October 16th, 2009 admin
They’ve just recently concluded a U.S. tour in support of their newly released, self-titled debut album. Now One EskimO founder and frontman Kristian Leontiou sits down with Uinterview to discuss details of their groundbreaking animation series The Adventures of One EskimO.
For the benefit of our readers what exactly are the Adventures of One EskimO?
One EskimO is the band, first and foremost. This is something we’ve been working on for a few years. We created and album and we wanted to try to create a kind of ambient, filmic, magical sounding album, so to go along with that we wanted something that mirrored that visually. We spent a long time writing these songs, a long time on the music and we wanted to spend an equal amount of time on the visuals. A couple of years ago we went off and did an animation independent from Warner Bros and we won a British Animation Award and that opened up some doors. Warner Bros got involved and they liked where we were headed so they gave us funding to animate our whole album. So we’ve got an animated story to go over our album and that animation is called The Adventures of One EskimO.
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August 6th, 2009 admin
After being honored by the New York Latino film festival, Armand Assante catches up with us to discuss his new film The Line. The Line is the centerpiece film in the Maya Inaugural Indie Film Series sponsored by Blockbuster, expanding to select cities in the coming weeks.
The Line is being honored tonight by the NY Latino film festival as the closing night film. This is the festival’s 10th anniversary. You’ve spoken in the past that one reason you maintain such a great affection for New York is that is personifies the cultural melting pot. What does it mean to you to be involved in an event such as this?
Well first of all I think the film is fortunate to be a part of it. I’ve been involved in a number of film festivals and I can’t stress enough the importance and the cultural significance and relevance of film festivals now globally because they are one of the few places that political voices around the world can be heard. At most of the serious film festivals you’re dealing with people who are basically completely unobserved. I was on a jury at the Kiev International Film Festival in the Ukraine six months ago and the talent and the filmmakers coming from places where we wouldn’t even imagine films are being made was astonishing. The most astonishing thing was that in every film there was a political relevance and an issue that by any standard if a Hollywood film had been present at that festival, it would have been paled.
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June 19th, 2009 admin
Hard rockers Anvil, the real-life Spinal Tappers are the subjects of the new film that’s being called the best rock documentary ever, Anvil! The Story of Anvil. We sat down with lead singer Steve “Lips” Ludlow to talk about the film and his thoughts on Anvil’s remarkable journey.
Sacha Gervasi, the director of Anvil! The Story of Anvil, used to roadie for you guys, but that was a long time ago. Did you keep up with each other and develop the project over time or did he just come to you out of the blue and say: “Guys, I’ve got this idea?”
Well actually he didn’t keep in touch with us at all, since like `87. But it was really weird because I had almost like a premonition that something was about to happen, and what it was is that we had ended up going to Italy for this sort of festival and there were a lot of bands we knew and I was sitting in my trailer with the guys from Candlemass and we kinds wondered what happened [to Sacha].
So when I returned home from Italy there was an email from Sacha, and before I had gone I had seen The Terminal and seen his name [as the screenwriter] but never equated that it could possibly be him. So he invited me to come to Los Angeles and tells me not to worry about paying for the flight, that he would pay. So I arrive in Los Angeles and he pulls up in this little Jaguar convertible that apparently used to belong to Sean Connery, and I was like ‘Dude, what is going on?’ I was freaking out. But it was like not one day had past, I gave him all our CD’s, and then a few weeks later he shows up in Toronto and says he’s going to make a movie.
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January 14th, 2009 admin
Ask any American what they know about British television and chances are they will tell that they love The Office and Extras with that guy who does the embarrassing comedy stuff. Beyond that they probably know of nothing since Monty Python. Yes, The Office was a groundbreaking show in terms of bringing that kind of humor to the mainstream, but it had been doing the rounds a good long time. British television, especially comedy extends so much further than some fat bloke from Reading, we feel it is our duty to alter you to some of the finest imports the 51st state has to offer, and none of them have anything to do with Ricky Gervais.
The League of Gentlemen
Perhaps the darkest and most delectable offering on the list this horror theme sitcom is as funny as it is strange. Set in the sleepy northern town of Royston Vasey, League is a ham horror send up of “it’s grim up north cliché,” featuring an ensemble cast of freaks and weirdoes. There is Tubbs and Edward, proprietors of the local shop and fearful of a new road which would bring those “not local” into their midst, just ask the guy they set on fire. More optimistic are Geoff, Mike and Brian, three local lads who are best friends. Although Geoff hates Mike - almost as much as he hates Brian. Into this little berg comes Benjamin, on a hiking holiday with no idea what awaits him. Staying with his aunt and uncle he finds no respite from the tows weirdness, with frequent lectures on self-abuse. After all, “semen is such a persistent stain.”
Availability: Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon
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December 8th, 2008 admin
This week sees the release of Brian Goodman’s gritty debut What Doesn’t Kill You, starring Ethan Hawke as a south side Boston thug trying to steer his old partner off the straight and narrow and into one last job. This time last year we caught up with Ethan as he was preparing to direct an off-Broadway production of Things We Want, a new play by his longtime friend Jonathan Marc Sherman. Here’s what he had to say.
Despite working in film almost constantly for 20 years, you keep coming back to theater. What is it that keeps brining you back?
“Theater is my first love. There is something about the simplicity of live performance that really appeals to me. Movies are all about capturing the moment and putting it in a little box. Theater is about living inside the moment. It is a much older art form… I find that appealing. Also, there is the audience.”
You have known Joanathan Marc Sherman for a long time. Some people say that you should never work with your friends, Is it hard balancing a personal friendship with a professional relationship?
“Working with friends is dangerous but it does provide you an opportunity to push your work forward in a safe and comfortable environment. With the solidarity of likeminded people it is sometimes easier to have the courage of your convictions. It can also breed laziness and a self satisfied vanity… that obviously is not ideal.”
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November 28th, 2008 admin
Click here to read the full article at Suite101.com.
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October 30th, 2008 admin
You’ve heard it. You might not think that you’ve heard it, but you have, countless times in fact. A piercing, despair-ridden wail so aurally disturbing that you instinctively glance up, even if you weren’t watching, to try to glimpse what unspeakable horror just befall the character whose demise it was assigned to signify.
Though named for its first on screen use, the 1953 film Charge at Feather River where a character named Private Wilhelm takes an arrow to the leg and screams in agony, the origin of the scream dates back two years previously. The scream was originally recorded for the 1951 film Distant Drums with Gary Cooper and slated as “man being bitten by alligator” but was never used. A post-production sound effects actor, who some believe to be none other than Sheb Wooley of “Purple People Eater” fame, made several attempts that the supervisor deemed unsatisfactory. The now infamous scream was delivered on the third attempt in response to the prompt “No, no, not an ‘Ow’ - a real scream of pain.”
The effect has been used dozens of times in countless films over the years - forwards, backwards, in homage and parody, and remains one of the most beloved and distinctive pieces of movie trivia in existence. So in honor of Wilhelm we present our very own top five Wilhelm screams.
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October 27th, 2008 admin
FADE IN:
INT. Los Angeles apartment – Night
STEROTYPICAL GAMER DUDE sits at a computer as the character in his computer game is killed gruesomely. He walks in on his roommate having sex with a girl. They exchange remarks about computer games. This, being a group exchange, validates how oddly obsessive these people are acting with regard to computer games. If he were alone it would just be creepy and a bit sad. It also suggests that people who are obsessed with video games actually get to have sex with real girls.
STEROTYPICAL GAMER DUDE is killed in exactly the same way his game character was, how cool and relevant to today’s culture of artificiality!
HERO
Hey, group of friends. I just got back from the funeral where I was given this computer game. Btw, due to some obligatory story about my childhood, I’m terrified of fire. I also met this girl at the funeral. Let’s all introduce ourselves!
HERO, GOTH GIRL, SMARTASS, NEW GIRL, and NERD (who also happens to be Frankie Muniz from Malcolm in The Middle) all introduce themselves and decide the best way to remember their dead friend is by playing his computer game.
HERO
Ok, we’ll all play together here. My BOSS will play remotely, alone in his deserted office building.
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September 21st, 2008 admin
This Monday Heroes fans who have been jonsing since the writer’s strike forced Volume II into early hiatus can finally get their fix as the long wait for Volume III, subtitled “Villains”, is finally over. As the surprise smash hit of the fall 2006 season, Heroes has gone on to become NBC’s highest rated flagship show. It has made stars out of bit part actresses like Hayden Panettiere and Ali Larter and catapulted Masi Oka’s Hiro Nakamura to the status of global phenomenon. Indeed, it was a wild ride for viewers too – an adult oriented comic book that placed ordinary people in extraordinary situations that set water coolers abuzz with activity the likes of which not been seen since the first season of Lost.
Yet if you took the time to examine it closely, you might develop suspicions that there was less substance here than might first appear to be. Unfortunately, judging by the lackluster offering of the second season, this suspicion could all too quickly turn into confirmation. The tagline that got everyone talking “save the cheerleader, save the world” always did seem more like a slogan than a solid basis for a story series. Yes, it was an inventive show about people with other worldly abilities, but it was not the only show based on that idea. Nor was it the best show based on that idea. Anyone who doubts that assessment should promptly seek out the criminally ignored USA Network’s The 4400, which tragically did not survive the writer’s strike. Yet with just twelve episodes per season, it managed to integrate a deeper story and better-drawn characters, both with and without abilities, seamlessly into realistic, urgent situations.
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September 19th, 2008 admin
As writer/director Deborah Kampmeier’s much-troubled project Hounddog finally reaches theaters after twelve years in the making, we sat down with the filmmaker to discuss her thoughts about the film and the incredible storm of controversy that has surrounded its release.
The term passion project was really invented for a film like this one. Tell us about your journey to get it made?
It was a twelve-year process and after I finished the script I got it out to cast and managed to get it to Robin [Wright Penn] who became this ferocious ally and I really consider her the Godmother of this film. We were in a situation where we had financing in place for four years in a row that fell away at the eleventh hour each time really around the issue of the rape scene and people wanting it out. I would literally be walking away from $5 million and contracts on the table time and time again because I was just not willing to compromise on that issue.
And then you put Hounddog on hold and made Virgin.
Yeah, after the financing fell through the fourth year in a row I went to Robin and said ‘Look, I have to make my first feature film or I’m going to die!’
Was that reinvigorating for you?
It was. It was fantastic, I mean it was one of those where it was a $65,000 budget and it was on video and a twenty-one day shoot. It was very intense and I had my fifteen-month-old daughter and the baby Bjorn on set the whole time and it was really a wonderful experience. It went on to receive a lot of notice and we were nominated for a couple of Independent Spirit Awards and it was really exciting because I thought ‘well, here we go, now we’ll make Hounddog’ But of course it didn’t facilitate that and it was another four years.
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