield

Q: With such a successful and busy film career, why get into television?

A: I essentially got into television because of my friendship and working relationship with Danny DeVito. When he was producing "Get Shorty", which I directed, he said to me, "You know, I really miss TV". When I asked him why, he told me that the great thing about TV is, you get an idea, direct and produce it, show it to the networks and get the go-ahead or not, and the whole process takes 16 weeks. With a film, you spend at least two years pulling it together and then the whole thing can be over in a weekend. And even though I don't know much about TV, I love the idea of being in television, because you get so many more people to watch than with a film.
Plus, I've made films out of TV shows with TV actors ("The Addams Family", "Wild, Wild West"), and now I'm doing it the other way around, with actors like Beau Bridges and Malcolm McDowell.

Q: You're taking on a lot, though, with not one but two shows - why both Maximum Bob and Fantasy Island at once?

A: Well, it's a faster way for me to achieve my life's dream - ownership of a G-4 plane! But seriously, Elmore Leonard gave me the script for "Maximum Bob", and that show was my first TV child. That project came along while I was doing post for "Men in Black" and before I started "Wild, Wild West". From working on "Maximum Bob", I learned that I really like the pace of TV and the facility that the actors have with learning lines. I also became enthralled by the idea that more people will see a bad TV movie than will see "Armageddon" on a given weekend. So, my partner Barry Josephson went looking for another TV project, and he approached Columbia TriStar. They'd been trying to get Fantasy Island off the ground for a couple of years without success, but as soon as we started pitching it, all the networks wanted it.

Q: So, why did you go with ABC?

A: I really like Stu Bloomberg and Jamie Tarses, and they've been extremely supportive with "Maximum Bob".

Q: Do you watch much TV, and did you watch the original Fantasy Island series?

A: All I really watch is the Weather Channel. And, no I never did watch the original series until I'd committed to doing the new one!

Q: Then, why do a show like Fantasy Island again?

A: Well, it seemed to me that it had a similar position with audiences as did "The Addams Family", and as with that film, I felt that I could really bring my own special sensibility to it. There seemed to be a dark quality to the show I could delve into and make quirkier. I have a kind of absurdist approach to every situation. The success of my projects comes down to my own sense of comedy and that I trust my own sense of what's fun. Once I got into doing Fantasy Island, my favorite thing about it is how visual it is, which is another area I can really work with.

Q: The visuals in the pilot certainly are a big step up from the original, which was shot in Los Angeles. Why did you choose Hawaii, and what else from your film background are you bringing to the show visually?

A: Both Barry Josephson and I felt strongly that nothing less than a true, lush island location would do, especially with the sophistication of viewers these days who demand more. As far as effects, there are a lot of special effects you can do on television that look similar to extremely sophisticated and high-priced effects on film, but because TV is much lower resolution, you can accomplish something similar far more cost effectively, and we've tried to do that as much as possible with Fantasy Island. Despite the fact that it's pretty hard to do in just eight days, both "Maximum Bob" and Fantasy Island will have the look of mini-feature films. I want to make sure that this show has a really different visual look.
Also, I'm excited about doing this series because it's going to provide a great proving ground for new talent. Since Fantasy Island is so intensely visual, I'd like to bring in talent, such as a special effects manager and production designer I'm working with on "Wild, Wild West", and let them try directing an episode of Fantasy Island.

Q: How are you going to reconcile what the fans of the old series loved with your quirky sensibility and "absurdist touch" in the new show?

A: We'll give the original fans enough stuff so that they get a clear recognition that we are acknowledging that the original existed. As far as the dark new twist we're giving to the show, I really feel that you can let audiences be smart and find the humor and other elements in a show without trying too hard to point them out. Audiences are much smarter and hipper than studios ever give them credit for.
Some specific elements we will implement are to bookend the show, with the last bit leading into the story for the next episode. Not all the stories will end happily, not everyone will get what they wished for and some endings will hold quite a surprise. In the new series, we will also focus much more heavily on the crew and their stories. These people are serving time on this island and don't really like their jobs there ñ they are in a kind of purgatory, and their sentence is to have to serve these guests. We'll drop clues as to how they got on the island throughout the season. To accommodate the crew stories, after the premiere well cut the guest storylines back to two each week from three.

Q: Since you don't seem to watch much TV, what's your favorite film?

A: "Dr. Strangelove". (Stanley Kubrick - Alex)

Q: What can you tell us in closing?

A: With this show, I'm really looking forward to taking something that's viewed as banal and normal, and putting my spin on it. That's the challenge for me, and it's what defines me -- to put an odd twist on the most banal things and make them new and different. So with Fantasy Island, I'm taking an old television show and making it autobiographical in some way.