Adi Shankar broke the internet this year.
Last February, the hotshot Hollywood producer Adi Shankar released the Joseph Kahn-directed POWER/RANGERS, a short film that satirized Hollywood reboot culture and modern geek cinema. As if to validate our childhood mythologies in adulthood, today’s gritty hero zeitgeist demands our karate-kicking space ninjas to strap on gun-metal armor and shoot up a room of North Korean gangsters. What Transformers and The Dark Knight did for robots and a guy running around in a bat costume, POWER/RANGERS did and it did it with a smirk and porn stars in the back ground.
But does that mean Adi, who grew up a nerd and loved Power Rangers as a kid, isn’t excited for the upcoming 2016 movie? You’d be surprised.
“Yeah! Yeah! I’m a fan, man.”
Just a few words can say so much.
Even before POWER/RANGERS, Adi built his name as a producer for films like Main Street and Machine Gun Preacher before reaching to prominence with The Grey (starring Liam Neeson) and the neo cult-classic Dredd. In between, Adi channels his childhood lore into “bootleg” online films that crank up the subjects’ darker aspects up to eleven. These films, featuring comic book characters like Punisher (Punisher: Dirty Laundry) and Venom (Truth in Journalism) are frequently shared amongst nerd blogs the morning they’re uploaded.
But POWER/RANGERS is now in the past, and today comes The Voices. Directed by Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi, it is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital HD. The extremely — and I mean extremely — dark comedy revolves around Jerry (Ryan Reynolds, whom Adi expresses excitement that he’s got Deadpool in his movie), a totally nice, unassuming guy that suffers from severe hallucinations that lead to deadly consequences.
The Voices is a slight departure from your previous productions, like The Grey and Dredd. What was it like to tread new territory?
Adi: It wasn’t really different, because we didn’t think we were making a comedy. I always looked at it as a genre-bender, and I actually don’t even look at it as a comedy. I look at it as kind of amalgamation of several genres. You’ve got moments where it feels like a psychological thriller, moments where it feels like a horror movie … and even in horror, it feels like it’s skirting the edge between psychological and slasher.
There are moments where it feels like a pure drama, and there are moments that are certainly comedic. So, it really wasn’t any different. I think everything else I’ve done has been heavily macho, heavy heavy macho. Marjane [the director] brought a feminine sensibility to it, and that was different.
What would you describe as the most difficult thing in bringing this particular project to life?
Adi: It’s just not a down-the-middle movie. It’s a lot easier to make a movie where it’s like, “Okay, the movie is about X. And it’s a dude and he needs to get a hundred-thousand dollars in five minutes,” and, you know, the more simple the movie is the easier it [can get] made. [The Voices] is a headier concept, it’s a marketing challenge, it was a challenge on every level. This was probably the most difficult exercises in assembling a film. And I’m an actor in it, that was kind of terrifying.
So it’s 2015 and I can use the term “break the internet.” You broke the internet earlier this year with POWER/RANGERS. Did you expect it to generate the buzz that it did?
Adi: No.
Not at all?
Adi: No, I didn’t. I can’t tell. I can never tell. I didn’t realize The Grey would be a mainstream success, and I didn’t realize Dredd would be a cult success. It’s kind of like, when you’re putting things together and thinking about it in your head, and you’re coming up with… I had this concept where I wanted to do The Crow, do a “bootleg” The Crow as a kind of gothic neo-noir, but filmed with a European sensibility, think Nicolas Refn’s Only God Forgives, right?
I’d love to see that. Holy shit.
Adi: I have no idea how that’s going to be received or how it’s going to do, right? But at the end of the day, I don’t give a fuck. I just don’t. The moment you do that, you’re not making art anymore. You’re just pandering. But [with] The Voices, I always looked at it like a bootleg film.
How so?
Adi: It’s bootleg Garfield.
I had that in my notes. “Garfield from hell.”
Adi: Yeah! That’s literally how I envisioned it. I envisioned it like a Garfield bootleg. With Ryan Reynolds playing [his] Deadpool.
What was Saban’s reaction to POWER/RANGERS? Again, as a huge Power Rangers fan, Saban is like this mythical figure no one can really reach out to.
Adi: I’m probably not supposed to talk about that. [laughs]
https://vimeo.com/120401488
Your productions have had a punk rock edge, you just described it as “macho.” What did people think when you wanted to do your take on Power Rangers?
Adi: Not a whole lot of people knew about that [beforehand]. I didn’t really talk to anyone about it. [But] I was so passionate when I did talk about it. I was describing it to a friend in India, and he was laughing about it when I was talking about it. And then he sent me an email after he saw it, months later. “I didn’t really get it, but I thought it was awesome.” I was like, what do you mean you didn’t get it? I described it to you. He was like, “Yeah I didn’t really know what you were talking about it then either but you were so passionate.”
So it was a case of having to see it to believe it?
Adi: It’s weird coming out of my mouth because I just turned 30, but just seven years ago, anything I said was just weird. I’m at a point now where people are like, “I don’t know if this thing might become a thing. So, uh, we’re just gonna agree and nod and say yeah.” I had the same reaction when I was like, “I wanna do Dredd again.”
There’s actually been a lot of talk about whether or not Dredd 2 could happen. A lot of signs are pointing no. Do you think we’ll ever see Dredd 2?
Adi: No comment. But watch Superfiend. Everybody watch Superfiend.
You’ve assembled quite the talent for The Voices, with Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arterton, and Anna Kendrick. Were they onboard immediately to the project?
Adi: Everyone was pretty much onboard kind of immediately. I think it’s more for Marjane Satrapi.
Did your vision clash at all with Marjane’s?
Adi: No, we were on the same page the whole time. We openly talked about that. This kind of deviates from my mantra thing [about mach], but it wasn’t a clash at all. There’s a lot of pink in the movie! I’ve always wanted to do a movie with a lot of pink in it! No joke! Pink is one of my favorite colors. I know I wear a black all the time and with my facepaint, but pink is one of my favorite colors.
So that’s why the Pink Ranger was such a central figure in POWER/RANGERS?
Adi: Yeah! Yeah! I’m sad I couldn’t get Orlando to be it, but yeah.
I have to ask again since I am Geekscape’s resident Power Rangers guy, but are you excited for the movie?
Adi: Yeah! Yeah, I’m a fan man.
What do you hope audiences take away from The Voices? Not necessarily any moral messages, but what do you hope is embraced about the film?
Adi: In an era where movies have become homogenous and movies have basically become Happy Meals, I hope in time people realize that dared to be different. If you look through my filmography both online and not online, I just tried to be different and [The Voices] is that. And Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool now, so if you like Deadpool, watch it.
The Voices is out now on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital HD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaPaB4Pzqk