Kevin Shinick, who is the screen writer for the new Scooby-Doo! And Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery animated film, sat down with us at San Diego Comic-Con for roundtable interviews. In this interview, Shinick tells what it’s like to work with Kiss and how much of a dream it was for him to be a part of this project.
Q: Where did the idea come from to bring Scooby-Doo and Kiss together?
Kevin Shinick: I think it was Kiss who where kind of interested in doing something like this and we thought of all of the properties out there, it kinda made the most sense. Someone asked me if they were a part of the same world and I assumed they were because they were running into people like Batman and Robin. Once they [Kiss] were onboard, it was kind of a no brainer. Putting them in an amusement park setting, it wasn’t the first time we’ve seen it. I just thought it was a natural match.
Q: Any plans to continue making these two meet?
Shinick: I can’t give any official answer but I know we all want to. I know this came out really well, we are all excited with the outcome, so knock on wood.
Chris Salce: What was your favorite part about working with Kiss?
Shinick: There were two stages, one was writing the script and thinking to myself ‘My gosh…i’m writing this! Gene and Paul are gonna say these words.’ It kind of fulfilled the childhood dream that I had worked out with the Kiss dolls back when I was a kid. I guess the best part was when they actually came into the booth. They kind of have this whole aura about them and you don’t know what to expect but they could not be the most nicest and fun guys.
Q: Was it harder to get into the mind of a Scooby-Doo character or a Kiss member?
Shinick: Because I’m such a big Kiss fan, I think I was as familiar with them as I was with Scooby-Doo. In my mind, when I first heard that they were going to team them up, they automatically had a natural pairing to me. It was a lot of fun to write it.
Q: When it comes to the Kiss music, is there like a licensing thing?
Shinick: They were so encouraging and easy, they basically said ‘do what you want to do and we’ll talk later.’ So it didn’t hold me back. At the end of the day, we got everything we wanted and more because there’s a song that’s an original in there.
Q: Is there certain elements from Kiss’ stage show that you were able to apply to the movie?
Shinick: Totally. You know, they are superheroes. We all saw ‘Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park,’ well…I have and you know, I think there was a general feeling of it didn’t quite deliver and I kind of took the idea of this being the second chance of kind of delivering all the stuff that my eight year old might have felt was kind of lacking in that and that was embracing their superhero sides.
Scooby-Doo! And Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery is available now.