Produced by Jack Black (who also guest stars in the two-part finale), Ghost Ghirls is a 12-episode web comedy series that follows the antics of two best friends, Heidi (Amanda Lund) and Angelica (Maria Blasucci), who work as paranormal investigators. Each episode sees the hilarious duo on bumbling adventures, as they attempt to solve otherworldly cases.
During this recent interview to promote the September 9th premiere on Yahoo! (www.screen.yahoo.com), Jack Black talked about the evolution of this web series, why he hopes to do more original content like this in the future, how he was influenced by paranormal stories like The Shining, Rosemary’s Baby and Ghost Busters, how they hope to release a soundtrack, and cool guest stars. He also talked about the animated Tenacious D series that he’s developing, which he describes as post-apocalyptic, but with music. Check out what he had to say after the jump.
Question: What was the evolution of this? Were you specifically looking to produce original content for the web, or did you come across this script and think it would make a good web series?
JACK BLACK: I’ve been producing my own stuff for awhile, and I’m always looking for talented people that I want to collaborate with. This just fell on my lap ‘cause I knew Jeremy Konner, the director. We’ve worked together for years on different projects, and he did a Tenacious D documentary that I loved. He said he had discovered these amazing women, Amanda Lund and Maria Blasucci. So, Jeremy fell in love with these girls, who are creative and hilarious. They went ahead and shot the pilot episode of Ghost Girls with Partizan. He brought in these girls and the pilot that they had shot, and it was just dynamite. It was a no-brainer for me. I was just like, “I want in!” And we took it around town and found a beautiful home at Yahoo!, who understood us and got what we were going for, and they backed us for 12 tasty, bite-size episodes at 10 to 12 minutes each.
Are you looking to do more original content and web series now?
BLACK: Yeah. I think it’s the future. It’s the way I like to enjoy content. I like it a la carte, and I like to be able to just get it on multi-formats. The thing that I enjoyed about this process is the freedom that Yahoo! has bestowed upon us to do whatever we think is funny. You’re not going to get to do that at some of the big, expensive networks. You’re going to get a lot more corporate controls. So, for the time being anyway, it’s the wild west of entertainment. There’s not a lot of rules and regulations. It’s just a free-flowing party spirit. So yeah, I’d like to make a lot more of them, if you please.
What paranormal mysteries, whether they be comedic or dramatic, did you watch growing up, and how have those influenced your work on Ghost Ghirls?
BLACK: I’m a huge fan of lore and ghost stories that were not comedic, like The Shining and Rosemary’s Baby, although there are some funny parts in both of those. Obviously, Ghost Busters is the comedy that comes to mind.
How often will Ghost Ghirls have supernatural elements and how often will it focus on real-world problems?
BLACK: There’s a good even mix of science and otherworldly problems. It’s like Scooby-Doo, where oftentimes, you pull the mask off the ghost and it’s just a dude. But other times, there are actual supernatural situations.
Who do you play on the show?
BLACK: I play a dead old Southern rocker, whose band is haunting a recording studio. The band is played by me, Val Kilmer and Dave Grohl. It’s a very special Ghost Ghirls episode that is spread over two episodes. There’s a “to be continued” at the end of the first one because it was too much story for one episode. It’s powerful. It packs an emotional punch, as well as being a hilarious Ghost Ghirls episode.
How much of a role will your music have?
BLACK: Well, I do some singing in the finale episode, but I didn’t write any music. If I’m ever involved, I’m going to push for a combination of music and comedy. That’s my thing. But, there are a lot of good songs in the Ghost Ghirls web series. We were actually thinking about putting out an album. We’ve got some hot tracks, and we’re not afraid to release them. I was thinking that we could release it only on vinyl.
What other guest stars will you have on these episodes?
BLACK: We’ve got Molly Shannon, Colin Hanks, Jason Schwartzman and Jason Ritter. We’ve got Bob Odenkirk, who you may know from a little show called Breaking Bad and Mr. Show. It’s pretty stacked and loaded. If I kept on going, it would get pretty braggadocios. And I can’t remember anyone else’s name, but that doesn’t mean they’re not awesome.
Now that web series are eligible for Emmy nominations, what do you think your chances are with this?
BLACK: I envision us getting an Emmy, now that you mention it. When you mentioned it, I started to think about what my speech would be. We’ll pick up the scraps, after Breaking Bad is done cleaning house.
You’ve talked about doing an animated web series that would involve Tenacious D. Do you have any more details that you can share about that?
BLACK: It’s a little early to let our enemies know about our plans because that’s when people do copycat stuff. I’ve become very paranoid and protective of my materials. All right, it’s probably going to be a post-apocalyptic Hellraiser series with comedic elements. It’s going to be animated, and it’s going to be musical. That’s all I can tell you. That’s already too much! I’ve give you the scoop of the day. But, if you want to catch a little glimpse of Tenacious D, you can come down to Festival Supreme on October 19th at the Santa Monica pier. You should come down. It’s going to be amazing!
Ghost Ghirls can be viewed on Yahoo! at www.screen.yahoo.com.