Roeckers initial vision of the film was raunchy enough (imagine South Park times a hundred), but then he learned of a film one of his animators was also working on -- Mel Gibsons The Passion of the Christ.
I started to get cold feet, thinking, Oh, maybe I went too far, Roecker says on the phone from his home in Los Angeles. But then I saw [The Passion] and thought, If they can give us that, we can do this.
Despite the bawdy nature of the film, the director had no problem getting big names involved. All he had to do was call his friends in the music industry members of Green Day, Rancid, Blink-182, and other popular punk bands, as well as actors like Viggo Mortensen and Asia Argento. (Roecker recently filmed a Green Day documentary, Heart Like a Hand Grenade.)
My film is over the top, but only so much as The Passion is over the top, Roecker says. I think I should be right next to him at Wal-Mart.
While thats not likely to happen any time soon, a DVD of his film is available from www.wellspring.com.
Jan. 27-28