Q&A with Jonathan Melville, Author of SEEKING PERFECTION: THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO TREMORS

With the release of Tremors 5: Bloodlines last week, we thought this would be a perfect time to speak with Jonathan Melville, author of the recent book, Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors, which takes a look back at the original film, the Tremors sequels, and the ill-fated television series.

What inspired you to celebrate the Tremors films in book form (beyond the fact that they’re awesome fun)?

Jonathan Melville: I remember watching Tremors on BBC One here in the UK in 1994 (I was 16) and immediately falling for the mix of comedy, horror, sci-fi, western and romance that I hadn’t seen in any other film.

From then on I kept stumbling across the sequels; I rented Tremors 2 from a VHS store while on holiday in Canada and the others on video and DVD when they came out—and each time enjoyed the way the franchise evolved. There was also the short-lived TV show, which I recorded from the Sci-Fi Channel and always wondered why the running order seemed so strange.

A few years ago, I was commissioned by the UK sci-fi magazine SFX to write about Tremors for its 21st anniversary, and I spoke to co-creator S.S. Wilson and star Michael Gross for a 2,500 word feature.

When I realized there was so much more to be written about the films, and that nobody else seemed to be doing it, I realized I’d have to write the book myself. Thankfully I did finally discover why that Sci-Fi running order was all over the place...

How long did the entire process take you and were there any challenges along the way?

Jonathan Melville: If you exclude writing the SFX article, I started the project properly in summer 2013 and completed it in summer 2015.

I decided I wanted to speak to people from all of the films and the TV series, from behind and in front of the camera, and set about tracking down as many people as I could, mainly using IMDb Pro for the emails and phone numbers of agents.

As I’m based in the UK and most of my interviewees were in Los Angeles, I had an eight hour time difference to take into account, which meant lots of late nights hunched over Skype as I discussed giant underground worms with second unit directors who were 5,000 miles away.

Luckily, virtually everyone I spoke to said "yes" to an interview. Perhaps the most important people to have on my side were the creators of original films at Stampede Entertainment—S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Ron Underwood and Nancy Roberts—who gave up many hours via Skype chats and email as I asked about the inner workings of the franchise.

One of the most challenging parts was getting the timeline of events right in my head and on the page. These events took place over more than 30 years, and it’s quite a lot to expect people to recall everything in minute detail. A few times I had things in the wrong order—perhaps when the team were working on Short Circuit 2 while planning Tremors, or when they went to Lone Pine for reshoots—and I had to bother them with questions about exact dates and places.

One of the biggest challenges was tracking down Kevin Bacon. Trying to get past managers and agents is always a challenge—they have to protect their clients from time wasters on a daily basis—and it took almost the full two years of the project to secure an interview with Kevin.

Thankfully, just a few months before the book went to print, I secured time with him to discuss all things Tremors, meaning I then had to rewrite much of the text where I’d dropped in quotes from newspapers and magazines through the years.

Kevin was a delight to speak to and his contribution to the book really adds to the finished product; rather than have people talk about why they thought he did or didn’t do something, he can now speak for himself.

The final hurdle was the announcement of Tremors 5: Bloodlines in late 2014. When I started the book, the franchise was dormant and nobody really expected there to be a fifth film. Then it suddenly happened and I had to rework my original outline for the book. So that was both scary and exciting, knowing I was uncovering information about a film that nobody had seen.

What was the most surprising aspect for you as a writer as you were putting together your book?

Jonathan Melville: As a journalist, I’m used to trying to find a “throughline” for a story, a thread that will engage the reader in the opening paragraph, weave its way through a feature and pay off in the final paragraph.

As I started the book, I began to realize that finding that thread when you’re discussing four (then five) films and a TV show over the course of 25 years is tricky, particularly when you have multiple chapters that are like mini-features.

I also underestimated the amount of editing required for an 80,000+ word book. That probably sounds odd, but I always thought my punctuation and grammar were relatively proficient, but that almost goes out the window when you’re trying to tell so many stories at once. Spelling mistakes crop up all over the place and you then realize you’ve referred to someone or something you perhaps weren’t planning to for another few pages. Having editors on standby was a huge help, I just wish I’d planned that a bit earlier.

What were some of your favorite stories that you heard during the interview process?

Jonathan Melville: I loved hearing from the creators as they explained how the first film came to be. As well as the guys at Stampede, who were with the project from day one. I was able to speak to executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, who was a vital piece of the puzzle, and the late, great Universal executive, Jim Jacks, who fought hard for the film when most studios turned it down.

Hearing them all tell their side of the story was fantastic, from the casting decisions that didn’t make it to the screen—James Garner as Earl?—to potential problems with the unions that saw the film change its name and effectively go on the lam from Hollywood as they tried to make it in secret in the desert.

I also spoke to the team of executives at Universal Home Entertainment—who greenlit all the sequels—about their reasons for continuing the franchise and what some of the challenges were in bringing them to the screen. That’s something you don’t always read about in these kind of books.

Some of the most shocking/revealing stories came from the people who worked on the TV series. That was a program doomed to fail almost from the get-go, and hearing about the mistakes made on that show made me realize it’s a miracle any series gets made. Sci-Fi effectively hired Stampede because they loved what they’d done with the films, then told them to do something completely different, going so far as to lock them out of the editing suite when one episode looked to be in trouble. Rather than take time to fix the problems, Sci-Fi decided to completely change the running order, thereby ruining continuity. Go figure.

Why do you think the Tremors films still remain so popular with fans, even after 25 years since the first one was released?

Jonathan Melville: Tremors is almost timeless, in that it takes place in a kind of rustic, rural America that has existed pretty much unchanged for centuries; there are still towns like Perfection out there where people get by with technology that’s not dependent on a strong Wi-Fi connection or being able to download the latest apps. So we can watch a film made in 1990 that could almost be taking place twenty years earlier or later and understand who these people are.

It’s also a family friendly film, despite having a smattering of bad language. There are monsters for the kids to hide from and jokes for the adults to laugh at. Also, with all due respect to the writers, it’s not the most taxing of plots to understand, meaning you can catch a re-run on cable TV, pick up the story at almost any point and still have a great time.

In the end, it really comes down to a great set of characters and some brilliant practical effects for the Graboids—we’re all a bit tired of CGI these days, and it’s refreshing to see “real” monsters taking center stage.

If you could pick a favorite moment out of the Tremors series, what would that be?

Jonathan Melville: I’m going to be predictable and say the rec room scene with Burt and Heather Gummer taking on the Graboid with their unlimited ammo; I loved that scene before I started the book, but it has even greater significance after I spoke to the people who designed and filmed it.

It turns out that there’s only one full-size Graboid prop used in that sequence, with the rest of it shot using miniature effects to give the illusion of the actors being as tall as the creature. Even the Pepsi can was remade in miniature form!

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For those of you in the Los Angeles area, Jonathan Melville will be signing copies of Seeking Perfection at Creature Features in Burbank on October 25th. Details on the event can be found HERE. To purchase Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors, you can grab your copy HERE.