I had a rare privilege of working with Digger T. Mesch (artist, director, Minimates creator, and founder of Art Asylum) on his Agent 88 web site. Agent 88 is a dark action comedy about the world’s deadliest assassin who happens to be an 88-year-old British woman with Alzheimer’s. It’s a cross between KILL BILL, CRANK and MR MAGOO, mixing wry wit with cutting-edge martial arts action. I recently caught up with Digger to do a Q&A and get the lowdown on this indie project. Check it out below.

AFHUB: Talk to us a little about yourself. At what point in your career did you start thinking of making movies?

DIGGER: I’ve always wanted to be involved in Film. I was working with a traveling magic act called Dr Magic and Company when I was 17 up until I went to School of Visual Arts to study. During school I worked on a lot of student films and then Indie stuff when I graduated but the early 90’s weren’t great in NYC for film. I was sleeping in the street in NY half the time just to return to a film set to work for free because I couldn’t afford to take the train. I was doing set building, props, special effects when I could.

AFHUB: What was your very fist film project?

DIGGER: The first film I worked on that I take seriously was short horror film called “Into the Underworld.” I created all the special props and environments. Oddly enough Chris Prynoski who owns Titmouse animation studios did the special effects. I was lucky to go to SVA to study next to major talents like him and Boris Vallejo’s son Dorian.

AFHUB: How did the idea of making a film about an 88-year old assassin come about?

DIGGER: I had just finished writing a film treatment for THE OTHER DEAD. It’s another film property that Joshua Ortega ( writer of Gears of War 2 and 3 ) has now taken to a whole other level. I made coffee with my first draft …this monster made radioactive cappuccino! Anyway, my western project Sundown Seven was in the process of being altered and Josh was just starting to rewrite Other Dead and BAMM!!! I came across this Youtube clip of this old woman in the UK that foiled a jewelry heist. It grew out of that.

AFHUB: You spent a good number of years in Hong Kong. Did the film industry there have a huge influence on you making Agent 88?

DIGGER: Yes- I was blessed to work on some major Hong Kong films and make some amazing contacts while I was over there. Nino Pilla is my fight director. I was very good friends with one of his students and I used to stash all their weapons at my loft when they would be off traveling the world. Mike Leeder was always a major guru, friend and mentor to me about the what’s what of Asian cinema. I don’t think anyone on Earth matches his knowledge. Big Mike forgot more about Kung Fu movies than anyone will ever learn! Sifu Rambo Kong (Dragon The Bruce Lee Story) healed my back when I first got there, I could stand up in the morning. And you’ll see him in all my music videos. Kong trained Van Damme for a while. The list goes on. I acted in films there, worked behind the scenes. Did whatever I could to learn from everyone around me all the time.

Digger directing in Hong Kong

AFHUB: Is the character of Agent 88 based on a real life person or experience?

DIGGER: Agent 88 is a mixture of very real people in my life, but make no mistake, Kay D’Arcy has given the character a life I had no idea could have existed. She’s just brilliant! My grandmother Corrine, my father’s mother suffered from Polio and lost the use of her legs in the early 50’s. By the time the 70’s rolled around, she was clinically insane. My grandfather left her alone to raise 2 boys with no legs and less money. I don’t blame him for it. I think the circumstances were what they were and he didn’t have the emotional IQ to navigate the circumstances. I lived in the house for a number of years in my early teens and her mind was already gone. She would scream at people that didn’t exist and slam on the piano until all hours of the night. I’d sleep outside as often as I could. She was a concert level pianist and had regained some use of her hands but could never play the same again. She was convinced that it was still the 50’s and that my father and uncle were still 5 and 8. I have all the letters she wrote to everyone from the President to George Gershwin demanding her freedom. It was a very tragic situation. I’ve always had a dark sense of humor to retain my sanity since I was a little kid.

AFHUB: It seems that this project opted to take the “indie” route from the get-go and not Hollywood. Why is that?

DIGGER: I want to do it my way. I’d like to get the web series out there, build a following and then launch a film. We haven’t shown it around. It’s gotten more exposure the past week than it has anywhere.

AFHUB: How long did the pilot take to shoot from start to finish?

DIGGER: We shot it in September for about 32k. Money has been a problem obviously. We went through a few potential investors, I got pulled away to work on a few projects like 35 days of Kevin Eastman, a 6-week event show I produced for Kevin that will be a documentary in the near future.

AFHUB: What was the most difficult part of the production?

DIGGER: Money! Talent, we had the best!

AFHUB: How did you come to chose Kay D’Arcy for the lead role?

DIGGER: I went through a casting process and we just stopped after Kay. She was first and last. How many 80-year old female English women do you know that can do Kung fu??? Her face is amazing. She has all-star acting range. She was the one. I just knew it.

Kay’ D’Arcy is Agent 88

AFHUB: What were the challenges you faced casting the characters for the film?

DIGGER: Well… none, really. I knew who I wanted and just asked them. Kevin Grevioux ( Underworld ), Joseph Gatt ( Thor, Star Trek 2 2013 ), Damion Poitier ( Avengers, True Blood) Ryan Martin and Ricardo Mamood Vega both from ULTRAVIOLET which I had acted in as well. I just showed them the project and they came on board. Carlos Gallardo ( El Mariachi ) was the only one I was concerned about because I didn’t know if he’d take a supporting character role. He loved the idea and that was that. All quite easy actually. The money was the bitch!

Cast of Agent 88

Now for the series we have Peter Mayhew (Star Wars), martial arts legend Ernie Reyes, Jr. ( TMNT, The Rundown ) Alexis Cruz ( Stargate ) and a mess of other cool genre actors that all have their own pockets of fans. I’m really excited about all of it. These are great people we’re working with. I have extremely good taste in people, the guys that you don’t know that well… you’re going to soon. They’re all on the rise.

Digger with Peter Mayhew

AFHUB: Talk to us about the Art of 88 book project.

DIGGER: Kevin Eastman owns Heavy Metal and has been gracious enough to allow me to assemble an international powerhouse group of art talent including himself to create a book in all formats as a KICKSTARTER EXCLUSIVE. It’s the first time it’s been done. Kevin Eastman, Simon Bisley, David Mack, Sam Shearon, Jim Mahfood, Axel Ortiz and more are backing us up with killer original art inspired purely by the idea… nothing else. There was no script, no comic, no history of any kind. Just a basic idea with images and free reign to do what they wanted.

I’ll be releasing the art as an update video on Kickstarter in a few days. It’s all awesome, I’m overwhelmed by what came back from these guys. Eric So in Hong Kong did a piece for me that’s ….you’ll see …it’s just…!

AFHUB: Tell us about the Kickstarter project.

DIGGER: It’s an aggressive campaign. We launched 2 days before SDCC and we’re shorthanded so in the wake of con, I really feel like 7 days into our already short 30-day campaign that my producing partner Jan Utstein and I are really just starting! We’re trying a lot of new things. I think that the video is a really good starting ground to get people to have some idea of what this is all about. Jon Schnepp ( Director of Metalokalypse ) is going to be guest directing an episode for us and he’s a powerhouse. Mind, body and creative soul. Jon a mother fucking poet rapping warrior outer space talent. I wanted to act in at least one episode and who can you trust with your baby and still learn from at the same time? Jon Schnepp! I’m in school every time I stand next to him.

AFHUB: How many Agent 88 episodes are you eying to produce and shoot?

DIGGER: The plan is 13 12-minute episodes. Some of them will have interactivity where you have a period of time where you can alter the course of the story. We’re not advertising that for now but that’s the plan.

AFHUB: Of course, since this is a toy site, I have to ask this – will there be toys based on the film characters? I know there’s MiniMates but are there other toy lines you can talk to us about?

DIGGER: Nothing outside of Kickstarter for toys or products for the short term. Everything is super limited and I want to keep it that way. There was an angry mob in the minimatesmultiverse.com because I didn’t have time to notify anyone about anything. We just launched. I didn’t even have all the art done and whooosh off to San Diego Comic Con. It wasn’t my intention to blow these people off. I discovered that these Minimates fans are LEGION and after I write a few letters explaining what it is we’re doing and that it isn’t in anyway connected to the existing DST/ Art Asylum universe, I think many of them came around. They’re great people and I’m honored that this line that I created with Nelson Ascensio and the rest of the Art Asylum has carried on. Honestly… we need need them right now more than ever. We have to raise 80k in the next 19 days.

Kickstarter is All or nothing! Those are the only odds I ever like to play. It’s gotten me in trouble most of my life but let’s see if it pays off here. I just want to keep creating at all costs. Nothing else matter to me as much. I feel on many days as though my days here on Earth are numbered and I just need to keep moving in the direction my instincts tell me to go….as fast as possible.

— end of interview —

Please click on this link to learn more about the Agent 88 Kickstarter project. Or visit Agent88films.com to get regular updates on the Agent 88 project.

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