Geeks of Doom: Speaking of random films being chosen, judging by the title and the trailer so far, Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark seems to have some very heavy influence from Godzilla vs Mecha Godzilla. Were you a fan of Japanese sci-fi and monster movies growing up?

Jose Prendes: Oh, yeah. I loved all that stuff. My favorite was Gamera, and I’ve since introduced him to my five-year old daughter. The “mecha” storyline however was influenced by the [Mega Shark] series. They had unwittingly created this Godzilla-like series and the only way to go was metal. I don’t think the producers were necessarily looking to mockbust Godzilla, but I was certainly inspired by stuff like King Kong Escapes, which feature Kong fighting a robot version. I’m still a fan of that stuff. I feel you need to be. Once you lose your love of movies, all kinds of movies, then what are you doing this for? My hope is someone like me, some kid out there, sees Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark and it blows his or her mind and they want to make movies one day. It’s all cyclical.

Geeks of Doom: Are you looking forward to the new Godzilla movie coming out this year?

Jose Prendes: Very much so. I’m always happy to see any giant monster film.

Geeks of Doom: Now, addition to writing screenplays, you’ve also written a book, Sharcano, which is also scheduled to come out at the end of the month and features a hodgepodge of end-of-the-world motifs, disaster movies riffs and of course sharks coming out of volcanoes. Where did this idea originally come from?

Jose Prendes: Sharks have always been my favorite monster, in a sense. Yes, they aren’t really monsters, but they can be frightening things. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who isn’t afraid of sharks. I had been toying with the idea of writing a book similar to Jaws when Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark landed in my lap and it rekindled that thirst for a shark novel. Shortly thereafter Sharknado hit big, and I decided to combine my thirst with the recently born crazy-shark genre and wrote Sharcano. I basically wanted to write the ultimate shark sci-fi adventure story with no budget or shooting restrictions to worry about. I wanted to go balls-to-the-wall and deliver a bone-crunching, limb-ripping, literary thrill ride.

Geeks of Doom: And it certainly delivers on that front! So the idea from the beginning was that Sharcano was destined to be a book?

Jose Prendes: Oh yeah. I wanted that big, broad unfiltered canvas. Writing a script is like drinking beer. Writing a novel is like sipping a 15-year old single malt. But who knows what the future will hold. We have a huge producer taking a look at the book right now. The film rights are up for grabs and he is very interested, so my fingers are crossed.

Geeks of Doom: I think the same fans that have latched onto Sharknado would surely eat up not only the novel, but any film adaption of it as well.

When I was reading the book, I got flashes of the World War Z novel sometimes, in that you dovetail off the main storyline several times to introduce (and usually kill) a character in single chapter increments to show what was happening around the world. Am I on target with that assessment at all?

Jose Prendes: World War Z was great book, and it certainly set a recent precedent for worldwide mayhem, so obviously I was influenced by its grand scope, which is usually impossible in the limited aspects of a film. I want Sharcano to do for sharks what World War Z did for zombies. This will probably be even more so with the second part of the Sharkpocalypse trilogy.

Geeks of Doom: Do you have favorite disaster films that you find yourself returning to again and again?

Jose Prendes: The Poseidon Adventure is a long-time favorite. Also Die Hard is always a template for me, as well.

Geeks of Doom: Both are definitely classics! What’s next on the horizon for you?

Jose Prendes: Lots and lots. I will be writing and directing my fourth film, The Devine Tragedies, in February with a festival release hopefully later in the year. Then I’ll be releasing my second book for 2014, a revisionist take on Sherlock Holmes called Elementary, My Dear Watson, which imagines Holmes and Watson as friends in boarding school. Think Harry Potter and Ron Weasley as kid detectives and you’ll have a pretty good inkling. That one will be out mid-March. Then I start work on Sharks of the Living Dead, the 2nd in the Sharkpocalypse trilogy, which takes place 10 years after the events of Sharcano and features the fight we’ve all been waiting for: sharks vs. zombies. Then in June I will be scripting the sequel to my Asylum film Hansel and Gretel, which is titled Hansel vs. Gretel, and takes place right after the shock ending of the first film. After all that, hopefully, my script A Magnificent Death from a Shattered Hand will roll into production with Thomas Jane directing and starring alongside Nick Nolte and Jeremy Irons. It’s going to be a busy 2014, to make up for the lackluster 2013.

Geeks of Doom: That sounds like a very busy 2014 indeed and your new year is off to an incredible start! Jose, I want to thank you for spending some time today talking about your current and future projects, and hopefully we’ll get to sit down and discuss more of them soon!

Jose Prendes: Thank you, Ryan. It was a pleasure to speak with you.