Feature Category: Interviews

Rendlesham Forest is a site that has been long-discussed by UFO enthusiasts after a reported incident that took place in Suffolk back in 1980. Now the topic of an upcoming feature, titled The Rendlesham UFO Incident, we were lucky enough to get some time with director Daniel Simpson and producer Laurie Cook to discuss the project. Before we get to the meat of these interviews, though, here’s our review of the upcoming film.

THE RENDLESHAM UFO INCIDENT / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DANIEL SIMPSON / SCREENPLAY: DANIEL SIMPSON, ADAM PRESTON / STARRING: ROBERT CURTIS, ABBIE SALT, DANNY SHAYLER / RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 6TH

The UFO sightings and an encounter with a landed craft, made by US military personnel based at RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk, in late December 1980 is regarded as Britain’s equivalent to the famous Roswell UFO crash case that occurred in the USA in 1947. These cases are similar because they both started as rumours, and over the years new evidence, eyewitness accounts, and promises of more revelations have been wheeled out by the believers that an exotic event occurred in Rendlesham forest, and by the sceptics who think it is a load of tosh.

The Rendlesham incident made its first mainstream appearance in the News of the World on October 2nd, 1983, with the front page headline of “UFO lands in Suffolk – and that’s official”. The first encounter was on Boxing Day, when three security men from the airbase went to investigate lights in the forest and saw a metallic triangular object in a clearing that slowly flew away through the woods. Later, one of the witnesses said he touched the craft and telepathically received a binary code from it that so far has failed to be decoded. Two nights later, Lt. Col. Charles Halt, the Deputy Base Commander, explored the locality with several other servicemen who took Geiger counter readings and viewed unusual lights.

In 1983, a memo to the British Ministry of Defence, written by Halt two weeks after the UFO sightings, was made public and a year later an audio tape of his trip into the forest was distributed amongst the UFO community. Since then there have been numerous arguments about the chronology and accuracy of these sightings and a falling out between the main protagonists. Halt believes that these UFOs were extraterrestrial visitors, whilst others have considered the possibility it was a craft piloted by time-travellers from the future.

Sceptics argue that a combination of Soviet satellites re-entering the atmosphere and three bright fireball events over the Christmas period could have triggered the initial sightings, and that the Orford Ness lighthouse was responsible for the lights seen moving inside the forest. Other explanations range from a farmer burning rubbish, a practical joke staged to scare the guards at the East Gate of the base, that it was a story to scare rookies, or a misinformation campaign to cover-up a nuclear incident.

No amount of debunking has had much impact on the belief in the exotic nature of this event; instead with every passing year it seems to have a tighter grip on our imaginations. Underlining this point is the release of The Rendlesham UFO Incident, which is the first feature film to explore this subject. As Nick Pope, the former head of the Ministry of Defence’s UFO Project, notes, “The fact that the Rendlesham Forest incident is referenced in a sci-fi movie shows how firmly this classic UFO encounter is now embedded in the public consciousness. We’ve seen the same thing happen with the Roswell incident, and with Area 51, in America. Rendlesham Forest has been dubbed ‘Britain’s Roswell’ and I think this film shows how appropriate this label is.”

The film cleverly uses the ‘facts’ from the Rendlesham case to weave a story around three metal detector treasure hunters. It starts with the audio recording of Halt’s real venture into the forest followed by the rest of the film that consists of fictional footage from a stolen laptop computer. The treasure hunters are Sally (Salt), her boyfriend Gus (Curtis) and their friend Jake (Shayler). Gus is mainly focussed on searching for Saxon gold, the buried wealth left behind hundreds of years ago, whereas Jake is more interested in the possibility of extraterrestrials in the heavens above, which represent the future and spiritual values rather than material wealth.

As they enter the forest their mood, along with the weather, gets increasingly dark and foreboding. Military aircraft frequently fly overhead as if they are tracking them and they come upon a field of dead horses. Once they enter the forest they decide to wait until night time to make their search as this is private land and they don’t want to be caught trespassing. They are obviously not aware that marching around a forest at night with camera lights and head lamps makes them much easier to spot by any angry landowner or alien forces that might lurk amongst the trees. It certainly cues the opportunity to feature lots of creepy footage of them talking to camera as they get more tired and confused.

The group get glimpses of a UFO, but the rot sets in the next day when they find their car has been stolen and they soon get lost trudging around the forest because their GPS stops working. The trappings of technology let them down and they are left to their own devices to get themselves out of this situation. The woods are a primal wilderness away from our normal, rational, orderly habitat that we can control and organise. As UFO commentator Peter Rogerson puts it, the wilderness “is the world of untamed nature outside the boundaries of habitation, the domain of the unknown, of passion and sexuality, of ‘the unconscious’, the secret heart of things, chaos, disorder and the ‘supernatural’”.

The treasure hunters literally walk into this nightmare scenario where everything is strange and unexpected. The UFOs haunt the skies at night and in the following day they find an abandoned U.S. Air Force Installation where the secrets of Rendlesham spill out like an overflowing toilet. Like the case itself, the film explores and takes you ever deeper into our fears and aspirations, and is enigmatic to the end. An astonishing and mind blowing journey into the heart of a world famous UFO hotspot. 

Rating:
 

And now for the interviews. First up, director Daniel Simpson:

STARBURST: When did you get involved with this project?

Daniel Simpson: The project started in the summer of 2010, when I moved to live in Suffolk and discovered Rendlesham Forest and the historic events connected to it. By December of that year the first draft of a loose story outline was being drafted up and a 2-minute teaser had been shot and edited to help with the funding.

What are your favourite alien/UFO movies, and which films have had the most impact on you and your career?

Looking back, there are several that I have adored. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is an all-time favourite, and I think of this film more as a ‘UFO’ film rather than an ‘alien’ film. Another favourite is Alien, which of course is an ‘alien’ film rather than a ‘UFO’ film. I make this distinction because The Rendlesham UFO Incident was always designed to be a ‘UFO’ film – it’s all about the mystery from the the human perspective. One UFO film that did have a profound and long-lasting effect on me was the 1993 film Fire in the Sky, directed by Robert Lieberman. This was also a film based on a real story.

Do you have an interest in real UFO and alien reports?

My interest in the subject has dramatically increased over the years it took to make the film, yes, but I have always had a fascination with the subject since childhood, so it was an obvious choice for me when looking for a new film idea. I have attended a couple of conferences on the Rendlesham case and met with some of the world’s leading investigators into the world-wide phenomenon of UFOs. It’s very hard not to take these people seriously as many have devoted much of their lives to the subject, and the wealth of evidence that they have amassed is simply impossible to ignore. 

Did you do much research into the actual Rendlesham story before co-writing and filming? What elements of it did you want to include? 

You have to know your subject, so yes we did research what happened back in 1980, and as the production grew I got drawn into it ever more deeply. There was always the need to respect the facts presented within the original story and the USAF witnesses who supplied the information. Filming on location, where it actually happened, was a must. Using visual references and drawings from real life witnesses. Using the real life recording made by Lt. Col. Charles Halt. The primary element we wanted to include, therefore, as much as possible was the truth.

The story about the treasure hunters was made up, did you consider doing a more documentary-type coverage of the events?

The idea was to make the first full-length movie surrounding the famous event as there had never been one made. In our research we were fully aware that dozens of documentaries had already been made, and a TV movie also. If it were a documentary that we had decided to produce, the question to ourselves as filmmakers would have been ‘what is it that is new that we can bring to this already saturated topic?,’ and since new evidence is extremely hard to uncover, we opted for a fictional feature film approach that would hook into the original story at the same time as being contemporary.

Have you included any specific incidents or features from the real events into the film?

The entire film was shot on location in and around Rendlesham Forest where the famous story unfolded. It was also filmed in the former USAF airbase Bentwaters, which is close to the forest and which was home to the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing, who together with the Security Police witnessed the UFO landing at Christmas in 1980. So the film has all these wonderful atmospheric locations at its heart, it couldn’t have been achieved any other way. Specific incidents and features associated with the original story include a drawing of the UFO craft seen by one of the witnesses, and the front cover of a national newspaper that reported the incident when the story broke in 1983. Former USAF Security Police witness Larry Warren was responsible for bringing the story into the public domain and he went on to co-write a Times bestselling book entitled Left at East Gate, which brilliantly documents the whole 1980 event. Within this book is presented the fact that the twin airbases, Bentwaters and Woodbridge, that are either side of the forest are connected by a secret underground complex, and this is a theme that is explored in our film in some detail.

Have you got a favourite scene?

My favourite scene that I can mention without spoiling is about 30 minutes into the film, where the protagonists run into a clearing in the trees and see red lights moving behind the clouds above the tree-line.

Was it scary shooting the scenes at night in the forest? Did you need to put the actors in the right frame of mind or was the creepy setting enough?

Because filming took place over nearly 2 years, we gradually got more used to it. But at first it was creepy, and there was the added fear of getting lost, which didn’t help. It also depended on how many of the crew there were filming. On one occasion I returned to the forest at night with just the actor Danny Shayler. It was below freezing and we were running around doing all kinds of crazy filming, trying to capture anything that might be scary or interesting. I can say that the only times I got sightly freaked out up there was when we sensed there might be other human beings that we didn’t know lurking in the shadows. To get the most out of the actors we literally blindfolded them and dumped them in the middle of the forest at midnight, left them alone for hours lost in the dark, then secretly hunted them down with masks on and hurled missiles at them, tripped them up with trip-wires and played terrifying sounds through speakers. Whatever it took really.

What sort of special effects did you use to create the UFOs shown in the film?

Some of the VFX were created by myself in After Effects, but most were created in London at two VFX company’s using Nuke software.

What do you think actually happened at Rendlesham? Do you think US military personnel actually saw an alien spaceship?

It is my belief that the USAF did actually see something that is from another world or dimension. Former witness Lt Col Charles Halt has gone on record to state this also.

Does your film provide the answers to what was seen at Rendlesham? 

The film raises more questions that it does provide answers. It clearly shows that what was seen was not a lighthouse 6 miles away, as some would like you to believe, and that it was in fact extraterrestrial. But in terms of how other more conventional-type films would have everything neatly wrapped up by the end, then no it does not.

Why do you think the Rendlesham incident still strikes a chord with skeptics and believers?

It’s one of, if not the, biggest UFO incident ever recorded along with the Roswell case and it took place over 3 consecutive nights. I think that the fascination in the case is amplified as a result of the witnesses being multiple USAF personnel, with the addition that one of those people was a Lieutenant Colonel who made an audio recording on a dictaphone as the events unfolded. Whatever one believes happened, it remains a great mystery that deserves a valid response. This is a subject that refuses to rest, and hopefully one day we may know the truth.

Do you intend to write or make any UFO related movies in the future?

I hope so. I have learned so much about this fascinating subject and it was an enormous pleasure making The Rendlesham UFO Incident. Personally, I would love a fantastic script to land already written on my desk for me to direct. Trouble is, they’re hard to come by.

And now for our talk with producer Laurie Cook:

STARBURST: What attracted you to this project?

Laurie Cook: The pitch was very simple and pure: Blair Witch meets aliens. It was high concept, low budget, allowing for both creepy scares and some choice VFX adding scale. I then discovered the original incident and thought it was such a great mythology to tap into

Had you heard of the Rendlesham Incident before?

I hadn’t, but you only have to type “Rendlesham” into Google and be inundated with UFO-related sites. There is so much information to be found, and it was such a credibly documented event that it was surprising that no one had used it in a film before!

Was it easy to get financial backing for it?

It was, comparatively. Partly because we were asking for such a small amount of money, and combined with the pitch and concept it was too tempting for financiers to pass up!

Did you do much research into the Rendlesham story before filming?

Yes, myself and Dan did a lot of research into the original incident, but also the forest itself. Dan lives near the forest and we walked it endlessly looking for locations and interesting backdrops. We shot some of the night scenes near the “UFO trail” but didn’t consciously try and replicate anything of the original incident – apart from the screaming animal noises, that was just too creepy not to include.

Were there any particular problems with planning and developing this production?

We had no script! We wanted a really natural feel to the film, given the “realistic” nature of found footage, so we would give the actors a brief for each scene and maybe some key words, but then would let the actors improvise and “find” the scene during the process. Sounds fun but it meant we had over 100 hours of footage by the end of the shooting process.

Are you planning any future UFO-related film projects?

I’ve produced another Alien film called Outpost 37 (or Alien Outpost in America). This takes place after a UFO invading force attacked earth – we defeated them but they left thousands of soldiers behind. The Outpost is the last defence against them as the second invasion is planned…

The Rendlesham UFO Incident is at select UK cinemas on February 6th and DVD February 9th.

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Earlier in the year, STARBURST had the privilege of speaking to Robin Bell and Rhys Jones about Series 3 of the widely-acclaimed Twisted Showcase anthology web series. With Series 4 currently being worked on, the duo have now released the Twisted Showcase Story Collection, an eBook that is full of terror, dark humour, and a whole heap of social commentary and satire. We were lucky enough to grab some words with the twisted twosome about the book, about their influences, and about the future of Twisted Showcase.

STARBURST: Where did the whole notion of putting an anthology book together come from?

Robin Bell: I think it was just something we’d talked about for a while, wasn’t it?

Rhys Jones: We talked about it.

Robin: I know Rhys wanted to do more kind of story and prose stuff.

Rhys: I remember you said you had some short stories you’d written that were lying around and not doing an awful lot. I think that gave us the idea of doing a collection of them rather than them just sitting on your laptop. They had the Twisted Showcase vibe, so it just made sense.

Robin: Then we found a really horrible Christmas story.

The festive tale definitely had a feel, like most of your stories, that it could be something from Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow; darkly humourous but a little messed up at the same time.

Robin: Yeah, that’s what we’re trying to go for a lot of the time. Those kind of things that you mentioned, and Cronenberg.

So were the majority of the stories already in mind when you decided to put together the book or was a lot of it having to come up with fresh ideas?

Robin: Quite a lot of them I had written already. I think the Fear of Living sequel was quite new and a new idea that I’d had. Both of the zombie ones, too.

Rhys: My other stuff in there, that’s also very new, like the black mould story .

And for somebody not familiar with Twisted Showcase or your work, how would you describe it?

Robin: Weird.

Rhys: Yeah, weird.

Robin: I guess we always say it’s like a modern Twilight Zone mixed in with the domestic and, not supernatural, but the domestic and the uncanny, I guess.

Rhys: Blending those few things together.

We guess that coming up with the stories for this was a similar process to how you would do so for the web series, but what did you draw inspiration from in terms of the narrative style for the stories themselves?

Rhys: With the zombie one I wrote , I was reading The Catcher in the Rye. I know it sounds strange but the teen angst tone and the voice of the character of Holden Caulfield – that’s what I was trying to focus with the zombies. But I also sort of married it with this sort of light-hearted zombie story about trying to find out who you are.

Robin: I said it played like a John Hughes zombie film, that one. Kind of a ‘Brat Pack’ type of thing.

Rhys: That’d be the teenage angst, I guess.

Robin: The thing we say about the whole collection is, you know the M. R. James ghost stories? Those kind of short stories. The Attic is quite inspired by those, especially.

One of the few, if not hazy, pictures of Robin (left) and Rhys (right) in existence 
 

How does writing short stories for an eBook compare to writing for the web series?

Robin: I prefer doing screenwriting. I find prose really difficult; you start going into just writing dialogue, then little bits of description, like writing a screenplay. So I find it really difficult writing prose.

Rhys: I really like writing prose because I feel like you can waffle on a little more.

Now that Twisted Showcase is to be available as an eBook and a web series, are there any plans to do a longer format or a more continuity-based, progressive story?

Robin: We’ve got a TV pitch all kind of written and ready. We’ve got a pilot episode for that written, it’s just waiting for the right time for someone to take a chance on an anthology really. The only anthologies that people really take a chance on are from big names like Charlie Brooker and The League of Gentlemen guys, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. I think, for a new one, it’s not quite the right time at the moment. I think that there’s a Twilight Zone remake in the works at the moment, then there’s the new anthology stuff like American Horror Story where it’s a whole series – we could do something like that. Then we’ve got a radio thing, we’re pitching that. I think we’d like to go back to writing anthology films as well.

An anthology film like a Creepshow, a Body Bags, a Trick ‘r’ Treat?

Robin: We love that. We had one once, but I think we were thinking too kind of big really. We had characters going into the underworld and stuff like that. We need to get the Twisted Showcase version of that and do that properly.

If you were looking at a TV series or a pilot for one of these ideas, where do you think would be a good home for it?

Robin: I initially kind of thought BBC3, because they had the older audience who were more familiar with anthologies, like The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, Tales of the Unexpected in the ‘70s. So that was from a nostalgia kind of point. Then you bring in a new audience who watch BBC3, it’d be something new for them. Then BBC3 ended.

Rhys: We had thought about maybe approaching the Horror Channel with it.

Robin: Yeah, we were going to approach the Horror Channel but we never really got round to it. We’ve got some big name writers attached to the TV series as well, like Stephen Gallagher (Doctor Who, Eleventh Hour, Crusoe), Debbie Moon (Wolfblood) was attached, and Neil Jones who wrote Bedlam.

How did they get involved then? Did you approach them directly or did they get in touch once they’d seen the web series?

Robin: Wasn’t it over Twitter mainly?

Rhys: Yeah.

Robin: I can’t remember whether we approached them or they approached us. I think in some cases we were introduced and in other cases they were just fans of the show.

Rhys: We just kind of came together somehow.

You mentioned the Horror Channel earlier, and that’d be a great home, especially how they showcase British talent and low-budget projects…

Robin: The other thing that I think could happen with it is, because it’s quite well-respected as part of The Guardian’s Top 25 Web Shows and that multitude of people in that, with BBC3 stopping, why don’t the BBC make iPlayer have exclusive stuff on there, like have the only British independent web show from that list on BBC iPlayer so that people can watch it on there? You could do half-hour episodes exclusive to iPlayer. Not that we’re telling the BBC what they should do…

It was pretty impressive to see you guys on The Guardian’s Top25 list with names like Joss Whedon, Seth MacFarlane, and Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. What came from that in terms of interest in yourselves and the work? Did you find that you were head-hunted a little or did you just get your heads down and get cracking on the next series?

Rhys: We just got down and got straight on with Series 2 when we saw our names on the list.

Robin: We rushed Series 2, maybe panicked, because we didn’t have any kind of plans. We thought we’d get maybe a couple of hundred people watching if we were lucky. When that happened, we kind of rushed the next series.

Rhys: It was probably quite bad, actually.

Robin: We were a three, then one of us kind of dropped off. But the Top 25 Guardian got us some meetings at places, including the BBC for the first time.

Rhys: And with Series 2, I think we learnt an awful lot. Probably more with Series 2 than we did for Series 1, perhaps. That led to us doing a much better Series 3.

Rhys: It also helps when you’re chasing actors, by saying, “We’re a Guardian Top 25 series.” Like approaching Norman Lovett and others. It says we’re not just a bunch of dickheads!

Red Dwarf‘s Norman Lovett in Twisted Showcase‘s “Toilet Soup” 

Do you find yourselves able to get away with a bit more in the book format because you don’t have to worry about how to bring it to life on the screen?

Rhys: I’m not sure I’d say get away with more, but we can certainly do some bigger things in the stories.

Robin: I think you just think a little bit bigger; we can have demons, we can go to the end of the world.

Rhys: Different locations, or even an attic.

Robin: Some of the stories that I’ve done for the book, in the web series it’d be absolutely ridiculous, would look terrible. But then there’s toilets. You love your toilets.

Rhys: I do love my toilets!

In both the web series and the book, there’s a fine balance between grim, dark stories but with a dose of black humour involved. Do you find yourselves having to make a constant effort to keep the stories balanced?

Rhys: I think the stuff I tend to do tends to be more funny before it’s necessarily dark. But it’s still pretty dark.

Robin: You always tell me you have a really dark idea, then you send it me and I’ll go “Oh, you put loads of jokes in there?” I think the first story in there was the first story where I thought “I’m not going to put any jokes in this at all.” I think I was inspired by The Guardian column that said that we’re like The League of Gentlemen but with no jokes. Aside from taking jokes out of that one, that’s probably the grimmest one…

Rhys: Well the Christmas story is probably the grimmest…

Robin: Or The Attic. But then you get the kind of surreal imagery…

Rhys: Well I laughed a couple of times through that one, but that could’ve been because it was so grim that it was a nervous reaction.

Robin: I like things that people can react to in different ways. So we don’t worry about whether people laugh or if people are terrified too much.

A lot of the stories do tend to end on a bleak note or things will be resolved ‘for now’ and there’s something still brewing…

Rhys: Yeah, life’s always going to get worse.

Robin: That’s something that I’ve been worried about quite a bit, actually. On Twitter I had a big thing about it, saying is this screenplay okay because it’s just full of negative ideas – it’s got no kind of positivity or positive message at all. I was thinking, what’s the point in it? Is it just saying that life is shit? Is that saying anything new? I started to worry about that a bit.

Rhys: There’s some hope towards the end of my zombie story.

Robin: But I think we’ve found a balance.

Rhys: I think that was always the idea of Twisted Showcase, to tell kind of dark, depressing stories.

Well life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. And I wouldn’t say that the stories are all just bleak but that they actually have a lot of social commentary and satire about them.

Robin: With Series 3, we did try to put more of a message in there. We did worry about that. We tried to make things have more of a point in Series 3.

Rhys: We wanted to say something in Series 3.

What type of things tend to get your creative juices flowing then at the moment?

Robin: I’m trying to think of stuff of mine at the moment, of what’s the kind of good thing in there. I think we write about illness quite a bit, mental illness and depression and those kind of things. A negativity vibe. We write about negativity quite a lot. One idea for Series 4, we sat down, me and Rhys were just talking about stuff and then said, “Fucking hell, why are we always worrying about age all the time?” So we started writing a story about worrying about aging and where would that take you. So that was one of the first Series 4 stories we started writing.

So where are things with Series 4 at the moment? And do you tend to try and get the whole series’ worth of episodes planned before shooting them or do you do them all on an individual episode basis?

Robin: Usually we try and write the series, then start shooting it. Then after we start shooting it, we’ll tend to get bored of some of the ideas and so try and write something new. So it’s often something new will come along out of making a series.

Rhys: With Series 3’s Empty Sofa, that came about while we were still making Series 3 – at one point it was only four episodes.

Robin: Series 4, I think we’ve got four episodes written. We just did something about two weeks ago, we got Debbie Moon, who writes Wolfblood, to come in and write an episode. That’s going to be amazing – a Bafta-winning writer on Twisted Showcase! So we might have a couple of new writers on board, and we’ve had people kind of script editing as well. We’ve got four scripts ready to shoot now. We’re just looking for who’s going to direct them, which will hopefully come in the new year, I guess.

And how long does it generally take to shoot one of the episodes?

Robin: Every episode will be shot in a day, pretty much.

You touched on it before, but have you seriously thought about any other mediums, such as an audio book?

Robin: We are at the moment pitching to BBC Radio about a radio anthology. If that doesn’t get picked up then I think we might try and do it ourselves as an audio book. We’ve got one or two, even three or four-minute, audio plays that we might try and test the water with to see if we can make an audio story. They’re quite difficult to get right as the atmosphere has to be right about it to pull it off. Probably next year we’ll look to do some audio ones, then maybe try and do a whole series of them.

And when can we expect Series 4 of the web series to arrive then?

Robin: It depends what big names we get, really, and how much they cost, how much we need to raise for the series. We’ve got some big names in mind in terms of who we want to get, but if we get them then we need to think about how we’re going to fund them. If the book does really well then we’ll have no problem. Thinking in terms of reality, we’ve got to think about how we can fund it next year. Hopefully we can get a little bit of it with the funding, so it might be the end of next year at the earliest.

Will Gareth David-Lloyd be back?

Robin: Yes, but maybe not in front of the camera. We’re not sure, but we’re still talking to him about other things that he might do.

Torchwood‘s Gareth David-Lloyd in Twisted Showcase‘s “Peter & Paul”
 

With the eBook, what devices is it available on?

Robin: Yeah, through Amazon and Kindle. There’s a downloadable app on Amazon as well. It’s quite a quick read. We were kind of worried about how to price it because £5 for 50 pages sounds like quite a lot. We were thinking of releasing them separately and charging £1 but that was ridiculous. Then it was kind of about raising funds for Series 4.

Have you thought about going down crowd-funding again for the show?

Robin: We did it to make Series 3. It was successful and really good, but we felt it’s a bit asking for something for nothing in a way – you don’t get anything at the end of it. It was great how people chipped in and helped out to make the series. Before that, we’d made two series for nothing. I think we’re going to try and look at different routes first before crowd-funding.

So what would be the ideal endgame for the property in your eyes?

Robin: I don’t know. Twisted Showcase is just so malleable to anything, like anthology films, series from it.

Rhys: There’s still a lot for us to explore with it.

Robin: I guess with Twisted Showcase, I think we started off as just wanting it to showcase our writing as we both see ourselves as writers. As long as we’re writing and it leads to other chances for us to get our own shows on TV or in film then we’d be quite happy.

You can order the Twisted Showcase Story Collection from Amazon and be sure to check out TwistedShowcase.com for further details on on-going projects from Robin and Rhys.

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Find your local STARBURST stockist HERE, or buy direct from us HERE. For our digital edition (available to read on your iOS, Android, Amazon, Windows 8, Samsung and/or Huawei device – all for just £1.99), visit MAGZTER DIGITAL NEWSSTAND.

CLICK TO BUY!

MORE FROM AROUND THE WEB:

Perhaps best known as Zhaan in the TV space opera FARSCAPE, but also appearing in MAD MAX 2 and JAMES BOND film THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, VIRGINIA HEY is an iconic genre figure – even gracing the cover of STARBURST. She’s now ready to venture back in front of the camera in a new sci-fi web series, KOSMOS currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter. We spoke to her to find out more…

STARBURST: What was it about the Kosmos pitch that attracted you to it?
Virginia Hey: The director, Si Horrocks, is what initially attracted me to Kosmos, he’s a very talented director roaring into the spotlight with festival wins under his belt from his last film, Third Contact, he’s a rising star in the industry radar and all eyes will be on Kosmos with great expectation. He’s an Indie Rockstar! I love bathing in brilliance, so I leapt forward and suggested myself for his cast.
I’ve been on a sabbatical for several years away from acting so I could concentrate of my business to get it rolling, so it’s crucial now that I step back in in a vehicle that’s shining with a new energy of creativity.
Gone are the days where high profile actors had to only be seen in big studio flicks and were penalised for stepping away from that system. These days there is no stigma involved for a main-cast actor to jump into indie or low budget productions. To be honest, often the best scripts are in the hands of the indie directors these days, their pure and untouched ideas really soar! The industry is always on the lookout for fresh new talent, and as an actor it’s vital to work with directors who have new vision.
We have to thank Samuel L. Jackson for breaking that glass ceiling of production snobbery, his aim was to do good creative artistic work, and he searched for brilliance and together with big blockbusters he also worked work with directors whose work was “out of the box”. He was the first high profile actor to break barriers and work in very low budget and indie productions. It created a magnificent body of work for him.
I’m not comparing myself to the level of Samuel L. Jackson, but I am comparing myself to his love of seeking out great work at any level!
Farscape was my last role before stepping into a sabbatical at 49. It was my best work by far, and I was utterly spoilt by working with directors who expected such a high level of excellence from me, and I, in turn, slaved to give them the best I could; I worked so hard, it was a very complex character, the first complex character I’ve ever played. I vowed when I stepped back in I would only select roles and productions where I could continue to grow as an actress.

Apparently, you’ve not seen any scripts yet, only character outlines – that must give you an element of excitement for what’s to come?
I’ve been privy to the storylines in several conversations with the director, and I’ve seen drafts, not the ultimate final scripts, but what I heard and saw I loved! And of course, the opportunity to work with a rising star director was irresistible!
Bear in mind, we actors never ever see any scripts during the casting process, we’re given “sides” to prepare for auditions, which are single sheets of the 2-3 scenes the director wants to see you tackle. If we win the role we are then given the full script draft for a film, or episode one draft of a series. That’s all. And that’s at the highest level of work. Of course, if you are Meryl Streep or Robert De Niro or any actor at that pinnacle you will receive a full script prior to auditioning, and often will not have to audition at all.
You base your decisions on the director and on the breakdowns of script, and on the sides that you see. That’s a talent in itself. I could do an entire article on that alone!

The Kosmos Kickstarter campaign has been gaining a lot of momentum over the last few weeks; it must be rewarding to know people want to see something you believe in.
Oh yes, its very heart-warming that the campaign has generated so much attention, so many wonderful folk who have contributed in order to be a part of Kosmos! And also, especially moving for me is that folk really want to see me step back into acting again. The industry takes a sitting on the side-lines stance when a profile actor steps away for a long period of time, it watches what you do, and wont embrace you on the same level where you left off, you have to almost prove yourself again, and so I’m so proud that Kosmos will be the vehicle to carry me back into the craft I so love. I feel safe in the talents of Si Horrocks!

If you had to persuade someone who’s on the fence about pledging to the campaign, what would you tell them?
I’d say: Jump in! Be a part of creating a sci-fi series! Help make this production leap forward; you will have the wonderful satisfaction of knowing that you were one of the people responsible for getting it off the ground! How cool is that! And if you love art and science and entertainment then help us create for you! There are such cool contribution rewards too, have a peek.  

As mentioned, this will be your first acting job for a while. What made you stop, and how did you get into producing perfumes and soaps?
Well this is a long story…  go grab a tea… Immediately after Farscape, in 2001, I went over to Los Angeles; I finally felt I could compete as an actor in that pool. I was on a career high, the highest I’ve ever been in my 30-year career as an actress, I was 49, and so proud of all my hard work. As soon as I arrived I was faced with something I’d never come across before… ageism! Every agent I went to told me that I was too old, for my type, to enter the American industry for the first time, and that A-listers my age/type were clamouring for work, good roles were few and far between for my age/type, and that the ones going would be snapped up by A-listers… I was introduced to an ageism I’d never known before!
To explain, the industry used to run with stereotypes, you were cast into folders of age categories. 20s-30s, 30s-40s, 40s-50s, and so on. Each age category had a stereotypical “look”, paraphrasing, from young lead/hero/romantic/artistic, to young-mum/white-collar/professional, to grand-mum. I didn’t fit into any of it! I was 50, a baby boomer, young looking, healthy and fit, tall with a strong ‘warrior’ look… They said they didn’t know what to do with me. It was terrible timing for me, 2002 was when all the A-list ladies over 40 who were not stereotypical to their age at that time, were struggling with no work, nothing was being written for them. The baby boomers were, and are, an army of a new generational energy never been seen before: fit, young, vibrant and nothing like the Golden Girls or what we know of our grandmothers at our age!
As a result, older actresses started creating their own work and clever producers who saw the flaw in the market started to aim at it and Sex in the City was born – and Desperate Housewives – they broke the glass ceiling! And so over the last 10 years, all remnants of that ceiling have gone. Now baby boomers are included in their own folders at the casting offices. All hail to the new category!
But in 2001, I was faced with a dilemma… well, do I go back to Australia where there is no ageism… or do I stay here in LA and ride out the ageism phase? I’d just made the massive move to LA, in hindsight I should have gone over first to test the water, THEN made the move… but I don’t regret my lack of caution because it led me to my second love of my life, White Flower Lei.
To explain, I wasn’t sure what to do having been told I was too old to act in the USA for my type, so I decided to take a break and concentrate on a business and then return to acting later once the world had overcome ageism!
I was considering during the hiatus going back to my art/design/stylist background, when suddenly the decision was made for me by my beautiful fans! I was invited to all the massive US Sci-fi Comic-cons and would always wear my favourite perfume… ALL the fans that came near me commented on the beautiful scent and asked where they could buy it. Well, that started my business, White Flower Lei. Born 2002. So, in a nutshell, I started with perfumes and soaps, added candles for a few years, and now I’m back to perfumes and soap! I handmake everything myself using the most luxurious extravagant ingredients that cost me a fortune! And my Art background helped me design all my products and their packaging. To be honest, I’ve had tremendous fun using all my other creative skills for all these years! But now it’s time to bring back the big guns, my love for performing arts!!!

You can find out more about KOSMOS, and be part of the process at the Kickstarter page – but BE QUICK – there’s only days left! – and check out Virginia’s highly recommended (Christmas is just around the corner, folks!) WHITE FLOWER LEI range at her website. Virginia Hey will be appearing at Digi-Con in Doncaster on January 10th-11th and at Sci-Fi Scarborough on March 14th-15th.

As flighty grey-skinned alien Chiana in the classic TV series FARSCAPE, GIGI EDGLEY gained a legion of admirers, now she’s set to star in a pertinent sci-fi short, HASHTAG, currently heading towards the finish line of a Kickstarter campaign. We spoke to her to find out more…

STARBURST: So what can you tell us about Hashtag?

Gigi Edgley: It’s science fiction in the style of The Twilight Zone. Our writer was inspired to write it by a TED talk about our cultural obsession with speed and technology. The story is set in a near-future world where social media and celebrity dominate our lives. Hashtag is a genuine science fiction film, in the sense that it is about a possible future based on current social trends. Our ultimate dream is to take it to Sundance, Cannes and Toronto. I know we all search the world for films that are complex, intriguing and captivating and Hashtag simply and completely has all these elements. Ultimately we would love to make into a feature film and/or series with the help of our family, friends and fans.

And what about the role you’re playing, the enigmatically-named X?

X is a sensational character! It’s very rare that I come across female leads that are enthralling and incredibly strong but are not afraid to show the world their vulnerable side as well. X lives in this amazing world that we have never laid eyes on before! The possibilities for the design, costume and visual effects are endless. I can’t wait to put her in this world that is equipped with everything she though was real. She is an extremely compelling character and X will be an absolute delight to play.

The internet is a brilliant but certainly scary place, and the desire for ‘fame’ (at any cost) seems to be stronger than ever. How do you cope with that world?        

Modern technology is an incredibly tricky beast. It is wonderful because it allows us to connect with people all over the world and build friendships and relationships with people that we would have never had the opportunity to do so before if it were not for the perks of the internet. I love it when I go to signings and I get to meet people in person that I met over the internet years ago and we have followed each other’s journeys for a long time. It’s brilliant when you finally get to meet each other in person! On the other side, good ol’ online social media and day to day online work can prevent us from going out into the real world sometimes as we can become all too consumed with our iPhones and our computers. My Hubby and I have a rule that when we wake up in the morning we have to say good morning to each other before we say good morning to our iPhones… sometimes that rule even works! I think it’s not only social media, of course, but all the other millions of jobs that we get everyday doing with emails. Everything is so accessible these days, it’s challenging sometimes to put the phone down, walk away from the computer and lie in the grass and look up to the clouds and thank the universe for having us!

Do you have a date to begin filming, or it really all depending on the Kickstarter campaign?

We would love to shoot it in January. Of course, that depends on everything going to plan with reaching our Kickstarter goal! I’ve never used Kickstarter before and it has been a real eye opener for me! It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to work with family, friends, and fans. We feel extremely honoured that people are coming from all over the world to help us out by donating and sharing the news about Hashtag. Kickstarter’s a great way to support the arts and gets a community of likeminded individuals together – even if they don’t know each other – because they are passionate about an idea or a project.  There’s been a groundswell of support as more people are hearing about this project, and we’ve had some really positive comments on this film. I can’t wait to work with all the amazing backers and bring this brilliant film to the big screens together with them.

Crowdfunding may well be the future for artists…

I travel the world to discover scripts that are like no other. Scripts that challenge and excite us! Kickstarter and other crowd funding sites allow us the opportunity to take creative risks and to push the boundaries. It allows us to join forces with the fans and make this entertainment industry what it should be: inspiring, wonderful and worth watching! We have a strong responsibility as people who work within the industry to tell stories that are worth hearing, and I’ll do everything in my power to stay true to that. I would LOVE to share the experience with people with the same courage, commitment and passion.

Most people will know you from Farscape, and you’ve recently been seen on another Jim Henson project, the Creature Shop Challenge, how are they to work with?

I have been involved with the Jim Henson Company for many years now. We’ve become quite a close family. One of my first jobs in the industry was playing Chiana. I was cast to play a guest role for one episode, and thankfully the gods were shining on me and I ended up working for over five years! I adored the show as they allowed me to create a character that had no limitations. I lived on a space ship for five years under three and a half hours of make up every day…and got to meet the most wonderful aliens, I had the opportunity to tell amazing stories and the adventures that we all went on through the uncharted territories where some of the best adventures that I have ever been on in my entire life!

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge entices the audience into the world of a creature designer. The passion, intelligence and enthusiasm the Creature Designers have for their craft is so sensational! The viewers see these talented geniuses put to the test challenge after challenge. They work against time to create the perfect creature specific to the task at hand. The judges – who are second to none – determine which Creature Designer will win the cash prize and the dream job of a lifetime working for the remarkable Jim Henson Company.

There’s been talk of Farscape heading to the big screen, do you know anything else about this, and would you be up for Chiana’s return?

I’d love to be part of the next Farscape adventure, whatever it may be! When we were working on Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge, Brian Henson showed me an envelope with something in it. He said it was the script for the Farscape movie; however I wasn’t allowed to look at it as it wasn’t finished yet. So I know it exists… I don’t know who’s involved and on what level. I also don’t know when it will go ahead… but the script is out there… ahhhh, soooo exciting!

Is there anything you’d really want to do in the future – maybe more directing?

I have a production company called Little Empire Productions. We make comics, music, film and television. I’d love to keep travelling around the world making sensational projects from my heart and soul. You can check out Nobody Knows on YouTube. You can also see all our latest projects at gigiedgley.com. That has links to my Facebook and Twitter accounts where I upload everything about my signings, adventures and new creations. Any way people could help us out with this fantastic film Hashtag – by donating and/or sharing with friends and family – would be amazing.

The director/co-writer of Hashtag, Ben Alpi also elaborated on the film and the process:

“I’m a huge science fiction fan. I grew up on Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars and any comic books I could get my hands on. One of the things I find most exciting about this project is it’s actually something new for cinema. Before 2006-7, social media didn’t really exist. So, this film is truly The Twilight Zone for a new generation! Working with Gigi is excellent. We’ve talked at length about the story and characters and she really connects with the emotional and societal implications of the film. She’s a consummate professional and her “X” will be a captivating character to watch! We still don’t see enough female leading characters so I’m really glad to be making Hashtag.”

The film’s producer, Jyotika Virmani, added:

“We a few days left on our Kickstarter and I have to say, our backers and fans are amazingly supportive of this project. When you grow up in the UK, science fiction is a part of life. In fact, I remember reading STARBURST when I was in primary school in Manchester! Hashtag interests me greatly because it’s classic science fiction in the sense that it takes a current societal norm and projects it into the future. I think science fiction fans will really like the story.”

You can support HASHTAG by pledging at the Kickstarter page, and receive some fantastic rewards in exchange, and find out more by heading over to the Runic Films website.

For all the varied video games depicting the nightmare future Warhammer 40,000 universe, few take the time to examine anything beyond the frontlines. Every title from the methodically slow-paced Space Hulk to Dawn of War’s high speed RTS action have focused more upon killing Orks with bolters than secret shadow wars fought between ancient powers. At least until now. Adapted from the first book of Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn trilogy, Xenos follows the career of Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn of the Ordo Xenos. Tasked with exterminating alien influences from across the Imperium’s worlds, the story depicts Eisenhorn’s efforts to annihilate a powerful cult and his own slow journey towards damnation.

Even among the hundreds of tales by Black Library set in the grim darkness of the far future, the Eisenhorn trilogy is often held up as the saga all others should be measured against. This has been as much for other lauded Warhammer 40,000 successes such as First Heretic and Fulgrim as it has Abnett’s works in other fields, such as Alien: Isolation and Guardians of the Galaxy. As a result of this respect for the trilogy, fan responses to the news that the task of adapting the first instalment was being given to Pixel Hero Games over a bigger name developer were decidedly mixed. The more dismissive voices focused upon how the developer only had one previous game to their name, and that Xenos would apparently only see release on iOS and mobile over PC or consoles.

Getting in touch with Pixel Hero Games’ Studio Head Nader Alikhani, we asked him about some of these concerns and just how they would translate the book’s core strengths.

STARBURST: Along with being the first Black Library novel ever to be adapted to a video game, Xenos is very different from the average Warhammer 40,000 story. Have there been any concerns over tackling a tale involving fewer Space Marines and focusing more upon rooting out heretical cults?

Nader Alikhani: Not at all! Warhammer 40K is such a rich, diverse universe, and it’s exciting to explore a different side of it. I think Space Marines and combat missions on war-torn planets have been very well represented in lots of 40K games already. However, the everyday, inner workings of the Imperium as seen through the eyes of a more enigmatic character, not so much. Getting to flesh-out the universe through Eisenhorn’s eyes is one of the most appealing things about the project for us.

Much of it is set away from warzones and instead involves cloak and dagger operations by Eisenhorn’s retinue. What plans do you have to translate these into sections of the game, for example will there be missions focusing upon gathering information about a certain House on Gudrun through various means?

In short, yes. Huge chunks of Xenos are about Eisenhorn and his retinue on clandestine missions, so to not incorporate those aspects of the story into our gameplay would be a real disservice to the source material. Thankfully, the vast majority of those elements translate quite naturally into compelling gameplay.
 

What of the combat itself? While your last game, Spiral, was close combat focused, promotional work for Xenos has shown Eisenhorn carrying a bolt pistol. Will there be different gameplay modes or mechanics independently focusing upon ranged and close combat?

With Spiral we were trying to create a fluid combat system that played to the strengths of touchscreens, and in which the main character (Tempus) would perform attacks context sensitively based on the distance of the enemies (swords at close range, a staff at middle distance, and a gun at long range). In Xenos, we’re going with a more traditional console approach, with separate inputs for melee and ranged combat. We’re trying to balance a lot of interesting elements, such as different equippable weapons and items, as well as the effect of the retinue members the player has chosen to take on a mission.  This is without talking too much about some cool nods to the original board game we’ve put in such as action points, morale, and the Inquisitor’s ‘Pause for Breath’ ability (which I’m going to hold back from revealing too much about right now!).

Beyond Eisenhorn himself, do you have any plans for members of his retinue to serve as playable characters and make use of their individual skills?

Currently there are no plans for members of Eisenhorn’s retinue to be ‘playable’ characters controlled directly by the player. Much like someone reading the book, we want players to feel like they are experiencing the world from Eisenhorn’s point of view. However, that’s not to say that the retinue won’t play a major role in the game.  During most missions Eisenhorn will be accompanied by up to two party members which the player will be able to switch out at select points. Not only does each member have their own skills and abilities in combat, but they affect Eisenhorn’s abilities during the adventure. To give you an example, having Aemos as a party member will allow the player to more easily hack terminals than usual, whilst being accompanied by an Arbites like Fischig will allow Eisenhorn to approach situations more aggressively. Eisenhorn himself operates as a bit of a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ gameplay-wise, much as he is represented in the book. That said, the retinue players pick will directly affect how they will have to approach gameplay, both in adventure and combat.

The novel featured a number of varied and detailed worlds each completely unlike the other. Hubris and Gudrun alone are polar opposites of one another despite being thriving Imperial planets. Were there any inspirations which went into constructing the themes and styles of each one, and will players be given the opportunity to explore them at all?

This has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of the entire experience. We’ve been given an opportunity to work with Games Workshop to establish aspects of the inner workings of the Imperium of Man that have really not been seen before. Naturally there are common architectural and stylistic themes that apply to all of Warhammer 40K, but it’s still thrilling to adapt these in way that fits a busy, bustling city like Dorsay and not just battlefields on the outskirts of the Imperium. With regards to exploration, Xenos is very much a linear game, but we’ve tried to allow for moments and opportunities for the player to wander and explore slightly off the beaten track.

Many points in the book are noted to have extremely disturbing or unsettling details. More than one prisoner is effectively flayed alive by other Inquisitors and Chaos’ penchant for body horror is present in full force. Will such moments be toned down or will they be depicted without any alterations?

Beyond the technical difficulties of blowing a man’s skull open, or freezing their flesh to torture chairs, we are certainly not looking to tone anything down. The oppressive brutality of these scenes is an integral part of the grim-dark 40K universe, and we are looking to make sure such moments are handled appropriately.

Beyond even his skill at arms, one of Eisenhorn’s most useful abilities is his telepathy, particularly an often seen power known as The Will. Given this compels his intended target to do anything from speak the truth to casually walk into a hail of gunfire, will we be seeing many mechanics based around this power?

The ‘Will’ is absolutely in our plans, with uses both inside and out of combat. It has the potential to be quite devastating, but I like the fact that it is not actually an aggressive, attacking psyker power, but rather an influencing one. Not only does it mean we have the potential to generate interesting outcomes when used, but it also allows for enemies to have different degrees of resistance to it. Much like its treatment in the book it is an ability that can aid Eisenhorn in tight situations, but it is not, nor should it be, an automatic, overpowering ‘win button.’

Despite primarily featuring small skirmishes and running fights, there are a few particular points where the tale gives itself over to vastly bigger conflicts. Do you have any specific plans on how to handle these battles without it turning into the player wading through hundreds of mooks at a time?

Naturally, on those missions, combat will take a more central role, but without going into too much detail I can say it will be far from the only thing Eisenhorn does.  Personally, in games with a narrative focus I’m a big fan of well balanced, curated gameplay. Games like The Last of Us or the most recent Tomb Raider don’t succeed or fail because of any singular mechanic, but by how various mechanics are intertwined to deliver the needs of their respective stories and worlds. Whilst combat is present in most levels, it is often balanced against other game mechanics dependant on the tone of the scene. We don’t want players to feel tired or fatigued from any one gameplay element being too long or repetitive. Xenos the novel is quite a fast-paced story, and it has that absorbing quality that keeps readers powering through chapter to chapter, and our aim is to achieve a similar quality with Xenos the game.

In the novel everything is told from Eisenhorn’s perspective, with many details and much of the atmosphere being built by his inner thoughts and personal notes. Has this proved to at challenging when developing the game’s environments or adapting the story?

Actually this has proven to be one of the most straightforward parts of the project! Large parts of the book are Eisenhorn describing to the reader what he is seeing. Thankfully for us, operating in a visual medium like games means we can just show the player what Eisenhorn is experiencing. When it comes to Eisenhorn’s dialogue or inner thoughts, we’ll be using voiceover for the entire game, with Eisenhorn narrating over appropriate gameplay sections or speaking to other characters when required.

When Xenos starts, the heroes are closing in upon a mass murderer they have been tracking for months. In the opening chapters we learn that Eisenhorn has lost two long-time operatives, one of whom is killed the other driven utterly insane. Will we also see the game start at a slightly earlier point than in the book in order to better know these characters or ease the player into the universe?

We’ve actually got a suitably fun approach to our setup of Xenos.  We’ve spent a lot of time considering how to drop the player into the story effectively and in a way we hope will resonate with fans of the material. It also has a lot of potential to open up some interesting avenues in the future.

What of the time-skips then? At many points in the story the bigger picture is told by second hand information or skimming over months of travel or investigations, particularly during Warp travel. Will these be skipped or used as an opportunity for the players to interact with other characters and prepare for future events?

We are handling time-skips in very much the same way they are handled in the book. Xenos already has a terrific amount of story, and whilst it would be fantastic to explore more of the events that were glossed over, we are honing our efforts on making sure the existing content of the book is handled to the best quality.

Can you reveal any early information on Xenos’  technical details? Will, it be locked at a specific frame rate or will Spiral’s ‘one touch’ gesture system be re-used here?

Xenos will be optimized dependant on the platform. Thankfully our experience using the Unreal Engine means we have a lot of control for delivering the best experience for users. On mobile devices or tablets, the game may run at different frame rates and with different settings, however the minimum frame rate on every device will be 30 frames per second. The STEAM release of Xenos will allow for customisation by the user of the usual graphical bells and whistles depending on their particular setup. As far as controls are concerned, we’ve rebuilt our controls from the ground up to allow us to make sure we are delivering as similar an experience as possible on every platform. Our primary focus is a gamepad oriented style of controls, with virtual sticks on touch screen and additional device specific gamepad support. As well as working with gamepads, the STEAM version will also support mouse and keyboard controls.

 

Will Xenos feature any kind of moral choice system or opportunities for the players to decide the fate of certain side characters? Given the series’ main themes of gradual corruption and compromise will there be opportunities for players to see any personal choices potentially backfire upon themselves?

We came to the decision very early on in production that the best way to service the source material was to not allow for story choices to be made by players. The entire Eisenhorn trilogy is a very personal story that unfolds on an intergalactic scale, charting the ‘fall’ of Eisenhorn from a puritanical Inquisitor to what others would consider a heretic. Every action and decision has weight and is complimented by Eisenhorn’s inner monologue, which humanises him in a way that only readers know and which is often contrary to how he is perceived by everyone else in the 40K universe. Giving the player the ability to make different moral choices or change the story inherently breaks our ability to have players experience Eisenhorn’s unique journey. I’d love to see a more open-ended Inquisitor game, with meaningful story choices, but I don’t believe such a game would be a good fit for this material.

While Xenos is the first part of the main trilogy, Dan Abnett has written many short stories based upon Eisenhorn at various points in his career. Should Xenos prove to be a success will Pixel Hero Games develop titles based upon these as well?

Honestly, there is so much to love about this character and universe I think we’d very much like to adapt as much of the material as we can should Xenos be successful. Perhaps one day we can even do an open ended game with an older, wearier Eisenhorn, and allow players to shape new and different adventures!

Xenos is slated for release in 2015 on mobile devices and PCs, keep an eye on www.pixelherogames.com for future updates.

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Tristan Risk, or simply Little Miss Risk as she’s known to her fans, is somebody who’s making quite the name for herself in the horror genre these days. Having first caught the eye in the Soska sisters’ fantastic American Mary and more recently in Jill Sixx’s Call Girl, this instantly-likeable Canadian talent can be seen imminently in The ABCs of Death 2, The Editor, Mania, and a whole host of other projects. We were lucky enough to spend over an hour chatting with the lovely Miss Risk about her passion for horror, her movies, her relationship with the Soskas, Michael Bay bastardising childhoods, and a whole lot more.

STARBURST: We know you were a dancer before you get into movies, but how did your venture into film first come about?

Tristan Risk: It ended up with me transitioning from that into film, because originally for American Mary I was brought on board as a dance coordinator for Jen and Sylvia . In their mind they have dance sequences and dream sequences and it was gonna be really stylised and awesome and cool. Then, like everything else, you have these really big expectations and you have actually have to find a way to make it cohesive and work for your budget. So I got in to meet with them and we were sitting there talking. They were both just starting at me – it was really unnerving – and they said, “It’s too bad you don’t act.” I was doing theater, I’d just gotten back into doing musical theater, so I said, “Oh, I act.” So they went, “It’s just too bad that you don’t do voices.” I said, “Oh, I do voices, usually when I’m drunk and whether you want me to or not.” And they were like, “Well we know you can dance… so do you wanna audition for Beatress?” That was the first time for an actual legit motion picture that I tried out for anything like that. Up until that point I’d done friends’ or small independent features, comedy things or music videos. It was pretty casual, pretty low-key and very independent – kinda like we’ll pay you in catering and beer, and I’d be like, “Sounds great! I’ll be there at 2pm!” Whereas this was a totally different animal. That was kind of my stepping-stone. Then I didn’t really do a lot, for like a year or so. It wasn’t until I did The Editor that it just kind of sparked-off doing all of these movies pretty consistently through the last year. The last 13 months have been ridiculous; I feel like I’m doing a movie every once in a while, then they get edited, finished in post-production, then they come out and I’m, like, “Shit! I forgot I did this. This looks really good.”

You most definitely seem to be a very busy girl right now.

Yeah, I’m enjoying the ride on the carousel right now, terrified to get off it at any point.

With all of the projects being in the horror genre, is it safe to say that you were always a horror fan?

I was. I was a weird kid growing up, didn’t have a lot of friends, got made fun of pretty much through elementary school and high school. I already liked darker things but the horror thing, my mom said when I was really little, when the Thriller music video first came out, I was alternatively scared of it but fascinated by it. She couldn’t work out what I was doing – I think she thought I was going to shit myself – but what was actually happening was I was trying to turn into the cat creature that Michael Jackson turns into at the beginning of the movie. I don’t remember this but she swears it’s true, that I bit her ankle. I’ve always had this thing about, y’know, maybe because nobody else liked me then maybe the monsters would like me. So yeah, I had a lot of make-believe friends.

And with movies and TV, what grabbed your attention and really piqued your interest?

I always liked cryptozoology. Growing up in Vancouver, we’ve got a really lush backdrop of First Nations’ legends. Each band has its own takes on myths and legends, so there’s such a huge variant and it’s really, really beautiful. And terrifying. Western culture has nothing on the First Nation and some of their legends. Also we’ve got Lake Okanagan, that’s 4 hours from where I live and it’s got its own version of the Loch Ness Monster in there. Then we’ve got different things in the mountains. We used to go up to Whistler, go skiing when I was really little, and you’d always be looking to see if there was a Big Foot there because people had seen them around. So growing up with local legends, that was something that always fascinated me; it’s like kind of a ghost story, kind of an urban legend, but it could be true. That’s why I hate shows like Monster Hunters, because they’re like, “Okay, so what’s the conclusion at the end of this? Well there could definitely, might be something out there.” But you basically know as much coming out of it as you doing going into it, that you can conclude that there might be something out there. That does not help me at all to know if the Jersey Devil is an actual thing!

 

So with that love of monsters and myths, did that mean you levitated naturally towards ‘creature feature’ films?

I always liked creature features because I always preferred the company of animals to people. So watching Orca, I’m like, “No. No, that Orca has every right to be pissed off. They killed its wife and its baby, I’d be pretty pissed off, too.” And then, y’know, Jaws, of course. Jaws, I must’ve been a really weird kid because I saw that and I wasn’t afraid to go in the water; in fact, I wanted to spend more time in the water. What I found terrifying, I saw my first shark when I was 9. I was swimming in Hawaii with my parents, we’d gone out to Molokini, and it was just black-tipped reef sharks, but that moment of seeing the shark face-to-face… I was utterly hypnotised with how beautiful they were. I think that’s kind of why I like the cryptozoology thing, because whether it’s a legend or an actual animal that exists that’s just a lot bigger than the humans are, I always feel empathy for the animal. And I think that goes back to the whole idea of the monsters will like me more than the people will. So it’s like the big crazy monsters, the big animals that are eating the people or going crazy… I’m like, “Well the people shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” Simple as that. I’m Betty White in Lake Placid, I’m the one who’s feeding the giant crocodile. It’s not that an animal has any personal vendetta towards you, it’s just like, “Oh, I thought I could eat you…” And sometimes sharks test things with their mouth, like puppies do. It’s just sharks tend to leave a little bit more of a mark than puppies. It’s a little bit more fatal when a shark’s like, “Oh shit, sorry! I didn’t know.” Then you have no hands…

You say there’s no grudges, but Jaws: The Revenge, that was personal, that was a grudge…

Yeah, well after four films I’d have a grudge too, I think. At this point, I don’t think anyone was taking that shark seriously. Jaws 3-D was the one where I was just, “Meh, my suspension of disbelief is officially dead and buried.”

Going back to creatures and monsters, did you have any leaning towards the classic Universal monsters at all?

Oh yeah, absolutely. I went through the moody Goth teenager phase where I read all the Anne Rice stuff, we all had these hopes and dreams of a sexy teenage vampire, we would meet them and they’d bite us. I dunno what would happen next, but it’d be awesome. Then I read stuff like Twilight and I’m like, “There’s gonna be this entire generation of completely sexually-confused women who read that when they were younger.” I read some pretty good erotic horror when I was younger, ‘cos you’re kind of exploring that about yourself, right? And vampires are very representative of that, I think. Werewolves, too. If we look at Ginger Snaps, there’s that whole thing, the change, the hormonal beast within that’ll, like, flare up from time to time. Kids really go through a lot and that gives you something to just get you out of that shitty situation that you’re in at that moment and just let your imagination run away, have that escapism. And I think classic monsters are just great for that.

At STARBURST we love a good monster movie, but some of the more recent CGI-heavy offerings lose the rich gothic charm that made the original stories so special…

That was the other thing, the one thing that was a really consistent seller for those early movie houses was the classic horror. That was the thing that kept people coming in and paying for stuff. Everyone liked the romances, the dramas, but they’d get a full house for horror at every show.

It’s nice when modern movies still embrace the practical approach and make that work, like this year’s WolfCop…

Oh, wasn’t that great? That was the little movie that could! Isn’t that great? We were all so excited about that being made. We were all, like, “Oh man, we’re all really excited about this, let’s see how it does.” And it’s everything you want it to be, from the poster art to the special effects. That was Emersen Ziffle who did the practical effects, and he also did part of the effects for The Editor as well.

Risk as Beatress in American Mary 

And to go back to your first venture into motion pictures, was it really your meeting with the Soskas for American Mary that saw you make a concerted effort to do this for a living?

Well that was happening around late-2010, nearly 2011. I had just quit my band that I had been touring with for 6 years as a dancer. It got to the point where it just wasn’t working out anymore. I had done this really extensive 3-month tour of North America and Europe, we got home and we were all at each other’s throats, so I just said I’m done with that. I’d been doing it for 6 years and so it was just time to step back. I had been doing burlesque before that for a significant amount of time, like 4 or 5 years, so I was kind of getting into… this was around about the time that there was a burlesque show, there was something happening every weekend, every day of every weekend, in Vancouver. So it was a very busy time for burlesque. I started to think that maybe I’d done this for so long that maybe I should look at doing something else. So I started to do more live theater, get back into it, then the opportunity to help with Mary came up. I messaged Jen and Sylv saying, “Hey, I’ve seen Dead Hooker in a Trunk in the theater at the Rio, when you screened it I loved it, I threw up in my lap when Jen’s eyeball popped out, and if you guys need any help for anything then let me know, I’d be super happy to give you whatever I’ve got to offer.” They were like, “Hey, do you wanna read our script for Mary?” and I was like, “I so totally wanna read your script for Mary!” That’s where it all kind of started. I don’t think of myself as a particularly good actress, I think of myself as perhaps a very accomplished liar to the camera. I really enjoy a lot of these opportunities where I get to play these roles. It was that thing where I was like, “Oh, people actually really like what I’m doing.” You get really insecure about this, that you’ve not done it before and that you don’t wanna fuck up your friends’ movie. Then it was like, “Oh, people actually like this. Maybe I should try this again because it was fun and I enjoyed it.” That’s kind of like the moment, after I got the nod from the guys for The Editor, it was like “Oh, I think that I could keep doing this if people keep hiring me for it.” Fortunately, people have been consistent in hiring me. I’ve said to myself that I’m not going to take on something if I read the script and it’s really shitty. That hasn’t come up yet. I’ve been extremely fortunate, and I think that’s because we’ve had a renaissance with our genre again. I felt like in the ‘90s it was a little bit suspect, but I feel like we’ve now fallen right back in love with all different subgenres within horror. That’s where we’re at now, so that’s a lot of opportunities for someone like me. I’m just lucky – the right place, the right time, horseshoe up my ass sideways.

It seems like the genre is at a stage where a lot of those who grew up with the great horrors of the ‘70s and ‘80s are the ones who are now making movies themselves, with them taking risks with their films rather than just producing formulaic safe-scares or overly-convoluted efforts like in the ‘90s.

I feel like Idle Hands is a really good example of that; goofy, funny parts, teenagers that are being played by actors in their 20s at least. Like you say, it’s very formulaic and everybody just rolled their eyes. For a long time, it feels like horror never really got any respect from mainstream Hollywood or cinema. Then finally Quentin Tarantino won an Oscar, so I think that they’re finally starting to pay attention. If we’re doing these things, this is maybe what the public wants, maybe they don’t want the eighth or ninth sequel in whatever Michael Bay has decided to blow up. If he touches He-Man or She-Ra, I will be so pissed. Ruin Transformers for me, do not fuck up the rest of my childhood nostalgia, okay? If Michael Bay was stood in front of me, I’m very confident to say to him, “Dude, I get that you watched all of those things in the ‘80s that had all of the explosions, and I love that you’re like ‘Yah, I can totally do that on a big scale!’ Just don’t… Ninja Turtles and Transformers… just don’t. I mean, make up your own shit – you’ll get the fucking funding for it, you’re Michael Bay! Just don’t keep ruining my childhood memories.”

Michael Bay’s definitely someone who splits opinion with us, and it’s always a fear for some which property he’ll target next. Thundercats possibly?

Yeah, because G.I. Joe’s spoken for. I think you’re right, it’s either gonna be Thundercats or maybe Bionic Six or something random. My take on Ninja Turtles, my friend who loves the Turtles as fiercely as I do, we had a marathon night where we just watched all of the old-school ones and the cartoons and we read the comics. She saw it and was just like, “Just don’t. I wish I hadn’t seen it and now I can’t unsee it.” So if I want to see it, my philosophy is I’m going to download it. If I like it, I’ll buy it. If I don’t, then I’m not reaffirming the pattern.

We’d lost faith in a lot of the more recent Turtles stuff, but the Nickelodeon 2012 show was massively enjoyable.

I loved it when, in the comics, it was darker. Eastman and Laird’s response to the whole over-the-top craziness. The characters had pathos and problems and it wasn’t like, “Donatello’s the tech-guy, he’s kinda funny and nerdy; Michelangelo eats pizza and makes sexually-inappropriate comments about everybody; Leonardo’s just a brown-noser; Raph has an attitude problem.” They all had a lot more to them, which was awesome, and April was a legit journalist and not just a frickin’ news anchor. I would’ve liked to have seen something more Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-style.

Little Miss Risk with the Twisted Twins 

You talked earlier about a renaissance of horror lately, and you guys in Canada are doing awesome work at the moment. Then there’s a new charge of women coming though, like yourself, like the Soskas, like Jill Sixx. Were they any particular strong females in the genre that you were drawn to when you were growing up?

I was really into Sigourney Weaver because of Alien and because of Ghostbusters, because she’s playing these two drastically different characters. In Ghostbusters, she’s an independent woman, she lives by herself, she has a nice apartment, she has a penthouse apartment, and she’s refusing this time every time, just like “No, no, no!” Then she gets possessed. This guy who’s constantly trying to get into her pants, she’s just not having it, whether she’s possessed or not. So that was really cool. Then, you know, she’s Ripley in the Alien series – the baddest of the bad who doesn’t put up with shit from anybody! And Jamie Lee Curtis was awesome, too. This is an actress that got her start as a “Scream Queen” but then went on to be what most consider a legitimate actor. It sucks that there’s kind of that thing of if you do horror you’re not considered legitimate. Well, no. You look at another who was an influence of mine, Elvira, who has a very active career. It doesn’t matter, you could’ve met her in 1985 or you could’ve discovered her last year. Either way, you’d be like, “Holy fuck, this is the best thing ever!” She’s acerbic, she’s sassy, she’s rock ‘n’ roll, she’s all the things that 8-year-old me aspired to be. You know when drag queens are emulating you then you’re doing something right.

And going back to your start in the genre, it was the American Mary stuff that saw you first really meet the Soska twins then?

No. What happened was they were showing Dead Hooker at our local theater, at the Rio, an art-house, single-screen movie theater. My friend and I were totally like, “We’re gonna go out tonight, we’re gonna go to the Rio and see a movie!” And she was like, “What’s playing?” I was like, “I don’t know, I don’t care, we’re just gonna go!” And we got there and there was Dead Hooker. I just said, “I don’t even know what that’s about, but we’re going to see that immediately.” So we went in, we were watching the film, I had had one of those Monster energy drinks and I’m not used to those things, then when Jen’s eyeball popped out I threw up into the cup that was in my lap. I haven’t thrown up from a movie that I can remember – it’s been a long time. So that was the moment where, like, “Holy shit, I didn’t think I could feel like that. That’s amazing!” Then they got on the stage and said their thank yous and stuff, so I e-mailed then and said that anything they need help with to let me know. I was keeping tabs on where they were taking Dead Hooker, and then the thing from Mary came through. That first meeting that I had with them was the first time I’d met them face-to-face. We’ve been pretty inseparable, the three of us, ever since, which is really awesome because you don’t normally expect to meet your soulmates this late in life, but I was like, “Hey, better late than never, right? Let’s make some cool art!”

And you’ve recently worked with the sisters on The ABCs of Death 2. How cool was it to be involved with that project?

I loved it! It was a dream come true. Sylvia was describing the character, I was like, “I get to play that right?” and she’s like, “Yeah.” I said, “Okay, but if you ever hire anybody else to do that I will cut them. And not like a little bit, it would be a lot of cutting. Nothing personal, I just really wanna play that character.” And I really enjoyed it, and that was actually my first on-screen sex scene, as it happens. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it when you see it. There’s been a million spoilers and stuff on the Internet that pretty much tell you what happens, but when you see it you’ll get it.

Risk in The ABCs of Death 2 

Given your films to date, what are your preferred roles to play?

I like to play strong women characters. Generally I get a lot of more almost-dominatrix-type personalities. But I haven’t been offered anything yet where I’m like, “Oh no, I can’t do that!” I’d really love the chance to play someone who’s having a possession and is going through an exorcism as I do a lot of movement with my body and I’m quite flexible. So I think I would be able to add some strange and disturbing things to the visual, too, of someone having a demon ripped out of their body. And I do get the chance to play someone who suffers from mania disorder in Jessica Cameron’s Mania, which we’re shooting next month.

What information can you give us on your role in Mania then?

I play a woman whose name is Brooke. She has this mania and she kills someone and doesn’t know whether she’s actually legitimately killed this person or if it’s just a paranoid delusion that’s part of the condition as she’s forgotten to take her pills. So they go on this cross-country thing to try and get her away from the situation, to sort it out, but her lover’s like “So are you actually killing people? Oh God, this may actually be a thing!” You stand by your woman, so it’s how to make this work. It’s kind of a little bit Thelma & Louise, a little bit of Bound, a little bit of Maniac.

You’ve talked about strong female roles, but what’s your view on women in general in the horror genre these days? Do you feel there’s maybe been a bit of a change in how women are portrayed?

I think that there’s definitely a point where we can see a lot of women being shown being the victim. I think the difference here is that they don’t continue to be the victim or wait for someone else to rescue them. These are women who have been violated or something has happened, then a lot like Mary, somebody goes from being the victim to taking out vengeance, to not allowing themselves to be the victim anymore. The revenge thing has been around for our male counterparts for years, right? So it stands to reason that you’ve got films like Mary and She and Audition that turn that convention on its ears, that it’s actually a case that the female animal is likely more terrifying than the male. I’ll take Michael Myers any day of the week over that chick from Audition with the needles. That’s the real stuff of terror, right there.

Any particular thoughts on the Audition remake that’s on the way?

Oh they’re not, are they? I wouldn’t be surprised but I don’t wanna make a broad-sweeping generalisation, but I’d think that the good of this would probably be if it did what The Grudge and The Ring did for their originals. People were interested enough in it now, because they’ve seen the American versions, to seek out the originals.

As someone who has appeared in short movies, music videos, then feature films, have you ever thought about doing more writing or possibly getting into directing yourself?

I haven’t really given a lot of thought to directing, but writing I would definitely like to do a lot more of. I just need to complete something first before I get too carried away, too proud of myself. I have a lot of really awesome ideas but it’s one thing to have the ideas, it’s another thing to execute them completely. I am going to visit my parents for a month in New Zealand come January, so there’s going to be a lot of writing that happens. They kinda live in the middle of nowhere, which is great, but being in New Zealand I can’t drive on the other side of the road. It’s like being 14 again… “Mom, can you take me to the store?” So I’ll probably get quite a bit of writing done there because there’s only so much wine one can drink.

Any particular style of story you’d like to tell, as in a psychological thriller, a revenge movie, a slasher, etc? Do you have a jumping-off point at this stage?

I would say it would kind of be like fantastical horror, kind of in the vein of Clive Barker, who’s been an inspiration. I think it’s gonna be kind of more in that vein, in that tone, rather than just a straight-up slasher, although I have something of an idea in the works with both the Soskas and Kevvy Mental from Fake Shark – Real Zombie! There’s something brewing in the kitchen, rest assured.

 

The Editor is hopefully to be released in the UK soon. What can you tell us about that project?

I love it. I’m a fan of Giallo horror, and reading the script it’s really hard to take something and read it and just take it straight. Now if you’re reading it and you’re imagining Fulci doing it, then it makes so much more sense. But these guys hit the perfect tone between parody and homage. It’s funny to hear Matt talk about it because every time they do a movie it beats the crap out of them. And everybody else loves it and they have no idea what wonderful thing they created. But this is genius! I love this movie so much. Even if I wasn’t in it, I’d want 5 copies of the DVD to watch. It’s really, really entertaining. If you know Giallo and horror, you’re gonna love this. Even if you don’t, you’ll just enjoy it for its kind of strange absurdities, and there’s lot of nudity both male and female, there’s all kinds of really interesting death sequences in it, too. I think even if you’re not a fan, per se, you’ll end up being like, “Hey, that was really good. Maybe I’ll go check out Don’t Torture a Duckling or Strip Nude for Your Killer.”

The horror genre is one littered with subgenres that get a lot of attention, like slasher movies, supernatural horrors, the Universal monster movies, even creatures features and shark movies. Do you ever feel that the Giallo stuff gets a bit overlooked by general fans?

It can be. But I think there’s a little bit of crossover within them. You can’t say, “Oh, Argento’s a little bit more suspense. Oh, Fulci’s more gore.” It depends on who’s describing the films, right? You could just say Giallo, blanket it, boom. Or you could say that this is a thriller and then people are like, “Okay, I like thrillers. I’ll check that out.”

Chainsaw Sally is something else you’re involved in. We’re liking the sound of that, so what can you tell us about it?

I’m liking the sound of it, too. I’ve always wanted to be a cartoon, and I like the idea that I’m going to be Sally’s nemesis/sometimes lover. That’s pretty much how I am most of the time anyway – so it’s art imitating life. And it’s got a really interesting cross-section of crew; Nicholas Brendon is on to play Ruby, we’ve got April Burril in the role of Sally, as well. I think it’s going to be a really interesting group. I’m really hoping this becomes Archer with a little more chainsaws.

In terms of tone, what can we expect? Something similar to Rob Zombie’s The Haunted World of El Superbeasto?

Yes, I think that that’s a major influence. All of the winks, nudges and head-nods to the genre in general, then just, y’know, all the good things you want out of a crazy, grown-up cartoon. But creative versions of that, not just the usual F-bomb or C-bomb. No, I want the really intricate Grant Naylor or Rowan Atkinson level of insults. Then you could have rapid-fire deliveries that Archer’s good for.

In terms of yourself in the genre, as somebody that is all about the horror, is hugely loyal to it all, do you ever come across anybody that you’ve worked where they see it as just a day job and how do you find that when you’re somebody that’s so passionate about the work that you do?

This is my approach to any job, but I guess some people just do it for a pay cheque. But if you’re not finding any kind of fulfilment out of it then why are you even here? I just truly don’t get it, because a lot of what I do is not for a huge pay cheque. I can’t imagine these other people are making giant pay cheques even, so if you’re not doing it because you love it then why are you doing it exactly? I kinda pity them, to be honest, because they’re obviously not passionate about their work. They can do it but they’re not passionate about it, and they’re missing out on something. That’s really sad. But each person has their own path, so you can’t really shift that. Maybe if they see how enthusiastic I am about it, that might encourage them to explore it a bit more or find joy in it.

And finally, what details can you tell us on what else you have lined up on your hectic schedule? And of course, is there any chance of you getting involved with the Soskas on Painkiller Jane?

Well I’m open to all possibility. If they said there’s a part that I can possibly read for, I would be really interested in doing that. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been hitting the gym a little bit more than usual on the chance that it’s something they’re willing to consider and the casting person likes me… you never know. But I also might not be cast, in which case I’ll be standing in line to see it on opening night. But yeah, I hope something comes of that. In terms of what’s definitely coming up next, I’ve got Ryan M. Andrews’ Desolation and Jessica Cameron’s Mania, and then there’s something that hasn’t been announced yet but it’s going to be announced soon in terms of a film festival. Then come December I’ll be visiting beautiful Ireland to shoot.

THE ABCS OF DEATH 2 is currently awaiting a UK release date.

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