Should you don’t do not forget that story about Everett Dutschke, a Mississippi karate teacher who mailed ricin to President Obama in 2013 after which tried to border Elvis impersonator/conspiracy theorist Kevin Curtis for the crime, don’t fear. The brand new Netflix three-part docuseries “The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga” covers each inch of the stranger-than-fiction story that features a solid of characters that rival these in “Tiger King.”
The docu begins with Curtis stumbling upon a severed head in a hospital fridge. That results in a feud between Curtis and Steve Holland, a funeral residence proprietor and Congressman who believes that he can publicly “fuck a bull moose” on the steps of a county courthouse and nonetheless win an election. The battle between Curtis and Holland turns into the catalyst for extra feuds, which finally results in utter chaos involving automobiles exploding, a home burning down, incarceration, cyberstalking, a drive-by taking pictures of an elephant, infidelity, and finally, the 2013 assassination try of President Obama.
Helmed by “Wild Wild Nation” administrators Maclain and Chapman Means, “The Kings of Tupelo” is as darkish as it’s hilarious. (When investigating officers query a really scared Curtis in solitary confinement about ricin, the Elvis impersonator deadpans, “Sir. I haven’t purchased rice in years. I by no means eat rice.”)
The Means brothers started taking pictures in Tupelo, Miss., the birthplace of Elvis Presley, three and a half years in the past. Upon arrival, they had been met with open arms by everybody on the town, together with Kevin Curtis and his brother Jack, who could have slept with Kevin’s ex-wife, Laura.
“After we first arrived in Tupelo for manufacturing, individuals instantly took discover of who we had been and what we had been doing,” says Macclain Means. “At first, I used to be a bit nervous about telling them, “Hey. We’re doing the 2013 Presidential assassination story,” as a result of on face worth, possibly that’s not a narrative that as a citizen of Tupelo, you’ll be enamored with Netflix making a high-profile documentary sequence about, however everybody’s response was the precise reverse. They had been so excited, so stoked, so pumped about it.”
Selection spoke to Maclain and Chapman Means about discovering one other stranger-than-fiction story, the sequence’ motley crew of speaking heads, and conspiracy idea movies.
Was this story one thing that you simply examine in 2013 and held on to, or did somebody counsel that you simply look into it?
Chapman Means: We wrapped “Wild Wild Nation” in 2018 and had been on the lookout for a follow-up of types. We had a faint reminiscence of our nation’s preeminent Elvis impersonator having been arrested for attempting to assassinate President Obama, and that was type of the one reminiscence we had of it. So, we flew out to Mississippi, and the very first thing we realized was what an interesting little city Tupelo is. It’s type of just like the forgotten stepchild to Graceland and Memphis. We finally met with Kevin and his household and had been off to the races from there. We rapidly realized, “Holy crap, there may be much more to the story than we remembered.”
Along with Kevin Curtis and his speedy household, you had been capable of get candid, humorous interviews with FBI brokers, Congressmen, and native police officers, a few of whom don’t come throughout effectively within the doc. How did you pull it off?
Chapman Means: We had been born and raised in California, so it was a complete new expertise to go to the South. However we realized in a short time that (Southerners) embrace their eccentricity. It’s one thing they aren’t ashamed of. It’s one thing they’re pleased with. So for them being part of this batshit, loopy story is one thing very enjoyable. Even when they is likely to be the villain in somebody’s story, they’re nonetheless a essential character within the story, they usually embrace that. For us, as documentary filmmakers, you’re beholden to your speaking heads since there isn’t a script and there aren’t any actors. After we sat down with the topics of this sequence, we instantly realized simply how gifted they had been at storytelling. We’d go from one character to the following and all of them had been hitting at like a really excessive, excessive share – giving us unbelievable zingers and contours. It was fairly an expertise as an interviewer.
Was there any hesitation about speaking to Kevin and telling his story since it’s implied within the sequence that he might need some dependancy and or psychological well being points he hasn’t essentially labored out?
Maclain Means: As filmmakers, I’ve by no means wrestled an excessive amount of with who do you platform? Who do you not platform? I believe it’s all crucial to listen to, even if you’re listening to from somebody that you simply don’t agree with. For somebody like Kevin, he felt like he had been muzzled for therefore lengthy, and his household did as effectively. So, everybody felt like this was an incredible alternative for Kevin to lastly be capable of inform his story. There was a whole lot of help from his family and friends in doing (this sequence).
This sequence covers human dismemberment, sexual perversity, and an assassination try, but it’s actually humorous. You made it look simple, however was it difficult to make this a humorous docuseries?
Chapman Means: There’s a problem to comedy in documentaries, and it primarily comes from the truth that you actually can’t write the jokes. What’s fascinating is we by no means discover it humorous after we are truthfully laughing at our characters. That’s simply not humorous, and it doesn’t really feel nice. However, the characters on this sequence are typically humorous human beings. They made me snort within the interview chair a number of, a number of occasions. Extra occasions than any documentary I’ve ever completed. All of them, throughout the board, had been humorous. Even Everett Dutschke, in his jail cellphone calls, might throw in a joke. As a filmmaker, once you work on one thing for so long as we did, your intuition is to indicate the viewers a mirrored image of what you skilled when talking with these individuals. So, for us, it was a no brainer to incorporate their humor, nevertheless it was nonetheless a problem as a result of typically laughs fall quick. Comedy is subjective. However on the finish of the day, we felt that if we had been laughing at it and having a superb time with it, we needed to try to convey that to the viewers.
Earlier this 12 months, your doc “American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders” was launched on Netflix. Like “The Kings of Tupelo” it’s a a movie that tackles conspiracy theories. Will your subsequent doc even be about conspiracy theories?
Maclain Means: I’m not a conspiracy man. It’s not one thing that tremendous intrigues me. However I believe what intrigued us with the story of “The Kings of Tupelo” was that there didn’t actually appear to be any deep dive evaluation into how and why and the place this was all coming from. So, the chance for us to dive into the stomach of the beast and be taught extra about how individuals discover themselves in these conditions with conspiracies and never simply in an admonishing, finger-wagging type of means, however actually in a human means, was interesting. I discover these varieties of documentaries fascinating. They’re a problem, although. They’re an enormous problem as a result of conspiracies are inherently complicated.
“The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga” is at the moment streaming on Netflix.
