We knew that if we were ever going to see the mega-check to finance a project, our second effort would have to be more complex than Vamps. While critics -- and more importantly, customers -- have noted that Vamps is better than your average 'low-budget vampire-stripper falls in love with a priest, wow look at the naked babes' flick, we needed to use a broader canvas this time around. We needed to think bigger. Bigger story. Bigger locations. Bigger stars. Bigger breasts. You get the idea. We sifted through the dozens of scripts and fetal scripts we had filed away ("Shameless Plug For A Writing Gig" Alert) and reworked an old treatment called Satanic Yuppies. This would be the working title for our opus about an intrepid reporter covering a series of ritualistic murders. We were wrestling with the title because we were afraid that, while the script had it's fair share of dark humor, it sounded like a Mel Brooks movie.

Through discussions with national distributors, we were told that a lot of small videostore chains and mom-n-pop operations got cramped colons over any movie title with the word "Satan" in it. Given that we wanted to eventually take lots of mom-n-pop's money, the camel's back was broken. Satanic Yuppies morphed into Evil Ambitions.

Since the murders are being committed by a satanic yuppie cult bent upon possession acquisition and career enhancement, we thought the title would effectively sell the concept while adding 'A' tones to our B+ movie: something that reinforced our philosophy as a company. We readily recognize that nobody is going to pick up our version of Rain Man. Extremely heady premises need macro star power to sell, and we couldn't afford to hire Tom Cruise's hairdresser. At our budget levels we need nakedness and mayhem.

As with Vamps, when we brought in covergirl Lorissa McComas to add some name recognition/star power to the production, we wanted to bring some national/international names to EA. We had met Bill Heinzman (the memorable zombie from Night of the Living Dead) at the Secaucus Chiller in spring, 1996, and he had impressed us as the most gracious, easy-going, fun-loving flesh-eater we'd ever met, so we were psyched when he agreed to play our butt-tight bureaucratic newspaper editor, Miles Bishop.

Debbie Rochon (B-movie babe-asaurus whose credits include Abducted II, Santa Claws and Tromeo and Juliet), brought to the project professionalism that's rivaled only by her on-screen beauty. In her role as Madame Natalie, the reporter's quirky psychic confidant, she was asked to give an exhaustive high-energy performance in a scene where she psychically connects a little to well with the murderous yuppies, and a séance turns into what amounts to a bad acid trip. After a take that left her hoarse and out of breath, Michael, always being the sensitive guy when it comes to actors needs on the set, walked up to her and said, "Great! O.K., Deb. Now we're going to do that about five more times." Not a complaint out of her. Either she's a consummate gamer, or she just thought he was part of a hyperventilation-induced hallucination.

For the rest of Evil Ambitions: Behind the Scenes, click here!