A New Year, A New Start For TNA (Impact Wrestling) And Myself

I know it’s no longer TNA but it’ll always be TNA to me

For those of you who know me, follow me and interact with me on a daily basis, you will know that I recently sadly lost my father to cancer. Thank you for all the kind messages of love and support and it is helping the family cope at this moment in time.

One thing my father was, was a fighter. He kept fighting all the way till the end and he tried to instil that in myself. So I am going to continue with my site, after taking a recent break. I am going to come back stronger than ever and work with my co-writers to make skatronixxx.com the BEST and most varied popular culture news site on the web. It’s what ‘Poppa S’ would have wanted me to do.

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 RIP Dad, we all miss you

2016 is a chance for new beginning and fresh starts and skatronixxx.com is going to smash it! I can feel it in my bones.

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Not many other people or companies get a chance for a fresh start, a re-invention. TNA recently went through a re-invention of sorts with the arrival of Hulk Hogan to the number two wrestling company in America, back in 2009. However their dreams of further cementing their position as the number two wrestling company, ended up with massive debts, long standing talents leaving and looking more like a number two you’d find in a public bathroom.

Was my last comment a little harsh? Maybe, maybe not. But if you consider the money they threw at The Hulkster and his cronies such as Orlando Jordan (remember him?).  You would have expected success then again, if you think about who they signed (Nasty Boys? REALLY!!) It was no surprise they ended up in the situation they found themselves a couple of months ago.

The television company that TNA had an agreement with had decided to cut its losses and who could blame them? Top talents such as Samoa Joe, Austin Aries had jumped ship to WWE:NXT, the now unofficial number two wrestling company in America (however we don’t count them as they are still an offshoot of the WWE powerhouse). AJ Styles packed his bags and left for Japan, where he became an even bigger star. Magnus went to Jeff Jarrett’s new promotion Global Force. Suddenly a roster where Matt Hardy had become champion (yes seriously), surrounded by the likes of EC3 (that’s Derek Bateman from WWE), Bobby Lashley and TNA mainstays Eric Young and Bobby Roode,  although these guys had talent were no way going to threaten WWE.

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 You let these guys go? You stupid, silly company

So let’s evaluate TNA went from being the main underground rival to WWE with a style on innovate and no holds barred extreme style to a watered down, almost bankrupt promotion that signed the 50+ Nasty Boys, whilst the talent it should have been built around left for pastures new. Sounds familiar to WCW does it not? When will people learn, you shouldn’t build around past stars, you should establish your own. Silly TNA. When you throw in the fact that new and existing promotions such as Lucha Underground and ROH were gaining more and more followers, their future did not look rosy.

Wow look at me go on about the past when I should be talking about the future, I did that so you could understand why TNA needed this fresh start. Will TNA rise from the ashes of the Hulk Hogan era like a phoenix or barely get set alight and slowly fade away? Let’s have a look as I evaluate the new era of TNA wrestling.

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It’s a well-known fact that TNA had been dropped from its previous channel in America, so when it was announced TNA needed a new home. Many choices were banded about, some would have been good such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, some not. TNA ultimately decided to go with a channel by the name of Pop TV (who???). Pop TV are a small start-up  company, although they were not able to offer megabucks they were able to offer stability and assurances that they would not be dropped in the immediate future.

Was TNA wise to go back to its roots and sign with a small TV company that offered a reduction in viewers but the chance to bring stability to its company? Well it’s hard to tell to be honest, as if Pop TV takes off TNA is in a very good position. But if Pop TV fails, TNA I feel will also ultimately fail too. So let’s not worry too much about that now and actually review the show.

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 Pop who?? Sorry Pop TV never heard of you

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The show starts with Dixie Carter talking about the ‘World Title Series’. For those of you who don’t know the world title series, was a tournament that was set up to determine and crown a new champion after Matt Hardy was stripped of the championship by an injunction courtesy of EC3. In reality the real reason behind it was because that TNA had no home and had to fill out the remaining episodes using a limited roster and limited matches. Thus the world title series was born. For those of you who regularly read the dirt sheets, you would already know that like many of the matches, the series final had already been taped with Bobby Lashley winning. So what was the point of these? Why not just scrap the storyline as we already knew who the victor would be.

As Dixie (TNA’s watered down and more whiny version of Vince McMahon) talks she is interrupted by EC3 and Tyrus (that’s Derek Bateman and The Funkasaurus Brodus Clay). EC3 is Dixie’s storyline nephew and was unhappy at his treatment from his aunt and accuses her of being jealous of his success. Dixie responds by saying that Derek has turned into a monster and a man she is ashamed to call his nephew. EC3 is one of the bright spots in this organisation and I used to enjoy seeing his skits with Daniel Bryan in WWE back in the day. Would EC3 succeed in today’s WWE? I feel he would given half the chance but would they give him that chance? Sadly not! Stick in TNA EC3 as it’s your time to shine.

Matt hardy interrupts and tells EC3 he’s not afraid of him and see’s through his façade. Matt then goes on to vow to win the title on tonight’s show as EY (Eric Young), another semi-final opponent in the world title series appears. What follows is a vicious assault on Matt Hardy by EC3, Tyrus and EY. That is only broken up when Bobby Lashley (remember him when he had Donald Trump in his corner at Wrestlemania?) saves the day.

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 Remember this moment? I bet Bobby Lashley doesn’t want to

The wrestling starts with the first semi-final match in the world title series BOBBY LASHLEY VS. EC3 . The match was the usual where Lashley dominates until EC3 distracts the ref to allow Tyrus 9EC3’s bodyguard) to attach Lashley when the ref’s back is turned. Come on ref, have you not seen wrestling matches; the baddies have bene using this tactic for years. Silly ref!! Lashley tried to make a comeback but EC3 wins the match with a roll up and handful of tights (tights? Wouldn’t trunks sound more manly?) hmm lol.

Ok that’s the first match and pre-determined winner has lost? That suddenly makes things interesting! Who will be the new TNA champion, well as long as it isn’t Hulk Hogan making a return ala Wrestlemania 9, I’ll be happy. Well unless it’s Matt hardy. I’m sorry Matt but you as TNA champ? As nice as you seem, I think I’d be better!

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 Could we see Hulk Hogan as a surprise champ? I wouldn’t put it past TNA

The show then cuts to the Randy Orton of TNA Bobby Roode  (one day he’s a face, the next a heel, make up your minds!!). Roode cuts an open challenge promo (John Cena anyone?) saying that he is going to prove himself. As much as I love Bobby Roode ( a modern day mix of Arn Anderson, Rick Rude, Randy Orton and John Cena) rolled into one we have seen this all before. Can’t we just turn Bobby bad again please? With promo skills like these, turn him heel and let him and EC3 form an alliance similar to Rated RKO and you’re onto a money maker.

Wrestling god Kurt Angle appears, yes he is a god, he has even been on my site before! And talks about his farewell tour, let’s hope it doesn’t last as long as One Direction otherwise he’s still gunna be here in 5 years. Angle thanks the crowd and then goes on to mention some of the people he has faced in his career, even dropping several WWE names. Although TNA has gone wrong by signing washed up stars from WWE. If Chris Jericho would have appeared I would have marked out for this. Sadly the challenge was answered by Drew McIntyre, I mean Drew Galloway lol. Don’t get me wrong Drew is good but if TNA wanted to go all out this would have been the chance to win and gain more viewers.

 Remember this moment? What a ledge 😉

Further into the promo lower midcard heels  Eli Drake and Jesse Godderz, interrupt arguing over who is the future star of TNA. A brawl ensues where Kurt and Drew clear the ring of the pesky knats that are Eli and Jesse and stand tall. A better finish would be where Drew then hit’s his finisher on Kurt to be left standing tall. But noooooooo TNA you went with the easy finish, shame on you. That’s just lazy booking.

We then to go the Howard Finkel of TNA Jeremy Borash who is speaking to Jeff Hardy. Jeff goes on to say that his brother Matt will win the belt. I don’t get why Jeff paints his face so crazy. I mean he reminds me of Sting but a more doped out, wacked out version.

EY enters to say that Matt Hardy is finished and washed up,  although I have been bashing Matt hardy, I still feel like he has a lot to contribute towards the promotion just not in the main event scene. So boooooo EY!! EY goes on to say he want’s the ref to start to count Matt out but considering the match hasn’t even started that just doesn’t make sense. EY was so much better as a comedic face. Yes I know I’ve suggested turning Bobby Roode and Drew Galloway heel, but let’s turn EY face. I’m sorry but EY should always be a face, like John Cena. EY as a crazy nutjob heel is wrong, it’s like eating avocado. You put avocado on your face not in your belly!!!

A promo for ‘The Miracle’ then airs, it’s a very effeminate promo and one can only imagine it’s for a new diva or a repackaged one. Could it be Trish Stratus making a shock debut or could it be Taryn with a new style? The news came out that TNA was using the miracle tagline to promote someone came out about a week or two ago. The ‘miracle’ was meant to be the saviour of TNA in epic proportions. Many were expecting Punk or Goldberg, if either of them debut later tonight with that vigenette it’s gunna fall flat. VERY FLAT.

MEH

We then go onto the next match in the world title series semi final MATT HARDY VS. ERIC YOUNG . OMG another wrestling match it’s been like forever since we seen some wrestling on this show now. The match was a quick affair that Matt Hardy won with his finished. EY piledrived (a move that IS banned from WWE) Matt to the floor, it looked pretty brutal, this resulted in Jeff rushing out to check on his brother.  EY then proceeded to go after Jeff too. Could we be seeing a Jeff Hardy/EY feud in the future? Maybe!!

We then cut to back stage to see EY going nuts like he does and trashing the backstage area. Sore loser anyone? Jeff then runs into EC3 where he  publicly supports his brother, if prowrestling has taught me anything these kind of public displays of support, usually result in a heel turn. Especially considering TNA’s treatment of Jeff and there lazy booking. Get me in there I’d do a better job. But hey that’s a story for another day.

Roode comes out for his open challenge. Wait didn’t he do that earlier? Bram who is like a crazier version of EY but also British, that makes him sound even more crazy accepts. (Hey I’m British I can say it!) Bram responds by saying that 2006 is going to be his year. FACEPALM!!! Bram you may be right as I see you being future-endeavoured in 2016 if you continue to be as crazy out of the ring as you are in it.

We are then treated to our third match of the evening BOBBY ROODE VS. BRAM . This is the usual TNA booking where Roode retains and Bram beats him down post match. What’s that??? IT’S JAMES STORM!!! James Storm is in the house. Storm proceeded to kick Bram’s ass, saving Roode and teasing a Beer Money reunion. I like James Storm he’s like TNA’s modern version of Stone Cold but a better wrestler. Would I like to see a Beer Money reunion for the nine millionth time? No I’m good thanks, make this a onetime only affair. Considering James Storm was meant to be in WWE:NXT this was actually surprising to me. Good work TNA.

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 BEER…. MONEY

We then cut back to JB (Jeremy Borash) who is interviewing Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky aka ‘The Beautiful People’ ahead of their match with the crazy women group ‘The Dollhouse’. So we have a group of self proclaimed beautiful people, don’t get me wrong they are ok looking but they remind me of those bitchy mean girls who would use their meh looks to get what they want. Turn this group heel, it works better that way. As for ‘The Dollhouse’ when you consider the fact they have two of the best female wrestlers around today in a ridiculous faction with little character. Split them up or give them more promo time. The Beautiful People tease a replacement for their fallen (injured) member Angelina Love, it’s the female version of Kurt Angle, GAIL KIM!!!

Beer Money then announce they are taking on the crazy team of Bram and EY at the upcoming One Night Only event.

On for match number four THE DOLLHOUSE VS. THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE . Considering that TNA actually has the best female wrestlers today in my opinion this match sucked. Lucha Underground does it better, where they have intergender matches and let the women wrestler a more relaxed and crazy style. Needless to say Gail Kim picked up the win. Post match Awesome Kong came down and beat up Velvet, Madison and Gail. Wait Awesome Kong as sided with The Dollhouse? This S*** just got interesting. I mean if you add the beast that is Kong to the craziness that is The Dollhouse. Skatronixxx approves.

The moment is here. Who is TNA’s miracle, I don’t know why but this made me think of when Damien Sandow debuted as the intellectual saviour of the masses in WWE. The lights go out, the music hits, who is it? It’s Armando Estrada. Wait a minute Armando Estrada is here to save us? Lol no it’s actually former ROH star Mike Bennett.  Mike is on the entrance ramp with wife former WWE diva Maria (Kanellis) in tow. Mike’s entrance would have been that more impressive is he wasn’t dressed like the man from Del Monte and Maria wasn’t slapping her thigh to the music like she was trying to swat a fly. But hey Maria is in TNA, that makes me happy 😉 forget about Mike Bennett it’s alllllllllllllll about Maria hahaha. Sorry ladies but I am male after all 😛

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 Is it a bird? Armando Estrada? The man from Del Monte? No it’s Mike Bennett

We then get another match announced where The Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) vs. Eli drake and Jessie Godderz is announced for One Night Only.

It’s time for the final match of the night. The world series final MATT HARDY VS. EC3 . Will Matt who has been built up all evening retain? Will EC3 cheat him out of his destined victory? Will Jeff turn on his brother? Will we have another surprise return? Or debut? So many questions, so little time. Well the outcome was pretty meh tbh. EC3 won the belt clean. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t like interference in the matches but if there was one TNA needed to interfere to further the plot this was it. You could have had Jeff turn on Matt, EY cost Matt. Anything could have happened. Even a returning AJ Styles, I know he signed with WWE days before but how much buzz would that have generated?

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 Your NEW TNA champion EC3, EC3, EC3!

Me? I would have had ‘The Miracle’ Mike Bennett debut mid match rather than before and cost Matt hardy the match, that way you have EC3 cheat his way to victory and set up a post match feud for Matt where he pushes Mike Bennett as a credible main event talent.

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So how was TNA’s rebirth? It’s reinvention? Tbh it was more like ‘new’ coke debut then seeing the latest iPhone. TNA you let me down, you promised so much but fell flat once again. I was neutral I gave it a chance but I’m off to Lucha Underground or even Global Force.

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 It’s Lucha Underground for me now, sorry TNA

FlashForward – One Series Wonders

Who remembers FlashForward or it was it erased like the other 137 seconds of your life?

Hi everyone I’m back! You miss me? Well I’d like to apologise as I have been very busy as are most of you this time of the year, and this is the first chance I’ve had in a while to sit down and writer so I thought I’d continue where I left off. With my series on ‘One Series Wonders’, enough procrastinating let’s get down to business ….

It’s time for part four in my reviews of ‘One Series Wonders’. In the first part I talked about New Amsterdam, the amazing one series show where Jamie Lannister played a semi-immortal detective before he was Jamie Lannister. In the second part I talked about Aussie Hawaii Five-0 star Alex O’Loughlin stint as a vampire detective in a show that in my opinion was cancelled FAR TOO SOON *HUMPH*. We then carried along the lines of detectives, in the third part I went with a wizardy private investigator show. It was the show that if you imagine Harry Potter all grown up and a recovering alcoholic resentful for his powers and the world. So to recap with had a semi-immortal detective and an immortal private eye and a wizard private eye. What did I choose to go with next? What’s that it’s another cop show? Well kinda! It’s FLASH FORWARD.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Well as you know so far most of my shows have been around the time of 2007 and 2008, this show is surprisingly almost from the same time too with it running over 2009 and 2010. Wow is FlashForward really that old? Yeah I know I thought that it wasn’t too, if you don’t believe me go ahead and google it, you’ll be surprised. See I told you 😛 The show was out at the same time as popular TV show ‘Lost’ and I for one personally saw a lot of parallels in the show; such as when the show would go back and forth between the past and the present. The fact they both aired on the same show channel also drew extra parallels and comparisons. The first episode also made you go ‘what the hell…’ and everyone would be talking about it the next day at work and school. But what was it about??? Well this is where it gets interesting!

Like my last article on The Dresden Files, this TV show originally started life as a book. The show is based on the 1999 novel Flashforward by Canadian science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer. I have yet to read the book, but it anyone reading this has, please let me know what you thought of it.

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Who’s read this let me know?

Imagine a world where nearly everyone on the planet simultaneously lose consciousness for 137 seconds, during this people see what appears to be a vision of their own life roughly six months in the future, as it’s the future this is where the ‘FlashForward’ part comes in. You may think it may not be that bad, but imagine suddenly blacking out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, the results would be catastrophic. Planes would crash as they had no pilots to control them or activate the auto pilot for one. Pretty scary eh?

This causes a team of Los Angeles FBI agents (why is it always America, why couldn’t it be us Brits or even the Canadians?) led by Stanford Wedeck (Courney B. Vance) and spearheaded by Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes, yes Voldemort’s brother) and his partner Demetri Noh (John Cho yes Harold from Harold and Kumar), who are tasked with the job of  determining what happened, why, and whether it will happen again. So to summarise most of the world ‘FlashForward’ and see there future and the task of finding out what happens falls to Voldemort’s brother and Harold from ‘The American Pie’ franchise. Eeep! But there is more to it than that. Like why did all those crows die at once? Did we ever find that out?

The show was ABC’s new ‘hit’ show, it had been running Lost for several years and as Lost coming to the end of its run the channel needed a new show. They even were able to bring on board British actor Dominic Monaghan who was also in Lost too. The future for this show looked good.

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Dominic Monaghan as a creepy villan? I don’t believe it 😦

The shows main plot is to find out what happened and why and how to prevent it in the future, sorry I don’t have much more on this show as it was jerked around by UK terrestrial channel Channel 5 during its run and suffered with timeslot changes. Boo!!!

I for one thought this show had great promise and like the other three shows either Hollywood disagrees with me or I just have a unique taste for doomed shows.

WHY WAS IT CANCELLED AND COULD IT COME BACK?

But why was it cancelled???  It launched to large audiences of 12.47 million viewers in the US but the show’s ratings rapidly declined to that of around 4 million. Although that may have justified some shows to continue, due to the large budget it did not play in FlashForward’s favour. It like Moonlight was also the result of an unexpected extended hiatus that may have contributed to the deteriorating fanbase. As I already covered earlier despite being given a primetime slot in my country of the UK on Channel 5, the fact it was on a channel that regularly struggles to reach the viewer ratings of BBC and ITV did not help. Would it have fared better on channels such as ITV2 (home of The Vampire Diaries), E4 (Supernatural’s residence), maybe but we’ll sadly never know.

So we have tanking ratings that act as a catalyst for the cancellation, but why was it official cancelled and could it come back? Well it appeared to be a victim of ‘The Curse Of Lost’, the shows channel ABC did not launch any new shows during most of Lost’s run and with FlashForward being the first new show it had a lot of pressure to live up to. However would the people who watched Lost watch FlashForward? That was a risky gamble to take and it appeared to ultimately backfire badly. Why though? Well first of all there’s no assurances that people who liked Lost would like FlashForward and like many shows that are kinda similar I use the term kinda ‘loosely’, people will try to find similar characters to cling onto in the other show and if they don’t they’ll moan. But it’s NOT the same show it’s different and I think people sometime sadly loose sight of that.

You also had the fact that it was an adaptation from a book and shows that original premise comes from books often have a lot of pressure to live up to, as the diehard reviewers will more likely than not come from the biggest fans of the books.

So to summarise we got an unexpected hiatus, scheduling changes, living in the shadow of one of the most popular shows of all time and the fact it is loosely based on a book too. All those seem to have sadly contributed towards its end.

Well despite winning numerous awards for the show and repeatedly winning votes for ‘Most Missed TV show’ it appears the chances of it coming back are about equal to that of a Dodo returning.

Below is the pitch from the books author writer Robert J. Sawyer, where he wanted to bring the show back and rather than shy away from the Lost comparisons, truly embrace them, be warned it’s a long read but in it you can a unique view into the mind of the writer of FlashForward and how the show could have and should have been:-

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“Since you’re exploring ideas for Season Two, I’d like to make a pitch. For better or worse, FLASHFORWARD was initially presented as the ‘new LOST.’ We got good numbers for the pilot, but then people started turning away; our audience shrunk week after week. Why? Because we didn’t live up to that billing; we WEREN’T the new LOST after all.

So, what does LOST have that we didn’t?

First, LOST depicted a huge disaster — the crash of the Oceanic Airlines flight 815 — and a desperate bid for survival in the aftermath of that crash, a survivalist theme that has lasted for many years now. But FLASHFORWARD didn’t do that. Oh, we depicted a huge disaster, then just sort of pushed it all aside, and went on pretty much as if it had never happened.

By the end of the pilot, “No More Good Days,” Mark and Olivia manage to magically drive home immediately following the flashforwards, despite all of the car wrecks that should have made road travel impossible for many days.

Shortly thereafter, instead of air travel still being grounded, Mark and Janis were jaunting off to Europe. And instead of Olivia dealing with tens of thousands of injuries for weeks on end, she was soon seen devoting her efforts to performing surgery on a Squirrelio doll. And by the time Halloween rolled around, everyone was trick-or-treating as if nothing had happened at all.

We kept TELLING people that this was the biggest disaster in human history, but SHOWING them that it, in fact, had less impact on day-to-day life for most people than did 9/11.

What else did LOST give us? A small group of characters forced to depend on each other for survival despite their competing agendas.

One of our notions early on was that LOST had only 40 stories to tell, while we had 7 billion. But in fact, we ended up almost never telling stories about the flashforwards of people outside our core group. We did it once with the guy who had Addison’s disease, but that was about it for flashforward-of-the-week episodes, and instead we became fixated on people who DIDN’T have flashforwards — Demetri, the Blue Hand members, etc., which would be a bit like LOST becoming fixated on people who had planned to be on that Oceanic flight, but had missed boarding it in time for take off.

LOST worked because we understood WHY we were concentrating on these 40 people — they were isolated from all of humanity.

FLASHFORWARD didn’t work because we were concentrating on our ten or so regulars, who, in many cases, had problems the viewers found banal — surely SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE, our viewers were thinking, has to have had a more interesting flashforward than an AA guy who saw himself drinking, or a woman who saw herself with a man who wasn’t her husband … but we kept going back to those storylines, without explaining why our focus was so tight even though the whole world had been affected.

And, finally, LOST, while concentrating on its core group, was able to widen the sweep to include other people as needed through flashbacks to earlier events. That kept LOST from ever getting claustrophobic, despite the confined setting and small number of people stranded on the island.

So, is there a way to actually make FLASHFORWARD the new LOST in season two? That is:

(1) is there a way to make it about a huge disaster again — and actually about dealing with the aftermath of that disaster and the need for survival;

(2) is there a way to explain why we’re focussing on a small core group, instead of telling the story of a worldwide event affecting 7 billion people; and

(3) is there a way to build a structure that includes intriguing flashbacks that periodically expand our focus?

I think the answer on all three points is yes, and although I didn’t frame it in the above terms (as a way to make FLASHFORWARD really deserve the designation of “the new LOST”), I did suggest the scenario below to David Goyer in a memo on November 19, 2009, and I’d like to repeat that pitch again, in modified form. Obviously, some story details have changed since then, but you’ll get the gist:

Why are the bad guys so desperate to perfect the replicating of flashforwards? Answer: they got TOO greedy, with disastrous consequences. They’ve been orchestrating miniature isolated flashforwards for years now (since 1991) in hopes, as I said in a previous memo, of gaining financial information from the future.

But they’ve also seen that the next flashforward (the one that will occur at the end of season one) will cause not just a global blackout (that is, not just a shutting down of the conscious part of the brain, leaving the autonomic part — controlling heartbeat, breathing, etc. — operating) but a TOTAL global brain-function shutdown: all seven billion people will die; their conscious, unconscious, and autonomic functioning stopping.

THAT could be our killer end-of-season-one moment: everyone (except for Simon and a few others wearing the QED rings) looking out at the Los Angeles landscape littered with collapsed bodies, and this dialog:

SIMON: “Another blackout. How long till they wake up this time?”

McDOW: “They don’t. They’re not unconscious. They’re dead. All seven billion of them.”

Off Simon to the end credits — and onward to Season Two!

From there, you’ve got a great springboard for what could truly be the new LOST:

* a handful of characters who didn’t die (those wearing the QED rings, plus, if we want, others who were protected some other way);

* disaster on a gigantic scale — the entire world shut down, and no hope of food or electricity production, etc., coming back online, because there just aren’t any people left operate the equipment, forcing our characters to fight to survive.

In other words, it’s a story about a small band of characters struggling to survive without modern comforts — just like LOST.

And it’s now logically a story about a handful of characters (our survivors) instead of the whole (now dead) human race — just like LOST.

And, of course, to tell the backstory (which I outline in the next few paragraphs), we WOULD need flashbacks, and so we could, as needed, expand the cast of characters — just like LOST.

Indeed, we could contrive it that the season-one-ending blackout that killed almost everyone had the effect of causing spontaneous, unpredictable time displacement for those characters who did survive, giving them flashbacks and flashfowards — just like LOST.

Here’s the proposed backstory and ultimate quest: The goal of the ‘bad guys’ we met in season one (Flosso’s employers) was to find a way to jump the consciousness of the human race PAST the total global shutdown, reanimating everyone; they’re out to save humanity (including themselves, as a subset of that humanity — they’re not altruists).

THIS could be the resonance for Charlie’s ‘No More Good Days’ line — she, and Flosso’s employers, had seen that NO MATTER WHICH one of the many worlds that might exist comes to pass, in ALL OF THEM humanity is dead; no matter how you slice the future, there are no more good days — unless our people find a way to leapfrog consciousness ahead, resurrecting the human race.

And thus, in our first-season finale, we see that Charlie is in fact quoting something she heard Lloyd say on April 29, 2010: in all the many worlds yet to come that branch off of THIS now, humanity is dead. Lloyd, in looking at the formula Dylan has written in lipstick on the mirror, realizes that a consequence of it is that a synchronized multi-accelerator event like Flosso’s people are planning will not displace consciousness; it will destroy it.

(Also, this could help rehabilitate Janis as the mole: she knows that helping the bad guys is the only way to ultimately save humanity.)

What we end up with is a Season Two that really is about a disaster, but a much bigger one than LOST ever portrayed, with the stakes — the resurrection of humanity — much higher than any LOST ever dealt with. We end up not just being the new LOST, but LOST to the max — bigger, grander, and even more involving.”

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Do you think those ideas could have worked? I for one would have been interested to see them happen. Sadly it seems we’ll never know.

An Interview With Up And Coming Actor Johnny Sachon

Here’s Johnny!!!

As you know from my last article I spoke to actor Johnny Sachon about his film ‘Shadows’ and the prospect of how our obsession with technology could be used against us. I speak to alot of people before I work with them on the site and Johnny is a genuine hardworking down to earth guy with the same mindset as myself. We both a share common goal that if you want to succeed you have to have the drive and passion and actually go for it rather than waiting for life to hand you a break.

Let’s find out a little more about Johnny, I was lucky to have an interview with him and here we are!

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1) How did you get into acting?

My parents met at their local drama group, so I grew up around theatre and acting. I guess me being an actor was always on the cards. I did a little tv and film work growing up but it was attending drama school that sharpened my focus on screen acting.

2) You appeared in the film Shadows, I’ve seen the trailer and it looks like an interesting concept. How would you describe your character and the film to someone who has not seen it?

In essence the film deals with the privacy debate and is a dramatic extrapolation of what is already happening right now. Shadows is set in 2037, where a totalitarian British government are using all technology against the people for surveillance – TV’s, computers, phones… everything is compromised. A small group of rebels, led by my Character ‘Lee’, attempt to bring down the system in the name of freedom.

Lee is an idealist and a revolutionary. In the film we meet him in his mid twenties, years after his parents execution having been accused of working against the government. He is consumed by the loss of his parents and his need to re-estbalish personal freedom in the face of the repressive regime. Lee is calm, collected and constantly calculating but is also incredibly passionate, with a deep anger that drives him. He is the spark to ignite the revolution.

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 If you haven’t check out my article on Shadows, you need to read it NOW!

3) On Shadows you worked with director/writer Luke Armstrong who has worked on films such as Skyfall and Guardians of the Galaxy. What was it like being able to work with someone who has experience of working on such big films?

It was a fantastic experience working with Luke. He has a very clear vision about what he wants, in the development stage, while filming, in post and has an understanding of how to achieve that vision because of his experience. I learnt a lot about the technical side of film making, working at a hieght level, and in every stage of production – Even down to the number of individual components that make up a VFX shot to how the hollywood ‘look’ is achieved in the grade. Luke and I have now worked together several times since Shadows and I think that speaks for itself.

4) What was it like being involved in a science fiction film? Is this a genre you have always been interested in? Also quite a lot of ideas and modern day inventions actually have roots that are tied to science fiction, do you think that some of the ideas seen in the film we could see in the future?

I think for a film to be commercially successful, a clear genre can be really imported – even if there are a number of sub genres under that umbrella. I’ve found sci-fi to be a genre that allows the film maker to explore current issues without it being too ‘close to home’ – whether they’re exploring something like society’s obsession with the perfect appearance or having our personal privacy taken away from us to save us from a potential disaster. If the film is set in a future world, another planet or with another species, for example, the films message can be easier to absorb, rather than the, often harsh reality of simply holding up a mirror to the world. I’ve always been a fan of sci-fi films growing up so it was an absolute pleasure working on Shadows.  As I said earlier, Shadows is a dramatic extrapolation of what is already happening now into what might be. We’ve already seen that two way TV’s exist and that conversations have been monitored, potentially viewed, without permission. Drones are already being used widely and in wars for air strikes and phone hackings have been a widely publicised scandal. Sadly I imagine that many such ideas will be realised in the not too distant future.

5) You also appeared in the American horror film Rage: Midsummer’s Eve, what was that like and do you have any interesting stories from your time on set?

I worked on ‘Rage:Midsummer’s Eve’ shortly after graduating and it was my first experience on a larger budget independent movie. I never travelled much growing up so filming abroad, on an American movie, was an incredible experience and one that I will never forget. Holly, who plays ‘Jessica’ in Shadows, was the lead in Rage and we have been great friends ever since. Luke and our casting director loved the chemistry we had in the audition so Holly was cast as our lead woman in Shadows.

For Rage we filmed in Finland during the summer solstice – so there was perhaps an hour of semi-darkness around midnight but that was it! One night a few of us decided to go out to a club one evening. I remember being rather drunk and very confused stepping out of an underground club into the blazing sun at 4am. There was a scene in Rage in which the group of us friends, me included, go skinny dipping in a lake. Now, I’m not a shy person but the idea of stripping off in front of maybe 30 cast and crew made me a little nervous. In the end the scene was beautifully shot and was nothing to worry about at all. The wrap party took place at a beautiful open air lodge in the middle of know where. Im very much a town boy so this was a little scary for me but after a few drinks I ended up having a traditional Finnish sauna, followed by jumping straight into an absolutely stunning, secluded lake. It all sounds a little silly now but it was quite romantic at the time.

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 Not seen ‘Rage: Midsummer’s Eve’, check out the trailer here

 

6) You’ve appeared in television, film and theatre, how would you compare acting in these three different mediums?

I’ve found in TV you often spend more time working alone. There is very little time for rehearsals (if any) and filming is usually fast paced with only a few takes. Once I Embraced that, Ive found it to be quite a freeing experience as an actor because you just have to make decisions and go with it. In TV series the audience generally stay longer with the character(s), so get to see them before, during and after a life changing event. As an actor there is a lot of room to explore and develop the character as they change and grow – like any real person does.

Films are usually about the event or focused on one moment in a characters life – not so much before or after. There is little more rehearsal time,process and generally more time when filming. This means there is often more opportunity to explore various options as the character and actor within the world of the script. In theatre there is usually even more time to emerse yourself in the world of the play and the characters. It’s a slower, longer process with plenty of rehearsal. Again, it’s generally about a moment in the characters life’s but the thing about theatre is that it’s live. There is instant gratification from delivering a good performance and of course, there’s a hug buzz from the danger of it being live.

For me I’ve found something that changes for me between different mediums is my focus. In film it’s as though I’m performing to a single person and my focus must have pin point precision. TV can be a little more relaxed at times, I’m still incredibly focused but It’s as though I’m performing to a couple of people, rather than just the one. In theatre my focus widens, as the audience are often quite large, and I must reach every audience member.

7) As well as being an actor you’re also a producer how do you find the role as a producer differs to that of an actor?

I’ve found that in both acting and producing you must be self motivated even though they are very different roles. I try to separate the two as much as possible so that I can focus fully on either role. As a Producer you can be responsible for getting the film developed, getting it off the ground, bringing the cast and crew together, helping organise the shoot, work out budgets and ultimately you are responsible for everything. On bigger productions there are many different producers with varying responsibilities- but on smaller productions the roles tend to cross over. It’s defiantly not the same experience or rush I get from acting but it’s incredibly satisfying seeing a film come to together from start to finish and being a big part of that.

8) If you could be in one existing film, what film and character would you choose and why? 

That’s a very hard question – There are so many great films and characters out there. I’d love the challenge of playing a dangerous, complex character like Heath Ledgers Joker in The Dark Knight. I still find his performance fanscintating as it’s so varied and the audience never know what he’s going to do next – which makes him truly dangerous and exciting to watch. Or I’d love a situation where I had to complete immerse myself in a character and change myself entirely. For example, like Jake Gyllenhaal in Southpaw. I don’t get moved by films easily but his portrayal of Billy Hope was incredible. He trained for months as a fighter, to a professional standard for the role and his on screen chemistry with Rachel McAdams was just incredible. Generally I want a character to stretch me or challenge me in some way or another. As a rule, if a role or a project scares me then it’s a good sign. Im following the careers of Michael Fassbender, Jake Gillyard, Tom Hardy and Jack O Connel closely and I’m aiming to have a similarly varied career.

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 Could Johnny be the next Magneto? Why the hell not!

9) What can we expect to see from you in the remaining months of 2015 and into 2016? 

Monday December at 10am I’m releasing a recent collaboration with Director Luke Armstrong. Spy Thriller – ‘The service’ with Brian Bovell ( Unforgotten, Holby City, Hollyoaks ) Sol Heras (Coronation street, Hollyoaks, Rock Rivals) Katie Goldfinch ( Shadows, The Midnight Beast) and myself.

 http://www.inspired-pictures.co.uk/service.html

Luke and I have been developing a feature length film based on Shadows the short film and now have a great script. I’m currently working toward securing funding for the feature film and I’m positive you’ll be hearing more about this very soon.

In early 2016 I’ll be appearing as ‘Lee’ in the world’s first truly cinematic interactive feature-length movie ‘LateShift’. To be released in cinemas and the app store in early 2016. This film is a gamechanger and could potentially revolutionise the way in which films are made and enjoyed.

http://lateshift-movie.com

10) Tell our readers one fun fact about yourself that they may not already know?

 In 2011 I competed in the Natural Power Lifting Championships and placed for the European finals.

11) Finally what advice would you have for an upcoming actress or actor?

Stay proactive and be persistent. It’s a business and a craft. Keep creative.

 

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Here’s Johnny! Be sure to check him out and don’t be shy tell him ‘Skatronixxx told me to say hi! ‘

• Follow Johnny on Twitter: @JohnnySachon
• Connect with Johnny on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JohnnySachonActor/

• Check out his official website: http://johnnysachon.com/

An Interview With Our News Reporter @mitch_rated

The names mitch_rated, @mitch_rated

Chances are if you’re a frequest visitor to the site you would have sadly seen my name appear on less and less articles but on the bright side you would have seen more articles appear with a different name attached.

The name’s mitch_rated, @mitch_rated ! Mitch aka @mitch_rated has been an invaluable addition to the site in the last couple of months providing the site with fresh off the press news covering all your favourite geekdoms. This was something that I was wanting to do but was unable to do as I am juggling another full time job and being a parent to Skatronixxx Jr, along with doing the feature articles, interviews and background stuff on the site.

Mitch is a friend of a friend but over time through shared interests and commitments to the site I’ve come to think of him as a good friend too.

I know a little about @mitch_rated and now it’s your time too, let’s meet @mitch_rated .

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1) How did you get into writing, and what can we expect to see from you on http://www.skatronixxx.com ?

I’ve been writing since college. I wrote a screenplay for a Tv assignment involving Zombies and I was bitten by the writing bug, or maybe Zombie would be more apt, and have been writing ever since.

2) Do you have any interests or hidden talents outside of blogging? For example are you a secret jewel thief or ninja samurai warrior?

I’m a dope break dancer.

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 I took a while but I found your crew!!!

3) What’s your top 3 fandoms? For example mine are Doctor Who, Ghostbusters and anything to do with Captain America (he’s like me but American!)

Been a Whedon-Fan ever since Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show nabbed me at the right time, encapsulating Horror with comedy and gave me the prospect that High School was going to be fun …

it failed to prepare me for the distinct lack of Monsters though, teachers not included.

Love the Star Wars franchise since my Dad took me to a re-release of a New Hope in cinema. Before then I had no prior knowledge of the films besides the cool-swooshy-light-swords, so it was good to get context.

The X-Men comics have been an important constant in my life. They were not only the first comics that got me hooked on the medium but they instilled morals and sensibilities that guided me through my early adolescent.

4) What’s the most famous celeb you have met? For example I’ve met Jason Momoa, Danny Glover, Lou Ferrigno and Ernie Hudson. How about you?

My other ‘real’ job is a hot bed for minor celebrities who I have rubbed shoulders with, but the most famous-ish was probably Joey Essex, who was a real grumpus.

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class=”inherit-font-size”>We need to get you to meet some sci-fi celebs and FAST!!!

5) If a film was made of your life, who would play you and what would the film called?

Ed Norton should play an older me and the film would be called “I know Right” and it will have a Big Fish style narrative.

6) Ghostbusters remake, will it surprise us or disappoint us?

A bit of both because I can’t see fans of the original Ghostbusters (especially those that hate the sequel) liking the nostalgia aspect without any of the characters they love. That being said I think the movie will surprise people especially with such a strong cast behind it.

7) What’s better Star Trek or Star Wars?

Never been a fan of the Star Trek Tv series but I dig the JJ. Abrams films. Overall though, Star Wars
wins.

8) Who’s your favourite Doctor Who and why?

Matt Smith because I haven’t watched Doctor Who since he left … sorry Skatronixxx

9) Have you got any goals for the remaining part of 2015 and into 2016?

I have my first WWE live show coming up with NXT Takeover London and of course Star Wars The Force Awakens. After that though, roll on 2016 and all that the future holds

10) Finally it’s time for the ultimate question! If you had to pick one and you couldn’t have the other ever again, what would you pick, bacon, cheese or time travel?

Oh thats easy, Time Travel. I’ll find other foodie goodness to replace them.

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So here we are, our news reported @mitch_rated , I for one would like to say I would be lost without your hard work and commitment to the cause if we go full time, there’s no one else I’d rather have as my deputy!

Shadows – An Interview With Johnny Sachon

They’re watching, be afraid ….

As you’re aware many of the sources for the interviews  for my site come from my twitter page. I either email people asking if they’d be be interested to appear or like my good friends over at Internity they reach out an contact me. About a week ago I recieved an email from Johnny saying he liked my site,  and was wondering if I’d be interested in doing an interview for the site.

Naturally I checked out his twitter page out of curiosity, the header on his twitter account caught my eye, it simply read ‘SHADOWS’ and there was a picture of an eye. This piqued my interest and after a few back and forth emails I agreed not to do one, but two interviews to help promote Johnny and his film Shadows.

What do you get if you mix an up and coming actor/producer, a director/writer with experience working on films such as Skyfall and Guardians of the Galaxy along with a combined cast and crew whose credits include SkyFall, Iron man 3, World War Z, Superman,Guardians of the Galaxy, 300, The monuments men, Edge Of Tomorrow, Jupiter Ascending, Homeland, 24 and Casualty? Add in a plot set in a Dystopian future that features scarily close to home and I for one could see happening in the not to distant future (I won’t give to many spoilers you’ll have to read about it below.) You get Shadows. With a cast whose combined credits read like a who’s who of Hollywood films you have to at least be curious. Check out the trailer below:-

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 Interested? Read on!

The official press release states that. ‘After premiering at the London Sci-Fi Festival this year Shadows is now doing its festival run. Since then ithas been selected for numerous festivals internationally and won several awards. There has been such positive feedback and a call for more that, while continuing the festival run, Johnny and Luke have developed a feature length version of the flm expanding on the ideas and characters explored in the short movie. With the frst draft completed and revisions in progress, pitches to producers and studios being organised, Johnny and Luke are determined to take Shadows forward and look forward to making their first feature film.’

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1) How did you get into writing/producing and where did the idea for the film Shadows come from?

Luke and I worked together previously on a few other films with mutual friends and decided that we wanted to make a film together. We basically started off by throwing ideas around until something stuck. Luke follows the news closely and Shadows was essentially inspired by the news headlines at this time. — The Edwards Snowdon case, the phone hacking , etc.

On most of the shorts I’ve produced I’ve been involved in the development process and with the script to some extent, at times even at the conceptual stages. Shadows was the first time I’d seriously collaborated on a script, working on the dialogue, character development and structure of a film. I’ve actually just collaborated with an actress, writing a really exciting second short film and me taking the lead writing this time.

I’ve always been proactive with my career – I believe that, while some are lucky, the rest of us have to make our own luck. As an actor I think it’s important to spend time networking, building relationships and connections — and nurturing them. Working regularly with talented people who are also your friends is simply an awesome situation and one that I would like to be a regular thing in the future.

With independent productions you must be prepared to go the extra mile as a producer, sometimes further. You need the stamina and commitment to see the film through and get it over the finish line and beyond – I feel this is one of my strongest assets as a Producer. And of course being able to go the extra mile as an actor — my mind set is I do whatever I need to do, to get the job done — within reason. As long as the audience buy the performance that’s what matter. With all that in mind I think Producing was a natural step for me.

2) How would you describe the film to someone who has not heard of it?

Shadows depicts the UK government using virtually all digital technology for surveillance and control over the general population, becoming a totalitarian state. By the year 2037, the British government, along with many others, has become an autocratic dictatorship. In order to control dissent and prevent a civil war, the government exercises a policy of automated surveillance of the entire population through all smart electronic devices and a drone program called ‘The Shadow Initiative’. Discreet drones are used to shadow people of significant interest. The story revolves around two characters names Lee and Jess. The young couple are quintessential revolutionaries, they’re romantic in their ideology and their relationship is built on this emotional connection to the hope of a better future.

Shadows was inspired with ideas ripped straight from the news headlines and is essentially a dramatic extrapolation of what is already happening into what could happen in the not too distant future.

 

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 Big brother is watching you

3) The film was funded via a Kickstarter project, how did you find raising the funds for the film via kickstarter and do you have any advice or pearls of wisdom for any other budding film makers struggling to raise funds on the site?

We found that most of the money raised came from family, friends and people who wanted to see us do well. We were very lucky to attract the attention of a generous investor via Kickstarter as he liked our pitch video and the films Luke has worked on definitely caught peoples attention. We bombarded every and anyone that would listen with our Kickstarter campaign. You can’t have an ego with theses things or be shy about it-get it in front of anyone that will listen. You never know who is going to back you, we were pleasantly surprised by some of the people that supported us. Make an effort with your perks and make sure you deliver on sending them , etc. Be persistent, update people on your projects progress and obviously thank them for their generosity — sounds like an obvious one but I’ve seen people forget with the chaos of post prod and getting the film out there , etc.

4) Although the film has a relatively low budget compared to that of the Hollywood, from the clips I’ve seen the special effects are pretty damn impressive. How easy did you find it making a science-fiction film on a smaller budget?

I had made a sci-fi short film the year before on practicality no budget for the sci-fi London 48hour film competition. However, Shadows was an entirely different project all together and on a much grander scale. We set shadows in the ‘not to distant future’ so that we didn’t have to change too make of the appearance of London – the subjects it tackles are also particularly relative right now, so setting it in 2037 seemed feasible.

We were very fortunate that Luke has worked on such successful films and is a particularly talented VFX artist himself — completing over 60 VFX shots himself in Shadows. A few of his work colleagues were also generous enough to help us out and work on the VFX. Long before the shoot, in fact before pre-production really began we filmed some test footage of me looking round a street corner at a mothership drone to see if we could actually achieve what we wanted and to the standard we wanted it. Luckily it all went well, so we got moving on pre-production.

 

5) After reading the press release for the film, it seemed like you put in A LOT of blood, sweat and tears into the film. How happy are you with the finished project?

We did indeed. I think, considering the constraints we had ( we shot everything in 4 days, over two weekends and on a 5k budget ) I’m incredibly proud of the ambitious film we made. I think with any film maker, and especially anyone who is a bit of a perfectionist, there will always be little things you’d have liked to have had more time on etc but everything is a learning experience. I think we’ve achieved an exciting, entertaining film that allowed us to explore the themes of surveillance, gage the quality of film we could produce and a film I hope everyone will see the potential in for a bigger picture.

6) The film premiered at the London Sci-Fi Festival this year, how did you find that experience, and what was the initial reaction of the people who saw Shadows?

Premiering at London Sci-Fi was exactly what we had hoped for and there was an overwhelming positive response from the audience. One of festival founders is actually touring the film with a handful of his other favourites at sci-fi conventions he visits around the world over the next three years. So many film makers who have premiered at the festival have gone onto great things and it’s very much the stablished home of Sci-fi film in the UK. Gareth Edwards’ success began at London sci-fi and I believe Luke is following a similar path as he has proven that he’s both a talented Director and VFX artist, successfully able to produce high quality, commercially appealing film on a minimal budget.

7) The film is now doing its festival run. What kind of festivals has it been at and how have you found that experience and where can we expect to see it next?

Although Shadows isn’t a typical festival film and is quite commercial in its appeal, it has been really well received at many festivals internationally, winning a few awards a long the way too. We’re now incredibly excited to be releasing the film early Jan 2016 for everyone to enjoy.

8) Is it true that you have been working on a feature length version of the film and is that something we can expect to see in the future?

We have indeed. The feature script is written and we’re currently talking to studios and investors. I’m working hard to secure funding to get Shadows the feature made and I’m positive you’ll be hearing much more about it very soon.

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Thanks for the interview Johnny. I know us here at Skatronixxx.com wish you and the rest of the gang associated with Shadows the best and hope it’s a huge success!

Interested in the film? Find out more below:-

• View the Shadows trailer on the official website: http://www.Shadowsuk.com
• Follow Johnny on Twitter: @JohnnySachon
• Follow Shadows on Twitter: @ShadowsTheMovie
• Connect with Shadows on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/London20137

An Interview With The Newest Member Of Skatronixxx.Com FranPan

 

Sorry Fran it’s the only photo I had 😛

Those of you who know me, know that I have been on the lookout for more people to join the merry band of misfits we call writers here at Skatronixxx.Com .

If you’ve been a long time follower of me on Twitter you’ll know that I started the site back in January (wow, we’re not even a year old) and I’ve gone from 30,000 followers to 85,000+ I’ve also took on another writer the insanely talented @mitch_rated who keeps you all informed with the news hot off the press. That has enabled me to sit back into more of an editorial role, whilst I try to secure advertising and funding to keep the site going. I’m also now main inerviewer and features reviewer, so although you won’t see my name all over the site like you used to. I’m busy pulling the strings behind the scene so to speak.

So we’ve got myself doing the interviews and features and @mitch_rated covering the news. That left a hole where books, comics and music are concenred. As we want to keep you entertained and informed. I’ve reached out to some people but not many respondded. Some have repsonded but but did not follow through on the goods so to speak.

So after a lengthy search, one that was almost as long as the wait for the next Ghostbusters film. The search is over! Let’s welcome @franpan to the gang. @franpan didn’t actually ask to appear on the site, I asked here. When someone is on your timeline with the name ‘The Amazing Spider Fran’ you can’t help but be a little curious.

I clicked on her profile and saw she was a blogger and not only that but a damn good one, after a few back and forth emails, here we are! Let’s welcome @franpan our book and comic (if she’s up for it) reviewer to the gang with the standard ‘Welcome To The Gang’ Q&A.

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1) How did you get into writing, and what can we expect to see from you on www.skatronixxx.com ? 

I got into writing at a very young age – I remember being eight and attempting to write my own book about a young girl who gets bitten by a werewolf that’s been hunting in her local area. I remember my auntie and mum being incredibly scared of it! And truth be told, I haven’t stopped since.

From me, you can expect excitement and eagerness in high doses to read and blog about everything and anything and a nitpicky need to ensure my posts are great!

2) Do you have any interests or hidden talents outside of blogging? For example are you a secret jewel thief or ninja samurai warrior?

I’m afraid secret jewel thief isn’t up there, unless you count starting the Uncharted games recently! I’m big into reading, mostly fantasy and graphic novels! I’m also a huge fan of the mcu and ensuring I see all of them in the cinema at least twice is where I am at. And I like video games too, though I wouldn’t call it a talent as much as a “well I got shot in the face again.” – but I have fun so I suppose that’s what matters!!!

3) What’s your top 3 fandoms? For example mine are Doctor Who, Ghostbusters and anything to do with Captain America (he’s like me but American!)

Only a top 3?! Oh my. If I had to be really honest, the entire MCU including spiderman (he counts now! But let it be known he’s the ultimate favourite.), Harry Potter and Throne of Glass (really awesome series about a female assassin facing a corrupt kingdom!)  but I want the record to state I’m also a huge Jurassic Park nerd and I cried a little in the cinema when I watched Jurassic World and you saw the park with the music and the things. Dinosaurs just get you man.

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 This series looks interesting!

4) What’s the most famous celeb you have met? For example I’ve met Jason Momoa, Danny Glover, Lou Ferrigno and Ernie Hudson. How about you?

Jason Momoa?! I’m jealous! I’ve met Robert Downey Jr, Scarlet Johansson, Chris Evans, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hayley Atwell, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Paul Bettany…basically all of the avengers so far!

5) If a film was made of your life, who would play you and what would the film be called?

I’m not sure who would play me – but the movie would most likely be called “how not to manoeuvre adulthood” or “oh god, Fran, not again.”

6) As a massive Ghostbusters fan this is important to me! Remake, will it surprise us or disappoint us?

I think the remake will surprise us! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not going to beat or be the original and I don’t think it’s trying to be. I think it’s a fresh take on a classic and I’m willing to go in open minded!

7) What’s better Star Trek or Star Wars?

Is there a difference? KIDDING. I’ve seen zero of Star Trek except the modern movies. But I did finally watch Star Wars a few years ago and loved the hell out of it, so we will go Star Wars!

8) Who’s your favourite Doctor Who and why?

David Tennant – he’s where I kicked off with watching Doctor Who, and I found him so charismatic and fun to watch! He’s an incredible actor and I was so gutted when his time as the Doctor ended.

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 Francy a ride Fran???

9) Have you got any goals for the remaining part of 2015 and into 2016?

Finish my goal of reading 50 books in one year (only like 4 to go!), read more comics, attend the Captain America: Civil War premiere, move out with my partner and find a full time job back in the digital marketing sector!

10) Finally it’s time for the ultimate question! If you had to pick one and you couldn’t have the other ever again, what would you pick, bacon, cheese or time travel?

Realistically, if I could time travel, I’d try and go back and avoid awkward situations and probably either A) mess up my entire future or B) make the awkward social situation 10 times worse THEN mess up my entire future.

I guess cheese. Bacon is avoidable but cheese is in everything great about life (pizza, paninis, 99% of Spanish and Mexican food) so, cheese. Yes, cheese!!!

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So here we are, our new gang member @franpan, ‘Hi Fran!!’ I for one look forward to your debut article 🙂

The Dresden Files – One Series Wonders

Chances are you’ve heard of the books but not the tv show

It’s time for part three in my reviews of ‘One Series Wonders’. In the first part I talked about New Amsterdam, the amazing one series show where Jamie Lannister played a semi-immortal detective before he was Jamie Lannister. In the second part I talked about Aussie Hawaii Five-0 star Alex O’Loughlin stint as a vampire detective in a show that in my opinion was cancelled FAR TOO SOON *HUMPH*. So to recap with had a semi-immortal detective and an immortal detective, what shall we go with for part three. Well how about the tv adaptation of my favourite book series. It’s the DRESDEN FILES. What’s the Dresden files about? Well it features a detective. Yes another one!!!

For those of you who are not familiar with the insanely awesome talented work of my author hero Jim Butcher are probably thinking what’s the show about? Well I’ll tell you, but first READ THE BOOKS!! They are awesome and I’m not just saying that, you would genuinely like them. Imagine Harry Potter all grown up, kinda resentful about the world, has turned into a bit of a badass and his best friend is a talking skull called Bob.  What’s more the lead actor is Arrow star Paul Blackthrone.  Interested?

 Even the trailer to quote WWE’s Edge and Christian ‘reeks of awesomeness’

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

This is again a show like previous ones NEW AMSTERDAM and MOONLIGHT that was from the same kinda time. No it wasn’t from the year of failed tv shows aka 2008, this was actually from a year earlier in 2007. I didn’t actually watch this show when it first aired or catch it on its reruns. I found out about it through reading the books. I bet you’re thinking, wait the books mention the tv show? Well no, it was after I did a Wikipedia search on the books, I discovered the tv show. It took a little bit of digging but I eventually found the show on Amazon Prime. The show looks a little dated sadly but the plots and acting of Paul Blackthorne means this show is another hidden gem.

Is it similar to the books? Well for those of you who have read the books but not watched the show, Jim Butcher stated, “The show is not the books. It is not meant to follow the same story. It is meant as an alternate world, where’the overall background and story-world is similar, but not all the same things happen. The show is not attempting to recreate the books on a chapter-by-chapter or even story-by-story basis”. He continued by saying viewers should not expect a duplicate of the books, and those expecting it would be disappointed.’ So although the characters are similar and plot may be too, it’s NOT the same as the books. There’s your answer.

​​

 How many have you read? I’ve read most 😀

For those of you who didn’t watch the show it revolved around Harry Drseden (Paul Blackthorne). Harry is a very reluctant and sometimes exasperated hero. He also happens to be a professional wizard who often helps the police with cases involving “unusual” circumstances and others who seek his help. For those of you who don’t know Paul or think he looks familiar but can’t think where from,  he is currently starring as Detective Quentin Lance in hit tv show The Flash and like myself he is a fellow Brit. Whoop whoop #TeamBrit.

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 It’s Detective Lance YAY

Harry’s mother Burdine was an extremely powerful witch who died when he was young (similar to Harry Potter). He was raised by his father who was a stage magician. When Harry began to age and reached around eleven, his powers began to emerge. His uncle Justin Morningway wanted to take him and teach him about his abilities, recognising that he had the same powers as his mother and hopefully exploit them for his own goals. So his uncle murdered Harry’s father with black magic when his father did not relinquish Harry to him. It is later revealed Harry inherited a large amount of money from his uncle that he gave to charity and owns the Morningway estate, in which he refuses to live.

As well as Harry the show also features Terrence Mann as Hrothbert ‘Bob’ of Bainbridge. Bob provides not only eternal and much timely needed pearls of wisdom but also humour against Harry’s sometime gritty and downtrodden persona. Bob is an ‘owned spirit’ and is owned by Harry. He was once owned by Dresden’s uncle, Justin Morningway, before Dresden ‘self-defensed’ him to death, (he fell onto the pointy stick honest 😉  ). Bob is an invaluable source of knowledge , which Dresden taps to solve supernatural crimes. Harry refers to Bob as a ‘supernatural jack-in-the-box’ due to him redesigning a ‘Doom Box’. This is best described as a pandora box of the wizard world, which contains magical energy but also amplifies it. The original Doom Box formula was included in a grimoire Bob wrote while he was alive; the book had been in Justin’s possession until Harry burned it. Bob’s current state is a punishment: he was executed, his soul sealed into his own skull for all eternity, for using black magic to bring a sorceress he had loved (Winnifred) back from the dead several hundred years ago. Bob died from an axe blow to the back of the head in the year 900 AD.

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 Ladies and gentleman meet Bob in his human form

The shows main plot is Harry’s struggles to exist in the wizard world and real world as he continues to balance his job as a private investigator along with his wizard world struggles under the watchful eye of the High Council. The High Council are the governing body of the wizarding community. They often confront Harry because of their differing ideals especially where innocents (muggles or non wizards) are involved.

So that’s the show it features a gritty wizard private eye who’s best friend and mentor is a talking skull named Bob as they solve crimes! It has to be seen (and read).

WHY WAS IT CANCELLED AND COULD IT COME BACK?

But why was it cancelled??? It seems like the other two shows also suffered from the same fate as the Dresden Files. It aired in an era where it was too ahead of its time. Imagine the show airing on TV these days. If a show like Lost Girl can run for 5 seasons, surely the Dresden Files could have run for 5 if not more seasons.

Imagine if they brought it back today they could expand more upon the High Council and Vampire Courts for one, oops am I revealing too much I guess you’ll have to watch the show and read the books!

When asked on GoodReads if the Drsden Files could make a comeback Jim Butcher responded by saying the following. ‘There is every chance! Talks are underway, though they usually are. We’ll have to see if anything pans out. 🙂 ’ Although this is from a year ago, I’m still holding out for hope.

Moonlight – One Series Wonders

 I MISS THIS SHOW *HUMPH* STUPID TV EXECS

It’s time for part two in my reviews of ‘One Series Wonders’. In the last part I talked about New Amsterdam the amazing one series show where Jamie Lannister played a semi-immortal detective before he was Jamie Lannister. This time I decided to go with a similar kinda show. It features an immortal person, who solves crimes, stuck for ideas?  I know Hollywood are, I mean come on how many paranormal cop shows can we handle? But that’s a story for another day. As for the show. How about MOONLIGHT. Wait you thought I said Twilight? No that’s a film my tweeps. This is a tv series.

Ok with a tv series called Moonlight it must be about Werewolves right? WRONG! Moonlight is a show about vampires. As vampires only come out at night, or in the moonlight the shows creators decided to call in Moonlight get it?

 Yes I know it looks cheesey but stick with it, it’s AWESOME

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

This is a show that like NEW AMSTERDAM (covered in the last post) that was from 2008 in the year I like to call. The year of sadly failed tv shows. I remember watching this show when it aired on British channel Virgin one back in the day. It is yet to my knowledge to be repeated, which is a shame because it was a DAMN good show. I remember getting it on dvd a few years ago and rewatching it and I gotta say it does hold up.

For those of you that didn’t watch the show it revolved around Mick St. John (Alex O’Loughlin) do you recognise him? Well that’s because he’s currently starring in tv show Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett on CBS’ remake of the TV series Hawaii Five-0. Mick is a private investigator who was turned into a vampire on the night of his wedding by his bride, Coraline. That’s unlucky eh? But then again how do you not know that your fiancé is a vampire? I mean surely all the rejections to putting garlic in your cooking was a clue Mick. Silly Mick *tut tut tut*

Mick is 85 years old, (which is relatively young in vampire terms) and unlike other vampires, he has standards and morals, which is refreshing but also sadly kinda annoying. At the start you think he is a goody goody but as time progresses more layers are revealed and he kinda grows on you. I know, I know, I’m not selling the show but bear with me. Think of him like a orange, once you get past that annoying outside later and even more annoying pithy layer you find that not only is the orange cool but DAMN awesome and the same can be said for Mick. Yes I just compared a tv character to an orange. Who else but me eh?

Mick does not hunt women, children, or innocents. This is where his job as a private investigator comes in handy. Not only can he use his heightened vampire super powers to solve crimes and make some money, it also provides him with his next meal aka the baddies! This issue is complicated when he runs into Beth by Sophia Myles on a case. Beth is an investigative reporter for internet website Buzzwire. Beth like Mick has many layers, she was abducted as a child and rescued by a mysterious stranger who bears a striking resemblance to Mick.  Could it be Mick? Did Mick save Beth as a child? If so who did he save her from? Well that’s answered halfway through the series and as the series progresses so does Mick and Beth’s feelings for each other. These are hampered for a moment upon Beth’s realisation that the mysterious man of her dreams is a blood sucking demon of the night!

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 It looks more like a photoshoot from ‘The Apprentice’ instead of a paranormal crime show

The show features Mick’s narrative and sometime cheesey lines like ‘it’s not easy being a vampire, sometimes it sucks’, but I like it. It kinda gives you an idea of what it is like to be a vampire  and know that they are not all blood sucking monsters but also have thoughts and feelings too. Although Mick is a relative baby in the world of vampires, he is shown to have wisdom beyond his years. This is mainly down to the guidance of his friend Josef Kostan (played by veronica Mars actor Jason Dohring).

Josef Kostan is a 410-year-old vampire and is also Mick’s mentor and best friend. He is what I would be, if I was ever a vampire. A shrewd business man who has used his age to amass a powerful fortune and empire, surrounded by women who are happy to satisfy his desire for blood. He is Mick’s polar opposite and the two often play off each other and have polar views on how vampires should be in society but they work well together. Jason Dohring plays this role brilliantly and if you watch this show, you will agree that he steals it and in my opinion would be a brilliant future Lex Luthor.

​​

 Aww ain’t that sweet its a vampire bromance

The shows main plot is Mick and Beth’s relationship that is hampered by the return of a stranger who looks A LOT like Mick’s ex-wife but it can’t be her can it, as she’s dead? It also deals with a lot of vampire folklore and how they would adapt in a modern world. Think ‘Interview With The Vampire’ but expanded. But it also has strong ties towards it’s vampiric roots, roots  that are strongly associated with the French Revolution and a novel reason for the invention of a guillotine. If you think about it. You’ll get it!

So that’s the show it features a vampire who was turned on his wedding night who is now a private investigator who rights wrongs, has morals and standards and eats the bad guys for lunch. An investigative reporter who was abducted as a child and rescued by a man who looks like Mick and a 410 year old vampire with the attitude of Alan Sugar.

WHY WAS IT CANCELLED AND COULD IT COME BACK?

But why was it cancelled??? Moonlight had a loyal and devoted fan base which included internet communities. Vampires were in too with Twilight and Underworld being huge at the time. The series averaged over 7 and a half million viewers per episode. The pilot was actually first among total viewers and adults 18–49 for its night, and was seen by 8.54 million American viewers. The series finale had just under 7 and a half million viewers. Unlike some programs that start of strong and fall apart like a zombie this show clearly had a loyal fanbase so why was it cancelled? WHY??? Plus when you consider the ending the show had as well, that made even less sense!

It seemed like the show suffered badly from reviewers. If you search the internet for reviews on the show you will find more bad than good. They did have a point and they chose to focus on most of the negative points that I also mentioned early. HOWEVER if the reviewers actually stuck with the show they would have realised that they were missing out on a gem. This is further highlighted by many of the reviewers rewatching the series years later and actually changing their opinions. Yes the show was cheesey at the start but aren’t a lot of shows. Yes I know it’s not Twilight or Buffy or Underworld of Angel, but is it fair to compare all vampire shows? No! Judge this one on its own merits and you’ll see that it had it’s own little niche target audience.

Moonlight also suffered not only at the hands of lazy non committal reviewers but due to political issues at the time. Due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, only twelve episodes of the original thirteen-episode order were produced Once the strike ended, CBS announced that the series would return April 25, 2008 with four new episodes, to be part of the series’ first season. These last 4 episodes made up the end of the first series. This was a massive shame as just as the show had begun to recover from the stuttering start it was stopped in it’s tracks and found itself cancelled on May 2008. Following its cancellation Warner Bros. talked with other companies about their interest in the series; however, the efforts failed, and the series was permanently cancelled. The show had received its final nail in the coffin and stake through its heart.

Could the show come back? Well that’s an interesting proposition. As I searched for news of stars thoughts on a possible remake, I came across a story from YESTERDAY that claimed that CBS confirmed a revival of the popular sitcom for 2016. But sadly it was a false report. So it just goes to show that like many things such as the characters in it’s show that have risen from the grave. There’s hope for Moonlight.

 Sadly it won’t be remade so go watch these and buy the DVD NOW!!

New Amsterdam – One Series Wonders

Who remembers this show?

Many things are making a come back, Ghostbusters, Star Wars and now me. Yes the Skatronixxx blog is making a comeback! Why has it been so long? What have I been up to? Well if you must know I’ve been away helping Indiana Jones on his latest mission to eradicate Shia Lebouf from the franchise. Haha I wish! Actually while the site and your nerdy news has been in the more than capable hands of my awesome co-writer Mitch aka @mitch_rated. I’ve been controlling things like the evil villainous Puppet Master from the Marvel behind the scenes, but less evil of course.

What have I been up to? Well the ever continuing quest to find a female blogger still eludes me, ladies if you write and want be on my site, email me now! I’ve also been reaching out to some of my verified followers to see if they would like some interviews. Some has responded, some have not. The waiting game continues. In an effort to grow the site, I’ve also been trying to secure an advertiser. I’ve reached out to over 200+ people and businesses some big, some small. All we need is one company, just one to take a chance and BOOM skatronixxx.com will be taking over the world wide web like Spiderman shoots webs 😉

I gotta be honest running a site is hard work and it feels like I’ve moved away from the writing that I love and more into a business type position, but I’m not one to lose track of why I set up the site in the first place and with that in mind the SKATRONIXXX BLOG IS BACK!!!!

TO BE CONTINUED …..

Hey you didn’t think I’d end it like that did you?  The real question is what to blog about. I asked you my loyal #SkatFamily members in a twitter poll about that you would like to see me blog about and the answer was a landslide victory. But what was it? It was *drum roll* ONE SHOW SERIES WONDERS, CANCELLED WHY?

You may be thinking oooooooooooook, but let me explain I’m not going to write full in depth reviews about every awesome amazing show that was cancelled after one series. Well I am kinda but there’s more to it than that. I’m also going to leave my thoughts on whether the show actually benefited from having just one season or would have flourished had producers stuck with it.

To be honest I did have a list of all the shows covered that I wanted to talk about and I found that as I was writing about them, it would have ended up with the blog being longer than the intro to Game of Thrones. So I’ve decided to do each show as its own separate blog. That way you get more blogs from me too. YAY!

So where to start, no I’m not going to start with THAT show although I will be writing about it. I chose to start with one of my faves that is often forgotten.

It’s NEW AMSTERDAM. Wait a minute isn’t that the Luke Skywalker of Game Of Thrones? Whats’s Jamie Lannister doing in a suit? Yes you’re right it’s Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau before he rose to fame  as the guy you love to hate but also hate that you love from Game Of Thrones.

 One of the rare clips from the show I was able to find

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

This is a find and a half, I remember watching this online years ago so I count myself as lucky but if you didn’t see it when it aired in 2008 you truly missed out.  Sadly finding a dvd of this is rarer than finding that golden ticket to tour Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. They do exist somewhere tho, if you find one, let me know as I’d love to rewatch it.

For those of you that didn’t watch the show it revolved around John Amsterdam (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) who is an NYPD homicide detective who is 400 years old (yes I know NOT another sci-fi/fantasy cop show) and before you ask is he is NOT a vampire. I know there is one show that features a vampire detective that lasted one series and yes that is on my hitlist to write about too 😉 Although being 400 years old he has the appearance of a 35-year-old.

Ok so he looks 35 and is not a vampire, how is he 400? Is he Jamie Lannister transported through time? Although that would be an awesome plot twist, New Amsterdam aired in 2008 three years before the Game Of Thrones tv show started, so sadly it’s not that. Let me explain, John was a Dutch soldier in Manhattan in the year 1642 when he stepped in front of a sword to save the life of a Native American girl during a massacre of her tribe. The girl in turn rescued him by casting an immortality spell upon him. It was also prophesied that he would not age until he finds his one true love, and only then will he become whole and ready for mortality. That seems kinda harsh given that he saved her life and although coming back from the dead, having to wait 400+ years to find the love of your live is more of a curse than a blessing!

Lost style flashbacks appear in different episodes of the show revealing Amsterdam’s past lives or different personas as he travels through time. We see John’s friends, lovers and many children grow old and die. One of his outlets and ways that he learnt to deal with this gift or is it a curse is that he is is a recovering alcoholic who regularly attends Alcoholics Anonymous.

The shows main plot is John’s quest to find love and break his immortality spell, considering he’s had 63 kids I’d say he’s given it a DAMN good shot 😉 Each episode also features crimes he has to solve, which he does using his deep and often personal knowledge of history, depicted as flashbacks. Though estranged unknown to most of his many descendants (probably half of Lower Manhattan by now), except his 65-year-old son Omar, he tries to keep track of them and aids them when possible.

So that’s the show, it’s basically about a Dutch solider who saves a native American girl, she rewards him with an immortality spell that can only be broken when he finds his true love, fast forward 400 years and he’s a recovering alcoholic and homicide detective in New York.

​​

 The guy on the right is John Amsterdam’s son? Confused??

WHY WAS IT CANCELLED AND COULD IT COME BACK?

But why was it cancelled??? Well the show started strongly and had over 13 million viewers for its first episode;  although it was only 8 episodes long it ended up with just over 6 million viewers for the series finale. I think that is still damn good for a first series, when you think some shows have less viewers but have been around longer.

Fox are notorious for having cancelled shows against popular opinion, heck how many times has Futurama been cancelled? The show suffered from Fox’s indecisiveness. The premiere was pushed back from the highly anticipated fall schedule to a mid-season slot and found its series cut back from 13 episodes to 8.

So a combination of Fox’s indecisiveness and non-commitment effectively killed the show. I also think it sadly suffered from being too far ahead of its time. Had the show aired now and not in 2008 I think it would not only be bigger but also have a much larger audience. You could also bring NCW back as like his character John Amsterdam he appears not to have aged much in the last 7 years. Hmmmmm *ponders*

Wait a minute, isn’t there already a show on tv about an immortal NYPD detective, well medical examiner who is immortal and uses his knowledge and experience of being over 100 years old to solve crimes. That’s right it’s FOREVER from ABC starring fellow Brit Ioan Gruffudd. Oh wait it’s cancelled now too.

​​

 Did this show stop any hope of a New Amsterdam comeback?

Hmm maybe I could right about that one too haha, but seriously this one show that could be brought back if someone had some Jamie Lannister style bravdo to do it.

If you enjoy this clip, try and find the show and watch it now!!!

An Interview With The Walking Dead’s Steve Coulter

It’s Steve Coulter, actor, writer, all round cool guy!

Who is Steve Coulter? Fans of The Walking Dead will know him as Reg Monroe in hit tv show The Walking Dead. There’s also much more to Steve but I’m not going to insert a spoiler here, you’ll have to read on to find out about him, where he’s come from and what he’s got lined up for the coming months.

Steve is another one of my verified followers who agreed to do an interview on the site. Before I sent the interview we got chatting and he seems like an awesome and talented guy. I am truly blessed to have such amazing and cool followers like Steve.

So let’s find out a little more him!

———————————————————————————————————————————————————–

1) How did you get into acting?

I was extremely shy growing up, and especially in school.  I was terrified of even reading out loud in class.  In 8th grade, we were assigned to write a report about Hungary, and instead of writing the report, two friends and I presented a scene that we wrote, pretending to be members of an underground resistance movement in Hungary.  We had candles, toy guns, and that way we talked about the history, geography, and history of Hungary.  It went over really well, and I think it sparked something in me.

I also say a school production of “Our Town”, and I was totally captivated by it and thought, “I want to do THAT.”  So started doing plays in junior high and high school.  I was still shy, but somehow, playing someone else was easy and a great escape. I ended up going to an acting conservatory program for college at the North Carolina School of the Arts and figured out how to make a living at this thing.

2) You were in The Walking Dead as Reg Monroe, what was it like being on such a cult show and do you have any interesting stories from your time there?

I had been a huge fan of the The Walking Dead from the first episode, so I was very excited to be on the show.  I’d auditioned for the show twice before, my first audition was for the role of Hershel (and I think Scott Wilson did a MUCH better job than I ever could have done). Hadn’t realized it was going to be a recurring role, and had no idea what would eventually happen to Reg.

It was funny how I learned that Reg wasn’t going to make it out of season 5 alive.  I’d gotten a message that Scott Gimple (the showrunner) wanted to meet with me.  I think I was shooting my second episode at the time.  I naively thought that he just wanted to chat about the character.  We played phone tag for a day or so, then I got another message saying “Scott wants to talk to you about what’s coming up in the finale episode.”  My immediate thought was, “Awww…I’m gonna die.”  We finally talked on a Saturday, and Scott was extremely apologetic. Literally apologizing around a dozen times, but he said “It’s gonna be really cool, though…you die in the final scene of the final episode!”.  I was disappointed and excited at the same time.  I would’ve loved to continue on the show, but I got to go out with quite a bang.

​​

 RIP Reg *sniff sniff*

3) You also starred as Elijah Bowman in the TV series Banshee, how would you describe your character and the show to someone who has not seen it before?

Banshee takes place in the Amish country of Pennsylvania, and Elijah is a leader in that community.  He is the father of Rebecca, who he has cast out of the Amish world because of her “worldly” activities.  The Amish lead a very stoic life – no electricity, cars, phones, etc.  And he has a pretty nifty Amish beard, which took about an hour and a half to apply in the makeup trailer every day.

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 That is a DAMN cool beard

4) If you could be in one existing film, what film and character would you choose and why?

Great question.  I think Jason Bourne, in any of the Bourne movies.  Because he gets to do a bunch of really cool stuff.  Appeals to that 11 year-old in me.  Either that, or any Western.

5) I see that you are also a writer, are you working on any projects currently you can share with us?

I wrote a pilot script for a series we’re developing, called “The Land”.  It’s the story of a farm family, and if I had to compare it to something, I’d might say it’s a 21st century version of “The Waltons”. Or Downton Abby for the U.S.

6) Can we expect to see you at any conventions in the US or UK in the coming months?

I’ll be at the New York/New Jersey Walker Stalker Convention the first week of December.  Possibly in London in 2016, but I think I’m shooting a film at the time, so iffy as to whether I could go.

7) What can we expect to see from you in the remaining months of 2015 and into 2016?

I appear opposite Bruce Willis in the film, “Extraction”, which opens this December.  I play his boss at the CIA, and my character drops a LOT of f-bombs.  I just finished shooting “The Conjuring 2” out in LA, and that’s coming out later in 2016. Next year you can also see me in “The Wizard of Lies” with Robert DeNiro on HBO, with Jamie Foxx in “Sleepless Night”, “The Founder” with Michael Keaton, and “Mena”, with Tom Cruise”.

8) Tell our readers one fun fact about yourself that they may not already know?

Hmm, let me think…I’m a cartoonist.  Almost did that instead of becoming an actor. And I wanted to be a professional baseball player when I was growing up.  However, it turns out you have to be a good baseball player to do that.

9) Finally what advice would you have for an upcoming actress or actor?

Know that it is a long-distance race, not a sprint.  Take classes, work on things you have control over, since so much is out of your control in this business.  Like in any other profession or in sports, preparation is SO important…work harder than anyone else, but keep a sense of humor and don’t take yourself too seriously.  And be nice to everyone on your way up.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

There you go readers Steve Coulter! Be sure to follow Steve on twitter he’s https://twitter.com/coulter28 don’t be shy go say hi and tell her ‘Skatronixxx Sent Me!’

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