Exclusives
Katee Sackhoff from Space to Terror in ‘Growl’
The first rule of new werewolf screamer Growl, is you do not talk about Growl. Unless, that is, you’re the film’s star and you’re talking exclusively to us.
“Battlestar Galactica” alumni Katee Sackhoff gave Bloody Disgusting the first details on the gory horror flick and said “it’s like ‘An American Werewolf In Paris’ meets ‘Fight Club.’ ” You had us at werewolf.
Sackhoff, speaking from the Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Australia, said she plays Camden, the fight promoter for a traveling fight club who arrive in a ghost town tucked away in the Colorado Rockies. The only residents in town are the Maxilla family, who buy their way on to the fight card and soon reveal they’re packing more than a mean right hook. They’re werewolves and the fate of the fight club members varies between being eaten, killed or recruited to the family. Hell yes.
Sackhoff’s co-writer on her Versus comic, Sxy’leithan Essex, is the writer, director and production designer behind Growl and she said he was one of the main reasons she was attracted to the project.
“He’s a friend of mine, my writing partner and as soon as he told me about it I thought it sounded fantastic,” she said.
“I’m so grateful that I get to work with him.”
So far the only peek we’ve had at Growl is a teaser poster and a few official stills from pre-production, which look about as stylish and gory as Essex’s previous efforts Bled and A Darker Reality. Although the shoot isn’t set to start in Canada until July, Sackhoff said already she expects the film to be “amazing.”
“It’s very stylized, that’s the way it’s going to be shot and Scully (Sxy’leithan Essex) has an amazing eye for detail and a brilliant way of creating worlds, it’s so exciting.
“It’s also, like, the opposite of my last film, Haunting In Georgia; it’s massively, massively gory.
“I mean, violently gory.
“It’s like what horror films used to be in the 80s with the slasher films, very similar.
“(Hardcore) horror fans are going to love it.”
Fans of Sackhoff’s tough-girl characters like Starbuck from “Battlestar” will be disappointed to hear she won’t be getting down and dirty in any fight scenes in Growl.
“I’m like the only one who doesn’t have a fight in the whole thing,” she said.
Out today in select theaters and on digital platforms is heartfelt and playful documentary Mockbuster, which sees a director cold call a studio and ask to helm a lost-world dinosaur epic.
Inexplicably, they say yes.
Our exclusive clip below highlights both the comedic nature of this bizarre scenario as well as the pressures of shooting dino feature The Land That Time Forgot in a mere six days, with no real feature experience.
A dino attack scene causes friction on set in this scene.
In the documentary, “A struggling filmmaker’s opportunity collides with chaos and compromise when Sharknado’s notorious studio, The Asylum, invites him to direct a ‘mockbuster.’ With six days, a micro budget, and mounting pressure, Mockbuster is a comedic, behind-the-scenes documentary exploring the balance between low-budget filmmaking and creative ambition.”
More than just an inside look at filmmaking via low-budget film studio The Asylum, it doubles as one man’s pursuit of his dreams to charming, humorous effect.
“Mockbuster is a documentary about my own journey, but it’s also a love letter to one of the last grindhouses still functioning in Hollywood. We get to meet the characters and creators of some of the most infamous (and most hated) B-movies of the last few decades. People who make movies purely for profit – no pretension, no artistry, just monsters, C-listers, and chaos. A film that both genre fans and cinephiles can enjoy. But Mockbuster isn’t just about filmmaking, it’s about losing sight of your dreams, and reclaiming them in your own twisted way,” Director Anthony Frith said in a statement.
From Executive Producer and famed documentarian David Farrier, Mockbuster opens in select theaters and on digital platforms beginning July 10.