The Projection Booth Podcast

As part of the University of Illinois's Masters of Modern Science Fiction series, D. Harlan Wilson has written a literary biography of J.G. Ballard examining the themes and progression of Ballard's fiction and (fictional) biographical work.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for Ego Fest 8 in which Mike answers your burning questions, get some advice and then promptly ignores it, and gives thanks to the Projection Booth's Patreon donors.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Banned before it was even released, Karel Kachyňa’s The Ear is a study in paranoia. When Anna and Ludvic return home from a party they find that their front gate is unlocked and their home is open. Someone's been there but they don't know who or why and they spend the rest of the night trying to figure out if they will be part of the recent purge within The Party.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks to Jeffrey Combs about his one man play Nevermore, an evening with Edgar Allan Poe. Mr. Combs will be performing the play at the Sleepy Hollow Film Festival on Saturday October 12 2019. Find out more at sleepyhollowfilmfest.comLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Released in 1979, Bill Norton’s More American Graffiti reunites most of the original cast of George Lucas’s 1973 film save for Richard Dreyfus. Rather than looking at a single night, the film spans four New Years Eves across the lives of five main characters.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re kicking off Czechtember 2019 with a look at Jan Schmidt’s End of August at the Ozone Hotel. Released in 1967 the film is another in a collaboration between Schmidt and screenwriter Pavel Juracek who we discussed on our Case for a Rookie Hangman episode. Juracek wrote the screenplay which has a group of women trying to survive in the post nuclear apocalypse. The film moves at a slow but determined pace and should not be viewed if you’re sensitive to animal cruelty.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks to Randall Lobb the co-director of Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Lobb has already directed a documentary on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and is working on a Conan documentary, A Riddle of Steel. Learn more at fauxpop.com.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Released in 2008, Tarsem Singh's The Fall is a very loose remake of the 1981 Bulgarian film Yo Ho Ho. The film stars Lee Pace as Roy, a stunt man who’s had an accident that has left him paralyzed from the waist down. While at the hospital he befriends a little girl named Alexandria who’s played by Catinca Untaru. The film goes between the two of them at the hospital and a wild world of imagination crafted by the pair as a way to keep their minds off their boredom and pain.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Based loosely on Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary’s Pulp Fiction, Plump Fiction (1997) stars Paul Dinello and Tommy Davidson as a salt and pepper hit man team. Dinello has been asked by his boss to take out the boss’s wife, Mimi Hungry -- played by Julie Brown -- to show her a good time.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Martin and Jennifer Handorf join Mike to discuss a quartet of films made between 1998 and 2001; Caught in the Eye of the Storm, Revelation, Tribulation, and Judgement. They tell a sprawling tale of the biblical End Times from the Rapture to the rise of the AntiChrist. There's also some Virtual Reality and Mr. T thrown in for good measure.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Based on a book by Richard C. O’Brien, Don Bluth's Secret of NIMH (1982) is the animated tale of Mrs. Brisby, the widow with several children, one of whom is very sick and can not be moved. This is a problem as the Brisby family needs to move due to the impending plowing of their home.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Released in 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris is the second of three adaptations of Stanislav Lem's 1961 book of the same name. The film tells the tale of Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) who travels to a station orbiting the planet Solaris, a sentient ocean that seems to be able to read the unconscious thoughts of those on the station and conjure up living embodiments of someone from the astronauts' past, with varying results.Keith Gordon and Rob St. Mary return to The Projection Booth to discuss the Tarkovsky film, the 1968 TV movie, and the Steven Soderbergh adaptation.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ron Howard's Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) is the origin story of Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) when he was a little scamp on Corellia and all the things that put him on the path to be the Han Solo we all loved... before he was horrifically murdered by his own son.Chris Bricklemyer and Josh Stewart join Mike to discuss the oft-maligned and troubled Star Wars film. VFX Supervisor and Co-Producer Rob Bredow talks about his book Making Solo: A Star Wars Story.This episode uses clips from MauLer's Solo "review".Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo’s It Happened Here tells the story of Pauline, a nurse who lives in a world where the Nazis took over the UK during World War II. At first she goes along with the rule of the Reich until she witnesses -- and unwittingly participates in -- their cruelty, prompting her to join the British Resistance.Wynter Tyson and Caelum Vatnsdal join Mike to discuss alternate histories, Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here, and when fascist aliens took over the United States.This episode features the first part of our interview with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Released in 1983, Krull was directed by Peter Yates and written by Stanford Sherman. The film stars Ken Marshall as Colwyn, a somewhat brash young warrior who is betrothed to Lysette Anthony as Lyssa. The two are to form an alliance between two kingdoms -- to unite their armies in hopes of defeating The Beast and his Slayers, ruthless extra terrestrials bent on taking over their world. But when their wedding is crashed, Lyssa is taken and Corwyn has to lead a rag tag group to rescue her.Noel Thingvall and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss the storied production of Krull as well as other fantasy films of the early '80s including The BeastMaster, Dragonslayer, Willow, Legend and more.This episode features the second half of our interview with cinematographer Peter Sushitzky.Dedicated to the memory of Freddie Jones.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike talks to film freak Andrew Leavold (The Search For Weng Weng, The Last Pinoy Action King) who wants to be your guide for some far-out movie locations. Hear his pitch for two "Film Safaris" to Mexico and Spain where you can walk in the same steps of The Man with No Name or your favorite lucha libre.Listen to the episode, watch the video, and drop Andrew an email at andrewleavold@gmail.comhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vXaMS3VzIsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer/director Alex Garland's Annihilation (2018) stars Natalie Portman as Lena, a biologist, who has lost her husband to a place called Area X. She is a part of a team that goes into Area X, perhaps in search of answers, or for something more.Tony Black and Chris Stachiw join Mike to discuss the film, its odd release, and much more.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boris Sagal's The Omega Man (1971) stars Charlton Heston as Robert Neville -- possibly the last man on earth after a plague which has killed the majority of the population, leaving pockets of albino mutants who can’t stand the sun. They’re known as The Family and lead by the one and only Anthony Zerbe as Matthias. They’ve vowed to kill Neville if it’s the last thing they do…Maurice Bursztynski and Andrew Nette join Mike to discuss The Omega Man as well as the two other filmed adaptations of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. Joyce Corrington (The Omega Man) and Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend) discuss adapting Richard Matheson's work for the screen.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Released in 1973. Eiichi Yamamoto’s Belladonna of Sadness is an animated story of Jeanne and Jean, two poor young people in France during the Middle Ages who get married. However, when the Jean can’t pay the local ruler ten cows in tribute for their wedding, the ruler decides to take his payment out of Jeanne via by deflowering her. This sets the tone for the film and our young couple’s relationship.Hell's Belles Heather Drain and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss the film, feminism, witchcraft, and self-empowerment.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're looking at Jamie Babbit’s But I’m A Cheerleader. Released in 1999, the film stars Natasha Lyonne as Megan, the titular cheerleader who seems to have some very “unnatural urges” according to her parents, teachers, and friends. She’s sent to a camp where she gets re-educated in the ways of heterosexuality.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices