“I had no deathly ambition to become super famous. I just want to work. I want to be able to put a roof over my head, and make great films, and also create a path for me to make movies as a director.”

Friendship and a strong work ethic are core values for Sarah Connor Chronicles star Lena Headey. The Bermuda-born actress, who was raised in the working-class town of Huddersfield in the North of England, has come a long way, but she remains very down to earth.

Since her film debut opposite Jeremy Irons in Waterland back in 1992, Headey has built up a lengthy list of credits. Her breakout role didn’t arrive until 2006 however, when she played the heroic Queen of Sparta in director Zack Snyder‘s highly stylized retelling of the story of the Spartan’s epic battle with Persia. Having worked to protect her husband, the King of Sparta, in 300, Headey was then called on to protect her on-screen son, John Connor, from the Terminator in The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

While working on the Fox TV series, Headey forged a close bond with special effects guru Robert Hall (whose credits also include Buffy, Angel and Pineapple Express) and his partner in slime, producer and actress Bobbi Sue Luther. So when Robert and Bobbi decided to branch out and make their own blood and guts genre horror flick, Headey was more than happy to jump on board.

Though made on a beyond-low budget that was supplemented by friends and favors, Laid To Rest, which was the first film to be shot on Panasonic’s new HPX-3000 high-def DV camcorder, has a polished analog look despite its bargain digital price tag. Shot on location at a deserted psychiatric hospital in Maryland, the film exemplifies the DIY methodology of Hollywood’s next generation filmmakers.

With Season 2 of Sarah Connor coming to a close, and the fate of a follow up season still hanging in the balance, Headey ultimately hopes to join their ranks. Over the past couple of years, during downtime on the SCC set, the actress worked on her own project, which she describes as a “quirky ensemble comedy.” Having penned and prepped it, and with The Chronicles behind her for the time being, she now hopes to direct and produce it. If all goes Headey’s way, she’ll soon be the one making calls to friends for favors.

I caught up Headey while she was enjoying a rare moment of rest, surrounded by her dogs, on the couch at her Los Angeles home. [..]

It’s hard enough when a beloved book is made into a film for a director to overcome people’s preconceived notions of the characters. But when you’re working on the visual elements of a project that’s based on a cult-turned-contemporary classic book that’s been made into an acclaimed and highly stylized film, it’s exponentially harder to compete with the cherished visions people hold in their head. And when you factor in that the protagonist in the movie was played by Brad Pitt at peak cool, improving on veritable perfection is nigh on impossible.

That’s the challenge comic artist Cameron Stewart faced when he got the gig to turn Fight Club, which was first a book written by Chuck Palahniuk and then a film directed by David Fincher, into a comic series — a concept in and of itself that many deemed to be inconceivable when Palahniuk first announced it. Such an endeavor could only be accomplished by a true comic book superhero, and Stewart certainly qualifies as one. The multi-award winning artist has a résumé that includes Batgirl, Catwoman, Scooby Doo, Seaguy, Batman & Robin, Assassin’s Creed, Amazing X-Men, and Guardians of the Galaxy, to name but a few. He also just happens to be the man responsible for transforming SuicideGirls into comic form!

We caught up with Stewart to talk about Fight Club 2 just after its release as a hardcover graphic novel. Stewart, who was busy packing for a transatlantic move from Glasgow back to his hometown of Toronto, was kind enough to take our call.

Read the full interview on SuicideGirls.com/.

[..]

Notorious Los Angeles Street Artist Plastic Jesus has again caused Academy Award controversy by placing a life size Oscar statue on Hollywood Blvd. Unlike the official faceless gold figurines, this one is a likeness of Kanye West — and is entitled “False Idol”!

The Kanye likeness features tightly cropped hair, neck chains, and is wearing a pair of Yeezy shoes. In previous years the British born guerrilla artist has created a cocaine snorting Oscar statue, a gold plated stripper on a pole, and a heroin injecting figure following the drug-related death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. The artist claims his street installations are to highlight issues which are going unnoticed in the glitzy world of Hollywood.

The installation appeared on the famous Boulevard on Wednesday morning, closely guarded by two burly security guards.

In a Statement on his website the artist said:

“We have built Kanye West into some kind of god-like idol, I believe he’s a genius when it comes to writing and producing but he’s human. When we build people into idols we have expectations, and if they fail to meet those expectations we crucify them. We saw this last year when Kanye was admitted to a medical facility to get treatment for stress, anxiety, and paranoia. We need to take a step back and remember our idols are only human and as such we need to give them space to err.”

Plastic Jesus had the custom figure moulded from resin specially for this year’s event by a Los Angeles based mannequin company. For this year’s Oscar installation, Plastic Jesus collaborated with another “Ginger” — the sculptor who created the naked Donald Trump figures that appeared on the streets at the end of 2016. Ginger spent four weeks carefully crafting the head and then moulding the final piece to produce an amazing likeness of the rapper.

The life size figure took about 6 weeks to produce in total but will only be on Hollywood Blvd for one day. If fans wish to see the statue in person they can see it at Plastic Jesus’ forthcoming show — Anesthesia – The Art of Oblivion — on Feb 25th at Gibson headquarters located at the former Tower Records store at 8801 Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles.

Plastic Jesus will be appearing this evening (Wednesday, February 22) on SuicideGirls Radio. Tune in from 8 til 9 PM at our state-of-the-art, all digital home on zinna.tv or via Facebook LIVE. For more info via: sgradio.info/1/sg-radio-feat-plastic-jesus/

UPDATE: SG Radio feat. Plastic Jesus

Hosts Nicole Powers and Bradley, Kylie and Wolf Suicide are joined by Plastic Jesus, who tells the ladies about his new Kanye West-inspired “Oscar” installation on Hollywood Blvd and his upcoming Sunset Strip show with collaborator Billy Morrison entitled Anesthesia – The Art of Oblivion.

by Nicole Powers

“Human beings don’t cultivate ideas.
On the contrary… ideas cultivate us.”
— Dr. Wrong, Fight Club 2

The years haven’t been kind to Sebastian, aka The Narrator, aka the co-founder of Fight Club. Having traded his position as leader of Project Mayhem — an underground organization inspired by the Cacophony Society and its precursor the Suicide Club — for all the trappings of the American dream, Sebastian now has a 9 to 5 job, a wife, a home and a kid, and is the father he vowed he’d never become. Trapped in the mundanity of this seemingly cookie-cutter life, Sebastian seeks solace in his psychiatrist, Dr. Wrong, and the prescription pills he pedals. Meanwhile, Tyler Durden, Sebastian’s stalwartly subversive alter-ego, has been biding his time, plotting his comeback to wreak havoc on a society that is, for the most part, populated by sheep in need of a shepherd, or a surrogate father as writer, mythologist and philosopher Joseph Campbell might say. And thus, a new installment of junior-arsonist-turned-adult-novelist Chuck Palahniuk’s iconic Fight Club begins.

Taking comic book form, the long-awaited and much-anticipated sequel to the original 1996 Fight Club novel (on which David Fincher’s 1999 movie was based) first hit stores in May, 2015. The ten-part series paired Palahniuk’s dialog and plot with art by Cameron Stewart (whose credits include Batman, Batgirl, Catwoman, Assassin’s Creed and SuicideGirls’ own comic series, to name but a few). This sequel was something that Palahniuk resisted for many years. However, ideas sometimes have a life of their own, and this one was pulling Palahniuk back to Project Mayhem’s home on Paper Street. Now, as the series is being collected and bound together as a hardcover graphic novel (out June 28 via Dark Horse Comics), Palahnuik is working on the third installment of an idea, which like Tyler Durden, refuses to die. We caught up with Palahniuk by phone to find out more…

Read the full interview on SuicideGirls.com.

By Blogbot

This Wednesday, July 8th on SuicideGirls Radio, hosts Moxi Suicide, Nicole Powers and Bradley Suicide will be joined by Kidnapped For Christ filmmakers Kate Logan and Yada Zamora.

You can listen – and watch – the world’s leading BYOB radio show live on Wednesday nights from 8 til 9 PM [note new day/time] at our state-of-the-art all digital home: TradioV.com.

If you have questions for the SG Radio crew or our guests, you can call in during the live broadcast at: 1-855-TRV-inLA (1-855-878-4652)

For updates on all things SG Radio-related, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

**UPDATE**

ICYMI: This week’s show feat. Kidnapped For Christ filmmakers Kate Logan and Yada Zamora plus institutional abuse survivor @ghostofoplib.

If you’ve experienced institutional abuse and need help visit: https://pyia.org/

About Kidnapped For Christ

A young evangelical filmmaker, Kate Logan, is granted unprecedented access inside a controversial Christian behavior modification program for teens, where she discovers shocking secrets and young students that change her life.

Kidnapped For Christ is available now via iTunes. For more info visit kidnappedforchrist.com/ and follow their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Kate Logan | @kateslogan (Director / Producer / Co-Writer)

Kate Logan’s directorial debut, Kidnapped For Christ, follows the harrowing journeys of several American teenagers who were taken in the middle of the night by strangers and shipped to an Evangelical reform school in the Dominican Republic.

Kidnapped won the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary at the 2014 Slamdance Film Festival and was acquired by Showtime shortly after. Currently Kate is producing the upcoming documentary An Act of Love, on the Methodist minister Frank Schaefer, who was put on trial in his Church after officiating his son’s same-sex wedding.

Previously Kate has worked on Showtime’s controversial documentary on the infamous gangster rap mogul Suge Knight, directed by Antoine Fuqua, as well as the upcoming Independent Lens/PBS documentary Meet the Patels. She also worked with the independent distribution team that brought Simpson’s actor Harry Shearer’s film The Big Uneasy to theaters. Kate currently lives in Los Angeles next to loud neighbors who she tweets about.

About Yada Zamora (Writer / Producer)

Cuban-American Yada Zamora is an award-winning writer/producer who has been mentored by some of the biggest producers and writers in the film industry. In 2012 she and producing partner Paul A. Levin formed REDTHORN, with the goal to make ground-breaking original content for film and television across all genres, with the focus on storytelling above all.

By Nicole Powers

It’s frightening how little the West understands The People’s Republic of China. And what we don’t know is hurting us — and them. Inside China’s borders resides the largest population on the planet (1.357 billion compared to the United States’ paltry 318 million), which is guarded by the largest army in terms of active personnel and a formidable nuclear arsenal. China also hosts one of the fastest growing economies, and as a result, the planet’s largest middle class. The Republic is therefore revered by more open capitalist cultures as much as it is feared.

Those within China who have benefited from its unprecedented prosperity have paid a high price, however, in terms of freedom of expression and oppression. Meanwhile the foreign corporations that do business there, in order to continue to reap the rewards of China’s burgeoning markets, choose to turn a blind eye to these human rights abuses — they have to, since it’s the only way the state allows them to function. Thus, the Chinese government and the overseas corporations doing business within the Republic’s borders are essentially in cahoots in maintaining the status quo; The Great Wall of China is no longer a physical one protecting the insular nation, but one built on silence.

Chinese lawyer and human rights activist Chen Guangcheng.

Enter documentarian Vanessa Hope, whose previous credits include William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe and China in Three Words. Through the language of film, Vanessa — who has dedicated her personal and professional life to exploring China’s culture — hopes to foster greater understanding and break the state imposed and business endorsed wall of silence.

Her latest project All Eyes And Ears is remarkable, both in terms of scope and access. Through Vanessa’s lens, we follow the former Mormon Governor of Utah, Jon Huntsman, as he moves to China with his glamorous wife Mary Kaye and their adopted Chinese daughter Gracie to take up office as the Obama-appointed U.S. Ambassador. Vanessa took a longitudinal approach, filming over the course of five years from the end of 2009 through the beginning of 2014. Consequently, Huntsman’s term in office and Vanessa’s film bears witness not ony to the rise of authoritarian leader Xi Jinping, but also the rise of the proletariat in the Occupy-inspired Jasmine Spring. The arc of Huntsman’s story also converges with that of the blind, self-taught Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng, who escaped from house arrest in 2012 to claim asylum at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. This unexpected turn of events, which occurred during a key international diplomatic summit, sparked one of the greatest crisis in U.S. / China relations in recent times.

We caught up with Vanessa by phone to talk about the project. Read our exclusive interview with Vanessa on SuicideGirls.

For more information visit alleyesandears.org, and follow @VHopeful and @alleyesearsdoc on Twitter. If you’d like to support All Eyes And Ears, visit the Indiegogo page.

by Blogbot

This Thursday, Nov 13th on SuicideGirls Radio, hosts Moxi Suicide and Nicole Powers will be joined by music and film legend Lee Ving.

You can listen – and watch – the world’s leading BYOB radio show live on Thursday nights from 7 til 8 PM [note new time] at our state-of-the-art all digital home: TradioV.com.

If you have questions for the SG Radio crew or our guests, you can call in during the live broadcast at: 1-855-TRV-inLA (1-855-878-4652)

For updates on all things SG Radio-related, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Lee Ving
Lee Ving is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the Los Angeles-based punk rock band Fear. Born in Philadelphia in the late ’60s, Ving joined Sweet Stavin Chain Blues Band playing with Michael Brecker and Eugene Busnar. Later, Ving moved to New York and formed the band Daybreak. In the mid-’70s, he moved to Los Angeles and in 1977 formed Fear. Ving has also had a successful career as an actor, appearing in Dudes, Flashdance, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Clue.

For more info visit: fearleeving.com/