Christopher Bessette is the writer and director of the film “Trade of Innocents”. The film recently played in the Toronto Cornerstone International Film Festival and we were awarded “Best Feature”. The film was released limited in theaters early this Fall and will be released on DVD on December 11, 2012. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Christopher about the film, what people can do to help in real life about human trafficking and also what he had plans next.

Mike Gencarelli: You have not has a simple career as filmmaker ranging from places like Amazon and the jungles of Central America, Russia, South East Asia, throughout Europe, across Canada and most of the United States; what do you enjoy most about working in so many different situations?
Christopher Bessette: I am really grateful for the places my career has taken me. You learn to be sensitive to cultural differences and become the observer in the nuance of communication… primarily because you don’t speak the language, so you learn to watch their physical mannerism and reactions.  This has been invaluable for me as a director.

MG: Tell us about how you were inspired to write and direct “Trade of Innocents”?
CB: Interesting how coffee shop conversations can ultimately lead you to the other side of the world. In 2008 I was in a coffee shop with a friend and she shared with me her missions work with orphans in Cambodia.  She told me about the plight of the people and the intense suffering they’ve endured.  My heart was broken and I immediately thought of two of my characters that are in Trade of Innocents. Two months later I get a surprise phone call from a broadcaster that I had worked with 17 years earlier and they asked me to help them tell a story about an organization that rescues children from the sex trade in CAMBODIA! I already had a story that I wanted to tell, so the trip would be dual purpose, I’d do the work for the broadcaster and I’d location scout and research for my movie.  So now I’m in country and I am seeing things happen all around me.  When your readers see the movie and the “Puppy Love” scene in the bar of the hotel; that really happened.  I chased down a perpetrator, following an investigators lead, exactly like the scene in the movie.  People might say, “come on” but if they could feel an ounce of pain my soul suffered when the pedophile was getting away with the little girl, they’d understand why I wept when we recreated that scene for Trade of Innocents… even as gut wrenching as that was, still it wasn’t the impetus.  On that same trip I found myself in the village of Svay Pok, 11 KM outside of Phnom Penh in a building called Rahab’s House. If you’ve seen the Dateline report, this is the building that was a notorious brothel. It is now used used as a community center, day care, medical clinic, church etc.  I went upstairs to the second floor, the room was sterilized freshly painted and void of furniture. Rahab’s House administrator told me that the room upstairs, “The Virgin Room or the Pink Room” was the room brothel owners held children as young as 5, 6 years old for the pedophiles.  I looked out of the bared window of that room to the dirt streets below and saw children playing. I wondered if a little girl looked through this same window wondering why she couldn’t be out there with her friends. I found myself whispering the words, “Oh God, help me tell her story, I have to do something, help me tell her story.”  Needless to say I came home with the story burning in my heart.

MG: How was it working with such an amazing cast like Dermot Mulroney, Mira Sorvino, John Billingsley and Trieu Tran
CB: Absolutely brilliant. Each actor has a different approach. My job is to serve each one so we communicate effectively and in-turn they serve the story, and the story serves the audience.  Here’s where the multi-culture experience comes in handy, I watch their unspoken communication actions and reactions and that gives me clues on how to effectively communicate with each of them.  Trieu Tran and I were in-sync from the beginning, I would say “a couple of words” to Trieu and he’d be like, “gotcha” and boom it would be outta the park!  All of these people are incredible professionals and my level of work with them is very subtle, whereas with other actors in the same piece, it is a lot more intense.  The end result is you’re looking for balance.

MG: Where you aware of Mira’s position on the topic of human trafficking before casting?
CB: She was a goldmine find.  I wasn’t personally aware of it but when her name came to the table, everybody on the producing team started buzzing about her passion with the  issue.  To have an actress that is extremely skilled and passionate about the issue is such a huge blessing.

MG: How does “Trade of Innocents” compare from your previous films?
CB: It is ambitious,  it carries poetic imagery of subtext, that for the viewer looking for it, will find.  I won’t spoil all of it by telling you, but the theme of redemption runs throughout… in each of the characters, even in colors.  The color red for example is typically associated with the red light district or a lady of the night, but in our film you’ll find it played in all of the positive ways, the red krama (scarf) the red drapes in Princess Willow Leafs palace, the Crimson Sun Bird that leads Amy into shanty town etc.

MG: Do you think that this film will create awareness for this “epidemic” of a situation?
CB: One film won’t be the answer, people will. The film will entertain but I hope that somewhere along the journey the viewers realize, “This is really going on!”  There is a collective voice that is silent for the most part crying  – that little girl looking through the bars of a window, hoping that a modern day abolitionist will stand up and say, “Enough, this is wrong.”  I hope it stirs those people that will make a difference.

MG: What do you have planned to follow-up this film?
CB: From real life drama / thriller in “Trade of Innocents” to real life drama in a supernatural thriller: imagine if I told you “The 6th Sense” was real.  True Story –  A 12 year old boy wakes from a coma and he is unable to speak but he can write.  He writes two letters, to two families, street addresses it to their house and everything… but he’s never met them before.  The contents of the letters contain exact details and names of their deceased children he’s met on the ‘other side.‘ They have a message for their parents and the world.

Robert Carlyle is a wonderful character actor known for his role in projects like “Trainspotting”, “The Full Monty”, ABC’s “Once Upon a Time”. In his new film “California Solo”, he plays a washed-out ex-Britpop rocker-turned-farm worker. This role is honestly one of his most revealing and honest to date. Robert took out some time to chat with Media Mikes about the role and what we can expect.

Mike Gencarelli: Where did you pull your inspiration for Lachlan MacAldonich in “California Solo”?
Robert Carlyle: I was fortunate, in the respect, to have known a lot of people who are involved in that world like the Gallagher brothers of Oasis and Ian Brown from The Stone Roses. It was interesting for me to then try and realize what their live would have been like had they fucked up and ended up on a farm in Los Angeles. The role was written very honestly and also believable. He doesn’t like to talk about his past rocker life and just works on this farm. So it was interesting for me to re-examine that aspect of the character. The only similarities between Lachlan and me are that we both have failed at points in our career. But it was very interesting for me to dive into a character like him.

MG: Did you know writer/director Marshall Lewy before he wrote the role with you in mind?
RC: No I didn’t at all. I read the script and I remember thinking about halfway about the role that it is wasn’t going to be me, it better be somebody really fucking like me [laughs]. I spoke with my manager after reading it and found out he wrote it with me in mind. Well maybe not so much with me in mind but with the characters that I have played in the past. Lachlan certainly shares a lot of emotions with characters that I played back in the UK and still do to this very day. I am kind of known for that, in a sense, that I am able to give characters voices that maybe do not have one.

MG: The film has quite the emotional journey for Lachlan, was it a challenging character to portray?
RC: It certainly was! I think there are 96 or 97 scenes in the film and I am in 96 of them [laughs]. So that was a bit of an ask. I was a little bit concerned about that and spoke with Marshall about it. He stuck by his word and thought that it would work well. He believed we needed to see all aspects of this character. You see the certain side of the charm that Lachlan has got. Then you see the hopeless side of him, due to the way his drinks. But overall you get to see all aspects of this man, which I think makes it very interesting.

MG: Your are known for your chameleon-like ability to portray a wide range of characters; do these roles always find you or do you seek them out?
RC: I have been very lucky with that aspect and I am fortunate. I have never been the type of guy who would go around and knock on doors. I just look for roles that have honesty and really challenge me to do something different.

MG: You also sing the title song for the film, written by Adam Franklin, tell us about that?
RC: That was actually the scariest part of this role [laughs]. In the end though, it was kind of liberating. It was shot towards the end of production in the last few days. I didn’t use a voice coach to find my singing voice. I didn’t even know what my own signing voice was. But what you hear in the film is exactly what we shot. Plus Lachlan was never meant to be a singer. He is the guitar player, so he didn’t need to really have a perfect voice. However, I was quite pleased with it.

MG: How was it going from a role like “California Solo” to Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold in “Once Upon a Time”?
RC: It is quite a leap. It is fantastic to be on a show like that. In the early 90’s, I wanted to take on roles that were very different from what I did last. I wanted to build up a background with good versatility. As the years have gone on, I hopefully have shown that I am able to play parts like Rumpelstiltskin and he is a culmination of that. He is the most out-there and certainly the most theatrical role that I have ever been given. So I am just looking forward to continuing that and hopefully playing it well.

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Twink Caplan is best known for her role of Miss Geist in “Clueless”.  She also had a fun role in this year’s raunchy comedy “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”.  Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Twink about her role in the film and reflect on playing Miss Geist.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell us about working with Tim & Eric in “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”?
Twink Caplan: Working with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim in “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie” was insane fun. We had met a few years earlier when I worked on “Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show.” It was a huge compliment to find out the duo had me in mind while writing the role of Katie. The cast was impressive with Will Ferrell, Zack Galifianakis, John C. Reilly, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Loggia, Will Forte… I was excited to play the lead female in this glorious company of men.

MG: The duo are know for their bizarre comedy, where you aware of this before coming on board?
TC: Reading the script I couldn’t wait to start. I was in my 60’s playing the older woman girlfriend of Eric, who is in his 30’s.

MG: What was the funniest thing that happened on the production?
TC: The funniest thing that happened on the production? The sex scene …when Tim slapped a realistic suction-cup dildo to his forehead and still had the remnants of the indentation and a red rash the next day. He’s very fair skinned. That scene was so wild with escalating in-the-moment improvisation.  When you are so absorbed in the character you realize later you might have done something or you might have gone too far or you might have…oh no…its a Tim and Eric movie!!

MG: What did you enjoy most about playing Miss Geist in “Clueless” movie?
TC: I loved the 40’s fitted clothes and stunning wedding dress Mona May designed for me. The character was humble and sweet and playing opposite Wallace Shawn was the topping on the cake. Hiring Paul Rudd and watching his career blast off. Alicia was adorable and Donald was a ball of energy and Breckin and Brittany were so funny….and gorgeous Stacey…I loved working with the entire cast and we were very close. I’m working with Stacey Dash now playing her old school agent in “Stacey Dash is Normal,” for television. The best opportunity was working with Scott Rudin who is a genius and Sherry Lansing who is not only beautiful but an amazing woman.

MG: …and TV series?
TC: Paramount Studio is luscious and Amy Heckerling and I had Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin’s bungalow. It was brilliant. We continued to do the Clueless series and I was one of the Executive Producer’s as well as playing the role of Miss Geist. It was fun casting the Guest Stars and meeting new actors and its always fun to be able to be in a position to grant wishes.

MG: How did you meet Amy Heckerling and work with her on various projects?
TC: I met Amy Heckerling at Warner Brothers. She had just finished filming European Vacation. We hit it off immediately. We were yin and yang and it was a perfect match! Our working relationship continued for twenty-two years. Amy is a wonderful friend and very clever. I loved her writing and knew she was special. They say a happy set starts at the head of the fish and our sets were always calm and happy which speaks for Amy.

MG: Tell what you have planned upcoming?
TC: In January, I’m looking forward to start filming writer/director Craig Goodwill’s “Boy Toy,” a satirical fairytale adaptation of his award winning short, “Patch Town.”

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Malcolm McDowell started his acting career in the early 60’s and has appeared in over 100 productions. Malcolm is probably best known for his role as Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s cult classic “A Clockwork Orange”. More recently he appeared in the remake of the 80’s holiday horror classic “Silent Night”. Media Mikes had the chance to talk with Malcolm recently about his role in the film and some of his other recent work.

Adam Lawton: How did you become attached to the remake of “Silent Night”?
Malcolm McDowell: They came to me with that role. I was actually in the same city they were shooting the film in at the same time as I was there working on another project. I was already there so I figured why not. I had never seen the original but I looked at the script and thought it would be fun to play a sheriff. I had never actually played a sheriff before. I think the director did a fantastic job with the film. Everything he brought to the production was really great. I think he is going to have a great future. It’s always good to see a young director blossoming and getting hold of things. Even though the film could be considered a B Horror movie there is still some fantastic work that can be done. It’s a great showcase for him and I am really proud.

AL: Can you give us a little more background on your character?
MM: He is a noble man but not really the brightest guy on the planet. The town he works in is a quiet one where the biggest problem he might have to deal with is public drunkenness. Now he is hit with a rash of serial killings which wipes out a majority of the town. He thinks he can handle it and that’s what I thought was so amusing about the role. Our job in this film is to scare people and also make them laugh. It’s entertainment. It’s not to be taken seriously as there are not people dressed as Santa going around flame throwing people. It’s just a fun ride. It’s like a video game.

AL: Did the director keep you confined to script or were you allowed to experiment some?
MM: I was allowed to move around a bit. That’s something I always like to do. It’s much more fun to add in a few bits here and there. I can’t really remember what I added but I know there were a few parts that made it in.

AL: Can you tell us what it was like working on “Home Alone: The Holiday Heist”?
MM: That was really fun. I have 3 young boys and I knew they would love that. When they told me what it was I was a bit unsure however I had worked with the director before and I liked working with him. Now that I have children of my own I look at these types of roles a little more differently these days. Anything I can do that is fun for them I like to do. It was great working with the cast as they are some wonderful actors.

AL: Before you had your children were you a fan of the holiday film genre?
MM: They aren’t film’s I would go and see personally. I like films that are for a mature audience and ones that make you think. Those seem to be getting fewer and fewer so I don’t go to the cinema much anymore. There are some good movies out there right now. “The Master” is an amazing film! Those are the types of things I like.

AL: What do you like most about working on series like “Franklin and Bash”?
MM: It’s like working in theater. You know everybody and you are a family. You get to know everyone very well. It’s a nurturing environment. It is a fantastic privilege to be able to do this. I have a very nice role and I love the character. I hope they continue writing me great stuff.

AL: Do you prefer working on a series at this stage of character as opposed to feature films?
MM: It fits perfectly in to my schedule. With these kids of mine I don’t want to be going away. I want to be around to see them grow up. It works very well for me these days. We shoot in Los Angeles so I can drive there which is perfect. I am not in every minute of things or carry the show as I don’t think is something I would want to do.

AL: Can you tell us about some of your upcoming projects?
MM: I have a couple of films that I am waiting to start on. I think there are 3 or 4 of them. I should be starting those in December and January. I also will be starting work on the new season of “Franklin and Bash”. We will be shooting that until about May. I am really excited to start back on that.

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Mark Walsh has been animating with Pixar going back to “A Bug’s Life”. He took on the role of Directing Animator for Dorey on “Finding Nemo”. Most recently he has gone behind the camera and directed the newest Toy Story Toons called “Partysaurus Rex”. Personally, I think it is brilliant and my personal favorite of any Pixar short. Media Mikes had a chance to really dive in about the short with Mark and find out some really cool facts about the film.

Mike Gencarelli: You’ve been with Pixar almost since the beginning, how was it stepping away from the animating desk and behind the camera directing the Toy Story Toons short “Partysaurus Rex”?
Mark Walsh: I love it. I have been reading articles about different actors who are turning directors. Largely what an animator is an actor. So to move to directing has been a similar experience. I think it is really fun and I enjoy the collaboration of it, even more than animating. I think animating is trying to create an emotion or feeling and directing is the same thing but on a larger scale. Yes, there are many more things to worry about. Yes, the buck stop with you…but the feeling of creation and collaboration, especially when something works is unparallel. I love it.

MG: Where you nervous at playing with the “Toy Story” brand?
MW: Not really. I am familiar with the characters. I worked with them before on the TV commercials for “Toy Story 3”. Working with the creator of the series, John Lasseter, there isn’t anything that he would let through that isn’t right. John will really be interested in how each director is going to push things. I think that is why “Toy Story 3” feels like a “Toy Story” film but also feels like a Lee Unkrich film. That is because John invites the input of the new director and he still makes sure it stays within the world. So with that support on hand, I felt invigorated to try new things. “Partysaurus Rex” is pretty different than the usual. But it I was happy knowing that the guardians of the franchise, here at Pixar, were there to make sure that I didn’t step out of bounds.

MG: I like that Rex gets a chance to shine. He is a funny character!
MW: Isn’t he great!? Rex is just such a sweet character. What I like most about Dorey from “Finding Nemo” is that she is a comedy relief character. But she is rare comedy relief character that gets a spotlight to see what it is like to be the comedy relief character. In her case, it is kind of sad. Rex is similar in a way. He is so nervous and nerdy that he funny. However what is it like to actually be that guy? I had that experience in school when I was a kid. So I just tapped into that for the movie.

MG: How long did this short take to make from idea to completion?
MW: A long time actually. It took about two years from start to finish, which seems long for six and half minutes. But there are two things that were going on. First, we had to wait for “Small Fry” to get finished. They were both produced by our sister studio at Pixar Canada. They are a really small studio, smaller than Pixar was when I came on during “A Bug’s Life”. They have a really great culture there but they can’t handle five or six shorts at the same time. Both Angus MacLane and I started on our shorts at the same time but I had to wait until they finished. Also it took two years since the itself process is just very long and arduous. There isn’t any stage of the production where the questions aren’t asked “Can we make this better?”, “How can we approve this?”, or “Can we add any more entertainment value here?”. That takes time. I was really pleased though because the shorts at Pixar gets treated the same way that the features do.

MG: Tell us about collaborating with BT for the music?
MW: BT is amazing. You listen to electronic dance music and some people think “How hard could it be?”. You have a drum beat and maybe some synthesizers. BT is not one of those people. He is an artist. What I liked about BT’s work is that it has the most emotion to me compared to other artists and DJs. When you are working in film, especially a short like “Partysaurus Rex”, emotion is what you are after. I wanted music that would be like a second character. I am very glad he found the time for us and that we were able to collaborate. The music gets louder, more intense and a bit crazier as the film goes on along with the party. So it kind of represents the party in a way. The music had to start small and get crazy, so the biggest challenge was reining it in. BT was able to do that so well. He just brought idea after idea and that was the best part of working with him.

MG: How does it feel to be the first Pixar short to not only have a MP3 single but also get a level in video game “Tap Tap Revenge”?
MW: I love it. Usually shorts don’t get this short of reaction. Especially a franchise related short. I was just trying to create this story with fun music that matched it. I wasn’t even sure if people would like it, but the response has just been amazing. It has been positive for all ages, especially young people. There is so much music that BT made, but the film just wasn’t long enough. We kept getting request after request for music from the film. On the single, BT had used “Partysaurus” as the inspiration even including dialogue and created this track, which plays so well on the dance floor. I listen to it every day and I feel that it even works better than the version in the film.

MG: How many hidden Pixar nods are there in this short, like the Sulley toilet cover?
MW: [laughs] Yeah, there is a lot in there actually. There is quite a few “Finding Nemo” references, since I worked on “Nemo” as the directing animator for Dorey. When we cut to the underwater guys and the “What Up Fishes” scene, Mr. Ray from “Finding Nemo is down there as well as one of the dolphins from that film. There is T-Bone from “Small Fry”, who floats by. There are a lot of “Toy Story 3” characters. But I am not going to tell you all of them; I want people to find them out for themselves.

MG: You also voice the new character Drips the Whale, tell us about that?
MW: When you are trying to get the story worked out, you are looking for something that is funny and gets it done. I liked the idea of a faucet cover, so kids won’t hit there heads, and I’ve seen them for sale. I thought it would be funny to have it coming out of his mouth, so he was permanently talking like this [mumbling in Drips’ voice]. We always record our voices as temporary voices when we are developing the story. It helps us find out if the movie is working before you bring in Tom Hanks or Tim Allen, which is great. Drips and also Puffy, aka “What Up Fishes” are my voices. Due to time, the fact that it was already funny and we didn’t have a name star attached to play them, John said “Why not!”. So I felt very lucky it is rare that a temporary voice gets to stay in the film.

MG: Do you have plans to take sight on features next to direct?
MW: I hope so. In Hollywood, everyone always says “I am doing this now, but what I really want to do is direct”. Everyone thinks that it is better, but it is really hard work. This was actually the hardest job that I have ever had but it is also the most gratifying. I am happy to just keep, as they say “doing the reps”, lifting weights to get my skills up. What has always been important to me at Pixar is that my craft is good. So I hope that I still have opportunities moving forward to keep improving on that craft. Until then, I am just building up my biceps [laughs].

Regan Mizrahi is cos-starring with Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswalt in the new film “Nature Calls”. For us parents with young kids, he is also voicing the character of Boots on “Dora the Explorer”. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Regan about his new film and doing voice work.

Adam Lawton: Can you tell us about your role in the film “Nature Calls”?
Regan Mizrahi: I play Kent, a boy way older than his years. I spend the movie trying to romance Janine (Maura Tierney). Since people tell me I’m an “old soul,” this was my chance to attempt to charm an “older lovely lady.”

AL: What was it like working with Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswalt?
RM: I learned a lot from working on a set with comics who do stand up. Learn your lines and prepare for chaos. No scene will go as planned. You will crack up most of the day. Your mom might not be thrilled with some of the conversations you might be privy to either, but I loved it!!!!

AL: What was your favorite experience from the shoot?
RM: There was an apt I was supposed to trash with Rob Riggle and Johnny. They told me “trash everything”- no one has ever said that to me before. They had like six of everything, so they kept resetting after each trashing. I was so tired at the end of the day, but it was so much fun!

AL: What do you like most about voicing the character of Boots on “Dora the Explorer”?
RM: One of the great things about voice overs, is that you can be in your PJ’s in the booth. It’s all about your voice and your imagination. I enjoy playing Boots because I like being a positive role model for kids. I have been voicing Boots for almost five years now, so my Nickelodeon co-stars have become like family.

AL: Do you have any other upcoming projects you can tell us about?
RM: I presently am the CEO of the Haribo Gummy Bear TV campaign. I have just done my fifth commercial for them. I love the perks of that job “all the gummy bears you can eat!!!” i also have a few things in the works that I am excited about, but cannot talk about just yet.

Mark Hamill may be known best for playing Luke Skywalker in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. He is also the voice of The Joker for the last 20 years, starting with “Batman: The Animated Series”. Mark is taking on his most challenging and unique role yet, as Crow, in his new film “Sushi Girl”. I highly recommend this film, as it is one of my favorite films of the year.  It is being released on VOD on November 27, 2012, in advance of it’s theatrical release on January 4, 2013. Media Mikes had the real pleasure of chatting with Mark about this amazing performance and how he put himself into that role. We also got to chat a little bit about his voice work and what he has planned next.

Mike Gencarelli: Take us through the how you ended up working on “Sushi Girl”?
Mark Hamill: They sent me the script; I read it and liked it a lot. But initially I couldn’t see myself doing it. I couldn’t imagine it. I was trying to get other things off the ground and sort of forgot about it. Then it came down to “Yes or no…Are you in or out?” I was thinking maybe it was a little too extreme. It seems crazy now that I did this but I turned it down. That was the easy way to deal with the troubling aspects of the screenplay. After a week or so I reconsidered, I am lucky they didn’t go to anyone else in that time. What happened was, I turned it down but didn’t feel good about it. So I asked my kids for help. Nathan was busy but I had my son Griffin and my daughter Chelsea read it, just to get their reactions. I need the reactions from twenty-somethings since I don’t have access to those demographics. Griffin didn’t think it was that violent like torture porn or gratuitously violent. The violence is part of the movie like in “Reservoir Dogs”. We are showing the underbelly of the ugly unsavory low-life kind of crime. So I agreed with him. But the one that really got to me was my daughters comment. She said “I heard you over the years saying that you had to go to Broadway to get character parts or the only really good character parts you got in film/TV are in animation like the Joker…if you turn this down then don’t complain anymore, you should be flattered they wanted you for the part to begin with”. It took a certain amount of imagination for them to even think of me for Crow at all. Ironically, when I asked them why they wanted me they said “Well if you can play a psycho like the Joker in animation, why not do it in live-action.” I decided to read it again but this time in character as Crow and not as Mark Hamill and that made a world of difference. So I told them I had to do it and luckily I got in under the wire. I really believe in this movie and I really want it to get the recognition it deserves.

MG: Where did you get your inspiration for the twisted yet perverted Crow?
MH: Obviously, most everything is in the screenplay but in terms of who I was using and how I got into the part and got inside the characters head, I used a few people that I used to work with in New York. I don’t want to use their names since they are not psychopath killers [laughs], but more in terms of their dark sardonic humor. There was a guy that was my understudy in a musical I did on Broadway and it was that sort of cynical snarky humor that Crow has, I took from him…and also various other people in my life. I loved the fact that we came up with a visually arresting look for the guy. I thought he should just show up and people should think that “There is something wrong with this guy”. The hair was one of those things that evolved overtime. At first I thought if I should be bald with a little Van Dyke beard and an earring or I thought maybe ponytail, since that is always creepy to me on a guy. Eventually, we went from bald to 180 degrees from that, since Tony (Todd) was bald. That hairdue might work for someone that is in a grunge band in Seattle or a surfer in his 20’s but it is just age inappropriate on a man like this. Then he has the three piece suit, which looks sort-of normal in the middle and then those tennis suits, which are more appropriate for a little boy. Visually there is just something that is so disturbingly wrong.

MG: For people that know you as Luke Skywalker and the voice of the Joker; what is this film going to do to your image for them?
MH: That is something that I have wanted to do for as long as I can remember. When I was a little boy and all the classic Universal Monster films came on. I admired all those actors like (Boris) Karloff and Lou Chaney Jr. & Sr. I loved the idea of hiding behind a completely different visual persona. It gives you great strength. You look in the mirror and it is not you. So you have to let go of your ego. In the film, I look awful. I look like five miles of bad road. Again, to look in the mirror and see a different character liberates you to make different choices that you wouldn’t originally make if you were Mark Hamill trying to look as good as you can. I love that about it. One of the greatest compliments I got about the role was when the producers showed it to some prospective buyers and when the movie was over, they asked “Where was Mark Hamill?” [laughs]. I mean that is the greatest compliment that I can get.

MG: Tell us about working with this phenomenal cast?
MH: You never can be sure what is going to happen. Not only did every cast member get along perfectly, there were no feuds or fights or egos involved. Everyone worked as a team and that included the crew. We were treating this like the little movie that could. It is idiosyncratic. It’s atypical. It’s quirky. But it is something special. It was just a joy to go to set every morning and you honestly cannot say that about every movie or TV show you work on. This is a cast that has gotten together for BBQ’s, birthday parties etc since filming. You get this real family feeling about it and that is not common at all in this business.

MG: The torture scenes in the film are quite a challenge to watch; were you ever concerned about it going to far?
MH: Yeah of course, from when I first read it. Let me tell you I have been married to a dental hygienist for more than 30 years and when I saw the extreme dental violence in this film, I thought there was no way I could do it. My wife is the woman that says “May The Floss Be With You” [laughs]. I couldn’t also see how I can film it without upsetting myself. I am quite squeamish about certain things and things dealing with teeth is one of them. During filming it, I am in character and Crow is really getting off on it. So I had to stay in character but Noah (Hathaway) was so realistic with these blood-curdling screams. That and the chopstick scene were definitely the hardest to shoot for me.

MG: After your likeness was used in the Mark Millar series, tell us about your recent casting in film adaption of “The Secret Service”?
MH: Mark contacted me via email and wanted to know if he could use my likeness in a comic book and beyond that to kill me in it. Well I thought that it was a very interesting idea. I am a huge fan of his and Dave Gibbons from “Watchmen”. I have a great friendship with him now. He asked me if I wanted to be in the movie and I said “Sure”. I don’t know what the details are yet. But it sounds like a lot of fun. The last time I played myself was in “The Simpsons”, back in 1998. It is very unnerving to play yourself because you have to analyze “Well who am I?”. I really don’t think about myself except in the roles I play. When I was getting ready to do “The Simpsons”, I was walking around the house asking “Do I sound like this” or “Do I sound like this” (both in different voices). I became very self-conscious but once I saw the advance concepts for the comic book from Mark, I thought it was such a brilliant concept combining the fantasy world of James Bond and contrast that with the drab lower-class English background that this guy comes from. It is such a wonderful paradox combination of elements in and of itself. It is not a major role but I never look at things like they need to be about me. I think about if it is good and if it is good I want to be a part of it. As far as I know, it is all a-go, we haven’t signed contracts or talked about a deal but I am sure it is going to happen.

MG: After stealing the show in “Sushi Girl” and no retired from Joker, do you plan to tackle more live-action roles?
MH: I am in collaboration with Amber Entertainment to finally get “The Black Pearl” made as a feature film that I would direct but not perform in. That is my main goal at the moment. If someone sees Crow and thinks of me in a different way and offers me another idiosyncratic character role, I would be thrilled to do it. I don’t have any direct plans but I also didn’t plan on “Sushi Girl” coming my way either. So you never know.

MG: I am also a big fan of your work on “Metalocalypse”.
MH: That is a very unusual show. We are heading into our fifth season of that show and that is one of the four that I am working on right now. Then there is Disney XD’s “Motorcity”. “Regular Show” just won an Emmy, congratulations to the people behind that show! I am also on the “How to Train Your Dragon” TV series “Dragons: Riders of Berk”, which is doing very well. I play Alvin, a big stupid Viking on that show. But I love it. He doesn’t think about himself as stupid or a villain. He is a real fun character to play. He wasn’t in the movie but was created for the TV series. I get to channel the crew from “Star Wars” since they were from the East End of London. They were all great fun to be around and I love the music of their accents. To be able to channel those guys is great fun. It is like getting into an amusement park car and riding along in someone else’s persona. That is why I don’t like playing myself…I am boring [laughs] but all the characters I get to play are more interesting.

MG: When we met at Star Wars Celebration VI, a young child came up to you in passing and asked you to do the voice of the Joker and you did. I will never forget the look on his face. What do you enjoy most about meeting all your fans?
MH: Going and meeting so many people that care some much about something that you been involved with it is really overwhelming. I don’t take it for granted at all. It is not something that I come face-to-face with everyday. In that context it is so easy for me to make that little kids day by just saying “I want money first” (in Joker’s voice). It is just so much fun. It is like a magician being able to just do a slide of hand magic trick that the kid will remember many moons to come. That is one of the perks of this business and one of the reasons why I got into it. I enjoy it. I love making people laugh and I love making people happy. I wasn’t motivated by fame or money. I wanted to do something that I enjoyed doing and I am so grateful. The fact that I have been able to do some many of those things I love, whether it the seven shows I have done in NY or the Regional Theater or the numerous cartoons. I grew up loving cartoons. So I am just so grateful to get a chance to keep doing the things I love.

SUSHI GIRL centers on the compelling character of a man called “Fish,” just released after six years in jail after successfully not ratting on those involved in the robbery that sent him to prison. The night he is released, the men he protected with silence celebrate his freedom with a congratulatory dinner. The meal is a lavish array of sushi, served off the naked body of a beautiful young woman. The sushi girl seems catatonic, trained to ignore everything in the room, even if things become dangerous. Sure enough, the unwieldy thieves can’t help but open old wounds in an attempt to find their missing loot, with violent results.

Media Mikes had been working and promoting this film since August 2011. “Sushi Girl” is finally being released on VOD everywhere on November 27th, 2012 and in theaters on January 4th, 2013. It has been a long road for this little-movie-that-could but it deserves the attention. “Sushi Girl” is easily one of my favorite films of 2012. We got a chance to finally complete our interview series with the legendary Mark Hamill (“Star Wars”) and Noah Hathaway (“The Neverending Story”). We are proud to be supporting this film and hope you enjoy!

Directed by: Kern Saxton
Written by: Kern Saxton and Destin Pfaff
Produced by: Neal Fischer, Destin Pfaff, Kern Saxton, and Suren M. Seron
Cast: Tony Todd, James Duval, Noah Hathaway, Andy Mackenzie and Mark Hamill, Cyrus Alexander, Michael Biehn, Sonny Chiba, David Dastmalchian, Jeff Fahey, David Reynolds, Ted Stryker, Danny Trejo, introducing Cortney Palm

Find out more at our official site: http://www.sushigirlmovie.com/
Follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/SushiGirlMovie
Exclusive Facebook Content: http://www.facebook.com/SushiGirlMovie
Check out our IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606339/

Travis Knight is the CEO/President/Lead Animator of LAIKA, which is the animation studio behind films like “ParaNorman” and “Coraline”. Arianne Sutner is the producer of “ParaNorman”. “ParaNorman” is the latest film from the studio and will be released on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on November 27th, 2012. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Travisa and Arianne about their work with stop-motion and what they have planned next.

Mike Gencarelli: Arianne, you’ve been working in stop-motion since “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, what is it that draws you to this medium?
Arianne Sutner: When I was starting out I was always a fan of animation and family movies. I was working in the Bay area and the movie that was happening around that time was “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas”. Part of it also was that you get to work on the project for a long time and it was still very new at the time and very exciting. When I started working in that environment, I just love that you create everything by hand. There were these fantastic stages that you get to work on and also the fact that it was this collaborative process. You really get to feel everything and get very involved. I really fell in love with it. I worked at other places like Pixar, in their beginning and they are making fantastic movies. But it is the experience of working on these movies that I love so much and the kind of people that are drawn to them. I always say that it is really fun and Travis says that I am crazy, which is true. You really get your hands dirty and get to collaborate and with some real great artists.

MG: Travis, How does the LAIKA President & CEO also end up being the lead animator on projects like “Coraline” and “ParaNorman”?
Travis Knight: I have been an artist my entire life. I fell in love with stop-motion, since I was child. Ultimately, I wanted to figure out how it was done before the internet or animation schools etc. So I was just learning by practice. It is something that has been a part of my life for 30 years now. I was an artist long before I was an executive. I have described myself as an artist trying to find his inner-executive. As I have been trying to move the company forward, it was always important to me as I began the process of building the company that I never lose the direct connection with the work because it’s what it is all about. It is why we do this. It is why we got drawn to creating something of great beauty. It is something that is critical to me. I think also to have the head of the studio in the trenches with all the other artists and filmmakers, rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty and being a part of the creative process helps to define the sensibility of what the company is all about. We really are all about finding a beautiful way of telling these classic stories in this extraordinary art form of stop-motion.

MG: Arianne, You took on the role of producer in “ParaNorman”; what was your most challenging aspect?
AS: I think it is to make sure that the script we got was so beautiful, so well picked, so ambitious and overall something that was really special that had various different layers. Also that it was at the same time entertaining and had certain messages that we believed in. We wanted to make sure that it brought to life the way that Chris (Butler) intended it. While also making sure that we met Travis’ standards and to have the best stop-motion animation in the world. I think that was my biggest overall challenge that I was reaching for everyday.
TK: Arianne is fairly humble. She really is like a little marvel. She held the entire production on her shoulders. Every day some new crazy challenge was thrown her way and she handled all them with this amazing grace. The fact that we brought this extraordinary film on time and under budget is a testament to her leadership.

MG: Travis, How does the production on “ParaNorman” differ to “Coraline”?
TK: With “Coraline”, it was the first film that we had done from the ground up. So everything was new. We were forging new ground. In some ways we didn’t know better. We had really grand ambition and wouldn’t accept the fact that we couldn’t do certain things with conventional stop-motion, in the sense of what you can do in this medium. So that meant incorporating technology that wasn’t done before. The natural enemy of stop-motion, this age old craft, is technology. We decided to embrace technology and to bring that forward as part of the process with digital capture systems, 3D photography, laser cutters and rapid prototyping. That way we were able to embrace the machine in a way that hasn’t been done before. It allowed us to expand the scope of the movie. We built on that to an incredible extent for “ParaNorman” and we took it even further than we could have imagined for “Coraline”. I think that process of innovating to tell incredible stories in this medium by fusing those two aspects together, art craft and technology, led us to a place where we can really seize our ambitions and see them realized on the big screen. When you look at the evolution in the visual stylization in the technical execution between “ParaNorman” and “Coraline”, it is fairly remarkable that it happened in only three years.

MG: Why do you think that stop-motion films tend to deal with darker subject matter?
TK: That is an interesting question. We can’t fully appreciate what that means until we see how the thing plays out in the fullness of time. I think when you look at the history of stop-motion film; there is a very small amount of films made in this medium. You can attribute about half of them to two guys, Tim Burton and Henry Selick. They have this dark gothic sensibility. When these guys make the films they want to make…they make them. I think you can look at our films and they don’t have that sensibility. They have this warmer sensibility that is distinctly British but is all very entertaining. So I think you need to look at those two things and see that there is nothing inherently creepy or dark about stop-motion. I think also when you have an inanimate object that is brought to life by the hands of an animator; there is something weird about that. They move is this weird jerky kind of way, which does gives a certain creepy feeling. One of the things that we have been trying to do at LAIKA is to really take the performances in the animation of these stop-motion puppets to an entirely new level and make them feel very human. So that people can connect with these emotional characters on the screen. It is really difficult to do that in stop-motion. I think it was important us to get over that hurdle of making these things creepy. I think you can certainly see with “Coraline” and “ParaNorman” they share some DNA in common. Moving forward, I do think that it is important for us at LAIKA to expand what we do and that is telling different kinds of stories in different kinds of ways. So when you see the next handful of films from our company hopefully they will not look or feel like anything we’ve done before.

MG: What’s next in the cards for LAIKA?
TK: We are very selective on the project that we take on. Currently we do have about ten projects in various forms of development. It is a combination of things that are adaptations of literature and original projects. “Coraline” was an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman novel and “ParaNorman” was an original idea. These things take a long time to make since the pace is graceful. There was about three years between “Coraline” and “ParaNorman”. There will be about two years between “ParaNorman” and our next film. We are trying to truncate the time period, so ultimately we are on an annual release schedule and releasing a film every year. It is a challenge and is difficult to do that but it is something that we are shooting for. But that is path that we are aiming for.

Jordan Galland is the writer/director and producer of the new superhero indie film “Alter Egos”.  He is also known for his film “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead”.  Jordan took out sometime to chat with Media Mikes about the new film and what we can expect next.

Mike Gencarelli: How was it going from vampires in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead” to superheros in “Alter Egos”?
Jordan Galland: It’s really fun to work in such a specific genre (Superheroes, vampires) where the rules are so defined that they can have an almost biblical or religious rigidness to them, so that any impulse towards realism, or a deviation from the conventions of that genre results in finding something new, or at least a quirky, comedic take on it.

MG: How did you end up with most of the same cast from “Rosencrantz” in “Alter Egos”?
JG: I wrote the parts for those actors, having met them on the set of my first film. I really wanted to work with them again, and was betting on the fact that maybe they wanted to work with me again too, even if the budget was small and we’d all be sleeping in the same bed. I lucked out, on both accounts.

MG: Having this been your second time directing, what was the biggest challenge this time around?
JG: Biggest challenge was the action sequences, where we didn’t have the time or budget to do it the way I envisioned it. We made compromises, which work, but still. Another big challenge was trying to make the body (in the opening sequence) sink into the ocean. It kept floating back up.

MG: Tell us about the music in the film by Sean Lennon, who appears in the film as Electric Death?
JG: He did the score for Rosencrantz, and I wanted to work with him again. We met through having bands in NYC in the 90’s and ended up playing music together a lot. And in our musical collaborations we often went to film scores as a reference. So we had a certain short hand vocabulary and a familiarity with each other’s tastes… as well as both being fans of the Sci-Fi fantasy genres. Sean’s soundtrack is also out and available now on iTunes, FYI!

MG: How did Kevin Smith end up getting involved with Smodcast Pictures?
JG: Phase 4 films has a deal with Smodcast, where they look for films that they think are suitable to Kevin’s taste; often comic-book type stuff, or comedy that has a conversational naturalism like Clerks. All low-budget, a way for films to get a little extra attention in this cluttered, over-saturated market.

MG: What do you have planned next whether it is music or directing?
JG: I am currently finishing up a new solo record to be released in the late winter / early spring, being produced by Charlie Klarsfeld. And I’ve got two films in development. One’s a new take on a demon possession story. It starts where exorcism films end and is about a girl who’s recovering from demonic possession. The other one is also kind of a horror thriller… like misery Psycho meets Misery, and has an almost a reverse Misery plot where the writer takes the fans hostage. So I’ve been working on those, but not sure when they’re going to get filmed. Hopefully 2013!

Noah Hathaway is know best for his film roles in “The Neverending Story” and “Troll” and TV roles in “Battlestar Galatica”. He is returning to film after a long break with his new amazing film “Sushi Girl” playing the role of Fish. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Noah about his role in this film and what we can expect from the role and what he has planned next.

Mike Gencarelli: After such a long break from TV/film, why did you come back for “Sushi Girl”?
Noah Hathaway: I was living in Amsterdam with my now ex-wife.  I was tattooing, chilling and happy there. I am not crazy about the cold weather but the rest of Amsterdam is pretty awesome. We are talking about possibly going back to LA for pilot season that year but nothing serious.  A couple weeks later I got an email at 3am on Facebook from this producer.  He was asking if I would be interested in doing a movie with Tony Todd, Sonny Chiba and Mark Hamill.  Growing up with the films from Tony and Mark is amazing but when you are a lifelong martial artist and somebody asks you if you want to do a film with the closest living thing to Bruce Lee, I don’t know about you but I say “Yes!” [laughs].  We Skyped a quick couple page audition and I am sure the director wanted to make sure I could still read well.  Literally I was on a plane 6-7 hours later to start shooting.

MG: What did you enjoy most about playing the role of Fish?
NH: I liked that the Fish was kind of the innocent out of everybody.  The rest of them had this hard criminal past or experience, some more than others.  He wasn’t a good guy but still the most innocent out of the group. They gave some room to play around a bit and have some fun with the character.  It is a gangster movie and I love those.  The script was tight and exciting.  It also gives people a chance to get invested in more than just one character.

MG: You role is quite physical; tell us about the make-up effects used?
NH: We probably had about five hours of prosthetics used for a few days after the scene with Andy Mackenzie. Not going to give it away…after the stinky sock scene [laughs]. But they were really great instead of having me come to set; they would come to my hotel room at like 3am, wake me up and start the makeup. Prosthetics are not really my favorite thing but I was able to just nap in the chair.

MG: When we interviewed Mark Hamill, he commented on your “blood-curdling screams”; how did you channel that?
NH: When we were shooting it, the line producer, the camera girl and one of the assistant actually had to leave the set since it was so difficult to watch.  The screams that were coming out of my mouth were so horrid. They just left the set and couldn’t take it. Mark kept getting mad at me saying that I was going to ruin my voice. I said “Yeah, but I will win the Scream award for Best Scream but what do I give a shit”. [laughs] When you say “blood-curdling screams”, everyone was kind of freaked out when I let these out.  They just sounded so real and horrific. I did fuck my throat up for a good couple of months as well, I sounded like a pubescent boy. But it worked great with the ladies [laughs].

MG: How was it collaborating with such a fantastic cast?
NH: It is a weird movie to be involved in where you actually really like the people and want to spend time with the people you just worked with. That is a rarity. You hear so many horror stories with huge celebrities that won’t talk to each other.  We are still hanging out on weekends for BBQ’s. I am having the fight at my house this weekend with Tony, Jimmy (Duval), Andy, probably Mark and a bunch of the other guys including the director Kern (Saxton).  We are planning to just hang out have some drinks and watch the fight…and this is a year and a half later!

MG: I have a really this film is destined to become a instant cult classic; after being involved with “Troll” and “The Neverending Story”; How can you reflect?
NH: I think I have just been lucky that having done some movies that have stood the test of time. I think that this is a cool enough movie that it will do the same thing. It might not make a gazillion dollars but it will be one of those movies that people talk about and watch over and over.  Ten years down the line I can see people saying “Man, remember that fucking scene from “Sushi”?” I think it will be one of those films. I think it all goes back to the quality of the directing and writing and a little bit of everything.

MG: What else do you have planned next?
NH: I did a short film for Tom Holland, who directed the original “Fright Night”.  He is coming out with his “Twisted Tales”, which is like “Twilight Zone”.  So I did the first one, which he thinks is his personal favorite. They are putting it through the festival circuit now and it is called “Boom”.  I play a retired Iraq bomb disposal grunt, who is losing his mind and accuses his wife and best friend of having an affair. I have movie also that I did with Jimmy Duval, that he provided called “Blue Dream” now; it’s had like five titles. So I have got a few things coming out but I am just really excited for “Sushi Girl”.  I have a feeling that people are really going to dig it.

Related Content

• Mark Hamill reflects on his role of Crow in “Sushi Girl”
• Interview with Sushi Girl’s Destin Pfaff, Kern Saxton, Neal Fischer & Suren Seron
• Interview with Destin Pfaff
• Interview with David Dastmalchian
• Actor Jimmy Bellinger Talks About His Role In The Film “Blockers”

Kaitlyn Maher is only 8-years old but she has already accomplished so much. She started at the young age of 4 on TV’s “America’s Got Talent”. She has worked with Disney on “Santa Buddies”, “The Search for Santa Paws”, “Treasure Buddies” and most recently “Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups”. She has a beautiful voice and gets to sing some really nice songs in her latest film. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Kaitlyn about her films and spreading the Christmas spirit.

Mike Gencarelli: This is your fourth role in the Disney Buddies series, how did you originally get involved?
Kaitlyn Maher: Lorna Johnson, the casting director, saw me on “America’s Got Talent” when I was 4-years old. From there she cast me for role of Tiny in “Santa Buddies”. Then they liked me and the director, Robert Vince cast me in “The Search for Santa Paws” and so on…

MG: What did you enjoy most about working on “Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups”?
KM: Everybody was really, really nice. I liked working with the director, Mr. Robert Vince. Cheryl Ladd is very sweet, wonderful and so very nice. I really enjoyed working with her. Also we shot the film in mountains of British Columbia and we were surrounded by mountains and snow.  It was just really pretty.

MG: How does it compare from your role in “The Search for Santa Paws”?
KM: They both are great movies and both share the Christmas spirit. They both share that message to deliver the Christmas spirit to everybody everywhere.

MG: After three Christmas themed film, is it safe to say that it is your favorite holiday?
KM: I love Christmas. It probably is my favorite holiday. I love to share the joy and spirit of Christmas with everyone, especially with those people that are having a rough time. I want to tell them that they are meant to be happy and to keep believing. God loves them and I love them too.

MG: Tell us about the songs in “Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups”?
KM: They are very inspiring songs. I love all of the songs. They are songs that you can spread the Christmas spirit with everybody. It also makes the movie really fun. It also makes me smile that other people will be able to enjoy these songs as well and it will get into the Christmas spirit. The songs also promote the true meaning of Christmas for everyone.

MG: What do you enjoy most about music?
KM: I just love making people smile and making others feel happy and loved. I also like to make them know that God loves them even if they don’t feel like it.

MG: What do you most about doing voice work in the film “Santa Buddies” and “Treasure Buddies”?
KM: It is a lot of fun going in the studios and recording. It is nice to imagine what it would be like to voice a camel and a puppy in real life. Though I don’t think I look anything like a camel [laughs].

MG: What do you have planned next? How about a new album?
KM: I have a TV show that is coming out in the Spring called “The Goodwin Games” on Fox. Yes, I will also be doing a new CD next year. I am really excited about that. I really want to give people a lot of encouragement and I want make a really inspiring CD.

William Joyce is the author of the “The Guardians of Childhood” series, which is being made into the film, “Rise of the Guardians”. William also served as executive producer on the film. William recently released the third novel in “The Guardians of the Childhood” series, called “Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies” and also a picture book “Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies”. Media Mikes had a chance to ask William a few questions about turning his series into a film and chatted about his new books.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell us about your work on DreamWorks Animation’s “Rise of the Guardians”?
William Joyce: The upcoming DreamWorks Animation “Rise of the Guardians”, set for release on November 21, is based on my book series “The Guardians of Childhood.” It takes place 200 years after the team’s formation in the books; it tells the story of Jack’s recruitment to the team and centers around four of the guardians; Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and the Easter Bunny. The Guardians of Childhood book series tells a sweeping tale of the ongoing battle between Pitch, lord of nightmares, and the eponymous guardians, consisting of figures such as the Man in the Moon, Nicolas St. North, the Tooth Fairy, Bunnymund the Easter Bunny, the Sandman, Mother Goose, and Jack Frost. I also worked as the executive producer, so I collaborated on all aspects of the film. Design, story, and casting.

MG: What was the most challenging aspect of bringing “The Guardians of Childhood” to screen?
WJ: Narrowing the story down to a 90 minute film, then bringing that story to the screen. Animated feature films are titanic endeavors, and take years to realize.

MG: Tell us about the next novel in the series “Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies”?
WJ: Toothania, Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies, is the third and the newest in The Guardian series. It delves into the secret world of the third Guardian, the mysterious Tooth Fairy. This third chapter book presents you to Her Royal Highness, Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Fairies. There’s a lot more to her than has been previously understood.

MG: How many other book do you have planned in this series?
WJ: The Guardians of Childhood Series and The Guardians series will consist in total of thirteen books; the seven picture books in The Guardians of Childhood series and six chapter books in the Guardians of Childhood series.

MG: How did the idea for picture book “The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie” come about?
WJ: I’ve been working on a unified mythology for the icons of childhood since my daughter asked me if Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy knew each other. As a parent, I felt that Santa Claus, the Man in the Moon, all of them had become a little diminished. They deserve to be thought of as grand. Heroic. Epic. If Spider-Man has an origins mythology, then why not the characters we actually believed in? Creating a voice for their stories became my mission.

MG: Tell us about the road to “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” winning the Best Animated Short in 2011 Oscars?
WJ: We started Moonbot Studios three years ago, in my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. It’s an unlikely place to have an animation studio. We are, I believe, the 104th largest city in the United States. But we love it. Shreveport is home. To do the short we had to mortgage our houses and hunt for every nickel we could rub together. It was a huge risk. But we believed in ourselves and the story. Most of our employees were fresh out of college. Working at Moonbot was their first job. When we won, the whole city, the entire state of Louisiana, went nuts. It was like a Frank Capra movie come to life. They gave us a ticker tape parade, a key to the city, and sang for he’s a jolly good fellow. Our lives became like the movies we’d been inspired by and loved. It was surreal, unspeakably happy and perfect. But now our employees are totally spoiled.

MG: What can you tell us about your next film “Epic”?
WJ: Epic is an upcoming 3D computer animated fantasy-adventure film based on my children’s book “The Leaf Men.” It’s an epic adventure that just happens to be in the secret world of a teenage girl’s backyard. A race o tiny beings threatened by an ancient evil. I like to think of it as an intimate epic. It’s being produced by Blue Sky Studios and directed by Chris Wedge, the director of Ice Age (2002) and Robots (2005). It stars the voices of Beyoncé Knowles, Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Knoxville, Aziz Ansari, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, and Steven Tyler. The film is scheduled to be released on May 24, 2013.

Michaelbrent Collings is the writer of the latest film from WWE Studios, “Barricade”. The film was released on DVD on September 25th and I recommend it highly. Michaelbrent is also a black-belt martial artist and in his past life was an attorney. Currently, he is focusing on writing full-time not just screenplays but also novels. His latest novels are called “Apparition” and “Billy: Seeker of Powers”. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Michaelbrent about his his work with WWE on “Barricade” and also what else he has planned next.

Mike Gencarelli: How did you go from black-belt martial artist to attorney to writer?
Michaelbrent Collings: Geez, there’s a question whose answer could go on FOREVER. Short answers: I’ve been involved in martial arts for much of my life, dating back to the day I realized that a teen who weighed all of one hundred pounds was going to have a full life working as a doormat for bigger kids. Also, I realized that girls did not, as a rule, dig guys that they could out-bench press. Martial arts seemed like a good way to both take better care of myself and build up some seriously lacking strength. Thus I became the towering colossus of manliness I am today. As for the attorney to writer thing, I always liked writing, but never liked the idea of being “that guy.” You know, the guy who’s 40 years old and still living in his parents’ basement while trying desperately to convince girls he’s “just waiting for his big break.” So I went to law school, the last refuge of the incompetent. And as soon I started making money as a writer, I was pretty much out of there (the law thing, that is). So now I’m no longer a lawyer, just a writer. And my wife and family both assure me I’m much happier because of it.

MG: How did you get involved writing the screenplay for WWE Studios’ “Barricade”?
MBC:It was actually an original script that I took to them. I had written this ghost script called BARRICADE, and a lot of people in Hollywood liked it. It ended up going to WWE Studios, where Richard Lowell and Sharyn Steele, two of the producers there, got their hands on it. They loved it, but it wasn’t right for the studio at the time. Sharyn (who is still a great friend of mine and a peach of a gal) ended up going her own way, but Richard stayed at WWE Studios. A couple years later there was a management change at WWE Studios. The new VP walked in and told Richard that they wanted to do a ghost movie. Richard, it turned out, had more or less kept BARRICADE on his desk for the intervening years, and handed it right to the VP (another really cool guy named Steve Barnett). Steve loved it, so Richard called me in to the production company’s offices and I met with him and Steve. I think they’d probably already decided that they wanted the script at that point, but wanted to make sure I was someone they could work with. Well I already liked Richard, and Steve and I hit it off really well, so the next day I got a call that they wanted to option the script. They did so, and then they purchased it a bit later, and voila!

MG:How does the film compare to the page?
MBC:It’s different in a lot of ways. I mean, for one thing it’s a surreal experience to go from a hundred or so printed pages to an hour and a half of film that cost millions to put together. Not only that, but everyone who works on it puts their imprint on it. So when WWE Studios purchased my original script, the first thing that happened was they hired me to do a rewrite to accommodate some of the producers’ “visions” of the piece. The ending was changed a lot, due to a belief on their part that the ending I had (which was quite dark) wouldn’t be something American audiences would like. Then they hired a director, and I understand he pushed the script more toward the psychological thriller aspect, when originally it had been a 50/50 blend of psychological thriller AND ghost story. And then there were changes to accommodate production scheduling, location issues, editing, etc. etc. etc. So in the end it was nearly as much of a surprise for me to watch the finished product as it would have been for anyone else in the world.

MG:Tell us about your next film “Darkroom”?
MBC:DARKROOM is a really cool script I did that deals with a girl getting out of prison. She’s young, went to jail on a manslaughter charge, and now she lives in a halfway house during parole. As part of her parole she has to get a job, and lands as a gofer at a real estate photography company. She shows up to work on day one (the company is shooting a gloomy mansion, of course), and is told that the model they were counting on didn’t show up so she’s got to fill in. The photo people give her a change of clothes, she changes in the bathroom… and when she comes out she’s been locked into the mansion. Turns out the photo company is owned and staffed by a group of crazy siblings who tortured and killed their own mother, and now intend to reenact the fun with her. So it’s basically one of those “feel good” movie for the whole family flicks you’ll probably see on the Disney channel at some point. Ha!

MG:You have written many novels, how does it compare to doing film?
MBC:It’s totally different. I love doing both, but the way I describe it is that they’re like two different languages. Screenwriting requires an extremely high level of precision and clarity because there are only a very few words to describe characters, location, action, and dialogue. But at the same time, books are tough because you have to keep an audience’s attention for many hours of reading, as opposed to just one or two for a script. Some stories lend themselves to one or the other. I like stories that work for both, because I love to write novels of scripts and vice-versa.

MG:Tell us about your latest and upcoming novels?
MBC: My latest novels are called APPARITION and BILLY: SEEKER OF POWERS. APPARITION is a crazy-scary book about a family where the mother tries to stabe her two kids to death. The dad saves them, and the mother then turns the knife on herself. A year later, Dad and the two kids are still putting their family back together… and he starts fantasizing about killing his children. Turns out there is an otherworldly entity at work, one that feeds on the blood and death of children, and one that possesses the kids’ own parents to do the dirty work. BILLY is the other end of the spectrum: it’s a young adult fantasy that’s the second book in my bestselling BILLY SAGA. It’s about a misfit kid who discovers that his favorite teacher is a wizard and that he (the kid) may be the key to a war between two factions of magic-users. The kid may also be a weapon that destroys the entire world, so it’s definitely a high-stakes book, but with lots of fun and humor as well. And upcoming… I have a novel called HOOKED that I’m working on and it should be out before too much longer. I can’t say too much about the plot because it’s THAT fun, but I will say I hope it will be kind of the anti-TWILIGHT: teen vampires done right. No sparkles.

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Travis Pastrana is probably best known for his multiple X-Games Gold medals in motocross and as the face of “Nitro Circus”. Together with his fearless crew of daredevils they released their first full length feature titled “Nitro Circus 3D”. The film documents the crew’s adventure and antics as they make their way cross country to perform in the first ever “Nitro Circus Live” event. The film was recently released on Blu-Ray and DVD and Travis took time out of his busy schedule to talk with Media Mikes about the making of the film.

Adam Lawton: How did you first get involved with Gregg Godfrey and Jeremy Rawle?
Travis Pastrana: Gregg has been a motocross guy for a long time. He was actually working as a key grip on “Touched by an Angel” and in his off time he would work on motocross stuff. The first time I met Gregg was at a event in Las Vegas when I was 11. A few years later I met him again and he asked if I could choose to do any type of what would it be. I told him that I wanted to jump the Grand Canyon with a parachute on my back while doing a back flip on a dirt bike. The day before my eighteenth birthday I got a call out of the blue from Gregg asking if I wanted to still do that. He offered to pay for my sky diving lessons and to bring me out there. We shot that for “Global Addiction” and the following year we started “Nitro Circus”. He gave me a camera and we just started shooting and editing things. Gregg left being a true Hollywood guy and we traveled all over making motocross films. Jeremy Rawle came in two years later as we needed someone who knew about music rights and all that kind of stuff.  Gregg had gotten in to a bit of trouble for using some music he didn’t have the rights so that’s how Jeremy got involved. We had known him as he was a skier and motocross guy. We are kind of a hodgepodge crew but its fun.

AL: Whose idea was it to do a full feature length film?
TP: We had all wanted to do something like this for a long time. MTV came to us and asked initially if we wanted to do 20 episodes of the “Nitro Circus” television show. All of us with the exception of Street Bike Tommy who is still hanging sheet rock have just so much going on we didn’t have the time. A few of the Nitro guys worked on the “Jack Ass 3D” film and they came back and said that the 3D cameras were there and we had the chance to do something that had never been done before. The television stuff lost some of the bigness when it was transferred down so Gregg was like “Let’s do it”. He then went out to try and secure funding. No one wanted to take on the liability or pay the additional 5 million dollars in insurance. We ended up making the film on our own which allowed us to do whatever we wanted to do. If we thought something would work we tried. A lot of things didn’t work while a lot of stuff did. We just had so much fun traveling the world.

AL: How long did the open sequence of the film take to put together?
TP: The two things that cost the most and took the most time were the opening and closing scenes. They ended up changing what was originally supposed to be the closing scene to the opening scene. We learned quite a bit from making this film and we pretty much know what we are doing now. (Laughs) We had originally planned out the entire film however I ended up getting hurt before we shot the big finale. Everything had been geared towards this one stunt and in the bonus features you will get to see all this footage and things will make more sense. We had to change the whole movie around due to my shattered ankle but I think it actually works better. We were able to have all the guys from the “Nitro Circus Live” tour be in the film and that helped fill out the story.

AL: What was the most difficult part of making the film?
TP: To be honest the film was nothing but fun to make. We were able to come up with the funding by a lot of us putting up our own money to get this made. We were all ok with doing that. The distribution part of things I think was the hardest. The only people who seemed really excited about the project were those with kids. There was just no precedence and “Nitro Circus” isn’t like “Jack Ass”. We told them that we are not like “Jack Ass” as we are not hurting ourselves for amusement. We are a group of athletes that are doing some stupid stuff but it is different. We put in 6 million dollars to get the film made and then another 6 million to advertise the film. 3 million of that was just for the 3D cameras. The film essential cost 4 times what it should just because that’s how things work. Are goal was to make a really good film and I think we have done that.

AL: What do you think was the scariest part of shooting?
TP: There were quite a few. Most of them involved Aaron
“Wheels” Fotheringham. That guy is such an inspiration. He came to me at one point as he was pretty bummed that a lot of crashes and stuff didn’t make it in to the final cut of the film. I hate to break it down this way but Jolene crashed a lot and we couldn’t use all of them because she’s a pretty girl and it’s not funny to see a pretty girl crashing all the time. It’s also not funny when a guy in a wheelchair crashes. It makes you sad. During one stunt Wheels was partially knocked out and he started singing “My Little Butter Cup”. It was hilarious but we just couldn’t put it in. Those were some tough calls to make but it is what it is.

AL: What other things do you and the rest of the Nitro crew have in the works?
TP: Well Tommy is still hanging sheet rock. Jim had a real bad crash that has taken him out of active sports. He has a real good job and everything but he probably won’t be able to perform BMX anymore. Jolene has been doing stunts on movie after movie. She was one of the stunt drivers in the latest “Batman” film. She is doing a great job in that industry. Erik Roner has been skiing and picked up where he left off with that and his base jumping. For me NASCAR has been really big as well as Rally-Cross.