"Don't look up." That's the tagline of the new science fiction thriller, Skyline, which opens tomorrow in theaters. The movie stars Eric Balfour as Jarrod, who recently sat down with Jamie Ruby of Sci Fi Vision and Media Blvd. for a private, exclusive interview.
Balfour is probably best known for his work on series such as Six Feet Under, 24, and more recently his role as Duke Crocker in Syfy's Haven. He however has also appeared on the silver screen, in films such as What Women Want, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Spirit.
Balfour's fans will be happy to know that he and the rest of the cast and crew will resume filming Haven in April with an airdate scheduled for the end of June. He and his costars are excited to get back to filming.
Imagine talking about one of your favorite series, when suddenly the creator of the show calls in to join the discussion. That's exactly what happened last night on our podcast, Fandom Access. Riese: Kingdom Falling creator, writer, and producer Ryan Copple surprised the cohosts and the fans by calling in to the show live to answer questions.
According to Copple, the story of Riese did not originally start out as a web series. "It started as a short that I wrote with a friend of mine. And it was really inspired by a lot of personal events, because I’ve traveled a lot, and some anime influences. We took it to Kaleena Kiff, who is the other creator of Riese. We asked her to direct the short and she was like “No, no, no, this isn’t a short; this is a series." So Kaleena and I co-created it into a world. Whereas the short was about Riese herself, traveling with a wolf, it was more of a standalone journey, entering a really weird town and having some sort of moral dilemma that she faced. We were able to build it as a world and a series that had lots of characters to bring it to life and a whole serialized arc that could carry it throughout the show. And it just sort of grew from there, from both of us.
We were actually referencing a lot of [steampunk] before we actually knew what steampunk was, and then eventually I think I found a Wikipedia entry and I said to Kaleena, “This is what we’ve been talking about this whole time. It’s exactly what it is: steampunk.” We always say we’re steampunk-inspired, because we’re not the purest steampunk where it’s more the Victorian era. Instead we see Riese as more of a Dark Ages-Medieval meets World War I time period...It feels very fantasy and medieval, but at times there are certain hints of modern technology. Like when she’s in the hospital there are some very modern things, and it’s sort of the blending of those two eras. And that’s what’s really fun about steampunk, the “what if” of it, just imagining what could be in a different future."