If you’re one of the tens of thousands of people who’ve
already screamed your way through the “From Dusk Till Dawn” maze at
this year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood and the
Universal Orlando Resort … Well, you have Wilmer Valderrama to thank for
those scares.
And — no — that’s not because Wilmer plays a key role in
this hit TV series on the El Rey Network. But rather because Valderrama has
been a longtime Halloween Horror Nights fan.
“Seriously. Wilmer’s been coming to this event every
year for years now. I’d see him in the
Park and go ‘You’re here again?,’ ” recalled John Murdy, the executive
producer of the West Coast version of Universal Studios Halloween Horror
Nights. “That’s how Wilmer and I actually became friends. And he’s been
actively looking for ways to get involved with this event for a number of years
now.”
Wilmer Valderrama & John Murdy inspect the interior of the “From Dusk to Dawn”
maze for Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights event.
Copyright 2014 Universal Studios. All rights reserved
“That’s true,” Valderrama admitted during a recent
interview. “I’ve been a huge fan of Halloween Horror Nights for a very
long time. I’ve also been John’s groupie for a very long time. I just love how
he and his team mastermind these mazes. Give fans the opportunity to have the
physical experience of walking through their favorite horror movie or TV show.
Which is why I kept calling John, saying ‘I want to do something with you guys.
I’m a producer and developer now. Let’s figure this out.’ ”
Unfortunately, given that Wilmer’s post “That ’70s
Show” career has mostly been built around family-friendly fare like
“Handy Manny” … Well, it was kind of hard to imagine how that
preschool program could be used as fodder for a haunted house. But then Wilmer
found himself cast as Carlos Madrigal, the 500 year-old master villain &
crime lord in “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.”
“So I’m down in Austin
on set. And I’m looking around the bar that my character runs on the show, and
I suddenly realize that this place would be a great setting for a Halloween
Horror Nights maze. I mean, wouldn’t it be cool if people could walk into the
Twister and then — just like we do on the series — go explore the depths of
that Mesoamerican temple below the club. Which is why I picked up my phone and
gave John a call.”
The exterior of the “From Dusk Till Dawn” maze on the Universal backlot for the
Hollywood version of Halloween Horror Nights. Photo by Jim Hill
Now it just so happened that Mr. Murdy had been trying for
more than a decade to get a “From Dusk Till Dawn” haunted house built
at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. From the moment that this cult
classic first arrived in theaters back in January 1996, John knew that this
Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez film could be the jumping-off point for a
really amazing maze.
“The only problem was that Robert Rodriguez is this
very busy guy. So whenever we’d reach out to him to try and get a dialogue
going about Universal possibly doing a ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ maze as part of
one of our Halloween Horror Nights, Robert was off directing some movie. And
now he’s running his own television network. So I began to think that this was
never going to happen,” Murdy recalled. “But then I get this call
from Wilmer. Who — as luck would have it — has been cast as one of the leads
in ‘From Dusk Til Dawn: The Series.’ So he then became our ace in the hole when
it came to finally getting Robert onboard with the idea of us doing a ‘From
Dusk Till Dawn’ maze.”
Of course, what’s kind of ironic about this whole situation
is that — while John had been struggling for years to even get negotiations
started with Robert — Wilmer closed the deal for a “From Dusk Till Dawn” maze
in about a minute and a half.
A scareactor menaces Guests who are making their way through Universal
Hollywood’s “From Dusk Till Dawn” maze. Copyright 2014
Universal Studios. All rights reserved
“So I went up to Robert and I said ‘Hey, I don’t know
if you’ve heard of this.’ Robert lives in Austin.
So I don’t know if he’s familiar with what goes on at the Universal Studios
Hollywood park. ‘But have you ever heard of Halloween Horror Nights?’ And
Robert goes ‘What is that?’ And I explain about the mazes and he goes ‘Oh,
yeah. I’ve heard of that. I was invited a couple of times to do that.’ And I
was like ‘Cool. If we had the opportunity to work with Universal Studios to
build this maze that not only celebrated our show but also helped to promote
it, would you do that?’ And Robert was like ‘I don’t know. Do you think we
should?’ And I was like ‘Hell yes.’ And that’s when he said ‘Okay. Maybe we should give it a shot,’ ” Valderrama
said.
“So Robert and John finally connected. Mind you, I
still had to convince the powers-that-be at ‘From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series’
that this would be an easy & effortless collaboration. Which it did actually
turn out to be, thanks to people like Greg Nicotero,” Wilmer continued.
Greg (for those of you who don’t know) is one of Hollywood’s
modern make-up masters. And one of the films that originally helped to put him
on the map was 1996’s “From Dusk Till Dawn.” Which is why — when
Rodriguez & Tarantino decided to reimagine that cult classic as an epic
supernatural crime novel for television — Nicotero immediately signed up to be
part of that project. Just so he could then revisit those characters.
Copyright 2014 El Rey Network. All rights reserved
“And given that Greg is the special make-up effects
supervisor and co-executive producer on AMC‘s ‘The Walking Dead,’ he’s worked
with us on all of the ‘Walking Dead’ mazes that we’ve done to date at Halloween
Horror Nights — including this year’s ‘Walking Dead: End of the Line’ maze and
our Terror Tram experience. So Greg was able to reassure Robert that we’d do a
really great job with our ‘From Dusk to Dawn’ maze,” Murdy enthused.
And John (along with Mike Aiello, the Director of
Entertainment – Creative Development at the Universal Orlando
Resort. Who rode herd on the East Coast version of the “From Dusk Till
Dawn” haunted house at Universal Studios Florida’s Halloween Horror Nights
event) delivered. He and his team created a maze that not only paid tribute to
the El Rey Network’s first scripted show but also rewarded the super fans of
this new hit series.
“Take — for example — how we’ve propped the storeroom
section of this maze. This is the part of the Twister that’s actually below the
club, down in the bowels of that ancient Mesoamerican temple which the Twister
is built on top of. The storeroom is where the vampires keep all of the weapons
that they’ve taken off of the people that they’ve then eaten,” Murdy
explained. “So when we’re propping a maze that’s based on a well-known
horror movie or TV show, we always look for those items that will then please
the uber-fans when they see them. Like
this ‘Choose Your Fate’ wheel. This piece of plywood — which has a fork
for its spinner — was on the TV show really, really briefly. I think maybe
only in a single shot. But even so, to prove to ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ fans that we have really been
paying attention, we had to replicate the ‘Choose Your Fate’ wheel and then
place it in our storeroom scene. That’s an example of the crazy lengths we’re
willing to go in order to get all of the details right in our Halloween Horror
Nights mazes.”
John Murdy and Wilmer Valderrama check out the “Choose Your Fate” wheel
prop in the storehouse scene from Universal Hollywood’s “From Dusk Till
Dawn” maze at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights event.
Copyright 2014 Universal Studios. All rights reserved
John also made sure to use social media to engage ‘From Dusk
Till Dawn’ fans. Give them a way to have a truly unique experience whenever
they visited this particular Halloween Horror Nights maze.
“I personally run the Halloween Horror Nights Twitter
feed for Universal Studios Hollywood. And each night, I Tweet out a different
password. And if you say this password to the doorman outside of the Twister
just before you officially enter the ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ maze, he’ll then
hand you a card like those cards that they hand out along the Las Vegas Strip.
And the great thing about this card is that if you call the number that’s on it,
you’ll then get to hear this message that Wilmer recorded,” Murdy
enthused. “It’s just like an Easter Egg in a video game. This little,
little detail that we’re doing for the very hardcore fans of the series.”
“I had so much fun working on this project. And I just
love the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are now getting the chance
to walk through this thing that I helped to make happen,” Valderrama
concluded. “After all those years of trying to come up with an excuse to
collaborate with John on something for Universal Studios Halloween Horror
Nights, I’m just glad that Robert invited me to be a part from ‘From Dusk Till
Dawn: The Series.’ Which then finally gave me a way to play a creative role in this
incredibly cool experience.”
This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post’s Entertainment page on Sunday, October 19, 2014