Feature Category: Interviews

He was the world’s first truly automatic super hero. He started his life as a computer game, created by LAPD’s resident computer expert, Walter Nebicher (Desi Arnaz Jnr), but the program grew and grew – until it evolved into a hologram. A solid three dimensional image which could be summoned via computer.

He was a wonderful force for good, armed with a plethora of holographic gadgetry which would make even 007 jealous. His sidekick was a mischievous floating polyhedron named “Cursor”. He had the incredible autocar (a Lamborghini Countach), which could easily make ninety degree turns and could transform itself into the awesome autochopper or the wondrous autojet for longer range travelling, all of which defied the laws of physics, obeying the laws of computer games instead… He could scan his memory banks and dance like Travolta, play tennis like Jimmy Connors.

In fact, out of ten, he was, in his own words… an eleven.

He was Automan, the title character in the 1983 TV series now available to purchase on DVD.

In reality, the earnest crime fighter is actor Chuck Wagner, and we caught up with Chuck to discuss his time as the larger than life crime busting super hero. So without further ado, let’s summon the hero himself in the traditional manner…

“Calling Automan – Access Code: Crime Fighter”

Chuck Wagner, NY 2012

Starburst: How did you prepare for the role of Automan? Were you/are you a fan of the super hero genre?

Chuck Wagner: I had finished my collegiate training in Musical Theatre at USC in Los Angeles a couple of years before and had a run as Randall Thompson, General Hospital’s ‘computer lover’ on that ABC soap opera when Automan came along. I’ve always been a super hero fan, and learned to draw by copying Superman and Spider-Man comics as a kid. I was also a fan of all things Disney and at 10 years old I learned the concept of Imagineering- ‘If you can dream it you can achieve it’- from Walt Disney himself. I believe that my focus on super heroes as a child led to my being cast as Automan. It was the fulfillment of a great dream!

The casting call was a trip. I walked into a room full of godlike men, how I imagine Valhalla must be, and thought it was a long shot that I’d be cast, but I went in sincerely, played it honestly and simply and Glen Larson saw something he liked!

The Automan costume was an amazing and eye catching special effect, more so for its time. How difficult was it to work in that costume when effects needed to be added in post production?

The costume was actually quite comfortable, though the 4 inch heels they gave me were a bit awkward getting in and out of the Lamborghini!

The panels that look white in the unfinished shots were actually front projection screen material that was highly reflective. They filmed it with a beam splitter (a rig mounted on the camera that shot a bright light through a two way mirror set at 45 degrees, the light hit the mirror, then the costume and then bounced back through the mirror into the lens) making the panels much hotter than the ambient scene.

Then a negative was made from that film creating a travelling matte, then the star field pattern was added in a 3rd pass. It was a very complicated and expensive film based process, supervised by FX genius David Garber. Much of the Cursor effect was frame by frame animation, so we were a CGI concept rendered in pre-CGI fashion! Today it would be much easier with digital effects.

A rare look at the pre-FX Automan suit

The show was produced at a time when computers were by no means mainstream, your character for example, had to provide an explanation what a hologram was. Desi Arnaz’s character had to explain what interfacing meant. How do you think it’ll play to today’s audience who are much more tech savvy?

It’s still a fun piece of ‘80s Americana, and I hope new audiences take it in the spirit of love and fun that we intended. Just remember that personal PCs were brand new back then, and cell phones were huge!

(I was an ‘electromagnetic hologram’, long before the holodecks on Star Trek, and if you want to be really scientific about it, since no lasers were involved it’s a bit of a misnomer. One that continues to be misused over and over in sci-fi shows!)

I did have a great sci-fi moment soon after we finished the series on the bridge of the Enterprise in the first season on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was visiting Brent Spiner (who had starred with me in The Three Musketeers on Broadway). Brent had been asked what influenced him as he prepared to play Data, and he had answered ‘Chuck Wagner as Automan’. When told this on set Patrick Stewart in full Jean Luc Picard uniform looked me square in the eyes and said “quelle homage”! It was a very cool moment!

Although I imagine at the time it may have been just another acting job, how does it feel to you as a performer to suddenly have your early work available to a new generation? Did you think the appeal of Automan would reach this kind of cult status.

I’m thrilled that Automan still has a bit of spark left, and Desi, Heather and I are still the best of friends. We never anticipated cult status, but we still love the show. I think the show’s good natured innocence keeps it fresh today.

The series concerned itself with routine criminal activity that didn’t venture any further into sci-fi than the actual character of Automan and his creation. Had the series continued, in what direction do you think it would have gone? Would we have seen something like a recurring villain like an evil counterpart/computer virus?

Desi and I had high hopes that we could explore the inter- dimensional aspects and higher spiritual implications inherent in the concept, but alas it was not to be. TV in the ‘80s followed predictable formulas, and while many of us on the creative team strove to bring enlightening ideas to the job at the end of the day we were grateful that anything was made!

In our final episode, our Dirty Harry tribute, Automan started to get a bit darker, wanting to stop all crime everywhere. This might have been too serious for the fun we were having at the time.

If they were to reimagine the series today – what would you like to see?

First off the effects would be so much easier with today’s green screen technology, and the public awareness of what computers can do raises the stakes exponentially. It could be truly global in scope and virtually limitless in what we could do.

In the best of all worlds they could truly computer generate the Automan presence, and I could still provide the voice!

I do like the idea of the arch villian/virus… that seems a more plausible kryptonite than a simple lack of electricity!

Any memorable anecdotes from the set you’d like to share with Starburst readers?

We had some great co stars. Robert Lansing, our seasoned veteran Detective Jack Curtis, had once starred in an old sci-fi film The 4D Man, and I got a kick out of the fact that Automan was a 4D man too! He was the best. While we were shooting the pilot in Big Bear Lake in California we got to meet Danny Kaye – that is sort of unrelated, but he was one of my heroes!

Also it was a thrill to work with Patrick MacNee, John Steed in the pre Marvel Avengers/Avengers Assemble! I loved the episode with Laura Brannigan- she was quite a good kisser- and working with Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas was also an honour. My very first Auto-kiss was with Franz Nguyen, who the original Trekkers will remember as the Dohlman of Elas in the third season Star Trek episode titled Elaan of Troyus!

One of the things my wife really appreciated was the quantity of hours the show took to film, especially the pilot. On a few occasions Desi and I kept working through two different crew shifts, and our overtime was substantial. Some sequences when we merged were shot twice, once keeping me in the Autosuit, and then again in wardrobe that matched Desi’s. That schizophrenic aspect was so much fun to do, and it was delightful to watch Desi loop his voice over mine in post. The camaraderie between us was and is one of the great blessings in my life.

Our trip to England to promote the show was also a great adventure, and there we saw the novelization of the show and the rare Auto-toy collection from Acamus toys. I was one of the first to be able to say, ‘hey, I’m an Action Figure’!

This DVD collection from Fabulous Films gave us the great gift of getting together again in Boulder City Nevada at Desi’s Historic Boulder Theatre. It was as if no time at all had passed, and it was so much fun. The bonus features on the set include interviews from that great trip.

Arnaz Jr, McNair and Wagner – 2012

What have you been working on since the series?

I’ve spent the last quarter century mostly in Broadway Musicals, in New York and touring the US and Canada. I’ve been privileged to star in some of the most successful musicals of our generation. I was in the original cast of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, Javert in Les Miserables, The Beast in Disney’s Beauty and The Beast, Van Helsing in Dracula, the title roles in Jekyll & Hyde and much more.

I taught History of the American Musical Theatre and directed several shows as Visiting Artist in Residence at the University of West Florida in Pensacola and I continue to teach Master-classes across the country. I’m currently touring again as the Captain of the S.S. American in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Cole Porter’s classic Anything Goes and in conjunction with the tour we are teaching thousands of students the myriad elements involved in mounting a major Broadway show! In the show we are perpetually cruising to London.

I look forward to actually making the crossing again soon to visit all of my great friends there. Thirty years have passed since Automan first rezzed up and I still feel like a wide eyed kid new to this world. Thanks to you and your Starburst readers for all the love and support. The best is yet to come! For more information visit my website or find me on Facebook.

The Dream is Alive. May we all be wonderful forces for good.

Automan: The Complete Series is out now on DVD and is reviewed HERE.

Early last year when Starburst was still in its re-birth, we spoke to first time director Kelly Smith about Don’t Let Him In. With the film about to hit the DVD shelves in the UK at the end of October, we took this chance to catch up with the former negative cutter about his début feature and future plans.

Starburst: What were your influences when you came to make the film?

Kelly Smith: Don’t Let Him In is really a hybrid of a bunch of sub-genres, from video nasty-era slashers and survival horrors to psycho thrillers like And Soon the Darkness, even twist-ending TV shows like Brian Clemens’ Thriller and Hammer House of Horror. It’s really a tribute to a lot of the dodgy stuff I grew up being addicted to.

Where were the filming locations? Did you have any problems while shooting?

We shot in various locations around the Home Counties, including Buckinghamshire, West Sussex and Hertfordshire. The shoot took place in December and January, and it was brutally cold. Our cast were real troopers – especially the lead actress, Sophie Linfield, who had to run around the woods in her undies in subzero temperatures. I think the cast and crew were close to mutinying at times, but we just about managed to scrape through it. It was an exhausting, gruelling experience. Next time, I’ll be shooting in the summer!

How did you go about raising the budget? Have you any tips for any budding film makers out there?

Well, the seed money for the production came from my redundancy package! I was working as a negative cutter on films such as In Bruges and The Queen, making short films on the side, and when the company went under I decided to just go for it and make a feature. I scraped together some money from my family and within a few months we were shooting. I just about managed to complete the shoot, then assembled a fairly polished cut with my editor Mark Towns, and used that to raise investment to complete the film with my co-producer Mike Mindel. My advice to anyone thinking of making a movie is to do likewise – raise whatever finance you can, shoot a film and use a rough cut to interest investors for post production. An actual film that’s already been shot is a lot more attractive to backers than a script or a promo reel.

The film has its bloody moments, but was there ever a temptation to make the film even more gruesome and go all out for shock value?

The original conception was to make the film more subtle and suggestive, along the lines of Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which depicted very little blood or gore. Then in the edit, I realized I’d maybe held back too much, so we had to shoot some inserts of prosthetic gore FX with a veteran make-up artist named Aaron Sherman, whose genre credits stretch back to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. We also worked with a Budapest-based team of VFX artists headed by Andor Zahonyi to subtly augment blood sprays, etc. In retrospect, I probably should have gone all-out on the gore front. Give the fans what they want!

The film has been released in several territories already, how has the response been?

We’ve been fortunate enough to have the film released in fifteen territories so far, including France, Germany, Australia, Canada and the US. From what we’ve heard, sales have been healthy. There’s even talk of a sequel…

How do you see the state of the UK film industry? Genre films seem to provide a large proportion of independent films made, but are still looked down on by the powers that be, do you think that will ever change?

There is – or was – a healthy straight-to-DVD market for horror films, which is great for first-time filmmakers, but sadly that’s rapidly changing due to the culture of illegally downloading films. Piracy has had a huge negative impact on the DVD market, and that situation will only get worse. Without star names or Hollywood-scale production value, it’s very difficult for indie films to acquire theatrical distribution, so how will they manage to turn a profit? Long-term, the industry will have to find an alternative to accruing revenue from DVD and Blu-ray sales. I don’t think VOD is a viable means of doing that yet.

So where do you go now? Any projects to look forward to?

I’ve been developing a number of projects with my co-writer Chris Andrews and producer Mike Mindel, all in the horror, thriller and sci-fi genres. We don’t know which one will go next, but I can promise you we’ll be going all-out to create something that will blow fans away.

Finally, for a bit of fun: What would be your dream film cast? If money were no object and any actor available (living or dead)?
Well, I’ve been obsessed with the classic Hammer and Universal Gothic horrors since I was a kid. It would’ve been a dream to work with Cushing, Lee or Karloff in their heyday.

Thank you so much to Kelly for taking the time to talk to us, Don’t Let Him In is released on DVD on October 29th.

Jason Arnopp, a busy journalist and script-writer whose work has appeared in publications as diverse as Heat Magazine and Doctor Who Magazine has  contributed to the Audio Go BBC Doctor Who/Sarah Jane Adventure ranges and also wrote the 2005 Friday 13th spin-off novel Hate-Kill-Repeat. His first full-length feature film script credit, the supernatural thriller Stormhouse, was released on DVD in the UK earlier this year. Jason’s first original horror novella, the chilling Beast in the Basement, has been available for download since last month and has been attracting rave reviews. Jason recently spoke with Starburst Magazine and explained exactly how he got his beast into his basement…

Starburst: What was the inspiration for Beast in the Basement?

Jason Arnopp: That’s now a hard question to answer, as this story has been in my life for a while. In 2008 or thereabouts, I wrote it as a one-off 60-minute TV drama script called Happy Ever After. The story was pretty much the same, but after deciding to convert it to prose, I ended up adding plenty more to it, giving it a slightly nastier edge and improving the whole thing greatly. When you’re writing your lead character in the ‘present-tense first-person’, it becomes so much easier to get inside his head. There are suddenly so many more questions that you have to answer. Weirdly, I once thought that Happy Ever After would be impossible to carry off in prose form. I was wrong.

Was the story always intended to be written as a novella?

As I said, it didn’t start life as a novella, but there’s no question in my mind that it’s novella-sized. A few people have said they wished Beast in the Basement was longer, but it’s the kind of story that must not outstay its welcome! And hopefully it doesn’t.

Was the story fully-structured when you started the actual writing process?

These days, I rarely jump into writing before something’s at least 90 per cent worked out. With Beast in the Basement, it certainly helped that I had the Happy Ever After script to work from, but I didn’t want to stick to that template so rigidly. This was a whole other medium, after all, and the story was four years old. I wanted to free myself a little and see what happened, within the basic structure of the story, so when I was writing the novella I only referred to the script very occasionally. As readers will see, Beast has a very definite structure in certain respects, but at times I also wanted to let the main character do what he liked. Which sounds like a terribly pretentious thing to say, but sometimes characters really do seem to develop their own freewill.

Beast in the Basement strikes us as something of a cautionary tale, warning perhaps of the ‘cult of celebrity’ surrounding certain authors and franchises. Does this reflect your own concerns about particular areas of publishing?

To be honest, no, but I guess it could be read that way. For me, it’s more of a cautionary tale for parents, but it depends who the reader sympathises with most! I like the fact that it’s impossible to empathise with a character, without agreeing with what they’re doing. I’m very much anti-censorship and there lies the key to my own intentions while writing Beast in the Basement, along with the opening dedication ‘to scapegoats everywhere’.

You’ve previously written for established series like Friday the 13th, Doctor Who etc. Was it liberating to create and work with your own characters and situations in prose form for the first time?

I wouldn’t say “liberating” as such, because I love working in both of those worlds. Doctor Who especially has been a part of my life since I was four years old, so it feels like a glorious sandpit rather than a set of shackles. Having said that, any writer wants to be able to create their very own sandpit. You do enjoy that freedom, while also feeling the added pressure. You don’t have an established franchise to hide behind: this is all-new, all-singing, all-dancing… all you. I had written all-new short stories before (including one, The Screams Next Door, for a charity horror anthology called Voices from the Past) but Beast in the Basement was a much bigger undertaking. I loved writing it, in both of its incarnations.

Beast in the Basement skirts with themes touched upon by Stephen King in Misery. Was Misery a conscious influence on the story?

Not conscious, no, but there’s no doubt that I am a King fan and love Misery. You like to imagine that, the day Stephen King came up the concept for Misery, he popped open a bottle of champagne with joy. A few of King’s stories feature writers as characters, so it’s perfectly understandable to make that connection with Beast in the Basement. There are also a couple of themes which Misery and Beast broadly share, such as obsession. While I wrote, I perhaps only occasionally thought of Misery, to make sure I wasn’t meandering directly into King territory!

Which authors inspire you in your writing? Are you predominantly interested in ‘genre’ (i.e. fantasy-based) material or would you have a crack at a Holby City if the opportunity arose?

When writing horror prose, Stephen King can’t help but be an influence. Over the years, I’ve also admired Shaun Hutson for his unflinching and pacey work. I’m slightly more of a watcher than a reader, though. In film, I like people like Quentin Tarantino (for True Romance, especially), the Coen Brothers (for Fargo, especially), Charlie Kaufman, Woody Allen… and in TV my scriptwriting heroes are people like Tony Jordan, Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, Toby Whithouse, Shawn Ryan – ingenious writers with flair and soul. Some might not think of this last one as an author, as such, but to me the stand-up comedian Stewart Lee is a truly great writer/artist. I’m inspired by his stand-alone attitude, plus the thought and attention he devotes to his work, and he makes me laugh like no-one else. Genre fare is definitely where I tend to lean, but I like anything with some form of intensity, and/or great characters. For that reason, I’d love to write Holby City, as it has both of those qualities. So do shows like Waterloo Road, EastEnders and Casualty. Of course, there’s no doubt that writing Doctor Who, the TV show, would be a real dream come true for me.

The novella is only available to download at the moment. What’s your opinion of the rise of the download novel?

I’m a big fan. This whole sea change in publishing is especially relevant when you’re talking about a novella like Beast in the Basement. By and large, ‘trad’ publishing has only been interested in novels. They might, at a push, be interested in a short story collection. Something in the no man’s land between those two extremes, like a novella, wouldn’t be of interest. The ‘Kindle revolution’ has proven that book buyers don’t think that way. They just want stories they can pick up and read, whatever the length, provided they’re getting value for money. As so many more things fight for our increasingly limited attention spans, it’s arguable that many people are starting to prefer the shorter story. Plenty will always want the super-immersive fantasy epics, but the leaner and often meaner story is clearly on the up. I also love the freedom of indie publishing. The way in which authors can put their stories out there, without a whole chain of execs pitching in and giving notes. Provided the author never loses sight of the fact that he or she always needs a good editor, this is a healthy enough development. Their stories can be just the way they want them. The main thrust of my career lies in scriptwriting, which can sometimes be a long and slightly testing process, so it did feel liberating to write Beast in the Basement, running it by a handful of trusted readers and note-givers before inflicting it on the universe. It felt like a really fun experiment and something new.

You‘ve mentioned earlier about getting ‘inside the head’ of your characters. Is that something you find easy to do?

I actually did find it quite easy. Once you’re sure about who your character is, writing as them in the first person isn’t so much of a challenge. The tough bit is getting them straight in your head beforehand. Knowing who they are. Beast’s main character may be a writer, but he’s completely different to me. When writing things you don’t agree with, you do have that slight concern that readers might think the character is you! I thought about this for a moment while writing Beast in the Basement, then thought about American Psycho and all the worries went away.

You recently scripted supernatural sci-fi thriller Stormhouse. How did that come about?

I’d worked on a couple of short films and a comedy sketch show pilot with a British director called Dan Turner. One night in a Soho pub in May 2010, he casually mentioned that he had an idea for a film about the military capturing a ghost. I fell off the back of my chair, and then it was all we could talk about for the rest of the night. Dan had been looking into various bouts of paranormal activity in Suffolk military bases, and his research helped us firm up Stormhouse’s plot. In August 2010, we were in a Suffolk military base, shooting the film. The whole thing was a very fast, exhilarating process. The following June, Stormhouse had its world premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival, which was of course loads of fun, before heading down south to the wonderful London Film 4 FrightFest. There’s a received wisdom in this country that it’s impossible to get a film made without jumping through various film council hoops. I say it’s only impossible if you decide it is.

Are you planning any full-length original novels?

Not right now. At the moment, I think my next prose thing may well be a short, scary story. Scriptwriting, as I said, is my main focus, but really I take everything on a story-by-story basis. If I come up with a tale which might work best in prose, that’s the medium I’ll choose for it. In truth, though, I really like novella-length stories. I don’t read many enormo-novels and frankly lose patience with them. I definitely like my stories lean and mean, in the same way that I always love an 85-minute film.

What can we expect next from Jason Arnopp?

Since Stormhouse, I’ve written a couple of horror feature screenplays which my agent is shopping around. I would love those to be made. I’m also working with a production company on a genre film which was their basic idea and is great fun. In TV, I’m co-writing a pilot script with someone, and I really wish I could tell you who that is, because it excites the hell out of me. Hopefully, one day, it will all come to light when this series hits screens! Lastly, following on from my non-fiction guide How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else, I have a couple of other non-fiction e-books up my sleeve – one of which will be a collection of my favourite interview articles I wrote during my past life as a rock journalist.

What advice would you give to struggling writers or anyone who thinks they’ve got a story they want to tell?

God, there’s so much advice that a new writer needs. You’ll find various motivational essays on my website at JasonArnopp.com – many of which take on a healthy, ‘tough love’ attitude. I’d also recommend the sites of writers James Moran, Danny Stack and Chuck Wendig. One of the most important things I’d say, though, is to think of your writing career as a long game. Don’t be in any rush. If you’re learning to write, let that happen across many, many stories which only friends and families may see. You only get one chance to impress most professionals and in the early days, your work is never as ready as you think it is. That’s a really tough lesson to learn. A lot of hard work, a little patience and self-control, along with the utmost respect and consideration for people whose help you want, will go a very long way.

Still fondly remembered from her role as lovelorn Dawn Tinsley in Ricky Gervais’ groundbreaking BBC TV comedy The Office and to genre fans as Dylan Moran’s girlfriend Dianne in the classic Shaun of the Dead, actress Lucy Davis now lives and works largely in Los Angeles. She appears regularly on episodic American television shows with credits on high profile series such as The Mentalist, Reaper, Californication and Ugly Betty to her name. In her latest feature film, Some Guy Who Kills People, she plays fish-out-of-water British ex-pat Stephanie who drifts into a sweet relationship with Kevin Corrigan’s geeky, disturbed Ken. Here she tells Starburst about the film and her career in general…

Starburst: Some Guy seems like a difficult film to categorise. Is it a horror film, a thriller, a black comedy and what appealed to you about the film?

Lucy Davis: I’d say it’s a horror film really. It’s not like a ‘whodunnit’ because that sort of describes Miss Marple or something. What I love about the film – and what I love in any film or TV – is that it’s about not exactly eccentric characters but misfits, people who don’t automatically fill a slot or a box that we might like to put everyone in. We often don’t know what to do with some people or how to relate to them and I really like how in Some Guy a bunch of these people get their own story and we see what happens to them and we see them come good in the end – but not in a slushy kind of way!

How would you describe Stephanie, your character in the film?

I would describe her as someone pretty normal but also as someone probably looking for something a bit different. She comes along and meets Ken (Kevin Corrigan) and is slightly intrigued by him because at their first meeting he’s wearing a giant ice cream cone costume! I wasn’t the most supportive member of cast he could have had on set that day; I just saw his sweet, forlorn-looking face in the middle of this ice cream thing and I just thought he looked so sad and humiliated! Eleanor Roosevelt said ‘no-one can make you feel inferior unless you give them permission’ and what I love about that with Kevin in the ice cream costume was that you could easily say ‘this is ridiculous’ and laugh at it but because of all the torment he’s gone through which he’s still struggling with he’s still trying to have a life and be like normal people and I think that’s what Stephanie finds charming.

What was the casting process for the movie?

I was sent the script and I went and auditioned for it. I really liked the script and that when it was funny it was funny and when it was dark it was dark. I love how (writer) Ryan Levin writes, he’s subtle and he’s under the radar and I like the fact that it’s like watching a different kind of movie, not something mainstream. That’s the joy I always get from those kinds of scripts and I like to seek out projects like this if I’m lucky enough to have the choice.

The… excuse me… ‘arc’ of your character sees you spending most of your time with Kevin Corrigan’s character Ken. What was he like to work with and did you have much interaction with the rest of the cast?

Kevin’s really lovely. He’s quite quiet, he’s a real gentleman and we just had a lot of laughs. The first scene we did was this scene where we went on a sort of date, dinner at a restaurant. We enjoyed it because it’s only when you start to ‘act it out’ that you can see if it’s going to go anywhere so we had my character who was starting to talk more and more because he wasn’t talking and she’s blithering on just to get through the date. The whole cast did a table read at the start so I got to meet everyone and although I haven’t got any scenes with Barry Bostwick (Sheriff Fuller) there were times when he had been there in the day and he was just finishing and I was just starting. He’s a lovely man, another real gentleman and he makes you laugh far too much.

How did you get on with the director, Jack Perez?

He was very respectful to all of us, wanting our ideas and our input but at the same time we didn’t feel all at sea with him because he has a real vision for the film and he worked closely with Ryan Levin so it was a proper collaboration but I definitely felt very safe in his hands. He’s a lovely man; we share a huge interest in animal rights and we’d be talking about it for hours!

Your character Stephanie is a bit of a ‘blank slate’ in that we don’t get to learn much about her history. Were you given any back story for her or did you invent one yourself?

When I auditioned originally I think they’d written the role for an American person so I think they might have made a little adjustment in the dialogue about her coming from England, otherwise it wasn’t really referred to much. There wasn’t really a long back story, it was just enough really that she’d come to this small town and was probably looking for something a little more and a little different which is when she came across Ken and she got it. Be careful what you wish for!

Were all your scenes filmed at the same time or were you back and forth across the production schedule?

We were back and forth. I can’t remember how long it took exactly to film the whole thing but it was quite quick – I want to say three weeks – so they were quite long days and we had to get a move on. But we’ve all done this job for a long time so it wasn’t a problem. What I loved about this project was that everybody joined together in a big team effort because it was low-budget so we all knew how that works and I really like that sort of collaboration. You’re doing it because you love it. People have loved it and been passionate about it. It’s Ryan’s baby and he’s put a lot into it and been immensely supportive to all of us which is why we’ve all come together to do a lot for it.

So presumably you’re pleased by the response to the movie?

Really pleased. I don’t think I’ve ever done a project where someone says, in the middle of it, ‘This is shit, isn’t it?’ – no-one’s ever going to say that! When you’re doing something like this which you really love you just don’t know how people are going to respond which is why, for me, the bit I really love is being on set, doing the job, mixing with people, meeting new people. I honestly sometimes forget that the end product is that it’s going to come out somewhere! But you’ve got to enjoy that bit, that’s the point of it. This is my job, this is the bit I’m getting paid to do and I love it.

Moving on – and back a bit – I have to mention The Office. Are you sick of people like me constantly bringing up something you finished doing ten years ago?

I think it’s great to have worked on a project that people are still talking about ten years later! I can’t actually believe it’s ten years ago but it’s actually a bit longer because I first got offered the pilot in December 1999 so it seems like a whole lifetime ago. When we were doing the pilot we obviously didn’t know we were going to be picked up and no-one knew what was going to happen with it. As with Some Guy we all knew we loved it and we just hoped we’d be allowed to do more because we were enjoying it so anything on top of that is a bonus. But I think it finished at the right time. I love the US Office, I watch it avidly, but I really appreciated the fact that Ricky and Stephen (Merchant) wanted our version to go out on a high. We didn’t want people to say ‘well, this is good but last season was better’ which I think is what tends to happen with the US Office so I think it’s quite nice that ours had a beginning, middle and end.

I have to mention Shaun of the Dead too because… well, I just have to…  Did you realise at the time that you were making what would turn out to be such an iconic British movie?

Again it’s one of those that when you’re making it you all hope it’ll do well because you’re all loving it and you’re having a great time. Also with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright you felt in safe hands because it wasn’t new territory – I know it was their first film but with Spaced you could see the kinds of writers they were and the sort of people they were. If you meet Simon Pegg you’ll find he’s just the nicest man, friendly, normal and so kind and extremely funny!

You now work a lot in America; is that out of preference or is that just where the work is?

I actually work in the States and in the UK. I just got back from Guadelope in the Caribbean doing an episode of Death in Paradise with Ben Miller for BBC1. My agent rang and said ‘you’ve been offered this job in the Caribbean’ and I went ‘yes!’ She said ‘don’t you want to know what it is?’ and I said ‘Not if it’s going to put me off, I just want to go!’ I really enjoyed doing that show. There were tons of crew I’d worked with before, some cast I knew, a gorgeous location so it was like a little holiday. But so hot! There was one five-page scene that took all day. It was about 100 degrees, we were inside and they couldn’t use the air-conditioning because of the cameras and the lights and I actually fell asleep in the middle of a take! It was the lack of oxygen or something. Poor Ben Miller had to act to a corpse! I wasn’t on camera I hasten to add, but Ben was so I had to apologise!

Are you one of those actors who has to be working constantly or are you able to cope with those periods of ‘resting’?

I’ve been doing this job now for nearly twenty years and there are going to be times when you’re not working for a long time and there have been periods where I’ve not worked for a long time. But what I can’t do is spend that entire time in panic so I try to go ‘well, this is great now because I’m not working’ so I get to travel, read books and just have a nice time. I think that rather than spend the time in fear and paranoia that I’m never going to work again I’d rather enjoy it and make the best of it.

So what have you got lined-up next?

I’ve written a pilot for a single-camera half-hour comedy and I’m in the process of pitching it right now. I’ve written it for Britain and America – one is set in Santa Monica in LA and the other is in Brighton. I’ve written it, had a cast together and now I’m trying to sell it. If you want a pilot, let me know! I decided first of all that I wouldn’t be in it, then I decided to write myself a not very big role but if it gets bought I’ll just be happy that it’s been bought and then decide whether to be in it or not. I really love writing, I got a lot more enjoyment from it than I thought I would, doing something in my own time on my own. I’d love something to come from it one day and it’d be nice to be able to do it again.

During the Los Angeles 3D film Festival, Starburst caught up legendary producer, writer, director, editor and actor Roger Corman and his wife Julie to discuss their latest endeavour…

Starburst: So tell us how did Attack of the 50 Ft. Cheerleader come about?

Roger Corman: The original idea came from the 1958 movie, Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman. We approached Epix with the idea of a 3D science fiction film with humor. With a title like Attack of the 50 Ft. Cheerleader you couldn’t be overly serious.

Were you hands-on during the production?

Roger Corman: No, I was more involved in the pre-production of the film. Julie ran the production end, though I do have a cameo in the film.

Julie Corman: It turned out to be a lot more expensive that what we originally budgeted at, mostly for the effects.

Was that because of the involvement of the 3D process?

It was a combination of green screen and 3D that we used.

When you were in post production, were there any serious changes made?

RC: I looked at the first rough cut of the film and wasn’t quite satisfied with the outcome. Kevin O’ Neil, the director, had shot a lot of coverage so I re-edited the movie which is now the final cut you saw. It also had the highest rating ever for an Epix release.

JC: Roger received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the editor’s guild for all his work over the years.

RC: They give it to you when you’ve exceeded your lifetime.

You came up with the original poster design for Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman when you were at Allied Artists.

RC: Yes. Bernie Wolner (producer of Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, directed by Nathan Juran) was having difficulty coming up with a one-sheet for the film. He wanted sexual content in it, yet none of his designs would pass the censors at that time, so he asked me to design the ad. I came up with Los Angeles area freeways during rush hour with cars running between Alison Hayes’ legs and the rest is history. That poster now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Attack of the 50 Ft. Cheerleader is available on Epix in the States, and will be released in the UK next year. Read our review HERE.

We interview Attack of the 50 Ft. Cheerleader star Jena Sims HERE.

TRUE BLOOD’S NEW BLOOD: KRISTINA ANAPAU INTERVIEWED

The fifth season of Alan Ball’s increasingly wild Deep South vampire series True Blood is now in full swing in the UK with a sixth season due to screen next year. But there’s a new face in amongst the familiar regulars; Hawaiian-born actress Kristina Anapau, who first appeared towards the end of the fourth season, returns in the new season as the mysterious Maurella. Here she tells Starburst how she found her way to Bon Temps and joined the vampires, werewolves and shape-shifters…

Starburst: How did you come to be cast as Maurella in True Blood?

Kristina Anapau: I received a call to come and read for (producer) Alan Ball, went in to audition the following day and found out that they wanted me for the role a few hours later. I had always been a fan of Alan Ball’s work and of True Blood so I was over the moon upon hearing the news. It was such a privilege to be joining the cast of a show that I was also a long time fan of.

What can you tell us about the character of Maurella?

Maurella is a seductress from the faerie dimension who is five hundred years old but only claims to be three hundred! She has the ability to read minds, shoot balls of light out of her hands and… hmmmm… other abilities as well that I won’t reveal here since season five has only just started screening in the UK! 

How difficult was it – if at all – to join the already large ensemble cast of such a well-established show?

It wasn’t difficult at all. I was very soon welcomed in as a member of the family. It’s a wonderful show to be a part of – an incredibly talented group of actors who are also really lovely people off screen. When we wrapped for the season, the following few weeks were hard – it has been such a pleasure to come to work every day and I missed everyone a lot.

True Blood is a pretty graphic show in terms of its sexual content. Was that something you found challenging and do you think it’s good for shows like True Blood to have that sort of freedom away from more traditional Network constraints?

I didn’t really have any overly graphic scenes this season and I was very comfortable with everything I was asked to do. I’m a big supporter of freedom of expression. I think it should be up to parents to control what their children are and are not allowed to watch on television. Compared to what can be found with simply typing one search word into Google I feel that True Blood is relatively tame.

Alan Ball is moving on from the show at the end of the fifth season. How involved was he in the day-to-day production of the show, especially in relation to character development and performance?

Alan has been incredibly hands-on during these past five seasons as showrunner. It’s his creation and he knows each character and their storylines inside and out. He is a brilliant writer and a generous human being – I feel very honoured having worked with him in his final season as showrunner – it was an incredibly special experience.

True Blood season five is currently screening in the UK. We understand that Maurella is likely to play an even greater role in season six. Can you give us a hint as to what’s in store for your character?

I was given some wonderful episodes in season five and I had such an incredible time. As for season six – I wouldn’t want to give anything away; we’re a secretive operation!

Vampires or werewolves? Which is best?

Vampires without question. Vampires are incredibly sensual and very sexy.

True Blood is notable for its cast of strong, powerful female characters. Is this something you’re keen to see more of in films and TV?

Yes, without question. Women audience members want to see strong women doing interesting things on television – it’s good for the industry and great for the world.

You recently appeared in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. How would you describe the experience of working with Aronofsky?

Darren is a genius whose focus and discipline on set is contagious. To say that working on Black Swan was inspiring would be an understatement.

You trained in classical ballet and music as well as theatre. Do you maintain your interest in those aspects of your training and are they skills you’d like to be able to develop?

I’ve been missing being in ballet class of late. Life has gotten so busy for me recently and going to ballet class a few times a week is one thing that has gotten pushed to the side. I need to change that.

You recently completed work on a supernatural feature film called Sighting. What can you tell us all about it?

It’s a supernatural thriller that will definitely keep audiences on the edge of their seats and then some! What sets it apart from other genre movies, however, is that it’s actually a very character-driven piece. We had a cast of outstanding actors and I’m really looking forward to its release. 

What would you like to be doing, professionally, in ten years’ time? Any specific roles or projects you’re especially hankering after?

I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately and my pieces have been published in several different magazines. I’m very passionate about my work in that arena. My writing is definitely something that will continue to evolve and will most likely end up taking a greater and greater space in my life. I’ve also been slowly working on a novel. I also see myself producing in a few years – I think I have quite the talent and temperament for it.

Beyond True Blood and Sighting, where can we expect to see you next?

I did a bit of what I hope is really great work on the NBC show Grimm recently and that’ll be airing soon. I also have a film called BlackJacks coming out next year.  It’s a ‘special ops’ storyline, very different from anything I’ve done before. I’m very proud of the film, it’s definitely one to watch out for.

 

True Blood – Season Five is currently airing on FXUK.

Starburst caught up with Scott Derrickson, director of the fantastic new horror movie Sinister, to talk about the film’s origins, sequel potential, found footage, faith and more…

Starburst: For those who haven’t caught it yet, what can you tell us about Sinister?

Scott Derrickson: In the last several years the horror genre has been dominated by found footage films. The basic concept of Sinister is that it is not found footage, but rather it is about the guy who finds the footage. It’s about a true crime writer who finds a box of five films, each one capturing a horrifying murder. As he investigates the films, paranormal things ensue…

What was the inspiration for the film?

The idea originally came from my writing partner, C. Robert Cargill. After seeing The Ring, he had a nightmare about going into his attic and finding a box of films with a murder on each film. In his dream he watched the first film, and that’s the opening shot of Sinister.

The film incorporates some found footage into its story. What are your thoughts on the current trend for the found footage subgenre? Where do you feel Sinister fits amongst that pantheon?

I think that the found footage genre is interesting, but we are at the point where it needs to evolve. Sinister is certainly an evolution of the genre, but I wouldn’t call it a found footage movie – rather it’s a movie with found footage in it.

There seems like a lot of scope for further stories within the film’s universe. Do you have an eye on turning Sinister into a series or franchise?

Absolutely. If the movie makes enough money, there will definitely be sequels.

On the subject of franchises, is there a particular horror series you’d be itching to take the reigns of? Freddy or Jason, maybe?

I wouldn’t be interested in taking over something that already exists. I’d much rather create a franchise of my own – and that’s what I hope Sinister becomes.

You of course wrote and directed Hellraiser: Inferno. Have you any ambition to return to the franchise?

It was good opportunity when I was first breaking into Hollywood, but I doubt that I would return to that franchise now.

As a Christian filmmaker, some might be surprised by your genre output. How do you balance your faith with the movies you make?

I like the word Christian as a noun, but not really as an adjective. I am a Christian, but I don’t think of myself as a Christian filmmaker anymore than my wife considers herself a Christian nurse. I don’t try to balance or integrate my faith and my work, because they are naturally integrated – every director brings their view of the world into what they do. For me, horror has always been appealing because it inherently deals with good and evil. And I love that you can explore religious ideas within it without the baggage that religion itself brings to those ideas.

Of course, many of your films (Hellraiser, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) have strong religious themes. How do you find your work is greeted by both religious and horror communities?

I find that extremists on both ends dislike the religious elements in those two films you mentioned – close-minded Christians only find them obscene, and close-minded liberal sceptics find them proselytizing. I, of course, am quite convinced that they are neither.

Favourite horror movies. Go.

Top three in order: The Exorcist, The Shining, The Changeling.

Nice!

Sinister is playing in cinemas now. To read our review, go HERE.

Starburst caught up with the star of Roger Corman’s first 3D film, Attack of the 50 Ft. Cheerleader at the recent 3D Film Festival held in Los Angeles. Bright, witty and a sci-fi/horror film aficionado this upcoming, talented actress is one to watch!

Starburst: What influenced you to become an actress?

Jena Sims: When I was little, I watched soap operas with my mom. We once went to the Super Soap Weekend in Orlando and we had the opportunity to meet Susan Lucci. She was so graceful, charismatic, and beautiful – I will never forget that! I knew I wanted to be like her one day. I didn’t start pursuing acting seriously until I moved out to Los Angeles in 2009. I started going to acting classes and auditioning. My first career aspiration as a child was to become an opera singer, thankfully that was just a phase!

Did you ever see any of the ‘50s science fiction films such as Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman?

I did! I watched 50ft Woman prior to working on 50ft Cheerleader. I am a nerd at heart so I get a charge out of these movies. A few of my favorite sci-fi films are: The Blob, Alien, Coneheads, The Thing – the original and John Carpenter’s version, and E.T.

So how did you end up being the 50ft cheerleader?

The short version: I auditioned fair and square! The long version: I had just signed with a new theatrical agency so maybe it was a little beginners luck! My mom was in town and she drove me to the audition after working with my coach on the scenes. I went in and read with the casting director and then she asked me a few questions about my past with cheerleading.  After I performed a high kick, she invited the director, Kevin O’Neill in, and I read again, and on the spot they congratulated me giving me the role! I wish all auditions were all that pleasant of an experience!

Did you have to do a lot of training for the role; learning cheers, dance routines, etc?

I have 6 years of cheerleading experience, and 15 years of dance training. I felt prepared for that aspect of the film – but not for the fighting. My co-star and myself went through vigorous fight training by our coordinator, who happened to be one of the original Ninja Turtles! He taught us kung fu moves mixed with cheerleading that we now call Cheer-Fu! All of the cheers and dances you see me do in the film were learned about 10 minutes before the cameras started rolling. Most of the moves in that slow motion try out scene were improvised!

I have to say the FX are very impressive. What were your green screen scenes (say that three times fast!) like and how long did they take?

That was a true test of patience and energy! The green screen studio was enormous- and entirely green from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. After spending 12-14 hour days in there, once you go outside to leave, your eyes have to almost adjust to seeing colors again! It was wild! It was tough acting alone, as if the other actors were there. One scene that stood out was when I am in the gym and Kyle is working on the laptop and Jet comes in with the paint bucket. They weren’t there with me so I had to remember so many different eye lines and was essentially acting to an empty room, with the exception of one of the crew guys holding tennis balls for me to speak to!

The fight scenes are great, especially the final fight which was superbly choreographed. What did your training involve for those scenes?

We had our fight training at Kevin’s (O’Neill – Director) house. He has a lovely basketball court in his back yard. The fight coordinator laid out some mats, had two assistants who essentially taught myself and my co-star our “parts” like a dance routine. We filmed the guys doing it, and we had that as a reference if we ever had questions about what goes where. One wrong move and you lose an eye! Or a boob…

What are you working on next our readers can see you in?

I recently filmed a Friedberg/Seltzer Untitled Project. They are the guys behind the Scary Movie franchise. I was also in a short film coming out soon called Chocolate Milk. Other than that, I am heavily involved with my non-profit organization, “Pageant of Hope”, and auditioning!

Attack of the 50 Ft. Cheeleader is available on EPIX.
A UK release is scheduled for early 2013.

Check out our review of Attack of the 50ft Cheerleader here.

 

Some Guys Who Kills People, described as “part slasher, part comedy – wholly brilliant” has been wowing audiences at UK Film Festivals for the past twelve months. The film’s director Jack Perez, a graduate of New York University’s Department of Film and Television, has been working in the film and TV industry for over 20 years, his earliest break seeing him hired by Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert and working on the long-running Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess series. Whilst he attained a certain notoriety with the cult classic Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus his more legitimate work has included his revisionary private eye tale The Big Empty which competed at the AFI international Film Festival and the blackly comic thriller La Cucaracha which won the Best Feature Award at the Austin Film festival. As Some Guy Who Kills People finally arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK, Starburst took the opportunity to talk to Jack Perez about his career and the film which was very clearly a labour or love…

Starburst: So what brought the director of Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus and Monster Island (MTV stop-motion homage movie featuring Adam West as Dr Harryhausen) to something as wildly different as Some Guy Who Kills People?

Jack Perez: I think it was the combination of the depth of character in the script coupled with the fact that it’s a thriller with a really wicked streak of black comedy which made it feel like a piece I could really relate to. Kevin Corrigan’s character (Ken) is very close to my heart even thought I didn’t write him. Like most geeks I was severely bullied as a kid and I’m sure there’s a certain part of me which still isn’t over it – although of course I wasn’t tortured in the way Ken was! But I was very much a loner so that sort of character connected with me straight away and I liked the fact that it was couched in this very eccentric world but it never felt ‘affected’; that’s my big pet peeve in any sort of script, regardless of genre, when characters are written to try to sound cool or be cool. Some Guy felt like it’s in a very unique, authentic place with people I’m interested in and I wanted to explore that. I felt that so much of my stuff in previous years had been limited either by the content itself or the powers-that-be insisting that the movie be something or another. In other movies I’ve done which have just been work-for-hire I was just trying to find things in them which would appeal to me and Some Guy was one of those opportunities where the whole thing just hit me, it was like I was the one who needed to make this. I felt driven to do it as if I was sick from making too much junk in the past.

Do you think that there’s a stigma attached to being known for… shall we say… slightly schlockier movies?

I think so. It’s weird because it had been several years between La Cucaracha and The Big Empty and Mega-Shark but because of the way the world is right now when Mega-Shark came out it was so popular on the internet it became this big pop culture thing and suddenly that’s who I was, I was “the Mega-Shark guy” – but really it’s the most frivolous thing I’ve ever done. I’m a huge fan of monster movies in general – Godzilla, Kong, Ray Harryhausen, the 1950s atomic mutation films – I grew up on all of them so Mega-Shark was easy to make but I was so hampered by the budget and the people that were making it and the time we had to do it. It really was a sub-Roger Corman schedule, just crank the movie out in twelve days and hope for the best. The producers really treated it like a sausage factory. I had no control over the editorial process beyond my first cut which barely resembles what came out. By the time they’d padded it for time and put in all manner of inserts it really resembled a porno movie it was so monkeyed-with editorially. There are a few things in that movie which communicate what I was going for – one is the famous sequence where the mega-shark jumps out of the ocean and bites the 747 but I always say that when I was making it I was afraid people would think of me as this new Ed Wood. I love Ed Wood but I didn’t want to be perceived as someone who was not self-aware so I kept writing scenes which were so absurd that any discriminating viewer would say ‘okay, this guy knows what he’s doing, he’s not literally Ed Wood but he’s commenting on it whenever he can’. But at every turn the producers were saying to me ‘be careful with that irony and sarcasm stuff, this is supposed to be serious.’ They really thought they were making a serious movie and all I was trying to do was say ‘look, no way’ is this going to be serious, it’s ridiculous!’ and the irony was that after the movie came out and everyone saw how silly it was they were saying ‘ha ha, we’re in on the joke’ but until that point they really thought they were making Avatar! So I was really worried that people would just know me as this goofy shlock guy which is why I was really happy that Some Guy came along because it was the sort of film I needed to do creatively but also a way to say ‘look, you haven’t seen my other movies, you’ve only seen Mega-Shark and that’s not who I am!’

 

So presumably you feel more of a sense of ownership over Some Guy?

Absolutely. Some Guy is just the opposite of something like Mega-Shark where the piece resonated for me and ultimately Ryan Levin, who wrote the script, and I made the film we wanted to see. There was no one going in there and messing with the cut or the music choices or any of the details that allow a filmmaker to take possession of a movie. It was the movie I wanted to make and it was ’unmessed-with’ which I think is key because you can shoot the greatest movie in the world and then someone can take it and cut it into something else entirely. If you don’t control the editorial process what you’re trying to get across is likely not to come across.

Would you say that Some Guy is the sort of film which nowadays can only come from the indie sector?

I think so. As the years go by the more the studio industry becomes just that – an industry. It’s not about content, it’s about the size of the profit. I remember hearing a story where Martin Scorsese went into the studios to pitch a project and was told ‘We know it’ll make money, Marty, we’re just not interested in making that sort of money!’ So now it’s not even about if your movie will make money it’s about whether you’ll make Avengers money! If you’re not promising that, if you’re not mixing genres or basing it on a toy or a TV show the risk of being financed by a studio is slim – unless you’re the Coen brothers.

How would you describe Some Guy Who Kills People?

It depends who’s selling it. Some people sell it as a comedy, some strictly as a horror film. I think even if you say it’s a comedy/horror that in and of itself is limiting because people think of something like Scary Movie or something which is a little broader whereas this is fundamentally a drama with thriller and comic components. What made me want to do it is the fact that I bought into these characters as real people in a real situation so that’s how I approached it. Although it’s funny all over the place it has horror scenes and suspense/thriller scenes all of which I played absolutely straight but at its heart it’s a character piece and you have to believe that these people are real. I felt the movie was honest from moment-to-moment even though it changed tone from moment-to-moment. When it came to the violence I opted to go for a slightly more theatrical approach – I wouldn’t say it was comic because people get killed and there’s blood and gore but I definitely went for a more hyperbolic bent because I felt that if I went for something like Zodiac it’d be off-putting and I didn’t want it to be too naturalistic because I thought that’d be a harder fit with the lighter aspects but I definitely wanted to show the blood and the decapitation!

How important is it to get the right cast together for a film like Some Guy?

It’s essential. You never end up getting entirely the right people because that’s usually the way it rolls and even if you have a huge amount of money – which I’ve never had – where you can throw it at an actor and say ‘I must have you, Harrison Ford’, I’ve never been able to get everybody that’s ideal for an ensemble piece but in this case it was that very rare situation where the right people wanted to do the movie at the right time. I came in just as casting was about to begin and I suggested Kevin Corrigan because we were friends and we’d always wanted to work together and he really connected with the father/daughter relationship stuff because he’s a relatively young father himself so he signed on straight away. At that point we started to audition and virtually everybody came in – Barry Bostwick, Karen Black, Lucy Davis. It was a real surprise because I had no idea they were coming in because for the most part if I’d known they were coming I’d have just said ‘don’t come in, you’re great, we’ll cast you!’ It was strange being in a casting room and suddenly all these terrific actors came in and they wanted to do the movie even though they weren’t getting paid a lot of money to do it. They just responded to the material.

Barry Bostwick is terrific as the laconic Sheriff.

The character in the script is definitely an eccentric; I’ve often referred to him as a sort of ‘Andy Griffith on acid!’ He’s not the typical bumbling comical local Sheriff, he’s got a lot to him, he’s not an idiot even though he’s clearly nuts in some ways. Barry came in and he just added to the whole thing and he just inhabited that guy and made all those eccentricities real. Somebody else would have missed so many layers but Barry just filled it in and I think everybody did the same thing with their characters.

John Landis is credited as Executive Producer. How involved was he in the actual making of the movie?

I learned that he had been involved in some of the script development. He was interested in actually directing it himself and had spent a couple of weeks with Ryan Levin suggesting changes and adding his own ideas and Ryan had made those revisions and then John went off to make Burke and Hare because it was a project he’d been trying to get going which was a much bigger movie and a pet project of his. So when he left it was up to him and Ryan to find someone who could direct the movie which was now going to be a much smaller movie because as soon as Landis left most of the money went with him so he said ‘okay, I’ll stay on as executive producer and I’ll be there if you guys need me but essentially go and make the movie while I go and make mine.’ When it was over we sent him the cut and he really liked it which was a great thrill for us because obviously we’re huge fans of his. He offered a few notes which we implemented and that was basically it. Usually exec producers have a gun to your head to get you to make changes you don’t really want to make but he was the coolest producer you could possibly have and the biggest thrill for us was him just saying ‘guys, this is great’ – it was a bit like wanting to please your parents!  He could have watched it and said ‘hmmm, it would have been better if I’d directed it’ but he was genuinely enthusiastic and positive.

Low budget movies obviously work to a tighter production schedule. Was there anything you had to compromise on in realising the script?

There was one thing I think that Ryan and I would have liked in the final scene where the Sheriff breaks in, having figured everything out, and wrestles the killer to the ground or against a wall and pulls a gun on him. In Ryan’s script it was a very elaborate fight scene, like something from a Bourne film with this weird comic aspect to it where there was real violence but a real comedy to the fighting. As I’d done second unit on Hercules and Xena I was accustomed to this sort of stuff and I was all ready to shoot it but we had literally just three hours to shoot the whole scene including all the dialogue before the fight even begins. I talked to all the producers and said that we either had to add another day to the schedule or we needed to revise the material so we have a scene that works and the decision was made that we just didn’t have the money there so we had to change it into a much more abbreviated fight. I think that’s the thing I’d probably change if I could but if you don’t know it’s missing I don’t think it damages the movie. I look at the movie and I’m extremely pleased about how it comes together as a whole and I didn’t feel I was unduly compromised and certainly not forced to do something I didn’t want to do.

How involved are you, as a director, in the visual stuff, effects and props etc?

I’m super-interested! I teach directing when I’m not directing myself and I tell my students that directing can be the most hands-on experience or it can be entirely deferential so you can either defer all the creative decisions to the department heads or you can be all over it and I think that makes the difference. That’s how I learned to do it and that’s what I enjoy. So when it comes to doing, for example, the decapitation sequence hopefully someone will come up with the solution as to how to do it and this is where I got back to my old Super 8 experiences as a kid where you had to figure it out for yourself. A lot of these practical, in-camera non-CGI techniques were things I’d learnt when I was making my own movies in Film School and when I was doing Xena and Hercules. I also try to plan everything from an editorial perspective so I know how best to ‘sell’ a particular effect and I know how it’s going to cut together and that’s generally how I approach filmmaking. I sort of back into it from an editorial perspective and the only way to get good stuff on a tight schedule is to know exactly what you want going in because you don’t have time to experiment, you need to commit to a way a scene is going to be shot, shoot it, move on and hopefully it works. I love the idea of seeing working on the day you’re shooting it, getting it done and being finished with it. I’m working on a movie now which has something like 3000 CGI shots and I feel in a way like I’ve shot the movie and yet I haven’t because I still have to manage these things that other people are doing whereas actually there on set I can see it, control it, move on. I definitely prefer the practical side, I think it feels more authentic.  I’m sure that as the digital age moves on digital effects will be accepted as ‘more authentic’ or realistic but having experienced the other side I weigh the digital stuff against the practical and I always end up preferring the practical.

What would like the audience to take away from Some Guy Who Kills People?

I hope it affects them on an emotional level. I hope they care about the characters and I think that it doing so I hope it resonates with them for that reason, that it doesn’t feel like it was just there to shock you or make you chuckle. I hope they go away feeling as if they’ve watched something that happened to actual real people. I just want it to resonate with people, that’s my thing and I guess that’s why I look at a handful of my films and think that those are the ones that are really important. The least expensive thing to do is create characters that people will invest in. I always look at Jaws and if you were to weigh it on its effects, they’re certainly not what makes it work but you’re so invested in the characters than when the painfully fake shark eats Robert Shaw you’re totally going with and you buy into it. I think that sort of thing is absent from movies these days because the economic demands of the industry don’t lend itself to it.

So where does Jack Perez go next?

I’m currently doing a work-for-hire sci-fi disaster movie where Las Vegas gets knocked down by a supernatural sandstorm! I managed to get Barry Bostwick into it which is the one thing I’m excited about! He plays a sort of ageing Tom Jones! It’s definitely of the ‘other’ type of film I make but having Barry in it makes it worthwhile but that said it has some fun things in it but really I’m looking forward to the next thing I can do with Ryan Levin. We’re looking for a follow-up to Some Guy – not a ‘sequel’ but a movie we can do together because we sort of found each other accidentally and we have a couple of cool ideas that we’re working on.

 

Some Guy Who Kills People is out now on DVD/Blu-ray.

The team of actor/writer/producer Tim Doiron and actress/director/producer April Mullen are a force to be reckoned with. They clearly love what they do making films and their upcoming movie, Dead Before Dawn 3D looks like a lot of fun. Starburst caught up with the pair to talk about it…

Starburst: Dead Before Dawn has been getting a lot of great buzz with horror fans around the world. Can you give the readers a little background on it?

April Mullen: This is our third film together and Tim and I wanted to do something in 3D. We came up with the idea for Dead Before Dawn three years ago as a horror comedy and wanted a fresh look at the zombie genre. These aren’t your typical zombies, they’re Zemons; which are a cross between zombies and demons.

Tim Doiron: A group of college kids accidentally unleash an evil curse which causes people to kill themselves and they become zombie demons in very unusual ways.

AM: We have the zemon who strangled himself with a jump rope, the girl with the stiletto heel in the eye zemon and  Zemon Josh. There’s some pretty unique ones.

The make-up looks very impressive!

AM: We had a great make-up team; Kenji Sato and Monik Walmsley. We wanted to do something different and had them do demon looking eyes rather than the usual kidneys or brains all over the place.

TD: It’s a highly entertaining and scary film. Sort of a New Age Ghostbusters.

Casting the film – did you have any actors in mind when you wrote it?

TD: We had a lot of people in mind for the roles when the script was being written. Some we couldn’t get due to commitments to other films. When we sent the script out, everyone who read it loved it and wanted to do the film. We hired Devon Bostik who plays Casper Galloway based on his past performances we had seen him in. He was an excellent choice. When everyone got together for the first reading, they all got the comedy aspect of it. It was a very dynamic group to work with.

AM: Everything happens for a reason and all the actors clicked together. All of them had the energy and comedic timing down as a group.

The great Christopher Lloyd is in this as well… 

TD: Yes, he plays Horus Galloway, Chris was great to work with. He has this explosive magic on the set. Everyone loved him.

Explain the 3D process you used.

AM: We shot in stereoscopic 3D which means that we had a two camera, synchronized set up, left and right with a beam splitter. We filmed Dead Before Dawn on a modest budget and in 20 days, so we really didn’t have a lot of free time to improvise. Major planning had to be plotted out ahead of time when we filmed with all that equipment on the cameras. When dealing with 3D, you have to be meticulous. A fraction off would ruin all the work you’ve done. The whole process took about two hours to take it on and off.

What type of camera did you use?

TD: Red Ones. They’re great to work with. Very easy to handle.

Anything in the future coming up for you two? 

AM: We’re working on an action/thriller next.

It was great taking with you two! Everyone is looking forward to Dead Before Dawn 3D and I’m sure it’ll be a big hit!

AM: Thank you! 

If I don’t get over this cold soon I’ll probably have to play a zemon in the sequel!

TD: We’ll call casting!

For release dates check out the Dead Before Dawn 3D Facebook page HERE.