inmate profile: Scott Wheeler

With The Asylum's next release, the raunchy comedy Celebrity Sex Tape, less than two weeks away - it comes out Valentine's Day - I thought we'd take a look at the film's director, Scott Wheeler, a guy who has an extensive resume in and out of The Asylum.

Wheeler began his career in visual effects in the late 1980's, working on such projects as Xena, Space: Above and Beyond, Buffy and Millennium before segueing into films. In 2007, Wheeler became visual effects supervisor at The Asylum, a position he held for 23 films including Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Mega Piranha, Transmorphers and 100 Million B.C., just to name a few. In 2008 he directed for the first time: The Asylum's take on Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth; Wheeler also wrote that film's script. Journey marked the first of four films (to date) Wheeler has directed, and all for The Asylum: Journey, Transmorphers: Fall of Man, MILF and now Celebrity Sex Tape.

Bottom line, then, Celebrity Sex Tape is in the hands of a seasoned Asylum vet. And if MILF is any indication, we can expect a salacious but intelligent, horny yet heartfelt film from CST. Find out on the sweetest day of the year, February 14th, when the film hits DVD...

Stellar Short from Asylum Alum!

Director Nick Everhart (666: The Beast, 2012 Doomsday) has just finished an awesome horror short entitled Slash-in-the-Box, and you can check it out (along with some other rad stuff) on his Vimeo site.

Everhart is of the Leigh Scott-Griff Furst era in Asylum history, and still works with those guys today through the production company Active Entertainment, who most recently gave us Swamp Shark. Interesting to note Leigh Scott (Beast of Bray Road, Transmorphers, Dragon) is the d.o.p. here.

Anyway, check out the short - it's really very good - then head over to the film's IMDB page and give it a good rating. Inmates for life!

Battle of L.A Now on DVD! Plus Asylum Blu-Ray Info!

That's right, my fellow committed, today marks the official DVD release of the latest Asylum production, the sci-fi war-epic Battle of Los Angeles, written and directed by Mark Atkins and starring Kel Mitchel and Nia Peeples, among many talented others (Ed Deruiter and Gerald Webb, I'm looking at y'all). The film debuted on SyFy last, last weekend to a whopping 2.18 million viewers, and now it's available at Netflix, Redbox, of course your local independent video store, and for purchase online. I really liked this one, thought it was action-packed while simultaneously character-driven, adorned with great performances, excellent effects and taut, succinct direction. Do yourself a favor and lay hands on this guy as soon as possible.

And in similar news - courtesy of reader/fan/rad blogger/cool dude Jeff Long - we got a list of the Asylum titles that will be released on blu-ray through American Colossus Wal-Mart in the coming months:

•  Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus
• Battle of Los Angeles
• 2010: Moby Dick
• Titanic II
• Transmorphers
• Meteor Apocalypse

The only one I have a for-sure release date on is MSvC, April 11, but I figure with a little digging the others can be had. I'll get it to you when that digging's done. Happy viewing! 

Check out the official trailer here! 

observation notes: Transmorphers: Fall of Man

This is not, as it is supposed by many to be, a sequel to Transmorphers; it is, in fact, a prequel set in the modern era, a harbinger to the events that become the basis for the dystopia of the first film. Unbeknown to mankind, the transmorphers - alien robots able to "transmorph" themselves into everyday mechanical and technological apparati like all variety of vehicles, satellite dishes, cell phones, you name it - have been living quietly among us for decades, silent observers, researchers, biding their time until the opportune moment when invasion is ripe. That time, as the box warns us, "is here."

It's not really fair to compare the two films in this mini-franchise. Writer-director Leigh Scott's film - the first one - was a dark, futuristic, bleak war film, the events contained therein not disasters but battles, while this time around - written by Committed-fave and multiple-Looney-Award-nominee Shane Van Dyke and directed by Scott (Journey to the Center of the Earth, MILF) Wheeler - the result is more similar to the feel of Transformers or even Terminator Salvation in that the battles here are more intimate, still within the realm of the individual, and furthermore, nothing has yet been lost, hope isn't something that has to be regained, it is still what fuels mankind. And while, as I said, it isn't fair to compare the two films, as they really are drastically different from the get-go, and while I have nothing but respect for the first film, if I was forced at gunpoint to choose between the two, I'd probably have to sling my allegiance to this film, the second one (that's really happening before the first one), because I felt the difference in setting - temporally-speaking, our time versus a distant future - made me feel closer to story. This is strictly a personal preference, I'm admitting that, but me, I like my apocalypses close to home, I like to watch my world start to fall apart as opposed to a distant world I have no relation to; it makes the tension more tangible, the consequences more palpable. And here, I felt more a part of the action, like it was my world being fought for, not my grandkids'. Screw those ungrateful brats.

The FX this time around were provided by the fine folks at Tiny Juggernaut, and, as a result, were pretty bitchin'. The transmorphers themselves were seamless, more than realistic and larger than life, effortlessly integrated into the visual fabric of the film and rendered as no less real than the cast of human characters. They were sleek, slick, harsh but visually understandable, as opposed to, say, the robots in the Michael Bay efforts, which confuse the eye and are arranged to look like a collection of shiny shards magnetically held together, like the slivers in a Wooly Willy. The aerial footage was especially fantastic. My hat's off to TJ for this one.

As for performances, screenwriter Van Dyke (Titanic II, 6 Guns) is also our hero, and what a wide swath of a hero he cuts, equal parts jaded and just, a flawed man on the side of right, aided and hindered by a fractured heart of gold. His character is a wounded soldier, not in body, and as such he conducts himself with brooding believability. He's a weapon whose trigger has been pulled too many times, too often against its will, but a weapon still. (did you follow that? I'm not sure I did...)

The venerable Bruce Boxleitner gets second billing as a suburban sheriff a little sick and tired of dealing with Los Angelesians(?) and all the cockamamie BS that comes with them. It's this same stoicism, however, that gives him an advantage when the robo-shit hits the fan. This is BB's third Asylum film (behind King of the Lost World and Legion of the Dead) and he proves once again that no matter what the role, big or small, Boxleitner always packs a heavy punch.

Rounding out the cast is Jennifer Rubin (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and the Dean Cameron vehicle Bad Dreams) as a scientist frazzled for all the right reasons, a kind of burned-out genius weary to the point of breakdown over what she's learning about this strange, invading, alien species. Whereas Bruce B might be the film's emotional anchor, Ms. Rubin is the most realistic character, allowing herself to feel and express panic, albeit in her highly intellectual manner. She's the brains to SVD's brawn, the caution to his bravado, and the two together represent mankind's best and last hopes. Other fine performances are turned in by Londale Theus (Airline Disaster, 2012 Supernova) as the Mayor, sultry Debra Harrison-Lowe (The Terminators, MILF) as a steely Master Sergeant who's as effectively authoritative as she is effectively breath-taking, and the lovely and talented Alana DiMaria (nothing else of consequence) as Madison, SVD's chockful-of-moxie love-interest in-waiting.


Overall, if I had to register any complaints, I would say that the dialog at times felt a little generic and stilted, but thankfully other efforts have proven that this is an area in which Mr. Van Dyke has greatly improved. And the film was a little slow to start, developing a lot of character traits that wouldn't really have the time to go anywhere, but once the action got going, the film became a transmorphin' free-for-all, complete with car chases, commando space robots, helicopter dogfights, alien pod armadas, a hard-rockin' sex scene, and not one but two nods to Alien in the form of chest explosion and a cell-phone-face-sucker. I don't know about you guys, but that's just about everything I was looking for when I went into this.


So, mission accomplished.

observation notes: Transmorphers

A notable entry of the mockbuster era, Transmorphers - in league with War of the Worlds 1 and 2 - really helped solidify The Asylum in the cultural consciousness as an independent studio worth watching. Facing lawsuits - there were none - from Michael Bay and Hasbro, The Asylum brazenly forged ahead and released this dystopic sci-fi/action epic. It goes as follows:

After the discovery of life on a distant planet - 20 million miles distant, a nice nod to Ray Harryhausen, perhaps - we foolishly try and make contact. Decades we wait, and then the response? Full-on alien-robot invasion, one that obliterates 90% of the Earth's population and paves the way for the rest of the alien-robots to re-settle our planet. These robots? Transmorphers. It's up to what remains of humanity to act as our last defenders.

Cut to outer space, where a military guild ship has caught hints of a robot advance. The impending course of action causes a bit of a rift in the crew, half of whom side with the lady General (Eliza Swenson) and want to respond diplomatically, the other half on the side of another officer (Jeff Denton) who wants to respond with guns blazing. As a sort of compromise, or stalling tactic, a team of elite space-marine-type-folks are sent out to recover a bot for studying purposes. This is where the hunt begins, not so much on the marines' part as much as on the part of the warrior-alien-robots they presume to hunt. Excellent sound effects abound.

When they discover the coming battle is too big for just the team to handle, the military resorts to awaking a pair of problem-soldiers (Griff Furst and Matthew Wolf) from cryogenic stasis to lead the assault. Naturally, they're a little pissed about being frozen - Griff Furst for the physical act of being frozen, Wolf for the fact that in the interim, his ex-wife has become the new wife of...wait for it...the lady General! (wha-?)

This is the oft-spoken-of lesbian subplot mainstream media chose to latch onto in their mentions of the film, but honestly people, isn't that just lighting fires to watch them burn? I mean, aside from her body, Megan Fox looks like a unibrowed transsexual right out of the salon (no offense to transsexuals, or salons, only Megan Fox). Where's the brou-ha-ha in that thing making out with the Even Stevens kid?

I digress, but it doesn't matter, because from here on out the film becomes a cat-and-mouse game of intergalactic Risk, man versus robot for the supreme control of the others' right to live. The rest is yours to discover.

I will say, however, that overall Transmorphers was a nice sci-fi (that is, heavily technological) /post-apocalypse (that is, ruined landscape, decimated population, fight for survival) hybrid that plays like Starship Troopers set in a Warriors landscape. The sound editing wasn't so great on my copy, but the FX are amazing in design, if not comparably fluid in execution: at times the robots come off a little too 2-D, but for direct-to-DVD they are exceptional, and believable enough for your buck. The battle scenes are especially spectacular, enough so to make you overlook any technical short-comings if you allow yourself to get lost in the sheer artistry and resourcefulness of low-budget filmmaking.

As for performances, this one's peppered with a score of great ones from Asylum regulars. Jeff Denton (The Beast of Bray Road, The Hitchhiker), as mentioned, plays the stern officer itching for a fight, and as such he pulls off the HMFIC* role to a T, stoic and stern, the blue-collar translator to Eliza Swenson's more-polished authoritative general. The lovely Ms. Swenson (Dracula's Curse, Frankenstein Reborn) inhabits the role of the General as a cold, distant and emotionally detached administrator, in short the perfect commander. Visually Ms. Swenson comes off as a young Angelina Jolie meets Amanda Seyfried, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing. But her most powerful asset is her ability, for someone so petite, to fill the screen with her strength, an insane amount, like the button that unleashes the bomb. No wonder she's been employed by The Asylum seven times (catch her next in director Leigh Scott's The Witches of Oz).

Unfrozen soldiers Griff Furst (Alien Abduction, The Hitchhiker) and Matthew Wolf (The Apocalypse, Dragon) are a gruff but wry duo, a blend of humor and action. Furst comes across as the space-Maverick to Wolf's Goose, but in the former's case, even badder-boy, grizzled and dashing, a charming machine of a soldier. He's never been more likable, or formidable.

Other notable performances in this large ensemble cast come from Asylum regulars Shaley Scott (The Hitchhiker, Invasion of the Pod People) - who as a firestarter is deliciously meddlesome, insidious and mayhemic in a Serpent-queen kind of way, if that makes any sense, which it totally does to me; she's got blue eyes that'll burn right through the screen - Michael Tower (30,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Dracula's Curse), Sarah Hall (When a Killer Calls, The Hitchhiker), Erin Sullivan (Monster), Noel Thurman (Supercroc, Universal Soldiers), Jason S. Gray (Universal Soldiers, The Da Vinci Treasure), Jessica Bork (Dragon, The Hitchhiker), Thomas Downey (The Beast of Bray Road, King of the Lost World), Monique La Barr (Death Racers, 666: The Beast) and even a few more.

Of course, this giant cast is brought to you by none other than Leigh Scott, who comes across as very loyal for how often he uses the same folk. Mr. Scott wrote and directed this film in ambitious fashion, complete with split-screen and a grayed color-scheme that played together to form a claustrophobic, prison-like future from which there is no escape but full-blown revolution. 

Though alike in name and concept, the story of Transmorphers is its own, independent of the Hollywood version, and, in that regard, is a successful futuristic-actioner. It's arguable that Leigh Scott mastered the mockbuster, and I think the best proof is right here.

* Head MotherFucker In Charge

Bargain Alert! 6 DVDs for the Price of 1!

I was at my local shopping mall the other day, buying some belated Christmas presents for a belated trip home to North Carolina that was canceled at the last minute because of the winter storm that plowed through the Southeast this week, when, browsing among the selections at Suncoast Motion Picture Company, lo and behold I discovered the two precious things to the left there in the bargain bin...for only $5.97 apiece!!! That's only 99 cents per movie for half-a-dozen of The Asylum's finest: I Am Omega/Monster/Alien vs. Hunter and Countdown:Armageddon(Jerusalem)/Transmorphers: Fall of Man/The Day the Earth Stopped.  The DVD's are put out by Echo Bridge Entertainment, a secondary distributor The Asylum seems to use for certain titles, most recently Airline Disaster and 8213 Gacy House. This is a great deal on six great films, so if you've still got a Suncoast or F.Y.E. store in your vicinity, and you got $11.94 to drop on some quality home entertainment, I think you know what you have to do.

outside the walls: Non-Asylum Inklings

I recognize that not all great films are made exclusively by The Asylum and that, in fact, there's a whole world of film outside these walls, some of which might actually interest Asylum fans, when they're not watching or re-watching Asylum films, of course. And, being as I'm only looking out for your viewing well-being, here's a peek at some other DVD releases this month which might satiate you between Asylum releases. But remember, as always. Sweet n' Low ain't sugar.

January 4

Demon Resurrection

The Last Exorcism

Machete

Wolvesbayne
directed by Griff Furst (I Am Omega, 100 Million B.C.)
written by Leigh Scott (Transmorphers, Beast of Bray Road)







January 11th 

 

Funny or Die Season 1

Legion: The Final Exorcism

Piranha (not 3D on DVD)

Psychosis

January 18th

Death Race 2

 

The Virginity Hit

January 25th

Final Spawn

starring Lance Henriksen

(Pirates of Treasure Island, The DaVinci Treasure)

 

House of Bones

written by Leigh Scott

Primal

inmate profile: Leigh Scott

Leigh Scott is a born filmmaker. Raised in Wisconsin, Scott moved west to California at the age of 18 to attend film school at USC. While there, he interned for Roger Corman's Concorde Pictures, giving him his first glance at low-budget, high-imagination, creature-feature filmmaking. Scott first rose to prominence in Hollywood in 2004 via his films with The Asylum, where he worked primarily as a writer/director, but also as an editor, a cinematographer, a digital artist and a second unit director. Like Hitchcock, he also typically appears in his own films, usually in speaking roles. Though currently there are no plans for him to direct for The Asylum, Leigh Scott has been keeping busier than...well...I can't think of a metaphor, but he's been busy as shit, writing five scripts and shooting four films over the last two years, most through his own company, SweetPost Productions, a team that includes other Asylum veterans Kristen Quintrall and Justin Jones. His latest effort, the much-touted Witches of Oz 3D is in a similar vein to his work for The Asylum, and even stars Asylum perennial Sarah Lieving, among many, many others. A list of Mr. Scott's more notable work within Asylum walls:

• Frankenstein Reborn...writer/director
• The Beast of Bray Road...writer/director
• King of the Lost World...writer/director
• Exorcism: The Possession of Gail Bowers...writer/director
• Hillside Cannibals...director
• Dracula's Curse...writer/director
• Pirates of Treasure Island...writer/director
• The 9/11 Commission Report...writer/director
• Dragon...writer/director
• The Hitchhiker...writer/director
• Transmorphers...writer/director
• Invasion of the Pod People...writer

Leigh Scott, consider yourself saluted

Asylum Alum's Witches of Oz 3D Trailer Now Online

A UK site has delivered the goods on the long-awaited Witches of OZ 3D trailer from writer/director Leigh Scott (Transmorphers, The Beast of Bray Road). Still looking for a release date for this one, so if you're interested, keep your eyes on the official site, here.