inmate profile: Cole S. McKay

Take a look at the picture up there, a good look: the penetrating stare, the awesome fucking mustache, the jacket; that, ladies and gentlemen, is what a Badass looks like.

Cole S. McKay: stunt man extraordinaire turned director. Kinda like Colt Seavers, but real. Earlier this year he directed 200 MPH, The Asylum's white-knuckle racing flick. His latest project? You guessed it, the upcoming Asylum release 3 Musketeers. 

There isn't a lot of biographical info on Mr. McKay online, but his resume more than speaks for itself. Since 1986 he has served as a stunt man in one capacity or another for 221 films and television productions. 221. Even cooler, know what his first film was? Three Amigos. Uh-huh. Badass.

Other films Mr. McKay defied death in include Star Trek VI, Demonic Toys, Leprechaun, Super Mario Brothers, Lost Highway, Wishmaster 1 & 2, The Devil's Rejects, American Pie Band Camp, a driving double for Kyle Gass in Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, and Cloverfield. He's also worked with The Asylum several times as the stunt coordinator for The Terminators, Ballistica, Titanic II and Battle of Los Angeles. Badass, badass, badass.


McKay started directing in 1988, and among his more notable films are Star Hunter, co-directed by Fred Olen Ray (father of MSvC, Almighty Thor and 2 Headed Shark Attack director Christopher Ray) starring Roddy McDowell and Stella Stevens, and his last non-Asylum film, 2006's Special Ops: Delta Force, which featured Titanic II and Mega Fault's Bruce Davison.

And the best of all this background is that McKay's storied career path has led him to present moment, on the cusp of releasing his second directorial effort for The Asylum, 3 Musketeers, on DVD next Tuesday, October 25th. His next effort is also kinda Asylum-related: he'll be directing Blackgate, a film written by and starring Asylum vet Paul Logan.

One more time: Badass!

inmate profile: Shane Van Dyke

You had to figure I'd be hyping the crap out of A Haunting in Salem during the week leading up to its DVD release next Tuesday, October 4th; it is, after all, my first produced script. But a story's one thing. Turning that story into a full-fledged, quite-literally-3D reality is a whole different thing altogether. And so, to start off Committed's coverage of all things A Haunting in Salem, we take a look at the film's captain, triple-threat Shane Van Dyke.

I say triple-threat because not only is Mr. Van Dyke the director behind a few of your favorite Asylum films - Paranormal Entity, 6 Guns and Titanic II - he's also the writer of a couple more - P.E., T2, Transmorphers: Fall of Man, The Day the Earth Stopped and Street Racer - as well as an accomplished actor: after a 17-episode stint on "Diagnosis: Murder" alongside his father, Barry Van Dyke (6 Guns), brother Carey Van Dyke (Mega Python vs. Gatoroid) and grandfather Dick Van Dyke (I don't have to tell you what Dick Van Dyke's from, you know damn well who he is), Shane graduated to the film world, picking up a few roles here and there, most notably in the rad two-part miniseries Shark Swarm, before running into the fine folks at The Asylum. Apparently it was love at first sight, because over the last three years they've worked side-by-side on some of the studio's biggest projects.

Outside The Asylum, Van Dyke has a role coming up in another shark film, Super Shark, alongside John Schneider and Asylum-Hall-of-Famer Sarah Lieving (Beast of Bray Road, Monster, 9/11 Commission Report, Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus, King of the Lost World etc etc etc). Super Shark, interestingly enough, is directed by the famed Fred Olen Ray, whose son, Christopher, directed Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus, Almighty Thor and 2 Headed Shark Attack, due in January. I wrote that one too, off a story by Ed DeRuiter. But I digress...


Also on the horizon for Van Dyke, the release of The Sacred, a film he and brother Carey wrote that stars Jeff Fahey, Jenny O'Hara and the legendary Sid Haig.

So, as you can see, Shane Van Dyke is a hyper-motivated, multi-talented kinda dude. For my money, 6 Guns was one of the best of the year, and Titanic II was much, much smarter than I expected. I'm not alone on that last one, because Committed readers voted Shane Van Dyke Best Script for Titanic II in last year's first annual Looney Awards for Excellence in Asylum Films, presented by yours truly.

What does this mean for A Haunting in Salem? It means the film is in excellent, capable hands. Honestly, the first time they told me he was directing, the first word that popped into my head was, "jackpot" (after "holy shit," of course). If you haven't seen his other efforts, check them out now, especially Paranormal Entity; it'll give you a viscerally-excellent idea of just how scared he can get you.

Everybody Loves Sarah Lieving!

If there's a hotter celebrity on the planet right now, I don't want to hear about them because all of my interest is occupied following the many printed praises of The Asylum's most prolific actress, the talented and alluring Sarah Lieving. 

Yet another profile of the actress has surfaced online, this one by Josh Samford of Rogue Cinema. I was toying with the idea of trying to interview Ms. Lieving a month or so ago myself, but with all the exposure she's been getting of late (see below), I might want to wait until the heat dies down, if ever it does. Ms. Lieving looks to keep her publicity streak alive with the inevitable release of Fred Olen Ray's Super Shark, out later this year(?).

Check out the Rogue Cinema interview here, and for other recent Lieving press, check out the links below.

The Daily Reflector

Examiner

Moviehole

Pegasus News

Canton Daily Ledger

Post-Holiday Big News Catch-Up!

Man oh man, a lot has gone down over the last four or five days, too much to individually post it all, so I thought I'd run a catch-up of the more salient news items. Here we go:

First off, another Sarah Lieving interview hit the web on Thursday, this one coming from The Reflector in Greenville, North Carolina. Now, I'm a native-North Carolinian (now a west Coaster), and I know Greenville (home of the ECU Pirates) and I cannot for the life of me figure how they got this interview, but there it is, and pretty revealing, too. I especially like that in the web address for this is the phrase, "sci fi hottie." 

Ms. Lieving's been getting hella press this last month, and one can only hope this means she's on the verge of a mainstream breakthrough. Ms. Lieving's next chance at the spotlight comes with the release of Super Shark - that's right, another shark movie! - directed by MSvC-director Christopher Ray's father, Fred Olen Ray. Still waiting on a release date for that one.

Next, while the world is still reeling from the awesome creature feature that is Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus, The Asylum and SyFy hit us with FOUR CLIPS (these courtesy of Geek Tyrant) from the upcoming Saturday Night Original Movie Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, starring, aside from the titular beasts, 80's mall-pop icons Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. Tiff looks hot and fiesty, and Debbie looks debonair and scrappy; should make for an awesome showdown.

The kid gloves come off Saturday, January 29th, at 9p.m on SyFy.





Then there were two announcements pertaining to Asylum films currently in production, specifically Princess and the Pony, the movie formerly known as 1st Furry Valentine, which finally got a trailer, and the upcoming Marvel-tie-in Almighty Thor, which revealed a slew of photos from the set, including all three principle actors - Cody Deal as Thor, Richard Freakin' Grieco as Loki and Kevin Nash as Odin - in costume. Though Thor's hammer seems - in these shots, at least - a little Bedrockian, Grieco looks awesome as a withered, deathly Loki. Almighty Thor drops on May 10th of next year.

Also, in last weeks Outside the Walls post in which I mentioned non-Asylum DVD releases for the month of December, I neglected to mention the release of a film that would most definitely be of interest to Asylum fans: Leigh Scott's Cyborg Conquest. Leigh Scott, as we all remember, directed eleven Asylum films - including King of the Lost World, The Beast of Bray Road, Transmorphers and 911 Commission Report - before striking out with his own production company. Cyborg Conquest is a kind of hybrid, narratively-speaking, of Death Proof and The Terminator, and is an intriguing, well-crafted and daringly-directed sci-fi/action flick with a dash of comedy and sex appeal. As is typical with any Leigh Scott film, there are a lot of familiar, often-used actors here, including Asylum veterans Eliza Swenson (Transmorphers, Dracula's Curse, Frankenstein Reborn), Kristen Quintrall (The Apocalypse, Universal Soliders)(who, of course, also edited this film), Dean Arevalo (The Hitchhiker, Freakshow) and uncredited cameos by Griff Furst (Transmorphers, director I Am Omega) and Rhett Giles (Legion of the Dead, The Apocalypse). All in all, Cyborg Conquest, aka Chrome Angels, is quite the exhilarating and entertaining romp. It's available on DVD now.

And finally, we can't forget perhaps the biggest news item of last week, the long-awaited announcement of the Nominees for the 1st Annual Looney Awards for Excellence in Asylum Films.Votes can be emailed to 2010Loonies@gmail.com  up until midnight PST on February 2nd, 2011. Close to 100 votes have already been counted, and there are a couple of interesting races already shaping up. Be sure to make your opinion heard and counted, and help us celebrate the great people who make The Asylum so gosh-darn entertaining. Vote once, but vote wise, and help get the word out!

inmate profile: Christopher Ray

So yesterday the Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus trailer at long last hit the web, therefore I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to take a closer look at the man in the director's chair for this impending classic, one Christopher Ray (who is kinda tough to find a picture of online. that's supposedly him on the left).

I've made mention here before of Mr. Ray's cinematic background - his father is noted exploitation director Fred Olen Ray, who in more than thirty years of filmmaking has unleashed near one hundred titles, among them Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Evil Toons and Scalps. So you just knew it was only a matter of time before Ray the Younger stepped behind the camera, and fortunate for us, this progeny chose The Asylum for his feature debut!

Ray has directed twice before, but never for a feature release: in 2008 he directed Reptisaurus, a made-for-TV movie starring Gil Gerard, and a series called "Road to Rhythm." So it seems he has a little experience with creature features, and a little with TV, which makes him, in my book, the perfect mediator between Mega Shark, Crocosaurus, and Jaleel White.

Ray honed his Hollywood skills as an assistant director, PA and coordinator on more than a dozen of his father's films back in the 1990's, so you know he received a lot of on-set training from a master of his field. In fact, C-Ray's still working as a first assistant director, forever learning, on an upcoming C. Tom Howell film I've made mention of before, Camel Spiders.

So though this might be his feature directorial debut, Christopher Ray is no stranger to the game, no mere novice plunging feet-first into sacred, chummed waters -- he seems weathered, learned, and more than capable of delivering to us, the ever-expectant masses, simply one of the greatest monster shark films of all time (please please please).

No doubt Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus marks the beginning of a prosperous and proliferate directing career, so get on the bandwagon while there's still room. The film debuts on DVD December 21, 2010, only 19 short days from now.

Another Sarah Lieving Interview

This one coming from Moviehole, a nice little website that covers moive whatnots and et cetera. Just a quick interview here, but some interesting tidbits about SyFy, the directing Rays, Mandy Moore and other assorted goodies from the Asylum's scream queen. My only beef? The interviewer comparing her to Casper Van Dien. Ms. Lieving seems much more sane and less religously fundamental than that pretty-boy prince, nt to mention ginormously more talented. Did you see Starship Troopers 3: Marauders? Between the boobs and the prayers, I didn't know what to believe. But I digress. Check out the interview here, and show some love on the comment boards to let Ms. Lieving and the world know Asylum fans support their own!

Mega Shark Rip-off SUPERSHARK Gets Poster & a Trailer

Those in-the-know folks over at the awesome site killerfilm.com today revealed the new poster and trailer for Supershark (or Super Shark Attack, depending on where you read it), the competing giant-shark pic against Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus:

Maybe it's just me, but I think the shark looks like it's carved out of a potato, some bizarre artifact of a long-lost whittling art movement popularized in one mountain chain or another during the long, slow days of Prohibition. But again, maybe just me.

If there was ever a time to use the line, "This time, it's personal," this would be the time: Supershark is directed by noted filmmaker Fred Olen Ray; Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus is directed by his son, Christopher Ray. No release date yet for this one, but check out the trailer over at Killerfilm, and note the gratuitous use of Sarah Lieving!

This stuff comes to Killerfilm courtesy of the ongoing American Film Market in Santa Monica; hopefully before it wraps up we'll get our first MSvC trailer. Less than two months to go!

Inmate Updates: Asylum Regulars' Other Work

Just as I have to admit there are films made by companies other than The Asylum, I also have to admit that some of our most notable inmates occasionally take work outside the walls. This is not a cause for concern, but rather a chance to broaden our horizons and see shark movies made by other people. So in that spirit, here's a quick scan of some upcoming non-Asylum projects by a few prominent members of the Asylum family:

Griff Furst (actor/director)

In addition to numerous acting gigs, Furst the director (100 Million B.C., I Am Omega, Universal Soldiers) has three projects of note coming up in the next year: there's Movin' In, a comedy co-starring the non-famous and less-annoying child actor from "Even Stevens", Maskerade, a horror film he co-wrote starring the 2001 Azalea Festival Queen, which might not means much to most of you, but to native North Carolinians like myself, it means the world, and a film that's already received mention in these virtual pages in the form of a trailer link, Swamp Shark.

Sarah Lieving (actress)

The most-frequent acting contributor to Asylum films has other work coming out soon in the wake of the destined-to-be-wildly-popular Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, most of which still manages to have an attachment in one way or another to The Asylum. First there's Super Shark, directed by B-movie great and father of MSvC director Christopher Ray, Fred Olen Ray; then there's a picture that, again, has had a mention or two among these pages, director Leigh Scott's fantasy spectacular Witches of Oz 3D, in which she plays the Wicked Witch of the East. This film will mark the eighth time Scott and Lieving have collaborated, the first six being Asylum Films. Lieving can also soon be seen in the indie musical Sunset Junction.

Geoff Meed (writer/actor)


Though IMDB currently has no listings for a Meed script in development, you can bet he's working on one or two and that notation will soon change. In the meantime, the Bo Jackson of The Asylum (still trying to make that catch on) can next be seen flexing his acting chops in a film I'm at least pretty hyped to see, Fast Five, the latest installment in the Fast and Furious franchise, where Geoff will be mean-mugging alongside some of the greats like Vin Diesel, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Paul Walker and muthafuckin' Ludacris.

Rhett Giles (actor/producer)

Having just finished the sci-fi thriller Quantum Apocalypse for Justin Jones and Leigh Scott, Giles is stepping behind the scenes to produce the action-thriller Fight or Flight starring a few names familiar to Asylum fans: Judd Nelson (The Day the Earth Stopped), C. Thomas Howell (War of the Worlds, War of the Worlds 2, The Day the Earth Stopped) and Jason London, not the one in Terminators, but the one in Maskerade, directed by Griff Furst.




See what a small, small world it is?

MEGA SHARK vs. CROCOSAURUS cast coming together! And what's the strange connection to SUPER SHARK?

So the internet has been fairly abuzz this week with news that Jaleel White (if the picture doesn't jog your memory, attribution won't mean a thing) has signed on as one of the leads of Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, now filming.

ESPN radio host Steve Mason, a very vocal Mega Shark fan, lobbied a small role for himself in the film, as well. Check out his story here.

Other cast members have also been revealed, including a couple familiar faces: Sarah Lieving, veteran of no less than a dozen Asylum films including Monster, Invasion of the Pod People and The Beast of Bray Road, and Dylan Vox of Titanic II. Oddly enough, both these actors are also in the non-Asylum feature Super Shark, directed by established provocateur Fred Olen Ray, slated for release around the same time. Something fishy's going....oh, even I can't finish that one.

Asylum newcomers fill the cast as well, including Richard Picardo of "Star Trek: Voyager" fame, Gary Stretch, who IMDB describes as "the glamor boy of British boxing," so, cool, and Hannah Cowley, a blonde girl.

MSvC is being directed by Christopher Ray, whose only feature before now seems to be the made-for-TV "Reptisaurus." This is where things get even weirder: Christopher Ray is the son of Fred Olen Ray. So not only are MS and Super Shark sharing actors, and a common villain, they actually share a bloodline. How's that for a scoop?

The waters get rough December 21st.