Last week, the wildly inventive post-apocalyptic film Turbo Kid screened during the 2015 SXSW Film Festival and Daily Dead was able to catch up with the filmmakers behind the project- Francois Simard, Yoann-Karl Whissell and Anouk Whissell to hear more about what inspired them to expand on the original Turbo short from The ABC’s of Death to create the feature film version, collaborating with their co-stars and whether or not they’ve already begun dreaming up a Turbo Kid sequel.

Congrats on a fantastic film, everyone- I loved every single frame and thought it was incredible how you expanded on that initial idea from The ABC’s of Death. Was this a project that you guys had in mind when you were working on that segment?

Francois Simard: I think everything started moving forward once Ant (Timpson) saw the short we did and realized the potential of this universe. We never thought of this as a feature film when we made Turbo so we didn’t really see the story there at first. But then as we pushed our ideas further, and explored those same sensibilities in a much bigger way, everything came together.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: We have always worked like this, ever since 2004 and we all want to keep making films together like this.

Francois Simard: Yeah, I think we all keep each other on our toes and I think we consistently push each other to get better and better.

You guys do an amazing job of capturing that feeling of the 1980’s but also found a really fantastic way of keeping everything about Turbo Kid seem like it’s new at the same time. How difficult was that for you to achieve?

Yoann-Karl Whissell: That was the feeling we were trying to achieve; we all have a great admiration for the 1980’s and those sensibilities so we wanted to make sure we captured that feeling as best we could. It’s a really fine line that you walk when you’re making a film like this. We had to keep the homages we worked into the script in check.

Francois Simard: There have been a lot of spoofs and comedies over the last few years that try to be a ‘tribute’ to that era but they just felt tired. It was like they were trying to make fun of certain things rather than celebrate them and what we wanted to do was create a genuine love letter to these kinds of films.

Can you talk about your leads in Turbo Kid- I thought both Munro and Laurence were so fantastic in this and had amazing chemistry together.

Francois Simard: We knew that The Kid was going to be the heart of this story so we had to make sure we found the right actor for the role that you immediately liked and were willing to follow on this journey. Munro was one of the first people we saw and he blew us away immediately. I think we knew that he was going to be perfect for this role just from that first meeting.

And Laurence was someone we had always wanted to work with- she has this amazing energy to her and we couldn’t have imagined anyone else to play Apple.\

Anouk Whissell: The great thing about Munro and his performance was that he was always so prepared whenever he showed up to shoot. I think he knew exactly who The Kid was even before production began and that’s a really rare kind of talent.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: He really was an exceptional person to work with and I think the reason both of these characters work so well together is because Munro and Laurence came together on this and became true friends during production. We had hoped that would happen but because they both have these great personalities in real life, it happened naturally and that translated into what you see in the film. There’s a genuine affection between them.

Something else I want to commend you on is using Michael Ironside in the film and giving him a real role to dig into here. He’s so great.

Francois Simard: You know, the greatest villains are the ones that you can do something different with and I think some of the twists we added to this character shows that. It’s more fun for audiences too- they don’t want to see the same thing again and again.

Anouk Whissell: And creating those kinds of twists really matters in the end. You have to keep people expecting the unexpected. Michael was amazing to work with as well, he brought so much ferocity to the role.

There’s a lot of ambition on the screen in Turbo Kid- how difficult was it for you guys to get this film made?

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Whenever you’re directing, you can be the most prepared person ever but there are always going to be roadblocks. It’s inevitable so what you have to do is make  sure you’re always read to meet those challenges head on and be ready to problem solve in creative ways at all times. You never know what will happen.

Francois Simard: Weather and time were probably the biggest issues we had on Turbo Kid. We also learned about making sacrifices too just because we weren’t able to do everything we had wanted to do with the film. That being said, none of those sacrifices affected the story and ultimately, that’s the most important part- preserving the story.

Before I go, I just wanted to ask if you guys had any sequel plans for Turbo Kid just because it seems like there are a lot of interesting elements to this world that I’d love to see you guys expand on.

Francois Simard: I’m not sure how everything is going to go with this film but we are prepared to make a Turbo Kid sequel if we get the chance. There’s a lot of potentially great storytelling opportunities in this world so we’re hoping we get to return to it if fans enjoy this film. We’re very excited about some of the ideas we’ve come up with already so I do hope we get to make another one.

  • Heather Wixson
    About the Author - Heather Wixson

    Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.