Originally broadcast 30/07/10 on Resonance 104.4 FM

Alex Fitch talks to actor Bill Moseley about his career in the horror film genre, and the continuing occurrence of sequels and remakes in his work, from appearing in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Bruce Campbell vs. Army of Darkness in the 1980s, the remake of Night of the Living Dead in the 90s (and its forthcoming animated prequel), a trio of Rob Zombie films, including House of 1,000 corpses and The Devil’s Rejects and the recently released sequel to a Herschell Gordon Lewis ‘classic’: 2001 Maniacs – Field of Screams….

The many faces of Bill Moseley

To download / stream this radio interview in a variety of formats, please visit www.archive.org

Links: Wikipedia pages on Bill Moseley, 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams and Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D
Official 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams website
Listen to Alex’s interview with Bill Moseley’s Army of Darkness co-star, Bruce Campbell

Partially broadcast 23/07/10 as part of an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM

To coincide with the release of the new Sci-Fi thriller Splice, in which scientists Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley create a dangerous half human hybrid via genetic manipulation, Alex Fitch talks to director Vincenzo Natali about the film and the other three movies he’s collaborated on with actor David Hewlett: Cypher, Nothing , the cult classic Cube and his forthcoming adaptation of William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer…

Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody being directed by Vincenzo Natali on the set of Splice

More for more information and a variety of formats you can stream / download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Wikipedia pages on Splice, Vincenzo Natali and David Hewlett
Official Splice website
Splice trailers at apple.com

Read Alex’s reviews of Splice and Cube

Listen to Alex’s interview with David Hewlett about working with Vincenzo Natali

Partially broadcast 23/07/10 as part of an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM

Alex Fitch talks to actor David Hewlett about the four films he’s made with director Vincenzo Natali – Cypher, Nothing, the cult classic Cube and their new film Splice, which is in cinemas now. David also talks about his interest in William Gibson’s Neuromancer and his directorial debut A Dog’s Breakfast…

The cast of Splice by Vincenzo Natali - Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Simona Maicanescu and David Hewlett

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: Wikipedia pages on Splice, Vincenzo Natali and David Hewlett
Official Splice website
Splice trailers at apple.com
David Hewlett’s website – www.dgeek.com
Read Alex’s reviews of Splice and Cube
Read an interview with Vincenzo Natali about Splice at www.sci-fi-london.com

Recommended events:

HOUSE OF MIRTH: Edinburgh previews finale

Featuring: JOSIE LONG!!! with a FULL PREVIEW of her brand whipping new EDINBURGH show: “Be Honourable!”…

1999 BBC Best New Comedy Award Winner and 2006 If.Comedie Edinburgh Best Newcomer Winner!

“Britain’s bright new hopes of the comedy scene” Sunday Times

“there’s a lovable romantic sensibility here, reminiscent of Daniel Kitson’s, but without the accompanying acidity…heartfelt and eccentric.” Guardian

Star of ‘You Have Been Watching’, ‘The Bubble’, ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’ , ‘8 out of 10 Cats’ and ‘Girl Friday’ amongst mega-loads of other things… She’s just signed a book deal. NEED WE GO ON? No.

And… DAVID WHITNEY

One of the stars of Channel 4’s FoneJacker…

“His trajectory is perfect. He squeezes the laughter out of audiences. He is the squeeze person.” Eddie Izzard
“dunked in a tongue-in-cheek laddishness that lends a playful spirit to the posturing. With bags of confidence and mainstream sensibilities, it probably won’t be too long before he’s a fixture on the bigger clubs” – Chortle

All brought to you by your regular hosts and SARA PASCOE and JESSICA FOSTEKEW! LIVE fighting guaranteed. With words though, only with words (and kicks).

Recommended by Time Out and Londonisfunny.com …

SOLD OUT every month since DECEMBER so BOOK NOW, HERE!

JULY 27TH 2010
Doors 8pm, £5
THE BETSY TROTWOOD
56 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3BL

On the Silver Globe, an esoteric Polish sci-fi epic directed by Andrzej Zulawski in 1977 – then lost and believed destroyed by the authorities for a decade before its cinema release – was screened at Tate Modern last year as part of a mini-season of films titled ‘Polish New Wave – The History of a Phenomenon that Never Existed’. Looking ahead to the release of this film on DVD in the UK, Alex Fitch talks to Andrzej Zulawski about his struggles in getting the film released and the travails involved in making his horror films The Third Part of the Night (1971) and Possession (1981) under the eyes of a communist regime.
Alex Fitch also talks to Polish poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and his wife Danusia Schejbal (famously depicted as the victim of an assassin’s bullet on Klimowski’s poster for Robert Altman’s Nashville) about working on the fringes of Polish filmmaking in the late 1970s and whether the films of the time could be seen as belonging to an artistic movement. (N.B./ Shorter edits of the two interviews were broadcast in an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance FM, 11/06/10)

Still from On the Silver Globe by Andrzej Zulawski and posters for The Godfather part II, Nashville and Stranger than Paradise by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal

Links: Andrzej Klimowski and / Danusia Schejbal’s websites
Andrzej’s pages at www.polishposter.com and The Royal College of Art
Theatre design by Danusia: A Chaste Maid in Cheapside and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Listen to Alex’s previous interviews with Andrzej
Info on Polish posters at Cinéphilia West

Info on ‘The Polish New Wave’ at Tate Modern including On the Silver Globe
Buy The Third Part of the Night from Second Run DVD

Coinciding with veteran genre film maker Joe Dante receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Cine-Excess Cult film festival in London, Alex Fitch talks to the director about his career so far, concentrating on his new / old film The Movie Orgy (1968) which premièred at the festival. The Movie Orgy was initially a 5 hour film made of found footage spliced together by the director in the 1960s as a calling card for editing work in the industry. It succeeded in this aim, leading to a job under Roger Corman and Dante has just finished a new 90 min cut of the film for 21st Century audiences. Alex and Joe also talk about his shift from ‘adult’ horror films such as The Howling and Piranha (which also screened May 1st at Cine-Excess) in the 1970s to subversive family fare such as Gremlins in the 80s and the possibility of that film receiving a belated second sequel.

Director Joe Dante and his most famous creation

To download / stream this radio interview in a variety of formats, please visit www.archive.org

Links: Cine Excess website
More info about the cult film archive and MA course at Brunel University
Wikipedia and IMDb pages on Joe Dante

Alex Fitch talks to Michael Almereyda about his new film Paradise, which is currently screening at the ICA and shows the director’s typically avant-garde approach to the travelogue film by collating his home movie footage from the last decade into a thematic sequence of vignettes about the modern world. Alex also talks to Michael about working with David Lynch on the belated Dracula sequel Nadja, Wim Wenders on the script for Until the end of the world and making Hamlet with Ethan Hawke…

Still from Paradise by Michael Almereyda

To download / stream this radio interview in a variety of formats, please visit www.archive.org

Links: Buy tickets for Paradise at the ICA
Michael Almereyda pages on Wikipedia and the IMDb

Recommended events:

Ladeez do comics – Cancer and Psychotherapy

In this month’s meeting for female comic book creators and fans of female comic book creators, the guest speakers are: Philippa Perry, Psychotherapist and author of Couch Fiction: A Graphic Tale of Psychotherapy and Ian Williams AKA Thom Ferrier , plus Columba Quigley leading the discussion on our reading book of the month: Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner

Monday 24 May 2010, 6.30-8.30pm, The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ

Please visit the Ladeez’ website for more info

Solipsistic Pop 2 at Orbital Comics

Pencil artwork from Solipsistic Pop 2 cover

Orbital Comics, 8 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JA

City of Abacus at The Book Club

Throughout May at The Book Club cafe and bar in Hoxton, London there is a month long exhibtion of the art from The City of Abacus by VV Brown and David Allain, illustrated by Emma Price and Lee O’Connor.

Opening hours: 8am-late Mon-Fri, 10am-late Sat/Sun
100 Leonard Street, London EC2 4RH
More info at www.wearetbc.com

Ray Harryhausen makes a monster while Julian Rhind-Tutt and Pamela Miles have a ghostly encounter in Darker Shores

Alex Fitch talks to two creators of excellent Christmas entertainment. Oscar winning animator Ray Harryhausen has long been associated with Bank Holiday TV programming and Christmas wouldn’t be the same without an appearance of Jason and the Argonauts or Sinbad facing off mythological creatures. Elsewhere, the Hampstead Theatre in Swiss Cottage is the home of Michael Punter’s ‘Darker Shores’, a new play in the style of M.R. James’ Ghost stories for Christmas, which stars Julian Rhind-Tutt as a spiritualist escaping the traumas of the American Civil War. Alex talks to Ray about his career and meeting a new generation of fans at the launch of his coffee-table book “Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life” and to Michael about using stage magic and cathartic laughter to haunt theatre-goers in the gentility of West London.

For more info, please visit the home of this podcast at Sci-Fi London (originally broadcast in an edited form as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM).

Links: Info about Darker Shores at The Hampstead Theatre
Review of the play in the Camden New Journal
Aurum Press website, publishers of Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life
Ray’s official website

Recommended events:

Comixmas exhibition

ComiXmas: When Worlds Collide is an exhibition of fantastic images from contemporary comic books and graphic novels, featuring work by the best contemporary comic book artists, along with images from past great masters of the genre. On display in the exhibition are prints reproduced at a strikingly larger scale by artists such as Osamu Tezuka, one of the fathers of Japanese manga and anime; Hergé, the Belgian creator of Tintin; Woodrow Phoenix, creator of the award winning Rumble Strip; Andrzej Klimowski, illustrator of The Master & Margarita; Reinhard Kleist, illustrator of Johnny Cash: I See A Darkness; From Hell creators Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, and many other artists. This free exhibition runs from 11 December 2009 to 6 February 2010 at the LondonPrintStudio Gallery, 425 Harrow Road, London.

Additionally, Paul Gravett will be hosting a free panel discussion How A Comic Is Made at the LondonPrintStudio on Thursday 21 January 2010, where you can discover the secrets behind writing and drawing comics, graphic novels and manga, revealed by creators featured in the ComiXmas Exhibition: Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal (Master and Margarita), Nana Li (Twelfth Night), Pat Mills (Nemesis, Slaine, Requiem) and Woodrow Phoenix (Rumble Strip). Followed by book signings and reception.

More info at www.londonprintstudio.org.uk

Click here to visit The Stroke Association website

More info here…

Also broadcast 20/11/09 as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM

Rip Torn, Joseph Strick and Henry Miller on the set of Tropic of Cancer (1969), photograph by Carlo Bavagnoli, (c) Life Magazine

To coincide with the ‘Directorspective’ of the work of Joseph Strick, currently at The Barbican centre in London, Alex Fitch talks to the Oscar winning director about his career from working as a U.S. Air Force photographer during the Second World War to directing adaptations of challenging texts such as James Joyce’s Ulysses and Portrait of the artist as a young man, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and Jean Genet’s The Balcony. A selection of 6 of Strick’s films will be screened on consecutive days at The Barbican from 19/11/09 and there is also an additional daily screening of a new print of Ulysses (1967) until 26/11/09.

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

Links: Info about the Barbican ‘Directorspective’ and additional daily Ulysses screenings
Info about Joseph Strick on the IMDb and wikipedia

For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here

In association with

Originally broadcast 16/10/09 as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM

Alastair Kirton as Colin and Stephen McHattie in Pontypool

In a special early Halloween edition, Alex Fitch talks to Jeffrey Coghlan, the producer of the innovative Canadian Horror film Pontypool and Marc Price, director of the excellent British living dead film Colin about their new approaches to the zombie genre on a limited budget.
Pontypool goes on limited release in the UK today, while Colin in released on 23rd October.

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

Links: Pontypool – IMDb page and Official website
Review at Cinematropolis blog
Alex’s mini-review as part of a Frightfest 2009 article at Electric Sheep Magazine
Listen to the radio version at www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice

Colin – IMDb page and Official site
Review in Revenant Magazine
Info about the Colin panels at this month’s MCM Expo
Read a transcript of Alex’s interview with Marc at Electric Sheep Magazine

For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here

In association with

Related news:

We Are Words + Pictures stall: Saturday 17th October, Girl Germs club night @ The Camden Head (from 8pm)
Join WAW+P creators Julia Scheele and Matthew Sheret as they sell and personalise the cream of the UK’s small press output from a stall with the ‘Girl Germs’ female pop and punk night at 100 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU

also: Hunterian Museum Film Screening – Medical Miniaturisation – Thursday 22 October, 7pm

Join us for our first ever Hunterian Museum film screening of two works on the theme of medical miniaturisation. Anime expert Helen McCarthy will introduce the classic 1963 anime Astroboy: Mighty Microbe Army about the robot boy miniaturised to fight bacteria inside the body, followed by the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage inspired by one of Osamu Tezuka’s early Manga works ‘The Monster on the 38th Parallel’. The museum and the exhibition ‘Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots’ will be open from 6pm so that you can see the mini-bots that turn fantasy into reality. Screenings supported by the Japan Foundation, the Japan Society and Right Stuf, Inc. FREE, booking essential on 0207 869 6560

plus: BLACK POWERS exhibtion at Swiss Cottage Library Gallery

As part of Black History Month, Swiss Cottage Library Gallery presents an exhibition of comics by black creators and of African-American characters in comics. The collection coheres around black representations through the imagery and language of the comic book medium: representation as markers of both historical and contemporary struggles. The theme is developed through archival works from the 1930’s to the present-day and culminates with a display of the singular comic art of Patrice and John Aggs, Paul Peart-Smith, Woodrow Phoenix and Lance Tooks.

09 October – 06 November 2009
Swiss Cottage Library Gallery, 88 Avenue Rd, London, United Kingdom

The Observer / Jonathan Cape / Comica Graphic Short Story Prize 2009
Are you an aspiring graphic novelist? Do you have an original story to tell? Win £1,000 and have your story printed in The Observer.
More info…

Deadline: 19th October 2009

and: London signings…

Fred Van Lente The third Autumnal signing at Gosh! Comics is Fred Van Lente, the award-winning writer of Action Philosophers!, Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies and Incredible Hercules, among numerous other excellent titles,and is one of the most exciting writing talents to emerge in the last five years. This will be his only London signing, so take advantage of this rare opportunity to chat with him… Saturday 24th October, from 3pm-5pm

Avatar comics signing: An all-star line up will be signing at Orbital Comics courtesy of Avatar Press on Tuesday the 27th of October from 4:30 to 7:00. Paul Duffield (Freakangels), Jacen Burrows (Crossed, 303), William Christensen (Editor-In-Chief of Avatar), Kieron Gillen (Phonogram), Si Spurrier (Judge Dredd, Gutsville) and Rich Johnston (Bleeding Cool Blogsite)

David Petersen /Mouse Guard: David Petersen be signing the gorgeous Mouse Guard Winter 1152 at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 7th November 1 – 2pm

plus: Autumn comics conventions and events…

October 24th and 25th: The MCM Expo at the Excel centre in London’s Docklands includes appearances by Andy Diggle, Jock, Leigh Gallagher, Alan Grant, Ben Templesmith ,Kieron Gillen and Emma Vieceli – more info at www.londonexpo.com

Also on Sunday October 25th, there’s the Women in Comics one-day conference at Murray Edwards College New Hall in Cambridge: which includes Belgian-based artist Dominique Goblet in conversation with Paul Gravett, Corrine Pearlman and Woodrow Phoenix discussing autobiographical comics work, Helen McCarthy on women and gender roles in the work of Osamu Tezuka, and other talks by Sarah McIntyre and Asia Alfasi. More info at http://tinyurl.com/womenincomics

5th to the 26th of November: Comica, the three week festival of comics in and around the Institute of Comtemporary Arts in London includes appearances by Eddie Campbell, David Lloyd, Brian Talbot, James Jean and Tara McPherson. – more info at www.comicafestival.com

19th to the 22nd of November: The Thought Bubble sequential art festival in Leeds which includes appearances by Paul Cornell, Garey Erskin, Garen Ewing, Andy Diggle, Frank Queitly and many more – more info at www.thoughtbubblefestival.com

Clockwise from top middle, Sally Potter and the cast of her film Rage, Jude Law, Judi Dench, Dianne Wiest, Eddie Izzard, Steve Buscemi

In an hour long talk / Q and A recorded at Cinephila West in Westbourne Grove, London, Sophie Mayer interviews director Sally Potter about her career with additional questions from the audience. Sally talks about getting advice from Martin Scorsese and Michael Powell while raising funding for her second feature, Orlando and conducting a Q & A via skype with Jude Law at the premiere of Rage at the NFT. Recorded and edited by Alex Fitch.

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

Links:
wikipedia and IMDb pages about Rage
Official movie website
Sally Potter’s website
More info about Sophie’s book The films of Sally Potter: A politics of love

For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here

In association with: