Posted in: Horror, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Mike Capes, The Invisible Raptor, Well Go USA Entertainment

The Invisible Raptor: Star Mike Capes on Spoofing Jurassic Franchise

Mike Capes (Adjunct) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest horror-comedy in Well Go USA Entertainment's "The Invisible Raptor."

It's hard to deny Steven Spielberg's lingering influence on generations of filmmakers, but for Mike Capes, he tapped into arguably his most popular 1990s franchise, Jurassic Park, in Well Go USA Entertainment's horror comedy The Invisible Raptor. With all the drama of a survival film, the self-awareness camp of a Roger Corman film, and an ensemble of comedic talent, Capes co-wrote the film with longtime writing partner Johnny Wickham and director Mike Hermosa about a top-secret experiment gone wrong, where a hyper-intelligent invisible raptor escapes the lab and begins wreaking havoc in the surrounding neighborhood. When the creature's identity is uncovered, it soon becomes clear that a disgraced paleontologist—alongside his ex-girlfriend, an unhinged amusement park security guard, and a local celebrity chicken farmer—is the town's only hope for surviving the raptor's ravenous rampage. The writer and Adjunct star spoke to Bleeding Cool about how the pandemic served as the film's inspiration, making the most comedy gold from his limited resources and talent recruited, including the likes of Sean Astin (The Goonies) and Sandy Martin (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), his most difficult scene to film, and potential sequels.

How Mike Capes Wore the Role of Hero in 'The Invisible Raptor'

Bleeding Cool: What's the inspiration behind 'The Invisible Raptor?'

This was one of those silly 3 a.m. ideas. I was lying in bed during COVID-19, and subconsciously, on the news, I kept hearing "invisible threat" repeatedly to where maybe it played in my head. Suddenly, I saw this 'Invisible Raptor' movie and thought, "God! How far would it be to make a creature feature with absolutely no creature? If we're not going to spend any money on visual effects, why not make the hardest visual effect to make, which would be 'Jurassic Park,' since we're not going to do it anyway?" We intended to create this invisible dinosaur so we could play in the world Steven Spielberg greatly created.

What made Mike Hermosa perfect to direct the film, and did you consider stepping into the chair yourself?

Mike and I have known each other for years. Mike called me the morning of that 3 a.m. thought and wanted to work with me. He is as big a Spielberg fan as I am, so I knew our love for that in a film and a love letter to Spielberg would come through with him. We were able to be super collaborative because I've known him for so long. When he got ahold of the script, he loved and understood it, and we got together and put our love into this film together. It resonates, and it shows.

What's Johnny like to work with as a creative partner and develop the script?

Johnny's great man. We've been writing together for about 20 years, doing a lot of digital sketch comedy, digital comedy series, and different things like that. He was the right guy for the job on 'The Invisible Raptor,' so I called him because it's a high-premise concept but a silly premise. I knew he and I were riffing jokes, and having a blast together would be a good time. When he said "Yes" to writing it with me, we had a blast. We made each other laugh all day long, and I'm a big structure guy, so I would craft the script and make sure that we were following the rules we established. Once we did, we came out with a fun and silly script, which we're very proud of.

What went to the cast with Sean [Astin], Sandy [Martin], David [Shackelford], Caitlin [McHugh Stamos], and Vanessa [Chester], and wondering how they came into the fold?

So, 98% of the cast are all friends. We've worked together in different capacities. With Sean Astin, we had a casting director who helped get him on, got the material to, and got him to respond. He came on, but we didn't know him personally. Luke Speakman, who played this kid, Elliot, we cast, as well as Bunny Levine. The rest of the cast, we all knew, and we were all friends of them. If you know Steven Spielberg's 'Hook' (1991), there's a hidden role for Dante Basco, who played Rufio and is in a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" cameo. He shows up as Rufio in our film and another good friend who came out. A lot of people came out and did favors for us, which was just awesome to know.

Were there any cameos you chased but couldn't secure?

That's a good question, not particularly. It was the role with Sean as "Willie." We had spoken to a couple of different actors not knowing Sean was the absolute choice. Not that anybody else wasn't, but it was he was connected to the Spielberg universe in a way we just couldn't have imagined. We would have loved for Jeff Goldblum to play the Invisible Raptor and perhaps hear some of his purrs. We would have loved that, or Andy Serkis would have been great, even though nothing's there. No, it was who our friends were connected to, and then Sean was the big get for us, and we couldn't have been happier.

What was the most difficult thing to film?

The truck chase scene, that sequence was a lot because when you're working on a low-budget, independent film, truck chases aren't normally in a film like that. We had tons of locations and tons of set pieces you never see in an indie. The truck chase was difficult because you're shooting at night, and night shoots are tough. You're shooting with stunt teams, cars moving, and camera cars. There are so many elements that work on a truck chasing, which was shot over a few days plus a few pickups. I would say, "Definitely, the truck chase sequence in the third act was the most challenging."

Is 'Invisible Raptor' something you would consider expanding with sequels?

Absolutely! If this is a success and people see it and get eyeballs on it, we want to come back and have some more fun. We had a blast with everybody and want to expand the universe. We want to branch out into more jokes and craziness.

We're looking forward to hopefully getting to do that. Fingers crossed.

The Invisible Raptor is available in theaters and on digital.

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