Kevin Grevioux has a lot to fit on his business card. The deep-voiced South Side native is a comic-book writer, screenwriter and actor – all of which comes in handy for his work on the “Underworld” franchise. Grevioux penned the screenplays for the vampire versus werewolf sci-fi epics and wrote himself a role as Raze, the right hand man for the Lycan leader Lucien.
For the prequel, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”, Grevioux again dons the fur as Raze in a movie he describes as “Spartacus with werewolves.”
Q. So we've had a black vampire in Blade, America just got its first black president with Obama do you think America is ready for a black werewolf?
A. Well, I've been around for like what, six years? So I guess so!
Q. Of all the things you're doing right now, what are you most passionate about?
A. “I'd have to say comic books because that was the genesis of it all really. You know, I loved comic books growing up, just like most kids but I had more. And I was actually a collector, at home I had like 12,000 issues so I wasn't just a casual comic book fan. I'd spend all my money towards comic books and I'd get an entire run of a comic like the Fantastic Four or The Hulk or Thor or the Avengers, those were my favorites.
Q. You haven't had a typical career in Hollywood. Do you think this has worked to your advantage or do you still feel like an outsider?
A. Yeah, but a lot of people can say that though. It's not like everyone who is in film has always been on that track since they were kids. I wasn't and a great many people weren't. Its just a certain point where it's like, you know what, this would be cool to do or this would be fun to do or, I don't like what I'm doing now, let me try this. But I don't get caught up in Hollywood or Hollyweird as they call it. Um, it's kind of funny too because I like writing comic books more than I do writing screenplays. And its much more fun and less constricting...you don't have to worry about budgets, things of that nature. But there's a lot of comic book guys who say you're a Hollywood guy.
Like I had an argument with one of my friends about how these days it seems like you have to be a Hollywood guy to get into comic books. I said this, and he goes you realize that you are a Hollywood guy. And I was like, and do you realize, I was into comic books first and I had my first several ideas rejected back in the day before I even got into Hollywood so I tried to get in before, but its just when I had some success in Hollywood that it came back around.
Q. You have a background in microbiology, has this influenced your comic book or screenwriting at all?
A. I got my undergraduate degree in microbiology and studying genetic engineering in grad school. Of course science was my best subject in school. Worked for NIH after college. In terms of science fiction, how do really make a career out of that? You can't. You go into real science. So it's a little ironic that I've come back full circle back into science fiction which spawned all of it in the first place.
Q. Isn't there some sort of science involved in the Underworld movies?
A. Yeah, I don't like mysticism. It's too hard to explains and the rules are very amorphous. So I found that using science, with genetic engineering, mutation and combinant DNA what have you, that would make a nice backdrop for Underworld in terms of really getting into the production of the story and it worked. That was cool, I based everything on a virus for both races.
Q. Vampires in a war with werewolves. Where did this story come from?
A. The whole project from the beginning with Len Wiseman and he was trying to get his first project going but he wasnt getting any scripts that he really liked. So he went to Dimension films and Dimension wanted to do a werewolf movie.
Because Blade at the time was doing so well for vampires, they wanted to do werewolves. So Len had the meeting and he called me since we'd done something together and he said, well look...here's what they want to do, what do you think? I was like, not much. Because there has really only been two decent werewolf films – An American Werewolf in London, and the Howling...and its sort of amazing in the 50 or 60 years since The Wolfman, nobody has been able to get it right except those two.
So I came up with an idea...and we got together and hashed out the story. We said, look, if they don't like the idea, we can't just come in with one idea...should come in with two. I said, what if we do like a Romeo and Juliet type love story but instead of Montigues and Capulets, we have werewolves on one side and vampires on the other and make it a surrealistic interracial love story against the backdrop of a centuries old race war between the two. And he didn't even look at me, he was just sort of silent and crossed his arms and was like 'Dude, is this going to work?” And I said 'Just hear me out' so I basically beat out a story and the rest is history and I wrote the original screenplay. Then we brought on another writer and then got it sold.
Q. It's interesting that you mention this Shakespearean drama because it seems after the first couple movies that there's this complicated relationships and elaborate backdrop.
A.Yeah, and it works well. This isn't really a horror story even though you're looking at creatures from that particular genre. You know David Cronenberg said that the best horror films are ones not about horror. It's about something else. So making this more of a sci-fi action piece is what it actually was and I like that aspect.
Q. Why a prequel for these movies? Is a prequel harder to write than an original movie or a sequel?
A. We always had prequels in mind when I wrote the screenplay for the first one, I had showed a lot of flashbacks...one was a flashback to the original hybrid. Which was different than the hybrid that came later, but the hybrid before was something to be feared. It's not that they only feared each other or they werent allowed to comingle because they didn't like each other, the hybrid just like the biracial child, people are afraid of a biracial child because that means the end of our race... So they said our races should not mix, so they had this secret pact....I always had this backstory at the back of my mind to revist at some point.
Q.Do racial issues inform the work of Underworld?
A. Oh yeah, if you read the comic book...Viktor makes the comment to Lucien 'you are a credit to your race' things like that. That's evident. But the way you tell an interracial story is not by telling an interracial story, you find another way to get it in. Star Trek did it brilliantly, using science fiction to make social commentary and they were quite effective.
Q. Who do you think would win in a fair fight between vampires and werewolves?
A. A Lycan. When I originally wrote “Underworld,” it would have taken two vampires to take down one Lycan. It's just that there might have been more vampires, so it kind of evened out.”
Q. You play a werewolf, but where do your sympathies actually lie? The vampire or the werewolf cause?
A. To tell you the truth, I don't like vampires and I haven't since I've been a kid. To me they almost seem unkillable. And I never understood that love aspect, I've always been like 'Dude, you're pining over a girl you knew 200 years ago, get over it, she's dead.
Q.So you think vampires are overromanticized with Twilight and these types of movies?
A. I understand on a certain level people like the concept of immortality, but the whole blood thing. I had as little blood sucking in the original movie as I could. But I think they like the hyper sexual nature of vampires, and the fact that they are alluring or erotic, but to me, that's not interesting. Some people may like that aspect, but not me.
Q. You wrote a role for yourself as a werewolf for Underworld. How did that work out? Usually only Woody Allen gets to write himself into movies.
A. “The whole acting business and the politics within the industry, it can be kind of rough. It's a race, not a marathon, so you have to keep at it. It's fortunate that I have the talent to write so I can put myself into my own films. And its worked out great. People know me more for my role as Raze than they do me having created the franchise, but I think that's good.”
Q. How do you prepare for a role as a werewolf? Watch a lot of old horror movies? Grow out a beard?
A. You know, (“Underworld” actor) Michael Sheen actually read books on wolves. With me, I didn't go that far. I just basically created my own mythos for the character Raze. It's not like I'm doing a lot of growling or anything.
Q. What's next for you? What kind of projects do you want to do now?
A. I have a comic book coming out called ZMD – Zombies of Mass Destruction and that just got picked up as a film. So I'm throwing my hat into the ring as far as zombie movies go. Slated to direct my first film “The Pale Horseman” which we will probably release this summer. Doing a lot of comic book work...got a book out now called Atom, about a black superhero from the 60's who wore a costume over his whole body but when it was found out that he was black, President Kennedy asked him to stand down for the good of the country. He was trying to push forward civil rights and felt that if whites knew he existed that that would scare them to death and civil rights would get pushed back that much further. So for the good of the country he stands down, but this is about how
Finishing my run on New Warriors. Have a book called I, Frankenstein as well. I have a few things happening.
Q. Dream project for comic books or movies?
A. That's a hard one because there is so many ideas you have as a writer in your head that it's crazy. I have one comic book right now called Alias Rex and to get that done would be great. It's about the first alien invasion and it takes place during the Middle Ages...esentially what it is 'Lord of the Rings meets Independence Day' so you have aliens coming in the 12th century and fighting knights on firebreathing dragons and a story how we'd repell the alien invasion. That would be very cool and a dream project for me.
I'd love to write for the Fantastic 4, the Hulk, Thor, Luke Cage, Black Panther, the Avengers, a lot of them, even Iron Man to an extent. So my goal is, lord willing, is to do a miniseries with all of Marvel's top characters.
Q: What neighborhood in Chicago are you from?
A: “Well, I was born here and lived on the Southside for the first couple of years in my life before my father got shipped off to the army. Then we moved to Minnesota, but I pretty much came here every summer because my grandparents, aunts, uncles, pretty much my whole family were here. I especially like the musuems here, my grandfather used to take me to the Science and Industry and Natural History. And of course, the zoo.”
Q: What superpowers would you have if you could have any?
A: “Super strength, no question. And invulnerability, it makes no sense to have super strength without invulnerability to tell you the truth.”
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