What would it be like to just graduate from film school and suddenly find yourself signed by a major agency, and in pre-production to direct an animated film being exec-produced by film gods Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg? Just ask Gil Kenan, wunderkind director of Monster House, which opens nationwide this weekend. Kenan took time out of his whirlwind schedule during the Seattle International Film Festival to sit down with Cinematical and talk about Monster House and what it's like to be handed a major film right out of film school. Talking with Kenan, it's easy to see why everyone involved with Monster House was willing to take a chance on him -- energy and enthusiasm radiate from him when he speaks about the film. Here's what Kenan had to say:

Cinematical: You're very young – how did you manage to score this gig?

Gil Kenan: The whole thing is very weird, I'm still not really sure – I mean, I know the chronology, but it was really just a lot of luck. I was going to UCLA Film School and studying animation, and I made this weird little thesis film, this 10-minute, black-and-white film that cost me $400 to make, I made it in my kitchen. And the film won an award, it won the Spotlight Award, and it was played at the DGA (Director's Guild of America).

Cinematical: And this was an animated film?

Kenan: Live action characters in an animated world. With some animated creatures. And really like the least – probably the least commercial film ever made. Definitely in that year. I never expected it to get plucked out, it just happened. After that very first screening at the Directors Guild, I got called by somebody at CAA who had some spy in the audience, and they asked me for a tape. So I sent them a tape and they sent it around to like, every agent, and they all watched it together the next day, and they did a show of hands, and – and they signed me. It was ridiculous. I was aware of who CAA was and I was really flabbergasted and happy.

So they signed me and I basically met every single person in town. They just sent me on hundreds of general meetings to shake hands with people and, you know, show them how nice and charming I am. (laughs) And then I would show them my film and we'd talk. And I read hundreds of scripts, I must've read every script that was out there –

Cinematical: Just scripts for animated films?

Kenan: No, no, all kinds of films.

Cinematical: So you weren't specifically looking to make an animated film, then?

Kenan: Not at all, in fact I wasn't looking for anything animated, I was just looking for good material. And then I got this script. And I knew it was being produced by Robert Zemeckis, who is a film god, and I kind of went into a weird state after I read it where I went kind of crazy and I started drawing all these things that came to me as I read the script. I was having trouble sleeping at night because all these moments from the story kept fleshing themselves out, and so by the time I actually went into meet with him, I was in this really delirious state of being passionate about the movie. And that kind of helped me get through that meeting.

Cinematical: So you came to that first meeting (with Robert Zemeckis) already with a vision for the film?

Kenan: Yeah, I had a bunch of drawings that I just kind of threw out on the table between us. And that, combined with the fact that I had some ideas for the movie that were kind of a different direction from what they were looking for, I guess kind of allowed them to take a chance on me. And they did – I got a call that I got the movie, and I freaked out, and yelled and called my parents –-

Cinematical: Went out for the big celebratory dinner?

Kenan: Yeah! It was crazy. And then the reality of it hit, and I went and met with Spielberg and kind of did the whole spiel with him.

Cinematical: So no pressure whatsoever there, right?

Kenan: Yeah, no pressure. (laughs) And by that point between the Zemeckis and Spielberg meetings I had some time to kind of start refining the core ideas I had for how this film would look and feel and so I brought on a couple of artists who I stole out of Art Center in Pasadena to paint concept paintings, more like kind of ... emotional beat paintings of the film that defined the entire chronology of the story. So I was able to bring those in, and by that point I'd already started storyboarding. Yeah, so I met with Spielberg and Zemeckis, and then I kept waiting for the whole thing to stall, because the whole thing was happening so fast and going so well, that I was just sure that it couldn't keep going, that I wouldn't be able to actually make the movie. But even if I didn't, the whole thing was so fun that I was going to be able to ride it for awhile, and just be happy. But it just kept going.

And I made an Animatic and showed it to them, and they loved it, and it just kept moving, and finally I was finding myself casting, and all these actors who were heroes of mine were standing in front of me reading lines! Then I was directing, and I found myself out on a sound stage, shooting with these actors, who, you know, a month before I couldn't even have imagined talking to in person. And now here I am in Seattle having just screened the film. It's all crazy and awesome and really fun.

Cinematical: I want to talk about the casting a little bit because I read in the production notes that you made a wish list of who you wanted. As you read the script the first few times, were you already envisioning it coming together with certain actors that you wanted?

Kenan: Well, don't we all do that when we read a book or something? You read it and you imagine either an actor playing this part, or even just the way this character looks in your head? And then the way the movie comes out of the book, the casting choices are maybe a little different than you'd imagined, and you either go along or don't go along. So I was in this very lucky position to be able to take these people who popped in my head the first time I read the script, and ask for them. And just through luck and fate and probably a little bit of help from the strength of my producers, I was able to get everyone I wanted. And the list started with Steve Buscemi and went straight across. He was the first name that came into my head. I couldn't imagine anyone else bringing that combination of life and horror and real pathos that Nebbercracker had. And he's just the most soulful -- but at the same time hilarious -- actor. So I was just really, really lucky.

Cinematical: And then you got Kathleen Turner ...

Kenan: Yeah, Kathleen Turner, and Jason Lee and Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard and Kevin James and Nick Cannon and Maggie Gyllenhaal – and Maggie is THE Zee for me – DJs babysitter – I couldn't imagine anybody else with her sense of presence and the way she controls the screen whenever she's on it. You know, in live action I find that she controls the screen whenever she's on it, and kind of sucks you into her persona, and I knew that's who Zee had to be. She had to be sharp, and she had to pop off the screen, you had to be pulled into her eyes constantly, but she had to be strong enough to be kind of bullying DJ. So across the board, these were the right people for the parts. And because this film, the script is really strong and the producers were who they were and because the shooting schedule was really quick, I was able to have everything the way I wanted it. Which, I'm being reminded every day now, will never happen again in my career. (laughs) So I'm very, very happy to have had this.

Cinematical: And then how did you cast the kids?

Kenan: Well the kids were very difficult. Because I wanted to find new kids. For the kids we did a huge search, more than a thousand kids came in, but a thousand kids just that I saw. And for me it was all about the chemistry, and so it wasn't just finding the right kid for DJ, it was about finding the right DJ to play off the right Chowder as his best friend, and the right Jenny to come between them, and to play the three of them against each other. So I had to be the constant mixmaster. It was just a matter of matchmaking.

Cinematical: I want to talk about the animation. Tell me a little about the animation style you chose for the film.

Kenan: Sure. We used motion-capture for the film to create the foundation for the film. And basically that means that the actor is the puppet master.

Cinematical: That's the technique where the actors are covered with the little dots, right?

Kenan: Right, you're wearing a bunch of little dots, and you're acting in this little space chamber with about 200 little red dots glowing at you – infrared cameras – and what it does is it frees the actors to be actors. They're not going into a studio and just doing a voice and then three years later going to a premiere and seeing the character. They're actually living the part and interacting with the other actors and everything. So what that gives me as the director is the ability to have real scenes, real situations, where I'm able to work with actors in a way that allows them to live and think and breathe and fully embody the role physically. And that's important because it means that you have a deeper characterization. It's not just voice and then an animator comes in an interprets that voice through the prism of the way this character looks. It means that all the nuances in the finished film have all been directly inspired by the performances of our actors. And because these actors are so strong it would be a shame to lose any of that along the way. You want to exaggerate it.

Cinematical: So you were able to embody the actors more than in traditional animation.

Kenan: Yeah – and this isn't a traditional film in terms of theme, too. It's not just comedy through character and exaggeration, there's more subtlety to them. There are scenes that are purely dramatic, and some that are really scary, and because of that and because it's humanoid characters and not gorillas or teapots, they had to have human elements to grow what ended up on screen.

Cinematical: Tell me about the house.

Kenan: Okay. Well the house is our hero. The house was the first bit of casting I did on this movie. I drove around in some old neighborhoods of LA with one of our art directors, and with our production designer Ed Verreaux, and we took pictures of houses. And the house was obviously – without giving anything away in the story – is alive and inhabited by a human soul. And so the performance of the house was really important to me – that there was always an actor giving life to the house. Even though it's this complex animated model, and it took many, many, many animators to bring the house to life, everything was always fueled by the spark of the performance that the actor who gives life to the house first did on the sound stage. So, there will be some interesting DVD extras about kind of the inspiration for all the house's performances.

Cinematical: I wanted to then ask about what's next for you? You have this enormous first film, what comes after this?

Kenan: Yeah ... I'm gonna rest for like a couple of days, and then I start pre-prod on my next project, which is a live action post apocalyptic children's film

Cinematical: A, uh ... post-apocalyptic children's film ...?

Kenan: (laughs) That's all I'm gonna say about it. Except it's gonna be awesome! And I'm really excited.

Cinematical: So right now its title is "Untitled Post-Apocalyptic Children's Film"?

Kenan: Yeah. Untitled Gil Kenan Post-Apocalyptic Children's Film.

Cinematical: Do you want to keep doing kid's films?

Kenan: Well, it's not really just for kids, it has kids in it. But when there's kids involved, it feels like for whatever reason as a culture, we think that you're allowed to be a little bit off the beaten path when you're doing things for kids. Because kids can handle strange colors and shapes in a way that adults can't. So it's just a really good thing for films.