Robert Englund, Yancy Butler, and Corin Nemec star in Lake Placid vs. Anaconda, a crossover film featuring the crocodiles and anacondas from two popular film franchises. With Lake Placid vs. Anaconda now available on DVD, we caught up with the film's screenwriter, Berkeley Anderson.

In Lake Placid vs. Anaconda, you pit two creatures from popular franchises against one another. How did the idea for this story formulate and what were the challenges and rewards of combining these two franchises?

Berkeley Anderson: Well, when the last movie in the Lake Placid series was called The Final Chapter, you know you have your work cut out for you. Let’s be honest, both the Lake Placid and Anaconda franchises were getting a little long in the tooth and yet there was obviously an appetite to have them continue. I would say that finding an entry point for this movie—the place where both stories could plausibly merge—was the greatest challenge, followed by trying to remain true to the previous films’ separate mythologies while marrying them into this new version. Hopefully, we accomplished that and were able to give new life to both franchises, while giving the audience for these films something new and fun that can continue into future chapters.

This film’s cast includes the legendary Robert Englund as well as Corin Nemec and Yancy Butler. What has it been like to see these characters brought to life by this talented trio?

Berkeley Anderson: We actually did know early on that Yancy and Robert would be coming back. They’ve both been in a couple of these now, and have created really great, fun characters that are now really identified with the Lake Placid series. It would have been much harder to do another Lake Placid story without both of them. Corin had been in another thing I’d written (S.S. Doomtrooper), but I didn’t learn he was coming aboard this one until after the script was finished.

What scene did you enjoy writing the most?

Berkeley Anderson: Just about any scene featuring Yancy’s character, Reba. The character has a lot of edge and attitude. She’s just about the last person you would expect to be named Sheriff (which was one of the reasons we did it). Playing with that was a lot of fun.

Have you always been a fan of creature features? If so, what movies, TV shows, books, or comic books from that sub-genre have influenced you over the years?

Berkeley Anderson: Growing up in the late 1970s, one of our local stations had a show every Saturday morning called World Beyond, and it was usually a double feature of old-school monster movies, like the original Toho Godzilla movies, or other classic monster stuff, Hammer horror, that sort of thing—and an episode of The Twilight Zone or two. Those movies were always a lot of fun and World Beyond was appointment television for me as a kid. I guess it rubbed off. As for comics, I was really a predictable Marvel/DC superhero guy, but Marvel had an anthology called Bizarre Adventures and they would often have some really interesting sci-fi/monster stuff in them and then of course I devoured sci-fi movies and television (with and without monsters). I really got a kick out of Cloverfield and Super 8.

With Lake Placid vs. Anaconda now available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, what do you have on deck that you can tease for our readers, and where can they find you on social media?

Berkeley Anderson: I’m always working on different things. Nothing I’m allowed to talk about at the moment, but when that changes I’ll let you know. Unfortunately, I don’t really use social media. I had been on Facebook and Twitter for a bit, but they can be huge time-sucks and I figure, if I’m going to be banging out words on a screen, I might as well just write another script.

------------

  • Derek Anderson
    About the Author - Derek Anderson

    Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.

    When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.