“It takes a little bit of time to find a sound youre really happy with…”
– Mira Aroyo, Ladytron
Reuben Wu and (Bulgarian born) Mira Aroyo from the UK band Ladytron have been on a DJ tour in support of their newest album, Witching Hour (2005, Ryko/Universal). I called the very hip Jupiter Hotel in Portland to speak with them before a recent gig. When I asked the operator for Reuben Wu, in true hipster form the hipster operator was like Ladytron! Cool!
Everyone knows soap operas…those daytime shows our moms and grandmas used to watch when we were away at school with improbable storylines where someone’s mother ends up being their sister, or they are in fact married to their sister who also happens to be their mother.
They have been chiseled at for years as lesser television with cheesy dialogue, bad acting, and laughable storylines. But the low brow art form has also been an important piece of the American television landscape for more than 50 years. Now, however, they are seeing a painful and rapid decline, and their ultimate demise could be in sight.
“Throwing a party in general kind of sucks” – Oliver Cooper, Project X
One great side effect of the “found footage” movie genre is that we get to discover new stars with each one. If they’re trying to pretend this is footage from someone’s camcorder, whether they’re lost in the woods or running from monsters, the actors have to look like people you wouldn’t recognize on the street.
Project X is a huge Warner Brothers movie and we’ve got an exclusive on the three stars. Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown play three high schoolers who throw a party to improve their social reputation. The party gets out of hand with naked girls in the pool, people stuffed into ovens, cars driven into the water and a flame thrower.
Mann plays the host of the party, named Thomas after himself. Cooper plays Costa, the bad influence friend who insists the wildest extravagances will guarantee them hot girls, as if he knows. Brown plays JD, sort of the quiet one who goes along with everything, but in real life he did the most talking.
The three actors are working as a set, so I made it a foursome. When they were told a reporter from SuicideGirls was coming, Mann and Brown got excited. Thomas, you’re not old enough for a subscription, you naughty boy, but we appreciate the love.
With The Amazing Spider-Man set to release this coming July, it might seem a little early to be thinking of a spin-off movie for the series, but it looks like Sony already is. The company is negotiating with Josh Trank, director of this year’s indie superhero hit Chronicle, to take the lead on the Venom movie. The idea of a Venom movie has been tossed around by Sony since 2008, but they are hoping to use the success of the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man to launch the spin-off. Trank has already shown us he knows how to handle the hero-to-villain transformation so a Venom film should come as natural to him.
Speaking of The Amazing Spider-Man, last week, Stan Lee revealed he is a playable character in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man videogame. There is no word on who Stan Lee’s character in the game will be, or if this will tie into his cameo in the movie. But fear not true believers, The Amazing Spider-Man game will be released on June 26 and all will be revealed then.
“The joke doesn’t necessarily stop when the movie ends.” – Tim Heidecker
If Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s TV show is Awesome, Great Job!, you know their movie has to be even bigger. So their movie is bigger than awesome, it’s Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. However, the movie is not a collection of sketches like their TV show. Billion Dollar Movie is actually about Tim and Eric blowing a billion dollars filming an unreleasable movie. So to pay back the investors, they have to revamp a mall full of crazy stores to make it a billion dollar business. The film still breaks the fourth wall and takes breaks for weird sketches, but there’s sort of a plot in there.
Heidecker and Wareheim premiered Billion Dollar Movie at Sundance, promising the audience it had been de-Rango-ed, which I didn’t get. They actually had two films at the festival. Heidecker stars in the experimental film The Comedy, which is named ironically. Set in a community of hipsters in Williamsburg, New York, the film is a statement about hipsterism. Wareheim has a smaller part in The Comedy too.
Wareheim and Heidecker were understandably exhausted when they did interviews on Main Street. Not only had they had midnight screenings the night before, but they stayed for the Q&A (where the audience gets a chance to ask them questions) and their own after party. I, at least, skipped the Q&A to get some sleep and prepare questions. Both films were notorious, with many audience members walking out. The Shrim scene in Billion Dollar Movie was probably the breaking point for many. I don’t even want to describe what it is, just look it up.
“I definitely dabbled in BDSM in my personal life.”
– Eric Schaeffer
Eric Schaeffer has a history with SuicideGirls. We interviewed him for his book, I Can’t Believe I’m Still Single, in 2007 and then featured him as a “sexpert” for a few weeks on the radio show. The author, TV producer, actor and filmmaker just released a new movie, After Fall, Winter so we got to reconnect.
Winter is the second in Schaeffer’s anticipated quartet, where every 15 years he will tell another story in Michael (Schaeffer)’s life. In Winter, Michael moves to France where he meets Sophie (Lizzie Brochere), who he doesn’t know is a professional dominatrix. Their manipulative relationship shifts as Michael explores masochism separately from Sophie.
A lot has happened for Schaeffer in the last five years. His dating blog tied to the release of his book became scandalous as women publicly challenged it. He’s also produced two more TV series and has another on the way. I’m sorry this interview becomes two guys complaining about dating. We felt each other’s pain, but came to a happy, hopeful place.
In fact, just before my phone call with Schaeffer, he’d reconnected with Betsy Fine, a girl he loved in 7th grade. She found him on Facebook and it turns out she’s a life coach, he’s researching a new show, Eric Schaeffer: Life Coach, so he spoke to her for research. She told him everything he imagines is true. So after Winter, there’s hope for Spring connections.
Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse), it offers a terrifying postmodern vision in the tradition of Blade Runner and Brave New World…
By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed over aging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious Citizen Status. To combat overpopulation, the U.S. has sealed its borders, instituted compulsory contraception and a strict one child per couple policy for those who are permitted to breed, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. But in a world where the old can remain vital forever, America’s youth have little hope of prosperity.
Jason Haggerty is an investigator for Black Buttons Inc, the government agency responsible for dispensing personal handheld Kevorkian devices, which afford the only legal form of suicide. An armed “Killswitch” monitors and records a citizen’s final moments — up to the point where they press a button and peacefully die. Post-press review agents — “button collectors” — are dispatched to review and judge these final recordings to rule out foul play.
When three teens stage an illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths may have been murders. Now his race is on to uncover proof and prevent a nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might just decide they’re better off dead.
(Catch up with the previous installments of Killswitch – see links below – then continue reading after the jump…)
