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:

From Eyeborgs, left to right, actor Luke Eberl, producer John Rushton, actors Megan Blake and Adrian Paul and director Richard Clabaugh, interviewed by Alex Fitch

Continuing our podcasts of talks and Q & As recorded live at this year’s Spring Sci-Fi London festival, Alex Fitch talks to the cast and crew of the new Science Fiction thriller Eyeborgs which sees surveillance cameras combined with miniature robots to create deadly machines that give Critters and Gremlins a run for their money! Featuring director Richard Clabaugh, producer John Rushton and stars Adrian (Highlander) Paul, Megan Blake and Luke Eberl…

For more info, please visit the home of this podcast at Sci-Fi London

Links: More info about Eyeborgs can be found at the official website www.eyeborgs.com
Wikipedia pages on Adrian Paul and Megan Blake

In association with:

Info about the Sci-Fi London Oktoberfest can be found here, including events at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, such as SCI-FI-UNIVERSE, a planetarium show from an SF perspective, talks with Doctor Who writers Simon Guerrier and Paul Cornell, a special screening of Star Trek (2009) and at the Apollo Piccadilly cinema, SF themed stand-up comedy with Sara Pascoe (Free Agents / In the thick of it), Mould and Arrowsmith, James Acaster, Mark Restuccia, Lou Sanders and Rob Deb. Also, (not) live at the Apollo, our legendary all-night screenings including an Aliens / Predator marathon, the customary MST3K quintupal bill and five new Anime films in a row including the UK premieres of Evangelion 1.0 – You are (not) alone and Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers.

Dario Argento interview originally broadcast 26/06/09 as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on www.resonancefm.com

Dario Argento directs Adrien Brody on the set of Giallo

In an interview recorded at the Cine-Excess cult film festival in London, Alex Fitch talks to Italian cult film maker Dario Argento about his career from writing ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ in the 1960s such as Once Upon a time in the West to his most recent film Mother of Tears. Alex and Dario talk about the importance of music in his work, why he doesn’t like being pigeon holed as a horror director and his next project Giallo.

Goblin circa 2009 - Fabio Pignatelli / Massimo Morante / Maurizio Guarini / Agostino Marangolo

Also, in a Q & A recorded live on stage at the Supersonic music festival in Birmingham, Alex talks to the Italian prog rock band Goblin – Fabio Pignatelli, Massimo Morante, Agostino Marangolo and Maurizio Guarini – about scoring Argento’s films from Profondo Rosso / Deep Red to Non ho sonno / Sleepless…

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

Links:
IMDb pages on Argento, Once upon a time in the West and Giallo
The ‘Three Mothers’ trilogy: Suspiria, Inferno, Mother of Tears and Luigi Cozzi’s unofficial sequel The Black Cat
Wikipedia pages on Argento and the giallo genre
Watch the trailer for his new film Giallo on youtube
BFI page on the rerelease of Once upon a time in the West
Cine-Excess website
Read a transcript of Alex’s interview with director Dario Argento in Electric Sheep Magazine:

Dario Argento: With Goblin or with Claudio Simonetti, it’s different. For Profundo Rosso (Deep Red), we meet in my house nearly every night and they introduce me to the work of the day and it inspires me to do the next scene. It was very important. For Suspiria we collaborated on the music – it was good to do it before shooting.

Goblin’s official website
Info about Goblin on wikipedia and the IMDb
Visit the festival website at www.capsule.org.uk/supersonic

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

In association with:

Gerry Anderson interview originally broadcast 16/07/09 /
Francis Matthews interview originally broadcast 13/08/09 as episodes of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM

In a special episode looking at two of the people most closely associated with classic Supermarionation TV shows, Alex Fitch and Robin Warren talk to Francis Matthews about providing the voice of Captain Scarlet and playing cult detective Paul Temple on TV. Alex also talks to Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson about some of his more obscure titles from Fireball XL5 to Lavender Castle…

For more info, please visit the home of this podcast at Sci-Fi London

In association with:

Links: Gerry Anderson’s fan club
Wikipedia pages on Gerry Anderson, Francis Matthews, Paul Temple and Captain Scarlet
Buy the Paul Temple box set from Acorn Media
Buy Fireball XL5 and Space:1999 from Network DVD

Monika Treut interview originally broadcast 08/05/09 as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up www.resonancefm.com

Federico García Lorca played by Javier Beltrán and Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali in Little Ashes

In the second of two podcasts looking at the current state of gay cinema, Virginie Sélavy interviews experimental film maker Monika Treut about her work including the new film Ghosted which had its UK premiere at this year’s London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Also, guest interviewer Chris Patmore, from Film and Festivals magazine talks to director Paul Morrison about his film Little Ashes, featuring Twilight star Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali, which looks at the relationship between Dali and the poet Federico García Lorca, as played by Javier Beltrán (Part 2 of 2)

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

To experience a recording of the Electric Sheep Podcast live, why not come to the Supersonic Festival in Birmingham this weekend, where ESM assistant editor Alex Fitch is interviewing the Italian Rock band Goblin live on stage at 6.15 pm on Sunday 26th July. More info here…

Charlie Kaufman interview originally broadcast 21/05/09 on Resonance FM as part of I’m ready for my close-up

Charlie Kaufman directs Robin Weigert in Synecdoche, New York

Continuing our series of twice annual looks at pairs of directors who combine genres on screen to beguiling effect, Alex Fitch talks to Academy Award winning screenwriter turned director Charlie Kaufman about his new film Synecdoche, New York and the processes of getting his previous scripts Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich to the screen.

Nacho Vigalondo in character on the set of TimeCrimes

Alex also talks to Nacho Vigalondo, the director of the new Spanish film TimeCrimes / Los cronocrimenes which mixes the style of a 1970s psycho thriller with the tropes of a modern, cerebral time travel film.

For more info, please visit the home of this podcast at Sci-Fi London

There are the following instalments of “Genre (crossing) directors” on Reality Check; episode:
2.11 – Charlie Kaufman / Nacho Vigalondo
2.01 – Tarsem Singh / Paul W.S. Anderson
1.11 – Garth Jennings / Park Chan-Wook

Links: Charlie Kaufman –
Charlie’s pages on Wikipedia
and the IMDb
Kaufman resource site – beingcharliekaufman.com
Interview in The Guardian

Nacho Vigalondo – Official Spanish TimeCrimes website
IMDb page about the film
Read a partial transcript of the interview with Nacho in Electric Sheep Magazine

Comics / sci-fi news:

Kamishibai.org is now live, being a resource for Japan’s performance art of telling stories with sequential images, including info on the next London performance of the form on May 31st…

plus:

Rutu Modan at JCC

Rutu Modan’s work has appeared regularly in the New York Times, and her novel Exit Wounds received the Eisner award for best Graphic Novel last year. With both delicacy and clarity, her work captures the complexity, surreal humour and emotional challenges of living in contemporary Israel. The novel depicts the quest of Koby, a taxi driver, for his father in the wake of a suicide bombing, with the help of the mysterious Numi. Rutu will be at JCC Lit Café in conversation with Ariel Kahn, the winner of the Bloomsbury New Writing Competition, a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Roehampton University, and contributor to The Jewish Graphic Novel. (Ed. Samantha Berman and Ranen. Omer-Sherman, Rutgers, 2008). Supported by Bank Hapoalim.
Time: 8pm
Venue: Upstairs at the Magdala, 2a South Hill Park, London NW3 2SB Price: £6 TO BOOK: www.jcclondon.org.uk

Interviews originally broadcast 01/05/09 in an edited version as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on www.resonancefm.com

Still from Helen by Desperate Optimists

Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new films which take the starting point of a character walking through a landscape and twist it into unexpected directions. Alex talks to Bent Hamer, the director of the gentle new Norwegian comedy O’Horten which depicts the tale of a recently retired train driver who gets embroiled in a series of misadventures of the kind Victor Meldrew would be proud of from losing his shoes in a locker room and ending up with red stilettos to ending up in a car driven by a blind man. Alex also talks to Christine Molloy, one half of the film making duo Desperate Optimists, about their new film Helen, which concerns a young woman who takes part in a police reconstruction of a girl going missing and starts to take over her life from dating her boyfriend to getting maths advice from her parents.
Helen is released in selected UK cinemas on May 1st /
O’Horten is released in selected UK cinemas on May 8th

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

Links: Desperate Optimists‘ official website for info on Helen
Artificial Eye’s official website for info about O’Horten
Listen to Alex’s interview with Joe Lawlor, the other half of Desperate Optimists about their series of short films – Civic Life

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

Alex Fitch and Electric sheep magazine editor Virginie Selavy will be interviewing Marc Caro co-director of The City of Lost Children about his work on stage after a screening of the film at the Apollo Piccadilly on Lower Regent Street at 9pm tonight, 01/05/09

and tomorrow, 02/05/09, at the same location at 4.15 Alex is chairing a panel with Marc Caro, Richard Jobson, director of A woman in winter, Cory McAbee (The American Astronaut) and Gerald McMorrow (Franklyn) called The problem of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film-making and you can find more details about both at www.sci-fi-london.com

In association with: