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There’s no better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with a new horror thriller! (At least in my opinion.) This weekend, Sony and Blumhouse have you covered in the “make you so scared you hold on to your significant other for dear life” department with their new spin on the Gene Levitt TV series, Fantasy Island. 

In this new version directed by Jeff Wadlow, Michael Peña fills the role of the mysterious Mr. Roarke played by Ricardo Montalbán in the original series. The character welcomes a group of guests to his remote resort where he promises to make their fantasies a reality. While this might sound like the place to wish to “have it all,” the guests quickly find out that those seemingly fool-proof, harmless dreams could quickly devolve into deadly nightmares,

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Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment

With Fantasy Island making its way into theaters on February 14th, Peña and co-stars Portia Doubleday, Lucy Hale, Austin Stowell, Jimmy O. Yang and Ryan Hansen all swung by the Collider Studio to talk about the movie. They each give us the 101 on their characters but just wait until you hit the point in the conversation when they start talking about filming in Fiji, not having bathrooms in the jungle and the time when one of them got bit by a bat. (Yes, really.) You can hear about all of that and everyone’s fantasy movie role in the video interview at the top of this article. 

Portia Doubleday, Lucy Hale, Michael Peña, Austin Stowell, Jimmy O. Yang, Ryan Hansen: 

  • 00:20 - Having worked with them on Truth or Dare, Hale talks about what makes Jeff Wadlow, Jillian Jacobs and Christopher Roach a great trio of horror screenwriters.
  • 01:03 - Wadlow likes to cast the actor, not the character. What qualities did they get to bring to their characters that weren’t on the page?
  • 04:50 - Yang’s character has more layers to him than you might expect.
  • 05:52 - Stowell talks about going to Fiji for the first time and filming in the jungle.
  • 08:00 - The biggest challenge of filming in Fiji? The bathroom situation.
  • 09:15 - Stowell got really sick during the shoot.
  • 10:31 - Stowell also got bit by a bat.
  • 11:36 - Rapid fire fantasies with the cast of Fantasy Island. (Fantasy meal, fantasy do-over, fantasy role.)
  • 18:00 - Peña on when he might start filming Ant-Man 3.
  • 18:36 - Hansen talks about the ending of Veronica Mars Season 4.
  • 19:06 - Stowell talks about working on Amazing Stories for Apple TV.