Dark Discussions podcast/website

[francoamerican]

Website: http://www.darkdiscussions.com
email: [email protected]
itunes subscription: Dark Discussions podcast

latest episode was released sunday (new episodes released every sunday night; itunes monday):
Episode 003 - Zombies Part 1
The topic for this episode is Zombies with a capital Z. Zombies have overtaken the world's culture, entering into our media just like a virus. Books, movies, video games, comics, and even podcasts have dedicated stories about zombies and their terror. Prior to 1968 zombies were known mostly as Haitian monsters created by voodoo or possibly ghoulish demonic forces, but in 1968 everything changes with an amateur director from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania named George A. Romero. His independently made film Night of the Living Dead shocked and captivated the horror world.

In today's podcast, Gordon and Philip focus on the post-Romero zombie, the flesh eater, segwaying between the slow shambler to the fast kinetic monster. Talk of the zombie apocalypse brings about the discussion of what makes our societies tick and whether a zombie outbreak is really only a reflection of humanity itself.

Franchises focused on are the Romero sextet, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake, the Resident Evil franchise, the 28 Days and Weeks films, zombie comedies also known as zomedies, and of course the Dan O'Bannon 1985 classic Return of the Living Dead. Shamble on over to your iPod and listen. Among some of the tastier tidbits we discuss is the fact that Richard Matheson, one of horror's greatest authors, unknowingly planted a seed in the mind of this little known director from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who changed the horror genre forever.

[neverending]

Segue is spelled segue. Other than that, it sounds pretty interesting. I might check it out on iTunes as I work Sundays.

What would be even more interesting is if you did a show on PRE-Romero zombies. Romero era Zombies have been disected to death (if you'll forgive a clumsy metaphor).

[swiss tony]

Right, I subscribed to your podcast and I'll check it out later. It better not be shit!:)

[francoamerican]

Oh, bloody hell. You are right. Now that is one big embarrassment. I tried my spellchecker and it keeps saying it was spelled wrong but wouldn't give me the right spelling.

About pre-romero zombies, sure have that planned one day soon. My cohost wanted to go big time into zombies so i agreed to do the podcast with him.

Have 3 other podcasts up too bedsides the Zombie podcast. So I'll keep my fingers crossed that the podcasts are good. Going forward hope to have it go smooth.

[francoamerican]

have a new episode out today entitled Who Goes There? (I think you may know what that means ha ha)

here is my blurb from my website:
New episode available at www.darkdiscussions.com
iTunes available now
Episode 004 - Who Goes There?

http://www.darkdiscussions.com
[email protected]
iTunes subscription: Dark Discussions podcast

The Howard Hawks/Christian Nyby 1951 film The Thing From Another World is considered by many the greatest science fiction film of the 1950’s, rated superior to its contemporaries such as The Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still. John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing, though a failure at the box office, has become arguably one of the greatest horror and science fiction films of not only a decade but of all time; re-evaluated many times over as a classic. Yet where did these wonderful films come up with such an engrossing and game changing story?

Philip takes the microphone and brings to the forefront the source material, one of the most important stories in horror and science fiction history, the 1938 novella Who Goes There? At the time of publication, science fiction film and literature was mostly Space Opera, the good old fashioned action adventure story but with a science fiction setting. Fun and glorious, such great characters as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon captured audience’s imaginations. Writers such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, E.E. Smith, Jack Williamson, and John W. Campbell Jr. wrote intergalactic adventure about men fighting on planets that some say were the seeds that gave George Lucas his idea for Star Wars.

But then, John W. Campbell Jr. decided to change everything forever. He decided to write under a pseudonym as Don A. Stuart stories filled with darkness, fear and man versus *fill in the blank*. Going back to the bleakness of classic science fiction horror such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Victorian authors of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Robert Louis Stevenson, John W. Campbell Jr. turned science fiction on its head creating what is known today as hard science fiction. (Though not mentioned in the podcast, the term hard science fiction was created by P. Schuyler Miller in his review of another John W. Campbell Jr. story entitled Islands of Space).

Not prolific as an author, Mr. Campbell retired from writing fiction at the young age of 28 to become arguably the most important person ever in the writing of science fiction. He became editor of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine and was the man who shaped and brought to prominence the giants in science fiction during its heyday, such notable authors as Robert Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard to name a few. A quote by Isaac Asimov sums up the impact Mr. Campbell had on science fiction and horror stating "(he was) the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the ten years of his editorship (of Astounding Science Fiction magazine) he dominated the field completely."

Who was Mr. Campbell? Why have you not heard of him? And why are you familiar only with his story that was the basis of The Thing? Podcast listeners, get ready for a new understanding of one of your all time favorite films and how one man gave us arguably the greatest horror and science fiction story ever.

[neverending]

Your podcast will do fine with one thread, so I've merged your two topics.

[francoamerican]

Thanks. I meant to keep it on one thread so I can let anyone know changes and podcast additions under the same thread. :)

[francoamerican]

http://www.darkdiscussions.com
[email protected]
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/d...st/id441162583

Episode 005 - Zombies Part Two
Welcome to Episode 005 of Dark Discussions, your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that’s fantastic. Once again Philip and Gordon discuss the flesh eaters known so affectionately as the walking dead and zombies. Within this episode, less familiar zombie films are brought to the attention to the listeners. Unlike the George A. Romero films and the other more well known franchises such as Resident Evil, zombie movies have been copied, ripped off, or simply reinvented by both great talents in the horror genre as well as the occasional hack.

Our hosts discuss three films each that any horror or zombie aficionado should see if they haven’t seen yet. Gordon focuses on the smaller film where there is no zombie apocalypse in sight. His three recommendations are Grace, directed by Paul Solet and starring the beautiful Jordan Ladd; Deadgirl written by Troma veteran Trent Haaga; and an entry from across the pond in Norway entitled Dead Snow. Philip focuses on three older films filled with kinetic mayhem, a Spanish/English joint production sometimes known as The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue; Ryuhei Kitamura of Midnight Meat Train renown and his extremely wild zombie film Versus; and Cannibal Ferox’s famed director Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare City.

But what about books and audio? Zombies are now appearing on page and paper, nook and nano. They’ve invaded libraries and computer desktops, perhaps easier than it had been for them to overrun malls, farm houses, and cemeteries. Our hosts talk about this new phenomena where zombie literature may have become as prolific as vampire and haunted house tales. Such authors and editors as Joe McKinney, Jonathan Maberry, Ben Tripp, Brian Keene, David Moody, Kim Paffenroth, and Stephen Jones are dissected. Titles as diverse as Stephen King’s The Cell, Jonathan Maberry’s Patient Zero, and Stephen Jones’ Zombie Apocalypse are dismembered. And a nod to the small publishing house Permuted Press gets a bite from our hosts. But wait, what was that you heard on your iPod? Zombie podcasts? Listeners beware, Dark Discussions welcomes you.

[francoamerican]

Dark Discussions podcast has a new episode. Phil along with another cohost, Mike, do a new and original thorough 2+ hour episode:

Episode 006 - Frank Darabont Retrospective Part ONE



In 1979, a young inspiring film student took advantage of an opportunity called a Dollar Baby, Stephen King’s generous way of giving back to the next generation of film makers. With the permission to make an adaption of one of the author’s short stories, Frank Darabont at the young age of twenty proceeded to make a short film which would go on to reach the semi-finalist list of the 1983 Academy Awards.

Within five years he would have screenwriter credits to the third installment of the Chuck Russell directed Nightmare on Elm Street Dream Warriors, a huge box office hit and ranked by critics as the best in the series after the original. A year later Frank Darabont reteamed with Chuck Russell and once again writes the screenplay for the remake of The Blob, a film listed by Fangoria magazine as one of the 300 best horror films of all time.

By the mid-1990’s his collaboration with Stephen King grew to include some of the best adaptations of the author’s works ever. First came the film The Shawshank Redemption, a heart wrenching story full of hope and salvation, which went on to garner seven Academy Award nominations. His follow up, The Green Mile, a story of faith and credence in a death row cellblock, went on to be nominated for four Academy Awards, including best screenwriter.

Your hosts discuss Mr. Darabont and his contributions to genre cinema during this beginning period of his spectacular career. To have an artist cross over from B-movie madness to critically acclaimed award winning cinema has given a new legitimacy to horror, science fiction, and fantasy.

[francoamerican]

http://www.darkdiscussions.com
[email protected]
itunes: Dark Discussions Podcast

Episode 007 - Frank Darabont Retrospective Part 2

By 2007, Frank Darabont had established himself as one of Hollywood’s top directors and screenwriters. Following the award nominated adaptations of some of Stephen King’s most heart warming stories, Mr. Darabont decided to go back to his roots to produce, screen write, and direct one of Mr. King’s most beloved horror stories of all time, The Mist.

The movie is a story of a group of survivors taking refuge in a grocery store as a mist of unknown origins envelopes the building. A throwback to the horror and sci-fi movies of the 1950’s and 60’s, the film, though a moderate success at theaters, is thought of as one of the top ten genre movies of the decade. With its religious and political undertones the film speaks volumes about today’s world. The ending, a shocking change from the novella, was so impactful to audiences, Stephen King himself stated that he had wished he had thought of the ending when he had wrote the story.

Soon after, in 2010, Mr. Darabont took a little known but highly regarded underground comic book and decided to bring it to the small screen. The story, a comic book written by Robert Kirkman, was a story about a group of survivors trying to make ends meet after a zombie apocalypse. Fitfully on Halloween night 2010 The Walking Dead premiered to both resounding reviews and audiences larger than many had expected. With this success, an upcoming second season was announced and will be debuted in October 2011.

Once more, Phil and Mike discuss the importance of Frank Darabont and the significance he has played on horror and sci-fi in this latter part of his career. With the success of the Mist and the Walking Dead, Mr. Darabont has cemented his legacy upon a genre that was at one time so desperately seeking monsters in the mist