Glen Weiss Talks about Thong Girl 4

    Thong Girl Creator Glen Weiss

In an economic climate where people are more concerned about turning a profit than making a good flick, its good to know there are filmmakers like Glen Weiss out there who still have a passion for making great films. I had the pleasure of speaking with Glen about his humble beginnings, Thong Girl 4, and (of course) ass lasers!

When and how did you first get into film making?

Back in 2000, I came to Nashville with the hopes of getting into the music business as a songwriter. At the time I was driving a tour bus and playing in a band. After a while I decided that I didn’t want to get stuck driving a bus, so i decided it was time for a career change. After taking a community access class, I started doing a public access sketch comedy show for Channel 19, called Stubby’s Place.

What films were a major influence on your decision to become a film maker?

The Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie of all time. It’s got everything I love: Fantasy, Black & white, and those beautiful colors and effects. I love how it can scare you as a child, and you can still get totally sucked into it as an adult.

Director?

Robert Rodriguez, and his book Rebel Without a Crew. I’d say the best body of work for a director would go to Martin Scorsese or Tim Burton.

How did you first come up with the idea for Thong Girl?

A girl [friend] was modeling thong bikini’s for me, and I was thinking, there should be a super hero who wears these. As far as powers, I knew she should would have to fly and know martial arts, but I had to think of something specific for a character who wears a thong. So I was like, “she should shoot lasers out of her ass!" [The first Thong Girl], Leah Adcock had been doing sketches for Stubby’s Place, and later starred in the original short film that aired on Channel 19. When I first told her about the “ass laser“, she just rolled her eyes. She had done some bikini modeling, so she wasn’t shy about getting into the costume. It was cool watching Leah bring the character to life.

How would you describe Thong Girl to those who have never heard of her?

I would say a combination of the Stripprella character, the Sid & Marty Croft stuff, and the 60’s Batman TV show. It’s wacky, campy, and doesn’t take itself seriously. Actually, my biggest challenge at the moment is keeping the “campy feel“ for the new film. We're using better cameras than we did in the previous TG movies, and it just looks so great. I’m just trying to maintain what made this character great to begin with, while at the same time filming a movie that doesn’t quite look like a B-flick anymore.

Why the change from Leah Adcock to Alex Del Monnaco after three films with Leah?

Leah [Adcock] was dedicating more and more time to the character by the 3rd film, and we were just breaking even financially. I mean, none of us where making much of anything. But I would have to say that the reason she didn’t return for a 4th film was the bad publicity from the Gallatin, TN incident ( click here to learn more about the Thong Girl 3 controversy). Leah was from a small town and I don’t think her parents knew she was doing the film. She had stopped wanting to do interviews after the controversy, and that really slowed down a lot of the the film's momentum. Her breaking point was when she woke up and saw her face on the Today Show. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, but she was just overwhelmed by the whole situation. At the time, TG’s website had exceeded it‘s bandwidth, and then the site's capacity was doubled, then doubled again. It finally leveled off at around 3,000,000 views globally. If she would have done those interviews and the movie would have been completed at the time that the Gallatin story broke, we could’ve sold as many DVD’s as we could’ve produced.
Before Alex [Del Monnaco] took on the mantle, the part was originally written for Playboy Playmate Audra Lynn. She had lived in the Playboy Mansion, and she knew Gene Simmons. Also, she was dating a billionaire, so I thought I had hit the honey pot. I wrote a script with a Gene [Simmons] cameo and a scene in the [Playboy] Mansion! In addition, I had potential financial backing from her boyfriend. She even dressed as Thong Girl and we ran a very successful booth at the Nashville Comic and Horror Con. It was a huge success, and having her on board seemed too good to be true, and it was. She got sick later that year, and she kind of flaked out on me. At that point I felt the wind had been taken out of my sails, and I was really frustrated with the whole situation. We where working on a Thong Girl musical when I was contacted by Alex and she brought her own fan base which will hopefully draw new Thong Girl fans.

What’s it like working with Alex Del Monacco?

Alex is not what I expected, and that’s a good thing. I expected a diva, but she’s geeky, humble and easy going. She’s very easy to work with. Thong Girl's alter ego [Laura] is sort of geeky, and she’s more like that character in real life. She’s awesome!

Are there any future TG sequels in the works?

Well, I have an idea for a story. I’ve talked to JD Hart and he would be the villain. It’s a more complex villain than the previous TG flicks. I have raised the bar with each film and JD’s character would definitely be a progression from the past villains.

For TG4 I’m planning a costly 3-D finale, and turning a profit would be great, but the deciding factor would be, whether or not I can get financial backing [from an outside studio] for the 5th film. I'd like to for someone to pick up the film who is interested in distribution. Not to "toot my own horn", but I’m pretty confident about being picked up [by a distributor]. Its an original concept! I mean how many heroes do you know of, that fight crime in a thong and shoot lasers out of they’re ass?

Other than Thong Girl?…..none.

Exactly!

When will TG4 be released?

December 25th [2009] is a tentative date, but we have lots of post-production work to do. But as of now, I’ll say December 25th.