THE 15th FESTIVAL OF FANTASTIC FILMS
20th to 22nd AUGUST 2004
Progress Report 2
July 2004

BOBA FETT IS COMING TO THE FESTIVAL.

Jeremy Bulloch who played the bounty-hunter Boba Fett in Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, is coming to the Festival.

Jeremy has appeared in a number of films, starting with Summer Holiday with Cliff Richard. He also appeared in 3 James Bond films playing Smithers Q's assistant.

His many television appearances also include playing Tor in the Doctor Who episode The Space Museum with William Hartnell and Hal the Archer in the episode The Time Warrior with Jon Pertwee.

Later this year Jeremy will be filming a pilot SF series called Star Hyke.

Jeremy, who was born in Market Harborough is married with three sons.

He has just finished writing his memoirs entitled Flying Solo, which is available now in hardback.

Jeremy will be with us on the Saturday and Sunday of the Festival.

Our other guests include Yvonne Monlaur, who starred as Marianne in Hammer's The Brides of Dracula and as Lee in The Terror of the Tongs.

Yvonne will be with us on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Tudor Gates the screenwriter of Twins of Evil and The Vampire Lovers, will be with us on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The director Peter Graham Scott will also be us. He directed Captain Clegg and the TV series Children of the Stones among many others. Peter has had a full career covering Directing, Producing, Writing and Editing.

On the Sunday of the festival Madeleine Smith will be our final guest.

Madeleine starred in Taste the Blood of Dracula, The Vampire Lovers and Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell.

Each guest will be interviewed on stage in the main theatre.

Weird and Wonderful

We are hopeing to show a selection of weird and wonderful movies such as :-

The Astro-Zombies, hilarity with poor old John Carradine as Dr. DeMarco.

Ex-stripper Tura Satana plays a foreign agent who is after DeMarco's creations. Directed by the legendary Ted V. Mikels.

The Bat Whispers, a 1930's classic in widescreen, 20 years before CinemaScope.

The House With Windows That Laughed, an eerie Italian thriller.

Darkness, a new supernatural film by the director of Ramsey Campbell's The Nameless.

Hercules in the Haunted World and Planet of the Vampires, a Mario Bava double bill.

The Living Corpse, an astounding Pakistani remake of the Hammer film Dracula.

Murders in the Rue Morgue, from American-International, a previously unseen directors original version.

The Demonics, a Jean Rollin supernatural film.

The Tenth Victim, Science Fiction, based on the writer Robert Sheckley's short story The Seventh Victim.

Tales of the Unusual and Tomie, a modern Japanese double bill.

Terror in the Haunted House, complete with subliminals never shown in Britain.

The film was actually shot in 1958, and employed a process grandly called Psychorama. The horror was supposedly enhanced by words or images subliminally superimposed on the screen. Subliminal techniques, as used by advertisers to 'persuade' cinemagoers to buy their products was banned in 1961, the year the film was released.

Vij, a striking Russian supernatural tale.

The Devil and Daniel Webster, a classic forties Hollywood fantasy. Set in the 1840's, with Walter Huston as Scratch (The Devil), James Craig as Daniel Webster and Simone Simon as The Devil's emissary.

The Retrospective Programme

Some ten weeks ago, in one of those events that would not seem out of place in our festival, Gerald Price rang to say he would have to cancel his appearance as the presenter of our Retrospective Section.

A visit to a medical specialist for what he tought was going to be a routine check up had led to him being told he only had six months to live - no treatment was possible, and all the hospital could do was to make him as comfortable as possible. Two days later, while at work in the evening, he collapsed, haemorrhaging three pints of blood. He was rushed into the emergency unit of the local hospital while his wife, Ruth, prepared herself for the worst.

Enter Gerald's son, Stephen, a practising doctor in his own right, who immediately questioned the original diagnosis and asked for new tests to be carried out.

Events now begin to resemble a Hollywood movie of the 1930's. The new results show that he does not have a malignancy in the kidneys and liver, but a treatable form of diabetes which can be controlled by insulin. Our ending is rewritten; Gerald resumes his film work; and goes home to reclaim his suits from Oxfam. He has lost 18lbs in weight and been told he is now a teetotaler.

So his appearance with us, albeit not as one of his favourite characters from 'The Undead' is definitely still on, and he is looking forward to renewing old friendships. He tells us he is particularly grateful to his partner in crime, Tony Meadows, for ther support that he and his wife have received.

His enforced lay off has given Gerald the opportunity to do more detailed research than usual and we are promised a bumper year in terms of exhibits, screenings, comment etc,

This section was so popular last year that we have expanded it.

See Progress Report 1 for a comprehensive listing of films we will be showing.

We have been told that Sunday morning will be of special interest to all film collectors. Advice will be given on storage, valuations made, and all sorts of general memorablia assessed. So bring along those items which have been gathering dust in the attic for the past 50 years; we might be able to make you an offer you can't refuse.

This will also be the time when a number of lost and censored films will receive their first screening for a number of years. Full programme notes will be made available at each performance and copies of some of the rarer films may be offered in the VHS format.

Greasepaint & Gore

Russell Wall and Bruce Sachs will be presenting tributes to Hammer make-up artists Phil Leakey and Roy Ashton.

The tribute is the form of two 90 minute programmes, with contributions by Christopher Lee, Hazel Court, Val Guest, Eddie Powell and Jimmy Sangster.

All Winners Showcase

It is 10 years since we started the Independent Movie Competition, and to celebrate this we will be having an All Winners Showcase of winners from previous years.

Among them are :-

King of the Magicians,

House Taken Over.

I Am Peter Cushing.

Le Rat.

Succubus.

Le Derniere Reve.

Domino.

Timmy's Wish.

Carnival of Souls revisited.

James Riley who gave us a very interesting illustrated talk on Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space at last years festival, is back with a piece on Herk Harvey's 1962 film Carnival of Souls.

The Fleapit experience

James Riley will also be presenting his late night Fleapit Show, which consists of a short talk, a double bill, vintage trailers and a kitsch raffle.

Possible films on offer are Yor: The Hunter From the Future,Spectreman vs The Killer Smog, The One Armed Boxer vs The Master of the Flying Guillotine and Godzilla vs Gigan. Sounds interesting.

Rare Boris Karloff find

We have unearthed a rare Boris Karloff TV film from the 1950's.

Boris Karloff starred in The Vestris made for American TV it has not, as far as we know, ever been screened in the UK.

This 1958 25 minute short is in quite poor condition, but well worth a viewing.

Early work by masters

We will be presenting Bob Clark's 1972 film Dead of Night, AKA The Night Walk, Whispers, Deathdream and The Night Andy Came Home.

It was produced and directed by Bob Clark, who went on to direct the Halloween/Friday the 13th prototype Black Christmas.

Written by Alan Ormby who went on to write and co-direct Deranged.

It also contains early make-up effects by Tom Savini, who of course went to do Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th and Maniac.

But this is where they all began.

Anolis Entertainment

The German company Anolis Entertainment GbR has released a number of Hammer classics on DVD, among them are The Quatermass Xperiment, The Abominable Snowman, Blood for Dracula, The Witches, Plague of the Zombies and Reptile. Some of these titles have interviews with festival guests.

They have also just completed their first production entitled Tears of Kali, directed by Andreas Marschall.

We will be giving Tears of Kali its first UK screening.

The film is in German with English subtitles.

The Independent Section.

We have a good number of independent films entered into this years competition, among them are :-

Tempus Fugit directed by d'Enric Folch.

This is an adventure comedy from Spain.

Ramon, a humble clockmaker, recieves a visit from a man from the future who announces the end of the World. The clockmaker and his girl try to avoid the catastrophe, but when Ramon's neighbour, a fanatical supporter of Barcelona Football club, finds out that his team will be humiliatingly defeated one week later, he decides he would prefer the world to end than see that happen..

U43 Directors Anna Kuczynski and Wolf Mocikat.

April 1942. The crew of the German U Boat U43 puts out to sea. Soon the routine is interrupted by mysterious incidents. The situation escalates when the submarine can't resurface.

Amateur Movie Contest.

We have a good selection of amateur movies among them are :-

Too Much Time by Damien Kelly, Australia.

Dr. Madness Tales of Terror by Stephen Longhurst. U.K.

Near Life Experience by David Cangardel. France.

Fistfull of Asteroids by D.W.Bull. U.S.A.

My Heart is Broken by Paul Page. U.K.

Wheelybin by Colm Quinn. Eire.

Thanatos Road by Edward Kishel. U.S.A.

The Horror Man by Robert Eriksen. U.K.

Alien Games by Jim Walker. U.K.

Dark Visions by Jackson Sharp. U.K.

The Man Who Loves Love by Darren Sharp. U.S.A.

Exciting Escapes of Armitage Shanks by Anthony D. Bailey. U.K.

Cycle Shed Shocker by Stuart Hubert. U.K.

The Curse by Brett Harvey. U.K.

Paranoia by Liam Treacy. U.K.

Registration Info.

Included with this Progress Report is your Registration Booking Form.

Registration for the full Festival is £70, which entitles you to all Progress Reports, Programme Booklet, Badge and Attendance to any of the events and films of your choice over all three days of the Festival.

Supporting membership is available at £30 and entitles you to attendance at any of the events and films on any single day of the Festival, you must specify which day you wish to attend. You can upgrade to FULL membership at any time up to August the 15th 2004 by paying the difference in the two rates.

Children: Full membership is £20 up to age 12 and £30 up to age 16.

Babes in arms are free.

Auction.

Ramsey Campbells auction performance is always a delight to watch, full of witty comments and manic hilarity, a show not to be missed.

We need you to find some items to donate to ensure this years auction is at least as good as in the past.

Your generosity is required to bring along some items for Ramsey to get his teeth into and auction fot amazingly high prices to help fund the weekend.

This year we are looking for really GOOD people, as we are cheeky enough to ask that all auction items are donated to the Festival outright. We really do need to raise extra funds this year to cover costs.

Please write, email or telephone Gil Lane-Young with details of any material you can spare for this years auction. Gil is on 0161 929 1423, his email is [email protected], and if you want to put pen to paper, you can write to at 'Penrose', 21, Winton Road, Bowden, Cheshire. WA14 2PE.

Dealers Room.

Phil Nevitski will once again be organising the dealers room on the Sunday of the Festival.

The Dealers Room will be open 10 am. til 4 pm.

To book a table contact Phil on 0161 228 2947.

The Great Fantastic Films Quiz.

Once again on the Sunday night we will be having The Great Fantastic Films Quiz.

So sort out your teams and win some great prizes.

The Society of Fantastic Films.

The Society meets on the last Friday of each month, for details of meetings and programme please contact Gil Lane-Young on 0161 929 1423 or email him  [email protected]

How to get to the Festival.

Included with this Progress Report is a leaflet telling you how to get to the Manchester Conference Centre and The Weston Building which is the Festival Hotel.

The Ibis Hotel is next door to The Weston, but the Ibis entrance is on Charles Street.

There is an NCP car park on Charles Street, just across the road from the Weston Building, details of how to get there are in the leaflet.

Piccadilly railway station is only about 5 minutes walk from the Conference Centre.

Conference Centre Layout.

As you enter The Weston Building the hotel reception desk is on your left, this is where you sign in if you are staying at the Weston.

The Festival Registration desk is just a little further into the building, this is where you pick up your Festival Pack which will contain your ID badge, the programme booklet etc.

Please wear your ID badge at all times, or you will not be admitted to the function rooms.

The main festival room is The Weston Theatre on the right. in here will be all the guest interviews and newer films etc. The second room. which will be showing mainly independent movies, is The Manchester Evening News Theatre which is on the left and the 16mm Retrospectve programme will be in The Weston Room 2.

A detailed plan of the centre will be in your Festival Pack.

Send Festival e-mail to Tony Edwards: [email protected]

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