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Your upcoming movie Bad Moon Rising - in a few words, what's
it going to be about?
It's a werewolf movie, the title was named after the song from An
American Werewolf In London.
It's about a team of girls who have a reality paranormal investigation
type show called Scream Team, a bit like TOWIE meets
The X Files. The
show isn't doing very well and is about to be axed by the network when
the producer gets a call from a man in a Bulgarian village asking if the
girls will go out and investigate some strange disappearances. The
producer thinks this might be an opportunity to save the
show but when they get out there things don't go quite to plan .
What were your inspirations when
writing Bad Moon Rising? Well the idea actually
came about when I was out in Bulgaria filming Christmas Slay with Jessica
Ann Bonner, we had some time off so went out with one of the crew members
and filmed some guerrilla-style footage and then the idea
developed and the script was kind of written around that. It's a mix
of found footage, mockumentary and regular film so I guess found
footage films such as The Blair Witch Project obviously inspired
me and then Dog Soldiers and An
American Werewolf In London.
As Bad Moon Rising
tackles reality television - your thoughts on that
"genre"? Some of it can be good, I'm obsessed
with Real Housewives Of Beverley Hills and Beverley Hills Pawn and I quite
like watching celebs doing nasty tasks on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of
Here. What can you tell us about your
film's approach to horror (as in suspense vs sudden shocks, atmosphere vs
all-out gore and the like)? There will be gore, it's light,
there are some comedy elements and there will hopefully be some jumps. You have worked with
Bad Moon Rising's director Dan Brownlie [Dan
Brownlie interview - click here] before - so what makes him
perfect for this movie, what are your collaborations usually like, and how
did you first meet, actually? We met filming celebrity
ghost hunts for Gorezone magazine, I was presenting and Dan was on the
crew, we got talking horror, I was still at drama school at the time and
he was making Three's A Shroud and offered me a role in it and the rest
was history. You will play one of the
leads in Bad Moon Rising
- so have you written your
character with yourself in mind, and how much Dani Thompson can we find in
Lucy? You will find some of me in Lucy, mainly the spider
fear because when Jess and I were out filming in Bulgaria the footage has
my squealing due to there being spiders quite a few times so I had to
factor that in the the script. Other than that though Lucy and I are quite
different.
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The Scream Team: Jessica Ann Bonner,
Dani Thompson, Angela Holmes |
Do talk about the rest of your key cast for a bit,
and why exactly these people? Jessica Ann Bonner who I have
already mentioned, we have worked together before on Serial
Kaller,
Christmas Slay and The Undead, the character Jordan was written especially
for her and has elements of her personality in there.
Angela Holmes and I have worked together before too on Cute Little Buggers
and Rockband Vs Vampires, she came along to the audition and was great,
Dan, Jess and I all agreed she was right for the role.
Brad Glen and Shane Salter were both in Serial
Kaller and were fantastic,
Dan Abrams was in Rockband Vs Vampires and Alasdair Mackay I know from a
drama school reunion party so the cast is mainly made up of people we've
worked with before. You of course also have to
talk about your werewolves, and how will they be achieved? Ah
well, our werewolves are still being designed, our FX guy Dave Darko is
amazing and he's not only creating werewolves but also aliens for this
film. As
we speak, Bad Moon Rising
is still in its fundraising stages
- so what can you tell us about your fundraising efforts?
We
have a crowd fund campaign on IndieGoGo at the moment, we've raised 20% of
the budget already in only two days so we're hoping to reach our goal.
http://igg.me/p/bad-moon-rising/x/8864682
Once
your funds are raised, what's the schedule - andeven though it might be
waaayyyy too early to ask, any idea when and where the film might be
released yet? I'm hoping to make the film in February/March
2015 as it needs to be winter to match up with the footage we already
have. Any future projects you'd like to share?
The
Tombs: Rise Of The Damned is another film we should be making next
year which is about a group of celebrities who get trapped inside the London Tombs [Dan Brownlie
interview on The
Tombs: Rise Of The Damned - click here].
Another of my very good friends Richard Gladman aka Cyberschizoid is
developing a script for Girlforce which is a bit like The Spice Girls meets
The Power Rangers which we also hope to film next year. As
far as I know, before becoming an actress you started out as a model - so
what can you tell us about that part of your career? When I
was a child I wanted to be an actress, either that or a popstar - but I come
from a small village in the countryside so it wasn't really what people
did so I kind of forgot about it, when I left school I studied fashion and
then kind of fell in to the glamour modelling industry, it was a lot of
fun and it moved me to London, I was a bit of a party girl too and I
enjoyed myself but after a while I got tired of it and I'd had a couple of
small TV and film roles, loved being on set and decided I wanted
bigger challenges, which is why I when to drama school. I still
like doing photoshoots though but now they tend to be more horror
orientated, I'm actually working on a series of horror character pictures
with Dave Darko at the moment, so far we've covered Freddy and
Beetlejuice
and next we're going to be sdoing Pennywise.
photo by Dave Darko |
What
got you into acting eventually, and what can you tell us about your
training on the subject? I did a weeks crash course in the
Summer at ISSA and it made me realise just how much there was to learn
about acting so I auditioned for their full-time course and was accepted,
it's a screen acting school so we cover Shakespeare and voice and the
methods but there was a lot more emphasis on being in front of the camera
than at other schools. Can you still remember your
first time in front of a movie or TV camera, and what was that experience
like? Yes, it was fine, I was use to being in front of a
camera from modelling and appeared on various TV shows during that time so
the transition wasn't so scary for me. What can you tell us about your filmwork prior to
Bad Moon Rising?
Well originally I didn't set out to do
just horror but it's just kind of panned out that way but horror is my
favourite genre so I'm happy it's gone that way. So far I've been a zombie
in Convention Of The Dead, a vampire in Rockband Vs Vampires, a psychotic
female in Banjo, a victim in Axe To Grind and Serial
Kaller, a zombie
killer in Zombie Women Of Satan 2 and a demon in Forest Of The Damned
2,
it's varied, that's what I like, always getting to do different things, I
get bored easily so it keeps things exciting.
With Serial
Kaller, you also
tried your hands at writing for the first time - so what triggered that
move, and what can you tell us about the film as such? I
did, I actually wrote the original script based around the modelling
industry that I use to work in and then Dan Browlie [Dan
Brownlie interview - click here] came along and gored up the
death scenes. The final film however wasn't exactly how I'd have
envisioned it turning out due to higher powers rewriting the script and
losing our creative control so I'd actually already like to remake it with
my original script. Going
through your filmography, one can't help but notice you seem to come back
to the horror genre again and again - coincidence, or is horror a genre at
all dear to you, and why (not)?
I found my love of horror
films in the late 90's with movies like Scream, Urban Legend,
The Craft
and I Know What You Did Last Summer, etc, I'm a big fan of the slasher and
I love being able to make movies that I know I'd watch had they been made
by somebody else. How would you describe
yourself as an actress and as a writer?
Ooh, I just love to
be busy so when I'm not acting I'm writing or thinking up new concepts, I
write a lot in the winter when I hibernate out of the cold. Actresses,
writers, filmmakers, whoever else who inspire you? So many
people, Wes Craven, Joss Whedon, Tim Burton, The Soska Sisters [Soska
Sisters interview - click here], Jennifer
Love Hewitt. Your
favourite movies? The Wizard Of Oz, Scream, The
Craft, Jawbreaker, The Mummy, list is endless. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
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Ooh, any British gangster film, they're all the
same, so boring. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo?
http://igg.me/p/bad-moon-rising/x/8864682
Facebook - badmoonrisingmovie
Twitter - @badmoonmovie
www.dani-thompson.com
Thanks
for the interview!
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amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Dani Thompson at adultvideouniverse.com
