outside the walls: Non-Asylum Inklings

In case all the copies of Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus are gone when you go to the video store, here's a brief list of other December DVD releases that might interest Asylum fans.

December 7

Harpoon: Whale Watching Massacre

Dark Metropolis

December 14 

Slave

Dear Mr. Gacy

December 21

The Horde

Stonehenge Apocalypse

Devil

December 28

The Haunting of Amelia

Resident Evil: Afterlife

First Pics From The Set of Almighty Thor!!!

Another early Christmas present from The Asylum...set pics from The Almighty Thor that feature Cody Deal, Kevin Nash and Richard Grieco all in costume as Thor, Odin and Loki respectively, plus action shots galore! From the looks of things, this is shaping up to be a dark and epic adventure! Grieco looks fucking awesome!

The Almighty Thor will be released April 26, 2011. Until then, satiate yourself with these photos, courtesy of The Asylum Flicker page.

Local Girl Makes Good: Sarah Lieving Interview in Hometown Paper

Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus star Sarah Lieving has been in the news a lot lately, specifically here, here and here. Well, not to be outdone, Ms. Lieving's hometown newspaper, the Canton Daily Ledger in Canton, Illinois, sat down with its most famous resident for a little chat on how proud she is to by an Illinoisian(?), as well as some dish on her favorite roles, including a certain werewolf film produced by a certain independent studio that just happens to be one of my favorite films by this certain company, and one of the more popular observation notes on this very blog. 

Decode my inanely cryptic build-up right here  .

observation notes: Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus

A lot of people seem to question or even doubt my unwavering love of The Asylum, thinking perhaps I do this with my tongue-in-cheek; I do not, and I shit you not, I have been waiting for this moment since the first crude picture of the Mega Shark vs. Gigantosaurus poster made the rounds following this year's Cannes Festival: the moment I press play on Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus. No build up can do this justice, so let's just get right into it. 

The film opens in a beautiful, remote jungle in the interior of the Congo, where a shady coal mining operation is interrupted by the awakening of a massive, massive fucking crocodile-thing, big enough to make Supercroc look like an asshole.

Cut to a battleship, the USS Gibson - nice - where Jaleel White, portraying the Navy's "shark guy," in title an "aqua acoustical engineer," is summoned by his Captain (Mike Gaglio) to examine strange heat projections picked up by their equipment. The Captain thinks it's a pod of whales, but Jaleel disagrees, says it's too big, and the signature is uniquely shark. The Captain angrily dismisses this, accusing Jaleel of holding on too tight to his theory that the Mega Shark is still alive, which Jaleel himself confirms by restating his point that no carcass was found, nor was there any visual confirmation of the Mega Shark's death. The Captain shoos him away, but Jaleel is more convinced than ever that the Mega Shark is alive and out there somewhere just waiting to strike again. It doesn't wait long, however, as about two minutes later it belly flops onto the deck of the battleship. Awesome to see you again, Mega Shark.

In the course of the ensuing chaos, someone important to Jaleel is killed, making his interest in Mega Shark now more than intellectual, it's personal. That's right: this time it's personal.

Back in the Congo we're introduced to Nigel Putnam (Gary Stretch), a dashing, adventurous, mecenary cryptozoological trapper. He's approached by a representative of the mining corporation and asked to capture the creature responsible for the deaths of 34 of their men, which we know is the Crocosaurus. As the price is right, he naturally accepts. 

Now, I made a promise earlier this week to try and stay as spoiler-free as possible, and I really want to do so here as I believe everyone in the world should see this for themselves, so I'll cease with the plot description for now but to say, by way pf praising Naomi Selfman's script, that how these creatures come together and what happens when they do is nothing short of inventive, plausible for the world in which they exist, and pretty fucking fun to watch, more fun, I have no problem saying, than even its predecessor, and you guys know how much I love the first one. Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus's script trades scientific explanations for adventurous hunts, pitting men with personal commitments to capture/destruction against these mega monsters, as opposed to scientists who chance upon the creatures and clean up the mess. This makes for a more engaging story that flows better than the first, which at times felt interrupted for exposition. Overall, this film is a perfect progression from the first, more confident in its world and therefore more at ease in its narrative; there's less halting, instead just a constant stream of mega-awesomeness.

In addition to Naomi Selfman's script, this progression is made possible thanks to stirring performances from all of its leads. Now, as much as I love the first film, we all know the acting was not its strongest suit. Here, however, the roles are better cast and everybody's on top of their game. The two male leads, Jaleel White ("Family Matters") and Gary Stretch (Alexader), are perfect counterpoints to each other, seemingly different sorts with similar agendas and inspirations. White comes off calm and confident, suave, while alternately intense and brooding. He shows a real penchant for action movies here, and could have a future in the genre. He isn't hard-looking enough, in the face, I mean, to pull of roles like those taken by the likes of Wesley Snipes or Arnold, but he'd make an awesome Bruce Willis-style of hero, and I think that's better. Plus, he's got a great running scream. Stretch is perfect in his role, elegantly coarse and rough-and-tumble believeable, abrasive as a means to his ends but underneath a good man with a great mind. He too should show up in many, many more action films. 

This film also marks the return of Sarah Lieving (The Beast of Bray Road, The Hitchhiker, Invasion of the Pod People) to a billed role in an Asylum film for the first time in four years, and when she comes back, man does she come back. She plays a special agent who's badass and belittling, cold and spare, an efficient employee, terse and effortlessly capable. It's almost like an evolution of her character from The 9/11 Commission Report, here honed into a sharper weapon, more acerbic in her confidence, in turn making her much more potent a character.

And of course there's Robert Picardo ("Star Trek: Voyager") as the admiral in charge of coordinating the hunts, seemingly in a hardass contest with Lieving; we'll call it a draw. He commands a bridge like he's been thinking about it a while. Asylum regular Mike Gaglio also shines as the gruff, disbelieving Captain.

As for the FX, they too top those of the first: they're sharper, more complete - instead of snippets and blurred close-ups we get many, many, awesome full-body shots of both creatures, not too mention battleships, helicopters, submarines and missiles. The battle/rampage scenes are deftly directed by Christopher Ray and are among the best - if not the best - in The Asylum's catalogue. Be it in the ocean, in the air or even on land, the chaos and destruction these two creatures unleash is legendary, and looks the part. The last forty-five minutes of this thing are just one skirmish after another - shark alone, croc alone, shark vs croc - that culminates in a truly spectacular climax well-deserving of the surging symphonic score that accompanies it. And the end? Well...I'll just say there's a certain image - you'll know it when you see it - that I want tattooed on my back. My whole back.


Oh, and for those of you wondering if there's a scene to top that from the first film of the shark snatching the plane from the sky? No spoilers, remember? But yes. And yes and yes and yes.


So, in short, this was worth every second I waited for it. As much as I enjoy, nay, love the first film, this one is just smarter, better-made, much better-performed, and more thrilling. If you enjoyed the first one, you won't be able to help but love this one. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and place it in a category with Godfather II - that's right, I said it, Godfather II; bring it - as being a highly-anticapted sequel that surpasses the accomplishments of the original film. 


So there. Add it to your Netflix cues and whatnot to enjoy it this Tuesday, December 21st.

Observation Notes Catch-Up: Creature Features

I know not all my readers have been with me from the beginning, and I also know given the amount of postings I've made in such a short span of time, things can get lost in the shuffle. I also know that I'm not the best at tagging uniformly, so there might be a few things, specifically Observation Notes, that go unread. As such, periodically I like to remind you - with links! - of the films I've reviewed, and I think a good way of grouping these is by genre. So here, for your catching-up or even revisiting pleasure, are the Creature Features produced by The Asylum that I've reviewed thus far, along with links to the original posts. Enjoy!

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
written and directed by Ace Hannah

Monster 
written and directed by Erik Estenberg

 Supercroc  
story by David Michael Latt
screenplay by Steve Bevilacqua
directed by Scott Harper

The Beast of Bray Road
written and directed by Leigh Scott



  

King of the Lost World
written by David Michael Latt & Carlos de los Rios
directed by Leigh Scott

Mega Piranha
written and directed by Eric Forsberg

977's Pitch #7: "Committed"

This pitch is going to be a little different than usual in that this time I'm not pitching a movie, but rather a television series. What's more, a reality series. What's even more, a SyFy original reality series. 

I think, given the network's continuing success in this market - from "Ghost Hunters" and its various incarnations, up through "Destination Truth," "Beast Legends" and, most recently, "Hollywood Treasure" - and given the network's ongoing relationship with a certain independent film studio, that it would make perfect sense, to me at least, for SyFy to commission an original documentary series centered around the fine folks at The Asylum. And what should be the name you this series, you might be asking? What else?

"COMMITTED"

The gist is this: each season of "Committed" contains ten, one-hour episodes, and focuses on the complete development and release of one Asylum film. Each step of the process is covered, from concept to script to production crew to casting to shooting to editing to marketing, allowing loyal viewers an inside look at The Asylum's unique, efficient and economic filmmaking style. Shows would air on Saturday nights at 8 p.m., and each season's finale would be immediately followed by the world premiere of the film that season focused on at 9 p.m., this being, of course, the standard time-slot for SyFy Originals.

As the shrewdest, most-talked-about little studio since AIP, the folks over at The Asylum have a unique perspective on the Hollywood system and subverting it that I think would absolutely appeal to the creative, nonconformist types glued to SyFy on a Saturday night. And just imagine: what if there had been a camera crew following around Arkoff, Nicholson and Corman in the early years of AIP, giving us a first-hand glance at the tricks of the trade that made them one of the most successful and beloved independents in American film history? Imagine watching the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Johnathan Demme, James Cameron, et cetera as they learned and honed the skills that would one day make them legends? It would be a cinematic artifact of immeasurable worth. And it would be pretty fucking awesome, too. 

This is exactly where we are, I believe, in the development of The Asylum: almost fifteen years under their belt and production has taken over distribution, at least as far as public consciousness is concerned, and now "Asylum-film" is quickly becoming a genre in and of itself. The ripple of awareness is expanding beyond this one, small, niche pond, and the time to make a bigger splash is now. Everyone watching SyFy knows who The Asylum is, and at least 80% of them are curious, one way or another, to see just how these flicks are hatched. I might be estimating those numbers, and I'm certainly no expert, but it just seems to me that a show like this on a network like that at a time like this couldn't help but succeed for at least a few seasons.

I mean, really, who doesn't want to watch Jaleel White screentest? Or Eric Forsberg explain to Paul Logan where and how to kick the yet-to-be-added Mega Piranha? Or exactly what goes down at an Asylum staff meeting? 

Bottom line, people love movies, and more and more as technology is becoming more and more available, the die hard fans want to know how movies are made, perhaps looking to inform their own endeavors. SyFy fans in particular, I would wager, engage in creative projects of their own - from writing to art to filmmaking or animation - more than most other network fanbases. This makes them, in my mind, the perfect audience for a series showcasing the inner workings of a low-budget genre filmmaking juggernaut and Hollywood outsiders on the brink of exploding into cultural consciousness in a major, lasting way. I, for one, would be glued to my set.

And if producers should want to introduce the company to viewers through a new employee that comes on in episode one, a "Dr. Carter," if you will, through whose energetic, enthusiastic eyes we see the magic and marvel of filmmaking unfurl, I might know a guy willing to quit his day job and force his wife southward from Oregon. I might.

I'm just sayin'.

inmate profile: Naomi Selfman

Continuing my pledge to spotlight the creative forces behind next week's release of Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, here's another inmate profile, though shrouded in a tad bit of mystery. Naomi Selfman, the scribe behind this impending classic, has written half a dozen films for The Asylum, yet there's virtually no information about her online. This picture is the best I could find, and I only found that when out of frustration I Googled "mystery woman." Could be that "Naomi Selfman" is a pen name for another writer, or it could be that Ms. Selfman is just a digitally private person? Either way, the only purported sighting of her is said to come in the making-of featurette for her first script for The Asylum, the horror film Evil Eyes, but I didn't have immediate access to that when I wrote this.

Whoever she is, Ms. Selfman has time and again illustrated her ability to work across genres - be it horror, comedy, sci-fi or creature features - and turn in compelling, convincing, empathetic and exciting stories every time out. After Evil Eyes, Ms. Selfman took a four-year hiatus from screenwriting before contributing the story for the Faith Films epic 2012: Doomsday. Since then, it's been full-steam ahead for Ms. Selfman, writing four scripts in half as many years: the raucous sex comedies 18 Year-Old Virgin and #1 Cheerleader Camp, and, most noteworthy and the reason we're here, now, Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus. As though this last job wasn't esteemed enough, Ms. Selfman also wrote the screenplay for the equally-anticipated Mega Python vs. Gatoroid.

So what does this mystery woman mean to MSvC? Well, if nothing else, it means at least this time out the jokes will hit. There were a lot of comic lobs set up in the first one, but, let's face it, very few of them scored. Whatever she's done with the script, the fact that she was shortly thereafter picked to pen The Asylum's other marquee attraction of the next year (MPvG), means the partners have great faith in her ability to deliver an action-packed, thrilling, amusing and entertaining creature feature. And their faith's good enough for mine. 

Check out Ms. Selfman's script bring the goods ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!! That's right only seven more days stand between the world and Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus. Come back here for my review this Friday, then come back again next Wednesday, the day after MSvC's release, for THE BIGGEST, MOST EXCITING POST IN COMMITTED's HISTORY!!! For real.

observation notes: The Apocalypse

Another from The Asylum's Faith Films subdivision, and one of three religious-based global-catastrophe spectacles - along with Meteor Apocalypse and 2012: Doomsday - The Apocalypse is, generally speaking, the story of one family's attempt to survive - physically and spiritually - the widespread chaos referenced by the title. And be certain, "apocalypse" here isn't some catch-all, rote end-of-the-world scenario; it's the full-on, soul-shattering brouhaha that makes Revelations easily the most popular book in the Bible.

Our film opens with a group of campers - among them cameos by Sarah Lieving and Leigh Scott - enjoying campfire conversation beneath a sky beautifully streaked with shooting stars. By "shooting stars," of course, I mean "meteorites," one of them fuc-, sorry, bleeping huge and heralded by a barrage of smaller projectiles that fall from the sky and rip this bucolic scene and its inhabitants to shreds. Thus the apocalypse begins.

Cut to a rugged park ranger (Rhett Giles) on the scene of a massive housefire. While he and his partner are stumped, we know it was a rain of hot rocks from the sky that torched the home. Soon enough they'll know it too: on the drive back to town, they discover said town has been eradicated, turned into a mass of molten rubble, courtesy of the heavens. Panicked now, it is revealed that RG has a daughter (Kristen Quintrall) he hasn't spoken to in quite a while living in Los Angeles; when the end is finally nigh, grudges and bygones are the first things to go.


Cut to said daughter, playfully frolicking with her boyfriend (Tom Nagel) while the world outside, unbeknown to them, is going to utter shit....sorry..."crap." This blissfully ignorant moment soon passes, however, when a roommate of the daughter (she has three, one of whom, not this one, is played by Erica Roby) calls them out to witness news footage of the widespread damage. The daughter freaks because the epicenter of the damage, Big Sur, is near where her mom, RG's ex (Jill Stapely), now resides. She's ready to run out the door into the heart of the devastation when a convenient phonecall comes from her mom: she's okay, she's coming to L.A., stay put til she gets there. It's at this point, maybe thirteen minutes in, that we get the first direct reference to God, made by another of the daughter's roommates, (still not Roby, but Shaley Scott, who may be related to Leigh Scott, as all four films she's acted in have been his) in reference to the entity with whom those lost in the day's holocaust now reside. This opinion is quickly shot down by the daughter, who seems a little too defensive to be idly philosophizing. But more on this to come.


Back to RG, who's watching the news, trying to get some idea of what's going on where. There's no big scientific explanation here, no scenes full of techno-garble, only raw data: a massive meteorite has shattered nearby and its shards are battering the planet, not just in California but everywhere in the country, in the world. At this point the Ex pops in on her way to see the daughter, finds RG and his partner amidst these startling discoveries. Well, she's got one more for them: this isn't going to be the only barrage, there's another meteorite coming, bigger, "the size of Texas" (aren' t they always?) and thus much more destructive, "an extinction starter." Call it what you will, use as many colorful nicknames as you can, but make no bones about it: the world is ending, real quickly, too, so the Ex demands that RG puts his bullshit - dammit, dam- "malarkey" behind him and accompany her to see their daughter before it's too late. While RG is pensively mulling this over, his partner makes the decision for him, saying that he is leaving them to reunite with his estranged father. Somehow this is the final straw that snaps the camel's back of RG's hesitance, and he realizes that it's all real, that it's really happening - the end. Make your peace and smoke 'em if you got 'em.

Meanwhile, in L.A., the daughter further ups the religious content by taking her boyfriend to a nearby church, understandably overrun with the frightened faithful. Contrary to what I was expecting - any time someone bothers to make an overtly Christian film, I naturally expect a fair amount of persuasion - this scene is very non-judgmental, non-dogmatic, and instead of painting the Christian faith as a self-righteous, all-powerful judging force, it is depicted as being a communal spirit of comfort, something the faithful make to support each other, the best, truthfully, one can hope organized religion to be: flexible to the needs of its flock while providing a constant base of faith and hope for salvation, physical or spiritual. At least, this how I see the daughter sees it. The boyfriend, on the other hand, is still skeptical, pointing to the perspective of most contemporary young folk that it isn't particularly fashionable or "groovy" to be a practicing Christian. Ultimately, however, it seems this line of passive questioning has only been inserted to make the point to any watching youths with their own doubts that such things are necessary, and in fact planted by God to test our faith, and therefore are further, stronger proof of his existence. I think. Religious rhetoric, perhaps purposely, confuses me. They (the producers) are embracing the youth's ambiguous stance toward faith and turning it to faith's advantage, is what I mean, is what I think they mean. Or maybe I'm just analyzing out of my ass - sorry, "rear-end," parting seas inside puddles. Either way, on with the mayhem, which kicks into high gear here.

RG and the Ex are on the road to L.A. and their daughter, racing a mega meteor hell-bent on sending them all to heaven. This is when the actual Rapture begins. The Actual Rapture, people disappearing and stuff. From here the film becomes a battle between faith and tragedy, both overwhelming, and what The End means to each individual character - the regretful father, the faithful ex, the headstrong, independent daughter and fearful boyfriend - and how they rectify their lives in the face of certain death. Spoilers beyond, so I relent.

 Overall, I found this film to be powerful, chilling and painfully realistic in its depiction of modern society's reaction to such a cataclysm: the chaos that compiles into anarchy, the muddle of fear and faith and hope and despondency and love that would naturally accompany total global annihilation is present and palpable here, thanks to wonderful FX - decapitation by meteorite, dudes melting in lava, waterspouts, tornadoes, mass structural damage and explosions galore, all courtesy of Tiny Juggernaut - that were pretty brutal for a Christian film, a string-based soundtrack (that was the highlight of pretty splotchy sound editing, especially when it came to vocals vs. explosions) that eerily set the mood between dismal and righteous, and a taut script from David Michael Latt and Carlos de los Rios that is both powerful and provocative, religious without being overbearing, and presents logical questions I think most of us - regardless of religious background, if any - would ask ourselves in the face of certain, inescapable oblivion. And of course, all these elements are brought together and anchored into a cohesive story by the intense, claustrophobic - I mean that as a compliment - direction of Justin Jones (Invasion of the Pod People) and the startlingly authentic performances by the trio of actors that seem entirely submerged - mentally, emotionally, spiritually - in the final moments of all our lives. Rhett Giles (Frankenstein Reborn, Way of the Vampire) plays his regretful park ranger as skeptically concerned, viciously brooding, and the tense center of the film. As a contrast, Jill Stapely (nothing else of note) inhabits the role of his ex-wife with ruthless faith, making her the spiritual anchor of the film, the unwavering light. 

But the most powerful performance of a powerfully-performed film - one of the best-acted in The Asylum's filmography, I dare say - belongs to Kristen Quintrall, who, as the wavering candleflame between her parents' viewpoints, the balance between their beliefs, raised faithful but with independent questions of her own, serves to represent the rest of us, those of us lacking the certainty of either philosophical extreme and who would find ourselves in the face of such a trauma just plain scared. Quintrall is an emotional juggernaut in this film, showcasing some big-time chops that could make her a veritable star in the genre. Plus, oh yeah, she edited the film too, pretty well, I'll point out. So, yeah, what did you do today?


All in all, while I typically don't go in for the rhetoric of these things - I was raised religious in the rural South, so I've had a good helping of all that stuff and find myself, well, stuffed - I still found this to be an engaging, exciting, thought-provoking and eerily resonant film. 

And I got through this whole post without an R.E.M. quip. It might not sound like much to you, but I'm proud of myself.

Almighty Thor Gets a Release Date! Plus, Crew Info!

So, according to the brand new page up at the Asylum site, Almighty Thor will be smashing into video stores on April 26, 2011. Furthermore, we now have a little more information on just who's involved. It was my understanding, and even confirmed by one of my readers, that Mega Piranha's Eric Forsberg would be writing the script, but on the page it's credited to Erik Estenberg. But then a quick IMDB search of Estenberg and I'm reminded he's most likely a pen name of Forsberg's, as his credits are for writing and directing Monster, which Forsberg did.

The synopsis for Thor is up as well, and reads as follows: 

"When the demon god Loki destroys the fortress of Valhalla and steals the Hammer of Invincibility, only the young hero Thor can protect Earth from armageddon."

In the director's chair, however, is not Forsberg as expected, but rather Christopher Ray, the cinematic genius behind the upcoming Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus. So from giant sea creatures to Norse gods. Not a bad year, Ray the Younger.

And lastly, in addition to the trio of men announced the other day, actress Patricia Velasquez is also being billed now. You may remember her from being the insanely hot chick from the first two Mummy movies.

Check Out This Audio Interview (not mine) w/ The Mega Popular Sarah Lieving

The single-most frequent contributing actor at The Asylum has yet another interview online this weekend, over at Pegasus News, based out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. 

Nice new info here, a little more into Ms. Lieving's life before she entered The Asylum and thus our collective heart.

Ms. Lieving can next be seen, of course, on December 21st of this year with the release of Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, and then shortly thereafter in the similarly-themed, and -titled, Super Shark.

1st Furry Valentine Back to Being Princess and the Pony - And Gets a Poster

Things have come full circle, title-wise, in regards to The Asylum's first foray into family filmmaking: what began as Princess and the Pony changed it's name to 1st Furry Valentine (presumably for the same reason Moby Dick had a 2010 in front of it) but now has changed its named back to Princess and the Pony. Plus, they've given us a poster that appeals to every single 8 year old girl in the world: a princess in a pink dress, a pony, and a cute little dog, just to top things off.


I think this is a good move. I'm a big supporter of thwarting traditional ordering and placement techniques by prefixing titles with numbers, but in this one it never really made sense. First of all, the arrangement of words in the former title sounds kinda, well, kinda lewd, quite frankly, like, you know, this isn't a family film at all but a raucous sex comedy about a young man's first experiments with a trendy kink. And I'm sure that inference says more about me than it does the fine, chaste folks at The Asylum, but it rubbed me the wrong way (ew.). Secondly, while it might be biologically accurate, I don't think of horses as furry, I just don't. Rabbits are furry; bears are furry; chinchillas are furry; horses... horses are, I don't know, too slick to be furry. That adjective never worked for me. 

Anywho, bottom line, this name change is, I think, a good thing, and is sure to detract hater critics from being able to make the same lewd jokes I just did. The difference? I do it out of love, mad, crazy love. So skip over to the webpage for this one if you need an update on the synopsis. Princess and the Pony, written by Rachel Lee Goldenberg & Bill Parker and directed by Goldenberg, comes to DVD January 25, 2011.

 

A Committed Exclusive Interview with Geoff Meed!

Geoff Meed is, as I have referred to him many times, the Bo Jackson of The Asylum. A true double-threat, Meed has carefully molded himself from his beginnings as a stuntman into one of the most intense actors in The Asylum's stable, as well as one of its brightest, liveliest, and most well-received screenwriters. For The Asylum, Meed helped pen Unviersal Soldiers with some uncredited assistance from David Michael Latt, then went out on his own for the incredible I Am Omega, and the rough-and-tumble vengeance flick 6 Guns. Both of these latter scripts, while action-flicks, are bolstered by Meed's focus not only on the action and violence in these characters' lives, but also the emotional motivations behind their responses. In I Am Omega, Meed's script calls for actor Mark Dacascos to play the role of the supposed last man on Earth as a fragile warrior, a survivor at equal odds with the world outside and inside; in 6 Guns, it isn't the method of vengeance that is the heart of the film, it's the madness that fuels that method, the injuries sustained and not seen that guide our heroine. In a market where story isn't valued near as much as FX or cleavage, The Asylum has always stood apart as one company who still puts a value on narrative. The continual use of Geoff Meed is one such example of this commitment.

As an actor, Meed 's early career is peppered with appearances on various well-known television shows including "Renegade," "Walker Texas Ranger," "Babylon 5," "CSI," "ER," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and more. For The Asylum he has appeared in five films, including his latest two scripts. Mr. Meed continues to act outside The Asylum as well, keeping up his vigorous TV work and foraying into more major motion pictures, including the upcoming fifth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise. But as his career continues to climb to new heights, Mr. Meed stays close to home, revealing below, among other things, an upcoming project that has him back in familiar confines with pen in hand.



977: When did you first decide you wanted to work in the movies?

Geoff Meed: "I got kicked out of the University of Texas at Austin, and my parents finally realized what kind of trouble I was creating, so they brought me home to El Paso, where they had recently relocated. There was nothing to do, so out of pure boredom, I started acting at a community theatre my mom was a part of, and it kind of started from there."


977: Who came first? Geoff Meed the writer, or Geoff Meed the actor?

GM: "Geoff Meed the actor."


977: Tell us your first "I-made-it" moment in the business.

GM: "I had been out in L.A. for about a year and had done a couple of non-union acting jobs. I used to sneak onto the studio lots - something you can't do anymore - and I got a meeting with a casting director. He had me in the next day, and I got the job. That job got written out, so they paid off another actor and gave me his job...I got Taft Hartley-ed into SAG."


977: What got you into stuntwork, and how did you transition from that into acting and writing?

GM: "I came out to L.A. about 1990. I did the waiter/bouncer jobs for about a year, then found out about Universal Studios Theme Park hiring for their stunt shows. I went and auditioned and got hired. I learned how to do high falls, and further learned from all the real stuntmen up there, you basically lie when you get on set, and that's how you learn to do things like air ramps, ratchet pulls, etc. I've done a majority of my own stunts as an actor. Writing was something I started doing just to stay creative between acting jobs. My father was a writer. He had nine books published. Guess it was in the genes."


977: How did you come to work with The Asylum?

GM: "[Asylum partner and screenwriter] Paul Bales had been one of the stunt show managers up at Universal Studios. I was sort of notorious for being a loose cannon up there. Several years after he left, and I had left, I remembered his name when he was working at SAG. He remembered me too, but not for the same reasons. He introduced me to The Asylum, but nothing came from it until he went over there as a partner. They bought one of my scripts, and it started from there."


977: Speaking of scripts, how did you approach the script for I Am Omega, knowing that it would tie-in to not only a current film (I Am Legend), but also two previously-filmed versions (The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man) and an original novel ("I Am Legend")? How did you seek to make it original, to make it yours?

Jennifer Lee Wiggins and Mark Dacascos, on-set Omega

GM: "I tried to show the character actually losing his mind. I don't think either Omega Man or ...Legend really showed that. But in I Am Omega, Renchard hallucinates - the clock and the news broadcast - he pops pills, he thinks he hears a woman calling to him. There was more in the script, but it didn't come across given the time constraints in filming. Ideally, what I had intended was that Renchard saw Brianna as a mirror image of his wife. It wasn't because we were so cheap that we hired one actress [Jennifer Lee Wiggins] to play both parts! Renchard hadn't seen a woman in so long, except for the image of his wife in his nightmares and videos and photos and such, he missed her so much, and he was losing his mind, so he saw Brianna looking exactly as his wife did."


977:  Let's move to your most recent Asylum script, 6 Guns, a western; where did that idea come from?

GM: "That was an idea Mark Dacascos came up with."


977: Were there any particular westerns that influenced you while writing 6 Guns?

GM: "All of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. Once Upon a Time in the West is my favorite western, and I tried to think of that when I wrote 6 Guns. That, and all of Clint Eastwood's Man-With-No-Name trilogy [Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad and The Ugly]."

977: You've acted in two out of three films you've written for The Asylum; do you know which role you'll be playing when you write it? If so, how does that effect the way you design the character?

GM: "Well, I always put a role in for me... Asylum is always really cool to let me play the bad guys. I just basically write a role that I think is something I haven't done before."


977: Have you ever considered upping your ante to triple-threat, and directing?

GM: "Yes. I'm supposed to direct something for Asylum eventually. I'd like to do a John Woo-type of action script."


977: What's you favorite among the work you've done for The Asylum?

GM: "I guess I'm most proud of 6 Guns. If we'd had millions, the script I originally wrote for I Am Omega would have been really cool."


977: Any scripts in progress now?

GM: "Yes, after working for a year on the treatment, I have just turned in the first draft to Asylum for a SyFy original movie. It's sort of Air Force One meets The Abyss."



For more info on Geoff Meed, check out his website.

Almighty Thor Casting News! This One's For The Ladies!

Attention all ye committed, the Hollywood Insider today dropped some major casting bombs in regards to the upcoming Asylum flick Almighty Thor, based on the Norwegian myth and, more importantly, the impending Marvel Comics movie. The biggest bomb? "21 Jump Street" and If Looks Could Kill star Richard Grieco has signed on to play Loki, Thor's trickster brother.

This begs the question, of course, who's playing Thor? That also has been revealed, in the form of strapping young lad Cody Deal, a model/actor who has quite the Scandinavian look to him.

And the last bit of casting info is that the role of Odin, head honcho of the Norse gods and father to Thor and Odin, will be played by Kevin Nash, the wrestler and actor whose credits include the Adam Sandler remake of The Longest Yard.


Almighty Thor is vaguely set for a 2011 release, and is being written by, if not directed, by the very capable and talented Eric Mega Piranha Forsberg.

I cannot over-emphasize the (personal) importance of Richard Grieco entering The Asylum. In my book, this guy has Billy Zane potential, that tongue-in-cheek retro-suave demeanor that works equally well in direct to DVD action-thrillers and offbeat comedy. Kudos to The Asylum for adding another old favorite to their stable. Let the resurrection begin!

Crocaloctopus Hoping to Strike!

As a guy who's pitched a project or two (see bottom) in his day, I can truly appreciate the campaign launched this week by Geek Tyrant writer Brian Shirley, to get his creation, Crocaloctopus, in a SyFy Saturday Original or an Asylum creature slugfest. Dig this press release:

      "Brian Shirley has his hands in everything these days. He not only has cemented his name with the geek culture that is GeekTyrant and Alien Bee, but he's also attached to several movie projects scheduled for 2011 including Witches Playground, and he'll be voicing the character GT along with scream queens Deneen Melody, who voices Valkira, and Kitsie Duncan as Anara for Jason Heath’s upcoming animated web series "Astronoir: The Fixers" scheduled for spring 2011.

     Shirley also has a scarecrow movie in the early planning stages along with his pet project simply titled Crocaloctopus. What started out as a joke has gotten attention from Syfy, comic book publishers and key entertainment suits. So what did Brian do? He has started a Crocaloctopus campaign geared towards Syfy and also The Asylum.
 
     With some help from genre artist Dennis Willman, the creature was brought to life in living color (so to speak). The campaign launched at the Dark Carnival Film Festival in Bloomington, Indiana on November 19-21 with T-shirts, etc. Brian was quoted as saying, “T-shirts makes the coolest business cards, and what better way to start a fun campaign and have the fans wearing a Crocaloctopus shirt. It’s also just fun to say!”

     Crocaloctopus’ goal is to have a Saturday night movie on Syfy (aka the new creature features the channel is putting out) or having The Asylum pick the story up and pit the hybrid creature up against one of its already familiar monsters in the stable.

     To keep up with all things Crocaloctopus, you can find the creature on Facebook and on Twitter. Yes, the monster is on Twitter! Brian wants to hear from the fans because he says, “Being a fan of these kinds of movies, this would be the pinnacle of my accomplishments so far.”

     If you are interested in a Crocaloctopus campaign T-shirt, just head on over to FastCustomShirts.com and pick one up for just $15.00 bucks!

A comic book is planned for spring of 2011. Look for more on Crocaloctopus soon."

Pretty cool idea, and a pretty daring self-marketing plan. Check out the Facebook and Twitter links and throw Shirley your support; if we can get Sam L. Jackson's dialogue in Snakes on a Plane tailored to our wishes, and get "Jericho" back on the air (we did our part, at least), then we can get Crocaloctopus locked into moral combat with a school of Mega Piranha. Believe it!



for more unsolicited suggestions, check out these:

Man-O-War
The Forgotten City
The Run
Casual Encounters
The People That Time Forgot
The Mystery of Flannan Isles

Observation Notes Catch-Up: Sci-Fi

I know not all my readers have been with me from the beginning, and I also know given the amount of postings I've made in such a short span of time, things can get lost in the shuffle. I also know that I'm not the best at tagging uniformly, so there might be a few things, specifically Observation Notes, that go unread. As such, periodically I like to remind you - with links! - of the films I've reviewed, and I think a good way of grouping these is by genre. So here, for your catching-up or even revisiting pleasure, are the Sci-Fi films produced by The Asylum that I've reviewed thus far (please note "creature feature" is a separate designation from sci-fi, so that list will come later), along with links to the original posts. Enjoy!

 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea 
 starring Lorenzo Lamas
 based on a novel by Jules Verne
 screenplay by Eric Forsberg
 directed by Gabriel Bologna

100 Million B.C.
starring Michael Gross, Christopher Atkins & Greg Evigan
screenplay by Paul Bales
directed by Louis Myman

 

2012: Doomsday
screenplay by Nick Everhart
directed by Nick Everhart

I Am Omega
based on a story by Richard Matheson
screenplay by Geoff Meed
directed by Griff Furst



 

Invasion of the Pod People
screenplay by Leigh Scott
directed by Justin Jones

Alien vs. Hunter
screenplay by David Michael Latt
directed by Scott Harper

Journey to the Center of the Earth
based on the novel by Jules Verne
screenplay by Steve Bevilacqua and Scott Wheeler
directed by Scott Wheeler and Davey Jones




 

The Land That Time Forgot
based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs
written by Darren Dalton
directed by C. Thomas Howell

War of the Worlds 
based on the novel by H.G. Wells
screenplay by David Michael Latt & Carlos De Los Rios
directed by David Michael Latt

War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave
suggested by a novel by H.G. Wells
story by Steve Bevilacqua
screenplay by Karen Forsberg
directed by C. Thomas Howell