Valerie Weiss Interview – Losing Control – Just Seen It
September 26th, 2012 by David Freedman
Liz and Sean chat with director Valerie Weiss about her new romantic comedy, Losing Control. Starring Valerie Weiss, Liz Manashil and Sean Wright. Directed by Amy Taylor.
Synopsis: Samantha is a scientist seeking a mate. But her scientific approach to find the ideal mate proves maddening. It is only after her boyfriend Ben proposes, that she must decide between science and matters of the heart.
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Picture this: You are sitting at work one day and the phone rings . It’s the police. One of your employees is being accused of theft. Not just any employee . The cute teen age blonde. They want you to detain her. Okay. No problem. They want you to search her personal effects. A little more uncomfortable but, c’mon, it’s the police. Okay. We do the search. Still didn’t find that money. Gonna have to do a strip search. Say what? Somebody smack the guy that just yelled “hell yeah”. What if they told you to go even further? Where would you draw the line? 
You know, I’ve always fancied myself as not having a fear for many things. Okay, there’s the dislike of bats (fear is such a nasty word), I’ll give you that one. But watching the new SyFy Channel show Haunted Highway has introduced me to a level of fear I’ve never considered before. Maybe I’m just getting old but watching these two person teams search for paranormal anomalies while on their own in the wilderness freaks me out. And to make it worse, Dana Workman, the subject of my interview today and one of the investigators on the show, is a beautiful, petite young woman. So what does that say about me? I bet I can at least take her in arm wrestling though. Enough about me. Let’s learn about my new hero… 
Not to downplay today’s tragic events in Colorado, but it’s no secret that The Dark Knight Rises is my most anticipated movie of the decade. I know what you’re thinking. I’m a mind reader. You’re thinking that’s a pretty bold statement to make considering we are only 3 years into this current decade. But really? What else comes close to touching it? Avatar 2: Dancing With Wolves? Nah. The only thing I could think of is if they can ever pull off a ‘Justice League’ movie and not have it be an utter abomination of the senses. But I digress because we are here today to talk all things The Dark Knight Rises, in particular as they relate to the young British actress India Wadsworth who plays the daughter of the Warlord? I put a question mark there because a few days ago your guess was as good as mine when it comes to who that character refers to, but I guess you will all be finding out very soon so no worries. 
Yesterday I was invited to join a round-table discussion with some of the leaders of the Blu-ray industry to discuss the evolution of the home entertainment market and how current technologies (Blu-ray Disc, digital steaming and downloads and disc-based digital extensions) complement one another to give consumers more flexibility and control over their content and viewing options than ever before. The discussion was moderated by Andy Parsons, Chair, BDA US Promotions Committee who also hosted the Q&A panel that followed afterwards along with Rich Marty, Vice President for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Paul Erickson, Senior Analyst for IMS Research. As you might expect, UltraViolet came up a lot in the discussion (including my own complaint about it) as well as hardware questions, 3D adoption and its market share, their thoughts on the future of the format, and a lot more. There was even some talk about the upcoming Lawrence of Arabia Blu-ray release. Read on for more details! 
Before I start to tell you about what I have discovered about Charlie O’Connell let’s rattle off some of what Charlie has done in his career thus far. First film that pops into my head is he’s the “Stoner BashingTime” guy in Dude Where’s My Car, his line in that film gets me every time. Then there is The New Guy where he gets to play along side brother, Jerry O’Connell. Later To Kill a Mockumentary came about where he played Judas. Oh and there was The Gentleman’s League which I really took a liking to but that only lasted two episodes. All these roles are comedy roles. Nothing stuck out to me that was super serious or suspenseful like we are all about to see in Huff. 
In this gory-tale film, Huff, the big bad wolf has three step-daughters and the youngest of the three is Shay played by newbie actress Elly Stefanko. On my way up to Santa Clarita I was doing some research on her to see who she was. Little did I know that googling her would lead me to her website where I shockingly found out she is a pop diva. Well, as you will find out ‘Diva’ is not even in Elly’s makeup. Her latest song, “Spoiled” has a great video that spoofs the Jersey Shore kids. As you listen you may think she only sounds good due to the synthesizers and auto-tune on this track but as you click to her other songs, especially her renditions of various Christmas favorites, that is not the case. No auto-tune, no track laid behind her, just a piano and her voice. I am overly impressed. 
When I saw that Clint Howard
On September 27, I was invited to participate in a roundtable discussion with legendary Disney producer Dan Hahn, so of course I had to say yes. Mr. Hahn was an integral part of the Disney Renaissance that showcased Disney’s animation in a way that recapture audiences. Mr. Hahn has been involved in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Beauty and the Beast, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Lion King to name just a few and his longtime collaboration with Tim Burton continues with the upcoming Frankenweenie. He also produced a wonderful documentary about some of the history of Disney animation called Waking Sleeping Beauty that I really enjoyed and reviewed 
As the poster below says, “The King Has Returned” with The Lion King once again dominating the box office during it’s new re-release into the theaters. The fact that it’s beating several new movies that have just opened is a testament to it’s lasting popularity and power. I recently had the chance to participate in a round-table discussion with the two directors of The Lion King, Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers about the movie and it’s continuing appeal as well as their upcoming 3D Blu-ray that will be released on October 4th. Both men were very friendly and were happy to answer a ton of questions about the movie and it was evident that they both still had a lot of love and pride for the movie. Both men generously spent almost two hours answering questions and I thank them and Disney publicity for the opportunity. Read on for more… 
Not long ago, I had the chance to talk to with some very influential people in Disney about the restoration work done for the upcoming Dumbo Blu-ray. Those people included Sara Duran-Singer, the Senior Vice-President of Post-Production, Dave Bossert, the Creative Director of Walt Disney Studios Animation, and Joe Jiuliano, who is the Director of Film and Video Services The discussion yielded a lot of interesting information on how Disney restores and preserves their films as well as some interesting trivia such as the fact that legendary Warner Brothers animator Chuck Jones got his start working for Disney. We also found out that some of Disney’s classic live action films including (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Swiss Family Robinson, and Mary Poppins) have already been restored and will be coming to Blu-ray. Ostensibly, we were supposed to talk about the amazing restoration done on Dumbo, but I managed to sneak in a question about the legendary Song of the South which is still locked up in the vault, and I actually got an answer that might surprise you. Read on to find out more… 
So like most things in my life, events happen and transpire unexpectedly and generally for a reason…at least I tend to always cling on to that hope they do. Such was the occasion when not only did I get to attend the premiere screening of Chillerama at Comic-Con with one of my favorite directors, Adam Green (listen to my full interview with him 
