Rex Sikes' Movie Beat

Peter Marshall, Pt 29, The Director's Series - The nuts & bolts of directing film and television with Peter Marshall. Peter has had a 35-year career and has worked as a PA, dolly grip, electrician, assistant cameraman, commercial production manager, first assistant director, TV series creative consultant, television producer and director. He has worked on industrial films, documentaries; television commercials, music videos; Emmy Award nominated TV series and features. Peter has directed over 30 TV episodes and written, directed or produced over 50 hours of documentary educational programs. His works have won, or been nominated for 14 International awards. He's worked for directors such as Zack Snyder, John Woo, Ed Wick, Phillip Noyce, John Balham, Roger Adam, Anne Wheeler, Bobby Roth & Kim Manners. He has worked with actors including Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, John Travolta, Mel Gibson, Kathy Bates, Adam Sandler and Peter O'Toole. Other credits inclurde scores of television series as 1st Ad & as a director. Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events, festivals, premieres, and more at rexsikes.com  Visit and subscribe to Rex Sikes' Movie Beat Blog at http://www.RexSikesMovieBeat.me for articles and more about the industry we love and work in.

Michael Frost Beckner "The Screewriter Series"  EP 7 Screenwriter on Rex Sikes' Movie Beat. Michael launched his writing career with three record-making “spec” script sales: Texas Lead & Gold, Cutthroat Island, Hunchback of Notre Dame. He's writtern dozens of screenplays, studio rewrites, twenty pilots for commercial and cable networks, numerous episodes for network television,  His first original film Sniper spawned three sequels. His big-screen success came with Universal's Spy Games, directed by Tony Scott starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. He created, Excutive Producered and wrote the CBS series, The Agency. He began his career as director, Barry Levinson’s Writing Assistant working with the director on Good Morning, Vietnam and Rain Man.  From 1997 to 2008, he worked extensively with director, Sydney Pollack, adapting John Le Carre’s The Night Manager and writing two more films and developing two television series. Recent writing credits include: CSI: Crime Scene Investigators, Discovery's Gold Fever, and he is preparing the Spy Game prequel Muir’s Gambit for production and has adapted his novel Berlin Mesa into a 4 hour mini-series for AMC, Beckner is currently working on City of Lies with director Wolfgang Petersen. upcoming Civil War Event Mini-Series To Appomattox. Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events, festivals, premieres, and more at http://www.rexsikes.com  Visit and subscribe to Rex Sikes' Movie Beat Blog at http://www.RexSikesMovieBeat.me for articles and more about the industry we love and work in.

Rex Piano, director, PT 5Upon graduating NYU School of the Arts , Rex worked as a 1st A.D. on dozens of commercials and films until he took a full time position at a NY Commercial Production Company. In 1985 Rex as Head of Production for O’Quinn Productions. he produced numerous videos for Fangoria Magazine. In 1987 Rex became Head of Production for Associated Television International.  Rex wrote, produced and/or directed several TV specials and numerous travel videos. Rex also co-wrote and line produced the feature film “Chill Factor,” starring Paul Williams, Patrick Macnee and Andrew Prine. Rex line produced “Severed Ties” in 1991 for Fangoria Films. In 1995 he produced the syndicated TV show “High Tide,” starring Rick Springfield. Rex became one of the series’ rotating directors. Some of the episodic shows Rex has directed  “Mike Hammer, Private Eye”, “Silk Stalkings”, “Born Free”, “Air America” and “Nightman.” In 2000 Rex produced and directed the multi-award winning romantic comedy  feature film “The Month Of August.” Rex followed that film with the highly viewed and critically acclaimed TV movie “Hope Ranch” for The Animal Planet channel. Rex then began directing TV movies that aired on PAX and Lifetime Television. Rex has directed or produced 21 movies. In 2007 Rex was the primary director on “ROME – The Rise and Fall of an Empire,” for the History Channel. Stay tuned to Rex Sikes' Movie Beat for other great interviews, cast & crew listings, events, premieres & more at rexsikes.com Visit and subscribe to Rex Sikes' Movie Beat Blog at http://www.RexSikesMovieBeat.me for articles and more about the industry we love and work in.

GIL CATES, JR. (Producer Director) has produced and directed many films and documentaries, including the 2013 feature film Jobs, which he co-produced, starring Ashton Kutcher, Josh Gad, Dermot Mulroney, and Matthew Modine, and the 2011 feature film Lucky, which he directed, starring Colin Hanks, Ari Graynor, Ann-Margret and Jeffrey Tambor. In addition, Gil produced and directed the critically acclaimed Life After Tomorrow, featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, which won best documentary at the Phoenix Film Festival and later had it’s premiere Christmas Eve on Showtime. His other films include Deal, starring Burt Reynolds, Bret Harrison, and Charles Durning, The Mesmerist, starring Neil Patrick Harris, and the critically acclaimed independent film Order of Chaos, which was released in the summer of 2010. Gil also made his TV directorial debut with an episode of the NBC comedy, Joey, starring Emmy winner Matt LeBlanc, and most recently completed the feature film The Surface, starring Sean Astin and Chris Mulkey, which is due out later this year. 

Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events, festivals, premieres, and more at http://www.rexsikes.com Visit and subscribe to Rex Sikes' Movie Beat Blog at http://www.RexSikesMovieBeat.me for articles and more about the industry we love and work in.

Debra Granik, director, nominated for Academy Award, and co-writer of Winter’s Bone, which was nominated for four Oscars, including  Best Picture, and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Granik’s first feature film, Down to the Bone, was awarded the Best Director prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. She is known for her amazing work with actors, essentially launching the careers of both Vera Farmiga and Jennifer Lawrence. Her work is known for an instinctive, collaborative style that Granik describes as “late-breaking global neorealism.” Granik’s most recent offering, the documentary Stray Dog, began with a chance encounter while scouting and casting Winter’s Bone. Granik met Ron “Stray Dog” Hall in the Biker Church of Branson and cast him as the film’s estranged father, Thump Milton. Of her work she says, “The question I’ve had for most of my life is, ‘How are you coping?’ Some people have these small, positive schemes for survival, a kind of strength that I am attracted to, maybe because I’m prone to the blues.” In Hall she found a worthy subject—one whose humor and lack of self-consciousness had the potential to make the plight of Vietnam vets accessible to a broader audience. Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events,festivals premiers and more. http://www.rexsikes.com , RexSikesMovieBT.me