Round-Up: UNCANNY Q&A with Lucy Griffiths, EMELIE, ONE EYED GIRL Blu-ray / DVD, VAULT OF THE MACABRE II

2015/11/03 16:56:32 +00:00 | Tamika Jones

Uncanny star Lucy Griffiths was kind enough to answer some questions for us, and the Q&A we conducted with her kicks off the round-up. Also: domestic acquisition news for Emelie, details for One Eyed Girl on Blu-ray / DVD, and Vault of the Macabre II video.

Uncanny: "RLJ Entertainment will be releasing UNCANNY on November 3rd, 2015.

Mark Webber (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), David Clayton Rogers (Bloody Sunday), Lucy Griffiths (TV’s “True Blood”) and director Matthew Leutwyler are available for interviews on behalf of the film’s release.

For ten years, inventor David Kressen has lived in seclusion with his inventions, including Adam, a robot with incredible lifelike human qualities. When reporter Joy Andrews is given access to their unconventional facility, she is alternately repelled and attracted to the scientist and his creation. But as Adam exhibits an emergent behavior of anger and jealousy towards her, she finds herself increasingly entangled in a web of deception where no one’s motives are easily decipherable."

Thanks for taking the time to converse with us, Lucy. In Uncanny, you play reporter Joy Andrews, who finds herself in a pretty unique situation. What intrigued you the most about this story and your character?

Lucy Griffiths: It's my pleasure. I wasn't intrigued exactly. I wanted to play the role because of how completely the script held my attention. I didn't have a particular interest in sci-fi at the time and wouldn't have expected to be so captivated which made me even more taken with it than I might otherwise have been. I found it exciting and it made sense and it was unpredictable to me.

Did you do any research on artificial intelligence or learn any interesting facts about that field by working on Uncanny?

Lucy Griffiths: I read Masahiro Mori's The Buddah In The Robot. It was a surprising read.

Many horror fans know you as Nora Gainesborough from True Blood. When you look back on that experience, what stands out to you the most?

Lucy Griffiths: Loving my job the people I worked with and being excited to go to work. Alexander, who was warm and loving, Stephen, who made me feel so welcome and accepted in such an established group.

Dennis the acting menace, smart Michael, funny, cool Valentina. Greg Feinberg, who was so nurturing and kind, Kyle Boulton the epic. The list goes on and on.

With Uncanny coming out on November 3rd, what projects do you have on deck that you can tease for our readers?

Lucy Griffiths: I have a series called Preacher coming out around this time next year and I am partway through filming an independent movie called Dara Ju with Aml Ameen. I'm also working on producing a movie called Rock And Roll Heart with Jumpstart Productions in the U.K. We hope to shoot that next summer.

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Emelie: Press Release: "New York, NY - MPI Media Group today announced it has acquired domestic U.S. rights to EMELIE, a gripping new psychological thriller and the first feature from prolific concert film and short-film director Michael Thelin. The film will receive a release under the company's elevated genre label, Dark Sky Films. A hit at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, Dark Sky plans a theatrical release in early Spring 2016.

The deal was negotiated by Greg Newman, Executive Vice President of MPI Media Group, and Creative Artists Agency.

In EMELIE, director Michael Thelin and writer Richard Raymond Harry Herbeck have taken an everyday experience - a couple handing their kids off to a babysitter - and created an original, nail-biting thriller. The Thompsons, a loving family living in a peaceful suburb of Buffalo, New York, are the definition of wholesome American normalcy. When their regular babysitter can't make it, Dan and Joyce turn to her friend Anna to watch their three children while they go out to celebrate their anniversary. At first, the young woman seems like a dream come true for the kids, as she allows them to play with things that are usually off-limits. But, as her behavior becomes increasingly odd, the frightened kids realize her intentions are dark and twisted - and that she may not even be Anna at all.

MPI's Greg Newman said of EMELIE, "With his first narrative feature, Michael Thelin proves to be a consummate craftsman, delivering a mature and thoroughly chilling and disturbing thriller that will stay with viewers long after it's over."

EMELIE was produced by Uncorked Productions' Andrew D. Corkin, producer of the acclaimed Martha Marcy May Marlene and We Are What We Are. Lizzie Friedman and Greg Little of Sandbar Pictures & Abandon Features financed and executive produced EMELIE. This is their third film collaboration, their most recent film, The Stanford Prison Experiment, won The Alfred P. Sloan screenwriting award at Sundance. Robert Beaumont, Roxanne Fie Anderson, and Elizabeth Jane Stillwell are also executive producers. The cast includes Sarah Bolger(The Moth Diaries, The Spiderwick Chronicles), Chris Beetem (Black Hawk Down, Inside Amy Schumer), Susan Pourfar (Woody Allen's Irrational Man, TV's Elementary) and, as the Thompson children, Joshua Rush, Carly Adams and Thomas Bair.

This acquisition comes on the heels of MPI's and Dark Sky's numerous successes this year, which include the theatrical releases of the critically acclaimed films Call Me Lucky, We Are Still Here and Deathgasm."

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One Eyed Girl: Press Release: "In the unsettling vein of such eerie modern classics as Martha Marcy May Marlene and We Need to Talk About Kevin comes ONE EYED GIRL, a gripping and award-winning debut film about a young man drawn to a cult-like sect. The thriller comes to digital download and Dark Sky Films Blu-ray and DVD on December 8th, 2015.

Travis is a young psychiatrist on the brink of a nervous breakdown after the death of a patient to whom he was inappropriately close. But his life appears to take a change for the better when he meets Grace, a mysterious teenager and the representative of a secret church that promises salvation to even the most troubled of its members.

Intrigued, Travis joins the group and meets its leader, the charismatic Father Jay, who indoctrinates him into the sect's sometimes radical practices. But when a series of tragedies befalls Father Jay and his flock, Travis must decide if his loyalty truly lies with Father Jay, the ever-elusive Grace, or himself.

Featuring standout performances from each member of its talented cast, ONE EYED GIRL is a dark drama filled with tension and dread that will haunt viewers long after the final frame.

ONE EYED GIRL, the debut feature of director Nick Matthews, won the Austin Film Festival's Dark Matters Best Film Award. Its sterling cast includes Mark Leonard Winter (The Fear of Darkness), Tilda Cobham-Hervey (Girl Asleep), Steve Le Marquand (Vertical Limit, Kill Me Three Times), Craig Behenna (The Babadook) and Sara West (Mamma Mia!, The Daughter). Erin Free of FilmInk said ONE EYED GIRL "is that enjoyable rarity: a film of big ideas and rich themes that nevertheless grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go until the credits have rolled" and also called it "an ominous meld of Michael Mann and David Fincher." The film "explores the dark matters of the soul with an engrossing intensity. The performances are first rate," said Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter. "An aesthetically confident, gripping debut," wrote Greg Cwik of Indiewire. The Austin Chronicle's Marc Savlov called it "a queasy little head trip of the best kind. ... The suspense is stomach-knotting throughout.""

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Vault of the Macabre II: "A Trilogy of spooky tales to celebrate Halloween! Narrated By Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Angel, Monster Makers, The Thirst) and Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dream Warriors, A New Nightmare, Just the Ten of Us). Introduction by Larry Kenney (Thundercats, Count Chocula). With music by Russell Bell. Happy Halloween!"