Feature Category: articles

Vanessa Marshall | STAR WARS REBELS

In anticipation of her appearance at MCM Comic Con Manchester (July 28th – 29th), STARBURST caught up with legendary voice actor VANESSA MARSHALL to talk about her incredible career, cons, closure, and of course, STAR WARS…

STARBURST: You’re a regular on the circuit in the US, but is this your first UK convention appearance?

Vanessa Marshall: This isn’t my first time in the UK – I’m a huge Anglophile – but this is indeed my first UK convention appearance!

Manchester is honoured! We imagine attending events such as these can be very rewarding…

Absolutely – I’m thrilled to attend this con! I’m looking forward to seeing all of my Star Wars friends and family!

That’s surely one of the biggest ‘pros’, but are there any ‘cons’ to cons; so to speak?

Only that I have to go back home, I wish I could stay forever!

You’ve had a long career playing characters that have either gone on to garner huge fanbases, or, in the case of many of the superheroes, were already wildly popular; but which of them have been the most enjoyable or rewarding to perform?

I enjoyed playing Hera in Disney XD’s Star Wars Rebels. As a massive Star Wars fan, this was a dream come true! I was honoured to play Gamora in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, also on Disney XD, as well as Black Canary in Young Justice and Mary Jane in The Spectacular Spider-Man. It was fun to play Irwin in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy too!

Speaking of Hera, those final few episodes of Star Wars Rebels certainly packed a powerful emotional punch for the audience – full disclosure, there were many tears shed here at STARBURST – did those scripts affect you in similar ways when you were performing in the studio?

It was an emotional time for the cast. We knew we were in the final stretch, so every moment was precious. The intense plot points only heightened our awareness of this reality. As an actress, I think I did what I had to do and got the job done.

And how about as a fan?

When I watched the episode, I was devastated. I think it was actually even harder to watch than to perform. I was shattered watching most of Season 4. It was beyond anything I could have imagined. Lucasfilm rocked the animation as usual. It packed a massive punch for sure!

We believe that Rebels is different in that creator Dave Filoni insists that the scripts are recorded with the cast together in a single studio, rather than separated, which is the more traditional approach. Do you find this method more beneficial? Any downsides?

Yes, it’s amazing… so much better as a group! There are no downsides, I loved it.

So we all heard references to Hera Syndulla in Rogue One, and the character has featured in several episodes of Forces of Destiny so far, but can fans expect more of her in the future do you think? Obviously you might face some… Resistance… from Lucasfilm if you were to confirm anything *cough* so we understand if you’d rather stay schtum!

I sure hope so!

Schtum. Nuff said. If you were offered the chance of playing Hera in one of the many future live-action Star Wars projects, would you be interested?

Absolutely. I would be honoured. I have a Masters degree in Acting from NYU, and I’d love to return to on-camera acting.

To be honest, I don’t think fans would accept it any other way!

It would be delightful!

If you could switch roles with any of your Star Wars cast members for an episode, and they weren’t allowed to refuse, which would it be?

Chopper! That would be hilarious!

Perfect! Since first winning the role of Hera and really getting invested in the world of Star Wars, have you noticed a change in the fandom as a whole?

The fandom has always been great! I feel less alone with all my new Star Wars friends and family, so I’m forever grateful for all their kindness and support.

Moving away from Star Wars, are there any characters out there in pop culture that you would still love to play?

Jean Grey!

Readers, let’s start campaigning for that to happen! Talking of your fans, if any of them want to follow in your footsteps and dream of becoming a voice actor one day, what advice would you give?

I would say check out Dee Bradley Baker’s website www.Iwanttobeavoiceactor.com. Also, take tons of classes and never give up!

What projects do you have coming up that we can look forward to? The ones you’re allowed to tell us about, that is…

The Star Wars Rebels Season 4 DVD is being released in the US on July 31st, there’s new Forces of Destiny episodes coming soon to the Disney YouTube channel, and Guardians of the Galaxy Season 3 continues in 2019! You can hear my voice in the new Teen Titans movie, and I have exciting news coming soon about new cartoons and video games either on my Twitter, @VanMarshall, or Instagram, @VanessaMarshall1138.

Stealth George Lucas reference noted! So will you be making any more UK convention appearances after this, just in case any fans can’t get to Manchester this weekend?

We’re trying to arrange more visits, but there are no concrete plans yet. That said, I hope to return to the UK as soon as possible!

Be sure to catch the wonderful VANESSA MARSHALL while she’s a special guest at the upcoming MCM Comic Con Manchester, July 28th – 29th

Photo credit: Cherie Crowder

Robert D. Miles | UFO Chronicles

We talk to Robert D. Miles, a filmmaker whose life could have come straight out of a sci-fi movie but actually spurred him on to be behind a series of UFO conspiracy documentaries. The truth might be out there, just keep watching the skies!

STARBURST: What made you become interested in UFOs?

Robert D. Miles: An extraordinary event occurred in my life almost fifty years ago. At the time, I lived aboard a sailboat, a forty-seven foot trimaran. This modern trimaran three-hulled vessel had been built by me and my partner in Portland, Oregon, and sailed down the Oregon-California coast in the spring of 1968. After several months in San Diego, California we sailed on to Hawaii, a voyage of over twenty-four hundred miles. This sailboat was our home for over two years.

Early one morning, just a couple of minutes after 5 am, I looked out the open skylight from my bunk at the beautiful early morning sky. The sailboat was tied to a dock in the Alawi Yacht Harbour in Honolulu, Hawaii. I had gotten up a littler earlier, dressed, made coffee, and then returned to stretch out on my bunk. My mind was filled with the events of the coming day. My partner and I had just sold the boat and the new owner would take possession within a few hours.

Suddenly, I experienced a dazzling array of shimmering light followed by an intense tingling of energy, which filled the entire stateroom and engulfed me. My entire body began to vibrate as a beautiful woman materialised in the walkway right next to my bed. My first reaction was, of course, to believe that I was dreaming or perhaps hallucinating.

She spoke to me and took my hand. In a matter of moments, I came to understand that she was real and much more alive than I. The energy aura that she emanated made my entire being vibrate at a level that could only be described as ecstasy. I asked, “Why have you come to visit me?” She replied, “I and others like me are friends and we want you to come to a very important briefing.” Moments after agreeing to go with her, an unparalleled series of events occurred.

First, I was teleported to New York City. I then boarded a saucer-like spacecraft and was transported to an extra-terrestrial location for the briefing. The extra-terrestrials orchestrated the briefing to give me and about fifty other guests a glimpse of Earth’s history.

They also showed to us a dramatic and vivid view of humankind’s potential destiny. After the briefing, I was asked to undertake a mission to help change the conditions on our planet through using our abilities and our mental thoughts to bring about positive changes.

Upon returning to the sailboat, I realised that only thirty-three minutes had passed. However, from my personal perspective, it seemed like many unhurried hours had been spent with these incredible beings. To this day, I remain convinced that the series of events were real and not a dream or delusion.

When did you get the idea of making documentaries about the subject?

Upon returning from that briefing, I took television production classes at a San Diego community network and over the course of a year or so I quickly learned how to use a video camera, edit, and produce documentaries.

Having acquired those skills, I began producing documentaries that aired on local and national TV and was nominated for a local Emmy award.

Over the ongoing fifty years since my contact experience, I have used my knowledge and skills to create, market, and distribute sixteen documentaries – UFO Chronicles – which feature the material that is covered up by most of the nations of our world relative to what is commonly known as UFO and ET disclosure films.

What was your first major success?

In November 2006, I was the executive producer/producer/writer of the award-winning UFO and ET feature film Fastwalkers. It was a breakthrough documentary that won two EBE awards (for People’s Choice and Best Music) from the International UFO Congress.

Fastwalkers sold-out theater premieres in New York, Phoenix, Washington, DC; Hawaii, Roswell, New Mexico, and Toronto. A DVD of the film was given to every member of the US Congress, the Presidential Staff, NASA, and every member of the Canadian Parliament. It is currently in distribution under an updated title, which is Alien Agenda: Planet Earth, executive produced by Warren Croyle and distributed in association with Reality Entertainment.

Outside of documentaries, have you any experience in narrative features?

I was the executive producer and line producer for the general release motion picture Ice Cold in Phoenix, which premiered in Milan, Italy and is currently in international distribution. It was written and directed by the late Lindsay Schonteff, who helmed cult classics Devil Doll (1964), The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967), and Big Zapper (1973).

More recently, I optioned a script Starseed to the newly-formed Starseed LLC, based in Arizona. Filming is set to begin shortly in the greater Phoenix area.

What audience are you aiming your films at?

My films are targeted toward an audience who are interested and aware of the simple fact that the governments of the world do not want the general public to know the truth that the world we live in is far more advance than we are led to believe.

As people, we are kept in the dark about the true reality of our world’s actually level of technology and that we currently have ongoing treaties and agreements with numerous aliens and off-world visitors to our planet.

The average person has no idea that we, in fact, have anti-gravity propulsion systems and even extra dimensional crafts and even on-going mining projects on the Moon and other planet both in our own solar system and beyond.

Have you included any alien abduction cases?

Our award-winning documentary Fastwalkers covered not only abduction but also interviews with ‘experiencers’, who even though they were abducted without their consent they ultimately came to believe that it was a positive experience.

Some of these experiencers believe that they have hybrid children as a result of their abductions. Often they say they had a chance to actually see and hold their children when they were once more taken aboard space crafts in or around our solar system.

Other than eyewitness testimony, is there any solid evidence that proves they are more than the product of Cold War hysteria that has evolved over the decades?

As far as any real proof that what I write and make films about is my own experience to take the ‘nickel tour’ aboard the space craft and my briefing experience. And, of course, the witness testimony that is contain within my series of UFO and ET films and documentaries.

Is there a government cover-up?

Without question there is an ongoing government cover-up not only by the US but also by most of the western countries and by almost all of the countries of our world.

However with the ongoing progress of the formal ‘discloser movement’, the true story of what is in fact the real history of our planet and its people is moving forward and will hopefully result in the truth becoming known sometime in the near future.

Do you enjoy science fiction as well? If so, what are your favourite books/films?

As far as science fiction goes, I have long been a reader of virtually all the sci-fi books that I could find. Some of my favourite authors are Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, and, of course, Robert Heinlein.

Some of the most outstanding films of the science fiction type in my opinion are 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ex_Machina, Avatar, The Matrix, and Star Wars, which I saw twenty-four times!

Do you do anything outside the UFO world?

I am also an avid adventurer and have designed and built four large sailing vessels and sailed to Hawaii, Baja, Mexico, and Honduras. And I have undertaken film projects in Tahiti and Nicaragua.

I especially enjoy living the boating and the RV lifestyle. I was also a gold miner and the publisher/writer/photographer for the magazine Modern Gold Miner and Treasure Hunter.

Currently, I am one of the Executive Producers on a reality-based TV series entitled Deadly Dogmen, which is based on an original concept by Leslie S. Mitts, who is also the content creator of this cryptid-based series. It’s is currently in pre-production under the Timestream Pictures banner.

Leslie S. Mitts and I penned a book entitled Lycandroids Super Soldiers and the Freedom War. It’s a science fiction novel and outlines what we both feel is unfortunately the course that humankind and our planet is heading. In its first week on Amazon, Lycandroids was ranked #8 in horror and #12 in sci-fi!

Still, as I was told in my briefing while I was on the planet Jupiter in the summer of 1971, humankind as a species has been gifted with free will. It is that which gives us the opportunity not only change the destiny of our planet but to take our rightful journey to the stars.

Where can people see your work?

The series entitled UFO Chronicles is available on Amazon Prime as well as other media platforms worldwide and is an ongoing series of programs featuring well known and highly regarded investigators, historian researchers, contactees, and scientists who provide insights into the real situations that are covered up by the mainstream press. Interested parties could also check out fastwalkers.com.

What’s next on your agenda?

Deadly Dogmen is currently being launched. Filming of its first episode happened in early June 2018.

My book Safespace was published in 2003 and received the Editor’s Choice Award. It’s based upon my own UFO-extra-terrestrial experience, and I’ve adapted it into a screenplay, Safespace: The Briefing, which is currently in pre-production. It documents the briefing by these friendly beings.

For more information on Robert and his documentaries, head over to timestreampictures.com.

Out Now – ISSUE 451

STARBURST takes a trip down memory lane to revisit the dark time of the VIDEO NASTIES, when horror films were thrown in the dock and cut to ribbons plus the seminal TV show THE OUTER LIMITS comes under our spotlight.

We also preview the upcoming releases THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS and CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, two polar opposite fuzzy pictures, we’re sure you’ll agree!

Elsewhere, Marvel’s BLADE is twenty years old, which is a good enough reason to celebrate the film that arguably started the MCU’s dominance at the cinema. Another birthday is Manchester’s FAB CAFÉ, and the owner (who happens to also be our illustrious Editor) JORDAN ROYCE reveals all about the institution of geek nightlife came about.

If that’s not enough, we have exclusive interviews with poster artist extraordinaire GRAHAM HUMPHREYS, directors JOE LYNCH (MAYHEM) and ABEL FERRARA (THE ADDICTION), the crew behind ANOTHER WOLFCOP, and DAVID GILBANK takes us through his upcoming film POLTERHEIST.

In our regular features, we take a look WAKE IN FEAR, heading to HORROR CHANNEL, and Independents Day talks to AUSTIN SNELL, the director of the EXPOSURE.

Plus all your favourite COLUMNS, NEWS, REVIEWS and much MORE from the worlds of SCI-FI, HORROR and FANTASY!

Vampires Get Wood…

As you would have found if you read the two-part feature on the Master of Horror in STARBURST #446 and #447, John Carpenter’s early filmography is outstanding. Across a burst of remarkable creativity in just under 15 years he made Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, the still definitive version of the Elvis story (and first project with frequent collaborator Kurt Russell), The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing, Christine, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They Live. Either successful or critically acclaimed at the time of release or given distance (The Thing and Prince of Darkness, for example) now lauded as major or minor classics, it was an incredible run. But imagine you’re Carpenter back in those days for a moment. How do you sustain that kind of quality? It’s more than likely at some point you’re going to run out of steam. And so it was for Carpenter, starting with the poorly received and underperforming Chevy Chase vehicle Memoirs of an Invisible Man in 1992 and a subsequent slow down in productivity that ultimately found only two Carpenter films released so far this century. Creative people often find the business approach of studios and the ‘suits’ not just unyielding or uncomprehending but actively destructive and find themselves out of pocket or not given their financial due for their projects as well. And even with John Carpenter as the brand or hook for an audience, it became increasingly difficult to get projects decently funded and his directing career all but stalled. Of course, Carpenter is a man of many talents and has kept busy throughout, most notably recently with albums and tours of his music and iconic movie themes. As this year’s reboot of Halloween (actually pitched as a straight sequel to the first film) approaches Carpenter is somewhat back in the game, returning as producer, composer and spiritual godfather to the franchise that made him a horror legend.

But that period following the Chase film also produced at least a small gem or two. His twisted 1995 Lovecraftian horror In the Mouth of Madness was released recently to Blu-ray and has finally earned a wider critical reassessment and appreciation. And the film we’re covering here, Vampires, was Carpenter’s only project of the decade to turn a sizable profit at the international box office. More than that, however, it’s a frequently enjoyable mix of western and horror film that has much to recommend but still divides opinion. However, we here at STARBURST prefer wherever possible to say why you should give something a chance and sing praises where due and that’s what we’re going to do here. Although not vintage Carpenter, Vampires is certainly not bloodless (sorry, really) but succeeds as violent, gory and caustic fun, with some sequences standing tall against his best work.

Before the film, as often it goes, there was a book. Vampire$ was written by John Steakley and released first in 1990. It’s violent, gory, and caustic too, concerning the work of the company Vampire$, Inc., who kill vampires for money. They’re supported and sanctioned by the Catholic Church, and Steakley’s novel is a mix of dark fantasy horror and even darker humour. It’s no stretch to imagine the book as a film and after lingering around as a project for half a decade, it eventually found its way to Carpenter at the right time for him. Filmmaking is a tiresome, convoluted, and exhausting thing to do even when you’re enjoying it, and Carpenter wasn’t. But with Vampires (as the script was now called) he found an opportunity to revisit the western-in-a-modern setting themes he had started his professional career with back with 1976’s Assault on Precinct 13. Vampires would also be a horror film, the genre he was most familiar with and revered for, and Carpenter keeps this aspect awash with blood throughout. A few years before Vampires’ release, Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel Interview with the Vampire had brought her world of beautiful, Gothically tortured bloodsuckers to the screen. The ‘90s zeitgeist for vamps was that of the spiritual ennui and emotional savagery of immortality. This would later transfer into things like the character of the guilt-ridden Angel in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. The novel Vampire$ and Carpenter’s film have none of this sort of thing, however. The vampires here are savage, animalistic and totally brutal. This is set up by Carpenter in one a sequence at the start of the film, as we’re introduced to slayer Jack Crow (James Woods) and his crew.

They are somewhere in New Mexico outside an abandoned farmhouse. Crow and his right-hand man Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) survey the peaceful daytime scene before them. But Crow and his crew have been hired by a nearby town and he suspects the house is now home to a nest of vampires and their leader, their ‘master’. Crow and his men unload their various weapons, ranging from stakes to high-tech crossbows. They approach the house and slowly, quietly make their way to the front door. Carpenter layers this with a distinctly western-themed score that could easily pitch Crow as a sheriff, his men as a posse and the inhabitants of the house as outlaws. He also makes it clear these men, whilst trained and brave/dumb enough to go into a nest of vampires, are nervous and on edge. They unlatch the door and head inside, making their way around the house slowly, steadily and with a dread for what is to come. When it does, it’s swift. The crew are set upon by two vampires to begin with, both dressed more like you would imagine cult members would be in bland brown robes. They’re shot, stabbed and one even has a stake rammed through its forehead, but the only thing that stops them is being hooked and dragged outside into the sunlight that finally destroys them as they burst into flames. As the crew clear out the nest, the vampires’ screams echo across that previously peaceful scene. Remember, at this time vampires were more often aware they were monsters and ridden with guilt over their actions. And in this one sequence, Carpenter announces his vampires are something else altogether. In Vampires, they are violent, near-unstoppable killers that deserve death. The crew refer to them as ‘goons’ and we’re not invited as an audience to feel any sympathy for them at all. Crow isn’t satisfied after they’re done burning up these goons. The master should have been there too, the lore being that they don’t stray too far from their nests. As the slayers drive off to their reward (which the film suggests is always cash, booze, and hookers) the one that got away punches its hands from the shallow dirt it was buried under.

This leads us into the next sequence at the Sun God Motel (the movie always has a sense of humour about itself). The men of Jack’s crew are having a thoroughly misogynistic time drinking and pawing various prostitutes while Crow himself stews over the missing master. Twin Peaks’ Sheryl Lee plays Katrina, a prostitute who briefly seems as though she will distract him. But Katrina doesn’t get chance, because Thomas Ian Griffith arrives in full bass-player-in-a-’90s-Goth-band get-up as master Jan Valek to bite down on her thigh and suck blood in the only moment of Vampires that tilts towards that Anne Rice sex-and-death fascination. After that, Valek drops by on Crow’s boys and kills them all bar Montoya. It’s not as strong a sequence as the opener but the reason it works, despite some inelegant special effects and Griffith’s (at least initially) cheesy, very literally ‘arrrrggghhh’ performance is because it leads directly on from the house clearance and sits as direct opposition to it. One massacre follows another, and much like the first one, we don’t feel a lot of sympathy for Jack’s crew either, only the girls caught up in the carnage.

Montoya and Jack narrowly escape Valek and take Katrina with them because, as Jack says, he can ‘use her’. It’s indicative of the film’s treatment of women that they’re presented as either goons or prostitutes and Lee’s character doesn’t escape this either. Carpenter has established his film isn’t about good or evil necessarily, or heroes either and so harks back to some of its western influences, focusing on characters that don’t deserve or earn our identification, a more complex approach sitting in line with the predominant Sam Peckinpah influences. And really, Crow is a magnificent douche. After their escape and subsequent car crash, the trio walk to a gas station (Crow refers to Katrina as a ‘piece of shit’ and pushes her in his irritation that she’s slow because she’s been bitten by a vampire and survived a vehicle rolling down a hill) where Crow orders Montoya to steal a car. These men are definitely not heroes; everything’s a commodity to them, including other people, to use to get their job done. It’s interesting because Carpenter’s film (and the script by Don Jakoby) is kicking against everything contemporaries were doing and by also making a western, not exactly Hollywood’s favourite genre at that time, despite the relatively recent successes of films like Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. Making it a hybrid horror-western seems almost reckless and this is what continues to make the film interesting, with Carpenter’s unwillingness to soften his approach or characters and humanise them or provide even one person we can root for.

The extended set-up then leads into the remainder of the film focusing on Jack’s desire for revenge. It deviates from the source novel in quite a few a few notable ways as Carpenter retools the dark modern fantasy of Steakley’s book towards his concept of nihilistic western. Directly contravening his instructions from the church to hold off and establish a new crew, Crow heads off in search of Valek with Montoya, Katrina and new priest support Father Adam (Tim Guinee). The pace slows somewhat as Crow and Montoya wait for Katrina’s psychic connection to her master to kick in so they can figure out where he is and what he’s doing. It turns out Valek is the original vampire and he’s looking for a MacGuffin that will let him walk in the daylight after 600 years, making him almost indestructible. Meanwhile, Montoya doubles down on his earlier apparent disdain for ‘bitches’ with an oddly pathetic attraction to the slowly vampirising Katrina that displays itself through him generally being awful to her. Crow continues being a scumbag who has no qualms about torturing priests for information and the film builds to a final confrontation where you eventually root for Crow because he’s the marginally better option than Valek.

Carpenter is pretty much incapable of making a genuinely bad film, with even his misfires having their points to recommend. Vampires isn’t top tier Carpenter but neither is it one of his weakest films. It straddles the divide between the two, and some of the rougher moments are right up against some of the best. It also shows how he uses his knowledge of film to create almost off-the-cuff bits of invention. Whether the footage of the motel massacre was working or not we don’t know, but Carpenter says he hit on the idea of using dissolves in the editing process and it works splendidly to create an unreal effect to the sequence that mirrors the disorientating impact on the crew as their evening of carousing and boozing descends into a nightmare of bloody death. And above all, Carpenter has always focused on making his films entertaining and Vampires continues this. If you want to examine Crow’s relationship with God and the church or the movie’s commentary on it or religious hypocrisy, it’s there. Equally, Crow aside, you could have all the fun you want with the film’s deconstruction of the alpha male, most specifically Montoya’s pointless and doomed attraction to a damaged woman that will literally tear his throat out. But most of all, you can enjoy the film as what Carpenter intended it to be, a good fun mix of Peckinpah-style carnage and hard and gory horror. And that job is one it does pretty well.

Although it didn’t become a box office hit, Vampires did nearly recoup its budget at theatres so international returns and a second life on VHS and late-night TV showings (and latterly DVD) made it his most profitable film of the decade. Profitable enough to inspire two straight-to-video sequels that had little connection to the original film other than ostensibly being set in the same universe. The first, Vampires: Los Muertos, was produced by Carpenter and starred Jon Bon Jovi. The second, Vampires: The Turning had no Carpenter and even less to do with his first film. Woods, meanwhile, went via more films and television appearances before settling on his new gig as a performance artist political stooge on Twitter. You don’t have to like the man to enjoy Vampires, of course, because as we’ve covered, Jack Crow is a pretty crappy guy. He just happens to kill vampires for a living, which is probably a good thing for everyone (except the vampires, of course), because without that, he’d probably have taken to killing people himself.

You can sink your teeth into JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES when it screens on Horror Channel. Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138.

John Hannah | GENESIS

John Hannah is one of Britain’s most adaptable and well-known actors. Having earned his big break as Matthew in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) John has developed a varied career starring in films such as Sliding Doors (1998) and The Mummy (1999), and television shows including the Spartacus series and Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

His most recent film Genesis is a dark sci-fi thriller full of political intrigue and questionable motives. John took some time to sit down with Starburst to discuss those themes, his career and voice his thoughts on how this film might relate to the times we’re living in.

STARBURST: Genesis portrays quite a bleak future for humanity and the Earth. What message do you think the film is trying to get across?

John Hannah: I think we’re living in a dark time in terms of the future, and what direction we’re going in is up for debate. There’s a lot of stuff in the mainstream press about technology and A.I., and who controls it and who are benefitting from it. I think that’s an element of the film, which we have the potential to destroy the planet and we’re led by these fucking muppets: May, Trump, Farage and all these Boris fucking Johnson twats. If they all get their way, then the future certainly is bleak. The film’s perceived as part of a trilogy, so I’m sure that Bart and Freddie (writers and directors Bart Ruspoli and Freddie Hutton-Mills) will be trying to direct it into a more positive, active way of contributing. It also touches on the individual and being able to take responsibility for your decisions and also the responsibility for the decisions being made on your behalf. I think that’s a little bit of the Brexit thing; everyone just read the side of the bus with the fearmongering, and we’ve gone down this route that, for me, is a dead end for the future and for young people.

The A.I. is key to the film’s story but really Genesis is about the character’s around that central premise, how they develop, and it seems to be trying to get the audience to make their own minds up.

I think that’s very much it. People often dismiss sci-fi as some space opera or just something with effects, or some sort of free-association fantasy of what a world might be and what creatures might be in it. But near-future sci-fi is very much dealing with real issues, and most of the major issues that have impacted on our planet have been technology based, whether you think of the loom or the Toe Puddle Martyrs (six 19th-century agricultural labourers largely responsible for the birth of trade unionism) or the industrial revolution, mass industrialisation; it’s always been technology that has created this friction and the one element in all of it I think is who has been in control of it and who benefits from it. With Brexit again, you have to ask who are benefitting from this, and it looks like people like Boris Johnson and international catalysts who’ll be working in a less regulated environment.

You clearly have strong views on this, and I wonder how much of that enters your decision-making process when choosing a role, asking yourself ‘is this a message I want to be a part of?’

Not consciously I don’t think, no. I tend to respond instinctively to the material. I try to put myself in the position of someone going to the cinema or sitting watching this program or another on television, and what they would get from it. And then when you start working on it, it’s the beginning of a journey where that journey is about discovering things yourself. It becomes something that nobody expected, and I think that’s a good thing. If the writers and producers and directors get exactly what they thought of at the beginning of the process, then I think it’s kind of failed. On the other hand, if they get something that’s surprised and delighted them and satisfied them from where they set out then, I think that’s a success. For Genesis, I think there was an organic development where the story is, although Bart and Freddie might tell you different and they probably would!

I wanted to pick up on your point about responding to the material as you’ve had an extremely varied career, but most recently it’s on television that you’ve had the greatest success and are probably best known. Do you have to change as an actor in how you approach a small, independent film such as Genesis when you’ve just worked on Spartacus or Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

I’ve always said that regardless of what the project is, from an actor’s point of view you do the same thing regardless. Whether it’s a multi-million-pound production, or a network television show or a little independent film, what you do in front of the camera remains the same. The discussions and the ability to influence what’s coming around the corner on a small budget is more organic. With the Americans; it’s a business, and they run it like that, and that’s great. You can go off and be a part of something that’s bigger than any of us as individuals, or you can mix it up on an independent film and be a part of that and in the discussions.

So you have no particular preference?

I try not to over-think it. I have a look and go and meet the guys and have a chat and go from there. Sometimes the reason it appeals or doesn’t is because it’s similar to something I’ve just done. It’s never been about career management, more cherry picking whatever’s in front of me.

We wanted to go back and ask about Rebus. Your version was very different to the Ken Stott version, being much darker and I’d read various things about why you left the role. Is it something you have fond memories of or think could have been done differently?

I have fond memories of doing it, but I never thought I was right for the part. The production company I was involved with were in the process of picking it up, but the company who owned it wanted me to do it. We wanted Peter Mullan to do it, but at that point, Peter hadn’t then won Best Actor at Cannes, so they pressed me, and I was seduced by the fact I really liked the material anyway. So you take a chance because that’s what you do or it’s all a bit boring. But I don’t suppose I was ever really right for it as I was a bit young. Ian Rankin said I was the same age as the character was when he started writing but I guess people just get an idea in their heads.

In your career, is there something that perhaps didn’t get the exposure it should have done, such as Circus or one of the smaller projects you’ve been involved in?

Circus is an interesting one in that I thought it was a brilliant, brilliant script by a young writer called Dave Logan but it was ruined by the director and two young producers who at that point were more interested in having the money to make the film rather than actually make it. They saw it as a business and wanted just to get on to the next step. They were just interested in money. They let the film down. No-one sets out to make a bad film, but sometimes it just happens.

Genesis is released on DVD and VOD on July 16th.

Automatic for the People: When Cinema Goes Wrong

Major cinema chains are pulling out all the stops these days to make a trip to the flicks a total experience, as we discovered at a recent 50th Anniversary screening of Stanley Kubrick’s artfully immense SF tentpole, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY…

Empire Cinemas in a sleepy Suffolk township is this writer’s destination for what turns out to be a truly local presentation of “the proverbial really good science fiction movie” as Kubrick called it. Excitement is certainly running high. Upon arrival, the foyer hums with anticipation as seasoned geeks, some wearing HAL 9000 T-shirts, listen approvingly to a member of staff who informs us that, yes, the film will have a 10-minute intermission just like in 1968. What she doesn’t tell us is that at tonight’s screening we, each in our own way, will not so much view this landmark science fiction classic as become part of it.

The added-value shenanigans are upon us before the film even starts. Unlike a regular screening, the ‘trailer lights’ in the cinema remain on throughout the introductory atmosphere montage, the title sequence and into the film itself. As you probably know (come on, it’s 2001: A Bloody Space Odyssey!), this first sequence shows the arrival on ancient Earth of a mysterious, featureless dark monolith and the strange enlightenment it brings to a group of confused, hairy hominids. As this all unfolds, in a brilliant stroke of manipulation on the part of Empire Cinemas, we the audience find ourselves experiencing a similar level of confusion and denial – are we really paying to watch one of the greatest movies ever made with the lights up, thereby utterly killing the unique atmosphere Kubrick worked so hard to create? My God, I think we are.

An uncanny emotional synchronicity with events on-screen grows deeper as I find myself sharing a powerful empathy with Moonwatcher, the star ape-man (played brilliantly by mime artist Daniel Richter) as he senses the first stirrings of murderous violence in his monkey soul. Suddenly, we are one: he rising and going rogue from his placid group to seek the bone-head tool he will use to hunt warm flesh for the first time in human evolution; me rising from my seat (one of those nice sofas, actually) and leaving my placid group to seek out the bonehead tool who left the bloody lights up and get them switched off for the first time all evening. We are brothers across the eons, Moonwatcher and I.

I find a person, who patiently explains that the system is completely automated. It takes her an age to find the (presumably fairly dusty) manual light switch. As I return to my seat and await darkness, another moment of sublime stagecraft occurs as two other staff appear at the entrance and stare at us blankly, then stare up at the lights shining down on us; then back at us again. This goes on for some time. We all blink at our visitors. A giant philosophical question mark hangs between us.

…and lights out.

The next section of the film involves Dr Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) jaunting off to the moon to get his picture taken with another monolith in the year 2001. On the way, he stops off at a space station for a spot of nervy chitchat with Rigsby out of Rising Damp. It’s the boring bit, really. But Empire Cinemas (the chuckling tricksters!) have anticipated this lull and have another ace up their velvety sleeve. Just as Rigsby gently probes an evasive Floyd as to why Clavius base has been sealed off, the sound volume in the cinema eerily drops lower… and lower… so that as Rigby is straining to make sense of Floyd’s cagey answers, we are straining to hear him too. Brilliant stuff, and at no extra cost to the price of admission, remember. You don’t get this at Secret Cinema.

Another artfully orchestrated moment of roleplay for me soon follows. In the very next scene, as Floyd is alone on the moon shuttle trying to make sense of the instructions on the door of the anti-gravity toilet, I find myself alone in the foyer (again) trying to make sense of the volume issue with another member of staff who explains it’s all automated (again) while regarding me like I’ve just shat on the ceiling of her moon shuttle. The thing is, that might not be a bad idea.

Discovery mission – the cool stuff! And how beautiful is that model? Even after 50 years, 2001 cannot be touched for meticulous space miniatures that simply demand to be seen on the big screen. And HAL 9000 is such a welcome B-plot, offsetting Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood’s brilliantly all-talked-out astronauts. He’s paranoid as hell, of course, especially when he starts lip-reading the two men as they discuss switching him off. This leads straight into the fabled 10-minute intermission. It’s a good place to pause, buy some hot cheesy nachos and calm down a bit. 2001 is gripping enough without the rollercoaster ride Empire is laying on! What else lies in store?

The answer comes at the re-start with the night’s greatest bit of showmanship – total audience paranoia! Remember at the beginning when the lights were left on? Guess what – it happens again! Trailer lights still up, geeks sitting there like prunes, squinting at the bleached ‘darkness’ of outer space, some of them looking back at me expectantly because, well, I’m the guy who keeps storming out and seems to get results. And so it proves: for the third time, I feel myself rise like a lone wolf and depart this place, just as HAL 9000 does something terrible to Frank Poole, the rotter.

Through the empty corridors of Empire Cinemas, I stalk like Jack Torrance, in search of someone – anyone – to turn the lights out (again). Up ahead, I hear the chink of keys. I turn a corner and encounter a lady (not one I’ve met before) with a large bunch of janglers, waiting to lock up as soon as 2001 ends. “The lights are on again in Screen 4“, I calmly inform her, struggling to quell the churning madness within. “Oh…is that a problem?” she honestly replies. You know what? I’m not sure it is anymore.

The rest of the movie is a blur. My mind is jelly. As Dave Bowman shudders and sweats his way through the lobotomisation of HAL 9000, I am a quivering shell, driven to the brink of insanity by an automated system that controls everything on this ship – sorry, cinema – and is playing me like a chump. As Bowman speeds ‘beyond the infinite’ then transcends his mortal form to become a great big baby thing, I too am transmogrified in ways I may never fully understand. As the credits roll, I reel away to bed, The Blue Danube taunting me to a troubled sleep.

But what an experience. Be as cynical as you want about D-BOX, 4DX and all the other ‘immersive’ over-priced gimmicks the big cinema chains are touting nowadays, but Empire Cinemas are doing something a bit different. I look forward to future ‘experiences’ and can only wonder what they might have in store for The Shining or Full Metal Jacket. Or perhaps A Clockwork Orange – Kubrick really saw the multiplex coming there. Picture it: hundreds of paying customers sat in front of the silver screen with needles jamming their eyelids open… screaming.

[ENDED] Win CRUCIBLE OF THE VAMPIRE Graphic Novel

We’ve teamed up with Ghost Dog Films to bring you a chance to win a copy of the graphic novel adaptation of Crucible of the Vampire, written by Iain Ross-McNamee.

Official synopsis:

Isabelle, a young university researcher, is sent to a country manor house in rural Shropshire to verify an ancient artefact that a family has uncovered during the renovation of their home.

However, the artefact has a cursed history and it soon becomes apparent that the house holds a dark secret. While Isabelle sets to work verifying the object, she becomes the obsession of the owner’s daughter and they develop a dangerous attraction.

A chance finding of a 200-year-old journal confirms Isabelle’s suspicions that the family are not the only residents of the house and that there is something much darker lurking within its foreboding walls.

Uncovering the truth, she finds herself trapped in the clutches of the house’s malevolent occupants. She will be tested to her limits as she tries to escape from the Crucible of the Vampire, a story stretching from the English Civil War to the present day.

We have two signed limited edition copies to give away, along with a pair of posters each, just answer the simple question below and email your answer – marked Crucible of the Vampire – to [email protected], to arrive before midnight on July 29th.

What cult genre film did Neil Morrissey star in 1990?

A) The Revenge of Billy the Kid

B) I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle

C) Lesbian Vampire Killers

Terms & Conditions:

Ghost Dog Films and STARBURST do not accept any responsibility for late or lost entries due to the Internet or email problems. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt. Entrants must supply full details as required on the competition page, and comply with all rules to be eligible for the prizes. No responsibility is accepted for ineligible entries or entries made fraudulently. Unless otherwise stated, the Competition is not open to employees of: (a) the Company; and (b) any third party appointed by the Company to organise and/or manage the Competition; and (c) the Competition sponsor(s). This competition is a game promoted STARBURST. STARBURST’s decision is final in every situation and no correspondence will be entered into. STARBURST reserves the right to cancel the competition at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, and if circumstances arise outside of its control. Entrants must be UK residents and 18 or over. Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them when entering this competition. The winners will be drawn at random from all the correct entries, and only they will be contacted personally. Prize must be taken as stated and cannot be deferred. There will be no cash alternatives. STARBURST routinely adds the email addresses of competition entrants to the regular newsletter, in order to keep entrants informed of upcoming competition opportunities. Details of how to unsubscribe are contained within each newsletter. All information held by STARBURST will not be disclosed to any third parties.

Yannick Bisson | ANOTHER WOLFCOP

Yannick Bisson is best known for playing the titular William Murdoch in the hugely successful Murdoch Mysteries show that’s about to enter its twelfth year. Now though, the charismatic Montreal native can be found playing the slimy, nefarious Sydney Swallows in Lowell Dean’s Another WolfCop. Promising to win over the sleepy town of Woodhaven with the prospect of a brewery and a hockey team, Swallows is soon on a collision course with Leo Fafard’s alcoholic werewolf lawman. Ahead of the WolfCop sequel’s home release, we were lucky enough to grab some time with Yannick to discuss Another WolfCop and playing such a vastly different character to what audiences are accustomed to seeing him play.

STARBURST: Did you see the first WolfCop when it came out in late 2014?

Yannick Bisson: I was given a copy of it a short time prior to meeting about the second one. So, I hadn’t seen it as a release, no.

What were your first thoughts upon watching it?

I was really thrilled. First of all, the development process that basically got Lowell [Dean – writer/director] and Emerson [Ziffle – SFX supervisor] the gig of making the movie, I was really impressed by. I was really intrigued by how all that worked. I wanted to know everything about the entire process and also about those guys. Then, obviously, what the plan was going forward in terms of the sequel; potentially any information that they had about what else that they wanted to do with the franchise, ancillary to the movies. So, I was really keen. It’s just a nutty orgy of everything bad you could throw into this genre. I was really looking forward to being able to do something like that, because I cut my teeth in comedy as a kid. I’ve done a lot of different type of things outside of what I’m typically known for, so I was stoked. I was like, “Sure, I’ll be there. You don’t even have to pay me!” So, we all worked together, we all put together this crazy character. Then, I got to really contribute on a creative level with some of the stuff that I did for it. It was just a fun, fun process. I’m really glad that I had that opportunity.

You mention creative input. How much input did you have on the Swallows character, and was he always meant to be how we ultimately see him on the screen, or did he evolve as the production progressed?

Well, [executive producer] Bill Marks emailed me. We had actually worked together on some other things, and he said, “Hey, I’ve got this thing coming up and I think you could be good for it. I just don’t know if it’s your cup of tea.” He called me, and immediately after reading the material I said how I absolutely wanted to be involved in this. To add to my curiosity of the development process, I jumped in whole-heartedly – and I’m glad I did. The character, ultimately we’re all tasked with lifting something off of the page. It was already pretty out-there in terms of what was being said, but I added a lot of stuff. I added a lot of profanity on the floor, on the day. That’s my style. I try to always, in anything I do, always try and give a director as many choices as possible as much as I can within reason and within what time allows. So, I threw a lot of stuff their way, and they were really cool about it. And they fostered that environment of “Hey, if you come up with something, absolutely just throw it out there. If you want to do something different, for sure, let’s do it.” That’s always invaluable to foster that kind of atmosphere. Lowell and Emerson and [executive producer] J. Joly absolutely did do that.

Those guys were all involved in the first movie, as were Leo Fafard, Amy Matysio, Jonathan Cherry, and several others. How was it for you coming in to that existing environment, and was there a bedding-in process or did they make you feel at home straight away?

It was kind of like shift change time. We all showed up and they had already been shooting the front half of the movie. I showed up at the shift in Regina and they were just, “Hey man, how’s it going? Let’s go.” We shot the rest of the movie, and they were very welcoming. Obviously, they were happy that I was game. I think there may have been some reservations on other people’s part; I think they were looking at me with a little bit of “How on earth is this guy gonna pull off this character?!” So, I just went for it. I took down any sort of apprehension and reservation and I just went for it, and instantly we were all-in.

Throughout the movie, you got to spend a good chunk of your time on screen with Kevin Smith. How was it to work opposite Kevin?

We actually didn’t get to spend as much time together as it looked like. We were ships in the night because of our schedules. I ended up doing a lot of my stuff with the girls and with the crooks, you know, with the bad guy team. That’s the bulk of what I shared my work time with, and then they stitch it all together.

Away from Another WolfCop, you’re best known for playing William Murdoch in Murdoch Mysteries. How much fun was it to play such a slimeball of a bad guy here?

Oh, absolutely wonderful! I speak to my representatives all the time, always looking for things that are completely opposite of Murdoch, are different, as complex as possible. I’m synonymous with the show and the title character and the name, so it does have a very distinct brand and image. As an actor, it’s tough, because I don’t want to be known just for that and only for that. So, I will always look for things that are different – and this is as far out there as you can go, which I’m very happy for!

What’s the response been over in Canada to you in Another WolfCop, given how different a role it is to the character you play in Murdoch Mysteries?

It’s funny, because they’re massive fans of that genre. Those folks are not necessarily the fans of my show, so I kind of wonder. I don’t get a huge amount of feedback. Even on my social media outlets when I was promoting it and talking about it, I think people’s eyes were glazed over because the people who watch Murdoch are not the people who are going to see Another WolfCop. It’s different worlds, it’s hard to get a metric on that. I wish I had a better answer.

And is it fair to say this is the most bizarre project you’ve worked on to date?

It’s right up there, definitely top five. It was a new genre for me, so yeah, I would say in that regard definitely at the top.

In terms of dipping your toes into the genre, you’ve gone all-in on a movie about an alcoholic werewolf lawman.

Yeah, and that’s really what it was like. I thought if I was going to show up there on set then I’ve got to really embrace it. These people have been doing it for a while, and I’m sure they’re thinking I’m not going to bring it. So I had to just be as despicable as possible.

During the production, what was the most fun scene to be involved in from your perspective?

Oh, my escape was a lot of fun. When I get away and I blow the place up and all of that, that was a lot of fun. There was a bunch of improv that we did there. I can’t remember the lines exactly, but I came up with a couple of good insults last minute. And I had to actually speak to the girls, because I’m a dad – a dad of three girls – and so criticising the girls and body-shaming them… but it was fun that they kept some of my improv in there, so I was happy about that.

Your no-good character of Swallows tries to win over the Woodhaven public with the promise of beer and hockey. When we spoke to Leo Fafard, he went with beer, as it always leads to hockey, but if you could only choose one of those then which would it be?

Hockey. I was going to say the other way around – hockey always ends up leading to beer.

With Another WolfCop now in your rear-view mirror, what’s up next for you?

Well, I just started filming Season 12 of Murdoch this week. That will take me to November. But I also have a couple of books that I’ve optioned and we’re working away in the development process. One is called Boiler City Blues Trilogy and one is called Two Black Guys and the Unfinished Script. Then, there’s a few other concepts that are out there with producers. Actually, CineCoup and the Coup company who are the proponents of WolfCop and the IP, I liked the experience so much that I’ve actually become a partner. We’re looking to do other stuff, different stuff, not just movies. So yeah, that’s a real exciting side benefit.

On the Murdoch front, how is it as an actor to get that renewal for a new season, to get that almost safety blanket that means you can have more freedom with other projects that might come up?

It’s the ultimate. We all would love to have a successful series that we become synonymous with, especially in this case that my character is the name of the show – so it’s very identifiable. I’m so extremely grateful. The ratings keep going up and more and more countries watch it, it gets translated to more and more languages. It’s a global success. It’s a huge, huge blessing. Obviously, there are days where I wish I could be doing 10,000 other things, but I mean, how can you look upon this in any other way that just absolutely positive and grateful.

Another WolfCop is out now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD – and you can find our review here.

Leo Fafard | ANOTHER WOLFCOP

Back in 2014, Lowell Dean’s WolfCop proved to be hugely popular with many a genre fan, with Leo Fafard front-and-centre as alcoholic werewolf lawman Lou Garou. And now, with Another WolfCop available on home release, we caught up with Leo to discuss this furry follow-up.

STARBURST: Going back to the first WolfCop, how was it for you to see the reaction received by that picture back in 2014?

Leo Fafard: I don’t know if I say I was surprised, but I was amazed. I was just ecstatic at the time. I’d never been involved with something on that level before as an actor, so it was really enjoyable, it was this great thing to be a part of.

Was it a little bit surreal to be thrust into the spotlight after that picture?

Oh, absolutely. It was totally surreal, it was shocking. I’d never been in the spotlight like that before. It was certainly something to get used to, and all the social media coverage and attention was really humbling. There’s so much out there, there are so many people reacting to this, commenting on this. It kind of set me back on my heels for a little while, but I guess you get used to this thing, I suppose.

We guess it was a no-brainer, but you were always happy to return as Lou Garou then?

Yeah! Me and Lowell had always talked about doing a sequel, hoping that it would roll in to a series. We always thought that a great next step would’ve been a television series. The sequel, it was really good to experience that. You know, we have a lot of same players and a lot of the same crew as well. It was really nice to get back in the saddle with the same people and have a good time like that, doing it again. So we were all looking forward to it, I think.

Is it at the point now where it’s almost a like second family when you guys get together again?

[Laughs] It kind of is, it kind of is. It’s always a really good time and we all enjoy each other’s company. We really lucked out. It goes beyond the cast, it goes to the crew. It’s a really awesome bunch of people, we all get along so well. Anytime we get together is a really good time. We’ve done a feature film since then and used really a lot of the same cast and crew. We shot a feature that’s actually just getting distribution now called SuperGrid. Lowell directed it. We brought in a couple of new players, but Amy Matysio’s in there, Jonathan Cherry’s in there. I dunno, I guess we liked each other enough that we were looking for excuses to hang out.

Lowell has talked about how he wanted Another WolfCop to be crazier. For you, what was the craziest past of Another WolfCop?

Well, of course the intimate scene with the female she-cat or whatever the heck you call it – the sex scene. It was just so over the top and it got so graphic. It’s hard to compare other scenes as far as crazy and out of leftfield or just intense, inhibition-testing scenes. That would take the cake.

What lessons did you learn from that first movie that you brought to the sequel?

You know, Another WolfCop gave us a chance to round out the characters a little more, fill them out a little more – which was awesome. I’m hoping that that comes across, that we could inject a little more humanity into WolfCop and a little more vulnerability into Lou Garou. There’s a little bit more to both characters this time around. You know, I’m not a young fella. I’ve got a pretty deep well of experience, so I don’t know that I learnt a lot between the two [movies] that really spoke to either character in particular. It’s the type of movie that you just go out there, you put in 100% of your energy, and you do it to have a good time, to try and create something that’s extremely entertaining and that pushes the envelope a little. This isn’t a deep enough movie for that sort of character development, where you’re sitting there trying to figure out how you can give the characters that kind of depth. I just showed up and hoped I still had enough energy in me to conjure up the characters.

Everyone you speak to about WolfCop and Another WolfCop – and hopefully WolfCop 3 in a few years – will largely gravitate towards the WolfCop character, but how is it to just play plain ol’ Lou Garou?

I was really excited to have a second crack at Lou Garou and be able to give that character a little bit more attention. All through the first one, it was all so run-and-gun, so fast, just trying to get my lines out and hit my blocking, then we’re on to the next thing. I was very excited to be able to have a second crack and to fill him out, to make him look like a little bit more of a whole person than this two-dimensional womanizing drunk. I enjoyed it.

The bad guy of Another WolfCop worms his way in to Woodhaven with the promise of beer and hockey. If you could only keep one of those, which would it be?

That’s an easy question. It’d be beer, because where there’s beer, hockey will follow.

Another WolfCop is out now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD – and you can find our review here.

Lowell Dean | ANOTHER WOLFCOP

Back in late-2014, we were lucky enough to grab some time with Canadian writer/director Lowell Dean to discuss a bonkers-but-brilliant movie by the name of WolfCop. Focussing on alcoholic werewolf lawman Lou Garou, the film proved to be a huge favourite of many a genre fan – and the promise of a second WolfCop picture had fans chomping at the bit. Now, with Another WolfCop finally here, we were lucky enough to catch up with Lowell to discuss this furry follow-up.

STARBURST: The first WolfCop was pretty ‘out there’, so how did you go about trying to top the insanity of that first movie?

Lowell Dean: I actually thought it would be really easy to top the first film. The first film was made with very little money, very little time, just some ideas and some friends. We were really under the radar. I guess ignorance is bliss, because I thought it would be so easy to make a sequel – that we’d just need to up the ante a bit. But it proved to be very challenging. We had the same amount of time, we had way more ambition. A lot of the core team – myself, the producers, the actors, Emersen [Ziffle – make-up supervisor], the FX artists – were trying to be better, to do better for ourselves and for what we saw audiences responded to in the first film. It was an insane amount of pressure, too much pressure for something called Another WolfCop, I’d say. We just wanted to make it great, and maybe a little crazier. The word I put on my binder was “crazy”. I said that every scene had to be really crude, really weird, really sexy, or really insane – preferably all of the above!

For the first movie, you went through CineCoup – which you previously described as America’s Got Talent for filmmakers. Was it a little easier to get the financing this time out?

Again, it was easier in the fact that I didn’t have to sing and dance for a year. That was great. But the downside was that we wanted to be bigger. We dug our feet in the sand and said, “We can’t do this for the same budget!” We would’ve killed ourselves. We all agreed that we needed a budget of around $2 million – which was easier said than done for a little independent Canadian film. So, it took the producers a lot longer than I expected to raise the financing and pull it all together. It was funny, because if you look at the end of the first film it says “WolfCop 2, coming 2015!” We all agreed we’d make the first a year later, but that ended up taking a couple of years. I wanna get that on a t-shirt – “WolfCop 2, coming 2015!” We missed the boat on that one.

Another WolfCop ends with the promise of a third movie, but there’s no time scale mentioned this time out.

I think the producer didn’t want to put a date [laughs]. I just wanted to be as vague as possible this time. Like, “WolfCop will be back”.

Was there anything you wanted to do this time out that you realised was too crazy or you were forced to scrap?

A lot! Honestly, we storyboarded and planned out all the action. The end sequence at the hockey rink was going to be twice as big as it ended up being. We lost some financing and we lost some days towards the end of prep, so when it came time to shoot we all had this plan for something that was bigger. What kind of became heartbreaking was those hockey rink days where I had to pick and choose. As our clock was running out, I had to be like, “Okay, well let’s cut this fight scene down. Let’s do the first half of this one, then cut to this.” It was really stressful trying to cut and paste. One of the biggest things we ended up cutting, I cut because we all agreed that if we went in to this bigger idea or sequence or show that – we can’t do it unless we can do it right. So, we just put it on the shelf, I cut it out of the script, but it will happen. If we end up doing a third WolfCop, it will move over to there.

Given the success of the first movie, we’re guessing it was an easy sell to get all of the key cast and crew to return?

I think everybody wanted to come back. I think the core cast and crew of the first film, I think we all had a blast. It was a really fun experience, especially with the cast. We started to just figure it out. That’s the problem on a seventeen-day shoot. It’s not like a TV series, we just find our characters and our fun and our rhythm with each by the end of the seventeen days. This was very exciting to bring back Jonathan Cherry [Lou’s best pal Willie] and Amy Matysio [Lou’s cop buddy Tina] and Leo Fafard [Lou Garou/WolfCop] and say, “Now we know what you three are like with one another, let’s go farther. Let’s see how you connect.”

For the bad guy of the piece, you brought in Yannick Bisson as the extremely slimy Swallows. Was it always the plan to go with that sort of villain for the sequel?

No. Actually, in my first draft the villain was really different. It was more of an under-the-radar villain who was coming in to town. Through rewrites and feedback from producers, it was just, “Lowell, this character, he’s a weasel, but maybe rather than tricking Woodhaven or seducing Woodhaven, why don’t you have him publicly seduce Woodhaven?” So, he became a self-help guru at one point, then he was trying to show Woodhaven how to make money. Then we thought about what the simplest version of that was. “What does Woodhaven love? Beer! What does Saskatchewan and Canada love? Hockey! Okay, why don’t we have a guy come in to town like the Pied Piper and offer you hockey and beer?”

And while Canadians love hockey and beer, someone who is loud and proud of his love for Canada is Kevin Smith, who has a supporting role here as Mayor Bubba. How did he end up involved in the picture?

It was a great kind of fluke. He was scouting Moose Jaws in Saskatchewan, which is where the actual city of Moose Jaw is. I thought, “You’ve just gotta take the shot”, right? He’s someone who’d obviously be great in a movie like ours, he’d fit in so perfectly. One of our producers reached out, he luckily was in town, and he gave over and gave us six hours of his time. And we abused him for those six hours, and he was great. He was a gentleman. He comes from these smaller indie films, so he gave a lot of great advice and feedback, and he was fun.

What lessons do you think you learned from the first movie, and how do you feel you’ve progressed as a filmmaker since then?

I think technically I’ve progressed a lot. I think I’ve managed to get both more intense and more relaxed, which I know is a contradiction. I feel like I can see the forest from the trees and I know what I can take on. I know what not to short-change. It’s an ever-growing process, and I’m still learning, but to me it’s finding that balance of making something that’s not boring, that’s going to appeal to people, but that’s still going to speak to what I have to say inside me. And just the life of being on set is so chaotic. I’ve been learning to not get freaked out by the little things, to say, “Okay, when I do a film these ten things are going to go wrong. And when they do, how do we calmly and gracefully find a solution?”

Like you said earlier, the end of the first WolfCop comes up with the promise of a sequel in 2015. Even though that was there at the end of that first movie, was there ever a point where you were uncertain over whether you wanted to make a follow-up?

Yeah, there was always that uncertainty. There’s never a guarantee. There was a time where I thought that it might just be a joke – “WolfCop 2, coming 2015!” But I loved the character; he’s my baby, I created him. So, I will always care about him and want to do more, but yeah, there were times where I was like, “Is this all I’m ever gonna do? Am I only ever going to make WolfCop films?” Luckily, I’ve been able to go off and make other things between the two, but he’ll always have a place in my heart. If it’s wrong then I won’t wanna do it. If people can come together in the right circumstance and there’s the right demand, I wouldn’t even stop to breathe. I’d take five years off and see, like, Old Man WolfCop.

Already the franchise has had aliens, interspecies erotica, wolf dicks aplenty, and the very concept of an alcoholic werewolf cop is a crazy idea in itself. Looking at WolfCop 3, where can you take this in terms of scope and scale?

I can think of a few places, honestly. I actually already have a pretty firm idea for what I’d love to do with the next one. But if I tell you, you’ll know [laughs]. I think there are some places to go, whether it’s a side story or cleaning up the story that we started with these first two films. I think this character can go on in a lot of different ways.

Such as following on with the revitalising moondust which Lou discovers in Another WolfCop?

Yeah, what’s going to happen to a guy like that? He’s going to have to have some repercussions at some point.

And we’re guessing moondust isn’t exactly easy to come by, should he need another fix?

Exactly! And how addictive is this? These are the things I’m curious about. That’s not going to be good for Lou.

Away from all things WolfCop, what other projects are you working on at the moment?

Since WolfCop 2, I’ve directed another film, another indie film, called SuperGrid – which is kind of like a post-apocalyptic, future Western. There’s a trailer out now. I don’t know when the movie is going to come out, but that was for producer Hugh Patterson, who was also the producer of WolfCop. He has been developing that and he brought me on to direct. It was really fun to do something with the same group of people but very tonally different.

The last time we spoke, you said that your dream project was to one day tackle a superhero film. In a way, you could possibly label WolfCop as an antihero of sorts. Is a full-on superhero picture still a big dream, though?

It’s funny you bring that up, because since we talked all those years ago there’s been nothing but superhero films. While I love superheroes – of course, it’s on the bucket list – I don’t think the world is lacking superhero movies right now, so I’d rather do some of the other weirder things that are happening. I of course want to make things with bigger budgets, more time to explore visually some things, but I’ve got a long list of films I need to do.

With there being so many returning cast and crew for Another WolfCop, do you guys almost have a sort of ‘second family’ feel by this point?

Yeah, for sure. There are always people who change, but so much of the people behind WolfCop are a family. It is a family. It gets easier, in a weird way. WolfCop, WolfCop 2, SuperGrid – it’s like a homecoming. We have shorthand, we make fun of each other. It’s like going to camp rather than going to a job.

Given how they’re such strongly Canadian movies, what has the reaction been to the WolfCop movies over in Canada?

I think the first film was kind of mixed. I feel like we got a better response outside of Canada, which is hilarious. I guess we’ll find out on the second film. It had a limited theatrical run, but it’s only now coming out on Blu-ray and VOD everywhere. But I hope people respond to it. I hope they see it’s more funnier, more playful. Wherever it’s played, it’s gotten pretty decent reactions so far. So, fingers crossed, right?

Another WolfCop is out now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD – and you can find our review here.