Dear readers,
Here is a link to my latest article for LA Stage Times on Evan Brenner’s one-man play,
Happy reading!
Production photos by Phoebe Sudrow.
Bootleg Theater
2220 Beverly Blvd.,
Los Angeles.
Opens February 10,
Runs through March 3, 2012.
Performances:
Fri—Sat, 7:30 pm.
(No show Feb. 24).
***Please note early curtain time.
Tickets:
$30.00.
Box Office:
Call (800) 838-3006 or go here.
“I just finished wrapping my legs around a lycan’s neck and shooting everyone in the room.”
Sounds like just another typical day on the set of an Underworld movie. Sexy star of the first two films, Kate Beckinsale makes a welcome return to the popular franchise after a six-year absence to head up the fourth installment, Underworld Awakening.
With her jet-black hair worn in a stringy bob and clad in an ornately tooled leather corset and floor-sweeping leather coat teamed with skintight black latex pants and motorcycle boots, Beckinsale as vampire warrior Selene is the ultimate Goth girl.
In the new movie, a naked and vulnerable Selene emerges after barely existing within a coma-like state for fifteen years inside a cryogenic chamber. Once she breaks out of her frozen prison, Selene learns that she has a fourteen-year-old vampire/Lycan hybrid daughter, Eve (India Eisley), and makes it her mission to locate the girl. Selene finds herself in a chaotic world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans and are undertaking an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species. Selene leads the battle against humankind, but faces a formidable force of experimental ‘Hybrids’ – souped-up Vampires infused with Lycan genes and the ability to shapeshift. Early reports indicate that the Lycan-based hybrids are capable of taking on a Wolfman-like form while the Vampire-based ones can adopt a human/bat-like form. Somehow Eve holds the key to help her stop the evil BioCom organisation from creating a race of super Lycans that will exterminate them all.
Michael Ealy, Sandrine Holt, Robert Lawrenson, Stephen Rea, Theo James and Charles Dance all co-star in the new action horror sequel.
Written by series creator Les Wiseman and directed by Swedish filmmaking team Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, Underworld Awakening brings a stunning new dimension to the epic battle between Vampires and Lycans as it is the first film in the franchise to be filmed in 3D, on the compact and portable RED Epic cameras. The new Alien, Spiderman and Hobbit movies are all following suit, but Underworld Awakening will be the first of the movies filmed on the RED Epic cameras to be released, in January 2012.
Commented Mårlind, “The new thing with this film is that it has a wider range of emotions. We have more action, but it is different to the previous films – much more violent, gritty and brutal. There’s a sense of desperation to Selene’s fight.”
Stunning, bloody and action packed, Underworld Awakening boasts some explosive combat sequences and extreme violence. Early footage reveals the 3D filming approach to be a completely immersive one for audiences. At the center of the maelstrom is a capable female killer. A bit like a sexy, breathy and brunette ‘Brigitte Bardot’, Beckinsale has noticeably large and pale hands, which is surprising for such a petite woman. The scorching hot British-born actress wields an icy English composure while she slaughters her enemies and generally kicks ass.
Clarifies Beckinsale, “There’s so much that is familiar, it doesn’t feel like a departure. It just feels bigger and better and that we’re going a bit further with it. But yeah, there’s been a lot more action and I have a lot more bruises on this one.”
Beckinsale’s major acting debut came in 1991 when she appeared in a British TV film about World War II called One Against the Wind. She began attending Oxford University later that year, majoring in French and Russian literature, and it was while she was still studying that she received her big break in Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (1993). Kate worked in three other films while attending Oxford, mostly British costume dramas, in addition to various stage and radio productions. She began to seek film work in the States during the late 1990s and, after appearing in small-scale dramas The Last Days of Disco (1998) and Brokedown Palace (1999), she had a breakout year in 2001 with starring roles in war epic Pearl Harbor and romantic comedy Serendipity. Appearances in The Aviator (2004) and the mean-spirited Click (2006) followed.
Recalls the actress, “Early in my career I kept going to meetings and the character was a cop, but they’d be saying, ‘Well, she really does period movies and she’s English and she’s fragile.’ I love to do as many different things as possible – I think every actor does – and so I saw the first movie as a way to stop this whiff of crumpets and tea. It really worked – slightly too well, though…” she smiles wryly.
In her conscious move away from stuffy costume dramas, Beckinsale forged a reputation as an tough action star with the first Underworld movie in 2003, followed by Van Helsing (2004), Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Whiteout (2009). She has also opted to work on smaller independent projects such as Snow Angels (2007), Winged Creatures (2008), Nothing but the Truth and Everybody’s Fine (2009). Beckinsale has two other films set for release in 2012: the crime thriller Contraband and sci-fi remake Total Recall.
Raised in London, the actress had an eight-year relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen from 1995 until 2003 and they share custody of their daughter, Lily. Beckinsale married Underworld film director American Len Wiseman in 2004 and they currently reside in Los Angeles, California.
The demure actress seems almost irrationally ecstatic by the increase in violence. “I love the fact that she’s doing a lot more fighting in this one. I especially love all the wirework we do – that’s always a thrill. There’s a scene where I am sliding along a corridor on my knee and slitting everybody’s throats and that really hurt me when we were training for it. I’ve still got scars on my ankles from not wearing long enough socks!”
While adjusting to performing stunts and action sequences was a challenge, apparently Beckinsale took to using guns immediately. “It was a weird thing on the first movie. When it first came up, it was during that first period of training where they go, ‘Run!’ and then said, ‘Oh, god. Okay, throw a punch,’ and then ‘Oh, dear…’ I was so relieved when I got a hold of a gun. Suddenly it was like, ‘I found my thing!’ I think it is really only because I have enormous hands. I can’t play the piano or play basketball. It turns out huge hands are quite useful for handling guns.”
The directing duo Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein adopt a unique approach on set as on a daily basis each takes turns to direct the actors and action while the other observes. Beckinsale enthuses, “It really is quite cool. When I first met with them I thought, ‘I wonder how that is going to work?’ But they have a real system where one of them directs on a Monday and then the other one directs on Tuesday. The one that is not directing is kind of silent and doesn’t say anything. At all. I thought they would never be able to keep that up – it must be really difficult. But they really do. The advantage is that you get somebody who may possibly have been incredibly frustrated the day before and is so desperate to have his turn that he is full of enthusiasm. They are both really nice, as well. Sometimes they talk in Swedish and we can’t understand them. That makes me sad because it is one of the languages that I don’t speak.” She grins as she assures me she’s working on correcting that. “I am learning all the dirty words.”
That skin-tight rubber suit…
How does it feel to be stepping back into the skintight leather and rubber suit? “It feels weirdly like indigestion!” Beckinsale laughs prettily. “Actually, this costume has good memories for me, even though it does make it a bit difficult to have a big lunch. It’s weird. I’ve never played another character multiple times, so it’s a bit daunting to put on the exact same outfit that you wore a decade ago and try not to feel a bit different.”
So how long did it take you to feel comfortable as Selene again? “It was quite quick. There was an odd moment putting on the costume for the first time in the first costume fittings. I had forgotten that special shrieking rubber noise it makes – it was just so familiar. The first training period was incredibly nerve-racking. I was not somebody who was particularly athletic at school. I hadn’t held a gun before, I’d never thrown a punch – I’d never done anything like that. I was so completely out of my comfort zone. I had to go through the training because I was just terrible at everything. I couldn’t run properly or anything. So doing this one now, after having already passed through that barrier is really nice. I still expect myself to mess it up every time. I’m still in the same old mindset. But I am kind of good at it now.”
The corsets don’t give you any grief? “No. I mean – I am used to wearing corsets. When I was first starting out it was either Shakespeare or Chekhov. Everything that I was doing involved corsets. I guess I am just not destined to breathe that deeply.”
This interview first appeared in Filmink Magazine.
Likely to be a three-hanky weepie, featuring stunning photography by Janusz Kaminski and an original score from John Williams, is a new picture directed by Steven Spielberg. In War Horse a young man named Albert (Jeremy Irvine) forges a deep bond with his beloved horse, Joey. At the outbreak of World War I, Albert’s handsome horse is press-ganged into the cavalry and shipped to France and to the treacherous mud soaked trenches of the battlefields. Despite being too young to enlist in the British Army, Albert embarks on a dangerous mission to find his horse and bring him back to their idyllic home in Devon. Once in France, Albert is soon caught up in the horrors of warfare and dodging enemy fire. Death, disease and fate take him on an extraordinary odyssey that sees him serving on both sides of the conflict before finding himself alone in No Man’s Land.
War Horse is based on a children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo, published in 1982. By some reports, Spielberg’s film also uses elements of the critically acclaimed, award-winning stage adaptation that opened in London in 2007, notable for its dazzling puppet design by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler of the life-sized horses.
In Interview:
Within a large ensemble cast, Tom Hiddleston plays Captain Nichols, the cavalryman who forges his own connection with the noble creature at the center of this tale. Last seen as Loki facing off against Thor, the tall, fine-featured and erudite actor speaks enthusiastically about his recent experiences and burgeoning career.
Not surprisingly, he starts off by warmly praising his director. “Spielberg is a master. He’s just a miracle-maker. He’s one of the kindest men I’ve ever worked with. Deeply, deeply kind, and I think his kindness is something that runs through all his work. You can see he has a warm heart.”
Describing the relatively painless audition process, Hiddleston recalls the golden week that saw him being cast in both a Spielberg picture and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (in which the actor played F. Scott Fitzgerald). “I got Woody and Spielberg together in the same week – it was a good week. I went over to Dreamworks, which is on the Universal Lot in LA, and I sat down with Steven. He said he’d seen my tape and then we talked about the First World War history and horses. Certainly in British schools, and probably the same in European schools as well, the First World War is really a big part of our history and our education. So I felt very connected to it.”
Spielberg (L) and Hiddleston on location
The British-born actor recalls a treasured childhood memory that he shared with Spielberg during that meeting. “I’d played the trumpet on Remembrance Sunday when I was 13, and that was a great honour. After I told Steven that story, he said, ‘Well, I’d like you to do it.’” Hiddleston laughs with incredulity, adding, “Which never happens! Usually the casting director calls your agent and your agent tells you and then you have to do more tests. But he just asked me across the table.”
On the potential success of the movie, Hiddleston is effusive; “It’s just classic storytelling. I read the book, I saw the play and the reason the book and the play work is because it somehow encapsulates something very deep and profound about the human condition. In the figure of Joey, the horse, you find nobility and perseverance and strength and dignity in the face of horror.”
The actor describes War Horse as a story about redemption and survival, set against an almost romantic, poetic backdrop, adding, “In a way, there is a romance to the First World War because it was the most horrific episode and yet out of it came all that poetry and we learned all those lessons and there seemed to be no enemy; the great enemy was the War itself. It’s a very simple and beautiful story. Spielberg saw that when he saw the play and thought he could do something with it.”
Hiddleston struggles to describe his experience, fearful of sounding sentimental. “The book was so good. Richard Curtis and Lee Hall’s screenplay was so moving that I cried four times the first time I read it. There’s such a huge ensemble of characters, you feel how the horse touches so many lives in much the same way that those four years of horrendous trench warfare changed and affected so many lives.”
Filming took place during the summer of 2010 in Devon and Cornwall with South-East England locations doubling for the war scenes of North-West France. “My experience of shooting it was a dream. It was just a beautiful shoot – just glorious. Working with horses is amazing – they’re such beautiful creatures and they teach you so much about yourself.”
Hiddleston adds, “I think it will be a beautiful, beautiful film. I can say that confidently.”
War Horse is now playing in LA cinemas.
Photo credit: Paul M. Rubenstein
Gentle readers, here is a link to my interview with Neil LaBute for a new staging of an old play, Filthy Talk for Troubled Times, opening this weekend at City Garage, at Bergamot Station.
Also interviewed are the play’s director Frédérique Michel and also Charles A. Duncombe, who has written additional speeches for this new production.
Happy reading!
Opening next week is an art exhibition at the Robert Berman Gallery, found within the art enclave Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, that pairs Gerald Slota’s collage/photography with short prose by writer/director Neil LaBute, creating an evocative art form of mini-narratives.
Entitled Home.Sweet.Home, this art show is linked with a new production of an early play from 1989 by Neil LaBute. Filthy Talk for Troubled Times: Scenes of Intolerance will run from January 8th, continuing through February 26, 2012 right next door, at Track 16 Gallery, Bergamot Station, where the provocative theater company City Garage is currently residing.
In a recent interview with ArtsBeatLA, LaBute described how the unusual art project came about:
“This exhibit originated in New York [at the Ricco Maresca Gallery]. It came from a series of postcards that we created together and that were printed in Aperture Magazine. Basically, both of our agents knew each other and said, ‘I’ve got a client that likes your client’s work’ and thought it would be interesting to put us together.”
The pair toyed with various projects, such as a children’s book or perhaps stage design – things they each were already doing. “And then we came up with this idea or something almost like greeting cards. Something like what Edward Gorey had done, or Mark Reilly – people who had done interesting stuff like that.”
Adds LaBute, “Taking that as a launching point, I began to feed him little, three-line stories. Sometimes not even stories but impulses or lines of dialogue. Then we would see if that would shake anything in him, that would make him create a picture to accompany that.”
Did he feed you pictures?
“Occasionally it came the other way; that did happen once in a while. It was more often me sending him written ideas, and him responding.” LaBute says this was probably because Slota’s work took longer to construct. “He often puts layers of photographs together or cuts up pictures – he has a very deconstructive approach.”
This creative process occurred over the course of a year. “We came up with fifteen or twenty images that we really liked. There was a series of ten or so postcards at first, and then we widened it to do this gallery show in New York. We did create some new material for this exhibit in Los Angeles.”
Surprisingly, the pair of artists collaborated via email throughout the entire process. Reveals LaBute, “We only met after the exhibit opened at the Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York, late last year.”
The majority of the photos began with a line or two about families that turn on each other. The image shown above was born from three sentences that LaBute had e-mailed to Slota: “my parents died in the fire I set. only the twins escaped. they come to visit me once a year on my birthday.”
Slota was then inspired to create an image that illustrated the text, which, in this case, meant photographing a tiny house, then burning a hole in the photo and inserting a figure that could be an onlooker, or perhaps the arsonist, or even one of the twins fleeing the inferno, and then reshooting the entire composition.
There will be an opening reception for this exhibition on Saturday, January 7, 2012, 5-7 pm.
The performance of Filthy Talk for Troubled Times will follow at City Garage Theater, next door at Track 16 Gallery at 8 pm. Contact the box office to reserve tickets: 310-319-9939, or purchase tickets online here for the play.
Home.Sweet.Home
by Gerald Slota and Neil LaBute
Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave.
Santa Monica, CA, 90404
Dates:
Exhibition runs from Saturday, January 7, 2012 until Saturday, February 4, 2012
The shows will run concurrently in January 2012, with the exhibition scheduled January 7, through February 4, and the play continuing through February 26, 2012.
Gallery Hours:
C2 Gallery – Tuesday through Saturday, 11am – 6pm