Danny Boyle is definitely a film director that needs little introduction; his new film Trance opened last Friday in Philly. I have been a huge fan of his films since I first saw Trainspotting back in 1996, and its been great to see him have a career that is nothing short of amazing, including his recent stint as the artistic director of the Olympics.

I hope you enjoy this chat with a director who is not only a great storyteller, but also a constant innovator in how he tells those stories.

When you are working on a script like this that is so complicated, do you ever worry about the audience being able to follow along with the narrative?

That’s a great question and particularly applicable to this film, which is a puzzle with clues and mysteries.

I think what helped us in the case of Trance is we shot the film while we were preparing the Olympic opening ceremonies in London, but we didn’t edit it till we had finished the Olympics. There was a 6-month gap where the footage was put on ice if you like, and when we came back to it, it did feel like I was seeing the story for the first time again.

That certainly helped us in presenting the story.

Rosario Dawson plays a hypnotherapist in Trance, do you believe in the power of hypnosis and is that a subject that has always interested you?

Yes, and its very interesting the reputation of hypnotherapists and hypnosis have changed a bit. It was once legally admissible as evidence, but was discredited because of suggested memories were proved to be untrue. Since then hypnosis has been trying to rebuild its image.

In about 5-10% of the population there are people in the profession they call virtuosos, these people are highly suggestible and who want change. Although what we depict in the movie is ethically very dubious it’s actually clinically possible and makes for a great premise for a movie really.

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Say what you will about the Scary Movie franchise, I have always been curious as to how these timely comedies come together and the mechanics behind putting together a good spoof film. Comedic legend David Zucker who is also a producer and director on the franchise was nice enough to indulge me and let me known what it’s like not only directing a Scary Movie, but producing one as well.

David who has also helmed or written such films as Airplane!, The Naked Gun and The Kentucky Fried Movie was out in support of the newest entry Scary Movie 5 which hits theaters today and looks to be another great entry in the franchise. I hope you enjoy this interesting chat with the man behind some of the funniest films ever made in my humble opinion and what goes into making them.

What first drew you to the Scary Movie franchise?

Well I think I had just done BASEketball and then My Boss’s Daughter and Bob Weinstein wanted to do another Scary Movie. I think he was unable to make another deal with the Wayans and so he thought of me and called me up because we had worked on this Ashton Kutcher movie. It didn’t do very well but he thought I would do a good job on the Scary Movie so he said that they wanted to do it on Signs and The Ring.

I had never even heard of those movies, so I said sure that sounds like a good idea and so I went out and saw them. I got my team together Craig Mazin, Pat Proft, and Bob Weiss and Phil Dornfeld who is my producing partner and we wrote a script.  They actually had a script for Scary Movie 3, but it was horrible, so we had to start from scratch.

It’s been 6 years since the last installment what was the spark to make another entry?

Mainly I didn’t want to direct it and they have been trying to get me to direct it in that time. So I finally said I would produce it if you find a director, I would be there to guide it.

I didn’t even do the third Naked Gun, two is really my limit, and I want to do my own movies. But the trouble with that is my own movies are always original and Hollywood is adverse to taking chances on anything that isn’t a franchise. But I have no doubt I will get the movies made.

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 A few weeks ago I got to sit down and interview documentary filmmaker Henry Alex Rubin about his first fictional narrative film that will be opening in Philadelphia this week Disconnect. The film is a sort of anthology of stories that all deal with communication and interaction on the internet and how what brings us together also sometimes forces us apart.

His previous film was the documentary Murderball about quadriplegic athletes who play wheelchair rugby, which was nominated for an Oscar back in 2005. It was interesting to chat with Henry about his process and what it was like making his first fictional narrative and how he employed a lot of the same processes as making a documentary.

First off, I was a big fan of Murderball, so I loved Mark Zupan’s cameo in Disconnect, you rarely see that kind of crossover between fictional narratives and documentaries.

I lost a bet. He said if I ever made a fiction movie I had to put him in. So I promised him and made good on it. You were probably the only one who caught that, I just thought it was funny. Marc Jacobs is the movie too, he was an old friend, I thought he was very effective.  Even though he is a sweet he can be very scary.

So why did make the jump from documentaries to fictional narratives?

Jump makes it sound like I am never going back. I love documentaries and I will probably continue to make them. My day job is a commercial director; I do a lot of documentary type commercials and I will probably never think of myself as anything but a documentary filmmaker.

I have avoided making a fictional movie for a long time. I have read hundreds of scripts and this one seemed like all three of these stories, I would have been very interested to make documentaries about each one.

These are stories that all feel like they are in the headlines, even though Andrew wrote it two years ago. It still feels like they are stories of the now.  I feel like I could relate to some of the issues the film brings up, the question of whether or not we spend too much time on our phones. That is a question I wonder about.

We are all trying to figure out the rules these days and that is the thing that inspired the film.

The film seems pretty authentic, what kind of research did you do for it?

These were all based on real stories. But Andrew fictionalized it all, and then I retroactively went and found real people who have gone through the situations that all of these people have gone through. I interviewed them and put them in front of my cast members and they read the script or at least their story lines and we re-wrote, re-wrote and re-wrote and got every last detail documentary real.

I can attest that every single fact in this movie is based on someone I have met or someone I have sat down with. As a documentarian I didn’t know how to make a fiction movie other than to research the hell out of it and make sure that my cast members had access to all these real life people.

Our production joke was that was our shadow cast, these people were our consultants and experts because they lived through this stuff.

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Photo by Beth Gwinn

Geeks love sci-fi and fantasy novels. Spaceships and sorcery? What’s not to love?! You get to explore the outer reaches of the imagination from a comfortable seat in your living room and all without a degree in particle physics or aptitude for the arcane. One such purveyor of the of the fantastic has settled right here in Philadelphia, and he is truly a legend of imaginative fiction.

Michael Swanwick has been dazzling readers with with his unique imagination for decades. His stories have won him an unprecedented amount of awards and fans. Best known for his novels The Iron Dragon’s Daughter and Stations of the Tide, Swanwick is also a prolific writer of short fiction. You can find them collected into volumes or occasionally appearing on Tor.com.

When he isn’t contemplating nanotechnology, the existence of time, sealing stories into bottles, writing on leaves, or diligently working on his newest novel, he can be found updating his blog with all sorts of things from cat pictures to how to win a Hugo award and the truth about science fiction fans.

He was kind enough to spare some time for another budding writer and share with us some secrets from the mind of one of science fiction’s most beloved authors.

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Leann Erickson is one talented filmmaker. During her 25 years in the biz, she has made some amazing animations, wild experimental work and fascinating documentaries. Her work has appeared on public and cable TV, at film festivals and in art galleries. Her most recent project Top Secret Rosies, is a PBS documentary about the female mathematicians who helped win World War II. And she’s an Associate Professor of film and video production at Temple.

Luckily, she was able to find some time to chat with us! Read on to learn more about Erickson’s work. (more…)

If you’re a horror fan like me, one franchise that is probably very near and dear to your heart is The Evil Dead.  After checking out the franchises newest offering, the remake if you will, titled simply Evil Dead, I got some time to speak with Fede Alvarez the first-time feature director about his experiences directing the film.

It was great chatting with Fede, who is a big fan of the series in a way you rarely see when it comes to these sorts of things. It was very apparent he was just as much of a fan of the series as I was and I really think that shows on screen. So enjoy the interview and I really hope you check out Evil Dead when it hits theaters next week! Trust me you WON’T be disappointed.

So, you were originally signed to do just any picture with Ghost House when did the decision get made to transition that into Evil Dead?

First it was anything, it was a blind deal.

Then that ended up being an adaptation of my short into a feature, which we are actually still developing it and that maybe my next movie actually. It’s this super hard R, violent alien invasion movie, because the alien invasion movies are done in this friendly PG-13 way. I want to see the brutal and realistic one that has never been done before. That is what we want to do and hopefully it’s going to be the next one.

Through that process we had so much fun at the table talking about how that film should be and talking ideas and scenes in general and Sam offered me Evil Dead because of that relationship. But he said I should write it, because Evil Dead is a filmmaker film. What makes the original great is it’s a guy going to the woods with his friends to go bananas and try to make the scariest movie ever. Its completely an author film, the guy who writes it, directs it.

That is why he never thought it would work under the studio system. Five different writers doing five different drafts and then some director would come in shoot the film, do his cut and disappear. That is how it’s done and he wanted someone to stay with the film to the last minute, that is what I did.

How excited were you to be working on Evil Dead?

Well, I have to admit it was both exciting and scary at the same time. But it was awesome. I remember in the early stages, somehow I ended up at Bruce Campbell’s house in Miami staying with him for a week. We were at the pool and he is just telling me Evil Dead stories, it was insane.

It was so bizarre and super surreal.  I have been a fan of Sam Raimi’s films since I was a kid, and if you’re a fan of his films you’re always looking for Ted Raimi or the car. You know his entourage of actors.

Knowing that universe and suddenly working on one of those films and being part of that family has been great.  Getting really close to Bruce, Rob and Sam has been a blast.

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Image via Technically Philly

Philly is home to the coolest indie game developers, and this week’s Geek of the Week is no exception.

You might remember Michael Highland as one of the developers behind the sweet Philly-based iPhone game Hipster City Cycle (remember our rave review?). But that’s just one of the many awesome projects he’s been involved in. A short film Highland made as a freshman at UPenn about his addiction to videogames called “As Real As Your Life” previewed at the 2006 TED Conference.

Highland is also one Zen geek: he has studied meditation and is a trained yoga instructor. Not surprisingly, he’s worked on projects such as Deepak Chopra’s Leela. And in 2011, Highland and his friend started Futureproof, with the goal of helping people develop a healthier relationship with technology.

Sadly Highland’s leaving us – he’s landed his dream job at That Game Company in LA. (check out this crazy game prototype he made as part of his application). We can’t say we’re surprised they stole him away from us – he’s one talented dude.

We caught up with Michael before he headed off West.

Tell us more about Futureproof.

Futureproof began as a conversation between me and my friend David Siegel. We were both working as developers. And we were both just feeling super burned out from being on the computer all the time. So we started to discuss our relationship with technology in a broader sense and out of that we started kind of experimenting and seeing what we could do to improve that relationship and bring more awareness to it. Specifically, what it might mean to use technology well, not from a technical proficiency standpoint, but from the perspective of human wellness.

Where are you at with Futureproof now?

We put our full attention on it and a bunch of good stuff came out of it and since then we’ve both found new jobs, but it’s something we’re continuing to work on kind of as a hobby.

Because a lot of the stuff we were working on were things to help people use technology less, or with more moderation, it was hard to sell the stuff were making, because we couldn’t push it really hard. It wasn’t made to be addictive in the way that a lot of applications and sites kind of hook you in. So we realized it’s hard to sell moderation, or hard to make a profit from it.

One little app we did make and sell, Awareness, is a pretty cool little break timer. It’s actually free now if people want to check it out. (more…)

Last week I got to sit down and chat with the very talented Leah Gibson and Joshua Sasse who play the mafia power couple of Alec and Cathy Laszlo in the new TV show Rogue. The show premieres on DIRECTV’s Audience Network Wednesday, April 3 at 9PM and is an interesting mix of mafia drama and thriller.

The show focuses on Grace (Thandie Newton) a morally and emotionally-conflicted undercover detective, who while deep undercover in the Laszlo family her seven year-old son is killed in a mysterious drive by shooting. Later we find out the same killer is also out to kill the head of the Laszlo Family as well. This sparks an unlikely partnership as the detective and the mafia boss join forces as they try to find who killed Grace’s son, before he completes his plan.

It was great chatting with these two about their roles on the show. If you have a chance I suggest checking the first episode out when it premiers.

How are you both enjoying Philadelphia so far?

Leah: It’s fantastic so far.

Joshua: It’s a beautiful, it’s like a Georgian, English town its stunning. It’s nice to have a town with some individual character.

So, what is it about Rogue that drew you to the show?

Joshua: Shows like this don’t come around a lot. They are incredibly thin to the ground, especially with writing this high quality. So when something like this gets thrown into the showbiz world, we all hear about it very quickly. From the minute I picked up the script I was hooked.

There is something about that underworld in America is something that no one would want to miss out on. You look at Goodfellas, Scarface or Boardwalk Empire they are incredibly popular and as an actor you don’t want to miss out on an opportunity like that.

I was filming a film in the Czech Republic at the time and I thought I was going to miss the boat and I came back and they still hadn’t cast my character. I auditioned for it and managed to get it.

Leah: When the script came my way, it was something Tandy Newton was already attached to so I knew it was going to be a quality project. I had curiosities about it being a TV show that Tandy was doing, because she has done some brilliant films. After reading the pilot it was very apparent to me that this show was different.

The writing was very intriguing and when it’s a good read, you know from ink on paper, you know its something good. There are just these very unique portrayals of these individuals in heightened circumstances.

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Philadelphia has always been a city that walks to the beat of it’s own drummer. And no one in the city does a better job of setting that beat then legendary radio DJ Pierre Robert.

Since 1981 Pierre Robert has been spinning the records and playing the music the Good Citizens of Philly want to hear at iconic radio station 93.3 WMMR. In that time he has interviewed a who’s who of rock n’ roll royalty, played “Alice’s Restaurant” for us every Thanksgiving, rooted for our Boys in Blue and helped everyone get through their workday with good coffee and great music. He has become a Philadelphia institution and one of the most beloved and charitable public figures in the city, all while staying true to himself and his beliefs.

Pierre was kind enough to answer a few question for me about his love of music, why vinyl rules and what makes Philly such a special place.

Did you always want to work in radio?

I did not actually always want to work in radio. I always wanted to be involved in music however. I had thought of it in terms of being in an actual band but did not pursue it. It was in my early twenties that my older brother suggested that I become a DJ. He meant in a club but I thought it would be better on the radio and so went to school at that point.

A year later I was interning and then hired at a legendary San Francisco radio station called KSAN.

You have a passion for music of all types, from Green Day to Frank Sinatra. Where did that passion come from?

My passion for music comes from my parents. We always grew up with music on the turntable. We also ran a little resort at Lake Tahoe not far from the big casinos where artists ranging from Sinatra to Dean Martin to Sammy Davis Jr. would regularly appear.

My parents would take me often to those shows so live music was always part of the mix for me early on. When I first heard the Beatles I knew that everything about them was for me. Their speech, their clothes, and of course their music carried me away.

That was probably my introduction to rock and roll. In high school I started to go see concerts in San Francisco and I was off and running. As I’ve heard each new generation of music I found something that I liked but have never forgotten the other generations along the way. That’s why I like everything from Green Day to Frank Sinatra. To me it’s all rock and roll! (more…)

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If you know me, you know that I idolize The Addams Family. When I heard The Addams Family Musical was coming to The Academy of Music I jumped for joy.

I haven’t seen the musical yet… but anything to do with my favorite gaggle of goths has to be amazing. To top things off, I was able to sit down and talk to one of the cast members of this awesome show.

What’s better than that? She’s local!

Yes, Chloe Davis is a local dancer who graduated from Temple’s MTHM program. The Addams Family is her musical theater debut! I asked her a few questions about her experience and her love of all things Philadelphia. (more…)

Two Philadelphia local web series have been selected to be a part of the 2013 LAWeb Fest on March 28-31. Clark: The Web Series is a completely bonkers character study that playfully explores the life and perspective of a fictional version of Philadelphia artist and filmmaker, Daniel.

Joining the westward charge, the star-studded Flour Web Series is the story of two sisters who couldn’t be more opposite of one another, Tulip and Violet.

We chatted with Daniel Warwick (Clark) and Deirdre McCullagh (Flour) via email about their upcoming projects and the LAWeb Fest. (more…)

Last week I got to sit down and chat via translator with the legendary South Korean director Park Chan-Wook in anticipation for his first English language film Stoker, which opens this Friday in Philadelphia.

I am a huge fan of his films, which include such genre classics as The Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), J.S.A.: Joint Security Area and Thirst.

It was great to chat with this amazing director about not only what it was like making his first English language film here in the United States, but also what inspires him to make these dark and often very complicated films. (more…)