Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Trending
    • Foreigner’s Lou Gramm Inducted Into Metal Hall Of Fame (Exclusive Interview)
    • Eva Hamilton Talks Comedy Horror SAWED OFF
    • FEAR Movie Minute (Review)
    • Harry Hamlin Talks Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda In His Role For 80 FOR BRADY
    • MISSING Movie Minute (Review)
    • Deon Taylor, Rapper T.I. and Joseph Sikora On Facing Your FEAR
    • Amanda Crews Says THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE CHILDREN
    • Luke Bracey And Emma Roberts Talk Intergenerational RomCom MAYBE I DO
    AMFM Magazine.tv
    • Features
    • Movies
      1. Movies – Indies
      2. Movie Reviews
      3. Movies- Wide Release
      Featured
      December 20, 20220

      Daniel Craig On GLASS ONION – Exclusive

      Read More
      Recent
      January 30, 2023

      Eva Hamilton Talks Comedy Horror SAWED OFF

      January 28, 2023

      FEAR Movie Minute (Review)

      January 27, 2023

      Harry Hamlin Talks Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda In His Role For 80 FOR BRADY

    • Photography
      1. Event Photos
      Featured
      December 7, 20210

      Nat Geo Photographer Joel Sartore Founds Photo Ark Project To Document All The World’s Species – Before They Disappear

      Read More
      Recent
      February 11, 2022

      NAT GEO EXPLORER Gabby Salazar Documents Conservation Around The Globe

      December 15, 2021

      Nat Geo’s Photographer Gordy Medroz On Ski And Snowboard Illustrated Guide ‘100 Slopes Of A Lifetime’

      December 7, 2021

      Nat Geo Photographer Joel Sartore Founds Photo Ark Project To Document All The World’s Species – Before They Disappear

    • ABOUT US
    • Music
      1. Indies
      2. Majors
      3. Reviews
      Featured
      December 20, 20220

      Award-Winning Composer Simon Franglen On AVATAR

      Read More
      Recent
      January 30, 2023

      Foreigner’s Lou Gramm Inducted Into Metal Hall Of Fame (Exclusive Interview)

      January 21, 2023

      Film Composer Christopher Young On Music for Thriller ECHO 3

      January 17, 2023

      Isabella Summers (The Machine Part of Florence + The Machine)Talks The Fun Of Composing For Film

    • THE WIRE
    • Literarians
    AMFM Magazine.tv
    You are at:Home»World News»Movies»Majors»AUSTRALIAN ALIEN INVASION FILM “OCCUPATION” STREAMING NOW (INTERVIEW)

    AUSTRALIAN ALIEN INVASION FILM “OCCUPATION” STREAMING NOW (INTERVIEW)

    0
    By amfmstudios on July 26, 2018 Majors, Movies, Movies - Majors

    Interviews by Michele Williams

    ACTRESS STEPHANY JACOBSEN

    Born in Hong Kong and raised in Australia, Stephany Jacobsen made her debut on American Television as the lead role of Kendra Shaw in “Razor,” the highly successful feature-length installment of the critically acclaimed Universal/Sci-Fi Channel series “Battlestar Galactica.”  She’s amassed a fan base in the U.S. , drawing critical praise as Doctor Lauren Yung on the return of the series drama “Melrose Place.”  She also starred in the Syfy Network movie “Three Inches.” Most recently Stephany had guest-starring roles on “Hawaii 5-0,” “Two and a Half Men,” “NCIS,” and had a recurring role on ABC’s “Revenge.”  She plays Amelia in OCCUPATION, which is in theaters and on VOD and Digital HD now.


    AMFM: You guys just had your Australian premier. How did that go?

    Stephany Jacobsen: Fantastic. It turned out to be a bigger event than I thought it would bre. Australian premieres are not as grandiose as L.A. premieres, but this was pretty close the turnout was great and the response we got from the audience was great. Everyone’s in great spirits following.

    AMFM: Tell me a little bit about your character.

    Stephany: I play Amelia, and at the start of the movie she is a waitress helping her mother run a local cafe, and she’s a law student engaged to be married. Over the course of the movie she transforms into a warrior and one of the leaders of the human resistance.

    AMFM: It seems that you have a lot of experience with characters that become warriors, you were also in “Battlestar Galactica”, so that’s good for women these days. In a lot of film and television women are getting to be the center of stories more and more. I was surprised you had strong leading males around you but your character became central and kept everyone around you together. Do you have any experience from your life that helps you be able to carry this transformation off?

    Stephany: Well, Amelia and I, we’re kind of the same in that regard. We’re both very protective. But I think what made it easy for me in that the way that she cares for the characters in the movie. The fact that the way she came to perceive the characters in the movie was the same way I came to feel about my castmates. You spend six weeks working alongside people, and you’re doing long shoots and night shoots with practical effects. You’re fighting wars together. You do bond, you become a tribe. I feel like we became a tribe on set like the way they became a tribe in the movie and I felt the same protectiveness to my tribe like Amelia felt towards her tribe in the movie.

    AMFM: You’ve done film and television here as well as Australia.

    Stephany: I’m an Australian citizen, but I moved here in 2007 after Battlestar Galactica. ‘

    AMFM: How did that come about?

    Stephanie: Very organically. It was one of those things that happened very very fast and serendipitously. What happened was I had tested for The Bionic Woman in 2007 but didn’t get that, but this role came up a little bit later. They sent me the audition and they booked me for that off the tape. So I went to Vancouver I shot “Razor,” I went to LA for what was just supposed to be a week, and take a few meetings. Then a week became a month, then two weeks after I came back to Sydney I booked another pilot, and went back. I ended up on a holding deal with the ABC Network, and then I got Terminator. It was like one thing just rolled into the next.

    AMFM: Are there any similarities or differences that you felt as an actress between the American market and the Australian Market, in the way that film and television is shot?

    Stephany: Yeah, there’s a prodigious difference. There’s almost no similarities. It’s almost like everything the American market responds to the Australian market doesn’t, and vice versa.

    AMFM: Can you give me an example of that?

    Stephany: I can still use OCCUPATION as an example in that it is something very very rare to come out of Australia. There’s been one, maybe two that you can arguable draw similarities to, but strictly speaking, you’ve never had an alien invasion sci-fi movie come out of Australia before. In a lot of ways, even though we all speak in our Australian accents, this movie has a very American feel to it. I actually think that Luke has very American sensitibilities as a director.

    It’s one of those things that you can exemplify it based on personal experiences as well, for me I really only did two jobs in Australia. I did a soap opera when I was very young, and then I did another series for the same network, which was very short lived. A few years later, I feel that America is much more ready to embrace ethnicity, and do away with gender restrictions.

    AMFM: There’s still a lot of gender restriction in Australia for strong female roles?

    Stephany: Ok, this is the only thing that I’ve done here since 2005.

    AMFM: This is kind of a different time in film and television from 2007.

    Stephany: What I really meant by that is that there are certainly productions that are female led here, and there are certainly strong female characters here, but they’re not doing Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel, and Jessica Jones yet.

    AMFM: So the roles are home-grown vs. universal, world-wide characters?

    Stephany: A hundred home-grown stories to one universal, world-wide themes. Having said that, I’m not putting down the Australian industry in any way, because beautiful, beautiful film and television comes out of here, it’s just that the diversity of content isn’t the same.

    AMFM: What are you looking at for the future? I know that OCCUPATION has already been greenlit for a sequel, which is amazing. Is that your next project or something in-between.

    Stephany: We start that in a few weeks, so I literally don’t have time. there is nothing in-between. That’s going to take me well into the fall, after that I’m going to be really tired and I’m just going to call it a year.

    AMFM: Tell me about working with Luke, he’s fairly new on the scene as a director.

    Stephany: I love working with Luke, I think his newness, in the best way possible…fiorst of all I think that he was always going to be a director. Whatever he did prior I think he always would have ended up a director, it’s who he is as a being. He’s a very even-tempered…he does not seem…If someone walked onto his set, and you said this is a new director, it’s his second movie, it would have been disconcerting. He’s very very even-keeled. He’s very clear about what he wants and is very firm in his vision. But one of the things I liked most about him is he is truly and authentically open to collaboration. He doesn’t have any ego.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column]

    DIRECTOR LUKE SPARKE

    Luke Sparke may be a new name in the  United States but is quickly catching the attention of American Audiences and the film industry alike. Very quickly after his feature film directorial debut RED BILLABONG in 2016, he’s back and we’re here to talk to him about his new film OCCUPATION.

    SYNOPSIS: A town is suddenly plunged into darkness. In the sky, a fleet of spaceships appears. The aliens have been watching Earth for centuries; now they have arrived to seize control of our planet. As alien storm troopers cut a deadly swath through the countryside, a ragtag group of townspeople realize they must band together for a chance to strike back at the invaders in this explosive sci-fi film that grips from start to thrilling finish.


    AMFM: Not many Americans have heard of you yet, so can you tell us a little about your film career?

    Luke Sparke: I’m lucky enough to have been working in the film industry my whole life over here in Australia. My family business is supplying costumes and props to films and tv. I’m lucky enough to have grown up with that, and moved into it myself. When I was old enough, I started working on film sets like “The Great Raid,” I’ve worked with James Franco on Benjamin Bratt, and went from there to work on the Pacific series with Steven Spielberg and Hugh Jackman, so I’ve had a very interesting career behind the camera, but I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker myself, so I’ve used my unique apprenticeship to start making films myself.

    AMFM: Some of your credits include military costuming…do you have a particular affinity towards that, or have you been in the military?

    Luke: I haven’t as I’ve been making films, but my family has a long history of being in the military so the core of our business is military costumes. So that’s why I’ve a long history of military action type films, I know who the go-to guys are for that sort of stuff. While I haven’t been in the military, I’ve spent a long time being a scholar of history…The Civil War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam…yeah obviously it’s in my DNA.

    AMFM: So what inspired the story of OCCUPATION?

    Luke: Well, apart from my love of history, my other love is, I grew up in the 1980’s, and I was the right age to really be affected by all those fantastic films, which I think are the best ever made…Star Wars, Aliens, Predators, Back To The Future, Red Dawn, Jurassic Park. I’m a massive genre fan of those movies. Grwing up in Australia, in the 1980’s ad the 1990’s, apart from Mad Max, there really wasn’t any Australian pop culture films I could emulate by getting into costume and going to Comic-Con. I love Australian movies, but there really wasn’t anything out here for us. So when the time came up for a new idea, this was always in the back of my mind…making Australia’s very first Alien Invasion Movie.

    AMFM: So you were actually looking to make a uniquely Australian story when you started this, and not a global one, more rooted in Australian history and roots?

    Luke: No, I definitely set out to make it international, I got an international sales agent very early. I worked with them on the script, I wanted to make sure it was global enough but still uniquely Australian. I think there’s a fine line between the two. Just like James Bond is still uniquely English, but very international. I think Australia could make more movies like that.

    I was actually in LA in 2016 with other scripts, and I didn’t have this one as a script, just an idea…when they said “what else do you have?” I just pulled this genesis idea out of the back of my head and I just said “Australian Alien Invasion Independence Day Red Dawn, Outback town.” They liked it, and I started writing the script. Eight months later and we’re filming. It was very quick turnaround.

    AMFM: Speaking of international, you have a very international cast as well. Was it intentional to have a broad casting?

    Luke: Totally. I find Australian films reuse the same people over and over again, they keep it very local based. I liked Tanuwar Morrison from Star Wars, hertz desperate housewives, Jaclyn McKenzie 4400. All of those people were first on my list because I knew not only were they fantastic Australian actors, but they have an international fan base, and they’re some of the people we gathered together before this movie went any further.

    AMFM: You’re greenlit for a sequel, how did that happen so quickly?

    Luke: Well, luckily because it’s relatively low-budget,..well we’ve managed to make it look quite big,, but we’ve probably spent less than what they spent for catering for “Independence Day II ” for example. Luckily for us last year at the AFM we sold this film around the world, Scandinavia, Germany, the UK and Italy – which is amazing for Australian filmmakers. Between sales and the tax rebates over here in Australia, the film has basically made it’s money back already. So everyone shook hands last November and said “Should we make a sequel? Could this be a franchise?”

    So since November of last year I’ve been happy to do the screenplay and we start pre-production next week.

    AMFM: That is a really quick turnaround. Is there anything about this story that is really personal to you? Something you wanted to impart to the world with your big stamp on it?

    Luke: I love directing films, I’ve managed to get representation in L.A. and I want to keep making films that have heart, and films for a modern Australia. What I like about this concept, and this was written as a stand-alone movie, is that in the sequel, the aliens are here, they’ve occupied earth, and what does that look like. It will delve into relationships and the genesis of how to combat an alien occupation in a very interesting way. I’m very excited about the sequel, it’s probably the most exciting project I’ve worked on.

    AMFM: Well, congratulations, it’s a great sci-fi movie, I really enjoyed it and I hope it finds a very wide audience out here on your release.

    Luke: Appreciate it, hope Americans recommend it.

    [/vc_row]

    Related

    Alien Invasion Director Interview Occupation
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleFantasia 2018: CRISIS JUNG Blows Minds, Takes Names, Stands Proudly On Plotlessness
    Next Article UZO ADUBA on ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, SEASON 6
    amfmstudios

    Related Posts

    Movie Reviews

    Eva Hamilton Talks Comedy Horror SAWED OFF

    Read More
    Movie Minute

    FEAR Movie Minute (Review)

    Read More
    Majors

    Harry Hamlin Talks Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda In His Role For 80 FOR BRADY

    Read More

    Comments are closed.

    SEARCH BY CATEGORY
    • MOVIES
    • Music ICON
    • AUTHORS
    January 27, 2023

    Harry Hamlin Talks Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda In His Role For 80 FOR BRADY

    January 15, 2023

    “Naatu Naatu” Composer M.M. Keeravani On Winning Golden Globe For Best Song In Global Blockbuster Film RRR

    December 22, 2022

    Ron Howard Gets “Life Lesson” Working With Thai Collaborators on THIRTEEN LIVES (Exclusive Interview)

    November 25, 2022

    Pinky Cole Promotes New Book “Eat Plants, B*tch,” in Dallas Nov. 28th

    November 9, 2022

    Author Rosie Brown Talks Ghanian Folklore Influence In SERWA BOATENG’S GUIDE TO VAMPIRE HUNTING

    October 23, 2022

    Author Carla Naumburg Tell Us Why She Wrote ‘You Are Not a Sh*tty Parent: How to Practice Self-Compassion and Give Yourself a Break’

    Hulu

    [instagram-feed]

    Recent Posts
    • Foreigner’s Lou Gramm Inducted Into Metal Hall Of Fame (Exclusive Interview)
    • Eva Hamilton Talks Comedy Horror SAWED OFF
    • FEAR Movie Minute (Review)
    • Harry Hamlin Talks Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda In His Role For 80 FOR BRADY
    • MISSING Movie Minute (Review)
    Archives
    Majors
    January 30, 20230

    Foreigner’s Lou Gramm Inducted Into Metal Hall Of Fame (Exclusive Interview)

    Interview by Paul Salfen Click On Video Below Rochester native and former singer of Foreigner Lou Gramm talked to Paul Salfen the night before being inducted into The Metal Hall of Fame in Agoura Hills, CA, along with Twisted Sister,  Chris Impellitteri, and Raven. In this raw and powerful interview, Lou Gramm (32 years sober) talks
    Read More
    Movie Reviews
    January 30, 20230

    Eva Hamilton Talks Comedy Horror SAWED OFF

    Interview by Paul Salfen SAWED OFF is a supernatural horror feature based on a comic anthology story and starring Eva Hamilton (RUIN ME, DEATH KISS), Jody Barton (UGLY SWEATER PARTY), and Trae Ireland (13/13/13). In the vein of "THE EVIL DEAD meets GROUNDHOG DAY," the movie centers on two hunters, friends for years and vying
    Read More
    Movie Minute
    January 28, 20230

    FEAR Movie Minute (Review)

    Review by Paul Salfen A weekend vacation turns sinister when a group of friends must confront their worst fears one by one.
    Read More
    Majors
    January 27, 20230

    Harry Hamlin Talks Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda In His Role For 80 FOR BRADY

    Interview by Paul Salfen 80 FOR BRADY is inspired by the true story of four best friends living life to the fullest when they take a wild trip to the 2017 Super Bowl LI to see their hero Tom Brady play. Starring Academy Award® nominee Lily Tomlin, Academy Award® winner Jane Fonda, Academy Award® winner
    Read More
    Copyright AMFMSTUDIOS LLC
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    • Cookie Policy (US)
    Copyright AMFMSTUDIOS LLC
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    • Cookie Policy (US)

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.