Genndy Tartakovsky Talks Hotel Transylvania 2, Luke Cage Comic, & More

This weekend marks the release of the anticipated sequel to Hotel Transylvania.

Genndy Tartakovsky, who is previously responsible for writing Star Wars: Clone Wars, bringing Samurai Jack to life, and is a lifelong comics fan, took the time to talk with us about his latest project, Hotel Transylvania 2, and other projects he has in mind!

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CB: You must be very excited about Hotel Transylvania 2 coming out this weekend!

GT: Yeah! It’s been a long journey. You spend two or three years and it all comes down to one opening weekend. A lot of pressure and anxiety and excitement.

How long does it take to make one of these animated films from the point when you get the idea to the release?

It differs. I think a lot of times it probably averages out to four years. This one, because we just finished the first one and rolled on to the second one, took about three years to do. It all changes. It all depends.

What are most excited about sharing with Hotel Transylvania 2? How is it different from the first Hotel Transylvania?

There’s more story. More characters. More humor. More action. More of everything. For me, the animation. Every time you see sequences, the characters live and breathe so I’m really excited for people to see the animation and the work of the animators. It’s more unique and the personal style of the animation is more unique than other films.

What is like working with such a hilarious cast? Are they in there making people laugh and doing improv?

It’s been an amazing cast. The one thing about it is they’re all professional. They take being funny really serious. It’s a job and hard work to be funny. So, the thing that I get most excited about is to hear them do a line and before I even say anything, they say the line again, and they say it again, and each times it’s a little different. It’s like they’re hearing themselves do the line and then telling themselves what to do with the delivery to make it funny. It’s an amazing thing to watch. We’ll be sitting there with 5 or 6 people in the recording booth and whether it’s Adam Sandler or David Spade or Megan Mullally or anybody, they say a line, laugh, then they say it one more time, another time, and everybody says it a different way as opposed to just laughter. It makes my job easy!

You mentioned how you rolled over into a sequel after the first – are you planning on rolling into a Hotel Transylvania 3 now?

No, no. I think after this I’m done with the Hotel business. I really want to do an original film. I’m trying to get my own personal projects off the ground.

What can you share about that project?

There’s nothing definite. The process is long and there’s no guarantee. But, basically, we’re working on a project called Can You Imagine. It’s an animated family film. It’s about a parents who have a kid and they lose themselves and they have to find their youth again. They grow up too much.

Sounds like fun! Would you ever want to have a hand in an animated super hero film?

Yeah! I mean, there’s not a lot of them, though.

That’s true but they do have the upcoming Spider-Man animated movie!

Yeah, they are doing Spider-Man. I grew up around comic books. I’m a big fan of that stuff. Even a Marvel movie would be amazing in live-action.

Who would be your dream hero to take on?

One of my favorites has always been Daredevil. There’s already been a movie and a TV series but there’s something about him that really connects with me. I love Captain America – gonna have to wait on that.

Who do you think wins in Civil War? Iron Man or Captain America?

I’m pretty sure Iron Man but I believe in Cap.

You had a lot of success on TV, what lead you back to film?

On TV, I got to the top of where I wanted to be. Television is really hard. You go super fast for a very limited amount of money and then it airs and you get no reaction but a rating. There was a retrospective of my work done and we watched an episode of Samurai Jack in a movie theater and to see these people on the big screen was a totally different experience. It just blew me away how different and how much better it was and how everything that we did was multiplied and enhanced. So, I really wanted to give features a try. I also had a lot of features in my mind.

Is there any TV series that if offered to you, would bring you back?

I think through the years, after we finished Jack, almost every year it seems like Samurai Jack has gotten more and more popular and more and more people have seen it. I feel like it’s culminating to a fever pitch almost. I feel like it’s time to maybe finish the story. We’ve been trying to get the feature off the ground but maybe that’s just fate’s way of saying this is a television thing and maybe it should be a mini-series or something like that.

I could see a Samurai Jack movie coming along.

Yeah, I could too just nobody else in Hollywood can! [Laughs]

I did hear about your Luke Cage comic which you’re hoping to complete with Marvel – can you share any details about the stories or characters you used there?

I can’t because it’s kind of between Marvel and myself. It’s not up to me to open all that stuff up. All I know is that, I got all the pencils done and I feel like I can take it all the way but I don’t know if they’re interested in finishing it. It was really fun doing it. I was looking over it a couple months ago and going, “It still stands up!” I think it’s really great and people would get a kick out of it.

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Hotel Transylvania 2 is now playing in theaters.