The Accessreel.com Interviews

W had the opportunity to interview Hollywood royalty Jamie Lee Curtis, she needs little introduction from her film debut in the original Halloween movie back in 1978 to 40 years later Jamie reprises the role of Laurie Strode the interview may be short but I found it to be easily one of the top ten chats I have had in the near 10 years accessreel.com has been around.

Stephen McCallum has recently directed his debut feature film. 1% is an intense drama about an outlaw motorcycle gang called the Copperheads. McCallum has been working towards this goal for a number of years. He graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 2011. He has directed TV commercials, as well as the popular online Marriage Equality ad – It’s Time. He was second unit director for Channel 9’s GALLIPOLLI mini-series. AccessReel’s Phil Jeng Kane spoke with McCallum recently about the process of making his first feature.

Stephen McCallum has recently directed his debut feature film. 1% is an intense drama about an outlaw motorcycle gang called the Copperheads. McCallum has been working towards this goal for a number of years. He graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 2011. He has directed TV commercials, as well as the popular online Marriage Equality ad – It’s Time. He was second unit director for Channel 9’s GALLIPOLLI mini-series. AccessReel’s Phil Jeng Kane spoke with McCallum recently about the process of making his first feature.

Continuing our Cinefest Oz Coverage we also got to speak to the Director and one of the stars of The Merger which was up for the film prize.. its about to come out in cinemas.

Mark Grentell was last behind the camera for Backyard Ashes in 2014 this time around hes with The Merger that tells the story of former professional football player Troy Carrington who has returned home to the fictional town of Bodgy Creek after an abrupt end to his sporting career. He is persuaded to coach the hapless local footy team, the Roosters, where he sees an opportunity to recruit refugees from the Regional Support Centre to turn the team’s fate around. What follows is a comedy about a man seeking redemption, a team trying to reclaim victory, and a community coming to terms with the changing face of Australian rural life.

We are also speaking to John Howard who stars in the Merger as Bull Barlow the town Patriarc who doesn't like all the change going on in his little town.. John has also had starring roles in TV shows such as The Warriors, Packed to the Rafters, Sea Change and on the big screen in Last Cab to Darwin, Mad Max Fury Road and many more.

The Merger is about to hit Australian cinemas so take a listen.

CinefestOz 2018 was this past week and we had the opportunity to interview three of the members of the Film Jury who had the incredibly hard decision to award the $100,000 film Prize, Take a listen below to our chat with Sigrid Thornton, Michael Caton and Tasma Walton at Studio Bistro just before the Jury Lunch.

Jonathan and Josh Baker are twin directors from Australia but for the past 10 years they have been working in the United States directing some rather impressive commericals.. after the success of the short film BAG MAN which KIN is based off the guys decided to expand on that story int a feature film starring Myles Truitt as Eli with Jack Reynor, Zoe Kravitz, Dennis Quaid and James Franco. Take a listen

Clayton is an award-winning producer, director and writer whose experience spans across feature film, documentaries, commercials, music videos and online content. His debut comedy feature Kenny alongside his brother Shane Jacobson was a highly acclaimed box office hit, winning the 2006 IF Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Script, and the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Clayton has also worked on Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries behind the camera and worked on screen in Aussie crime drama Animal Kingdom and Jane Campion’s acclaimed series Top Of The Lake: China Girl. He also has a small role in Leigh Whannel’s new sci-fi drama Upgrade.

Today we are talking to Clayton aobut Brothers' Nest a tragic comedy about family loyalty and murder – demonstrating that ‘brotherly love’ has its limits.

You can check out the film when it hits cinemas across Australia on June 21.

Leigh Whannell is an Australian screenwriter, producer, director, and actor. He is best known for writing films directed by his friend James Wan, including Saw (2004), Dead Silence (2007), Insidious (2011), and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). Whannell made his directorial debut on Insidious: Chapter 3, released in 2015.

Whannell so one of the co-creators of the Saw franchise. Whannell wrote the first installment, co-wrote the second and third installments, was producer or executive producer for all the films, and appeared as the “Adam Stanheight” character in four of the installments.

Leigh started his career off working on Australian TV on shows such as ABC’s Recovery, Neighbours and Blue Heelers before moving in films including The Matrix Reloaded.

His second feature film Upgrade has just been released to incredible reviews both from critics and cinema-goers take a listen.

Nolan North is an American actor and voice actor He has been described as “the nearest thing the games industry has to a bona fide leading man.” He is most well known for his voice work as Desmond Miles from the Assassin’s Creed video game series, and Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.

Nolan is coming to Australia for Supanova Comic Con & Gaming to Sydney and Perth and we had the chance to talk to him before he hit our shores, take a listen

Mark Raats a local Perth Lucasfilm artist was recently commissioned by Lucasfilm in Australia to draw some artwork for Solo: A Star Wars Story which for those Australians who are listening can win the original if they purchase tickets at eventcinemas.com.au to the film.

Marks first official project for Lucasfilm was done a little over 25 years ago and has since worked on poster art for Indiana Jones, the 30th Anniversary poster for Return of the Jedi, a 40th Anniversary poster for A New Hope and some of his original pieces have also been purchased by the man himself George Lucas for his private collection.. most recently Mark has also been commissioned to do pieces for Stan Lee.

We sit down to have a chat with Mark about his early days as an artist before moving onto the Solo artwork and his process... take a listen.