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25 September 2004
The following is from Annie (Renee attended the screening of the short film "One Weekend a Month at Cine Latino Film Festival in San Francisco as part of the closing night screeenings on Sunday, 19 September 2004:
Renee also talked about her experience shooting ‘Alien Abduction’ in Bulgaria and how shooting there was like when she was first shooting in New Zealand with a relatively new film industry and crew in that country.
25 September 2004
The following is from Josh Becker's Site about Alien Apocalypse
David asked: Glad to hear things are moving along with 'Alien...'
Just a few questions. In a recent interview with Renee, she was speaking about 'AA' and said how she looked forward to playing the love interest of a 'man'(referring to how she felt she had played a love interest to Lucy for several years). She said the reason it worked so well with her and Lucy was because they just had a great chemisty and truly liked each other and that came through on screen. She claimed that she felt it would also work with Bruce since she felt she also had good chemistry with him and they also truly liked each other. in your mind, did the Renee and Bruce have that chemistry that just seemed to work on screen. Also, Renee and Bruce both have families. Since they spent extended time in bulgaria shooting, I was wondering if Bruce's wife accompanied him there and if Renee's husband or son accompanied her there and if so did they spend any time on set. More...
1 August 2004
The following is from Josh Becker's Site about Alien Apocalypse
Name: grubioDear Josh: Where are the pictures of Renee?
Dear Grubio: I believe I should be getting more pictures very soon. I personally didn't take any. Josh
10 June 2004
More info on Alien Apocalypse from Josh Becker
Question from David: Sex scene between Bruce and Renee huh. Imaginations will be running wild I assure you.But i have to ask.......where they clothed during the filming of this scene, and were they comfortable doing it; just curious how much modesty was present on set?
Answer from Josh: It's not even a sex scene, it's the foreplay leading up to one, and they are both fully clothed. But I think it's very well-played, and even possibly touching.
7 June 2004
Question from LD: You said: “This film is certainly not testing her strengths very much, it's just a silly sci-fi action piece, but she's doing great, as always.” I agree with you 100%. The question is; “What does she have to do to get the kind of role that will show the world what a great actor she is”?
Answer from Josh: "Well, I guess she has to work more. This is the first film she's made since Xena went off. She did get married and have a kid, which is meaningful stuff to most people (I assume, since I don't know for a fact). But it's not easy getting work in films or TV, that's just how it is, and getting good parts is almost impossible now since almost no one makes anything that's any good at all. It's not Renee's fault, she's up for anything that's thrown at her, and handles it all like it's easy. That's what being a pro means."
Question from Cath: I've read about Bruce's imitation of Kirk Douglas, and understand that he can do a great Elvis. But, does Renee O'Connor do any imitations? (Not of Elvis or Kirk, of course, but I know she's talented, so I wouldn't be too surprised.) More...
3 June 2004
More info on Alien Apocalypse from Josh Becker
"The weather has been great (knock on wood), and I just completed day #10 out of 18 a few minutes ago. I have 6 more days of shooting this week, one day off, then 2 more the next week, then I leave the next day. It's been a wonderful experience, so far (knock on wood). I am working with Renee O'Conner right now and she's wonderful. Renee's hair is blonde and kind of long, and she looks very cute.
Renee's a doll. She was wonderful to work with then (Xena), and she still is. This film is certainly not testing her strengths very much, it's just a silly sci-fi action piece, but she's doing great, as always.
I don't have time to take pictures, nor did I even bring a camera. We are using several large 35mm cameras everyday, so that's enough for me .
Many thanks to LD for the update
26 May 2004
More info about Alien Apocolypse from Josh Becker
Contributed by LD & MET
Meanwhile, Renee arrived on the set today for the first time (she starts shooting tomorrow), in her space suit, and she looks terrific. It was wonderful seeing her again after 3 years. Five days of shooting down. Bruce is great.
"I have watched one dreadful Sci-Fi production shot in Bulgaria, but it didn't tell me much, nor will some other picture shot there. I'll simply have to go there and deal with what is. Given the 18-day schedule, the major criteria will be that every location must be as close to town as humanly possible, period. I really can't spend one extra minute traveling. So, unless things change, which they easily could, my main cast will be: Bruce Campbell, Renee O'Connor, and Lee Majors as the former president. Sounds like a good cast to me."
Josh Becker - Director, Alien Apocalypses
This photo shows the countryside just outside Sofia, Bulgaria. This is a beautiful land that is so green. Red tiled roofs with heavy Greek influence in the architecture.
23 May 2004
More info about Alien Apocalypse
Alien Apocalypses a Telefilm for the Sci-Fi Channel and will probably premiere in the spring of 2005. The production company is Franklin/Waterman Productions (Mike Hammer Private Eye). They are on a fast track, low budget, shooting schedule of eighteen days, which means if they started May 19th, and if they shoot a six day week, they should wrap on June 8th - give or take a day or two. They are using the same Sofia, Bulgaria film studio used to shoot "Raptor Island".
The following is from: http://www.sofiasideshow.com/
Sofia's film industry is getting busier, production by production, and this summer looks to be pretty hectic and competitive, as far as film production goes in Sofia. Another production company has arrived, taken over our old studio, and is doing two films here with Bruce Campbell (one with Renee O'Connor) . Actually, we did production services for this production company last year (for Raptor Island.) Our CGI director here met their director, a guy named Josh Becker, who has a web site, Josh Becker, Directing From The Edge. I was a huge Xena fan, and I remember the episodes. jkrank Many thanks to LD for the information
21 May 2004
More about Alien Apocalypse - from Josh Becker's Official site
Alien Apocalypse has started shooting in Bulgaria (as from the 19th May). When asked if the actors (including Renee) are there with Josh - this is Josh's reply:
Answer: I'm only getting three American actors: Bruce Campbell, Renee O'Connor, and someone to play the former president. Renee and the president will show up right before they shoot, Bruce is showing up a week early, thank goodness, that way I'll have a bud to hang with. Many thanks to LD for the news
19 May 2004
Also starring Bruce Campbell. A team of deep space explorers returns to Earth after decades of travel, only to find that Earth has been conquered and all of mankind have been enslaved. The cruel Bounty Hunters force them to harvest Earth's most precious resource-wood-for the aliens to feed on. As the astronauts piece together what happened, they try to rally the spirits of their fellow men, and mount a resistance to the alien invaders. Production begins in Spring '04 with Franklin Waterman.
31 March 2004
The following is from Josh Becker's site - Beckerfilms.com
Dear Josh: In an earlier message you said you didn't have a part for Renee in Alien Apocalypse and now she's playing the female lead. Did you not think of her for that role?
Dear Sharon: Quite frankly, no I didn't. I was thinking a lot more along the lines of Lucy, who turned me down. But once we began going over all of the available actresses, Renee seemed better than all of them to Bruce and I. So, I realigned my thinking, and now Renee seems great to me. I love working with her and I completely trust her, I just have to stop envisioning her as being 20-years old, like when I first met her. And the more I've thought about her in the part, the better I like it. I think I'll have her play her real Texas accent, too. I think Texas gals can see becoming an astronaut as a legitimate possibility. Josh
29 March 2004
Renee has the lead role in a Josh Becker written TV movie called "Alien Apocalypse" - this appears to be the movie "Xenophobia" for the Sci-Fi Channel.
The movie was originally called "Humans in Chains" which Josh wrote 15 years ago from a story he and Rob Tapert authored. That script (which was available on the net but has since been removed) has been renamed "Alien Apocolypse" and is set to be a TV Movie. The main leads are: Bruce Campbell (astronaut doctor), Renee O'Connor (second lead astronaut ) & Lee Majors (President). Bruce Campbell is co-producing this movie.
As a small bit of trivia - according to Josh Becker, Lucy was offered the lead role but declined and now Renee will be in it with Bruce. Lee Majors plays the President.
The following is from Josh Becker's site "had to adapt the script to get it to come out to eight acts, but that wasn't very difficult..... Bruce and I have these sales agents named Creative Light that handle overseas sales, and they had already done a project with Sci-Fi Channel, and wanted to go back to them, so Bruce offered up "The Man With the Screaming Brain" and I offered up "Humans in Chains." That was two years ago. After fermenting sufficiently, like a fine wine, the deal appears to have gone. I'll get my director's cut, as usual, but they can do whatever they want to it after that. The budget is $1.5 million, and I don't know how far I can go, not that the script really goes very far, because Sci-Fi is a commercial channel. There's no discussion of a theatrical version, nor of an R-rating, although I do hope to shoot wide-screen, 2.35:1."
Filming will begin in April / May 2004.
More tidbits from Josh from his website:
Sci-Fi just wanted some more aliens and more FX, which does make sense because there's a 30-page stretch without them, and on a basic, narrative level, you can't lose the other side of your drama for for a half hour.
Bruce wants a few changes on a character set-up level, which I completely agree with, too. I'll end up cutting a few scenes due to time and budget restrictions, but really, I'm not fighting the monsterization battle this time. And you can't blame Sci-Fi for the title change, even if it's a title they like, because it was my sales agent that changed it, and quite frankly, I think it helped the deal. It's now called "Alien Apocalypse," since Sci-Fi loves having the word alien in their titles (last week two of their original films were: "Alien Fury" and "Alien Lockout.")
Bruce will be playing the lead, the astronaut doctor who leads the slaves to freedom. I've offered the second-lead astronaut to Lucy Lawless, but she hasn't said yes or no yet. I've suggested a number of older actors for the president, like William Shatner or Tony Curtis, but there's no word on that yet. Sci-Fi hasn't made any casting suggestions.
I'm very busily storyboarding the entire film right now. I've already boarded all of the FX scenes. So far I've drawn over 350 drawings, and I've probably got another 300 to go. ....I read the scene several times, then think, "What would be the easiest way to shoot this?" Meaning, can this scene be covered in one shot? If not, then what other shots do I need to convey the sense of the scene?
With most higher-budget feature films, where you have between 45-100 days of shooting, you can literally cover the **** out of a scene, shooting it from a hundred different angles (like Spielberg does now), but I think that's far from the best way to shoot a scene. In TV, where a big part of the director's job is to be the expediter, it's very important to have figured out the simplest way to shoot the scene, which frequently gives the actors the most freedom, and gives you the most freshness and spontaneity. If you keep shooting a scene over and over from different angles, you will assuredly kill the energy of the scene. So, shooting simply is actually a very good thing, I think.
It will be a mixture of CGI and practical FX, but mainly CGI. There really isn't any other decent way to go. Guys in suits always look like crap, and CGI will actually work better for this than stop-motion would have. The design for the aliens is going quite well, and I think they should be cool.