BARRIO BRAWLER Out Now!

Barrio Brawler, The Asylum's first attempt at a straight-up martial-arts-action flick, began its limited theatrical run last week. The film - written, directed, and edited by Jose Montesinos, who also edited Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus - looks to be a no-holds-barred, white knuckle action thriller the likes of which we haven't seen from the studio, and stars Marco Antonio Alvarez, Dennis Ruel,and  Morgan Benoit.

If you're not lucky enough to live near a theater showing the film, relax, because it's available on iTunes and VOD RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT, to be followed with DVD and Blu-Ray release just around the corner, August 27th. It also goes by the name American Brawler.

 

100 DEGREES BELOW ZERO Now on DVD!

The latest disaster epic from the fine folks at The Asylum, 100 Degrees Below Zero, is now available for your ravenous home consumption on DVD, Blu-Ray and VOD. The film stars Jeff Fahey, John Rhys Davies, Sara Malakul Lane, and Mark McKevitt Ewins as a family desperately trying to survive a sudden ice age that has taken over Europe. R.D. Braunstein did the directing, and Richard Schenkman and myself, H. Perry Horton, provide the script.

So get thee to a Netflix, find a Redbox, or even - god forbid - a real brick-and-mortar video store, and treat yourself to ninety of the chilliest minutes the summer's ever seen.

ATLANTIC RIM Gets a Truly BADASS Trailer!!!

I'm just gonna let this one speak for itself, except to say that if this trailer delivers on its promise, what we have here is what the kids call a "game-changer." From writer/director Jared Cohn, here's your first look at Atlantic Rim:

Exclusive Interview with AGE OF DINOSAURS Director Joseph Lawson!

If you're an Asylum fan, Joseph Lawson needs no introduction. But in case there are a few newbies aboard - welcome - here's the rundown: after a few years in charge of The Asylum's VFX department, a reign that produced the best visuals in the studio's 15-year history, Lawson added Director to his resume, standing at the helm of two of The Asylum's most talked-about films of the last couple years - Nazis at the Center of the Earth,and Clash of the Empires (nee Age of the Hobbits). After tackling robo-Hitler and lilliputian warriors, Lawson now turns his eye to prehistoric terrors amok in our modern world with the fantasy-disaster flick Age of Dinosaurs, starring Treat Williams (Hair, Deep Rising, Everwood), Jillian Rose Reed (Awkward, Weeds) and the always-awesome Ronny Cox (Robocop, Total Recall, Beverly Hills Cop 1 & 2). In advance of the film's release next week, Mr. Lawson was kind enough to spend a few minutes discussing his work with Committed:


COMMITTED: What can you tell us about the story of Age of Dinosaurs?
 
JOSEPH LAWSON: The story of AoD is that a father and daughter who definitely love each other though they've grown apart since the death of the mom must re-establish bonds and repair their relationship. With Dinosaurs. Okay, a LOT of dinosaurs. It's a pretty ambitious film with a number of threads including a harried police chief, the president of Geneti-Sharp who must reconcile his drive to save his company with what he has wrought, his minions and team plus a few other characters who each deal with their own fates in the face of a dinosaur herd... plus a particularly driven and vengeful Carnotaurus named Larry. I think folks will find a lot to have fun with in this movie. There are also a lot of homages to keep an eye out for, just like my previous flicks (Clash of the Empires and Nazis at the Center of the Earth).
 
C: Your last film - Clash of the Empires - had you traveling to Southeast Asia to shoot; where did AoD shoot, and how long of a shoot was it?
 
JL: Age of Dinosaurs was a 15 day shoot in Los Angeles and at East L.A. College, then a couple of days on a ranch out on the way to Pasadena. It was nice to be close to home even though the production was so tight on the heels of Clash of the Empires it was a real challenge to be prepared in time  Fortunately, everyone had the same goal... to make the best dinosaur film we could with the time and resources we had. I feel the film looks like we spent a LOT more time shooting than we actually did and that's a credit to everyone in production.
 
C: What drew you to the project?
 
JL: I've always enjoyed dinosaur films where characters have to work things out while being chased. When the film showed up on our schedule I hoped it would be possible to direct though we have a lot of other excellent directors who were also interested. For whatever reasons the producers... thanks, gents... let it fall to me to get done. The other thing is that I was able to eke out from the first draft enough potential for emotional impact that it made it a good match for my sensibilities as a storyteller. In the director polish rewrites we added more interplay between father and daughter. Then on set there was a great chemistry between Treat Williams and Jillian Rose Reed and a genuinely magical moment that still brings tears to my eyes. Getting to work with Ronny Cox was also an amazing joy, an absolute gentleman on set and incredible to learn from (along with Treat). Overall, the fact that I was blessed to do a bona fide dinosaur film with such a great and motivated cast, crew and post teams made all the challenges worthwhile.
 
C:  What kind of rad VFX can we expect?
 
JL: A lot of dinosaur shots, a lot of chomping action, some smart dinos, some not so smart dinos, the obligatory Asylum helicopter destruction or two, some shots that I think are among our best. David Michael Latt said epic, big so we did our best to deliver. He actually joked that our trailers are supposed to only be two minutes and the one for AoD was going to be 14...  and that the trailer Brian Brinkman did was great and the movie actually delivered on the promise. I hope folks watching it will feel the same. Overall, it's great work from modeler Ken Brilliant, animators Dan Peters, Steve Clarke and John Karner with great VFX from Sasha Burrow, Aaron Witlin, Paul Knott and compositors Aine Graham and Derek Serra. I'm also thrilled with the sound design from our sound teams and Chris Ridenhour's score is just the right music for a JP 3.5 wannabe.  ;-)
 
C: Were there any dinosaur movies you grew up loving, and did they have any influence on AoD?
 
JL: Valley of Gwangi, King Kong, ALL the Jurassic Park films.... anything where genuinely animated dinosaurs or great practical puppet work were the visual effects, not lizards with cardboard on the back. In the credits we say thank you to all the pioneers upon whose shoulders we humbly stand as filmmakers and visualists.
 
C: What's on the horizon for you? Any new projects in the works?
 
JL: Nothing concrete at the moment... a possible bigger budget science fiction actioner in the near future. They're also letting me write and hopefully direct a World War 2 movie in 2014 that could harken back to all the epic films I enjoyed growing up like Patton, Von Ryan's Express, Battle of the Bulge, The Great Escape... and, of course, always with a heart at the soul of it.


Age of DInosaurs hits DVD and Blu-Ray this coming Tuesday, May 7th. From the sound of things, we'd all be damn fools to miss it.

AE: APOCALYPSE EARTH Gets a Trailer! Plus Some SHARKNADO Casting Tidbits!!!

AE: Apocalypse Earth is the upcoming sci-fi adventure flick from The Asylum about a band of refugees from Earth who land on an exotic planet and have to fight off the alien natives for survival. The film boasts an incredible cast, including TV Highlander Adrian Paul, and returning inmate Richard Grieco, and  is helmed by Thunder Levin, director of American Warships and the upcoming Sharknado*, working off his own script. And now there's a trailer:

AE: Apocalypse Earth streets May 28th.

* And speaking of Sharknado, there's now AWESOME cast and credit info to share. The film, written by Levin, is to be directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, who recently brought us Hansel & Gretel, and will star Tara Reid, Ian Ziering, and John Heard. No release date as of yet, but you better believe the second it's made public, it'll be here.

Posters Debut for 100 DEGREES BELOW ZERO and AGE OF DINOSAURS

This week saw 2 new posters pop up for upcoming Asylum productions 100 Degrees Below Zero and Age of Dinosaurs. Dig 'em:

100 Degrees Below Zero was directed by R.D. Braunstein (Layover) and written by myself, H. Perry Horton, and Richard Schenkman (Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies). The film will enjoy a brief theatrical run starting this Friday, April 12th, followed by a DVD/Blu-Ray release on June 11th. Jeff Fahey (Lost), John Rhy-Davies (LOTR, Raiders of the Lost Ark), Sarah Malakul Lane (Sharktopus, 12/12/12) and Mar McKevitt Ewins star.

Age of Dinosaurs was directed by Joseph Lawson (Nazis at the Center of the Earth, Clash of the Empires) and written by Hank Woon Jr. (500 MPH Storm). Treat Williams and Ronny Cox star, and the film streets on May 7th.

Check Out BATTLEDOGS This Saturday on SyFy!

Though it isn't an Asylum production, I'm taking space here to talk up Battledogs, this week's SyFy Saturday Night Original, because it comes from some of The Asylum's best. 

The film is directed by Alexander Yellen, a preeminent cinematographer with more than 20 Asylum titles under his belt, and written by Shane Van Dyke, who's both written and directed for our favorite studio, most recently stepping behind the camera for A Haunting in Salem. Van Dyke also co-wrote The Chernobyl Diaries.

Battledogs marks Yellen's first time at the helm of a picture, and if his camerawork on other flicks and in the trailer below is any indication, he's going to make a kick-ass director. Battledogs boasts an incredible cast, including Dennis Haysbert (24, Major League, Far From Heaven), Craig Sheffer (Night Breed, A River Runs Through It), Ernie Hudson (I shouldn't have to tell you), Bill Duke (Predator, Deep Cover), and Wes Studi (Last of the Mohicans, Avatar).

And though Battledogs is a wholly original film, it does have a tie to a film that's opening this weekend: the film also stars Arianna Richards, who played "Lex" in Jurassic Park, which opens this weekend in 3D. Shrewd marketing.

Dig the trailer then tune in Saturday night, 9 PM on SyFY, for Battledogs!

AGE OF DINOSAURS Gets an Awesome Trailer!!!

Age Of Dinosaurs, the next Asylum feature from directer Joseph Lawson (Nazis at the Center of the Earth, Clash of the Empires) has at long last gotten a trailer, and man oh man does it kick ass. Check it out here.

In addition to the trailer, I've also seen the first 15 minutes of this gem (courtesy of a not-to-be-named source), and I can tell you, the first act lives up to the promise. Age of Dinosaurs was written by Hank Woon Jr. - who also penned 500 MPH Storm and contributed to the Atlantic Rim script - and stars Treat Williams (Hair, Deep Rising, Everwood), Ronny Cox (Robocop, Total Recall, Beverly Hills Cop) and Jillian Rose Reed (Awkward, My Super Pyscho Sweet 16 3). We have to wait until May 7th to see the whole film, but by the looks of the trailer, it's going to be worth the wait.

3 More Asylum FIlms Go Theatrical!!!

Following in the footsteps of last year's #HoldYourBreath, The Asylum has 3 more films on its docket slated for limited theatrical release: the comedy Cleaver Family Reunion, which hits screens on March 29th; dramatic actioner Barrio Pitfighter, the film I told you about yesterday, which premieres on June 25th; and super-rad disaster flick 100 Degrees Below Zero, which opens on April 12th.

This last one makes me RIDICULOUSLY HAPPY, as I was fortunate enough to get to write the script for it, along with Richard Schenkman (Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies). I was even more stoked to find out that one of the theaters showing 100 is right here in beautiful-ish Portland, Oregon, where I reside. So get ready for some rowdy photos from that showing. 

No complete list is yet available of what theaters where will be hosting these Asylum flicks, but rest assured the second I know it, you'll know it. Viva Asylum!!!

2 New Asylum Films Revealed!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been mega-busy, but in my absence, there have been two new Asylum flicks announced, both of which sound pretty rad.

First up, there's AE: Apocalypse Earth, from writer director Thunder Levin (American Battleship Warships, upcoming Sharknado), which tells the following story: A group of refugees from Earth land on an exotic planet, where they must fight ruthless aliens to survive.

A jungle-centric sci-fi adventure is always a good time in my book - see 100 Million BC, Alien Origin et al - especially given the cast: TV Highlander Adrian Paul, returning favorite Richard Grieco (Almighty Thor), and a newcomer, Costa Rican supermodel Bali Rodriguez, seen in this photo from the film's Facebook page. 

I thought American Warships was a really tight action film, better than the piece of shit that sued it, and Levin's earlier work for the studio, writing 2010's 200MPH, was also impressive, and there's no denying the man's a mad genius just for the concept of Sharknado, let alone whatever instant masterpiece it will be, so count my hopes high indeed at the prospect of what this could be. 

Next up there's Barrio Pitfighter, a hard-brawlin' ruckus from writer/director Jose Montesinos, who directed 2011's scintillatingly-awesome Barely Legal - thank you, sir - and reads as thus: A struggling martial arts teacher must compete in an underground fight ring in order to save his brother from a crime boss and reunite with his family. 

The films stars Marco Antonio Alvarez, Dennis Ruel, and one Morgan Benoit, who's a Master of Long Fist Kung Fu according to his IMBD page, so expect some severe badassery from this flick. 

AE: Apocalypse Earth is slated for release on May 28th of this year, with Barrio Pitfighter dropping less than a month later, on June 25th. 

Here They Are...Your 2012 Looney Award Winners!!!

2012 was an amazing year for Asylum movies, a year in which we saw more films than ever, and the level of quality rose to new peaks. As such, this year also saw a record number of Looney votes pour in from all over the world. So, without further adieu, here they are, your 2012 Looney Award Winners for Excellence in Asylum Films:

Best Actor

  Bill Oberst Jr., Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies

Best Actress

Heather Hemmens, Rise of the Zombies

Best Supporting Actor

Christopher Karl Johnson, Nazis at the Center of the Earth

Best Supporting Actress

Monet Mazur, Adopting Terror

Best Performance by a Non-Human

The 2-Headed Shark, 2-Headed Shark Attack

Best Cinematography

Alexander Yellen, Grimm's Snow White

Best Score

Chris Ridenhour, Nazis at the Center of the Earth

Best Visual Effects

Nazis at the Center of the Earth

Best Screenplay

Karl T. Hirsch (story), J. Lauren Proctor (story), 

and Richard Schenkman (screenplay), Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies

Best Asylum Moment of the Year

Zombie Baby Stomp, Rise of the Zombies 

Best Director

Joseph J. Lawson, Nazis at the Center of the Earth

Best Picture

Nazis at the Center of the Earth 

That's a mighty fine crop of winners; interesting that the three films with multiple wins all feature zombies. 

Congratulations to all, thanks to the voters domestic and foreign for making this the biggest Loonies yet, and of course thanks to The Asylum for the fun flicks! Bring on 2013!

500 MPH STORM Out Today!

Out today from The Asylum, 500 MPH Storm, a hypercane-disaster flick from director Daniel Lusko and screenwriter Hank Woon, Jr. 

I watched this one myself over the weekend, and I have to say, it packs a punch. It also rocks a pretty great cast, headed by the always-excellent Casper Van Dien, as well as Asylum-mainstay Sarah Lieving, and Third Watch's Michael Beach. Lots of harrowing escapes from nature gone amok in this one, which makes for a thrilling 90 minutes.

So stop what you're doing and get the to a DVD/Blu-Ray dispensary and procure the latest treasure from the fine folks at The Asylum. Now. Go. Hurry!

RAD Poster for The Asylum's JACK THE GIANT KILLER!

We learned a few weeks ago that there was another Asylum film in the pipeline, Mark Atkins' Jack the Giant Killer, the studio's twist on the classic fairy tale. We already knew about the cast and crew, but today we got our first look at the film's poster, and man oh man what a poster it is. Dig it:

I don't know about you, but that looks pretty f'ing awesome to me. And that tagline: "Jack went up the beanstalk, and brought down Hell." Holy shit that's badass. And check out that Mega Horny Toad. This movie is going to be SPECTACULAR, mark my words. 

Only a little more than a month until this one streets, on March 12th.

Help The Asylum Find a True Fan!

So, there's a super-rad Wikipedia page I found yesterday that lists the majority of creatures/villains/etc. that have appeared in Asylum films over the years, with amazing accuracy and detail. When I passed this along to The Asylum, they naturally loved it, and are now desperate to find any valid contact info on the page's creator, one Yapool Seijin. They're even offering a 15th Anniversary shirt to whoever finds it first. I know you're out there, Yapool, and I bet you might even read this blog, so get in touch with the head honchos!

 

A Bunch of Info on a Bunch of New Asylum Projects!

With the New Year now in full swing, there comes info on a handful of The Asylum's 2013 slate, including release dates, new projects, and posters. Let's get into this, shall we?

First up, there's a new poster and a release date for last Halloween's SyFy-Zombie venture, Rise of the Zombies. I don't know what's scarier here, the zombie horde, or huge Trejo-face. 

The film also stars Mariel Hemingway, Ethan Suplee, Heather Hemmens, French Stewart, and LeVar Burton, and comes courtesy of director Nick Lyon, maestro of 2011's Zombie Apocalypse - shout out to the zombie tiger - working off a script from Keith Allen and Delondra Williams. This gore-fest lands on February 12th, Lincoln's Birthday. 

Next up is 500 MPH Storm, whose poster can be found a few inches below this in the previous post. The storm-flick features Casper Van Dien, Michael Beach, and Sarah Lieving, and will street on February 26th, Johnny Cash's birthday.

Then there's plot, cast, and release date info on two new Asylum films, 100 Below Zero and Age of Dinosaurs. 

The former (a.k.a. Dead World and 50 Degrees Below Zero) is a polar disaster flick from director Richard Braunstein (Layover) and screenwriters Richard Schenkman (Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies) & H. Perry Horton (2-Headed Shark Attack, this blog). The plot: 

"When a chain of volcanic eruptions rips through Europe, the enormous ash cloud blocks out the sun, plunging the continent into a new ice age. An American couple must find their college-aged kids and get them out of Paris before it freezes over."

The film stars Jeff Fahey, Johnathan Rhys-Davies, and the lovely Sara Malakul Lane (left), and will be released on July 23rd.

Then there's Age of Dinosaurs, which we already knew was directed by the super-talented - and a Committed fan fave - Joseph Lawson (Nazis at the Center of the Earth, Clash of the Empires), written by Hank Woon Jr. (the above-mentioned 500 MPH Storm), and stars Treat Williams and Ronny Cox, but what we didn't know is just what this yarn's about. Well, now we know:

"Using breakthrough flesh-regeneration technology, a biotech firm creates a set of living dinosaurs. But when the creatures escape their museum exhibit and terrorize Los Angeles, a former firefighter must rescue his teenage daughter from the chaos brought on by the Age of Dinosaurs."

Film streets May 7th.  

500 MPH STORM Gets a RAD Poster!!!

The next disaster flick from The Asylum - 500 MPH Storm - isn't due to street for another month, but today we got ourselves a look at the poster for the windy shindig, and it's typically awesome. Behold:

What'd I tell you? My favorite part is the single car flying through the air off to the left. There's always one dolt who tries to out-drive the hypercane.

500 MPH Storm stars the one and only Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers, Sleepy Hollow, Python), Michael Beach ( ER, Third Watch), and - yes Asylum fans - the inimitable Sarah Lieving, veteran of more Asylum films than any other actor living or deceased. This marks Ms. Lieving's 14th time in front of Asylum cameras, the last being, of course, 2011's Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus. So if for nothing else, respect demands you see this film at least three times. 

500 MPH Storm is directed by documentarian Daniel Lusko, and scripted by Hank Woon Jr., the pen behind another upcoming Asylum film, Age of Dinosaurs. 

We can expect a trailer in a few weeks or so to further whet our appetite, but after that we'll have to wait all the way until February 26th to see the whole thing.