No, Barry Strugatz wasn’t whisked away by aliens after seemingly disappearing following the disastrous release of his last produced screenplay, 1989’s She Devil.
 
The Married to the Mob co-screenwriter tolled on various projects that never went before the cameras. But now Strugatz’s back with his feature-length directorial debut, a sci-fi comedy about alien abductions that will screen this weekend during the Fort Lauder dale International Film Festival.
 
From Other Worlds finds Brooklyn housewife Cara Buono and fellow alien abductee Isaach De Bankole rushing to save the planet from certain destruction. Beyond their dealings with extraterrestrials, these unlikely heroes bump heads with bickering members of a UFO encounter group, a snooty librarian, and a mysterious stranger whose motives are unclear. All this intergalactic wackiness allows Strugatz to lovingly spoofs the tone, style and cheesy special effects of those terribly serious sci-fi melodramas from the 1950s.   
Strugatz got his start as a production assistant and location scout, working under the auspices of directors Milos Forman (Hair) and Woody Allen (The Purple Rose of Cairo). He hit it big with his screenplay to 1988’s Married to the Mob, directed by a pre-Silence of the Lambs’ Jonathan Demme, but 1989’s She Devil endured a critical and commercial roasting.
 
He spent the next decade writing for the likes of Bette Midler and Joe Pesci. He finally turned to directing in 2000 with a short film, The Transformation.
 
Now Strugatz is hitting the film festival circuit with From Other Worlds, which received its U.S. premiere in October as part of the Florida Lauderdale International Film’s Delray Mini Fest.
 
“The reaction was very good at the FLIFF U.S. Premiere,” Strugatz says. “They laughed in all the right places and a few I didn't expect. Everyone stayed for the Q&A, even though it was 11 p.m. And they all seemed to really enjoy the film. All the posters and postcards were taken as souvenirs after the screening.”

Film South Florida spoke with Strugatz about extraterrestrials, alien abductees, and life after She Devil. 
 
Film South Florida: How important is it to premiere From Other Worlds at a festival such as the FLIFF?

Barry Strugatz: For a comedy, especially. If people laugh, then it’s a success. If not, then you have problems. If people are smiling, they’re having a good time. Festival audiences are great because they’re into movies. They’re enthusiastic. They love movies. We’re also starting to get into the process of looking for distribution, so festivals are a way to test the waters. I think based on the audience reaction, we’re in good shape.

Film South Florida: What inspired you to write and direct a spoof about alien abductions?

Strugatz: I got the idea after reading articles about UFO support groups. There are several around the country. The people in the groups claim to have had UFO sightings or have been abducted by aliens. They get together and argue about their encounters: “You didn’t have one, I did.” I thought: What if one came to a support group after having a real experience.

Film South Florida: Why make the heroine a Brooklyn housewife?

Strugatz: I thought it would be funny and interesting. I like the idea of UFO encounters in city areas. I then thought I would pair her with an intellectual, maybe a professor. But I wasn’t that exciting. So I put it on the back burner. I was at the Newport International Film Festival when I met Isaach De Bankole. We became friendly and kept in touch. Then it hit me: what if the other person was an African immigrant? That provided the spark I needed.

Film South Florida: Being a first-time director, how hard was it to find financing for the script?

Strugatz: Pretty tough. It took a while to find producers. One thing that makes this film unique is that it’s not your typical indie film. It’s not edgy. The subject is not taboo. There’s no incest or bestiality. It’s a comical fairy tale. It’s an entertaining, funny story, a sci-fi comedy.

Film South Florida: Alien abduction miniseries such as The 4400 and Taken have enjoyed great success in recent year. Seems like the time is right for a genre spoof.

Strugatz: It’s purely coincidental. UFO abduction stories have been with us for a while. Go back to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I guess I wanted see what would happen if Richard Dreyfuss and (Melinda Dillion) fell in love.

Film South Florida: Any close encounters on the set?

Strugatz: Only one thing unusual happened. When we casting the daughter, we saw a little girl who was a very good actress. We were considering casting her when we received a letter from her parents. It said that the parents had not read the script before the audition. They read the script and were not permitting their daughter to be in the film as they felt it promoted alien existence and assigned responsibility to aliens for things that happened in the world. We were promoting a pro-alien, anti-religion message. I think the casting agent responded that we were not believers in aliens, but it was too late.

Film South Florida: So you don’t believe in the existence of alien lifeforms?

Strugatz: An actor who auditioned thought he was talking to a kindred soul. He believes he had a close encounter. I’m more skeptical. I believe there are higher forms of life, but I don’t believe they spend much time on Earth.

Film South Florida: What happens with the film once you have done the festival circuit?

Strugatz: We have several pretty big distributors interested in seeing it. We hope good reviews from festivals like Fort Lauder dale will help us land distribution.

Film South Florida: What did you learn from likes of Milos Forman, Jonathan Demme and Woody Allen about directing?

Strugatz: I found that directors have a great sensitivity toward actors. They also have great enthusiasm. That’s also infectious in terms of creating a good environment creatively where people are not afraid to try things, and getting the crew to work toward the goal of making the best film possible. The goal with the actors is to get good performances.

Film South Florida: You broke into the business in a big way with the screenplay to Married to the Mob you co-wrote with Mark R. Burns. How surprised were you that Jonathan Demme wanted to direct the comedy?

Strugatz: After years of being rejected, we wrote Married to the Mob. We sold it to Orion Pictures, which gave it to Jonathan Demme. We thought it would make a great B movie. Then Jonathan got involved. I had followed his career—he was not an Oscar winner (for The Silence of the Lambs) at the time, but he was highly respected. He was great to work with. He was open and inclusive. He invited us to be on the set. We watched the dailies. It was a great experience.

Film South Florida: She Devil, your next produced screenplay, was such a huge flop that it all but killed Rosanne Barr’s film career. What went wrong?

Strugatz: It’s not as bad as people think it is. Meryl Streep has some goods scenes. I think this was a case where expectations were not met. (Director) Susan Seidelman was lovely, but some things just didn’t work. I was still a newcomer at the time, and I wasn’t able to fight to go in the directions I would have like to have seen the film go. When you get involved in a film, it’s sometimes hard to get your bearings. I was hoping it would be a hit, but it wasn’t.

Film South Florida: She Devil was the last feature-length film to bear your credit until From Other Worlds. Why?

Strugatz: I worked on a lot of films that were never made. Creatively, that was frustrating. But I got paid well. I came in on one script, and then there were 12 other writers working on it after me. That’s one reason why I wanted to direct. I went to NYU to be a director. Writing was a way for me to get a directing job.

Film South Florida: What’s next?

Strugatz: I have a script for a new film. It’s a dark comedy. A script I recently finished is like M*A*S*H. It’s too big, so I might not be able to direct. But I hope From Other Worlds will jump start these projects.

From Other Worlds will screen Sunday, Nov. 14 at the AMC Coral Ridge. Barry Strugatz and Cara Buono will attend. Visit http://www.fliff.com/2004/listings/otherworlds.htm for more information.

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