John Ottman is known best for his roles of editor and also composer on numerous films including “The Usual Suspects”, “X2”, “Jack and the Giant Slayer, “Superman Returns” and most recently “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with John again about working with Bryan Singer and returning to the “X-Men” franchise.

Mike Gencarelli: Having score “X2” and now “X-Men: Days of Future Past”; tell us about returning to the franchise and about your approach to this score?
John Ottman: “X2” was one of my first big movies that I got to tackle. I always look back at those times very fondly because that exhibits an exciting time in my life. It was also a film that went very smoothly for all of us involved. I looked forward to going back into the series, especially since musically I had themes that I always wanted to go back to but wasn’t able to because we didn’t stick around for the third film. In the score for “X2”, I wrote a lot of motifs that I had planned to put somewhere in the next movie. So it always irked me that I wasn’t able to complete what I started. So this film came me an opportunity to pick up where I left off with “X2”. Naturally, it is a different kind of story, a little more modern, and also eleven years later. So I was just really excited that I got to preserve my themes.

MG: Since the film takes place in the past and the future; what was it like combining those two different sounds into one cohesive score?
JO: That is the trick actually to make it all cohesive. But because there is such a vast difference between the past and the future, it wasn’t that difficult to work with because the score was actually set the difference between the two time periods. In the 70’s, I got to infuse some analog synthesizer sound, some electric piano and guitar and so forth. So, that was actually really fun for me to do.

MG: What was your biggest challenge on “”X-Men: Days of Future Past”?
JO: Time travel [laughs]. I have said this in a few interviews. When I look back at this movie, I think about a Whac-A-Mole game. With time travel, you Whac-A-Mole to solve one problem and then create another. We just kept whacking and whacking until the smallest mole comes up that we could live with. Since you can never solve every issue. Really my job was to build consensus and really fight for things I thought we needed to do in the movie. That is how I look back on my experience on the movie basically. There was a lot of passion pleases to do certain things [laughs]. It was a very complicated film. The main challenge was the keep the story clear given all the convolution of the various situations.

MG: This is your seventh film working with Bryan Singer; what keeps you guys coming back together?
JO: I guess good stories and scripts. He keeps telling me to edit his films otherwise he won’t let me score them [laughs]. It is the blackmail that keeps us together.

MG: Speaking of the editing, as with “X2” and many other films, you took on the role of editor as well as composer; tell us about this other aspect of working on the film?
JO: The short story is that when we did out first feature film way back, “Public Access”, which won the Sundance Film Festival. I came on as the editor on the film and also ended up writing the score as well. So when we put “The Usual Suspects” deal together, I said “I just want to write the score” and Bryan said “Hell no, you are going to edit the film as well”. He saw the symbiosis that occurs when you do both jobs. Basically the same story just continues through today. He prefers that I leave my scoring career and go into what I call “editing jail” for two years. Both tasks are telling the story and if they are both being done by the same person it can bring better clarity into the storytelling.

MG: What is your next project and what can we expect next?
JO: Life [laughs]. A life. I purposely did not line anything up after this. I didn’t want to jump right into another project. After “Jack and the Giant Slayer” and then “X-Men: Days of Future Past”, it was three solid years and I need to take a break. I am sure I will get itchy and start looking in a few months but then again maybe not [laughs].

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She was little Jamie Lloyd in “Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers”; the angst-ridden Annie Bracket in Rob Zombie’s “Halloween”; and the blood-covered, butt-kicking Marybeth Dunston in “Hatchet II”. For over twenty-five years Danielle Harris has been a key figure – and fan favorite – of the horror genre. I recently talked with her about the newly released “Camp Dread” and the future of horror films.

B.C. Allen: How did you become a part of “Camp Dread”?
Danielle Harris: I’m very close friends with Felissa (Rose). Felissa called and said she is doing this movie and Eric Roberts was attached, and that my scenes would be with him, and then I was like “Oh my, god! Okay, great.”

BCA: So you and Felissa knew each other already, presumably from horror conventions?
DH: Yeah, there’s not a lot of like, you know, chicks, I would say – believe it or not – at these conventions that I would go to the bar and hang out and have a glass of wine with. We both have younger husbands in common, so we’ve definitely chatted about that. She’s a bit of a cougar like myself. She was all encouraging when I met my husband; so yeah, we’ve become good friends over the years. The industry, the genre, the community itself is so small that there’s a lot of B.S. that goes around about people pretending to make movies or wanting to make movies, and you don’t really know what’s real and what’s not real. And because of the tight-knit community, when your friend calls you and says “We’re doing this movie”, then you know that it’s the real deal. It’s always good to get one of those calls.

BCA: How was it working with Eric Roberts?
DH: You know, I didn’t get to work with him too much. As you saw, I only had a couple of scenes in the movie. But I have been a fan of his work for a long time. It was awesome.

BCA: In 2012 you directed your first feature-length film, “Among Friends.” Is directing and producing something you would prefer to do instead of acting? Or would you want to do all three at the same time?
DH: I don’t love producing – I just like having control over the final cut of the movie, essentially. You lose a little bit of power when you’re not a producer. But I would not put myself in a lead role in a movie that I directed; maybe a supporting role. That seems like a lot of hats, when you’re already wearing like fifty hats as a director. I do really enjoy directing. It’s nice to be able to hold onto a project for more than a couple of weeks.

BCA: You’re sort of a key figure in three film franchises: the original “Halloween” series, the Rob Zombie versions of “Halloween”, and the “Hatchet” series. Do you feel a sense of brand loyalty? For instance, if you were offered a role in a “Friday the 13th” reboot, or another “Nightmare on Elm Street” film would you do it? Or would you turn it down so you don’t upset your fans?
DH: It’s difficult, because it always depends on the director. If Joe Dante was doing “Gremlins” again and suddenly they wanted me to play the lead, I would do it in a heartbeat. It just depends on what it is. It gets tricky, you know, to do a reboot of “Nightmare”; I think people would get tired of seeing me in that stuff. It’s kind of good to come in on the second one like I did with “Hatchet” and like I did with “See No Evil 2”.

BCA: Has “See No Evil 2” finished production?
DH: Yea, we’re done. And we’re looking at an October release.

BCA: The majority of your fans were born in the eighties. Many more were born in the nineties. And most of them view you as the one-and-only “Scream Queen.” Would you agree with that perception?
DH: I think it’s actually the older fans that think of me like that, because you guys kind of grew up with me. There are so many actresses that are doing these movies, so I think that I may be their scream queen. They like to watch me kick ass; which is great. It works for me. I think I’ve been accessible and I think that’s been a really big part of it. I’ve been really active in the community, been really personable with the fans, and done a lot of conventions, and gotten to know people on different levels. I think that’s what made them like me more. Not to say that what I do on film is better than anybody else. I just maybe connected with them on a different level.

BCA: Can you think of any actress coming up now, who may be the next “Scream Queen”?
DH: There are very few actresses who do a lot of movies in the genre. Very few, like me, who do a lot of the same kinds of movies. With “See No Evil 2”, Katie Isabelle, I think is wonderful. She was amazing in “American Mary”. She is someone that I enjoyed getting a chance to work with. Because it was cool to watch her do her thing. Usually in these movies I am the only girl most of the time. When I am going through all the stuff I am going through, there are not a lot of girls around. It’s just usually me and some big monster. It was cool to watch her prepare for shooting in the same way that I do; making yourself hyperventilate, and running around in circles, forcing yourself to gag and be hysteric and screaming in the corner. All those things that I know I do, that I’ve never seen anyone else do before. And I got the chance to see her do it, which is kind of cool.

BCA: We see a lot of young actress do a film in this genre, early on, just to get work, but as you said very few stay within it? Why do you think that is?
DH: If you find your niche you want to stay with it. But I think a lot of representation wants to get you out of it. Once you are in it, you have to like it. If fans like you, you aren’t going anywhere.

BCA: Speaking of fans, there are several different social network accounts that are Danielle Harris related. For example there’s an Instagram account called @DanielleHarris_ScreamQueen, which is always posting pictures of you and promoting your films. What do you think of their efforts?
DH: I am amazed. The stuff that they put together is fantastic. I had to turn the alerts off on my phone because I was getting annoyed with seeing myself so much. It was all day long. Even I don’t love myself this much! It’s unbelievable that people take the time to do this stuff. I am flattered and I am fascinated by it at the same time. Logan, who works for me now, I met Logan because he started DanielleHarris.org, and he came to me at a convention a couple of years ago and said “My name is Logan, I put together this fan site for you.” I told him that I loved it… I had actually been on there a couple of times and told him he did a really good job. He asked if he could come out to L.A. to interview me and I said sure. He came to L.A. and he kept helping me do things when I did “Among Friends” and I would go to him and say “Hey, promote this.” or “Hey, I’ll give you first dibs on these pictures that nobody else has.” We sort of developed a relationship because of the effort I saw he put into caring about me and my career. I loved that. And now he is literally in my house every single day at nine o’clock in the morning. He works with my husband every day. I even asked him “Did you ever imagine after meeting me at wherever we met, Monstermania or – I don’t even know where the heck we were – that five years later you would literally be seeing me come upstairs in my pajamas and having coffee with me while I’m complaining about something?” And he said, “No, I didn’t.”

BCA: What is coming up for you in the future?
DH: I just optioned a script recently and I brought in a producing partner, and I’ve been producing this next one I’m doing, and assembling the team myself, which is a benefit of being the producer. And directing it as well.

BCA: Have you ever thought about writing or creating your own horror franchise?
DH: Not really franchise stuff, but I definitely have a bunch of ideas. I’m not looking to create the next killer. I think every new filmmaker wants to have the next Freddy, or the next Michael, or the next Jason and I think that that can get a bit old. I think it’s about trying to find ways to keep hip within the genre, because we don’t want to see the same stuff. I think I found that with the movie that I optioned, I didn’t write it, I just optioned it from a writer. We’re just in the middle of going through a little bit of changes and hopefully I’ll be up and running by fall.

“Camp Dread” is available on DVD now.

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Dan Fogler is a man of many trade. The guy is an actor, director, artist and even won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”. He has been in films like “Balls of Fury”, “Faboys” and also voiced the character Zeng in “Kung Fu Panda”. Dan’s latest film is quite personal to him and helped him achieve a personal journey. It is called “Don Peyote” and he not only starred in it but also wrote, produced and directed it. If you get the name it is definitely quite the trip but really gives Dan a chance to show off his very impressive acting chops. Media Mikes had a chance to chat about the film and the long road to hitting theaters on May 16th.

Mike Gencarelli: What the hell were you on when you came up with this crazy film, “Don Peyote”?
Dan Fogler: I am saying there is probably a strong foundation of THC in there. Then you have to add in on other aspects of hallucinogens along the way in a very Alice in Wonderland-esque fashion [laughs]. I have heard from some people that while watching the movie they get a buzz off it since it is such a trip. The film is sort of like my homage to “The Wizard of Oz”, where it goes black and white to color. Our character goes from a everyday Joe to a complete nut case and he sees this lush and colorful world.

MG: Tell us about the road to getting this film released on VOD now and in theaters on May 16th
DF: I started this film back in 2011 and I just wanted to make a movie about the energy that I was feeling at the time. A lot of people were going through it wondering what would happen at the end of 2012 with the Mayan Calendar. I was also about to get married and was stressing out a little about what the future would bring. So I wanted to document that and I decided to create this character Warren Allman, who was essentially like the “every man”. In the film he finds his purpose, which is to find what is coming at the end of 2012. He goes to the several steps of fearing it, then trying to prepare for it and just embracing it. I have always been fascinated about the guy standing on the side of the street with “The end is near” sign. How the hell did he get like that? [laughs]. Did it just appear like that? Or just drop out of a space ship? [laughs]. So Warren goes under this entire transformation throughout the film.

MG: Tell us about all the hats you wore for this film including directing, writing, producing and acting?
DF: Yeah, well a lot of it came out of necessity. I wanted to together a nice juicy role that I could get into it. A lot of it was just something that I was going through that I really wanted to document. I wanted to go through a journey and answer some questions about myself and I did that through this movie.

MG: How did you end up co-directing with Michael Canzoniero?
DF: I love him. He is a buddy of mine. The movie was just made with friends and with asking a lot of favors. We didn’t have a lot of money. When I made my first movie “Hysterical Psycho”, I thought that it was like going to camp. It was such a great experience of casting my friends and working with them. So I just did the same thing but on a slightly larger scale with “Don Peyote”.

MG: This role is quite dramatic as well as funny, tell us about ow you approached that aspect?
DF: I wanted to show off other sides of my acting. That was probably the catalyst for starting this film. I have also always been interest in that prophet journey and what would it be like to be a modern prophet. Plus at time, the energy globally was so phonetic. It seemed like the dial was turned up and I wanted to capture that in the movie. You have stuff like Occupy Wall Street happening and there were riots happening everywhere. It felt like people were just waiting for something to happen. I feel that post-2012, we are starting to get more of a positive vibe coming in here and that really was the message of the movie. Everything comes in waves. Things can be rough and hard but then around the corner you find happiness.

I’ve spent a few weekend evenings in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the one thing that always catches my attention is the muscle-car atmosphere that takes over the city when the sun goes down. No matter where you drive, you can find parking lots full of car enthusiasts and their rides. Horror producer (and Tulsa native) Todd Lincoln and first time director Jeremy Lamberton have teamed up for the documentary “Biker Fox.”

The film tells the story of Frank P. DeLarzelere III, known to the good people of Tulsa as Biker Fox, a misunderstood motivational bicyclist, nature conservationist and muscle car guru. In helping spread the word about their new film, the two took time to answer some questions.

Mike Smith: How did you learn about Biker Fox?
Jeremy Lamberton: My first Biker Fox sighting was at a traffic light. He was on his bike, shaking his ass while staring at people in their cars. I pulled into a Taco Bueno parking lot next to an old bowling alley and he rode up next to my car and asked me if I was married. I told him I was (I wasn’t married at the time) and invited him to perform at Tulsa Overground. That night he told me about all the video he shot of wild life around his house and that I had to see it. Later that week he gave me an entire box of hi-8 and miniDV tapes. I watched everything. There were hundreds of hours of wild turkeys, coyotes, opossums, weed eaters, rabbits, lawn mowers, blue birds, bats and him hand feeding 50 raccoons. There were also tapes of him lecturing directly into the camera about the benefits of fitness and a healthy diet. Biker Fox and I started shooting together the next week.

MS: What made you decide to make a film about him?
JL: The footage he had already shot on his own was magical. He’s such a charismatic guy and it translated so well on video. But I didn’t think about it being a documentary until he started getting arrested. When trouble started swirling it grounded him and he became more genuine to his true character while shooting. And I thought it was funny that Biker Fox was continuing to preach his gospel of good health and happiness while at the same time his life was spinning out of control. He’s an indomitable being.

MS: Did you always intend to do the film as a documentary or did you consider doing a scripted feature film?
JL: “Biker Fox” was always meant to be a documentary. Or some kind of cross-genre film. Most of what happens in the movie you can’t make up. I don’t think his character would have the same impact if scripted. The spontaneity and what happened naturally is what made film special.

MS: Do you think that fans of your horror films will enjoy this film?
Todd Lincoln: Yes. Horror fans will definitely enjoy “Biker Fox.” Anyone who loves the unusual, the macabre, the dark arts and naturally occurring curiosities and oddities…. will appreciate the world of Biker Fox. While this is not at all a horror film in the traditional sense… it certainly could be seen as scarier than most. You will see blood. You will see violence. You will see killer raccoons.

MS: Jeremy, you’ve finally gone behind the camera. Was the experience what you expected?
JL: I’ve been making films for years but this was my toughest challenge. BIker Fox is a raw dog. I wanted the film to tap into Biker Fox’s psyche. Shooting with Biker Fox is like shooting a nature film. You can’t control it. You just hope to be rolling when something memorable happens. And Biker Fox has a tendency to perform in front of a camera. And he’s severely ADHD, so he’s constantly moving. He can’t sit still. The most effective way to show his true character – the character behind the character – was to make the film non-traditionally. So we set up cameras on tripods all over his house and in his shop and encouraged him to videotape himself. I would go to his house multiple times a week and pick up sometimes as many as 40 tapes at a time. He was shooting like crazy. Like video diarrhea.

MS: I’ve been to Tulsa and have observed their “muscle car culture” up close. What is your take on it?
JL: It’s crazy. The real collectors takes it very seriously. A lot of them too seriously. I’ve been to a few swap meets with Biker Fox. One time while looking at a guy’s 1967 GTO I put my hand on the car to look inside and he snapped his fingers and told me to never touch his car again. It doesn’t seem worth it. They spend all their time stressing over door dings and scratches. Seems like wasted energy.

MS: What do you have coming up?
JL: I’m working on a narrative script and producing a documentary called “Dreamland.” Also, Tulsa Overground make its return this August after a 7 year hiatus.

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Memphis Belle is being released for the first-time ever on Blu-ray from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on May 6th, 2014. Matthew Modine, who plays Captain Dennis Dearborn in this nail-biting adventure that spectacularly recreates the spectacular mission filmed for a 1944 documentary. Matthew took out some time to look back at the making of the film nearly 25 years after its theatrical debut.

There’s an entire genre of World War II movies. What makes these films so universally appealing to global audiences?
MODINE: That’s a great question. Perhaps it’s because WWII was the first war that was so well documented. Portable sound and film equipment allowed reporters and documentarians to easily carry cameras into the battlefields. I’m sure it was also the enormous scope of the war. We look back now upon the bravery of the men and women who selflessly fought to save the lives and freedoms of others. War films, in general, provide great material for writers and directors to quarry through. There are so many examples of intense emotional journeys, the fight for survival, the human bonds that are formed in extreme circumstances. These elements make for great dramatic storytelling.

As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the start of World War II and the 70th anniversary of D-Day, what parallels can be drawn between the servicemen and women of yesterday and those defending their country today?
MODINE: The terrible cost of war. Sadly, there is evil in humankind. Ironic that “kind” is even a part of the word. We must, much more often than we do, look upon the young men and woman that go to battle and commend them for their service, their courage, and commitment. As we commemorate these anniversaries, it’s so important for each of us to acknowledge the sacrifice of our sons and daughters that are, all too often, called to duty.

How did you prepare for the role of Captain Dennis Dearborn in Memphis Belle?
MODINE: Before we began filming, the director, Michael Caton-Jones arranged for the actors to go to a “boot camp” in Southern England. The entire crew of actors were put through 10 days of rigorous training. The goal was to get the actors to learn to work together in a similar fashion that a B-17 crew that had been through 24 combat missions. Of course it is impossible to even approximate the actual horrors the Memphis Belle crew would have been witness to. But the British SAS team that put the actors through obstacle courses and physical training did a great job making the actors a cohesive team. It was tough at the time. But from the rearview mirror of time, it was fantastic!

When we finished our training, we traveled from Southern England to an airbase where we would film the exterior shots for the film. It was in Lincolnshire that we all had the amazing opportunity to meet the real men we were going to portray. Everyone had so many questions for the real servicemen. We wanted to hear from them about the challenges they faced. We all wanted to be as honest and as “real” as possible. To honor them. Hoping to convey the emotions they faced. Meeting Robert Morgan, the pilot of the Memphis Belle, and the role I was portraying, was a highlight of the entire process.

Perhaps the most emotional aspect of filming for me was having the opportunity to tell my Uncle Wylder that I was going to be in a film about him. Wylder was a Captain in the 8th Army Air Force and piloted a B-17. Now I would be doing the same in a film. I had so many questions for him and he shared stories the way men from that generation did. Very sparingly. Humbly. No bravado. I believe my Uncle and the others that have lived through the wars don’t speak colorfully about their experiences because they deeply understand the tremendous human cost of war.

Looking back, nearly 25 years since Memphis Belle debuted on the big screen, has the role of Captain Dennis Dearborn shaped your filmography?
MODINE: Yes. Of course. That sense of responsibility to people that fought, and to so many that died, stays with me. The terrible cost of war, not just the human cost, the loss of life, but what it does to the human soul. There are only a few surviving veterans of the Second World War right now. Special people of great character. I feel so fortunate when I meet with one of them, and incredibly honored when they recognize me from Memphis Belle and they say I “did good!”

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In Your Eyes held it premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Fest and fortunately for viewers became immediately available to stream thereafter. This intimate romantic comedy was directed by Brin Hill working from a script from none other than The Avengers’ Joss Whedon. Hill attended the festival in New York and sat down with me to discuss this unique, genre-blending story.

The film stars Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl David as two complete strangers, Rebecca and Dylan, who find themselves beginning to literally see out each other’s eyes. The unexplained connection—they can hear eachother as well— bonds the pair who use it to help each other navigate trying times in their respective lives. Casting the lead couple, Hill said, came about from discussions with producers and Whedon.         

“Joss really loved [Kazan] in this movie that he called ‘Spoledy Girl’ [2009’s The Exploding Girl] and he thought that she was a really inspired choice and Kai [Cole, co-founder of Bellwether Pictures ] loved her in that movie and Michael loved her in that movie and I loved her in all her movies. And you know she’s different, she’s not what you would normally think in the genre of like a love story, so that was really inspiring. And what I like about her was she’s quirky, you know, she brings a lot of range to her stuff so that was exciting.” As for Michael Stahl-David, Hill said “he just came in auditioned and I was like this is the guy…[he] was just charismatic and he just got it. He was just great in the read.”

The mysterious connection between Rebecca and Dylan manifests itself in the film as superimposed imagery in their shared vision, a decision Hill called intentionally “low-fi” adding “I wanted them to feel like an old bolex camera like when I read it I was like ‘Oh you shoot it once and then you roll the camera through and then you shoot it again’ and I wanted these two images on top of eachother. That was how I saw it…I tried to embrace it like something that was really happening to them.”

The result of the distant connection in the film is that Kazan and Stahl-David don’t actually share much screentime together. However to keep their relationship feeling natural, Hill had both the actors on set. “They both had to be there run-of-show so when we shot Zoe’s side in New Hampshire, [Michael] was there…They didn’t want to look at each other necessarily but he would be there. I mean like literally. Like I would have him under the desk. And so the idea was to build that chemistry and build that emotion between them and I think it worked.”

Although there’s a sci-fi conceit at the center of the film, Hill and Whedon didn’t trouble themselves too much with the exposition as to why or how the Rebecca-Dylan connection is established.  “They almost manifested it for themselves when they needed it” Hill said of the conclusion of the story. “I said to Joss, you know, to me what’s most important is that these people need this connection…they need this connection in this moment in their lives and that’s why it’s happening. And it doesn’t need explanation beyond that. It’s just like these people, when they need it, it shows up in their life and they need to find each other. And if they can find each other, they can break free. And it goes under that whole thing of sort of what Joss is dealing with in this movie —and all his movies sort of—is loner heroes that have to figure out a way to band together to overcome adversity. And eventually hopefully find their fate or their destiny…You can’t go it alone.” When asked if Hill would ever seek this particular brand of connection with another person given the choice, he wasn’t sure “I never asked that. You know, it’s a mixed bag I bet.”

Speaking of Whedon’s other work, while filming Avengers he went and made the lovely lower budget Shakespeare adaptation Much Ado About Nothing. I asked Hill if doing that and then scripting In Your Eyes was for Whedon to avoid being pidgeonholed as the big sci-fi director.

“I think so.  I think there’s a little bit of, I mean the notion with [Bellwether] I think, to some degree, was just trying to do stuff differently and kind of trying to put stuff out there that was just different. And in a weird way experimental. I mean I know it’s not an ‘Experimental Film’ but it’s like we’re trying an experiment…Even in how they’re distributing it.”

Of the distribution, which was announced by Whedon during Tribeca, Hill was glad, saying  “It’s exciting to me. I like the idea of trying to get it out there to as many people as possible. I mean I’ve made stuff that’s been seen by a lot of people and I’ve made stuff that nobody’s seen yet and stuff that got released widely that not that many people saw. So for me, like casting the widest net with indie film is really exciting. We all independently have had different experiences with different sort of release strategies. Obviously this is sort of an extension of what they did with Dr. Horrible and you know, Much Ado had its own version. I think it services the film really well because I feel like it’s a fun sort of infectious movie. And I feel like people being able to consume it however they want to consume it is really kind of interesting to me.”

In Your Eyes, as noted above, is now available to stream online.

I think you may have been hard pressed this past week at the Tribeca Film Fest to find a more entertaining red carpet than that of Andrew Disney’s sports comedy, Intramural. Packed with comedic talent, the film enjoyably marries the comedic sensibilities of 2001’s Wet Hot American Summer with the game plans of sports movies almost too numerous to list. Much of the cast and creators gathered on the carpet to discuss the inspiration behind the film and their characters.

Lauren Damon: Can you talk about movies that inspired Intramural?

Director, Andrew Disney: I think comedy-wise, Wet Hot American Summer, Hot Rod–which I think is so underrated—a bit of Happy Gilmore and Teen Wolf, I watched a lot of Teen Wolf–

LD: And from that you did manage to incorporate a little supernatural into your players–

Disney: Right! Right, which I love in Teen Wolf, they just accept it in that world.

Nick Kocher plays Grant, former Panthers team player, back on the field to coach the team to victory after an accident paralyzed him from the balls down.

LD: Your character goes through a dramatic transformation into the coach, did you draw the DNA from other classic sports movie coaches to create him?

Nick Kocher: Did I ‘draw the DNA’? [laughs] I love that! Yeah, I mean the character’s like somewhat similar to the Rip Torn character in Dodgeball in that he’s in a wheelchair but then my character’s also like 22 in the movie so like the fact that he becomes this–I think it’s more I drew inspiration from a guy who would draw inspiration from these coaches. He just watches these movies all day long and you know wants to be this person so literally becomes this character given the opportunity.

LD: You think these movies were most of his childhood?

Kocher: I think Grant hasn’t really had that much attention paid to him and then he gets a lot of attention paid to him when he makes this game winning  catch and realizes this is all he wants to do with his life…is just live out these weird sports fantasies and like get attention that way. That was sort of–I love that you’re asking me these in depth questions about this character!

LD: I enjoyed the movie!

Kocher: No, that’s amazing!

LD: Finally, is Coach Grant aware that there are two sports commentators [SNL’s Jay Pharoah and DC Pierson, recently of the Apple guy in The Winter Soldier] talking about his game?

Kocher: [laughs] No! I don’t think they can hear it. I think they’re aware there’s two like stoner guys who come to each game and they’re like ‘oh what’re those guys talking about? I dunno!’ but the stakes are just as high for all of them.

Beck Bennett, who is currently enjoying his first season on “Saturday Night Live”, plays the evil Dick Downs, captain of the opposing team.

LD: What famous film rivals inspired Dick?

Bennett: A lot of things that Ben Stiller does, he was always an influence. Like his character in Heavyweights and also in Dodgeball. Will Ferrell in Zoolander, that’s not a sports movie, but those types of bad guys. Also Bradley Whitford in…

LD: Happy Gilmore?

Bennett: Happy Gilmore.

LD: Oh, not Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison–uh oh, Adam Sandler mix up. I think we’ve committed an SNL crime!

Bennett: You lead me astray! I didn’t say it! You said it!

LD: I’m calling Lorne Michaels!

Bennett: [laughs] So yeah, those are some of the great comedy bad guys.

Backing up Dick Downs is the lackey whose actually a nice guy, Ace, played by Kirk C. Johnson.

LD: Do you have any favorite sports movie rivals?

Johnson: Yeah, for sure. Like Necessary Roughness, have you ever seen that? Yeah, they spit in each other’s mouths before to get each other pumped up. They hit each other on the shoulders and spit at eachother, that. And then like the actual real ones, like Remember the Titans, Rocky and Little Giants. Little Giants is very influential for me.
Kate McKinnon, also of SNL, plays the Vicky who Mckinnon described as “just a girlfriend who just really loves her man but just doesn’t know how to do it quite right.” I asked if she felt out of the sports action of the movie:

McKinnon: I didn’t feel left out not getting to do the sports scenes because I am a horrible athlete and it was Texas in July and I would have died. So no, I didn’t feel left out. I feel that I was spared from a terrible thing.

Creating a sports movie, I asked the cast whether there were any actual football going on off screen. Gabriel Luna, who plays Vinnie, first gave us the details of on-set games:

Luna: No, we played a lot of Cornhole which is a beanbag you throw in a platform. We did a lot of that. A lot of competitive drinking. A game that Nick and Brian [McElhaney] invented called Running Flipcup Charades. Which you may have seen on the Much Ado About Nothing extra features. They played it on a bus, which blows my mind, I don’t know if that’s even possible but apparently they did.

Disney: Cornhole? Yeah I played a lot of cornhole. I wasn’t as much in the competitions, I usually try–when I make a film, I try to abstain from alcohol which is hard but I think it’s good for a director. Like Cool Runnings how like that guy is always in his room studying while…well anyway! I don’t why I’m talking about Cool Runnings, I could talk about cool runnings forever!

Nick Kocher, who detailed the entire rules for Running Flipcup charades for me added:

Kocher: There’s lots of injuries. Brian broke his toe…Also I can say playing Running Flipcup Charades, people were playing much more intensely than they did the actual film sports film. People gave much more of their all to the drinking games.

Finally, seeing as so many of the creators mentioned [Walt] Disney sports movies as influencing them (McKinnon also cited The Mighty Ducks as a favorite), I couldn’t help but wonder if they could see Andrew Disney’s name bringing in the Miracle or Invincible-watching crowd:

Disney: I love Disney sports films! I mean I love like Cool Runnings and grew up watching every Disney sports film…

Johnson: [laughs] I hope! I hope that this says “DISNEY’S INTRAMURAL” that’d be great, yeah. We should make like a mock logo that looks exactly like it, it’d be perfect.

Kocher: GOD WILLING we get confused with the Disney sports film because then it’ll make a lot of money!

You can check out our 4-star review of Intramural, here, and view the trailer below:

Director Leigh Janiak debuted her first feature, the horror film Honeymoon, this week at the Tribeca Film Fest. The film stars Rose Leslie (“Game of Thrones”) and Harry Treadaway (Showtime’s upcoming “Penny Dreadful”) as happy young couple, Bea and Paul. Their blissful honeymoon is interrupted when Bea is found disoriented in the woods one night, resulting in a terrifying personality change.

MediaMikes: Can you describe the idea of using something as happy as a honeymoon as your starting point?
Leigh Janiak: That’s where we came from when we started it. It was we’re going to take something really happy and seemingly beautiful and see what we need to do to it to really destroy it and watch it decay. And it was just like idea of how something so personal can become foreign and fall apart.

MediaMikes: Can you talk about your cast, because it’s mostly just the two of them throughout?
Janiak: They’re both lovely. It was the first time they’d both really done American accents to the full extent but I think that they did an amazing job, I’m completely blown away and you believe them. And you believe their love. They both have an incredible energy, they’re obviously extremely talented, but you never know chemistry-wise. We didn’t do a chemistry read before and it was kind of just like feeling their different vibes separately and it worked, thank god.

MediaMikes: Rose Leslie specifically has to undergo such a huge change in the middle of the film, did you discuss with her specifics about how her character is, I’ll say, pre- and post-op?
Janiak: We spent a lot of times with Rose just generally tracing her transformation and just understanding where she was hiding from Paul, when her character was trying to tell the truth but couldn’t do it. But it was really a scene by scene basis. And we did the same thing with Harry too by the way because Paul’s character transforms as well, just not quite so physically.

MediaMikes: Horror films tend to go either the way of the supernatural or the way of aliens, which one do you find scarier?
Harry Treadaway: I don’t know, like it depends! It’s also about almost what you don’t see, I think that’s what makes me scared. It’s sort of the emotions and stuff behind it that would actually get me scared. I think. Not aliens though, the other one!

MediaMikes: Ghosts?
Treadaway: Yeah!

MediaMikes: Coming up, you’ve got Penny Dreadful where you’re playing Dr. Frankenstein, what is the show bringing to this character?
Treadaway: That’s not for me to say…all that I’ll say is that it was, I mean, John Logan is you know a pretty incredible writer…Sam Mendes producing and then Juan Bayona who directed the first two is really amazing and we’ve got a cool exciting cast. And I’m just doing my little bit, really.

Here MediaMikes got into a little spoiler territory with both Leigh and Harry, so if you’d like to remain unspoiled, you can check out the trailer below, and keep an eye out for Honeymoon, which has recently been acquired by Magnet Pictures. For those of you who’d like some more gorey details head past the video. 

Spoilers ahead…In the film’s climatic scene with now-transformed Bea, the long suffering Paul has to essentially birth a slimy alien entity from Bea. I asked both Janiak and Treadaway to talk about creating and performing this standout horror moment.

Treadaway: That was another night. Just another night…That was the fourth scene up that night and we were like ‘right, how are we going to do this?’ and we tried to do it the best we could. But it was uh, certainly one of the most unusual scenes I’ve probably done.
Janiak: My special effects makeup artist was this guy named Christopher Nelson and he’s been working in this business forever. He’s also incidentally the groom in Kill Bill Volume 2, super talented, he works on American Horror Story. I had put together a really extensive look book and it’s funny I actually referenced like a shower cord but I wanted biological material. And we looked at things like The Fly or Alien. We wanted that really tactile physical effect. And he created this thing and it was perfect and really disgusting and awesome. That scene took two nights to shoot so it was a very intense time.

MediaMikes: Why did you opt for the alien approach rather than supernatural for your feature?
Janiak: It was really just about making an intimate body snatcher movie. So I think that a lot of the horror is actually grounded body-horror and then there was this idea of, we wanted to give answers, the main thing for me is about this relationship falling apart but beyond that we wanted the answers of what’s actually driving these transformations. And that’s why it was the extraterrestrial thing.

Chef, the new film from Jon Favreau held its premiere on Tuesday in New York. The hugely successful director of “Iron Man” and “Elf” hasn’t directed an independent film since 2001’s “Made” and was excited to debut the comedy, which he also wrote and stars in, at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In the film, Favreau plays Carl Casper, a chef whose embarrassing confrontation with a food critic goes viral on the web causing him to lose his job at a successful restaurant and start from scratch with a food truck and a road trip with his son. Favreau spoke on the red carpet about the inspiration for this story: 

Favreau: “When you write something like this, you’re not really sure where it comes from. I wanted to write something about a chef and something about being a dad and this is the film that came out. And the fact that I’m at the point in my career where if I have an idea like this, I could get it made and have such great friends who would come together and be part of the cast so I found myself very fortunate.”

Luckily for audiences, Favreau’s friends include Robert Downey Jr who plays Marvin. It’s a small but pivotal role as Marvin provides Carl with his new food truck.

How was it working with Robert Downey Jr. without having him playing Iron Man?
Favreau: “I love working with Robert and it was great for him to be on my movie. Because on the Iron Man movies, I feel like I was really there to help support him and make the character look good and make the story make sense and you know, be there in a supportive role. Here, he came on board my movie to do whatever he could to elevate the film.”

As the story concerns a man frustrated working for a successful business while being artistically unfulfilled, I couldn’t help but wonder if coming off of studio films, the story was at all autobiographical, but Favreau maintains this isn’t the case:

Favreau: “No, I’ve been very lucky, I work on big movies and small movies and I really am very proud of all of them. As a matter of fact, I’m going to do “The Jungle Book” [for Disney] after this which is much bigger than “Chef” so unlike the character in the movie, I really like mixing it up a bit. I think the character I play is a little more confused with what drives him. But I really did have a good time doing a small movie like Chef which is similar to how he feels in the film.”

Favreau was joined on the carpet by his onscreen son, the talented, 10-year-old Emjay Anthony, who had nothing but good things to say about his veteran cast:

Anthony: “Sofia Vergara is just drop dead gorgeous, and [John Leguizamo’s] kind of a ladies’ man and so am I, so there was a little contest there. And then Jon Favreau is just such a great actor.”

As for any upcoming projects for the young Anthony, he told us not right now, but “I’m open for business if anybody wants me!”

“Chef” opens in the US on May 9th.

Photo Credit: Manfred Baumann

You might know William Shatner as Captain Kirk from “Star Trek: The Original Series”, or Denny Crane from “Boston Legal”, either way the man is a legend in the business. At age 83, he is still going strong and has tackled everything from acting to theatre to being an author. In 2012, he returned to the stage on Broadway with his one-man show, “Shatner’s World”. Since then he took the show on tour and now it will be playing in movie theaters for a special engagement on April 24th through Fanthom Events. Media Mikes had the special privilege to chat with Mr. Shatner about the show and his outstanding career.

Mike Gencarelli: You took “Shatner’s World” from Broadway, then touring and now to cinemas; what has been the highlight for you this journey?
William Shatner: The highlight is at the end of the evening…I think I am safe in saying that at every performance that I have done, the audience had stood up and applauded at the end. The emotion that comes over the footlights between me and the audience has moved me to tears many times. The audiences affection at the end of the evening is palpable and that is truly the highlight for me, Mike. And for the price of a movie ticket, you can see a Broadway play in theaters. This is a live capture of the Broadway play and it will be released in 700 theaters and you can see it for the price of only a movie ticket. So you can’t beat that.

MG: “Shatner’s World” calls back to your roots starting off in theatre; how was it returning back to that setting?
WS: I have been asked for years, since the last time I was on Broadway, to come back and do a play and in some cases a musical. But they needed to get at least a six month commitment and I didn’t have that time available. So I thought “I guess that’s it for me and Broadway”. But within months of saying that came an opportunity to go back to Broadway with this show and I even was able to go to the the exact theater where I was for my last Broadway play. So the irony of that, or the beautiful or symmetry of that is not lost on me.

MG: What was the the name of that last Broadway show?
WS: It was “A Shot in the Dark” with Julie Harris…many years ago.

MG: In “Shatner’s World”, you mentioned several struggles on your career early on; what would you say is your defining moment?
WS: I have the kind of career that was a slow build. Every time something sensational was going to happen it didn’t work out that way it was suppose to. There was this slow wave of attention and activity that I think actually climaxes in this one-man show. To go on stage alone for an hour and a half to two hours and hold an audience and get the kind of reaction I’ve been am getting, that is the cumulation of years of experience and attention. It didn’t happen suddenly, there was no defining moment. Instead, there was a series of small wavelets as apposed to a tsunami.

MG: Having such a full career, what were some of the hard decisions you had to make to cut out in order to get this show down to an hour and a half?
WS: There were many parts that didn’t make it, especially getting the show ready for Broadway. I had to sharpen and refine and reduce it to it’s supreme moments, if you will, where it epitomizes everything that I wanted to say. Not only stories but also extraneous words, so it is a difficult process. The core of this show was to say “Yes” to life. To give this idea, this concept, that life is precious and needs to be embraced with both ears and smothered by you because it is over so quickly. So the stories that went along with that core were the stories that I kept.

MG: I loved the energy that you brought to the stage; how do you channel all that energy running around on stage and still while being funny and charming?
WS: It is part of the entertainer’s magic, I guess, but that is my energy and it comes from my core. That is what I bring to you on stage, you being the audience. I feel that there is a magical link between me and the audience. I feel it and you feel it. I am there for you. We are having a love affair, the performer and the audience. I actually feel the embrace and perform to that and that is energizing to me.
MG: I have to honestly say that from just watching the show, I felt pumped and I didn’t even see it in person, so congrats on that as well for being very effective.
WS: I am so glad to hear you say that, thank you. That is a lovely compliment and I appreciate you saying it.

MG: You bet!, what would you say is biggest challenge doing a one-man show?
WS: There is a number of challenges. You are talking continuously for two hours and trying to remember the words. It is not unlike musicians doing a set and having the set numbers in front of them. They have clues as to what is next. So that is what I had but it still had to remember those words. So now that I haven’t done this in many months I am going to be in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand on June 19th, 20th, 21st doing the one-man show, which is what a thrill let me say, so I am going to have to re-learn the lines now. So that is a challenge but not only that but I am going to have to teach the show to an individual on how to work that software for the electronics and the media. So that is going to be a challenge in Las Vegas. Then I am going on a tour for a few selected dates in January and have to re-do that again. So the dint of the words and the expenditure of energy that is so orgasmic [laughs] and you have to be ready for it, so those are challenges also.

MG: You mentioned your musical career in the show; do you have any plans to go down that road again?
WS: Well, I have been asked to do a cover album…and I just may do that. I love music. I can’t sing or sustain a note but what I do have is the musicality of the language. Many languages, English among them, has an intrinsic melody and rhythm that needs to be sought out, if you will. It is one thing to speak like we do but another to find the heart of the language and I love that. So my ability to be able to combine that musicality of the words with a melody line that comes in behind it, it became a signature thing. I just love doing it and I am anxious to do it again, so whether it is an album or live. I did perform my newest album, which is called “Ponder the Mystery”. I did it three times with Billy Sherwood’s group in the Los Angeles area last year and it got a great response and I would love to repeat that.

MG: From being an actor, author, spokesperson etc; what is left on your bucket list that you want to do?
WS: Oh my goodness. I haven’t done anything in life. I feel unaccomplished and I feel like I have done nothing [laugh]. Being a performer, once the performance is over…it is gone. It is in the ether. It may have just as well not happened. The next night is the next challenge. It is a challenge of many kinds. It is a challenge of redoing that performance that only you can remember. The challenge is also that if there will be an audience for that performance. I am feeling that way right now. Doing all this publicity is an attempt to fill that gap that I hope that 700 theaters will be filled up with people coming to see the show on April 24th. There is so much to do and so little time left to do it.

Ralph Steadman is a British Gonzo artist that is best known for his work with American author Hunter S. Thompson, author of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. After meeting each other in 1970 to cover the Kentucky Derby, Steadman and Thompson formed a long-time relationship. Steadman’s did the artwork for Thompson’s books over his career. He is also an author himself having written numerous books focusing on his drawings…or as Hunter would have called it his “filthy scribblings”, according to Ralph. This April, “For No Good Reason” makes its U.S. debut in NYC, which is a documentary on Ralph’s career. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Ralph about the film and his work with Hunter S. Thompson.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell us about how you got approached for the documentary “From No Good Reason”?
Ralph Steadman: The director Charlie Paul initially came down to see me, then the producer Lucy Paul. This was over a period of twelve years, you know. They would stay for lunch, we would talk and then we would carry on. So over twelve years, we made this film. It just seems so long ago from when we first started it. They got Johnny Depp involved, which was good because he has become a personal friend of mine over the years. He is such a great guy, easy going, warm, genuine and terrific fellow…
MG: I loved Johnny’s narration in the film as well, very nice touch.
RS: Oh yeah, it was lovely. I agree.

MG: How did you feel about having a documentary about your life done?
RS: I first thought “For God’s sake…why?” “For no good reason”…that is what Hunter would have said. I used to always ask “Why are we doing this Hunter?” and he would always say “For no good reason, Ralph” [laughs].

MG: How was it seeing some of your drawings brought to life and illustrated in the film?
RS: That was quite interesting. I couldn’t be an animator in old Disney way when they used to draw one picture and then other but slightly different and then you would put them together like a flip book and they would actually move. The only thing I liked like that was doing something simple like a dot or a splat and putting it in a book form and flipping it and watching it move, that to me was magic. I like doing that kind of thing. But seeing my drawings in the film was really great.

MG: I find it so interesting that you said in the film that your work is unprofessional and “it is as unexpected to me as it is to anyone else”; can you talk about this aspect?
RS: Yeah, that is because I don’t do any pencil work. I never plan anything. I just begin and the drawing becomes what it becomes. My reaction every time is “I don’t know how I did that”. I am always amazed. “How the fuck did I do that?”, I usually say. It’s like Ludwig Wittgenstein’s idea that only thing of value is that thing that you cannot say but you can see it. I like that a lot.

MG: So how did your splatter technique come about then?
RS: Oh that was clumsiness. I was clumsy. I said “Oh shit” when I flicked my wrist with my pen but I realized it made this beautiful sweep of blots. I thought to myself them “Oh I like that, it’s quite nice” So I started to use it more deliberately. I would spill ink all over the place. I liked the idea of putting a sheet of paper on the studio floor taking a bottle of ink high on a ladder and dropping it. Not all of it…but just enough. It would make terrific, radiating splatters of different designs. Then you look and think “Hmm, it could be a spider” and I would go from there.

MG: Looking back at the film now, how do you feel that it has come together?
RS: I was amazed by it actually. After twelve years, it was nice to see it all come together. They did cut out a few things that I would have liked them to keep in like my art teacher, Leslie Richardson. This was a pity since I really wanted him in it. What they were after was the notoriety including the fame of Johnny Depp. So poor Leslie Richardson, who is now 93, was left out. But he still goes around kicking old ladies and children in the streets [laughs].

MG: Tell us how you originally crossed paths with Hunter Thompson?
RS: When I was planning to come to New York in 1970, I had some friends that invited me to stay with them in the Hampton’s. They were soon to be married, so I felt a little uncomfortable saying with them for a long period of time. So after staying a little while, I was going to leave for the city and I was about to leave when there was a cal from a guy named J.C. Suarez. He was an editor from Brooklyn. He wanted me to come to Kentucky and meet an ex-Hells Angels, who just shaved his head. I asked why did he do that and he said “Why? Because he’s a Hells Angels. He is a rebel”. So I asked “What for?” He told me that he was not only looking for a photographer but for an artist and they saw my book of pictures called “Still Life with Raspberry”, which was my first book of collected drawings. Don Goddard was the foreign editor of The New York Times and he had found the book in England and then came back and said that they need to put me with Hunter Thompson. So that is how it happened.

MG: Do you feel that your career would have been different if your path’s didn’t cross?
RS: As far as I was concerned, meeting Hunter and going to Kentucky was a bulls eye for me. For all the people that I could meet in America, he would be the one…go figure. Meeting Hunter was the best thing for me in terms of making a career. What we did for journalism was that we became the story and that became know as gonzo journalism. That was really what was so good about it. One day, this guy Bill Cardoso told us that the Kentucky Derby piece we did was “pure gonzo”. Hunter never heard the word before and it really stuck. He used to say “Don’t do those filthy scribblings”. He used to call my drawings filthy scribblings [laughs]. He used to also tell me “Don’t write Ralph, you will bring shame on your family”. But he always loved to sort of go against you but on purpose because he would know that it would provoke me and my work would benefit.

MG: “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is one of my favorite books and the movie is great as well…
RS: The thing is people get too sniffy about the movie and things like that. They say that it is not quite this or quite that. No! It is a version of the book. I didn’t mind it, especially since the whole damn thing, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” was a crazy idea to begin with.

MG: Do you recall how long it took you to complete the illustrations for the “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” book?
RS: I think I did nine pictures in a week and it was done. The rotten thing was that I ended up selling all of the originals since I was told it would be a good career move. I think I got $75 dollars each for them. Can you imagine what they are worth now?

MG: Has your drawings been affected since the death of Hunter S. Thompson?
RS: No, not really. I have been doing bird drawings for the last few years. I don’t like drawing politicians any more, I can’t be bothered. They are so awful. I don’t feel so bitter about it. I do not feel like I am trying to change the world. I have changed the world enough since I started and it is worse now than when I started [laughs]. So good, I have done what I had meant to do [laughing]

MG: Yeah, you start off the film saying you set out to “change the world”; I was going to ask if you felt that you have accomplished that goal?
RS: We’ll you look around, I have done my part but bloody computers have changed everything.The business and also people in general. You can’t walk down a side street without somebody passing you by and they are not looking at you or around them, they are looking down at their phone. I had to go on a train recently to Halifax for a show of my drawings and there was this woman on the train that was a good example. She had red hair which was long down one side and shaved on the other side. I have a drawing of it in my book here. She was so awful, I had to draw her. But she had her makeup out in one hand and her phone in the other from the moment she got on the train. That is the problem about the invasion of the computer, like Twitter. Everyone wants to tweet you now. So that is very weird to me.

MG: Tell us about your latest book “Proud Too Be Weirrd”?
RS: I collected together a bunch of things that I never had no good reason to use [laughs]. I thought I would start with the first page and go through my studio finding this and finding that and just building the book from there and that is how I worked on it. This guy Steve Crist from AMMO Books got in touch with me about doing it. He used to work at TASCHEN. Benedikt Taschen rang me after the book was made and said he was actually very disappointed because he wanted to do the book, but at the time I didn’t know this. He did my book with Hunter, “The Curse of Lono”. Steve Crist used to work with Benedikt and that’s where he began. He sort of adopted the style of big book like TASCHEN did. I really like the title “Proud Too Be Weirrd” and it is a great book

MG: What are some of the artists that inspire you?
RS: I love Picasso. He is such an inspiration for me. There is a film called “The Mystery of Picasso” that is really worth seeing if you can get a copy. It is fascinating for me to watch him at work. The director, who made the film, was allowed to by Picasso to be in the studio with him. This is what Charlie did with me as well for our film. Picasso would set things up for him including painting on glass and having him film from the other side. This is amazing work and it really continues to inspire me.

MG: Are you working on anything else new currently?
RS: I got a new book of creatures that I am working on right now. These are completely made up creatures for example instead of a pelican; you do a pelicant [laughs]. You have to keep doing something otherwise what is the point. I guess I am taking advice from my father, who couldn’t bear to just sit about. I am also learning how to etch steel plates as well. So I suppose I should continue to carry on.

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“Jimmy and Sam are two college graduates who return home and find themselves working at a small pizza shop that pops up out of nowhere. It doesn’t take long for them to suspect that they’re working for two cosmic freaks with more sinister intentions than simply delivering pie. What is happening at the Killer Pizza shop? What is behind their secret recipe?”

That is the synopsis of ‘Killer Pizza’, the definitive feature-length picture about growing up, getting jobs, and surviving a Killer Pizza monster invasion.

Today I sat down and talked with the creative team behind the film: co-writer/director Kai Winikka and co-writer/producer Erin Darley. Both filmmakers live in Lawrence, Kansas and are graduates of the University of Kansas.

B.C. Allen: How was it that you two first met?
Erin Darley: When I was a Freshman at K.U., Kai was one of the Presidents of Film Works.
Kai Winikka: I ran a Cult Movie Night, once every month during my Senior Year, through Film Works. Film Works was an extra-curricular for freshman whom weren’t able to get into some of the production classes. It was more of a student-driven organization. Erin was a cult-film enthusiast, and it was always a big thing to get girls to show up. I always made more of a point to reach out to Erin since she was really into it. I’d tell her, “Ya know, we’re showing ‘Breakin’’ and ‘Jaws 4’, you have to come: bring your friends!”
ED: It was just a bunch of nerds coalescing, keeping each other motivated.
KW: It was a group of dinguses getting together to make movies.

BCA: What previous projects have you worked on together?
ED: “Porn & Pudding” was a thing. Everyone loved that. And that spawned a club. There is a “Porn & Pudding” club, and it was actually pretty serious. Kai is shaking his head because he is ashamed that I’m telling everyone this.
KW: That’s YOUR film, that’s not my film. (laughs) Our first real collaboration was probably
“Bustin’ Out”, where we both co-wrote and co-directed. It was for the 48-Hour Film Festival about superheroes, so naturally we made a Women-In-Prison movie. It was about a woman whose evil twin imprisoned her with a bunch of other women – whom were played by men — ED: Chicks with d*cks in chains.
KW: And there was an amulet that allowed her to shoot lasers out of her breast-icles.
ED: And then there was “Nanny Goat” which starred my sisters.
KW: And my basement in K.C.K.

BCA: What the origin of the idea for ‘Killer Pizza’?
KW: “Nanny Goat” was originally Plan A for the 48-Hour Film Festival, and if it didn’t work out, Plan B was “Killer Pizza”, but it was a lot sillier at the time. “Nanny Goat” did well and ended up winning the Audience Award. It was originally going to be about a babysitter, so naturally they order pizza; and of course the pizza ends up killing them.
ED: I always say that it goes back to standing there and deciding whether “Nanny Goat” was going to work and Kai just said, “If it doesn’t work out we’ll just order a pizza and we’ll throw it on your sisters and it will be eating them. And then at the end of the movie it crawls up to the camera, looks at the camera, and belches.”
KW: It’s come a long, long way from there. Although “Killer Pizza” is about a Killer Pizza and has Ron Jeremy in it, I’d like to say that this is a legit horror movie. It’s not campy at all.

BCA: You mention Ron Jeremy, how is it that he became attached to this project?
KW: I did a documentary in 2008 called “XXX in the Midwest” and Ron came to Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas to do a debate. So we waited in a long line afterward to meet him and he did the interview, had no issues, and signed the waiver like it was nothing. It left an impression, like he’s someone who is down for anything. He’s known as the hardest working man in show business, and he doesn’t say no, well, if it’s the right project.
ED: I came back from Colorado last year and Kai said that if I helped him write “Killer Pizza” then we’d get Ron Jeremy to be in it and we’ll put it on Kickstarter.com. So we wrote a part for him. And when we thought we were done with the script – which was three drafts ago – we knew it was time to contact Ron Jeremy. We sent him a letter, not knowing how long we’d have to wait to hear back from this guy. I went off to work, at a restaurant, and I was checking my e-mail obsessively, and he e-mailed us back within thirty minutes, and he said “Yes.” And I still have the letter, which started, “Dear Hedgehog,…”

BCA: What would be the biggest hurdle for this production?
KW: The biggest challenge I think will be the effects, that’s what I anticipate it being. There are a lot of them and they are elaborate; and there is a lot of testing that has to go down beforehand. And they can still go wrong, like on set, the day of. Also making sure we can make our day and keep the production sailing.

BCA: What makes you want to use practical effects as opposed to digital effects?
KW: It has more charm. There is more heart to it. I am a big believer in visual effects when they are combined with practical, but this movie doesn’t really call for that.
ED: I think C.G. is trying to be realistic, but it doesn’t always work. Regular effects don’t always look super real, but the suspension of disbelief takes care of a lot of that for us; but it’s more fun, I would say.
KW: It’s the heart. C.G. comes close, but not close enough.

BCA: Do you have a specific look you are going for with this film?
KW: It’s going to be a really dark film, so the idea is to go in and bring the black way, way down, and taking a lot of the color out. That idea is really appealing to me. The look of the film “976-EVIL” is the kind of look I am going for.

BCA: When was it that you started to write, or realized you wanted to be storytellers or filmmakers?
KW: In high school, a group of guys and myself were making “Jackass”-type videos. We were doing it every week, and then every day; and it got to a point where I was telling them they’d have to do it again because it wasn’t good enough, and my friends told me I was taking all the fun out of it. It grew from there.
ED: I made high school movies, too. But I didn’t discover my writing ability until college. I’ve just always done it as a fun, personal thing. I write poetry, and short stories. Screenplays are great, but there’s no one who is going to tell you that screenplays are literature. They are great if you think in terms of images. Screenplays are awesome if you think of a great story; you can just bang out a series of images and dialogue and say “That’s done.” And if you want to you can go back to it and add the prose later.

BCA.: What is the endgame for “Killer Pizza” are there any specific festivals you are looking at?
KW: I think the best festival out there for this genre would be Fantastic Fest. And of course, show it locally at the Kansas City Film Festival.
ED: I defer to Kai on that. I want to see this movie, and that’s all I am thinking about. I figure I’ll just make this movie to watch it myself, and then take it from there.

Killer Pizza is a feature-length weird horror film to be shot Summer of 2014 in Lawrence, Kansas.
Kai and Erin are currently crowd-sourcing the funding for “Killer Pizza” with a Kickstarter campaign.

If you’re a fan of classic animation you surely are a fan of Ralph Bakshi. In his five decade career he has created such seminal animated features as “Fritz the Cat,” “Heavy Traffic,” “Wizards,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Cool World” and many more. This week at the Kansas City Film Fest a retrospect of his work will be shown, featuring screenings of “Heavy Traffic,” “Coonskin” and “Wizards,” culminating in a Q&A Skype session with the director after Saturday’s screening of “Coonskin.”

Introducing the films this week will be another filmmaking member of the Bakshi family, Ralph’s son, Eddie. Eddie caught the filmmaking bug at a young age and is finishing up his animated producer’s debut, “Last Days of Coney Island.” While waiting for the Fest to begin, Eddie Bakshi spoke with Media Mikes.:

Mike Smith: Can you give the readers a little inside introduction to the upcoming retrospect of your father’s films at the Kansas City Film Fest?
Eddie Bakshi: The festival is presenting screenings of three of his films: “Heavy Traffic,” “Coonskin” and “Wizards.” There will also be samples of the original art – the original animation cells used to make the film. They will be on display and some will also be available to purchase. In addition, he will be Skyping in to the festival after the Saturday evening screening of “Coonskin” for an audience Q & A. The audience will have a chance to ask him a question about any of his films, be it “Coonskin” or his latest film, “Last Days of Coney Island.” He’s currently editing that film right now and will actually be Skyping in on the same computer he’s editing on.

MS: Can you talk a little about “Last Days of Coney Island?”
EB: “Last Days of Coney Island” is a project that we’re both working on. He’s directing and I’m producing. We’re currently in the middle of editing it. It’s an eighteen-minute featurette. When we announced it on Kickstarter we had said it would be a five to seven-minute short but now it’s a bit longer. Actually, we may continue the project and turn it into a full length feature film. If we can get the funding we would like to tell the entire “Coney Island” story, which takes place in the 1960s and involves cops and a whole lot of seedy characters…the inhabitants of Coney Island. It will be a classic Bakshi film in the vein of “Heavy Traffic.” It has a lot of strange characters and they’re all interlinked. He’s very happy with what he has done now but he would love to turn it into a feature. He’s very happy with the story and how it’s going. He’s been very involved the past several months lengthening the story to eighteen-minutes. The art style is very interesting.

MS: You will be offering some of his original art and cells to the public?
EB: Yes. It’s a great way for his fans to own a piece of his work.

MS: Is this retrospect a way to introduce his work to new fans as well as letting old fans know about his newest project?
EB: It’s a new way to promote Bakshi Productions. It’s really the first real chance people will have to ask him about the project directly. There has been a real spike in the increase of interest in his work since the advent of outlets like Twitter and Instagram. Many new fans are being exposed to his work. An outlets like Facebook these fans are finally getting to see the images from his films and it generated a lot of interest in the new film. We’ve been getting offers from all over the country to attend film festivals to not only talk about “Last Days of Coney Island” but to show his older films as well. It’s kind of like a bundle package. Once “Coney Island “ is ready we can take that to festivals, or show a trailer for it with some of the older films.

The Kansas City Film Fest runs through April 13. For more information go to www.kcfilmfest.org

Courtesy: Sony Pictures Classics

Frank Pavich is the director of the new fantastic documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune”, which chronicles about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s never made film version of Frank Herbet’s “Dune”. He has also worked as a production manager on TV shows like “Paranormal State”. Media Mikes had a chance to chat “Dune” with Frank and find out about how he got involved with Jodorowsky and his passion for what he does.

Mike Gencarelli: How did you get involved with the documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune”?
Frank Pavich: You just hear and read about these things like “The Top 50 Greatest Movies Never Made”. I was a fan of Jodorowsky and his movies like “Holy Mountain” and “El Topo” going back to even when you couldn’t get it except on like crazy VHS bootlegs. There was a small segment about his unfinished “Dune” in a documentary called “Jodorowsky Constellation”, but it only ran like five minutes. But during it you see his screenplay book and I thought to myself “What the hell is that book?” Once you see that book, you feel the need to just learn more and more about it. So I searched and search until one day, there was no more information out there that I hadn’t seen. So I decided to just find the guy himself and speak with him.

MG: How did you end up tracking him down and convincing him to do this?
FP: I wish I could tell you what made him do it. I think the only thing I can say was from my obvious unbridled enthusiasm. I was searching for him and I found that he has an agent in Spain for acting. I didn’t even know he acted in movies other than his own but obviously he does because he has this agent. I just sent her an email and explained my situation. She took my email and just forwarded it to him. So then a couple of weeks later, I just happen to wake up to an email from Alejandro Jodorowsky. It was awesome. If I remember correctly, I didn’t even open it for like a week. I was afraid if he wrote “Dear Frank….NO!” It would have crushed my dreams. So when I opened it included was a very short message saying “I hear you are looking for me? I live in Paris and if you would like to discuss doing a project like this we would need to meet face to face”. I was like “GREAT! You don’t have to twist my arm”. I made an appointment and went to his house to discuss. I gave him the short pitch and either he just thought I was crazy or deep down that we weren’t going to finish it but he agreed to do a few interviews. So we started and went back a few times to shoot more and more interviews over time. Overall, I think it worked out really well.

MG: What I loved about this documentary is that there wasn’t like a million interviews…
FP: Oh, I hate those.
MG: Right! You had the key 10 people involved and that is all.
FP: That is what I always wanted to do. I hate those documentaries where it is only 90 minutes long and features 90 people. I can’t follow who is who and I can’t follow what is going on. Each person comes on for a half a sentence and I just get lost. I wanted to keep it to a minimum number of people. We had the greatest storyteller in the world.
MG: I agree, most importantly you kept Jodorowsky in the spotlight…
FP: Thanks for picking up on that man!

MG: What was it liked getting to review Jodorowsky’s screenplay book during your meetings?
FP: It’s funny because the first time I met him to pitch him the idea; we sat on these two chairs facing each other and in between us what this ottoman with books on it. He had actually placed THE “Dune” book on there but he never let me look at it and I didn’t ask. It was like he was teasing me with it [laughs]. It was so cruel but also hilarious. But the book was amazing. Once you get to go inside of it, you get to see that is in fact a complete film. It has every scene from the first to the very last. It also has every bit of dialogue and character details. It is something that I do not think was ever done before. It was ready to go and be filmed. What was also very interesting is that the screenplay was totally different than the book of storyboards, since it evolved over time. As he got all his “spiritual warriors”, it started to change. Just like if he would have gotten to shoot it, I am sure it would have evolved again. It is really interesting to see the process of his creativity.

MG: Tell us about the animation in the film and how was it getting to bring parts of Jodorowsky’s “Dune” come to life?
FP: We had this great animator, his name was Syd Garon. I met him through another friend and I thought that his work was perfect. He had that perfect light touch. I didn’t want to overdue the animation because it is not my vision of “Dune”, it is his vision. I just wanted to take those storyboards, which are primarily pencil on paper and breath enough life into them to elevate it off the page a little and hopefully then the viewer’s imagination will fill in the rest. It straddles the that middle ground between the storyboard and what the actual completed feature film would have been like. It was so much fun to do. We went through the book and literally got to pick out the scenes that we wanted to bring to life.

MG: What was his reaction when he saw these animated sequences?
FP: He has this philosophy when he directs his movie for everyone to leave him alone and he doesn’t want to hear from anyone since he is the artist. That is great and that is why we get the kind of movies that he makes. So I was afraid that he was going to be over my shoulder the whole time but he was definitely not a hypocrite. He believes that for himself and believed that for me as well. He let me do what I wanted and didn’t bother me at all. The first time he saw it was at the premiere at Cannes. It was a really cool experience and a really great place for him to see it. Him and his wife were next to me watching it and kept trying to peak over at them to see if they were laughing, interested or sleeping [laughs]. I could see that they were really enthralled and into it. They were also both wiping away tears at the end, which is great because you always want to make an 85 year old man cry [laughs].

MG: Having seen the film a few times now and I agree the film is quite dramatic.
FP: It is so interesting. It all comes down to his world view. This story for somebody else could be a very depressing story or it could be a winy story or angry story. “Oh, look what I didn’t get to do”. For him though, he thought it was great. He didn’t get to make the movie but he made my movie and he also had a great career and a lot of other movies were influenced by his work. Even I get choked up watching the end of the film, where he says that you have to try and that it is all about ambition. It is great. He is such an amazing and powerful guy. I am very lucky to have had a chance to work with him.

MG: Tell us about the score in the film?
FP: Our composers name is Kurt Stenzel. It is his first film and he was just great. He has never done a score before. He is this electronic musician and does all this great synthesized music. But he and I go way back actually and we grew up in Queens, New York together. I first knew of him when he was part of the New York hardcore scene. His old band was the very first New York hardcore tape that I ever bought back in 1987 or something. It is totally crazy. So he has gone from the New York hardcore world to a career scoring films. He can be like the new Mark Mothersbaugh. We are also hoping to release the score down the line for the fans.

MG: How did the relationships between other films like “Raiders of the Lost Ark’s “Masters of the Universe”, “Prometheus” and others get recognized?
FP: It is weird. Some of them are obvious. When we were making the documentary “Prometheus” came out, so that was an easy one. I remember seeing the commercial and thinking “What the hell?”, since that was the Giger mountain. It was crazy. It was totally lifted from the “Dune” artwork. Then some of them we really had to search for and some we couldn’t even include. After he attempted to make “Dune”, he spoke about how he started his career in comics, he did “The Incal” and “The Metabarons” series and a bunch others. If you look at the “The Metabarons” comic, you can see images in there that ended up in the movie “The Avengers”. There was no way to put that into the movie because it would be an entirely different chapter showing how his work influenced this and that etc. But his stuff is everywhere. Even Kanye West’s last tour/album was inspired by “Holy Mountain”. So we can say that he touches everything from “The Avengers” to Kanye West. How can someone do that? So we just be searching around and looking at the storyboards and trying to see anything that resembled them. They think that there were about twenty of those books made and only two exist today. So where are the other eighteen? You see so many similarities in other films that somebody else has had to have seen this book over the years.

MG: Do you think the world will ever see Jodorowsky’s take on Dune?
FP: I think this is his take on the film. I do not think he has that burning desire to do it anymore. I think he feels that “You want to see the movie? Then it is here, watch the documentary”. I think in his mind he feels like it is done. I think he has moved on also since it has been so many years. Also can anyone make a “Dune” movie anymore? Lynch had a hard time. Syfy did a one over a decade ago. So many people have taken from the “Dune” source material, the book, which in turn has influenced so many other films. Maybe if a true representation of “Dune” came out people would think, “Oh, I have seen all this before”. They have seen in various films that maybe it wouldn’t be as exciting for them. Jodo is happy and he has no regrets. He is also very happy to have been able to tell his version of the story now in this film.

MG:  What can we expect from the Blu-ray release in terms of special features?
FP: There is a ton of great material that we are passing off to our distributor, Sony Pictures Classics. I am not sure what is going to end up on the Blu-ray but I would think that they would want to include it all on there. We shot hours of interviews footage. So, we have hours and hours of interviews with Jodorowsky and all these people that couldn’t fit into the story we told. But it is still valuable stuff that I want to share with the world. If I was a betting man, I would say that it will be included on the Blu-ray release. It is too great not to have it.

MG: What do you have planned next after this film?
FP: I have a couple of ideas and projects in my head stirring around. But man, it is a challenge because this movie came out really good and I am really proud of it. It premiered at Cannes and went to Telluride and all these great film festivals. Sony Pictures Classics is releasing it. How much better can this be? What do you do to top this or complement this? That is the challenge for me. It takes so long to make these movies anyway. As far as I learned with this, if you are not totally in love with the movie you are making you are never going to finish it. Hopefully, I can find a subject that is as interesting as Alejandro Jodorowsky and his version of “Dune”. If you hear of anything left me know [laughs].

Kevin Sorbo is know best for his roles in “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”, “Andromeda” and “Kull the Conqueror”. Media Mikes had a chance to ask Kevin a few questions about his upcoming films “God’s Not Dead” and “Revelation Road 3: The Black Rider”.

Mike Gencarelli: What drew you to this film, “God’s Not Dead”?
Kevin Sorbo: It’s always the story. Great script, wonderful characters, fantastic message!

MG: How did you prepare to play a character like Professor Radisson?
KS: I have atheist friends. I have many conversations with them about my faith, their non belief. I have had college professors like him and have met with other college students who have had the same experience.

MG: In the film you push your students to admit god is dead; did that clash with your religious beliefs?
KS: Not at all. I’m acting. There are certain things I would be uncomfortable with as an actor and wouldn’t do, but the message here is great and needs to be brought to the light.

MG: Big “Duck Dynasty” fan, did you get a chance to meet The Robertsons during filming?
KS: They were brought in a year after we finished shooting, so we never met.

MG: You are currently shooting “Revelation Road 3: The Black Rider”, tell us what we can expect?
KS: A whacky ride into a post apocalyptic world where mad max meets the final chapter of the bible. Just had a fun, crazy character to play. No redeeming qualities in him really, but that remains to be seen with hints he may be back for other “Revelation Road” movies.

MG: Lastly tell us about your current Kickstarter campaign for the film “Survivor”?
KS: Sci-fi movie where I play the captain of a ship that had to leave earth decades ago when world war destroyed it. We answer the distress beacon of another planet and all hell breaks loose upon our arrival. Movie is shot and is looking for more money to wrap up post production.