Baylee Curran |
Your upcoming movie The Last Revenants - in a few words, what is it
about?
Four females are the last vampires on Earth - the species is dying out -
they've
survived by hunting together and integrating into society. They are presented
with an opportunity to have their full powers restored if they submit to
experiments by a mysterious scientist. As a group they must decide whether to
live out their remaining days as mostly mortal creatures, or trust the
scientist who claims to be able to restore them to their previous prowess.
With The Last Revenants
being a vampire movie - is that a
genre at all dear to you, and what do you think will make your film stick
out of the crowd?
I grew up on the Hammer Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing Dracula-series, was a big fan of the
Count Yorga films, so yes, it is a genre very
dear to me. What will set this project apart from most vampire themed
movies will be these things: Our protagonists will be female, they will be
vulnerable like humans in that they don't possess the full arsenal of
powers the traditional cinematic creature would typical have - and there's
a certain pathos to their back stories as none of them chose this
lifestyle. I've also taken great pains in trying to go more in depth into
the process of how one is "turned" into a vampire versus simply
being a victim. There will also be a slight twist on ways to destroy a
vampire, without straying too far from the accepted movie/literature lore.
(Other) sources of inspiration when writing The Last Revenants?
Dani Thompson |
I simply wanted to make a relationship drama about lifelong female
friends, with one major element that's different than most relationship
movies; they happen to be vampires - they'll face some of the same life
challenges in my story that four characters who all happened to be
teachers, cops or social workers might deal with (love, whether to have
kids, friendship, sexual orientation, trust, companionship, etc etc).
The Last Revenants
will be directed by legendary genre director Jim
Wynorski [Jim Wynorski interview -
click here] - so what made him perfect for the job?
Jim
will make sure all of the elements will be present that fans of the genre
(and our distributor) will demand - action, eroticism, black humor. Jim has
such a storied history working effectively on low budgets and with
predominantly female casts, AND delivering entertaining finished projects,
that I feel he's the perfect director for this project. I got to know Jim
during development of Axe to
Grind, as he took the time to read my
completeled script, offer insights and tips about production and
distribution, and supported me after the film was released. Jim and I have
similar sensibilities and I think our senses of humor are in the same
vicinity as well. I really want to work with him and I hope it all comes
together. You
are currently running a fun fundraiser that's also a worldwide campaign to
find the last of the four lead actresses of your movie - so do talk
about the campaign for a bit? And what qualities are you looking for in
your star-to-be? I'm hoping that people will see with this
campaign-movies can be personally effected by fans of the low budget
horror scene. It's not every day a fan can litetally be this integral in
the casting of a movie.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/last-revenants-star-search
Paula Labaredas |
What can you tell us about
your other three revenants, and why exactly these girls?
Paula Labaredas [Paula
Labaredas interview - click here] was so pitch perfect in Axe
to Grind that I immediately
wanted to work with her again. She was actually in Jim Wynorski's Camel
Spiders several years ago and what some in the industry aren't aware of is
that this amazingly beautiful woman (I think she's on par with a young Ann
Margret) has studied very hard to improve her acting skills with many
hours of formal training since she worked with Jim last.
Dani Thompson [Dani Thompson
interview - click here] has no fear as a performer. Her role in
The Last Revenants
will push the limits of eroticism and blood~letting, and I can
confidently say she'll tackle this challenge head on.
Baylee Curran caught Jim and my attention with a recent series of
vampire related modeling shoots. She has the ability of being that shy,
depressed introverted teen, and the next time you see her she's a sexy
siren. We needed an actress that can convey both qualities to capture the
character arc of her part.
You've
also already a pretty great location in mind for the movie, right? So you have to talk
about it for a bit, and what do you reckon will be the advantages but
maybe also challenges of filming there?
Ideally we'd like
to book at Sable Ranch north of LA, as it is the one area we can shoot
interiors and exteriors on the same day without much movement of crew and
equipment required. So what's the
schedule, when are you going to shoot ... and any idea when and where the
movie will be released onto the general public yet (even if it's probably
waaay too early to ask that)? Until all the money is in the
LLC I can't give a firm schedule, but we have carved out the first two
weeks in November to shoot. We made the mistake of shooting in May on Axe
to Grind and suffered through one of LA's most historic heatwaves. Any future projects beyond The Last Revenants? I've optioned several non horror
scripts and am in hopes of seeing those get produced by other companies;
Circle Content optioned my comedy drama Periphery which has Rebecca
DeMornay, Stacy Keach, Robyn Lively and Shirley Knight all signed and
ready to go. Joseph Ferrante and Choice Skinner are developing The Last
Saint of Market Street, a script I describe as a west coast Taxi
Driver I
optioned to Joe who is an extremely talented young actor/producer. My
company Seraph Productions is considering developing a sequel to
Axe to Grind if I can think of a fresh way to continue that story. Several of the
reviews I've read have mentioned this story should be expanded into a
franchise. I think Debbie Rochon [Debbie
Rochon interview - click here] delivers a tour de force performance and
I'd love to work with her again, but I've always been an outspoken
opponent of sequels/remakes and that's another reason why Seraph
wanted to
bring as many people from Axe
to Grind onto
The Last Revenants
and do something
fresh, not just churn out a sequel. Your/your movie's website,
Facebook, IndieGoGo, whatever else?
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Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
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https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/last-revenants-star-search
We are developing the
movie website for
The Last Revenants. The project can be found on IMDb. Anything else you
are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Thanks
for the opportunity to discuss Seraph Productions'
next project. I have a
very hard working development team of Matthew Gulbranson [Matthew
James Gulbranson interview - click here], Sheri Davis,
Tisha Palmer and myself trying our best to put another fun project into
the horror movie marketplace. Thanks
for the interview!
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