Josh Duhamel Narrates “Planet Ocean” On Blu-Ray and DVD on April 9th

JOIN NARRATOR JOSH DUHAMEL ON AN INSPIRATIONAL VISUAL VOYAGE INTO THE ASTONISHING AND REMARKABLE HEART OF OUR EXISTENCE

PLANET OCEAN

AVAILABLE APRIL 9, 2013 ON BLU-RAY™AND DVD

FROM UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT

Universal City, California – Directed by highly acclaimed photographer, filmmaker and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand (Home) and narrated by actor Josh Duhamel (Transformers, Life As We Know It), Planet Ocean is a cinematic adventure that invites viewers of all ages to change the way they look at the ocean and appreciate its greatest natural mystery. Planet Ocean will be available on Blu-ray™ and DVD on April 9, 2013 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Through dazzling aerial and underwater imagery captured in extreme geographical conditions worldwide, Planet Ocean delivers an unprecedented journey into the least known regions of our planet. The stunning documentary aims to captivate as well as provide understanding of humankind’s relationship to the ocean and stress the urgency of making sustainable change. Brought to life with dynamic and relatable narration, this groundbreaking film can be enjoyed by the entire family.

Planet Ocean will be available on Blu-ray™ and DVD.

Blu-ray™ disc unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring perfect hi-def picture and perfect hi-def sound.

DVD offers the flexibility and convenience of playing the movie in more places, both at home and while away.

BONUS FEATURES (BLU-RAY™ and DVD):
· THE MAKING OF PLANET OCEAN
· IN THE SKIES ABOVE RIO: Breathtaking images of Rio de Janeiro’s magnificent shores will inspire you with wonder and delight.
· UNDERWATER: Uncover the natural mysteries of marine life with Planet Ocean’s team of underwater cinematographers.
· SHANGHAI: Extraordinary aerial photography of Shanghai’s busy harbor underscores the significance of ocean commerce.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION – BLU-RAY™:
Street Date: April 9, 2013
Copyright: 2013 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Selection Number: 61126490 / 61126510 (CDN)
Running time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes
Layers: BD-50
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Rating: Not Rated
Languages/Subtitles: English, Italian, Castilian Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Latin American Spanish, Norwegian, Russian, and Swedish
Sound: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

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Filed Under: Film Headlines Tagged With: 9th, april, bluray, duhamel, dvd, josh, ...

Lions Lions’ Jon Kay and Josh Herzer chat about new album “To Carve Our Names”

Post-hardcore band Lions Lions are back with a brand new full length release titled “To Carve Our Names” and Media Mikes caught up with bassist/vocalist Jon Kay and lead vocalist Josh Herzer to talk about the new album while the band was playing in Rochester, NY this past month.

Adam Lawton: Can you give us a little background on the formation of the group?
Jon Kay: Lions Lions formed after bands we were previously in broke up. Josh had gotten a hold of me through AIM when that was still popular and told me that I was going to be in his new band. I knew Josh’s work and what he was about so I said ok right away. I knew for me that this would be a good direction to go in. Josh had already been working with one of the bands previous guitarists writing songs but we couldn’t decide if we were going to have a lead singer or not. We almost started out as a 3 guitar piece band. Things started to fizzle and one of the guitarists left so we started looking for our original lead singer Danny. It seemed like people in the band started dropping left and right at that time. We went through a bunch of lineup changes and toured out to the west coast. We were playing in Reno which is where Josh is from and he had been a fan of our band and knew about us when we were playing out there. He found out we were looking for a singer and just sent us some tracks he sang on with his old band. We asked him to fly out to Boston and try out. He came out and we wrote 2 songs right away. Josh didn’t even have a return ticket when he came out. Our newest guitarist Isaac was the second guy we tried out after we started looking for someone new. He was a huge fan boy in the beginning but he was something we could shape. When he gets on stage he knows what we are all about and he just gets it. He has been right there with us as soon as things got going.

AL: How would you describe the band’s new album “To Carve Our Names”?
Josh Herzer: The new album to me is sort of a culmination of everything the band has done prior. The first album was sort of post-hardcore minus the screaming vocals. The following album was much more breakdown oriented and heavier. My first EP in the band was essentially a pop-punk album. This record was literally whatever we felt like doing at the time. There are dark almost metal type songs on there as well as acoustic songs. This album has all of our influences and everything we have done in the past combined in to it.

AL: What was the writing process like this time around?
JH: Long.
JK: It was very, very long. When we started working on songs everyone was doing separate things on their own. I wrote a few songs with a friend of mine and presented them through email. This was before we all lived together. We wrote quite a bit away from each other as it was kind of tough to hook up with each of us living in a different part of New England. Most of us have the gear to work on songs that way so it was basically an email thing back and forth. When it came time to send stuff to the label they asked us for some things with a little better quality. We ended up going in and working collectively on songs with a friend of ours from the band Our Last Night. He helped us critique the songs. We did a couple different versions of pre-production with one being live and the other two differing in quality.
JH: Pretty much from the time that we finished our EP in late 2010 to the time we recorded this album in October of 2011 we had been writing. There are still probably 5 or 6 tracks that were recorded that didn’t make it on the album. We wrote a lot and had to re-write a lot. The initial batch of songs the label didn’t like so we re-worked those and also wrote a new batch. It was pretty nuts but we are very happy with the end result.

AL: With having so much material how did you choose what was going to be included on the album?
JH: A lot of it had to do with our producers Shep Goodman and Aaron Accetta. They looked at everything we had and used their experience to decide which songs had the strongest qualities. We just laid everything out and said what we thought about each track. We all had input on which songs we liked the best. We also wrote/recorded two new songs while we were in the studio.

AL: Do you think you will ever release the tracks that weren’t included on the album?
JH: It’s possible. One of the tracks is actually out on ITunes as an exclusive. That song is called “Drifting”. We may look to do a 7 inch as we want to do something on vinyl.

AL: What was the idea of ending the album with a softer song as opposed to the more traditional idea of closing with a more upbeat song?
JK: It’s sort of a past experience thing but also our producers suggested it. We figured it would be a safe choice as our record “From What We Believe” included an acoustic track that was placed I think two tracks before the closing song. People made quite a few comments asking why we did things that way. We have never really been strong on how a record should be laid out. We always talk about it but how do you figure out an exact formula?
JH: Ending with a song like that is sort of a typical thing in our genre. We really liked that song and I felt starting the album off very high energy and ending very relaxed was a cool thing.

AL: What do you feel makes Lions Lions stand out from other in the same genre?
JH: I feel as though the stuff we play is sort of throwback and nostalgic to the early 2000’s Victory Records type stuff. That’s the stuff we like a lot. I guess our take is sort of a newer version of what that stuff was. I guess we are sort of old in that sense. Those were the glory days for us that have just withered away.

AL: What are the bands plans for the rest of the year?
JH: We have most of July off and have actually started writing our next full-length album. We are going to relax for a little while until our next tour starts in August. We will be playing with Day Trader, Such Gold and Silverstein.
JK: We want to be out there touring.

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Filed Under: Interviews, Music Interviews Tagged With: album, carve, chat, herzer, jon, josh, ...

Son of Edie Adams, Josh Mills talks about keeping his mother’s memory alive

Josh Mills is son of the late singer/actress Edie Adams. Josh is also the owner of Ediad Productions & It’s Alive! Media & Management. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Josh about his mom and her new Christmas album Featuring Ernie Kovacs.

Mike Gencarelli: What are some of your fondest memories growing up with your mom Edie Adams?
Josh Mills: My mom was a pretty amazing woman. She was a very well known and talented but I remember her as just your average mom. She did the little things that I didn’t appreciate until later. She worked the snack stand at my little league games, she took me to Europe for the first time as a 15 year old after a medical scare she had because she wanted to make sure I saw it the ‘right’ way. She taught me to appreciate things I didn’t truly wouldn’t until I was older. I remember a story she told me about taking me to a Broadway show when I was a toddler. I had always been around the theater – she used to say I could sleep anywhere, even in the bass drum – because she was always doing one musical or another. Anyway, I had never been in the audience where she paid for a ticket for me, however. So we walk in, sit down and some prissy lady behind us says, “Oh no, a little kid. I hope he’s not too loud”. Without a word, I turned around and put my finger to my lips and said, “Ssssh. We don’t talk in the theater.” My mom almost fell over. Both my mom and my dad were took me everywhere and exposed me to a lot of things a lot of kids don’t get to see. Being a father now, I appreciate that a lot more.

MG: With Omnivore Recordings releasing “The Edie Adams Christmas Album: Featuring Ernie Kovacs (1952)” tell us about this album?
JM: I am really excited this is coming out. My mom was a part of Ernie Kovacs (www.erniekovacs.com) show on CBS in the 1950’s “Kovacs Unlimited”. They had met when she was hired on his local Philly show on WPTZ and became an off screen as well as an onscreen item and were married shortly after until Kovacs was killed in a car accident in January 1962. Anyway, my
mom was a classically trained singer and performer at Julliard so when they asked her to sing ‘pop’ songs on the Kovacs show on CBS – she was a little unsure about singing these modern songs. So with her own money, she paid for a transcription service to record the audio (not the video) of these shows so she could hear herself sing and make sure she was singing them correctly. It turns out that literally 60 years later, we connected with Omnivore Recordings folks to release this album. They are great – they listened to, cataloged, selected, mixed and sequenced what would eventually become “The Edie Adams Christmas Record”. Because my mom sang a new song every day on the show, we started with the month of December 1952 and put this Christmas record together. It’s so satisfying that after all this time; this never-before-heard- since it originally aired that this material is finally seeing the light of day on October 9th. The air checks that made this record were the same that we pulled from to get the bonus material for the new ‘lost’ Ernie Kovacs record, “Percy Dovetonsils…..Thpeaks” on Omnivore as well. I’m not a fidelity kind of guy but the sound is pretty great because while no one received the audio on an FM band on their TV’s in 1952, the sound originated on an FM band so the quality is pretty damn great.

MG: What was Christmas like in your house?
JM: You’ll have to buy it for the full liner notes, but here is an excerpt from my liner notes available on the CD.  “As Edie’s only son, I can safely say that I pretty much got everything I wanted for Christmas—even if I didn’t know I wanted it. Edie was big on lists. And catalogs. The Christmas I went away to college in Boston (my first time in serious winter weather) I was outfitted in more L.L. Bean than any native Beantown blue blood. As a kid, I can recall Christmas being about slot cars, superhero action figures and the latest Disney LP. I also had a full complement of dickies, scarves, gloves, ski hats and earmuffs that piled up in my drawers over the years. Had we lived in Fargo North Dakota, this wouldn’t have been at all odd. But we lived in Los Angeles, and I can recall more than a few 80+-degree Christmas mornings. I don’t think this Pennsylvania girl every truly grasped that she didn’t live on the East Coast for the last 50 plus years of her life.”

MG: Knowing your mom as not only a singer but also a television and film actress; what was your favorite work from her?
JM: Tough one! If you had asked me this question in 1978, I would have told you the “Love Boat”. I learned to play backgammon from one of the ship’s extras on the set and I was totally psyched to be on the Lido deck with Isaac and Gopher. Today, I think her two most famous roles were as Fred MacMurray’s scheming secretary in “The Apartment” or Monica Crump, Sid Caesar’s wife in “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”. I know that film was a great time in her life. It wasn’t too long after Ernie died and she always said it was the first time she really laughed since he passed away. I know “Mad World” helped her psyche by just being around so many comics and crazy people on the set. The stuntmen on the film really pushed the envelope on that film. She loved it everything about it.

MG: Tell us about your work with Ediad Productions?
JM: Ediad Productions is a production company my mom started and I now run on my own since she passed away in 2008. I am in charge of making sure that anything we deem fit for release from both the Edie Adams (www.edieadams.com) estate and Ernie Kovacs estate is done with quality, integrity and excitement. Kovacs was an iconic comedian – Television’s Original Genius – but not as many people know who he is or what he did all these years later. It’s my job to make sure more people know who Kovacs was and to give him the credit he is due as both a comedian and an innovator. I’m 44 so I usually tell people under 40 to ask their parents who Edie Adams was. As soon as I turn them on to her career and what she did – their jaws drop. I have photos of my mom w/ President Kennedy and President Nixon. She did a Royal Command Performance for the Queen of England. I have photos of her with Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Carson, Dean Martin, Christopher Walken and Gore Vidal among many others. She had her own TV show from 1962-1964 with amazing guests like Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Stand Getz, Andre Previn, Bob Hope, Buddy Hackett – the list is endless. Before I was born and she married my dad she dated singers, athletes, comedians who are iconic and special. It blows my mind to know that at age 8, my mom took me, my best friend and his brother to meet Groucho Marx at his house in Bel-Air….on Halloween….dressed as the Marx Brothers. I still have the photo of us three and Groucho and it blows my mind to know she could just call him up and he’d say, “Come on over and bring the kids.” Wow!

Photo Credit: Ediad Productions

MG: How did It’s Alive! Media & Management come about?
JM: I started the company in 2002. We are celebrating 10 years in business this year. I had about 3 jobs in the music industry from 1994 – 2001 and I just got tired of getting laid off so I started my own company out of necessity but also because even when things got bad, I knew I couldn’t lay myself off. We (erm, I) started out doing music publicity “rock bands” but since then I’ve worked DVDs, books, films and I also got into management.

MG: Tell us about some of the clients you represent?
JM: Currently I am working & managing the Cambodian & American band Dengue Fever (www.denguefevermusic.com) as well as doing PR for a few bands like 45 Grave (www.dinahcancer.net), Rick Berlin (www.rickberlin.com) and Double Naught Spy Car (www.doublenaughtspycar.com) who cover a lot of musical territory. But I’ve also worked with many old school punk bands (Dead Kennedys, Weirdos, Adolescents, Fishbone), DVDs & films (“Electric Daisy Carnival”, “The Ernie Kovacs Collection”, “Fix – the Ministry Movie”), books (“”Go Ask Ogre”, John Sinclair’s “Guitar Army”) and more. I still love music and the artists I work with….and even some I no longer work with.

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Filed Under: Interviews, Music Interviews Tagged With: adams, alive, edie, josh, keeping, memory, ...

As I Lay Dying’s Josh Gilbert talks about new album “Awakened”

Josh Gilbert is the bassist for the metal-core band As I Lay Dying. The band is set to release its 6th full length studio album titled “Awakened” on September 25th and Media Mikes had the chance to talk with Josh recently about the upcoming release.

Adam Lawton: What can we expect from the band’s new album “Awakened”?
Josh Gilbert: We worked with producer Bill Stevenson this time around and approached things much differently. We added more of a punk rock attitude to Bill’s suggestions and routines. I think that had a part in how the record was shaped and sounds. The album still sounds like us but we spent a lot more time on crafting the flow of the songs and not just the actual riffs.

AL: Did you have any reservations about going into the studio with a new producer?
JG: I think we were all pretty excited about it. We probably would have used Adam D. but he was busy finishing up things for Killswitch Engage. We had been at a standstill and the idea to work with Bill came up. It was a bit out of the ordinary but I think that is what peaked our interest. Once we talked with Bill everything started to click. He had these very detailed notes on the songs and we all got really excited.

AL: Was there a lot of pre-production for this album?
JG: We went in with 14 or 16 songs that we had fully demoed with vocals and guitars. We usually will write a riff and then show it to one another and go from there. We basically will record the album twice because we want to hear how everything will sound together. We are very thorough and we get a bit obsessive about the writing process.

AL: Can you tell us about the video you shot recently?
JG:  We just finished shooting a video for the song “The Greater Foundation”. We have started to get edits back on it and its looking really cool. We hope to release it very soon.

AL: How does this album compare to the bands previous work?
JG: Are previous albums all have the classic As I Lay Dying sound to them. They are very melodic with a Swedish metal influence. Then there is version 2 of our sound which is more brutal and less melodic. When we do a record we usually have a few songs in each of those styles. On this record our goal was to craft these songs to be as seamless as possible. We didn’t want there to be any gaps as we wanted to cover the full spectrum of our sound in each song.

AL: What are the bands plans after the Mayhem Festival wraps up?
JG: We get to go home for about a month just to re-group. We have been in the studio and on the road for a few months now. While we are home we will be finishing everything up that we need to for the new album to be released. In October we will be heading over to Europe with Trivium and Caliban. After that we will be hitting the states for a club tour.

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Filed Under: Interviews, Music Interviews Tagged With: album, awakened, dyings, gilbert, josh, lay, ...

Josh Gates chats about Season 5 of Syfy’s “Destination Truth”

Josh Gates is the host of SyFy’s hit show “Destination Truth”. The show is set to premiere Tuesday, July 10, at 8:00 pm with two back-to-back episodes to commence its fifth season. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Josh about “Destination Truth” and what we can expect from season 5.

Mike Gencarelli: Can you tell, for those of us who don’t know, how you first got involved in the show?
Josh Gates: Sure. I’m like a travel adventure guy I think by birth. I just always loved the idea of travel. I think there’s something in my blood that I’m not a real sit still kind of guy. My mom is from England, my father spent a lot of his career working overseas. And so from a young age I was kind of exposed to travel. And it took me, after college, a little while to figure out how to do that professionally. I was living in Los Angeles, and I would save some money up and I would take a trip, and I would save some money up and I would take a trip. And very coincidentally, as you know, a lot of these things are when it comes to the television world, I knew this producer who was pitching the show to Syfy about a kind of exploration into the unknown kind of format, this Destination Truth show, and they needed a host. I was just returning from Africa and I had just climbed Kilimanjaro. And they met a bunch of people and I walked in and looked really terrible and scruffy and dirty from this trip. And I think that there was this kind of authenticity where they say, “Hey, this is a guy who really loves to travel.” And beyond that, I think they really wanted someone who wasn’t going to just rubber stamp these stories, someone who wasn’t just going to say, “Ghosts are real, Bigfoot’s real.” And so I think the other thing that was a nice marriage between Syfy and I is that I could kind of be a proxy for the viewer and kind of act as a skeptic and approach these stories, you know, with a degree of skepticism. So it was just a good fit. And the rest has been history. And it’s been four or five years of doing a lot of travel and looking into a lot of these really, really amazing stories.

MG: Can you talk about your favorite place you’ve been this season?
JG: This season is great. We went to a bunch of locations we haven’t been to before. So it’s our very first time touching down in places like Sweden, our very first time going tothe Islands of Fiji. So a lot of new locations for me. And I always like that, I’m kind of a shameless competitor, so I always want to go to a new place and check off a new box for a place I’ve never been to before. But for me I think in terms of real highlight locations for me, we went to Guatemala for the first time this year, and one of the things that we try to do on the show is we always want to push ourselves to continue to explore these really iconic historic sites. We’ve been to King Tut’s tomb, we’ve been to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and we had the opportunity to investigate the Mayan ruins of Tikal. It’s the year of the Maya, it’s a big story this year with the Mayan calendar turning over. And so to be able to go down, deep into the jungles of Guatemala and kind of have free run of the ruins of Tikal, this is one of the biggest most significant Mayan cities. It’s one of the largest ruins in the Americas. It’s – you know, there are thousands and thousands of structures there, and these soaring pyramids that, you know, come up through the jungle canopy. It’s just this incredible place. It was a sort of terrifying location and also just this breathtaking beautiful place. And so I’m really excited to showcase our trip to the ruins of Tikal for our viewers. I think it’s really one of our highlight destinations. I also loved our trip to Vietnam. I’m a huge fan of Southeast Asia. I just love that part of the world. And one of the things I really love is when we’re able to spend a whole hour in one place on the show. So for our season premiere, we spend the whole hour doing this really, you know, back country trek into Vietnam. And it’s a great way to showcase a little bit of the cities of Vietnam, and a lot of the places in country that you don’t see, this really deep wilderness. And so I’m really excited about that as well.

MG: This season tell us about your first follow-up investigation and how you got cameraman Evan to return?
JG: Yes, so this season we’re doing our first ever follow-up investigation. We get all sorts of emails and letters and requests from fans to return to a few different locations that we’ve visited on the show before.
People always want us to go back to the Island of the Dolls in Mexico or to Chernobyl — which I’m not going to go back to — or to this haunted forest in Romania. I think the reason that people really were so interested in that story the first time is that my cameraman Evan had this really terrifying experience there. This is a guy who, he’s a real road warrior. He’s worked on all sorts of different types of shows, he’s not a paranormal guy, he doesn’t believe in ghosts, he’s a skeptic. And we went into this forest that’sreputed to be home to this, you know, dark, paranormal energy. And he was basically blown off his feet by something a couple of years ago on the show. And so we got all these requests to go back and to revisit this location. So we wanted to go back but we knew that we really couldn’t go back if we didn’t have Evan with us. And you know, the thing about Evan is he’s kind of a glutton for punishment. And you know, working on Destination Truth it’s like a hard tour of duty, but all of everyone who works on the show wants to come back and do it again. Evan has a family and he has other projects he’s been working on. And so for the past couple of years he hasn’t been on the show. And he always is like, “Man I’ve got to get back out there, I want to come back out and work with you guys again.” And so I called him and I said, “Evan, I have this great opportunity, we’ll fly you out to do one episode of the show. We miss you, we want to see you.” And he’s like, “Oh great, that sounds terrific.” And then I told him where it was and he wasn’t quite as excited. But he agreed to do it, he came back. He was a great sport. And I of course made him go back to the very same place that he was the last time. And you know, you saw the episode, it’s a pretty thrilling night. Another set of really mysterious things happened to him.

MG: Are five seasons, are you still surprised by the different things you find out?
JG: I am. I’m constantly surprised on the show, you know? I’m surprised by a lot of different things. I think that’s really one of the things that makes the show work. I think if the show were only about, “Are you going to catch a monster at the end of the hour,” it wouldn’t work. I think that there are so many surprises that we have every time we go out there. I’m surprised by the people that we meet, I’m surprised that we’ve met so many reasonable, intelligent people who really have been shaken up by experiences and encounters with the unknown. Whether you’re a skeptic or not you meet these people who really have had some sort of legitimate experience. So I’m always amazed by that. And then my curiosity is always peaked because I want to understand what it is that they have experienced. Beyond that, I’m just also continuously amazed by just the sort of general hospitality of people and by the really interesting different cultures that we get to embed ourselves into. So I think that one of the great things about the show is it’s always full of surprises, you know? And sometimes it’s scary, sometimes it’s funny, but it’s a real adventure and you never quite know where it’s going to take you. And that’swhat keeps it interesting.

MG: Can you walk us through the process of how you decide on the stories? Like who pitches it, and do you have a bunch of people doing research, that type of thing?
JG: We take a map of the world and we get a bucket of darts and then we throw – no that’s not how we do it. We, first and foremost we want to go to places that people are experiencing something, currently experiencing something, that they can’t explain. So we don’t want to go somewhere where there’s a legend of a creature that nobody’s seen for 300 years. So we start by looking through newspapers, looking on the Internet, and working with our contacts that we’ve built up around the world to identify stories in the news that are appropriate for the show. So that’s really the first step. And that yields us a lot of our material. It’s just finding places where these stories are reported. The cool thing about these kind of stories is even if they’re really out there, they always get reported. I mean you even open up like your local newspaper here, and you may see on the bottom of page, you know, D7 or whatever that a lake monster was seen by a group of people. These are the stories that always catch our attention. And we always sort of wonder, “Wow, I wonder what’s really going on there?” So those are the stories that around the world. We also I think keep a mind to, as I was talking about earlier, trying to find some locations that are really going to challenge us and push us. So we want to go to ruins and historic sites and heritage sites, places where we want to take the viewer with us. I feel like part of the show is about investigating the unknown for me, and part of the show is about being a virtual travel agency. And I really want to take our viewers to places that are going to really blow their minds. And so bringing them to places like Tikal and bring them to these heritage sites is a really important thing to us. So this season we’re going to be traveling to, “Kazakhstan and Fiji, and Romania, Belize, the Philippines, really different types of destinations.” And that’s the other thing we try to do is put a good collection of places together that gives the viewers different types of experiences. So one week we might be high up in the Himalayas, the next week we might be on a tropical island somewhere. So we kind of jam all that into the hopper and see if we can make sense of it and create a route for ourselves that makes sense, and to find a group of stories that are different and interesting and adventurous.

MG: There’s quite a lot of reality series, probably a lot more now than when Destination Truth first launched, and a lot of competition out there. How do you distinguish yourself from the others out there?
JG: Well look you’re right, there are a lot of different reality shows out there about some of the things that we do, but also there’s just a lot of programming out there in general about everything. So I think you can’t get too caught up in trying to think your way through differentiating yourself from everybody because everybody is naturally different. There’s just so much programming out there that I think you’d drive yourself crazy. One of the things I likeabout Destination Truth a whole lot, is that I don’t see that exact format anywhere else. And it’s a format that has to do with having fun, there’s a lot of comedy in Destination Truth, there’s a lot of hijinks and misadventure. And it’s, as I said earlier, “It’s a very inviting series. We really want the viewer to feel like they’re out there with us.” There’s a lot of paranormal and now this more sort of crypto programming out there that is very earnest and very serious and very kind of moody. I think what we do is find this great combination on Destination Truth of doing a real serious investigation, but showing all the fun that we have getting to these destinations and getting ourselves in these really out of the way places. And I don’t see that anywhere else. And I think that that’s what makes the show unique. I think that it’s the fact that our crew is really front and center, they’re part of the team. My camera operators, audio technicians, medic; they’re part of the crew. And what you’re seeing is a show where we flip that camera around every minute and show you, not just what’s in front of the camera, not just a host driven vehicle, but a team of people who are out there having a real roughshod adventure. And that’s unique. So for my money, that’s what makes Destination Truth stand on its own.

MG: What would you say if someone has never watched the show, what would they need to know in order to pick up and start watching this season?
JG: I think the great thing about “Destination Truth” is that you can kind of turn it on and you’re at the start of a new adventure every week, You don’t need to have been a fan of the show for years to understand it. Every week we are going to pick up on the trail of some mystery around the world and we’re going to invite the viewer to come with us to get on a plane, to fly around the world and to investigate that mystery. The great thing about the show is that we make that a real open invitation. We want the viewer to feel like they’re right there with us. So the way that we film Destination Truth is we just kind of include it all. If there’s flat tires or bad food or rough lodging or kind of zany people that we meet, we throw them up all on screen so that the viewer doesn’t feel like they’re watching a kind of sanitized, produced effort. We want them to feel like they’re out there with us and show them what it’s really like to have this adventure. So it’s a really inclusive show that way and it’s a lot of fun. I think that’s the other thing about the show that’s unique is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The adventure that we go on is often peppered with these really kind of funny experiences and misadventures along the way. And so we always think it’s just a great ride.

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Filed Under: Interviews, TV Interviews Tagged With: 5, chats, destination, gates, josh, season, ...

Linda Gray & Josh Henderson gives a sneak into TNT’s “Dallas”

This summer TNT is reinventing the classic TV series “Dallas” and bringing back to TV. It is bringing a mix of original and new characters. Linda Gray is returning to her role, along with new co-star Josh Henderson. “Dallas” premiers Wednesday, June 13th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on TNT. Media Mikes had a chance to ask them a few questions about what we can expect from the new 2012 “Dallas”.

Mike Smith: How do you feel that the new series is different from the old one? And in what ways is it the same?
Linda Gray: It took a diamond and polished it. What can I say? It’s magic. It was magic in 1978 and it’s got a little 2012 fairy dust sprinkled on it. It’s just wonderful.

MS: Josh, were you familiar with the original show?
Josh Henderson: I was, yes. I’m originally from Dallas, Texas. I was born there, so with my family it was a very kind of popular thing. My me maw – my grandmother, “Dallas” was her favorite show and she kind of always said, being from Dallas, Texas you go to church and you watch “Dallas”. That’s kind of what you do out there. So it was definitely something that I knew of. I was a little too young to remember actual details of the show, but I definitely knew of how big of a deal it was as a child.

MS: Linda, what are some of the story lines that you can tease this season?
LG: Well, the original show took place when our children, Christopher and John Ross were very young. Now it is the perfect timing. I’m always about timing. I think “Dallas” originally started at perfect timing in history, and how its now perfect timing again when both Christopher and John Ross are grown-ups. They each have their own values and the focus is on where they want to go with their lives, and with whom. So it’s focuses on a rivalry, and this competition. And there’s all these wonderful things that one would expect from the show. There’s a love triangle, so it takes all of the things that were with the original show and it just kind of amps it up. There’s a little cayenne pepper thrown in here. So we’re just taking what it was and amping it up a little bit. A lot.

MS: Linda, what was it like coming back with this character for you personally?
LG: It gets better and better and better every year. You know, we started out, we all had families and on the show there were deaths and divorces, and births, and all kinds of wonderful things that happen in normal families, but this was our Dallas family. And now we’re grandparents, all of us, and we were about five years old, the three of us. So we hang out, we laugh and we love. I don’t know exactly what happens here to make this show absolutely magical, and I think it is. I use the word seamless, because it seemed as if we had shot this about a month ago. And nothing was different. Dallas, the city had changed, and grown and become more art conscious. They have a beautiful art section. And everything about it is enhanced. So, we’re just quite pleased about the way it all came about.

MS: Josh, your character seems to have a lot of his daddy in him, as it were. On kind of a cross, back-stabbing, and plans on top of plans, and comes with a lot of layers, can you reflect?
JH: Well, John Ross is really trying. I think he’s at a pivotal moment in his life where he’s trying to really make his presence known as a businessman. He only knows one way to do business, and that’s kind of how he’s seen his father do business. And it might not be in everyone’s mind the best way, but in his mind it’s the only way, and he knows that it gets stuff done. So he kind of learned from, in his mind, the best and at the end of the day he doesn’t have a great relationship at this point with either of his parents. So he kind of feels like he’s on his own, and I know that he at some point would love to be able to confide with his mother, but he just doesn’t really – he’s not comfortable with that as of right now where he’s at. He’s really kind of trying to do things on his own and put his foot down and kind of put his footprint in, I guess, in this whole Ewing legacy. And so it’s – he definitely is somewhat like his father and, you know, I know his mother is now at the point where she’s kind of trying to give him some advice and hoping that he’ll listen, I guess.

MS: Can you tell us how has Southfork changed over the years?
LG: Well, I think it’s become a big business in how – I mean, every tourist who’s ever come to Texas wants to go to Southfork. I think it’s their number two tourist attraction. So it’s very interesting to drive down that driveway at Southfork, because it brought back so many memories — so many years spent there. And it’s still small. People are always surprised at how small it is. But then on film, they made it look so big and expansive. And it’s just, you play the theme song and that’s a character. You look at Southfork — that’s another character. So those were all the characters that embraced the whole series. So they give you what you had before and it’s just a bit enhanced.

MS: Josh, did you get any tips from Larry on how to play more of the dastardly side of John Ross?
JH: You know, the first thing he ever said to me when we were on set was, “Enjoy the ride.” He literally just said, “Have fun. Enjoy the ride.” I mean, I think with this show, “Dallas” does bring a whole new ride to your life and I think what made the original so special was that they, you know, Larry, Linda, Patrick — the original cast — they truly had fun and they really like each other. I think that when that happens, you can trust your coworker or the actor that you’re with in the scene more, meaning that you can go deeper with the characters to make a better TV show. So he really just said, “Enjoy the ride,” and they have embraced the new generation unbelievably. Like, they just made us feel so comfortable from day one. I guess they had a lot of trust and faith in us as kind of the new generation. And us being so comfortable really, I think, helped the entire dynamic of the show and the character relationships and everything else.

MS: This show really has the potential of hitting both audiences of the original and brand new people who have never seen it before. What would you say that this show has to offer for both sets of people?
LG: I think that it will bring our global audience to the new show. There’ll be kind of a lock that one. And then what will bring them to the new part is that they’ll see the extended family. They’ll see our children grown up, they’ll see their focus in life, they’ll see which business they have decided to go into, they’ll see a love triangle. So it’s the expansion of the original show. It still has the same family, but the family’s grown and it’s expanded. And there’s still the same rivalry and greed and all this craziness that went on in the first series. It will continue, so I think that you’re in for a great ride.
JH: Yes. I think like Linda said, it’s everything about the original that made the original so great and so kind of, you know, magnetizing that people had to run back to the TV every week. They really kind of did well of transcending that into the new generation of Dallas. And I think for me and the cast, our main goal is to satisfy the original fans of the show, give them what they want, give them what they’ve been missing for 21 years. The show, I believe, speaks for itself. So the new audience, hopefully some of the younger generation can bring in some the new kind of younger people. I think as long as they give us a shot, they’ll truly, really enjoy the show. What’s great about this one is that you don’t even have to have ever seen the original to really be able to hop on board with these storylines. That’s how good the show is.

MS: What do you think it is about Dallas that really resonates with fans?
LG: That’s a question that’s really hard to answer. I don’t really know. I think that when it first began, there were a lot of people that didn’t know quite what it was — was it a nighttime soap opera? — what was it? And I think that it was all about timing. I’ve always go back to that. In television historically, there’s always been shows that were perfectly timed. “I Love Lucy” was at a perfect time, there were a lot of doctor shows, now there’s a lot of reality shows. And I think that in 1978 it was a perfect time for something bigger than life. People wanted to see something big, like oil like the movie “Giant”. They wanted to see something big. They wanted to see people with money, they wanted oil and big shoulder pads and cars and all that stuff. And they wanted to see family dynamics. So I think that the original fans were connected to what happens when you have all that money and you have all these problems. It’s dysfunction at its’ finest, so I think people were initially drawn to all of that. And they saw it in maybe themselves or a boss or somebody in business. They saw the business dealings of J.R. Ewing, which attracted a lot of the men to the show, so they thought, “Wow, look at this guy. He’s a bad guy and we like him,” right? So that was sort of confusing at first to people. It’s like, “Wow, we really like that guy. He’s really doing all these ridiculous things.” And then they loved the way that he treated his wife, because then they could feel sorry for Sue Ellen and then be beating up on him. It was quite, then the intrigue started and then it’s the whole water cooler thing was, you know, it was all – it was all about the water cooler and people were talking about it the next day. There was a ground swell that happened and it just built and built and built so that it was then it just a magnet so it attracted everybody. This is just a continuation of all the people that had all of those things fulfilled. Again, to me it’s all about timing. It’s another perfect time.

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Filed Under: Interviews, TV Interviews Tagged With: dallas, gray, henderson, josh, linda, talks, ...

A Sound of Thunder’s Josh Schwartz talks about new album

Josh Schwartz is the guitarist for the Washington D.C. based rock/metal band A Sound of Thunder. Media Mikes recently had a chance to talk with Josh about the band’s new album titled “Out of the Darkness”.

Adam Lawton: How would you describe the new album?
Josh Schwartz: I consider “Out of the Darkness” a “classic heavy metal” album, but not in the way the term is being thrown around in the metal scene these days, which usually refers to NWOBHM style bands.  When I think “classic metal”, I think of the days when metal was not so separate from mainstream rock ‘n’ roll, when bands like Black Sabbath and Yes could tour together, and you could put something heavy and evil on the same album with a ballad or a classical guitar piece, and not be considered a sellout. Nobody questions that “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath or “Killers” by Iron Maiden are classic metal albums, even though “Planet Caravan” and “Prodigal Son” aren’t really metal songs at all.  It seems like it’s harder to get away with doing melodic music in metal these days, unless you’re a prog-metal band or have operatic vocals.  I don’t consider us a prog-metal band; I consider us a classic heavy metal band with some minimal elements of prog-rock (not prog-metal) thrown in. We definitely aren’t an operatic band though Nina is belting it out like Dio or Bruce Dickinson.

AL: What is the band’s writing process like?
JS: Generally I will write all of the music, either during rehearsal jams or on my own. We arrange songs as a group and either Nina or Chris will write the lyrics.  Everyone in the band does write music to some degree. Jesse wrote the bridge to “The Day I Die”. “The Night Witch” started with a vocal melody written by Nina and Chris wrote the vocal melody for “This Too Shall Pass”. Nina will often throw a simple idea at me that I can use as a starting point for the music.  For “Calat Alhambra”, she asked me to write something in a Spanish/Flamenco style. For “Kill That Bitch” she asked me to write something in the style of Accept (not sure I succeeded there or not!).

AL: Did you take any different approaches to recording this time around?
JS: Yes! Our debut EP “A Sound of Thunder” and first full length album “Metal Renaissance” were both recorded on analog tape, mostly without a click track, and with minimal overdubs and vocal harmonies.  They were both self-produced.  For “Out of the Darkness” we worked with a producer for the first time. Kevin “131” Gutierrez (Shinedown) produced the album and recorded everything in ProTools.  While we did sacrifice the vintage analog sound a bit, this allowed us to get a much more powerful, crisp sounding record. It also made it much easier to add more vocal harmonies, keyboards, effects, etc.  Recording digitally is just much faster and cheaper which is obviously a consideration.  Some day we may go back and do an all vintage analog sounding album similar to the “Ghost” record.

AL: Is there a track off the albums that you are most looking forward to playing live?
JS: We are excited to add “Discovery” to our set. “Discovery” is a bit of an epic, at almost nine minutes. The song features keys, a string quartet, and lots of guitar and vocal harmonies.  It’s been a challenge arranging it so that we can pull it off live as a power trio, but I think we’ve done it.  Our drummer Chris switches to acoustic guitar for part of the song, which has been a great live moment for the crowd thus far.  We’ve also added some extended guitar, vocal and piano improv with our bassist Jesse switching to piano for a bit.  We play a lot of our heavier stuff live but “Discovery” will be more of a nod to classic rock with its extended length and improv sections.

AL: What are your tour plans for this year?
JS: We’ll be going out on our most extensive tour yet in May.  It’ll be 12 dates in a row, ranging from Washington, DC to St. Paul, MN,  Aside from that we always like to keep busy playing at least 2-3 shows each month closer to home. We may look into another small tour of the south or the north-east later in the year. We’ll be recording a new album over the summer so that probably won’t happen before the fall.

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Filed Under: Interviews, Music Interviews Tagged With: interview, josh, schwartz

Interview with Josh Altman

Josh Altman recently appeared on season four of the hit Bravo series “Million Dollar Listing”.  Josh is not just a  Bravo TV Star but also one of LA’s Top Real Estate Agents. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Josh about the show and also his business.

Mike Gencarelli: How did you get involved in the real estate business?
Josh Altman: I bought my first place when I was 22 years old with my business partner who is my brother. We ended up fixing it up within 3 months and put it back on the market as a joke. This was around 2002 in the time where you could buy anything, fix it up and sell it for more money. About 5 years ago I got more into the agent side of things and that is where we are now. Because of our early success and some of our celebrity clientele I had gotten called by bravo to be on “Million Dollar Listing”.

MG: How was it working on season four of the show, “Million Dollar Listing” on Bravo?
JA: It was great! I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. You never get to see what actually is being shot until its on television because it’s a reality show. I was very happy and doing the show was great for our business. The show in a way is a 9 hour infomercial for my business. Its nice people get to see the day to day work that goes into selling these massive homes.

MG: Was it difficult coming on to the show which was entering its fourth season?
JA: I hadn’t ever watched the show when I was first approached. I took a look at it and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it or not. I wasn’t sure how they were going to portray me on the show. After watching a few episodes I figured I could bring something fresh and different to it. From there I jumped in and took no prisoners.

MG: Tell us about your nickname “The Shark”?
JA: (Laughs) People call me that around town because I am the guy you want on your side when it’s time to sell or be represented. I am a ruthless negotiator. If I smell blood I am going to jump all over it. (Laughs)

MG: What is the most fun/challenging part of working on the reality show?
JA: I get to walk around and be recognized from the show. I was just in Italy and people recognized me there. That never gets old for me as I am a realtor and people know who I am. The difficult part was balancing the business and the show. With my brother as a partner that helped because some of that business was able to fall towards him. That balance was truly the hardest part and at the end of the day my business is more important than the show. When you see me with a phone in my hand on the show it’s because I am always working.

MG: Any word if you will be returning for season five?
JA: There will be a season 5 however they have not announced the cast yet.

MG: What is the largest listing that you have sold?
JA: We just sold a listing last week that was the most expensive listing ever for a condo in Santa Monica. The condo sold for 10.5 million dollars. It was pretty spectacular. We also sold a 16.5 million dollar home that was the 6th highest sold in L.A. county. Last year alone we sold over 60 million dollars in properties.

MG: When you are not selling houses, what keeps you busy?
JA: I would be doing this even if I wasn’t getting paid. This is something that’s fun for me. I do love spending time with my dogs and hanging out with friends though.

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Filed Under: Interviews, TV Interviews Tagged With: altman, interview, josh

Interview with Josh Hammond

Josh Hammond is an actor with a resume of around 35 films. Josh is probably best known for his role as Jake Spencer in the horror film “Jeepers Creepers II”. Josh has a new film coming out titled “Agua Caliente” which also features Jason Mewes and WWE Veteran Al Snow. Media Mikes had a chance to speak with Josh about the film and some of his upcoming projects.

Adam Lawton: What can you tell us about the film “Agua Caliente”?
Josh Hammond: “Agua Caliente” is a comedy about 4 misfit film makers who receive $100,000 to make a film. However instead of using it for the film they blow all their money on one night of debauchery and are left with the task of shooting a film in 48hrs. We decide to shoot a horror film at a Halloween birthday party. We end up delivering the film but that’s all I am going to say. (Laughs)

AL: Can you tell us about your character in the film?
JH: I play a guy by the name of Lake Palmer. He is an out of work C-list actor working in construction. One of my friends in the film gets this money from my Uncle played by Al Snow to make a film. The film will hopefully make it so I don’t have to work in construction my whole life. I am pretty much a deadbeat alcoholic. (Laughs) he is sort of the zero to hero type guy.

AL: How did you get involved with the project?
JH: I had done a film a few years ago with Bill McAdams Jr. and Jessica Sonneborn. We had stayed in contact over the years and one holiday weekend we all went out to Palm Springs. The house we went to is actually the house we used in about 90% of the film. Bill brought up the idea of making a movie and we just started bouncing ideas back and forth while we were sitting in the pool. Over the next couple months we kept going out there and writing more and more around the location. Next thing I know we had a finished script and we started looking for money. We called in favors from friends and had some crew member friends come in to help us out.

AL: Had you worked with your wife (Kristina Page) on screen prior to this film? And how was the experience?
JH: I had actually never worked with her before this. We had been attached to a film together but we shot our scenes on different days. When you are producing, starring and writing it can be a little stressful. When you finally do go home I pretty much didn’t want to look at her even though I love her. (Laughs) It is hard to work together on that many levels and then go home and have to cook and clean.

AL: How was it working with Jason Mewes?
JH: Jason was very fun to work with. I have actually worked with him twice before. We worked together on “The Tripper” and “Noah’s Ark”. It was fun to be his boss and be able to tell him what to do. (Laughs) Jason is very creative and a lot of fun. Jason’s mind is so far out there that you have to be going his speed in order to keep up. It was exciting to have him attached to the project. It was a pleasure working with him.

AL: What are the release plans for the film?
JH: We have just submitted it to the Palm Springs Film Festival. I think the decisions are going to be made on that in the coming weeks. We are really hoping to get in there because we shot the film in the Palm Springs area and my wife grew up around there as well. There is also one or two other festivals we are looking to get in to. At the same time we are shopping for distributors. There are a lot of options out there to get the film out.

AL: What other upcoming projects do you have in the works?
JH: I have one film in the can titled “The Penny Dreadful Picture Show”. That film was done by Imaginarium and Dreadful Pictures. We shot that in Connecticut with Lee Scott directing. The film is 3 short films combined to make the picture show. I play the lead in the middle film titled “Slaughter House”. The story is based around a Charles Manson type family. I am slated to do a film in January titled “American Girls” where I play a serial rapist. In March I am supposed to start on a film called “Gallows Road” with Kevin Sorbo. I am also in the process of writing a Christmas film with Bill and my wife. I have a lot of things on my plate and am very happy.

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Filed Under: Film Interviews, Interviews Tagged With: hammond, interview, josh

Interview with We Came As Romans’ Josh Moore

Josh Moore is the lead guitarist for the Metal-Core band We Came As Romans. Media Mikes had a chance recently to speak with Josh about the bands current release titled “Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be” as well as their upcoming tour with Hollywood Undead and Asking Alexandria.

Adam Lawton: What can you tell us about the band’s latest release?
Josh Moore: The album is called “Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be” and it was released in Mid-September. This is our second release through Equal Vision Records. The album is a little different than our first “To Plant A Seed”. The new album features some different guitar tunings which make the songs sound a little heavier. The vocals on this album are more honest and real to how life really is. When we recorded the first album we were all still very young. During the two years in between the albums we have all grown up and the lyrics have grown with us.

AL: How do you think the approach to this album differed from the previous?
JM: We recorded this album in two different sessions. I think we took about two2 weeks longer on this album than we did on “To Plant A Seed”. We did all the drums and pre-production during the first session, which was about two weeks long. From there we went on tour with A Day To Remember and then on to Europe where we headlined the Scream It Like You Mean It Tour. Straight from that we went back into the studio. The two months between studio sessions really gave everyone a lot of time to really listen to the songs and decided if they were going in the right direction. I even ended up writing a song while on tour in Europe that made it on to the album.  I was pretty stoked about that. Everything was done differently with the new CD.

AL: Do you have a favorite track off the new album?
JM: Probably the last song on the album which is the title track “Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be”. I think that is the best song we have ever put out as a band. I really like the flow of the song.

AL: What has been you experience being out on the road so far?
JM: It’s rough! There are a lot of ups and downs. I would say it’s probably not for everyone. We have been touring since early September and we will have had only one day off when everything wraps up in three months. It takes a strain on personal relationships and we don’t get to see our families that often. It’s a sacrifice we all had to make in order to play music and be an influence in people’s lives.

AL: Any funny stories from touring with A Day To Remember?
JM: One thing they had as part of their production for the tour was during the encore all these balloons would drop. For some reason when we were playing our last song one night the balloons came untied and they all started falling on us. They weren’t mad at us but they did leave a note on our door saying we owed them for all the balloons. (Laughs) On the last day of the tour some of our guys filled up a ton of balloons and filled their dressing room.

AL: Do you have a favorite track to play live each night?
JM: I really like playing “To Plant A Seed”. That is like a fan favorite. That song was also our biggest single of that album. Everyone sings and goes crazy during that song.

AL: What are the upcoming plans for the band?
JM: After this tour we fly to Australia where we are doing a week long run with The Devil Wears Prada. After that we fly to California and head out on tour with Hollywood Undead and Asking Alexandria as the co-headliners. That tour is going to be really good. Both those bands are doing really well, so it’s going to be awesome supporting them. When that tour ends we are going to do a short two week tour with Falling in Reverse and Sleeping with Sirens. We then have a short break for the holidays and will be back out on the road in mid January of 2012.

Be sure to check out our review of We Came As Romans newest release “Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be” and also check out our review of the bands show from Rochester, NY.

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Filed Under: Music Interviews Tagged With: interview, josh, moore, romans

Interview with Josh Shelov

Josh Shelov is the director of the recently released film, “The Best and the Brightest”.  The film is currently in theaters now and will be on DVD later in August.  MovieMikes had a chance to chat with Josh about working on his second feature and also what is planned next.

Mike Smith: “The Best and The Brightest” is your second feature film, How did your experiences as a filmmaker differ from the your first film?
Josh Shelov: I was only the writer on “Green Street Hooligans” so as the director of “The Best and The Brightest” there was a world of difference. It was obviously very exciting to see “Green Street Hooligans” get made but to actually direct and take the film all the way home is incomparable. It was the greatest creative experience I’ve ever had.

MS: As the director do you think you had more creative input as to what showed up on screen? Maybe there was something you wanted to fight for on “Green Street Hooligans” that was left out because of the director’s decision?
JS: Significantly, yes. When you’re directing you can really ruin the whole thing! (laughs)

MS: You also co-wrote the film with Michael Jaeger. How did this story come about?
JS: We were living it. Both Michael and I have young kids and we were dealing with how to get them into private school. It’s a huge and competitive pain in the ass! We were really stressing it. The pressure was on. And there are lots of, shall we say, anxieties of just how far reaching the consequences would be if we didn’t get out kids into a good school. You wouldn’t be able to stay in the same neighborhood…your child will never amount to anything…they’ll become meth dealers. So we were sitting there sweating. And you hear about the “favors” and political weaseling that people go through and we thought it was a really, really good and fertile ground for a farce…making fun of the big city folks.

MS: You assembled a great cast, including Neil Patrick Harris, Amy Sedaris & Christopher McDonald. How did that come about? Were they easy to attract to the project?
JS: I wouldn’t say easy. The key is to get a little bit of money behind you and for that I have to credit our (2) first producers, Rob and Patty Weiser, who put up our start up cash. When we had that initial start up cash, it enabled us to go into Hollywood and make what is known as “pay or play” offers. They certainly weren’t offers of a lot of money by any stretch of the imagination. And the key was that we got Amy Sedaris. Amy loved the script and I had a meeting with her and she agreed to do it. And then the other actors started to come like wild fire. Neil really wanted to work with Amy. We got Chris McDonald after that. Kate Mulgrew and on and on. Amy was really the tipping point.

MS: We actually just featured an interview with Christopher McDonald and he had great things to say about the project.
JS: Michael and I wrote the part FOR Chris. He’s amazing in the film. There is a certain voice to the film and it’s uniquely Chris. We’re just so thrilled that, after writing a part for him, he would agree to do it. It was one of the highlights of the whole project.

MS: What would you say was the most difficult park of working on the film?
Was it wearing the two hats of both director and writer?
JS: The shooting itself was a really joyful experience. I would say that raising the money and getting the film distributed…that was the most difficult. The actual filming itself was like eating dessert. It was wonderful. We had an exceptionally good crew. We had an extraordinary producer named Declan Baldwin, who kept all of the trains running on time. We never had a calamity. None of the actors were divas. It was pretty remarkable.

MS: When can we expect to see this film in theaters and DVD?
JS: It was theatrically released, literally, right now. We’re playing in New York and Los Angeles and Coral Gables, Florida. We have two distributors who are working on the picture. Our home video distributor is a company called New Video and they’re terrific. And they have partnered with another company called Emerging Pictures, which is run by a guy named Ira Deutchman. And he has started supplementing a release all over the country. We’re opening up in Michigan. We’re opening up in Delaware. And there’s a third company, owned by one of our producers, Declan Baldwin, called Big Indie. He’s organized over 200 sneak previews of the film this past film. So the film has really got a lot of theatre exposure even though we don’t have a big studio behind us.

MS: What are you working on next?
JS: There’s a drama that I hope to do called “The Inheritance.” Darren Aronofsky likes it…he’s really helping to shepard it along. Ideally I would love to start casting it this year or next.

MS: What is the story?
JS: It’s about three generations of Irish-American writers who find out that they have a deadly disease in their bloodline. I’ve worked on it a long time. I actually wrote it before we wrote “The Best and The Brightest.” It’s very near and dear to my heart.

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