U. K.filmiconKenRussellshootinghere
One of the most brilliant directors of our time, Ken Russell, is here to shoot his segment of a four-part horror/ supernatural anthology entitled Trapped Ashes.
It revolves around four people trapped in a room who each tell a creepy story.
Russell’s film is called The Girl with the Golden Breasts.
The now 78-year old British filmmaker knocked our socks off back in 1969 with his shockingly visceral and visual masterpiece, D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love starring Alan Bates, Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson, which explored relationships, sexual and otherwise in the early 1900s. (Who can forget the erotic wrestling scene between Bates and Reed, both slathered in oil, in front of a raging fireplace?)
He followed it the next year with the equally edgy The Music Lovers, starring Richard Chamberlain and Jackson, detailing t h e l i f e a n d m u s i c o f Tchaikovsky. ( Russell described it at the time as the story of the marriage between a homosexual and a nymphomaniac.)
He nabbed Twiggy, the hot, new London model who made anorexia groovy for his 1971 musical, The Boy Friend, and signed up most of Britain’s rock stars, including Elton John, Eric Clapton and The Who for his 1975 musical, Tommy, based on that group’s hit tune of the same name.
Altered States, released in 1980 knocked us all sideways, Crimes of Passion (1984) and The Lair of the White Worm (1988), ditto.
And he hasn’t stopped. This year he has Charged: The Life of Nikola Tesla and Kings X on his plate, as well as this Vancouver work.
Also working on the anthology
Joe Dante
— ( who recently wrapped his film for another locally shot anthology, Masters of Horror in Vancouver); 73-yearold who directed in his 1970s TV series, Baretta, and earlier scared the pants off audiences with his films Back Door to Hell and The Cockfighter;
whose visual effects work on The Matrix movies is about as good as it gets and
who produced Freddy vs. Jason here a couple of years ago. Producers are
Anthony Criss, better known as Treach, the Naughty by Nature rapper, is in town shooting the f ilm, Eyes. It ’ s directed by writer/helmer
Nick Castle, son of the legendary vaudeville dancer and movie choreographer of the same name who began his career in early 1930s Hollywood musicals and worked in the movies and TV until his death in 1968.
Treach, who works for the Out Da Gutta record label and was good pals with late rapper Tupac Shakur, is joined on screen by Los Angeles’s hardworking, ambitious, talented and articulate Nia Peeples, of Fame fame, who was once Liberace’s opening act in Las Vegas.
And Vancouver’s Blu Mankuma,
who’s been in many movies shot here over the past 25 years,
Monte Hellman,
Robert Blake Gaeta, John Sean S. Cunningham,
Michael Frislev, Dennis Bartok
( he’s also the writer) and husband- andwife team and
Director of photography for Russell is Cunningham’s segment, Jibaku, we hear, will be shot in mid-December in Japan, Hellman takes on the third segment, Kubrick’s Girlfriend, and Gaeta’s segment is My Twin The Worm.
Dante will direct the non-segment portions of the film which is described as a homage to classic anthologies like The House that Dripped Blood and Tales From the Crypt, with effects by
( Terminator 2, Aliens) and from what we’ve heard and read, enough sex, gore, bodily functionrelated details, including intestinal parasites, to make you squirm.
Sounds positively charming doesn’t it?
Yoshifumi Hosoya Yuko Yoshikawa. Zoran Popovic. Skotak Robert
Eyes shooting including Fierce People, with Diane Lane, which opens in limited release in the U.S. in April, also has a role. She never stops
Vancouver’s Sarah- Jane Redmond is enjoying her new North Shore mountainside cabin after a hectic year in the biz.
Most recently, she shot a part in the last episode of the upcoming series, Alice I Think, directed by Gary Harvey, and booked a supporting role on Godiva’s, also to be directed by Harvey.
She’s also booked a supporting lead in the TV movie, The Killing of a Stranger, with
Kristopher Tabori, who directed her in one of her first-ever gigs, Sleepwalkers. And, of course, she continues her recurring role as Kurtz on Da Vinci’s City Hall.
And just so she doesn’t get bored, Redmond is co-producing a documentary for which she’s actually going through the process of getting her pilot’s licence, and is putting together a play for next year with Sara Botsford directing and local actress Linda Darlow also starring. R U single?
The locally shot pilot for a new show, Manhattan Matchmaker, aired a few weeks ago and was a big hit. Now the W Network has ordered a season and that’s where you come in. The show’s local producers, Force Four Entertainment, are looking for 12 single guys and gals to work with New York shadchen (Yiddish for matchmaker) , L i sa Ronis (www.lisaronismatchmaking.co m) who’ll be here to work her magic with West Coast singles.
She’s a full-time matchmaker who’s been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Marie Claire, New York Magazine, New York Daily News, the New York Post, and has appeared on Good Morning America, Dateline NBC and National Public Radio.
As she does in her private practice in NYC, Ronis will utilize her personalized approach to help each episode’s single find a match.
She’ll assess their needs, analyze compatibility, supply image consultation, arrange prescreened dates and provide feedback after the dates.
You could be chosen to benefit from Lisa’s expertise if you’re single and between 25 and 40, want a relationship and are willing to share your experience and story on television.
Send a letter about yourself and a recent photo to:
Thomas Hunt c/ o Matchmaker / Force Four, # 202 — 221 East 10th Ave., Vancouver, BC, V5T 4V1.
thebacklot@shaw.ca
Lynne McNamara’s Backlot appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays in Arts & Life.