Larry Wilson’s CINDY Kickstarter Campaign Needs Some Dust

Larry Wilson is the co-writer and co-producer of Beetlejuice, co-writer of The Addams Family, and writer and director for six seasons of Tales From The Crypt. Many of these shows informed our childhoods as geeks. Certainly, they did mine. Larry is working on a new Kickstarter Project. It is a web series called CINDY: a quirky dark fantasy and comic twenty-first century retelling of Cinderella. Larry has been good enough to take the time to tell us more about his current work and some details about his crowdfunding campaign.

GEEKPR0N:  So Larry, what is it about the story of Cinderella that motivates you to use it as the basis of your show? 

Larry Wilson: Once I had a “body of work” and enough years to look back on it, I realized that almost everything I write has this dysfunctional family at the center of it. (I’ll let you figure out what that means about how I grew up!)  For me that what’s Cinderella is really about.  If you watch the CINDY preview you see that Cindy’s first line is “I’m an orphan with no friends.” Family doesn’t get more dysfunctional than that!

GP: What inspired you to include elements from the Reality TV medium in CINDY?

LW: Well, Reality TV is the Zeitgeist, right?  And a certain amount of it makes me cringe!  So I thought it would be fun to satirize and I think we’ve done a really good job!

GP: Why have you chosen a web series as your show’s medium?

LW: I chose a web series because of the flexibility and creative freedom and also because I am HONESTLY BORED with pitching things in Hollywood the way it’s always been done.  Thanks to DIY & the Digital Age the “put your hat in your hand and go beg for money” pitch is slowly becoming archaic.  Hurray to that!

GP: To what extent do you think that your previous projects, your work with “the strange and unusual” might influence the spirit of CINDY? 

LW:  CINDY is full of “the strange and unusual”.  It’s the creative world I inhabit.  Again, looking back, the couple of times I’ve written “straight” comedy or drama, it’s not been bad, but it’s not been particularly good either.  So I’ve typecast myself and embraced my weirdness.  Guess what?  I like it!

GP:  Let’s talk about a reward on your Kickstarter for CINDY. Is it true that not only will you sign some of posters for your previous films, but Caroline Thompson — writer of Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas — is going to sign some movie posters of her work as well? 

LW: Yes.  It’s very true.  Caroline is not only my sometimes writing partner but my all the time good friend.  She wants to help CINDY succeed, God love her!

GP: Two of CINDY‘s Kickstarter pledge tiers revolve around screenwriting: one a screenplay development consultation and a personal development session with you. Basically you are offering to help donors for those tiers look over their script ideas and drafts. Many of us, including myself, are writers. Can you give us more information on what both of these rewards entail?

LW: I’ve taught screenwriting, in various classes, for over 25 years now.  I teach when my writing career is hot, cold and every temperature in between.  I’m not a screenwriter who staggered into teaching after an epic screenwriting career fail!  I teach because I love it and I think my methods are unique & inspirational.  It’s a bit of hype but not much to say I think the CINDY screenwriting consultation premiums are the biggest bargains on our list of goodies.

GP: What can fans do to help in funding your Kickstarter and making CINDY possible?