Brandon Auman talks about writing “Iron Man: Rise of Technovore”

Brandon Auman is the writer of great TV shows like “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” and “Iron Man: Armored Adventures”. He also has done features like “Dead Space: Aftermath” and most recently “Iron Man: Rise of Technovore”. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Brandon about “Iron Man: Rise of Technovore” and what we can expect next.

Mike Gencarelli: Since “Iron Man: Rise of Technovore” is animated, is the scale ever a concern when you are in the writing process?
Brandon Auman: Not really, the beauty of writing 2D is that you’re not as constrained as you are in live-action or CG animation. I really love 2D animation and I’m so glad that Japan is keeping it alive, they feel like the last bastion of hope on this front. TV Studios really want to move completely into CG and as it gets cheaper, they will. I fear 2D is a thing of the past. My favorite sections of the film are in 2D and it looks beautiful. Some may complain there is a lack of animation, but that’s very anime. Long pauses on beautiful drawings. If the paintings are cool, who cares?

MG: I loved that you incorporated The Punisher into the story; tell us about that decision?
BA: Everyone at Marvel loves the Punisher. I pushed for him early on, thinking the idea would get shot down, but everyone loved it. I was really excited; finally I get to write some Punisher action! He rarely makes appearances in TV animation, but when he does, he always comes off… well, not Punishing. More like the “Kinda” Punisher. Who can’t kill bad guys, but maybe shoot a billboard down on top of them.

MG: What do you enjoy most about working with superheroes and with the animation genre?
BA: I love everything about it. It’s just so much fun, it’s a total dream job. I haven’t really left the genre either, because now I’m story editing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon. They’re sorta superheroes. Well they’re ninjas, and the stories are smaller… but it’s close.

MG: What other new projects do you have in the works for Marvel animation?
BA: I have a few things happening there. I wrote a bunch of episodes on “Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.” that I’m excited about. I get to work pretty closely with Henry Gilroy, Todd Casey and Jeph Loeb, three awesome creative guys at Marvel. I was always a big fan of Jeph’s work, so it’s really exciting, and I’ve worked with Henry many times in the past, he’s terrific.

Megan Thomas Bradner talks about producing “Iron Man: Rise of Technovore”

Megan Thomas Bradner is the director of development and production at Marvel Animation. She has worked on TV shows like “Iron Man: Armored Adventures”, the “Marvel Anime” series and also producing the new feature film “Iron Man: Rise of Technovore”. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Megan about the film and also the Marvel Universe.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell us about your role on the film “Iron Man: Rise of Technovore”?
Megan Thomas Bradner: I am the director of development and production at Marvel Animation. I have been with the Marvel Anime almost since the beginning. I came on after it was premiered at Comic-Con and I have worked on all of the TV series since then.

MG: Having produced “Iron Man: Armored Adventures” and the “Marvel Anime” TV series; how did this feature film differ?
MTB: I appreciate that we have a little more time with the feature than we did with the TV series shows. With the TV series, we were under the gun.  When we worked on the animes they were all around the same time as each other. “Iron Man” was done around the same time as “Wolverine” and X-Men” was done around the same
time as “Blade”. With the feature, we had time to sit down and talk about the story and which characters we wanted to use.

MG: Do you think we could expect more feature films based on the Marvel Animes?
MTB: We love the Marvel Universe. I am a big fan myself. I would love to return to the anime series. We are currently seeing what is going to happen with that. But we also would love to do another movie. We had such a great experience on “Technovore”, so I would love to do it again!

MG: I think we need more Norman Reedus as “The Punisher”?
MTB: He was great. We are all big “The Walking Dead” fans and we thought that we would never be able to get him. But luckily he is a fan himself, so that was a pretty cool opportunity. I was able to watch in the recording booth and get to see him turn into The Punisher right before our eyes. So that was super cool.

MG: What is your favorite aspect about working with the “Iron Man” franchise?
MTB: The aspect that is so attractive about Iron Man is that he is that human character that you can identity with. He is not perfect. He is this guy, who had to built this suit around him in order to protect him since he has this damaged heart. He recognized that he has done something wrong (in the beginning) and tries to change. I think we can all relate to that.

MG: In the world Marvel universe, who is your all-time favorite character?
MTB: I would have to go with Jean Grey from X-Men. In this film “Technovore”, I am a big Pepper Potts fan. I would love one day to get her in the armor…maybe in the future.

Blu-ray Review "Iron Man: Rise of Technovore"

Starring: Norman Reedus, Matthew Mercer, Clare Grant
Directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: April 16, 2013
Run Time: 88 minutes

Film: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 2.5 out of 5 stars

With “Iron Man 3” a mere weeks away, who isn’t excited for anything “Iron Man” related.  This new animated film is arriving just in time to cash in on that demand. I was unaware but the film origins from Japan and is directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki, the genius behind great films like “Paranoid Agent” and “Highlander: The Search for Vengeance”.  The story comes from Brandon Auman, who knows the Marvel universe quite well with his experience on “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” and “Iron Man: Armored Adventures”.  The film is sure to leave hardcore fans very satisfied for sure.  It is action packed and very entertaining.

It also doesn’t hurt that it featuring tons of great Marvel superheroes besides Iron Man himself, including War Machine, Nick Fury, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and (my favorite) The Punisher. Speaking the characters, they are voiced by great talent including Matthew Mercer (“Resident Evil Damnation” & “Thundercats”) as Iron Man and Norman Reedus (TV’s “The Walking Dead”) as The Punisher. Reedus easily steals the show, I just would have loved to seen him more in the film.  Marvel/Sony, do I smell an solo “The Punisher” animated film with Reedus in the cards? You better! There are a lot of “Walking Dead” fans out there!  I hope that this is also only the beginning of a new chapter in the popular “Iron Man” franchise. I would love to see additional animated projects for sure.

Official Premise: Billionaire Tony Stark, in his Iron Man armor, prevents an attack from a mysterious new foe, but innocent bystanders are killed, including his best friend War Machine, Lt. Colonel James Rhodes. Detained for questioning by S.H.I.E.L.D., Iron Man escapes, determined to find the mastermind behind the attack. Pursued by Black Widow and Hawkeye, Iron Man enlists the help of the ruthless vigilante The Punisher. But can the Armored Avenger handle what he finds when he catches the person responsible and is forced to face his deadliest weapon, a biotechnology called Technovore that could wipe out all life on the planet?

Marvel Entertainment and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment delivered a very impressive Blu-ray release.  The film comes with the Blu-ray and also an Ultraviolet streaming digital copy, but where is the DVD disc?  The 1080p transfer is a thing of beautiful with the crisp animation and very sharp colors.  The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track was shaking my walls when I cranked it up, especially during the action scenes. The special features are a bit of a let down to this fun film.  There is an interactive art gallery, exclusive to the Blu-ray.  Besides that there are only two behind-the-scenes featurettes: “Tale of Technovore”, which looks into the production of the anime; and “S.H.I.E.L.D.: Protecting the Marvel Universe” takes into its the superhero organization in the comics and adapted in the film.

 

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Interview with Cris D’Annunzio

Cris D’Annunzio recently starred in the acclaimed short film “Clemency”, which showed at the 2010 Sundance Festival and won several awards from other film festivals. He wrote and co-starred in the Ray Liotta and Rory Culkin film “Chasing 3000”, which follows the real-life story of two brothers driving across country to see Baseball Hall-of-Famer Roberto Clemente get his 3,000 hit with the Pittsburgh Pirates. While the film was made in 2008, it will get its official release in Summer 2010. Movie Mikes had the chance to talk to Cris to discuss “Chasing 3000” and his flourishing career.

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Mike Gencarelli: It has not been an easy road for “Chasing 3000.” How do you feel now that it is finally hitting the big screen?
Cris D’Annunzio: It’s interesting. Obviously I’m very excited that it’s finally coming out and hitting the big screen. And yet there’s also…I don’t know how to describe it, it’s not disappointing…I just feel a little bad that it’s taken the film so long to get out there because it’s a really sweet film. I mean, it premiered three years ago at the Tribeca Film Festival. I judge certain things by my wife and my kids’ reaction and they just loved it. I think it’s a nice family, kid oriented film. It’s too bad that it had to take the route it took to get here but, with that being said, I’m really thrilled that it’s going to get a release. Hopefully it will pick up some steam after people see it and it should do real well on home video.

Mike Gencarelli: You co-wrote the screenplay with Bill Mikita. How was that experience?
Cris D’Annunzio: Any creative/artistic endeavor has it’s challenges. Ultimately the story really came to me through Bill. It’s loosely based on his life and growing up with his brother, who is the oldest surviving person IN THE WORLD with MS. The story really touched me when he first told it to me and my experiences with my own sister who, unfortunately, passed away a year and a half ago…she had a disease called Lupus…the experiences that I had growing up. My parents divorced and my mom basically took my sister and I and left. It’s a lot like the story in “Chasing 3000.” Oddly enough, what brought my sister and I closer together was baseball. We both shared a fondness for baseball. The Mets were our favorite team. The experience of writing it with Bill…with both of us bringing our personal situations and our personal histories into it…it’s interesting that we’re talking about this over the 4th of July weekend. It was nine years ago, over the 4th of July weekend, that we locked ourselves in an office at Warner Brothers and wrote the script over a long three day weekend. It’s kind of interesting when you have two grown men sitting in a room crying a lot and writing. It was a good experience.

Mike Gencarelli: You play Principal Motley in the film. Tell us about your character?
Cris D’Annunzio: What happens in the film is that the two boys, played by Trevor Morgan and Rory Culkin, move with their mom to California. They grew up in Pittsburgh and moved to California primarily because the younger brother has this disease and the warmer weather is better for his lungs. Of course the older brother becomes despondent and misses his friends and has a lot of teen angst. He starts to not do well in school and get in trouble and I’m kind of the principal who…not necessarily sets him on the right course but…disciplines him, puts an ultimatum to him. He kind of makes him realize that California is not the place he needs to be in at this moment. So he and his brother “borrow” their mother’s car and head across the country to see Roberto Clemente get his 3000th hit. Hopefully you’ll see it…hopefully a lot of people will see it. The casting director did a fantastic job of assembling a pretty well known cast. It has Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly and Ricardo Chivara from “Desperate Housewives.” The story, I think, touched a lot of people and that really touches me. I think that’s why a lot of people got involved in this project.

MG: Tell us about your one man play “Digging Up Dad”? Any plans to return to the stage?
CD: I just completed the run about a month ago…we ran for about three months. The play was an autobiographical solo show about my relationship with my father and his mysterious death at an early age…he died when he was 48 under very mysterious circumstances. The story is really about me trying to come to terms with that and also the fact that my mother left him when I was 12. At that age I was still developing my knowledge and my opinions about my father and it wasn’t until after he passed
that a lot of his life and what he did and was involved with…it wasn’t until then that I became aware of them. I grew up with it and I was aware of it. And I’ll use the word “mafia” but today I can’t whole heartedly tell you or anybody with any certainty that there is such a thing as the mafia, at least not in the way we think it should be based on what we see on television and in the movies. Maybe that was what my father was involved in but my father certainly wasn’t John Gotti. If anything he was…I would liken him to Paulie Walnuts from “The Sopranos” which was about the level of involvement that he was at.

MG: Your short film, “Clemency” has been hitting the festival circuit. Tell us about it?
CD: It’s a little project that I’m very excited about. It’s an interesting piece. It’s been playing the festival circuit but it’s kind of been categorized as a horror film but it’s really more of a mystery/suspense thriller. The way it’s shot and edited is a lot like the film “Se7en.” It’s about a sociopath in the mountains of West Virginia that abducts and murders some girls. One sister actually escapes and comes back many years later. The guy has spent many years in prison on death row and right before he’s scheduled to be executed he receives clemency from the governor who rules him insane. The sister who survived comes back and poses as a reporter. She gets in to interview him and ends up killing him. I play the murderer, which is a 180 degree turn from the character I play in “Chasing 3000.”

MG: Tell us about your upcoming web series, “Vampire Mob”?
CD: The first episode aired this past week and it runs six episodes. It’s done by some people I got involved with when I did my one man show, the Ruskin Group Theater. Every month they do what they call a “cafe” play. Five writers come in on Friday morning and they’re given a theme and two head shots and are told to write a ten minute play based on the theme and based on the two actors they’ve been given the pictures of. They write the play in the morning, give the play to the actors at noon. They rehearse it from noon until six and then they have the opening night performance at seven and the closing night performance at nine that evening. One of the writers, Joe Wilson, had written a play loosely based on a vampire hit man for the mob and that gave him the idea to do the web series. It’s about a mob hit man who gets shot and makes a deal with the devil not to die. But in choosing to live forever he also has to choose to be a vampire. He figures that since most of the work he does is at night anyway this would be perfect for him!

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Interview with Paris Themmen

Paris Themmen played Mike TeeVee in 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. Paris took time out on his birthday to talk to OnlineCasinosSpelen and discuss how it was working on the film, what he has done since and how he is hoping for a 40th anniversary cast reunion.

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Mike Gencarelli: How did you originally get the role of Mike TeeVee in “Willy Wonka”?
Paris Themmen: I started acting when I was six.  My mother brought me into an agent and I went up for a commercial.  The first commercial I ever went up for was for Jiff Peanut Butter where I had to sit on top of a mountain of peanuts.  Of course it was just an angled chicken wire creation.  I hooked the first commercial I went up for and then the second commercial was for a product called “Crazy Bubbles.”  I was the only six year old who could say “Crazy Bubbles Bubble Blowing Bubble Bath.”  I could say it three times fast so they hired me.  In those days there weren’t many child actors in New York.  So I kept doing commercials.  Eventually I booked a Broadway show called “Mame” with Ann Miller as Auntie Mame.  So I was doing a lot of commercials and theater in New York…I did Circle in the Square…and when I was around eleven years old I auditioned for the film.  As I recall there was at least one call back…not a lot.  As I said, there weren’t really a million child actors in New York…maybe me and a few others.  I had a call back and I remember being in a phone booth with my mother and getting the news and both of us being very excited that we were both going to go to Munich, Germany to film the movie.

Mike Gencarelli: What was your most memorable moment on the set of “Willy Wonka”
Paris Themmen: My most fondest memory was the chocolate room.  Unlike Julie who didn’t like it because, strangely, she doesn’t like chocolate, I loved the Pure Imagination room.  As you may have heard elsewhere, the reaction shot that they took of us from the top of the stairs was a true reaction shot.  It was a closed set and we had never seen the room before.  So when they opened the doors…unlike today where they digitize things or build them in portions…it was all laid out for us.  We were probably 30 or 40 feet above it looking down at the whole room…the river flowing, the waterfall flowing, the boat moving.  I think that was the first day we saw the Oompa Loompas.  It was such an amazing feeling to be looking down at what the crew had been laboring on.  To see the fruits of their labors was amazing.  That was probably my favorite moment on shooting the film.

Mike Gencarelli: Do you still keep in touch with the cast and crew?
Paris Themmen: Mostly by email, but yes.  Here are the people I’ve seen in the last 20 years:  I’ve seen each of the four other kids, I’ve seen Diana Sole, who played Charlie’s mom. I’ve seen Rusty Goff, who played the lead Oompa Loompa.  I’ve seen Mel Stuart, who directed the film.  I’ve seen Frawley Becker, who was the script consultant.  I think for people that were directly associated with the movie…that’s it.  No wait!  I saw Leonard Stone one day.  I was doing commercial counseling sessions and he came in as a commercial actor for me.  And that’s it.  I know a lot of them have passed…like Jack Albertson.   Oh, and I did see Gene (Wilder) once.  I saw him about a year ago at a Barnes and Noble signing for his book.  And the thing about being Gene is…I was eleven, the other kids were thirteen.  People ask me who was nice and who was mean.  Julie, surprisingly, was a very well mannered, well behaved British young woman.  Peter, true to form, was a very gentle and well behaved young man.  Michael didn’t speak a lot of English and Denise was a lot like me…sort of a hardened child actor.  But I was two years younger…and I was trouble.  I was rambunctious and precocious everywhere on the set and Gene remembered this.  He tells a story about being asked about a part in the additional footage on the DVD when someone asks “what about me” and he replies “oh, he was definitely a brat.”  Then he pauses, looks into the camera and says, “But Paris…You know I love you now,” in a very Gene Wilder sort of way.  And another one that I love…Gene was asked what he thought about working with the kids and he said, “four of them are great and one of them I’m going to kill tomorrow!”  Wait a minute, my girlfriend is correcting me.  He says “Four of them are fantastic, one of them I’m going to shoot in the head tomorrow!”  (laughs).  So years later I go to this book signing and I say, “Hi Gene, I’m Paris, I played Mike TeeVee” and he says, sure as rain, “Oh…you grew a brat.”  So that’s his recollection of me. And I told him that I’d like to think I’ve had time to change and he said, “yes, of course…I’m sure you have.”  But like I say I was sorta precocious…much like my character.

MG: After “Willy Wonka”,  you didn’t do a lot of other films.  Why?
PT: The real question is, “Paris, what have you done since?”  There are a couple of answers.  One:  After the film I went back to Broadway in a play called “The Rothchilds.”  I also did the first national tour of the show.  I did a couple more commercials.  I basically worked from six to sixteen.  Then I got my degree in theater at NYU and they didn’t want you to work at that time.  They wanted you to be process oriented, not results oriented.  So they really didn’t want you to work.  Then I got out of college, got distracted and discovered other things.  I did a few commercials in my thirties and I was in the background of some films, mostly because I was working in film production.  The other side of that question is what have I done NOT as an actor and…that is a lot.  I’ve travelled all over the world…I backpacked through sixty different countries on six continents.  Particularly in some very exotic locations like Borneo, the Sahara Desert, the Amazon, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal.  Just try to imagine the cool adventurous things you’d want to do in your life…I’ve done many of them.  Swimming with sharks…piranhas.  I’ve done some sky diving.  I’ve also had some great business experiences…managing money with Smith-Barney…being a real estate broker…film production, like I said.  I worked in casting for awhile.  I was what they call a Walt Disney Imagineer, during when they were building Euro Disney.  I’ve started two or three businesses.  So I haven’t been just sitting in my room contemplating my navel.  I’ve been out doing things.  In terms of major motion pictures that people will remember…that’s it…one film, “Willy Wonka”.  One good film.

MG: With next year being the 40th anniversary of the film, how do you feel about its impact over the years?
PT: I agree with you that the film has had a life of its own.  And it’s been passed down from parents to children throughout the years.  The script that Roald Dahl wrote appeals not only to children but also to adults, with many adult references, so the parents don’t mind watching it with the kids.  And they are in fact excited about bestowing it upon their children.  And as the film has grown there are very old Wonka fans now and there are very young Wonka fans now.  So in terms of my reaction to that I think it’s great.  I think it deserves to be where it is.  Obviously at the time none of us expected that it would be that way.  But watching the film I understand its enduring popularity.

MG: Ok, the dreaded question, have you seen the remake from 2005? Your feelings?
PT: Here’s my experience with the new film…there was a time right after it came out when people would ask me “what do you think of the new film” and I would say, “Oh, I think it’s great!”  I don’t remember exactly what I said but I know I was positive.  But as the years go by and I speak to fans who tell me that they prefer the old one I feel more and more comfortable expressing my opinion which is that the new one had some things about it that I liked…things like the squirrels.  And by that I mean Veruca getting eaten by squirrels, which was true to the book.  I liked the pink Seahorse boat.  I thought the chocolate looked more authentic in the river then ours.  But I thought that there were many ways that they missed in the new one.  Chief among them is the relationship between Wonka and Charlie.  I felt that, although the new movie is called “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the focus in fact was more on Willy Wonka, while the old movie was called “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” but the emphasis was more on Charlie.  In terms of the relationship with Wonka, I think that one of the key moments in the old film was in the end when Gene says “My boy you’ve won,” and there’s this great moment that happens between him and Charlie.  To me that’s the heart of the problem in the center of the film.  The choices Johnny Depp made, and far be it from me to judge Johnny Depp…he’s one of our finest actors…created such a neurotic persona so that there was no relationship between Wonka and Charlie.  I thought that was the biggest problem.

MG: Do you ever think we will see another cast reunion any time soon? Perhaps for the 40th anniversary?
PT: There is some talk of doing something but I really can’t give specifics until things are nailed down.  But, yes, we’re definitely talking about doing that, either at the end of this year, which technically be 40 years since we shot the film or in 2011.

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