This one was a lot of fun. John Johnson is a crazy independent film maker with the desire to resurrect Ed Wood’s famous (or is that infamous) film, Plan 9 from Outer Space.
With the blessing and cooperation of the last living cast member Conrad Brooks, John intends to make the film Ed Wood always wanted.
You all know I’m no fan of remakes, but this one has me stoked!
Have a listen and see what you think!
[Edited by Steve Crump]
Twenty years ago, a very unusual show appeared on the newly born FOX network. Sure, it was a buddy-cop show like dozens of others but in this show one of the cops was literally from another world. Eric Pierpoint was cast as the young, idealistic Newcomer cop ‘George Francisco’ to play along side Gary Graham’s human detective ‘Matthew Sikes’. Because it was considered “science fiction”, Alien Nation could address and comment on topics such as prejudice, immigration, racism, and slavery that other network show shied away from. Pierpoint would embrace the genre and guest star in many other sci-fi series including Babylon 5 and four Star Trek spin-off series.
In our interview, Eric Pierpoint reminisces about his time on the show and talks about how, even twenty years later, Alien Nation still speaks to topics and controversies that are every bit as relevant today as they were in 1989.
[Edited by Steve Crump]
Matthew Willig has had unusual career. He spent 14 years playing football for the NFL – even going to the Superbowl twice – but was forced from the field by a knee injury. What to do next? Willig decided to pursue an interest he’d only had time to dabble in before – acting.
Jonja.net had a great conversation with Mr. Willig. He talks about his unlikely path to acting, how he particularly enjoys being cast against type, and of course his role opposite Jack Black and Michael Cera in the comedy Year One.
[Edited by Steve Crump]
Lyta Alexander, the commercial telepath in J. Michael Straczynski’s epic series Babylon 5, ended up being far more complex than she might have first appeared. By the end of the five year story she had grown to become the universe’s most powerful telepath and maybe have laid the seeds for a telepath uprising.
In a similar way, Patricia Tallman, the actress who played Alexander, has had a more varied career than you might expect. She has acted beside Vorlons, secret agents, the undead, and played on more than one starship. Her most current work can be seen in Dead Air, a sci-fi thriller set for release later this year.
In our video interview from Starfest 2009, Tallman talks about working with Straczynski, one of the unexpected challenges of portraying Lyta Alexander, and her “knockout” encounter with the ‘International Man of Mystery’.
Connor Trinneer is best known for his role as Cmdr. Charles “Trip” Tucker on Star Trek:Enterprise. He spent 4 years battling Andorians and Xindi as well as his fellow officer T’pol.
After Enterprise, Connor found himself in an entirely new galaxy on Stargate:Atlantis as the human/Wraith hybrid Michael.
We talk with Connor about how he left the football field for the stage, his time on both shows, and where we can find him next in the Sci-fi universe.
[Edited by Steve Crump]
William Katt has been busy! Not only has he had his brief stint on Heroes, he has been busy producing comic books, including one that continues the adventures of The Greatest American Hero!
(Edited by Steve Crump)
Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo spent seven years together wandering the Delta quadrant on Star Trek: Voyager. Phillips played the constantly cheerful cook and self described “Morale Officer” Neelix while Picardo played his near freudian opposite, the nameless and often humorless holographic Doctor. But the set of Voyager wasn’t the first meeting for this unlikely pair; careers intertwined long before that.
Jonja.net had the pleasure to sit down with both of them at Starfest 2009 and we learned all about their cris-crossed auditions, who was really to blame for the most out-takes during filming, and more about fellow actor Tim Russ than anyone would want to know!
(Edited by Steve Crump)
Katee Sackhoff almost didn’t make it to Starfest this year. After having been bumped from her flight Friday night from sunny Los Angeles, she arrived in Denver to a winter wonderland with more than a foot of snow on the ground. But the Oregon native took it all in stride.
Katee, until recently, portrayed the character of Kara Thrace, the re-imagined Starbuck, in Ron Moore’s update of the TV series Battlestar Galactica. The re-envisioning of the character generated quite a bit of controversy both in the media and amongst the fans — something Ms. Sackhoff didn’t shy from.
(Edited by Steve Crump)
11 Minutes Ago is an independent endeavor with a very interesting slant. This feature length movie was shot in ONE day in ONE apartment in 11 REAL TIME increments!
From the website 11minutesagothemovie.com
His search for why he continues to return, despite personal hardships, becomes obvious when one of the lovely bridesmaids says “yes” to a question that he must have asked previously in the evening. This sends him bouncing around for 11-minute segments throughout the course of the two-hour reception. He is determined to find the question to which he already has the answer.
Underneath the main plot brews the exploration of the thematic premise that an individual’s relationship to time dramatically influences all aspects of life. Stories of the ensemble cast of wedding guests become clear in the jumbled non-linear timeline of the time-tumbler.
I loved this film! After seeing it I had to talk to some of the people behind it and learn more about how something like this can be pulled off. Bob Gebert, wrote, directed and appears in the film along side the producer and star Christina Mauro. Both were kind enough to talk to me about this incredible movie.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a professional astronomer and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. He is a former chairman of The Planetary Society and has served on the President’s “Moon, Mars and Beyond” commission, where he helped guide NASA’s space exploration policy.
Earlier this decade, Tyson inadvertently set off a firestorm of debate when he brought the public’s attention to an ongoing reevaluation of the icy outer solar system. He ended up being known in the media as “The Man Who Demoted Pluto”. Of course, things aren’t exactly that simple and Dr. Tyson has written a book, The Pluto Files, about his experiences with the icy dwarf planet.
In the first part of our interview with Dr. Tyson, he talks about how he got tied up in this controversy, speculates on future space exploration, and makes a startling prediction about discoveries he thinks might be just around the corner.
Here in part 2 of our interview we get a little more in depth about the controversy over Pluto and it’s eventual demotion.
[Interviews edited by Steve Crump]
