Feature Category: Interviews

JAMES WALLIS is one of Britain’s top tabletop games designers, responsible for the likes of ALAS VEGAS, THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN and ONCE UPON A TIME. He’s also one of the people responsible for bringing back the darkly comic dystopian game PARANOIA, which is currently looking for funding via Kickstarter and smashed its funding target in the first six hours. PARANOIA is famous for its dark and satirical humour, but has been out of print for a while. We caught up with James to find out more about the game’s revival…

STARBURST: Tell us about Paranoia…
James Wallis: The plan with Paranoia is to pick it up and give it a thorough shake ‘round the scruff of the neck. They’ve been new editions round about every five or six years but it still felt like old school Paranoia. The world has changed very fast since then. We will be updating the actual background to give us a post-911, post-Edward Snowden, post-Google Glass vision of Alpha Complex.
We’re also retooling the rules. I’ve already annoyed a few people by saying this, including a former Paranoia designer, but I don’t think Paranoia has ever had a good rules set. It’s always had this fantastic background, but it’s been saddled with this rather middle-of-the-road, slightly simulationist, rules-heavy set of mechanics, which are not right for the game. It needs something tailored to create a sense of Paranoia, and I mean that with both a capital and a small p. We’re trying to capture the sense that you get in a lot of the better Paranoia scenarios; you’re presented with an initial problem and your first thought is that this could go all right, then one tiny thing happens and everything just cascades into complete and uncontrollable chaos. What we want to do is not just have that not just the way the stories map out, but also with each individual combat. You can keep it together and fight as a tight unit. But you’re more likely to fumble and end up dooming half the team.

How hard is it to do comedy in a Tabletop Roleplaying Game?
It’s taking cues from the likes of Toon and Ghostbusters, which for my money are the only two successful comedy games. It’s not saying, “This is how you’re funny” it is giving you a structure that within which it’s very easy for the players to find humour, rather than forcing it on you. This is not a book full of silly names.

How will character creation work in this new game?
We’re creating a whole bunch of systems, from the simple and very fast to the rather more involved. There’s three designers working on the game: myself, Grant Howitt – who is a genius designer – and Paul Dean who’s better known for his games journalism and has some very, very clever ideas. My favourite version of the character creation system is one I initially designed for a game I wrote called Cop Show, and it was meant to make balanced parties.  Every time you take an ability, let’s say the Fire Guns Ability at 4, you get to nominate another player to have it the same ability at -4. What we discovered is that people can be quite spiteful about this and you end up with a party that is completely rubbish. In most games, that mechanic wouldn’t work, but it’s completely in the spirit of Paranoia.

How different will this re-imagined game be from classic Paranoia?
It will be recognisably Alpha-Complex. Things will have changed but it will still be recognisable. The thing we must preserve above all else is the spirit of the original. It’s just that Commie Mutant Traitors don’t really fly given that the communist bloc fell apart in the early nineties. You have to remember that was twenty years ago! It’s not a reskin, it’s a reimagining. Like the Star Trek reboot is not a million miles away…  We are working with the original designers Greg Costikyan and Eric Goldberg and they are keeping a close eye on what we do. It will be Paranoia. Some of the notes and the original design work that we’ve seen from them, and the underlying idea that it’s satire not parody, is still very crisp. We are remaining faithful to the original voice, but reinventing it for the new generation.

Should we expect modern dystopian influences in this new game? The Hunger Games, perhaps?
I don’t want to give away too much, and obviously The Hunger Games is a different sort of dystopia, but I think it’s impossible without making nods to modern dystopian fiction. There’s never been anything quite like Paranoia, with the exception of perhaps THX1138; but that’s a very dark and bleak film. Paranoia takes this vision of the future of humanity and makes it funny. It’s still its own thing. We’re not going to do parody supplements of modern dystopias, or anything like that.

The PARANOIA Kickstarter runs till December 3rd 2014.

SPACELAB9 has been a label for just shy of a year, but Dave Amcher and his partners have been releasing music for nearly two decades, going all the way back to their work with PUNKCORE RECORDS starting in 1989. However, that experience in the musical underground is a world away from their high-profile releases for scores to such shows as The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. The music for those two programs was how SPACELAB9 came out of the gate; and in the intervening months, the label’s name recognition has only grown greater, having only just announced the upcoming vinyl release to The LEGO Movie. We spoke with Amcher about SPACELAB9’s growth and upcoming future…

STARBURST: To us, Spacelab9 seemed – like most labels – to just appear. What’s the genesis of the label?

Dave Amcher: Yeah. Well, I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Spacelab9 is that we are a new entity, and that we did just pop up out of nowhere. What I don’t think that anybody knows yet is that we’ve been a company – this core group of people – have been a label for nineteen years. Although Spacelab9 started up in December of last year, it’s the same core group of people that have been working together for about fifteen years. So, 2015 will be our twentieth year of releasing records. For the last fifteen years, we’ve operated specific genre labels – punk labels, metal labels, that kind of thing. What we’ve realised over the past seventeen years is that the artist management and repertory required a lot of long-term investment. Investment of time, of money, and what we’ve realised over the last few years is that there’s just no longevity to anything anymore. Things move so fast that the stuff that people are interested in, it just changes so quickly.

We’re like, “Man, we’ve been beating our heads against the wall for years in the artists’ development part of things. What makes more sense for us in doing what we love to do? Putting out some nice releases, with a relatively quick in-and-out, as opposed to developing an artist, which can take three, five, seven years. What can we get into that we could do something fun, something we’re into, but with a turnaround time of like, two-three years?” And so, licensing just made a lot more sense for us.

It’s very interesting, because the label came out of the gate with two very high-profile releases, especially considering Breaking Bad was going into its finale stretch right when the soundtrack came out. Why was Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead your first two? I know sometimes, a label’s early releases are just what cleared first.

Well, that is the case, but as it turns out, those are also the first two that we went after. Really, the impetus there was simply that they were two different shows that we were huge fans of and that nobody else had done yet, so we just saw a tremendous opportunity there. We asked, and they were available, and we released them.

What we like about Spacelab9 is that, as the label has gone on, it’s had these very high-profile releases, like those two, and the upcoming LEGO Movie, but also some more niche or cult releases on the other side such as The Raid 2 or District 9. The latter is almost super-niche!

Very perceptive! It’s pretty cult, yes – but also a Peter Jackson production, so I don’t know if we can say it’s underground – but definitely niche. It’s a sci-fi film and the whole thing, but what it comes down to, for us, is that after so many years running genre labels, we found that inevitably, at some point, we would find ourselves painted into a corner. So, whereas if we said, “We’re this kind of label,” or “We’re that kind of label,” what people eventually expected from us was specific, so if ever we tried to branch out from there and try something different, our core base of fans just weren’t having it; weren’t interested! So, one of the most important things for us this time around was no limitations. We don’t want to be branded. We’re not a horror label. There are some great labels out there doing that stuff, and some fantastic things coming out, but it’s just not what we wanted to do anymore. After spending so long as a very genre-specific, pigeon-holed label, we wanted something where there are no limitations. We kind of set out from the beginning to say, “Just as soon as people think they’ve figured us out, we’re going to switch things up and do something completely different.” We don’t want to be limited. If there is a common thread to be found, I think you really just nailed it on the head: it’s pop culture. We’re a core group of fans and collectors, and we all have kind of eclectic tastes and interests. We love horror films. We love comic books. We love film in general. We love music. We love pop culture. So, really, that’s what we want to reflect. If you look at what we’ve done so far, we’ve got Breaking Bad, which is this really intense thriller, kind of intense drama. You’ve got Walking Dead – comic-turned-TV show. Zombies! And then, you’ve got My Little Pony, which we did for Hot Topic. So, you know, I think that’s about as eclectic as you’re going to find, and that’s exactly what we set out to do. I think the stuff we have in the pipeline now just continues in that direction.

Spacelab9 has released a lot of picture disc LPs – to rather astounding acclaim – which is strange, given the usual enmity for that format. Is there a particular reason for that?

To my knowledge, there’s not a lot of labels releasing so many picture discs. It’s always been determined for us by demand, or perceived demand of what the fans would want to see. If they want to see it on picture disc, then that’s what we’ll do. If we feel that it’s incongruous, for whatever reason, then we’ll decide not to.

Some of the releases – Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead – have also seen regular vinyl releases after their picture disc debuts. Was that the plan from the start?

Definitely! Different fans want different things, and I personally own over 4000 records. I’ve been collecting since the mid-to-late ’80s. I don’t own too many picture discs. My personal thing is that I love the graphics. I love content. But, other guys here are into the picture discs, so it’s really that we try and represent all of the different things that we’re into and the aspects that we enjoy. I think the main thing to get across is that we do what we like to do and we do what we think the fans will like, and I think we have a good handle on that because we’re die-hard fans ourselves.

SPACELAB9 can be found online and via Twitter & Instagram. Their next release is the Clinton Shorter score to Neill Blomkamp film DISTRICT 9, on double vinyl LP, featuring 25 minutes of previously unreleased music, on November 25th.

STARBURST: We can see that you guys have really been busy, you have five games here, all of which look very different, covering several genres. Let’s talk about Flockers first. It looks like a puzzle game, is that right?
Team 17: Yeah, it’s like a modern day take on a classic puzzler. It’s set in the Worms Weapons Factory, and you’ve got to guide the super sheep to the exit and try to keep as many sheep alive as possible, because there are a lot of traps you’ve got to avoid.

It looks quite similar to Lemmings…
It’s definitely inspired by that kind of genre, but we’ve got a few different things that Lemmings didn’t do back then. Take physics, if you get a lot of sheep walking into a ball for example, it can set into motion and make a gateway for them. There’s also anti-gravity and stuff like that.

Are we right in saying there may be a few appearances from the Worms themselves?
Yes, there are some hidden references; you’ll see them in the background, plus things like Concrete Donkeys being made. And then for the boss levels, you may see some Worms.

Yeah, it’s a real love letter for fans of the franchise! So the second game you’ve got here is The Escapists, that looks quite different, can you tell us about that?
Yeah, so this game is made by one guy called Chris Davies, and it’s out now in Early Access. It’s like a sandbox, prison escape game.

So, how do you go about escaping then? What sorts of things do you do in the Prison?
It takes a long time to get everything you need to escape, it’s all about your relationships with the prisoners, and how you get all the items you need to escape. You need to craft things like a shovel so you can start digging out, but you have to think about what to do with the soil, you can flush it down the toilet so nobody sees it; you need to make supports and things so you don’t cause a cave in! There are a few other ways actually, you can go into the vents up to the roof and use pliers to cut through. So you have to work on your relationships with people and on getting all the items you need to get out – you can find them or steal them.

So, rather than a game of action, it’s a bit more like a game of patience isn’t it?
Yeah, it’s very strategic in how you manage things and how you go about your daily routine. Making sure the guards don’t realise what you’re doing and so on!

Ok, the third game you have is “Overruled!” Which looks particularly interesting, could you tell us a bit about that?
Sure, it’s a 2D ultimate brawler, where the rules are always changing. You get these things called Change-em-up cards, which change the rules. So you could be playing king of the hill, but then if someone plays a card, it could change to a headhunter, or Swag Bag (where you have a bag and you get points for holding it, and people are trying to get it off you).

So, one second you’re allied with a friend and the next you could be beating the tar out of them?
Yep!

It looks like a lot of fun for when you have a few friends over. So on to Penarium…
Yes! So this one has been made by some developers in the Netherlands called Self Made Miracle, it’s like a 2D platformer. There’s an arcade mode where you have 3 stages, with local multiplayer. You play as someone called Willy who is a poor farm boy, he’s saved up all his money to go to the circus, but he’s gotten himself into the wrong line, and become a contender rather than a spectator, and the enemies are trying to kill you, so you just have to stay alive as long as possible, get the highest score and challenge your friends.

Ok, so the last one you’ve got on here is Schrödinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark…
It’s a platformer based on the Schrödinger’s Cat physics theory. You play as this… kind of… feline superhero. So, you get these things called Quarks which are like your power-ups. And with that he can make things, like a helicopter, or platforms to get to places!

So, those are the games, they all look great and we’re looking forward to seeing them further down the line. We’ve got one more question, can we expect anything from Worms in the future?
Not at the minute, we’ve just released Worms onto Playstation 4 and Xbox One, and we’ve got it Worms on IOS and android. So at the minute we’re just kind of supporting those titles and doing more updates and stuff like that

Joey Ansah is an actor and martial artist best known for his role as Desh Bouksani in Bourne Ultimatum. Ansah created the live action short film Street Fighter Legacy, which lead to full web series, Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, which is has been turned into a full-length movie and will be available on DVD at the end of October. We caught up with him to discuss all things Street Fighter…

STARBURST: What led you to create Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist?
Joey Ansah: You could say that it was a mixture of destiny and duty. It came from my dissatisfaction from the previous Street Fighter movies and other video game movies, for that matter. It’s a genre that Hollywood has done poorly. With Zak Snyder and Christopher Nolan, we’ve finally started to see comic book movies done right; in a way that’s both commercially viable and also creatively valid and respectful of the source the material. With these video game movies, especially the action ones, it was obvious that no one was going to do these games any justice.

Did the Bourne Ultimatum open doors for you?
Yes definitely. Everyone who’s seen that film knows that fight scene, and they get a bit excited about it. It opened doors. Street Fighter showcases my understanding of choreography, and more my acting than actual film making skills. I hadn’t directed anything at the time I pitched the movie!

What challenge did you face choreographing the videogame moves into live action?
I think it comes from having a strong knowledge of the game. It’s not as difficult as it sounds. Once you know every move and have studied every sprite, and you know the game inside you can begin to choreograph. You can work out the style. If you look at Akuma particularly, you can compare the different games and get a comprehensive feel for how the style evolves. Being a martial artist, you can recognise the kicks and punches; it’s a sort of detective work. Christian Howard, who plays Ken in Assassin’s Fist and co-wrote it with me, has a really good eye for detail and you can really see it in his performance. You have to grasp the physicality and that can be a challenge.

How much of the Street Fighter mythology did you have to re-invent?
Part of our unique selling point for the series is that it is one hundred percent faithful. I personally don’t like deviations from the source material where people say, “that won’t work in a live action film; we have to completely change it”. The mythology of Street Fighter is a bit of muddle. We have the game, which is completely canon, so we had to stick to that exactly, but then we’ve got stuff like the anime movies which were licensed by Capcom but aren’t regarded as strict canon. For lack of there being any other storytelling in Street Fighter, a lot of the fans accept what they see in the anime as the way it went. We reference the best elements of the anime and also stuff from the Udon comics to make a sort of definitive back story. We did add characters, like the crazy fisherman and the groundsmen.

Will we see more of Shadaloo in future projects?
Oh yes definitely. Without spoiling too much, pay attention when you’re watching the DVD, and they’ll definitely be more Shadaloo moving forward.

What’s next for the world of live action Street Fighter?
We are working on Street Fighter: World Warrior, and that’s going to capture the Street Fighter Two storyline. The world will open up, with Ryu and Ken in America, taking on personal challenges of combat. We’ll see elements of the first game, with the presence of Sagat and the rise of Shadaloo. Expect Chun Li and all the other characters you know and love.

How will you handle characters like Blanka?
Following on from the tone of Assassins Fist it has to be faithful in appearance but have a scientific tone to it. Rather than just having nice, clean, glowing green skin, it could be that this guy has almost camouflaged himself in greenish clay to give Blanka a more practical, jungle-dwelling theme. I don’t want to give it all away right now. Wait and see.

How are we going to be able to see these movies?
Ideally the next series would be a TV series. I’d like a longer running time, closer to a commercial hour, giving us the ability to tell a longer story. The YouTube model works in a way to introduce it to the fans, but I want to do it bigger and better.

In commercial terms, can Capcom’s heroes take on those from Marvel and DC?
Money is one thing; Marvel is such a huge machine. In terms of iconic appeal, yeah, it has the potential. Street Fighter is a 27-year-old brand with a following. It wasn’t too long ago that Marvel was facing bankruptcy and fire-selling its IP to the other studios. If The Avengers can rise from the ashes, then there’s no reason why Street Fighter can’t do something similar.

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist – Live Action is out of Blu-ray and DVD on the October 28th.

After having made a name for herself in the Australian television scene, Caitlin Stasey has looked to take her career to the next level. Having moved to Los Angeles, the young actress is headlining Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson’s remake of their own 2001 All Cheerleaders Die. We got to speak to Caitlin about her first foray into horror, about creative fulfilment over easy paydays, the politics of the Australian entertainment industry, and a whole lot more.

STARBURST: How did you end up getting involved with All Cheerleaders Die in the first place?

Caitlin Stasey: It was just the same process I’ve gone through with everything – I just showed up to a meeting, the directors were there, the producers were there. I was initially up for the role of Tracy but mid-way through I’d forgotten my lines. They sort of called cut and said, “You’re not really a Tracy, but if you stick around and learn these lines then we’d like to see you for Maddie.” That was one of the most unusual things, going in for one part, getting stopped mid-way through, told you weren’t right for it. I think about two days later I had the job, which was nice and quick. That’s not something that you expect. Being in L.A. and auditioning for things, it’s normally a pretty dragged-out process.

And you were happy with the change of character there, especially as Maddie is more of a lead character in the film?

Yeah, people tend to forget how hard it is to play an upbeat, naïve character like Tracy. There’s no way in the world that I could do a character like that justice, just because I don’t have the capacity to be that buoyant and have that sort of contagious energy for that period of time. Whereas Brooke, she captures it perfectly. I think Maddie, to be honest, is just an easier character for me because I didn’t have to reach too far to understand her.

Had you seen the original 2001 version of All Cheerleaders Die at all?

I hadn’t. I didn’t even realise there was an original film until after we’d started photography. I think it was kind of worlds away from what we were doing.

So did you then go back and watch it or were you happy to just focus on what you were doing, without the original perhaps influencing you?

I didn’t, because I wasn’t able to find it. I don’t really have a good enough excuse as to why. I figured that if they made the effort to remake it, perhaps I should go check it out.

Going in cold on the film, based on the title alone, many would presume that the film was some sort of generic slasher-type movie. How was it initially pitched to you?

I just thought it was a horror film, to be honest. There was never any hint, we were never privy to the fact that a lot of what we were saying was intended to be funny. The majority of the film was actually hysterical and I hadn’t realised. I feel like in this weird way I was duped but in the best possible way because the product ended up slightly more interesting than it could’ve been.

Are you much of a horror fan yourself or is a film like this likely to just be a one-off for you?

No, the thing is, I like good films. It doesn’t matter which genre. Mama is a horror film, The Orphanage is considered a horror film, and I really liked those. As a genre, it’s never really interested me as I’m such a cry baby. Generally speaking, women are sort of props in those universes. However, I do think that more in horror than in any other genre, women tend to be protagonists. People expect them to fail and it’s easy to get behind the underdog. But yeah, horror’s fine. I don’t have the stamina to get through horror films, really.

You touched on how women are often portrayed in horror films in a certain way, but All Cheerleaders Die is a little different in that respect. Did that pique your interest?

It’s really funny because none of this occurred to me until following the film. When I was there, I was just in the headspace of it’s a different job, working. I didn’t think about it in the grand scope. I watched the finished product and was, like, “Oh, actually this is really cool. This is something I’ve not seen before. It’s not heteronormative. There aren’t typical gender roles.” There was a real abandoning of that, which I really appreciated it. Maddie’s doing her own thing, people are fucking with her and getting in her way, and she deals with it. I think that’s the most important way to battle the betraying of women in film and television; just to give them their own agendas without it seeming like they’re the voice of an entire people.

Having made a name for yourself in Australia – Neighbours is a huge thing over here in the UK – did it seem like a natural progression to try and crack things in the US?

Well the thing about Australia, unfortunately, is that it’s quite, and people will resent me for saying this, but it’s quite elitist. It’s infinitely harder for people to see you in a light that isn’t sort of, you know, glossy, commercial television. The reason I had to leave Australia is because no one would hire me. They’re so wrapped up in their own sense of importance that it casts out those that are seeking better things or seeking work at all. If I’d have stuck around I probably could have found something but I never would have been fulfilled.

So you would’ve been a bit restricted and pigeon-holed with your options?

Yeah, pigeon-holed, restricted, discriminated against because of the work that I had done for four and a half years. There are people I met when I was doing the rounds for Tomorrow, When the War Began who treated me like shit. Even when I won my IF (Indie Film) award it was one of the most horrific moments of my life – everybody was just so bitter and shocked and taken aback and unkind. What should’ve been the best night of my life, regardless of what the award actually meant, I was 20 and it was exciting and I got dressed up and I got presented with this thing that was a symbol of something that I’d achieved… nobody at the after-party congratulated me, they all scolded me. Basically, I was told to apologise to a woman that I had beaten out for it, remarkably. That’s the kind of attitude they have towards soap-stars in Australia or towards people who are… I hate to imply that I consider myself of a level that is worthy to be cut down, but it is true. They do have this inner-resentment of those that are doing things publicly, not just in the entertainment industry but Australia at large. There’s this attitude of just keep your head down and just keep going. It’s such a, like, ‘Aussie battler’ environment. If you’re seen to have ambitions then people just think you’re a total dick.

It seems a very close-knit, narrow-minded environment in certain quarters at times…

Oh yeah, and they’re so sexist. They’re so fucking sexist. This is a sexist country, it is a racist country, and the filmmakers, I think, consider themselves above all of that but they still buy into that shit. I think, speaking in very broad and general terms, not that I’m damning a nation, but I’m speaking of specifically my areas. I’m an incredibly mitigating person, I’m an incredibly hard-working person, and I couldn’t find an end. People wouldn’t look at me, people wouldn’t talk to me, people would just have this opinion of my purely because of my background. I was always referred to as an ex-soap-star, which is irrelevant. It shouldn’t matter where I’ve come from, it should matter what I’m doing now and currently. That’s the thing with coming to the US – they reward work. Although L.A. can seem like a vapid, vein and sort of infected environment, at least you feel as though you sort of, maybe there’s a sense of over-congratulation, but I like that, I like that better than just getting fucking scolded all the time.

You ended up on projects like I, Frankenstein, but how hard was it to get work when you got to the States?

It was really hard. I had two years where I didn’t work at all, and it was a huge culture shock. People always think that when you move from one English-speaking country to the next that there isn’t going to be much by way of adjustment or adjustment period, but it’s absolutely not true. It’s an entirely different world. This place is so foreign to everything I’ve ever known or grown up with and, yeah, I had two years of not working. Then I finally spoke to smaller, indie films, horror films, occasionally romantic comedies. Over time it just started to snowball and I was working and working, then I booked this show called Reign, which I’m working on now. It’s really the first major role I’ve managed to get and I’ve been here for six years. It’s been a long process, it’s not been easy and I’ve not, sort of, hit the ground running – it’s been fucking hard.

You come across as a remarkably well-educated, eloquent woman who seems very level-headed. Do you have a particular career path or career plan in your mind?

It’s funny because I feel like being here, you go through this process of coming in with this idea about these are the things I will do and these are the things that I will not do. After a year of not working, maybe you will do those things, they’re fine, they’re totally fine. Then it’s a case of, “I’ll do anything. I’ll do absolutely anything to work.” Then you get work and it’s this weird process where you go to the beginning again. I feel like, in terms of a career path, I definitely don’t have aspirations of, like… I came through immigration the other day and this guy at passport obviously had had a foul day and was, like, “What do you do?” I said, “I’m an actor.” He says, “Are you famous?” and I was, like, “Well no, I’m just a working actor.” That was a really enlightening moment for me because I understood that working is far more important to me than it is being recognised. Therefore, I’m able to turn down things that I think are not fulfilling or I’m able to approach things that won’t pay me much or propel me into any sort of stardom, but as long as I feel like I’m being creatively fulfilled… as for a career path, I just want to keep working on things that I love and with people that I love. The relationships that you build throughout these intimate experiences are worth twice as much as anything else. It sounds really silly and wanky but it is, like, I’m discovering that life’s too short to work for cunts, to compromise too much for no good reason than financial.

And to bring it back full circle, if there was to be a follow-up to All Cheerleaders Die, is that something that would interest you or that you have any agreement in place for?

I hope that they would wanna use me again but by the time they get round to shooting it I may very well be far too old to play a cheerleader. I would love to, at this point in time, but I’ve not heard anything about it as of yet. I think they would love to do it, it’s just a case financing. I guess we’ll see how well it does overseas at this point.

In terms of yourself and your outlook on fulfilling projects, what’s on your slate in the future and what would be a dream project for you?

Well a dream project that I’m actually lucky enough to be working on is a show called Please Like Me, which is written by and stars a guy called Josh Thomas, an Australian comedian. I don’t think you get it in the UK but it’s on in the US and on ABC2 in Australia. It’s just this beautiful comedy about this guy who’s gay and his mother is suicidal. It sounds really sort of heavy but it’s genius, it’s may be the best thing I’ve ever read. To me, the reason I can gush about it is because I’m not in every episode and I have nothing to do with its inception or anything. To me, it’s a perfect project. To make things like that forever would be a dream come true.

And are you still a part of Reign?

I am. We’re in the middle of our second season right now. They’re all wonderful people and I adore them, so that makes it a lot easier.

ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE IS RELEASED ON DVD ON OCTOBER 27TH.

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Over the past few years, POLLYANNA MCINTOSH has proven herself repeatedly as one of cinema’s finest modern actors, not afraid to tackle challenging roles, be it feral in THE WOMAN, or chaining captive women for their milk in the short film THE HERD. Her latest film, WHITE SETTLERS, caused quite a stir during the build up to the Scottish referendum and is released on DVD on October 20th. STARBURST caught up with her to find out more…

STARBURST: Sarah in White Settlers is a very strong character; despite her early, completely natural, fears she’s very much the stronger half of the couple. How was that shoot for you?

Pollyanna McIntosh: It was a lot of fun; it was a pleasure to shoot – despite bruises, dirt and cold wet night shoots. I think it was more stunts than I’ve ever done before, and that really got me going ‘I wanna do more of this, more action-packed stuff’. Sarah’s a funny one, because she’s actually quite manipulative and needy. At the beginning, you see the power play between the couple and I thought that was really interesting. I played with that quite a bit, and like you say, she ends up being the provider, the fighter out of the two. Luckily, I had a great partner in Lee Williams playing my husband; he was willing to go the other way to show his vulnerability, so we had a good balance there. And yet he still holds up his end, especially at the beginning with the little fights we have and stuff.

As a ‘yes’ voter, what was your take on the furore that came afterwards?

It was hilarious! I thought it was kind of silly, to be honest. But I also respect publicity stunts that work and that really did. The only angry tweet I’ve ever had from anyone was from a yes voter saying, ‘How dare you use the referendum for your own self-publicising ways!’ I quite enjoyed it, I got into it. I know you’re not supposed to, but I’d say, ‘Excuse me! I’m sorry I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to reference the referendum for my own country in any way I please.’ So yeah, I thought it was a bit odd really, but I understand why it was done and it worked. They got it in The Guardian, in The Scotsman; it got people aware that it was around. For me it was more about the haves and the have-nots than it was about the English and the scots. The bad guys in that movie to me are the banks; you just don’t have bankers running around in pig masks!

Being Scottish was there anything that you wanted to say, ‘Wait… hold on…’?

No, actually. Ian Fenton, the writer, is Scottish and he’d written a really tight script. I liked the questioning, ambiguous, elements to the script and I think a lot of people enjoyed that in the ending, for instance. There were moments when I seem to remember myself saying, ‘Oh you can’t do that because that will make them seem like good guys too much’ I didn’t want it to look like it was the bad guys we were supposed to root for, because despite them being the victims of the system, they can’t be made into heroes, considering what they do to the couple. But it was finely balanced in the end, I thought. As a Scot, the only thing that was particularly weird was once again playing an English person.

How’s Perfect, the screenplay you’ve been working on, coming along?

I’ve got a deadline for the end of October for the last draft of it. It looks like we’ve got a Scottish producer on board, as well as 2 Irish producers, so it’ll be another Scottish/Irish co-production. It’s a dark comedy about a comedienne. Despite suicide, premature birth and depression in it, it IS a comedy! It’s total Scottish gallows humour, and I’m really, really looking forward to directing because it’s a really personal story and I can see every frame so I can’t wait.

What’s next for you?
I’m doing Its Walls Were Blood with Steve Oram from Sightseers and Paul Davis, who I made Him Indoors with, is directing and writing my segment, because it’s a portmanteau Amicus-style horror. I get to play a vampire, and get to work with Steve who’s a fantastic actor, so I’m looking forward to that.

WHITE SETTLERS is out on DVD on October 20th, and on VOD now. POLLYANNA also appears in the short film THE HERD and the feature LET US PREY, both of which are currently doing the festival circuit before general release. The full interview with POLLYANNA will appear in STARBURST MAGAZINE in the future.

Back in 2012, a little web series by the name of Twisted Showcase started to make some serious waves online. So much so, the show would be recognised on The Guardian’s Top 25 Must Watch Web Shows list. If that wasn’t praise enough, that feat was made even more impressive by the fact that the list also contained heavy-hitters like Joss Whedon, Seth MacFarlane, Zack Galifianakis, and Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. As the third series of the show has recently come to an end, we were lucky enough to grab some time with the twisted minds behind this impressive showcase, Robin Bell and Rhys Jones.

Starburst: Last week saw your third series come to an end. How did the Twisted Showcase concept initially come to be?

Rhys Jones: It came about from conversations with Robin about wanting to do something new. We’d written some stuff together and wanted to do something bigger.

Robin Bell: We’ve answered this before in interviews and we always sound really boring, so let’s just say it happened. Seems more magic then.

How easy was it to put that first episode together and how were the responsibilities handled between you both?

Rhys: The first episode I worked on was Bob Dracula, where I went off as a lone wolf. Was an easy shoot, but it took an age to edit for some reason.

Robin:  First one I worked on was Fear of Living, which we made before Twisted Showcase was even a thing. Only on the set of Peter and Paul did we realise how Fear of Living fitted our tone perfectly. In fact, I think it defined Twisted Showcase, in a way.

How did you go about finding the talent for those first episodes and how did you find having to manage the various aspects of putting a web series together?

Rhys: Robin tells this story of how we got Gareth David Lloyd better than me.

Robin: We asked him to be in it…

Rhys: I thought that would be told a lot better.

One of the few hazy pictures in existence of Rhys (left) and Robin (right)

At what stage did you realise that you had put something special together, something that could garner a strong fanbase?

Robin: Never. Still not realised. Have we done that?

Rhys: We’ve got an amazing, dedicated fanbase.

Robin: I’m very proud of the series, but whatever we make I’m always pushing to make it better. We’re already underway with Series 4 and reaching higher than ever.

And how rewarding was it to end up on The Guardian’s Top 25 of must see web series list and what opportunities came along as a result of that recognition?

Robin: I remember looking at the article, hoping to find some series to research what makes a good web series, and we were on it! Proper shocking!

Rhys: That came about at a really low point for us – we were suffering with lots of creative differences – and it sort of drew us together but also set fractures in other areas of the team.

Robin: We sort of rushed out Series 2 because of it and it only started to work near the end of that run.

Rhys: We got a nice cup of tea at the BBC.

Robin: It has afforded us some great opportunities. I’ve met some of my writing heroes who I’m now in touch with and help me with scripts.

Did you ever find it hard to get ‘named’ talent involved in the episodes?

Rhys:  We’ve been very lucky with the people we have attached, but some people have said no.

Robin: We’ve probably asked them to do something a bit too bizarre.

And was there ever anybody that you reached out to, really wanted to get involved with, but just couldn’t come to an agreement with?

Robin: Yes.

Doctor Who‘s Sarah Louise Madision in Confession

How have you found that things have changed for you, as creative filmmakers of sorts, during Twisted Showcase’s three series run?

Robin: I’ve always seen myself as a writer first and foremost, so feel I am a lot better at that now, but also can do stuff I never realised I could. We’ve produced 16 short films in a pretty short space of time, with little resources. Pretty mad really!

Rhys: The best thing Twisted Showcase has shown me is that that I didn’t know as much as I thought I did but if I knuckle down I can get stuff done.

Do you ever envisage that there could be a time that the ideas begin to dry up?

Robin: My worry is that I won’t have time to tell all the stories I want to, that I have too many ideas. So the exact opposite.

Rhys: It’s silly to fear that; as a writer it’s your job to have ideas, but sometimes you have to work hard to get those ideas.

And where there ever any ideas that you thought were just too much, too risqué or that you couldn’t realistically shoot?

Robin: Loads.

Rhys: One called Lock In, which was too vulgar, very violent and probably in poor taste.

Robin: I remember one called Arsehole Arsehole Bumhole Backdoor about an alien who had to learn what a bumhole was to unlock his secret powers.

If you could go back to your younger selves (like Bill and Ted), when you first started to put the Twisted Showcase concept together, what advice would you offer?

Rhys: That seems highly unlikely to ever happen. Maybe it could be a future episode.

Robin: I’d go back and make sure we don’t make that.

Red Dwarf’s Norman Lovett in Toilet Soup

With three series to look back on, what is your particular favourite episode?

Rhys: Toilet Soup, not just because I wrote it, but because Norman Lovett is brilliant in it and he makes me both laugh and recoil.

Robin: I can’t pick one. I’d choose Fear of Living and Press Play as favourites from Series 1 and 2, respectively. I’m probably a bit close to Series 3 at the moment. I was really pleased a writer who I think is quite brilliant, Debbie Moon who created and writes Wolfblood, mentioned her favourite episode was The Drugs Don’t Work. I really worried about that, that I’d undercooked certain elements, and it’s always a tougher sell when you’re using a completely unknown cast. Maybe it’s best to say that our favourite episodes will be in Series 4 – the future is always more exciting, isn’t it?

What are you future plans for Twisted Showcase and what is your ideal endgame for all of this?

Rhys: Series 4 is in the works. As for an endgame, I have no idea. We always keep saying each series is the last.

Robin: We’ve got loads of other stuff planned, branching out into other areas. That’s pretty vague, isn’t it?

Rhys: You may as well have said “I don’t know.”

Robin: That doesn’t sound very exciting though, does it?

Rhys: Well how could we make it sound exciting?

Robin: There is stuff we are planning but nothing set in stone just yet.

Rhys: Everyone will just have to get excited about the ‘maybe.’

Robin: Yeah, the potential of nothing could be anything. Oh wait, I’ve just today finished a script for Series 4 called Be My Head. There’s a little bit of info for anyone who’s interested.

Be sure to keep your eyes on the Twisted Showcase website and Facebook page, plus follow them @TwistedShowcase, for regular updates on what’s coming next. But in the meantime, feel free to gorge on Series 3 below, starting with the Gareth David-Lloyd-starring Payback:

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Miwk Publishing has been publishing quality TV, film and drama related books for three years and has amassed an impressive catalogue of titles, and with more to come within the next eighteen months, so we took the opportunity to talk to head honcho Matt West to discover a little bit more about them. 

STARBURST: You’ve just announced a whole raft of new books…

Matt West: We have indeed. I’m not sure if paper’s the right thing to build a raft from though as it gets quite mushy when in contact with water. Some of these are second volumes of books already announced; others have been teased with inserts on recent books like ‘Wallowing in Our Own Weltschmerz’.

Which titles are the follow-up volumes?

The two Man-Books; ‘Hooded Man’ volume two by Andrew Orton is all about Robin of Sherwood, this time focussing on the third series with Jason Connery (who’s also provided the foreword and is lovely in every way – very supportive). The other is ‘The Invisible Man’ volume 2 by Steve Hogarth, the lead singer with Marillion. The first volume was very successfully and we’re nailing bits of wood to the windows in readiness for volume two’s pre-orders in a few weeks.

Jessica Martin’s book is an unusual foray into fiction for Miwk…

Not as unusual as you may think! I’ve wanted to do graphic novels since we started, but they don’t come cheap. A good artist is hard to find; and a good artist is rarely cheap! Even at a standard page rate, a 150-or-so page book is going to set you back a fair few quid. The other issue was finding something that fit into our range. We wanted to retain the focus on film, TV and performing arts and the graphic novels that came our way were just too tenuous. We also chanced our arm with getting hold of some licenses such as The Tomorrow People, Timeslip and Blake’s 7, but we hit brick walls with all of them with either no response from the relevant parties or in the case of two of those, no-one that currently owns the rights giving a damn. It’s such a shame that these older series are so neglected. Fremantle could make a few quid for no effort on their part, but they’re just not interested.

But then there was a documentary on Clara Bow on BBC Four a few years back which I was over-the-moon about. My main interest isn’t television but film, and I’m especially interested in the early days and the Hollywood studio system. The Bow documentary seemed really popular and people were talking about it, just as Paul Merton’s series on silent comedy had captured a similar interest. You can see it in films too like Hugo. Anyway, we started working on Andrew Cartmel’s book and it rekindled my obsession with Kangs and Mags. Through that I found Jessica Martin on Twitter and saw she’d produced a comic about Clara Bow. I ordered that, really liked it, couldn’t believe she’d done it all herself and then got back to work on ‘Script Doctor’. There was an event at Orbital Comics in London where Sophie Aldred had her exhibition of photos by Steve Cook, and I went up there so my daughter could finally meet Ace and as I was mooching I spotted Jessica Martin (hard not to – she hasn’t changed a bit!). I spoke to her about Clara Bow and she was so enthusiastic. I also then spoke to one of the managers of Orbital who said it had performed really well. It seemed a pretty straightforward fit for Miwk, so I got Jessica’s email from Andrew and after several meetings we rather fell head-over-heels in love with eponymous Elsie. I’m really looking forward to this and especially to the bizarre number of promotional ideas we’ve been throwing around. Jessica’s full of ideas and her enthusiasm was so infectious. I think Elsie’s going to make quite an impression.

A couple of these books are collections of material from Doctor Who Magazine; was that difficult to organise?

All credit to Tom Spilsbury and Peter Ware, without whom… – they were so helpful and generous. Jamie Lenman contacted us directly for his ‘WHOAH!’ book, which I snapped up straightaway, but we had to check on ownership as although he’d done them freelance, they were still owned by Panini. Fortunately, Peter was able to sort this for us, so I chanced my arm and asked about the Howett strips, and to my utter joy we could do those too! I contacted Tim through his website, who in turn put me touch with Dicky, and they were both so enthusiastic. I had a great moment when Dicky’s contract arrived in the post, as I recognised the writing on the envelope immediately!

 ‘WHOAH!’ is very exciting for us as it’s our first full-colour book, and what a book to be starting with! Jamie’s imagination and humour are so unique. There are some strips I call ‘eye-narrowers’ and others that are a plain guffaw. One of my favourites is Jo Grant presenting the Third Doctor with a jumper she’s knitted for him. This is of course the McCoy tank-top. We’re working on inserts for that now actually and it’ll be one of two Christmas books along with Rob’s ‘Time & Space & Time’.

Robert Hammond’s book looks a little… odd.

Like any humorous endeavour it’ll be divisive I’m sure. But there’s a hell of a lot in there, it’s going to be a mighty tome! Essentially it’s a few completely made up facts about every Doctor Who story.

And what’s the story behind the Esta Charkham book?

Esta was casting director and producer on Robin of Sherwood and she kindly provided a foreword for us for ‘Hooded Man Volume One’. I met up with her at the Hooded Man convention earlier this year and fell a little bit in love. She’s not only terrific fun, but she has so many stories. You can name any actor, actress or series and she’ll have a story ready to go. I know, because I threw some really weird names at her and she knocked every one for six. She said she was considering a memoir, but was adamant it wouldn’t be an autobiography. This is a collection of memories from everything she’s worked on from theatre to television when she was acting, then casting in film and television, producing and now she runs her own stage school for young actors as well as managing others. She’s a hard worker. If you like film and television, you’ll enjoy it. And of course she cast Supergirl, and for that I’m eternally grateful.

These are on top of the other titles you’ve already announced…

Yep, Richard Marson’s finished chapter two of ‘Drama & Delight: The Life and Legacy of Verity Lambert’ and will be working on that over the next few months. I can’t wait! Really looking forward to it and we have a very cool – well I think it’s cool – hardback in the pipeline for that one. John Williams is still working on his Malcolm Hulke biography but was delayed for various reasons, mainly while we were waiting for some paperwork to come through. What else have we announced and not followed through on? Oh! Toby Hadoke’s Quatermass book! That’s still happening; will happen; shall definitely happen.  Toby’s a busy guy though so is having to fit it in as and when he can.

So when might we see any of these books?

‘WHOAH!’ and ‘Time & Space & Time’ are out for Christmas, ‘Hooded Man’ is at the printers now – should be out in a couple of weeks, ‘Invisible Man’ will probably be November I imagine, maybe mid-October, everything else will be in 2015. Dates are on the website. Best to follow us on Facebook or Twitter for release dates as they chop and change all the time! If we can get ‘It’s EVEN Bigger on the Inside’ out sooner then we will.

And finally, is there anything else you have in the pipeline you can tell us about?

Yeah, a few things. I’m still working on being able to reprint the Look-In artwork. There are so many rights tied up with it it’s such a pain! And again it’s Fremantle who aren’t interested in earning money for nothing. We have some more biographies lined up; Michael Seely is currently working on one for Douglas Camfield for example. These take a long time and a lot of effort to get right so we’re holding off on proper announcements until the books are close to publication. I’ve exchanged emails with a number of musicians, lead singers and actors about possible autobiographies/memoirs and had several interested replies. Next Christmas Andy Davidson and Kevin Stayner will be writing our first proper Christmas book all about Christmas films and TV. I’m looking forward to that – they’re both so obsessed with Christmas telly.

Miwk Publishing release:

Hooded Man – Volume Two by Andrew Orton

The Invisible Man – Volume Two by Steve Hogarth

WHOAH! by Jamie Lenman

Time & Space & Time by Robert Hammond

Before the end of 2014.

Expected in 2015 are:

Elsie Harris Picture Palace by Jessica Martin

It’s EVEN Bigger on the Inside by Tim Quinn & Dicky Howett

All My Estadays by Esta Charkham

Miwk’s books can all be found at their online store.

As a taster for the releases, here is a short extract from Rob Hammond’s book, Time & Space & Time, Truthless Bilge About Every Doctor Who Story Ever:

THE KEY OF MARINUS

To save the ever-dwindling budget for this story, the cast were asked to bring in items from home to use as props. Jacqueline Hill brought in six empty Tic Tac containers that were used as the eponymous keys, Fiona Walker supplied the white drapes used for set decoration, and Francis de Wolff gave the crew the Morpho Brain Creatures. He later told Doctor Who Magazine, “They had been in the back of the airing cupboard for years. They belonged to a great Aunt, and I always knew they would come in handy for something one day.”

THE SENSORITES

To distinguish between the costumed actors in studio, rolls of different coloured Sellotape were pushed into the belts of the Sensorites. This led to the sticky tape firm attempting to market an item of office equipment called the Sellotape Dispensorite, where strips of tape could be pulled from the mouth of the plastic representation of the alien. Unfortunately, a disagreement between Ken Tyllsen and Peter Glaze as to which Sensorite should be made into the dispenser caused Sellotape to back-out of the deal.

THE CLAWS OF AXOS

Donald Hewlett and Jon Pertwee fell out during the filming of episode 3 – over rice paper. Hewlett was a firm believer that it should be categorised as paper, while Pertwee countered, “That’s not paper you can eat; that’s food you can write on.” Barry Letts mediated, and all sides agreed to disagree after sharing a tube of banana-flavoured Toffos.

TERROR OF THE ZYGONS

In keeping with the Scottish theme of this story, and to keep everyone warm on location, every member of the cast was given a tartan blanket. Production papers from the time show that actor John Woodnutt, while grateful, would have been happy with just the blanket.

THE DEADLY ASSASSIN

The nightmarish scenes set within the Matrix were directed by (but not credited to) Max Filligun, the winner of a Blue Peter competition to name a flamingo at London Zoo. As Production Unit Manager Chris D’Oyly-John later recalled in Doctor Who Magazine, “Filligun storyboarded the scenes on location with a box of crayons and laughed like a bloody lunatic for most of the filming. He was asked to leave the set when he found out we couldn’t hire a real crocodile, and out of frustration he kicked Bernard Horsfall in the bum.”

KINDA

A popular myth about this story (and the sequel Snakedance) is that they were written by Kate Bush under the pseudonym Christopher Bailey. This is, of course, nonsense – Bush said she would never write for the programme again after the team made such a fist of her first story, Warriors’ Gate.