TALKING PICTURES is an interview series in which I talk to the people behind some of my favorite movies. From cult movie directors to character actors, from seasoned veterans to brilliant newcomers, from celebrated artists to filmmakers who haven’t received the recognition they deserve – these folks have made some great movies and have lots of fascinating stories to tell.
I’ve written and directed the psychological thriller THE MUSE. My mystery/horror short CINEMA DELL’ OSCURITÀ was nominated for the 13th Street Shocking Short award in 2017. I’m currently working on a documentary on cult filmmaker Howard Ziehm. As a journalist and documentarian, I’ve also interviewed filmmakers such as Mick Garris, Jonathan Mostow, William Lustig, Uwe Boll, John Cox, Ken Wheat, Patrick Vollrath, Alan J. Levi, Sam Pillsbury and many others. If you want to learn more about me and my work, feel free to visit my homepage or my IMDB profile.
WHERE ARE EPISODES #21, #23 and #24? My conversations with editor Bobbie O’Steen, editor Anne Goursaud and production designer Richard Sawyer on the making of CHINATOWN and its sequel THE TWO JAKES will be released shortly.
COMING SOON: PITCH BLACK interviews with screenwriter Ken Wheat, storyboarder Brian Murray, animatronics supervisor John Cox, and more!
#35: “Nobody Said: Wow, We’re Doing Something Revolutionary Here”: Ron Bonk on his Early Found-Footage Film STRAWBERRY ESTATES
Today’s guest is Ron Bonk, best known as the owner of the New York-based underground production and distribution company SRS Cinema. Ron started out as a filmmaker in the shot-on-video world of the 1990’s, writing and directing low-budget genre films like CITY OF THE VAMPIRES and THE VICIOUS SWEET. He went on to direct several independent horror films like CLAY, MS. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or the tongue-in-cheek HOUSE SHARK. With SRS Cinema, he’s produced and distributed numerous other films with splendid titles such as AMITYVILLE BIGFOOT, PUPPET SHARK or COCAINE CRABS FROM OUTER SPACE. Our conversation revolves around a found footage…
#35: “It’s Good to Be Ahead of Your Time, But Not a Decade”: Director Dean Alioto on Pioneering Found Footage Film UFO ABDUCTION
Today’s guest is Dean Alioto, writer and director of the groundbreaking found footage horror film UFO ABDUCTION, which also became known as THE MCPHERSON TAPE. The film tells the story of a family whose house is surrounded by alien creatures one night, and while the panicked people inside the house become more and more frightened and try to deal with the situation, a family members records the entire event with a 1980’s-style home video camera. Dean made the film on a shoestring budget in 1989 while he was in his mid-Twenties, and while there have been several found footage and…
#34: “It’s very easy for me to scare myself”: Director Ted Nicolaou on THE ST. FRANCISVILLE EXPERIMENT
Today’s guest is Ted Nicolaou, best known for his many collaborations with producer Charles Band, including the popular SUBSPECIES series. Ted started out as a sound recordist on Tobe Hooper’s cult classic THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and then went into editing, working on films like ROAR, TRANCERS and GHOULIES. As a director, and ofentimes as a writer, too, he made films like the offbeat horror comedy TERRORVISION, charming fantasy movies for children like DRAGONWORLD or LEAPIN’ LEPRECHAUNS, and, of course, the aforementioned SUBSPECIES films – a series of vampire horror films which made perfect use of their impressive Romanian…
#33: “We Didn’t Think Anyone Would Watch 1½ Hours of Crappy Video of Running Around in the Woods”: Stefan Avalos on Found Footage Precursor THE LAST BROADCAST
Today’s guest is Stefan Avalos, who was once profiled by Wired magazine as “one of the twenty five people helping to reinvent entertainment”. Together with Lance Weiler, he wrote, produced, directed and starred in the found footage thriller THE LAST BROADCAST, a film which they also shot, edited and scored themselves – and which became the first feature film that was released digitally in commercial cinemas in 1998. The film is a true crime documentary about the two hosts of a cable access show called Fact or Fiction who disappear in search of the mythical Jersey Devil creature. A strange…
#32: “In 1999, There’s a Lot of Things People Don’t Know About”: Brian Leslie on Producing the BLAIR WITCH Follow-up THE BLACK DOOR
Today’s guest is Brian Leslie, producer of the found footage horror film THE BLACK DOOR, which came out in 2001 on the heels of the success of the genre-defining THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. THE BLACK DOOR was directed by Kit Wong, and Brian Leslie was brought on board by his production partner Lucas Lowe. Lowe, best known as the director of martial arts action films like KING OF THE KICKBOXERS and AMERICAN SHAOLIN, had worked with Brian on a horror/mystery anthology series which was originally called THE LEGENDS OF THE BUSHWALKER and was then renamed DIARIES OF DARKNESS, with Lowe…
#31: “I Don’t Need Cute” – Director Carl Schultz on THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES
Today’s guest is director Carl Schultz, and our conversation revolves around his work on the TV series THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES, or THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES, as it’s later been retitled. This lavishly produced early 90’s show, a spin-off of the popular Indiana Jones movies, follows the adventures of Indy as a boy, played by Corey Carrier, and as a young man, played by Sean Patrick Flanery, encountering numerous famous historical figures and events. Carl directed several episodes of the show, including the first few episodes which has the protagonist meeting contemporaries like Pancho Villa, Winston Churchill,…
#30: “It Made Me Read THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka”: Actor Sean Patrick Flanery on THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES
Today’s guest is actor Sean Patrick Flanery, and our conversation revolves around his work on the TV series THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES, later re-titled as THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES– a lavishly produced spin-off of the popular Indiana Jones movies which ran from 1992 to 1996, following the adventures of Indy as a boy, played by Corey Carrier, and as a young man, played by Sean Patrick Flanery, encountering numerous famous historical figures and events. Sean appeared in the lion’s share of the episodes, with Indy fighting numerous battles in World War I, joining Sidney Bechet’s jazz band…
#29: “We Need the Indiana Jones Character”, Says Novelist Max McCoy
Just like in our last episode, today’s guest is not a filmmaker but a novelist. In our last episode, I spoke to Rob MacGregor who wrote several Indiana Jones novels at the beginning of the Nineties – this time, I’m talking to writer Max McCoy who continued the series from 1995 to 1999 with four original Indiana Jones stories, starting with INDIANA JONES AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE and continuing with INDIANA JONES AND THE DINOSAUR EGGS, THE HOLLOW EARTH and THE SECRET OF THE SPHINX. Before his Indy series, Max had already written several novels in the Western genre, including…
#28: Mythology and Spirituality: Rob MacGregor on his Indiana Jones Novels
Today’s guest is not a filmmaker – but his best-known work is closely connected to one of the most popular movie series of all time. It is novelist Rob MacGregor, who wrote the novelization of Steven Spielberg’s third Indiana Jones movie, INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE – and then went on to write six more original Indy adventures shortly afterwards, starting with INDIANA JONES AND THE PERIL AT DELPHI in 1991 and then continuing with DANCE OF THE GIANTS, THE SEVEN VEILS, THE GENESIS DELUGE, THE UNICORN’S LEGACY and INDIANA JONES AND THE INTERIOR WORLD throughout 1991 and 1992….
#27: “Nothing Would Ever Top the Ark of the Covenant”: Screenwriter Menno Meyjes on INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE
Today’s guest is screenwriter and director Menno Meyjes, best known for his collaboration with Steven Spielberg in the 80’s. Menno was born in the Netherlands but moved to the United States in 1972 to study at the San Francisco Art Institute. After writing a script for one of the best-known episodes of Spielberg’s AMAZING STORIES TV series – “The Mission”, starring a young Kevin Costner and directed by Spielberg himself – Menno received an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE COLOR PURPLE, as directed by Spielberg. As a screenwriter, he also worked on…