If you’re a fan of The Killing, Falling Skies or USA Network’s latest hit show Graceland, you’ll easily recognize the face of Brandon Jay McLaren. He was put into a coma on The Killing after being wrongly suspected of murder, killed off by aliens on Falling Skies, but it looks like he’ll be sticking around much longer on this show. So don’t be afraid to start investing in his character fearing he’ll be taken away just as you really start liking him.

Graceland is USA Networks smart replacement for Burn Notice which ends after this current season. Based on a true story, the FBI has seized the mansion of a drug lord and planted six of their undercover agents from different bureaus inside. They’re able to run their undercover ops while also helping each other as a means of support system. Being created by Jeff Eastin, who’s also created USA’s other hit White Collar doesn’t hurt and obviously why it’s been picked up for another season after only two episodes.

The house get its name from the drug lord who was obsessed with Elvis Presley. You’ll notice that there’s some of the King’s paraphernalia in there too.

McLaren plays Dale Jakes, who’s quite a different type of character for him. He plays it very close to the vest and has some secrets that he’d rather keep that way. McLaren’s journey to this show was a stroke of luck along with going with his gut on white road to follow in his career.

He was shooting TNT’s hit series Falling Skies as Jamil who was just beginning to get sparks going with medic Lourdes when he was cast as one of the leads on Graceland. This is something most actors dream about but rarely see happen. As McLaren said, he went with his gut and told the producers of the Steven Spielberg-produced series that he was taking the role. He said the producers took it very well and did what any producer would do in the situation. His character Jamil was promptly killed off in an explosion that left him badly wounded and twitching with creepy alien insects coming out of his mouth.

For those of you that saw the pilot of Graceland, you’ll notice that McLaren didn’t get a lot of screen time. As he said it, the writers are developing his character slowly and letting the audience get to know him as his housemates do. As with anyone who’s got a ton of secrets they want kept hidden, Dales is that onion that will slowly be peeled away little by little with a great payoff by the end of the season. “They’ll really go into his personal life outside of Graceland and it gets really, really interesting. There are some surprises that get revealed throughout the season.”

Usually when you’re in a living situation with six other personalities you might wind up sharing some of your things, but not so much with Jake. As McLaren put, he’s not sharing his juice with “Nobody. Nobody. No, that’s a no-no.”

Many of you might think that a Customs agent doesn’t see a lot of action, but that was quickly cleared up for me. “There’s a lot of action. I deal with all the big shipments of illegal things in and out of the country. When I got the job, I started keeping track of what ICE (Immigration and Custom) Agents do. And there was a huge 80 billion dollar cocaine bust that the Custom Agents had done. They were trying to get in the U.S. So they deal with a lot of action, especially with stuff going in and out of the Mexican border, for instance, where there’s a lot of drug trafficking contraband.”

McLaren surprised many fans this week when he tweeted out a music video for Alma Mater that he had directed. When I asked him what got him to direct The Valedictory Address video, it was pretty simple. His younger brother kept after him for some time and after enough wearing down he relented. Like anyone who’s thought about directing, the idea can be terrifying, and it was no different for McLaren who created the concept and jumped in headlong with some pretty great results. You can check out the video below and judge for yourself.

McLaren’s concept was to shoot it more as an indie style film in black and white rather than just crank out a fast hip hop video that you can see anywhere. As the actor said, the experience was very freeing and not as intimidating as he first thought it would be. Now he’s ready to take on another music video and possible short film project.

Photo Credit: Joe DeAngelis

As this is our second interview with him, I noticed that his career has gone pretty smoothly without any downtime between projects. I asked him what advice he had to give other struggling actors. “You just have to be open to playing all kinds of characters no matter how different they may be from you. If you stick to one type of character, you’re gonna get typecast really fast, and once that happens, it’s nearly impossible to get out of it. I’ve been very fortunate that producers have taken a chance on letting me play such a wide range of characters.”

When you look at his range, it’s been pretty vast. At one time a Power Ranger to teacher Bennet Ahmed in The Killing to Dazzle Darlington in Dead Before Dawn, McLaren is showing that keeping your options open can really pay off in a field that keeps getting tougher every year.

McLaren was quick to point out to me how proud he is of Dead Before Dawn which has won 5 Canadian Comedy Awards. This is a pretty over the top comedy that introduces the Zemon (half zombie, half demon). If you loved Shaun Of the Dead, this one’s right up your alley as it’s a mix between that and The Goonies.

As Michael Bay is rebooting the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles franchise, fans have been wondering if he might also turn his eye to bringing the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to the big screen too. I asked McLaren if this happens, would he be ready to jump into Jack Landors Red SPD Power Ranger suit. “If Michael Bay seriously considered this, I would definitely consider it.”

You can catch Graceland Thursday nights at 10 PM (9 Central) on USA Networks. It’s a definite summer watch and congrats on getting a Season 2 pickup!

Shanka Cheryl also contributed to this interview.

Alma Mater The Valedictory Address Dir: Brandon Jay McLaren

Graceland Trailer

Brandon Jay McLaren Interview

Click to continue reading Brandon Jay McLaren Talks ‘Graceland’ & Directing His Brother In ‘The Valedictory Address’

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Curt Johnson

Editor-in-Chief at Best Movies Ever Entertainment News

Filmmaker and movie reviewer who loves giving the spotlight to some not so well known films ignored by the mainstream media. Also loves dark twisted comedy like House Of Yes while also enjoying Working Girl.

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Robert Nagle is that guy that makes it possible for stars like Vin Diesel, Christian Bale, Tom Cruise, Ryan Gosling and Armie Hammer look badass in the movies. You don’t know his name, but he’s widely respected in Hollywood as one of the top stuntmen in the industry.

Nagle has been the stunt man on many films you’ve watched and loved like “Fast Five’,  ”Collateral,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “Drive,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Jack Reacher,” “A Good Day to Die Hard,” plus many many more. Naturally, he was making Vin Diesel and Paul Walker’s driving skills look effortless. No matter what some actors say in interviews, the stunt driver is always at the wheel, and if you find it hard to believe that Diesel and Walker are doing their own driving, they’ve done their job.

With such a dangerous job, the worst injury he’s had in all these years is a broken thumb. Not many are that lucky, but they are n’t Robert Nagle.

You’re considered the world’s greatest stunt driver. What film did you do where you were suddenly on Hollywood’s radar as the ‘go to guy’  when it comes to car chases?

I don’t think it was one defining moment but rather consistent performance on camera and creative problem solving to get the action needed for the directors. Along with developing the Biscuit Rig to safely put the actors in the middle of action.

What made you decide that being a stuntman was going to be your career?

I had met a few stuntmen while racing, became close friends with Steve Kelso.  It’s something I have always had an interest in.  Once I started getting into it I found it fulfilled a creative side of me that I wasn’t fully aware of yet.

What can we expect to see of your work in Fast & Furious 6?

I was brought in on the tail end of filming, the most memorable part I did was working on the opening sequence where they are racing on a mountain road that drops off into the ocean. I drove a high-speed camera car and chased Mark Higgins and Ben Collins, both very accomplished drivers.  Needless to say, I had to bring my A game to run with these guys and get the camera in for some dynamic shots.

Having worked on both Fast Five and the upcoming one, are your stunts  even more extreme this time around in your opinion?

 I think we have to keep raising the bar to keep the audience wowed.

What stunt are you the most proud of?

While it doesn’t look all that difficult, the turnover I did for Public Enemies was pretty difficult.  There were no special effect aids to flip the car and I had to land it just right at speed to get it to roll.  I also really like how we put Ryan Gosling into the car chases on Drive with the Biscuit Rig.  Darren Prescott, the Stunt Coordinator, did a great job of integrating the action with Ryan.

Are there any stunts that you just won’t attempt?

I’m a car guy, so anything with an engine I’m pretty much game for.

I’m assuming that since you’re the car chase guy, you have a real  fondness for them. Which car do you prefer to drive?

I drive a BMW, it’s such a well-engineered car.  I do have a bit of a crush on Ferrari after running the F430 flat out on Miami Vice.

What have been some of your biggest ‘closest calls’ during a stunt?

I had a wheel come loose on a Ferrari while filming a 140mph run through a canyon for the movie Faster.  Fortunately I had enough seat time in these cars to know something was wrong before it became serious.

Nagle also mentioned another very close call on Fast & Furious 6:

While filming a chase scene in the Canary Islands with the 2nd unit (directed by Spiro Rozatos), Nagle drove a high-speed camera car on a harrowing road with “1000 foot drop off into the ocean,” Nagle said about the road that’s normally closed to the public, “And there’s not much between you and the edge of the road. There’s these blocks that would probably just slow the car down a little bit before it went over the edge.”

“I hadn’t driven the road yet, and I hadn’t driven this particular car yet,” said Nagle, “the corners and the road conditions, everything was pretty precarious.”

Nagle’s drove the filming car behind two cars chasing one another: one driven by Mark Higgins, a world champion rally-car driver, and the other by Ben Collins, the man who played The Stig on “Top Gear” for seven years. “Both are really accomplished drivers. Needless to say, I had to really bring my A-game to stay with these guys,” continued Nagle.

“We got it in one take, but at the end of the run, I was like, ‘yeah, I’m kinda glad that’s over,’” said Nagle, who didn’t find out just how precarious the stunt was until after the run, “I find out afterwards that there were divots in the road that you and I would call pot holes. And these pot holes came from rocks that were falling from the cliff onto the road!”

The stunt was one of the scariest Nagle’s ever done, and one of the few times he retrospectively wondered about his well-being. “I didn’t think about it ahead of time, cause I just focused on my task at hand before. Afterwards, I had time to reflect and think that if something failed mechanically it was not going to be a pretty end.”

You also worked on the upcoming Lone Ranger movie. What kinds of stunts can we expect in that film?

I only did a very small piece for that.  Tom Harper the Stunt Coordinator put together some really great action pieces.  I was there while Armie did a few stunts and did a great job.

What advice do you have for people wanting to become a stuntman?

It’s a tough business, I’ve been fortunate in that I bring some unique abilities to the table, with my racing background and education in mechanical engineering – specific to race car design.  I think you need to be able to offer something unique to set you apart.

Fast & Furious 6 Favorite Stunts

Robert Nagle Interview

Click to continue reading Robert Nagle, World’s Greatest Stunt Driver Talks ‘Fast & Furious 6′ Plus Ryan Gosling

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Curt Johnson

Editor-in-Chief at Best Movies Ever Entertainment News

Filmmaker and movie reviewer who loves giving the spotlight to some not so well known films ignored by the mainstream media. Also loves dark twisted comedy like House Of Yes while also enjoying Working Girl.

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Hello Herman is not the easiest type of film to sell to often skiddish Hollywood, but that didn’t stop director Michelle Danner from making it happen and even landing The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus in one of the lead roles. Many of you may not even be aware of the film, but you should definitely put it on your must see list when it opens June 7, 2013.

We’ll also be running an interview with Norman Reedus in the next week. He’s a busy guy we know so once he finds the time, you’ll get to see why he chose this film along with the experience. Plus we had to slip in a question about next season’s Walking Dead too!

Unlike many films that would handle the subject matter of a school shooting done by a student, Danner takes a much more different and smarter approach by looking through the shooter’s eyes. Naturally that will make some uncomfortable, but she does it deftly and gives you a perspective many don’t bother taking. In today’s world a school shooting equals better ratings for CNN and FOX, and they wind up milking the story and painting the picture of a monster rather than looking at everything that could have created the situation in the first place. That’s where Hello Herman is brilliant in making us look deeper inside ourselves rather than just jumping up on a soap box to point a finger.

When we all watched the screener here a few weeks back, I figured the film would be nice, but it really blew me away that it wasn’t just another message movie with a lot of cliched answers. Reedus is superb in a role that was easily tailor fit for him and Garrett Backstrom blew us all away. He’s definitely a young actor to keep you eye on, and he played the role like a real teen who decides the only way to get people to pay attention to him is to take out many students and teachers at his school.

Some people may say that it’s too soon to show a film this powerful and controversial after the last school shooting, but the way this country is going, this film would never be shown as school shootings don’t seem like they’ll be ending anytime soon. Yes, we loved this film that much, but I’d rather let the director have some time to speak now.

You’ve began developing Hello Herman in 2008 and have seen so much happening with school violence, bully and cyberbullying in that time. Did this help push you even more to make this film a reality?

Yes I really wanted to make this movie. Every time that I put my TV on and get the news of another violent tragedy I’m heartbroken. I’m also very curious as to why it happened and how it could have been prevented. As a society we want answers and more than ever we want to know what can we do to help and prevent these devastating events from happening. That is why I wanted to contribute to what I felt was a very important conversation by making this movie.

You’ve said that you’re more into romantic comedies over social dramas. What changed your mind to take on such a controversial topic?

It is true, I love romance and comedy, however I do think that socially relevant movies are important. When I see a movie that makes me think I am happy that it took me to that place. I don’t know of another movie that tackles the issues that “Hello Herman” does.

This type of film is not an easy sell in Hollywood. How hard has it been getting a distributor and into theaters?

There has been a fascination with the subject matter and at the same time apprehension. Fear is the antitheses of creativity. Art will always elevate a discussion.

After the Sandy Hook School shootings, many filmmakers would have shelved a movie that looks at the shooters point of view. Did that ever cross your mind or did you feel that it was just as important to understand what causes this type of thing?

The story was written 13 years ago and I shot the movie in 2011. I hope that we don’t have to wait another 13 year to make changes and raise awareness.

Casting Norman Reedus as Lax was quite a coup with the popularity of The Walking Dead. How did he get onto your radar and how was it working with him in his role?

His agent pitched him to me. I skyped several times with him and hit it off. I shared with him my vision for the movie and he felt that this was also something that was important to say. He brought himself in the deepest way into the process of telling the story. I’m very grateful to him for that.

Garrett Backstrom was another great surprise as Herman. Many times a director will go for that ‘weird’ kid for this role, but you smartly chose one that looked like any everyday kid. Was this your idea from the start?

Yes, my idea from the start was to have the everyday kid. the one you would never suspect would have it in him to snap to that degree. When Garrett Backstrom came in to audition I knew before he even started to speak that I was going to cast him. There was an energy about him. An innocence, and a heartbreak. He was perfect for the part. We worked very hard together to create Herman.

Near the end of the film, Herman questions Lax about hurting another boy, and Lax rationalized that it was only one to save many. Was that meant to show that they did have a similarity since Lax was going for a story when that occurred and Herman did this basically to be the story?

There is a similarity with Lax and Herman, but their justifications are different. Humans are flawed and they carry secrets. This is to show that when you act out on your dark side, you can’t take it back. Even though Lax is not in jail his secret and his actions will haunt him as well.

This was obviously an indie film shot in 19 days, so how were you able to pull in such a strong cast and cinematographer?

I was very lucky. All the pieces of the puzzle came together. I love my DP, Sandra Valde. She does beautiful work. I loved every single casting choice. I didn’t use a casting director, myself and Rebecca Morgan cast it, and we’re happy with the way it came out.

Have schools reached out to you to screen Hello Herman there?
Yes, absolutely. We have several screenings in the works and we’re talking to several anti bullying organizations.

Your film doesn’t preach or try to say what is the answer when it comes to this topic. What message do you want people to walk away with after seeing it?

Thank you for saying this. It makes me feel that you really understood the movie. My message is that we need to connect with our children and not let things that are important fall through the cracks. I see it in myself all the time. As much as I know I’m a loving mother life takes over, the pressures of work, text messaging, email, etc. The list is very long. It robs me from being as present as I would want to be. Because time goes really quickly, our kids grow up really fast, we have to really make sure we stay connected to them all the time. Many people said that after they saw the movie it made them want to go home and hug their children. If that’s what people walk away with that’s a good thing.

I’m sure this project was quite intense so will you make a romantic comedy next?
I am making a film called “The Bandit Hound”. It’s a comedy with dogs and kids, and a little edge. I can’t completely abandon that!

Hello Herman is the type of film why we created Best Movies Ever Entertainment News in the first place. So many get lost in the marketing shuffle, and this is one that deserves the attention plus is one that can easily be watched with your family.

Hello Herman Movie Trailer

Norman Reedus On Making Hello Herman Movie

Hello Herman Behind the Scenes With Norman Reedus

Interview: Michelle Danner On Hello Herman

Click to continue reading Director Michelle Danner Talks ‘Walking Dead’s’ Norman Reedus, ‘Hello Herman’ & Bullying

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Curt Johnson

Editor-in-Chief at Best Movies Ever Entertainment News

Filmmaker and movie reviewer who loves giving the spotlight to some not so well known films ignored by the mainstream media. Also loves dark twisted comedy like House Of Yes while also enjoying Working Girl.

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Richard Pryor left quite a legacy as a trailblazer in comedy, but for some reason Hollywood has been unable to get a film about his tumultuous life to hit the big screen. Several projects have been in development, but now fans of the comic can have a good look at what drove the man with Marina Zenovich’s excellent documentary Richard Pryor Omit the Logic.

This documentary is a must for any fan of Pryor or just any fan of comedy. Zenovich doesn’t hold back, which is surprising since Pryor’s fourth and seventh wife Jennifer Lee Pryor was an Executive Producer on the film. It starts with the infamous news footage when Pryor set himself  on fire and shows how the brilliant comic started out as a copy of Bill Cosby but then found his own voice and turned into the one that every comic wanted to copy.

I personally know that working with someone so close to the subject matter can be quite the high maintenance task so I say kudos to Zenovich for surviving and making a film she should be proud of. It can be enough of a struggle trying to fit everyone you want into one film, but having two passionate people doing that can oftentimes lead to a film’s downfall. Luckily, that’s not the case here, and you can catch it on Showtime Friday, May 31, 2013

Zenovich also directed the Emmy-winning documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired and Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out after her first film wound up taking on a whole new life of its own. Not long after the first documentary aired, the 1977 statutory rape case involving the controversial director came back to life.

The filmmaker spoke candidly about how she started and the high profile projects she’s tackled along with her love of romantic comedies.

How did you get your start in documentary films?

I started as an actress but then got more interested in being behind the camera.  I knew I wanted to make a documentary but I didn’t know about what subject.  It all came together in 1995 when I heard about three guys who didn’t get into the Sundance Film Festival so they decided to start their own festival in Park City held at the same time as Sundance — the Slamdance Film Festival.  It was a total lightbulb moment and I knew instantly that I wanted to make a film about it.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I went to meet with Mel Stuart (then head of the International Documentary Association (IDA) and he confirmed I had no idea what I was doing.  But I had a passion and a desire to tell a particular story and I am dogged beyond belief.  That turned into my first film INDEPENDENT’S DAY about the struggles of independent filmmakers.  I like to say that while making a film about independent filmmakers I became one.

What led you to decide on Richard Pryor for your next documentary project after your two Roman Polanski ones?

I was first contacted in April of 2009 about the Pryor film.  I was in the middle of my Polanski follow-up film which I thought was going to be a short about how WANTED AND DESIRED had basically reopened the Polanski case.  I had no idea what the next few years would bring — Polanski got arrested — which was an extremely stressful period in my life — my film turned into a feature — and I ended up doing ROMAN POLANSKI: ODD MAN OUT AND RICHARD PRYOR: OMIT THE LOGIC back to back which is not easy when you have a young child.

Did you know very much about Pryor before starting or did you just learn more about the man as you went through the process?

I knew a little bit but read as much as I could get my hands on.  However, nothing beats hearing the stories when you are interviewing people.  You’ve read it all but when you hear the stories firsthand it all starts to make sense and you see the story coming together.

What was your biggest surprise and discovery while making this film?

I didn’t know about his childhood so that was a shocker for me.

Did you reach out to Jenny Pryor before starting this project or was her involvement more organic?

We had to get her permission so we approached her.

Everyone goes through a different process when making a documentary. Can you walk us through how you approach it once you decide on your subject?

You can have ideas about what you want to do but you are limited by who you interview, how good they are on camera, how stories meld together and obvious things like archival budget, how long you have to edit, etc.

Your Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired film changed legal history much like Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost series. When your Richard Pryor doc went to Tribeca, suddenly the long in development biopic about his life came back to life. How does it feel when your films make such an impact like bringing the long in development Richard Pryor film back out of development hell?

I’d like to look at it like that, but its a bit more complicated.  But I’m happy to take the credit!  Our documentary was supposed to come out after the fiction film but it didn’t turn out that way.

After seeing your powerful films, I’m sure many people would be shocked to know that you’ve mentioned in interviews you’d like to do a romantic comedy. Is that still true, and do you have one lined up for your next project?

I am an actor at heart (I appear in WHO IS BERNARD TAPIE? and ESTONIA DREAMS OF EUROVISION!) and have a longing to work with actors.  I love movies about relationships — especially romantic comedies.  My son is so disappointed that I only make documentaries.  Before him I wanted to make romantic comedies but at this point it might have to be a children’s film!

Many people argue over what constitutes a real documentary film. Some say that it must be 100 percent objective while other feel that doing it one sided is perfectly fine. What is your feeling about this and how do you approach it?

It depends on the subject.  Some subjects are so powerful that an objective approach speaks for itself.  Other times you want to make a point and that is when you take a stand.   I don’t really pay much attention to either.  I work instinctually and do what I think is right.

As any documentary filmmaker knows sometimes the behind the scenes can be way more bizarre than what made it into the actual film. What has been one of your more strange occurrences while shooting one of your docs?

What a great question.   Every film has its crazy back story but my best strange occurrence is how I got initial access to some key players in WANTED AND DESIRED.  After reading an article in the LA TIMES that talked about the Polanski case, I came to Los Angeles to try to meet up with three key people from the case — Polanski’s lawyer, the girl’s lawyer and the DA.  I knew none of them.  Driving from the airport  into town, I called a good friend of mine, Rich Raddon.  He said, “What are you doing here?”  I said that I wanted to make a film about the Polanski case and I’d come to Los Angeles to try to meet Polanski’s lawyer, the girl’s lawyer and the DA in the case.  It turned out  that he not only knew the DA in the case but knew Polanski’s godson — who he had introduced me to before.  In that one phone call, I had a possibility of getting access to two different camps.

These are the moments you pray for in documentary filmmaking.

Its the moment you say — okay — I am supposed to do this.

Richard Pryor Omit the Logic Q&A

Interview: Marina Zenovich

Click to continue reading Marina Zenovich Talks ‘Richard Pryor Omit the Logic’ & Roman Polanski

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Curt Johnson

Editor-in-Chief at Best Movies Ever Entertainment News

Filmmaker and movie reviewer who loves giving the spotlight to some not so well known films ignored by the mainstream media. Also loves dark twisted comedy like House Of Yes while also enjoying Working Girl.

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It seems like everytime you turn around, there’s a new social media site diverting your attention making it harder to figure out which ones are worth your time and energy. PopCircle is a new one that easily stands out from the crowd and it’s just launched it’s Beta site after some very intensive testing. You can check out the site and try it out now.

PopCircle is about matching your tastes, which is something that can often be hard to find no matter how much searching you do. Facebook’s latest Home app arrived pretty dead on arrival and it just shows how many social media sites are trying to do way too much and be for everyone. There’s no way you can make everyone happy so it’s great when different social media sites focus on what they know is missing in the marketplace.

CEO & Founder of PopCircle Chris Hill gave us a much better idea of what his new site is all about along with talking about his favorite movies and tv shows.

BEST MOVIES EVER: How did the idea for PopCircle come about?

CHRIS HILL: It was really the result of two different strains of thought that were percolating as I worked with different established and start-up companies over the past decade.

The first was that I noticed that while the Internet, mobile technologies, and online social networks were vastly expanding the amount of information available to us – at our fingertips – the tools available to sort through that information were often quite crude. There was a lot of searching, a lot of surfing…but not always a lot of actual discovery of the things that match my tastes.

The second insight came after reading countless stories stating that technological innovation is changing human behavior, and it occurred to me how unlikely this really is. Human beings have been evolving behaviors and social norms over many, many thousands of years. Of course those behaviors change over long periods of time, as we adopt and adapt to material changes and technological advances. But if there is one thing it will be hard to change it’s what makes up of personal taste. In the end it will be impossible to crack the code of what makes up taste, or personal opinions, because there are so many variables. But there is one fundamental fact we know we can rely on, which is that people’s tastes are heavily influenced by very small groups of people . Most of us can count the people who are truly influential in our lives on just one or two hands, and smartphones and search-engine algorithms are not going to change that fundamental fact overnight.

Combining those two strains of thought led me to think that the “secret sauce” of online discovery actually has very ancient roots, that the thrust of technology and innovation in the future will not be about forcing humans to adapt to new technologies, but rather about adapting the technologies to conform to natural human behaviors.

If, for example, I want to get ideas on a restaurant to go to with my wife and a couple of friends, or a movie to watch at home, I can fairly easily find ads, or reviews written by complete strangers, or recommendations generated by computer algorithms. But what I long for – what I think we all long for – is a way to discover the things I love, the things that are really about my personal tastes. Technology needs to ease that discovery, not replace it. We may read something online from a stranger or someone we once went to school with years earlier, but the truth is that we are only likely to act on the advice of a very small number of people. And that’s how the idea for PopCircle started to emerge: how do you take the fundamental fact that we want to know the opinions of a very small, changing set of people, and map it against the hundreds and sometimes thousands of people we are connected to online?

BME: What made you decide to create the site?

CH: In the end PopCircle is a very simple concept: we want to take the real-word dynamic of word-of-mouth recommendations among groups of people, and bring that to life online. Talking to friends and colleagues convinced me that while this was going to be a big undertaking, there was a huge opportunity here, to give people a way to make their online social lives – on Facebook, Twitter and the rest – more useful, more relevant to their daily lives. And then of course the opportunity to work with two old friends – my co-founders Dan Liliedahl and Tom Mendelsohn — sealed the deal for me, personally.

BME: With so many other social media sites popping up daily, what sets PopCircle apart from all the others?

CH: We think that what we are doing is entirely new, and is really about making our members’ existing social networks more useful, more relevant. Yes, you may have 500 friends on Facebook….but when you want to find a new book to read, are you really interested in digging through the random opinions of all 500 of those “friends”? Probably not. What we want to do is give you a tool to see what the small number of people whose tastes in books you really do trust are recommending. We like to think of it as the online equivalent of having a coffee break with a friend on Monday morning and sharing what you did over the weekend, whether it was a great new TV show you’ve started watching, or a hotel you stayed at, or a bottle of wine you enjoyed.

PopCircle is also a place to find new people whose tastes you share, such as our experts. I know that in my own life there are four or five friends whose taste in music I really trust and rely on, and a couple of expert reviewers I like to follow to keep up with what’s new. As much as I love my mom – and I’m certainly friends with her on Facebook – the truth is I’m not too interested in what music she’s listening to theses days!

BME: Can you explain in detail how PopCircle works for those people not familiar with it?

CH: Fundamentally PopCircle is about discovering and sharing the things you love – today it’s books, music, movies and TV, but soon we will have more categories – with circles of people you trust, such as custom groups of your friends and expert reviewers.

Most discovery and sharing on PopCircle is powered by a very simple, one-step action: the Recommend button. If you see something you’d recommend to friends – a book you read, a move you loved, a TV show you never miss – click on the Recommend button. The number of Recommendations an item gets is the primary ingredient in the recipe PopCircle uses to make Recommendations to our members, so it’s both an important way to discover things and for you to share your tastes with others.

After the Recommend button, the most basic functionality we want people to understand and use are Circles. On PopCircle it’s easy to find, invite and follow all of your friends from Facebook and Gmail (and soon from Twitter and Google+ as well). But using Circles makes this group of people you’re following even more useful. Circles are custom groups – private to you, no one else can see them – that you use to narrow the people who are influencing your recommendations. So if you’re a mystery book fan, create a Circle called “Mystery Books” and add the friends and experts whose tastes in mystery books you trust. Then, when you’re looking at book recommendations, select your “Mystery Books” Circle…and presto! all you’re seeing are book recommendations from your “Mystery Books” Circle. And of course you can create as many Circles as you want. For example Circles I’ve created include “New Music,” “Literary Fiction,” “Family” and “Close Friends”.

Collections are also central to the PopCircle experience – we think of them as the fun and expressive side of PopCircle. You can create a Collection on any topic you choose, give it a headline and a description, and add books, songs, movies or TV shows to it. Just looking at the PopCircle main screen right now, I see Collections with titles such as “Ten Close-But-No-Cigar Movies”, “Best of Spielberg”, “On My To-Read Pile” and “Latin Pop Divas”. And the great thing is that you can use your Circles to narrow which Collections you see, in the same way that you can use Circles to narrow which Recommendations you’re looking at.

And there are more features as well. In addition to simply Recommending an item, PopCircle members can write reviews and rate those items. Members can share pretty much anything they like – an individual book, song, movie or TV show, a collection, or even another member or expert – to their Facebook, Twitter or Google+ followers and friends, or with an email.

Finally, we think PopCircle is and will become more of a killer utility as well. When you find a movie you want to watch on PopCircle, for example, it’s easy to purchase that movie. Soon we’ll be adding even more options for each item, for example giving members the ability to add movies directly from PopCircle to their queues on movie-streaming services or songs directly to their playlists on music-streaming services. Think of PopCircle as becoming the dashboard not only for how you discover and share the things you love, but also how you keep track of and purchase or use those great things.

BME: Currently PopCircle focuses on Books, Music, TV and movies. What other categories will you be adding?

CH: We actually want our members to tell US what other categories they would like to see – we’re always looking for feedback! Among the more popular requests so far are restaurants, games, hotels, wine, vacation destinations, even some packaged goods such as health and beauty products. We hope to add more categories in the near future.

BME: How has response been to PopCircle?

CH: It’s only been a couple of weeks since we launched our beta site, but we’ve been really excited and encouraged by the response so far. Usually the feedback is something along these lines…”I love PopCircle, this is something I’ve been wanting for a long time! But why don’t you have restaurants?” Or there will be a suggestion for a new feature….and all of it is great feedback, because it validates the idea of PopCircle and shows people’s hunger for us to make it even better. Which I can assure you we are working on!

BME: What are some of the social media pitfalls you’ve learned while creating the site?

CH: I think the number-one lesson we’ve learned so far is that after almost a decade of online social networking, most people are starting to become extremely careful and selective about who and what they will “listen to” online. This is exciting to us, because we believe PopCircle is part of the answer to this wide desire to help improve the “signal-to-noise ratio”. But it also means that we have to be – and we are being – very careful about not generating too much noise on people’s social network feeds. It’s a very fine balance, because of course the more PopCircle is in our members’ Facebook and Twitter feeds, for example, the more exposure PopCircle gets as a brand and as a service…but it also sours the experience for members who are sensitive to so much “noise”. So we take very seriously the need to strike a healthy balance there, and err on the side of giving the power and control over social-network sharing to our members.

BME: What are your plans to make PopCircle more even more engaging for its users?

CH: The first item in all of our plans is, “What do our members want?” We listen to our members’ feedback very closely, and watch very carefully which features seem to be working and which not. Having said that, we know we want to make it easier for our members to find and follow friends and others whose taste they trust; we’d like to add more categories of content; we’re looking at the potential for mobile apps to customize the PopCircle experience for tablets and smartphones; and we want to make it easier and more intuitive for our members to act on an item they’ve discovered, whether that means purchasing it, queuing it up or sharing it with friends.

But, most importantly, we want our members to tell us what they want us to do to improve PopCircle.

BME: What’s your current favorite book, music, movie and TV show?

CH: I knew you were going to ask this question! So I always qualify this by saying that these are EXAMPLES of my current favorite books, music, movies and TV shows, and I’m giving you one relatively obscure and one prominent example of each.

Books: “Explorers of the New Century” by Magnus Mills, and “Lost in Shangri-La” by Mitchell Zuckhoff

Music: “Crackle & Drag” by Paul Westerberg, and “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons

Movies: “The Double Life of Veronique”, and “Argo”

TV Shows: “The Wire”, and “Mad Men”

Chris Hill Interview

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Curt Johnson

Editor-in-Chief at Best Movies Ever Entertainment News

Filmmaker and movie reviewer who loves giving the spotlight to some not so well known films ignored by the mainstream media. Also loves dark twisted comedy like House Of Yes while also enjoying Working Girl.

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Filmmaker Drew Bolduc caught our attention with his very funny film The Taint that proved cult comedies in the John Waters vein were still very much alive and well. Many of have tried to replicate films like Pink Flamingos but Bolduc captured the spirit on his own terms with a very smart funny film that made our Top 10 list back in 2011. Interestingly enough, we also watched Teeth right after Taint and found they make the perfect complementary films as they deal with similar themes in a very dark funny way.

Now he’s looking to begin shooting his next film Science Team in June and is hoping that Indigogo will help raise the funds to do this. This is one filmmaker that’s worth putting the money into. If you’ve not checked out The Taint yet, the trailer is below along with a cool promo for his latest project. A man of few words, he did answer some of our questions about what to expect from his Science Team.

BEST MOVIES EVER: What gave you the inspiration for your latest project, Science Team?

DREW BOLDUC: It really all came from this one scene that I wrote a long time ago. It is a scene where this American government official interrogates an alien life-form that is basically a plant and has no ability to communicate. It just sort of grew out of that and  how a Homeland Security-type organization might actually behave when dealing with aliens. I guess it is a bit like Men in Black or the guys in suits at the end of E.T., but the movie is more about the inanity of their governmental bureaucratic process. It is also much more violent.

BME: Are you relying solely on Indigogo for your funding? If you don’t reach the 15K limit, will you still be able to start shooting in June 2013?

DB: I think it is really important that we get the 15k. We really want to make the movie as good as possible. Regardless, we are going to make the movie no matter what.

BME: What mistakes did you learn from your last film, The Taint, that you can apply to this one?

DB: I feel like we didn’t make too many big mistakes during that movie. I’d say we should have delegated more and not tried to do everything ourselves(basically two people doing most everything). So it took forever.

BME: Can fans of The Taint, expect a lot of the same over the top scenes in Science Team?

DB: Yeah, there’s going to be lots of gore. Psychic battles. A large disgusting alien.

BME: You learned a lot about distribution pitfalls with the last film. What will you do differently this time around?

DB: The Taint did well, especially for what it is. It was the sexual content that really limited the possibilities of who would distribute it.

BME: Are you planning to hit the film festival circuit with Science Team? This seems tailor made for the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.

DB: Yes. We’d love for it to play there.

BME: Have you got all of your actors lined up for this one or are you still casting?

DB: No, we are still casting. Anyone who is interested in auditioning should email us a headshot and resume to: scienceteammovie@gmail.com

BME: What cameras are you planning to use to shoot this one?

DB: The Red Scarlet

BME: Can you give a good description of what Science Team is about?

DB: Chip, the main character, breaks up with his girlfriend and goes home to live with his mom ands find her brutally murdered. There is also an alien living in the house that has psychic powers. Science Team shows up to deal with the alien and a bunch of violent things happen.

BME: Are you looking to move into more mainstream film territory after this one? You learned that having excessive male frontal nudity puts you into a more limited marketplace (unless it’s Michael Fassbinder’s organ) so will you be keeping that to a minimum now?

DB: Maybe. Science Team is still going to be a weird movie. There might be nudity, but there won’t the spraying and it won’t go on for as long. I think The Taint made its point, and there’s no reason to do the same joke twice.

Science Team Movie Promo – Best Movies Ever

The Taint Movie Trailer – Best Movies Ever

Filmmaker Drew Bolduc Talks About His ‘Taint’ & Upcoming ‘Science Team’ Movie – Best Movies Ever News

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Curt Johnson

Editor-in-Chief at Best Movies Ever Entertainment News

Filmmaker and movie reviewer who loves giving the spotlight to some not so well known films ignored by the mainstream media. Also loves dark twisted comedy like House Of Yes while also enjoying Working Girl.

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Ellen Hollman’s Saxa survived last season brutal ending of Spartacus: Vengeance, and she’s become a true warrior in the upcoming final season of Spartacus: War Of the Damned with Liam McIntyre. Hollman is just as excited discussing her Germanic character’s development on the Starz hit show as she is talking about her passion project, Visual Impact Now.

As Hollman puts it, Saxa is a woman who will never apologize for her strengths and embracing her weaknesses…which just so happen to be wine, women and her counterpart Gannicus (Dustin Clare). Fingers crossed she makes it onto one of the possible rumored spin-off series…if she survives since no one is ever safe on this show!

Spartacus: War Of the Damned premieres on Starz Friday January 25, and it’s worth the watch! Every season gets better and more brutal and this final one promises to be a memorable one.

Photo Credit: JSquared Photography

Best Movies Ever:  Have you been happy with the character development of Saxa from last season to this third and final season of Spartacus: War Of the Damned?

Ellen Hollman: Happy barely scrapes the surface as to how amazing it was to bring “The Saxinator” full circle. This season we’ll see a savage, Germanic rebel transform into a true warrior. Saxa is a woman who will never apologize for her strengths and embracing her weaknesses…which just so happen to be wine, women and her counterpart Gannicus.

Photo Credit:JSquared Photography

BME: How was it coming in last season and then having your fellow warriors Katrina Law and Lucy Lawless getting massacred?

EH: These ladies managed to make it to the final episode of last season but their demise was untimely indeed. It was a giant torch to carry without their presence but a challenge I looked forward to conquering.

Photo Credit: Starz

BME: How has your life changed since appearing on Spartacus: Vengeance last season?

EH: I can now jump off a cliffside onto a Roman shield into a 12 beat fight sequence and make it home in time for dinner. Could never do that before, lemme tell ya.

Photo Credit: Starz

BME: What’s been your strangest and/or funniest fan request?

EH: I recently visited the troops in Kuwait with fellow Sparty cast and one of the volunteers who worked for the USO tour asked if she could have the shirt off my back…. literally. It was a limited edition War of the Damned shirt and she said they never made them in small for the girls since most the volunteers were larger males. I grabbed her hand, brought her on our tour bus and we stripped down to exchange shirts. Despite her grin from ear to ear I doubt anyone will believe her story, ha!

Photo Credit: Starz

BME: What was your reaction when you found out that this was the final season of Spartacus?

EH: Honestly? We were all excited that they were ‘throwing the kitchen sink’ into the final season, enabling us to be bigger, badder and bloodier than ever before. There was no such thing as pace or save it for a rainy day. It’s was balls to the wall, every day soaring past expectations.

BME: What can we expect from Saxa this season?

EH: Saxa is no longer a feisty kitty with sharp claws, she’s a full grown lioness kicking some major Roman ass. She’s Xena on steroids with a foul mouth to boot…in English this time!

BME: I know you can’t say much, but what can we expect from this final season of Spartacus besides even more battles and bloodshed?

EH: Everyone may be aware of Spartacus’ denouement, but ‘how’ is a dramatic, twisted and heart wrenching surprise.

BME: There’s been plenty of rumors that there will be two possible spin-offs of Spartacus. What are the odds of you returning to either of them?

EH: No one would love to see a litter of Germanic Celts grace the screen more than Gaxa (Saxa/Gannicus). However, the ability to play a character with such intensity and create such a rich presence on screen has been nothing less than an honor and privilege. Whatever may be in the cards has my thumbs up.

Photo Credit: JSquared Photography

BME: Our readers really responded to your workout and fitness tips in our last interview with you. Have you picked up any more that you could share with them?

EH: I’m of course still loyal to my knife training and p90x Ab Ripper but have fallen in love with the torturous art of hot yoga barre and sculpt. They put you in a 90 degree room in front of a ballet bar and make you lift heavy things…you’ll sweat a dress size in an hour.

BME: What else do you have coming up outside of the Spartacus world?

EH: Aside from fighting for freedom against Roman legions, I spend a great deal of time running my non-profit organization, Visual Impact Now. We’ll be hosting the 2013 LA Eye Clinic March 17-24, servicing over 1,000 LAUSD students with visual acuity’s, eye exams and glasses. Its a great way to wrack up the karma points and distract myself from post traumatic Spartacus syndrome!

Photo Credit: JSquared Photography

Spartacus: War Of the Damned Trailer – Best Movies Ever

‘Spartacus: War Of the Damned’ Ellen Hollman Talks Saxa & Final Season – Best Movies Ever News

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Shanka Cheryl

TV Editor/Writer at Best Movies Ever Entertainment News

She writes it as she sees it and many have the war wounds to show for it. When I say 'sources' unlike other sites, I mean REAL life sources!

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He might only be ten years old, but actor Noah Lomax has already gotten to work with Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel and Josh Duhamel, not to mention getting a nice arc in season one of The Walking Dead! He started his career with Army Wives and quickly moved on to Drop Dead Diva before landing the envious spot on Walking Dead, but as we know that no one’s safe on that show so he last three episodes. Much longer than many adults have, especially this season!

Lomax talks about working with Geralr Butler and still not being old enough to have seen his most famous film 300 and taking on Josh Duhamel which you can see in the video clip below. He’ll be seen in the upcoming Nicholas Sparks film Safe Haven in February, but you can see what else he had to say about playing with the Dead.

BEST MOVIES EVER: What was it like working on The Walking Dead? Did you get the full zombie makeup treatment?

NOAH LOMAX: I really loved being on “The Walking Dead,” I played the son of Morales. My sister had a bigger role than I did on the show, but I was still on set everyday. It was really cool to see the zombies! Sometimes between scenes you would see them playing cards, or sleeping. A lot of the time there were dead dummies on set and we would be walking to our trailer and see a dead body [dummy] outside of the trailer. It was crazy. One time there was a sleeping zombie in the cooling tent, and my sister and I couldn’t tell if it was real- or fake. So – I decided to kick it in the leg, and she woke up right before I kicked her – so I just missed kicking the actor!

BME: Had you seen any of Gerard Butler’s movies before working with him on Playing For Keeps?

NL: I had not seen any of his movies, I am too young I guess! My mom showed me a few of his movies including “P.S. I Love You” and “The Ugly Truth” before we started working together.

BME: What was your favorite movie of his?

NL: Well, I heard that “300″ is really good, but my mom says I am still too young to see it.

BME: Did you do any preparation to get into this role or does just playing a son come easy for you?

NL: I didn’t really need to do too much preparation to play Lewis, we are a lot alike. Being a son was easy, because I am a son! Hahaha

Photo Credit: Michele Reed

BME: Do you think if your family hadn’t had to move from Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina you still would have the career you have now with two feature films under your belt?

NL: I don’t think so. I started acting, because my sister started acting and she looked like she was having so much fun. She signed up for acting classes, and I would go with her to auditions and it looked interesting to me.

BME: How different are the roles you play in Playing For Keeps and Safe Haven?

NL: The roles I play are very different. Lewis in “Playing for Keeps” was a happy kid, who loves to play sports. He has to deal with divorce, and wanting to be with his dad, and his dad keeps letting him down. In “Safe Haven,” I play Josh, who is a kid who is sad and angry that his mom died of cancer. He has a great dad, but Josh blames him for his mom being gone. Josh was interesting to play because he was so angry with his father and dealing with a lot of emotions.

BME: Who was the cooler dad in the two films. Gerard Butler or Josh Duhamel?

NL: Mr. Gerry and Mr. Josh were both pretty cool. I really enjoyed being with them. Mr. Gerry and I played soccer and trained together. Mr. Josh and I had did a lot of different things together… he took my sister and I to the beach and we trained for football and rode the waves. We would also do this arm/hand battle – you can look it up on YouTube, the video is called “soft-shell Duhamel and bad ass Lomax.” It is pretty cool!

Photo Credit: Michele Reed

BME: When you’re not acting, what do you do for fun?

NL: I play football, basketball – pretty much anything that has to do with a ball. I also like taking hip hop dance classes, love playing outside with my friends and hanging out with my family, and dog.

Photo Credit: Michele Reed

BME: It’s great you’re working with Soccer For Hope. What can you tell our readers about that organization that might get them to also want to be involved in it?

NL: Soccer for Hope is an awesome organization that helps raise awareness and cancer research for kids. Soccer For Hope was started because my best friend, Abella, who is also fighting cancer had her little brother lose the battle against cancer at the age of three. Kids battling cancer just want to experience everyday fun kid activities, and not be treated different. This organization holds soccer events so that kids can have fun with other kids and not think about cancer.

BME: What films or tv shows do you have coming up next?

NL: My next film is “Safe Haven,” which will be out in theaters on February 14, 2013. The movie is based on a Nicolas Sparks book. I really enjoyed shooting this film because I spent my time in Southport, North Carolina which is near the coast — so I got to fish and go to the beach the entire summer!

Fun with Norman Reedus (Darryl) on The Walking Dead

Josh ‘soft shell’ Duhamel vs. Noah ‘bad ass’ Lomax – Best Movies Ever

Safe Haven Trailer – Best Movies Ever

Noah Lomax Gerald Butler Playing For Keeps Clip – Best Movies Ever

Noah Lomax Talks ‘The Walking Dead’ & Gerald Butler Versus Josh Duhamel – Best Movies Ever News

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Shanka Cheryl

TV Editor/Writer at Best Movies Ever Entertainment News

She writes it as she sees it and many have the war wounds to show for it. When I say 'sources' unlike other sites, I mean REAL life sources!

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