Private Project

Big Bad

A respectful nod to classic kids-in-peril adventure films that finds a group of reluctant kids stranded overnight in an abandoned jail. Their chaperon is missing, their cellphone service is non existent, and their patience with each other is running thin. Oh, and a big, hairy creature is trying to eat them. Hey... it's tough being a kid in a monster movie.

  • Opie Cooper
    Director
    Action Hero's Guide to Saving Lives (short), Night of the Living Trekkies (Short)
  • Rick Moore
    Producer
    Murderabilia (Short), Action Hero's Guide to Saving Lives (short), Night of the Living Trekkies
  • Ainsley Bailey
    Key Cast
    Shake It Up!
  • Cameron Deane Stewart
    Key Cast
    Pitch Perfect
  • Madeline Thelton
    Key Cast
    In the Bag
  • Daniel Dauphin
    Key Cast
  • Clint Carmichael
    Key Cast
    Shooting the Warwicks
  • Hannah Bryan
    Key Cast
    Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies
  • Hannah Bryan
    Casting Director
    Last of Robin Hood, Rites of Spring
  • Opie Cooper
    Writer
    Action Hero's Guide to Saving Lives (short), Night of the Living Trekkies (Short)
  • Beth Kander
    Writer
  • Daniel Dauphin
    Writer
  • Opie Cooper
    Editor
    Lots of stuff you haven's seen
  • Wade Acuff
    Visual Effects Supervisor
    Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Modeling Team)
  • David Matthews
    Director of Photography
    Murderabilia
  • Jeff Dolen
    Director of Photography
    A Mother's Rage,
  • Sam Watson
    Music
    Night of the Living Trekkies, Court & Spark
  • Jerry Farley
    Production Designer
  • Wade Acuff
    Production Designer
  • Richard Lawrence
    Production Designer
  • 1313fx / Tom Devlin
    Creature Effects & Make up
    SyFy's FaceOff / Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Adventure, thriller, family, comedy
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 27 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 11, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Red
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Crossroads Film Fest
    Madison, Ms
    April 11, 2015
    Limited Screener
    N/A
Director Biography - Opie Cooper

Opie's an Eagle Scout who was one of the first 100 scouts to earn the Cinematography Merit Badge way back in 1989, a badge co-created in part by Steven Spielberg.

Opie attended the 1989 Boy Scout Jamboree specifically because Spielberg was to host a class for the badge. During the class, Opie asked Steven if it was possible to make a monster movie with home video equipment (all he had at the time). Steven responded: "Anything is possible with time and creativity. "

25 years later, he finished his first feature film, proving Steven right.

Steven has yet to contact Opie and congratulate him. But, Spielberg is a busy man. It's cool.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

“Big Bad will never get noticed.”

Producer Rick Moore and I heard some variation of that statement multiple times while working on this film.

That, and “shouldn't you take a break from visiting the Krafty table? You're getting pudgy.” But that was mostly from our significant others. I digress...

The “concern” from those who said we were wasting our time was that our approach to making an 80’s throwback children-in-peril film would inevitably come across, at best, as a modern made-for-cable effort. Not gory or over-the-top enough to garner cult-attention, and too old-school for today’s youth to care.

Our film isn’t terribly moody or angst-ridden. It can't even seriously call itself a coming-of-age film, though we mockingly refer to it as such in our trailer. It’s funny, but it isn’t outrageous-funny like Napoleon Dynamite or clever-funny like Juno. But, to its credit, Big Bad has way more kids-being-tormented-by-a-creature than both those films put together.

Basically, it’s less “The Breakfast Club” and more “The Monster Squad”.

But we loved The Monster Squad. And Gremlins. And Tremors.

That list goes on and on.

And the reason we wanted to make movies was to make something like the films we enjoyed.

Of course, we didn't really have the resources or the budget to make such a film, but we tried to do the best we could with what we had at our fingertips.

And we're proud of the result.

Maybe for our next effort, we'll make something more traditionally “indie”.

But, most likely, we'll make something more “Goonies”.

-Opie