Vincent J. Roth Ignites Conversation on "Surge of Power: Where There's Smoke!"

In promoting the latest installment in the "Surge of Power" series, Vincent J. Roth stopped by the BUZZCast to celebrate 20 years of the franchise. The latest film is not shy of superhero cameos, and we got to geek out over who appears in the movie. The story follows Surge teaming up with guest superhero, The Smoke, to uncover a mysterious plot of the villain group, The Council.

Roth spoke with us about returning guest actors Shannon Farnon (who was one of the original voices of Wonder Woman during the "SuperFriends" series) and the late Nichelle Nichols ("Star Trek"). Nichols will be appearing in two more of the "Surge of Power" movies. Roth talked about how the inspiration came to be for Surge. 

While it had a world premiere on August 24th, there will be a screening of the movie at FanX on September 27th. 

You can follow "Surge of Power" on X, formerly known as Twitter, at: @SurgeofPower1.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Buzz. Buzz.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Buzz is on.

Speaker 3 (00:04):
The Buzz is on the show that gets you up
close and personal with some of the hottest stars. Now
here's your host, Novelle jay Lee.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
What's going on? Everybody? Welcome into a new buzz cast
here at Buzzworthy Radio. I'm Novelle jay Lee, and we
had the chance to sit down and speak with Vincent
j Roth from Surge of Power where There's Smoke, And
I learned during this interview that there was a full
line of Surge of Power movies that stemmed all the
way back in the early two thousands. And I was

(00:35):
so excited to watch the trailer because I saw Shannon
far Non in it and I've been a fan of
her voiceover work as the og well, I like to
call her the original voice of wonder Woman from the
super Friend series. I say that because we get into
it in the show too, about how Wonder Woman did

(00:57):
appear in the Brady Kids cartoons, but Shannon did not
voice her. It was someone else, but Shannon became synonymous
with the part when the super Friends cartoon premiered. So
I kind of was geeking out over the guest list
on this and who was involved in the movie. We
got to talk about how the concept of the movie

(01:18):
came about Surge himself, and even talking about Michelle Nichols,
the late Michelle Nichols, who was also a part of
this film. It was such a great opportunity to just
actually let the geekdom out and I had so much
fun with this. So please enjoy our interview with Vincent
Jay Roth. Take a listen. Well, first, we got to

(01:38):
exchange pleasanturies everybody. I am talking with Vincent j Roth
right now, and you know, as someone who has known
to be late to a lot of things, I was
not late here this time, guys. I did answer the
pH I did try to answer the film when it rang,
So I'm just letting you know everybody, I did try.
I was here, but I was not fast enough to

(02:01):
answer the clause. So there was also that, But you
know what, we made it happen. He's joining me right now.
I think I'm one of his last people that he's
getting to talk to, So I'm kind of excited for that.
So Vincent, thank you so much for coming by the
Buzzcast and speaking with me today.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
Happy to be here. Are we live, We are in
an audience.

Speaker 5 (02:18):
We are not live.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Okay, we are not live.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
We are we are one of those that pre records
and then uploads. I did do it live and then
it just it just worked out that pre recording was better.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
But yeah, I'll be careful with explosives anyway.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
I'm not sorry, but we tend to It tends to
be used here.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
It may not be.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
As much, but sometimes when you have to drop an
f bob, it's it's it's to.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
The point of the story.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, our movies are Pg. Thirteen and so we have
we have no curse words in our movies.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
So don't you don't have curse words in the movies.
But you have a lot of people in this movie
that I'm fans of, by.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
The way, Yeah, so wonderful.

Speaker 5 (03:06):
Speaking of wonderful, one of them was a wonder woman.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Nice segue, guys, right, So yes, Before we even get
into the description of Search of Power where there's smoke,
I just have to say that just seeing the og
wonder woman voice in the trailer of this film was

(03:31):
the highlight of my day.

Speaker 5 (03:33):
Not gonna lie, not wonder so it.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Was.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
It was he's been with us for a while now.
In the Searge of Power movies, not.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Actually, so I I have.

Speaker 5 (03:46):
I just recently learned that there was this obviously was
a a whole. This was a whole. This is the
whole thing.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
So that was my surprise to learn that this where
there's their smoke. Also, it's another movie in the Surge
of Power series, so I had no idea until this
came out.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
So, oh, okay, not at all.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
So this is one of my interesting questions about it.
Is okay, So tell me about Surge of Power. How
did start the concept of it? And how many movies
in the series have already been because we have the
Stuff of.

Speaker 5 (04:21):
Heroes Revenge of the sequel, So is this the third one?
Is there more?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yep, this is the fifth installment, so that the first was,
as you mentioned, Surge.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
Of Power, the Stuff of Heroes.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
And then you know, many years later we did a
sequel where Surge of Power Revenge.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
Of the sequel. After that came a.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Little Doctor Who Trivia has a little offshoot but still
within the continuity of the Surge of Power films, where
we kind of did this sort of fan film style
like love letter to the Doctor Who TV show. Because
as you as you can see, we have a lot
of celebrities that have played either superheroes or prominent sci
fi characters in their you know, tenures as actors, and

(05:04):
a number of them had come from from Doctor Who,
and so we made something that was like focused specifically
on Doctor two. And actually the pandemic was kind of
helpful to us because a number of actors were kind
of home and doing nothing. So so agents who had
like kind of turned this down all of a sudden
the surface and they were calling my, my UK producer
and like, tell me about.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
That movie again. You mentioned.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
So people shot like their cameos like at home, and
you know, we cut them into our Doctor Who tributes.
So we had this lit half hour kind of like
Surge does Doctor Who, which is kind of just like
mash up between the Surge of Power World and the
Doctor Who World, with thirty actors from the Doctor Who
TV show, seven of them who've played doctors Clean Tom Baker,

(05:49):
who's like the you know quintessential doctor from of the
Doctor Who franchise, and you know, three actors who've played
the Master, and you know, dozens of can companions. So
that's kind of a little offshoot that happens right after
a surge of Harbor Revenge of the sequel, and then
after our Doctor who Tribute comes our first effort in

(06:13):
doing a crossover. It's called Surge of Dawn, a colleague
of mine out of New York who has a bunch
of his own projects, mostly web series, but he does
you know, films as well in comic books, and he
has this magical vampire named Dawn that he's done a
couple of seasons of web series and comic books, and

(06:34):
so we crossed over our worlds and merged our characters
together to do this short film called Surge of Dawn.
We call it a short film and it's like forty
six minutes, so it's come long for a short film.
And depending on what film festival you go to, some
of them think of it as a feature, some of
them think of it as a.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
As a as a short film.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
But that too was disturbed by the pandemic, so we
really need get to put it out as much as
film festivals and comic conventions.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
As we would have liked to have.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
H The screening run kind of got interrupted, but then
we started doing some virtual screenings during the pandemic, so
we played you know, the Surge of Power doctory tribute
and Serge of Dawn a few times. We did some
virtual screenings while the pandemic was happening, and and we
and somewhere around that time we were you know, working

(07:27):
on the the latest movie, Searge of Power where There's Smoke,
and when we finished it.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
Earlier this year.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
We finished it in May and have have done a
couple of sneak peak screenings. We did a couple of
comic conventions to kind of just have our you know,
the quote unquote sneak peak.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
San Diego.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
One of them, San Diego is not san Diego. Their
deadline is like February, and we didn't finish the movie
until May, so we got to submit to.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
So San Diego is like that, so maybe next year
we can submit.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
The San Diego comic con we did was a Comic
Con Revolution in Ontario and then a small comic convention
in West Hollywood Qucon in June.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
As we were starting.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
To prepare for this for our world premiere weekend and
Tarzanna International Film Festival, I thought that like, hey, yeah,
they said you could, you could, They said you could do,
no problem with comic conventions, but for this to be
our world premiere, you can't play at any other film festivals,
which was fine. So, you know, we were targeting August
to be, you know, the the you know this.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
World premiere, which also.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Happens to be twenty years to the weekend from the
world premiere of the first sort of power movie, The
Stuff for Heroes. Wow, so this is our twentieth anniversary.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Look how all that came? How about that? Yeah, like
that's legit amazing that that lined up like that. So
that's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yea here and then premiere.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
This so yeah, there's something cosmic about that. Yeah. So yeah, twenty.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Years from this weekend, and the actual date was August
twenty seven, two thousand and four, was the world premiere
of Serge pr of The Stuff of Heroes. And so
tomorrow is.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
August twenty seventh.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
So we're re releasing the original Surgeon car movie, The
Stuff of Heroes, that was shot on thirty five millimeter
film widescreen CinemaScope.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
And so I'm.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Thankful that my first movie was on film.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
So we had the negative pulled.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Out of storage, had its scants to four K, had.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
Some digital restorations one you know, had had it had
it rated I hadn't had.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
The first movie rate, but we had it rated by
the Motion Picture Association, and that turned out as PG thirteen,
just as well as our sequel.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
They're both PG thirteens.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
And so we had a revised and end credits and
tacked on a little twentieth anniversary celebration, little opening sequence
before the movie starts, and we're going to be launching
that tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
That's I can't believe that. That's awesome, good, good for you.
And I got to check this out because you know,
as I said, I didn't realize this was a universe.
This was a whole This was a whole thing. So
now especially see who's involved in the latest in the
latest feature, I there's a lot of these people who

(10:38):
I love. And one of the things one of the
people who we had mentioned at the beginning of this
call guys was Shannon Farnan, who voiced wonder Woman in
the super Friends cartoon from nineteen seventy four to nineteen
eighty three. And she was one of the first voices
of wonder Woman, and I say one of because she

(10:59):
wasn't the original voice a wonder Woman. There was an
episode of The Brady Kids that wonder Woman was in
mm hmm, and it wasn't Shannon far not in that cartoon.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
So but and it predated and it predated Shannon's that
predated the super Friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it was.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
I think it was a year. It was a year
before the super Friends premiered.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Okay, look at that.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
It was a year. It was a year before the
super Friends premiered, So that episode was on and like
I said, it wasn't Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't Shannon
for that voice. And it was ironic too that I
think about that, because Filmation was the production company that
was involved with the Brady Kids, just like Filmation was

(11:49):
involved with the sixties Superman Batman cartoons, and they also
had Superman in one of those episodes. And but Collier
passed away at the time, so he was so unfortunately,
you know, he wasn't able to voice Superman. And when
Super super Friends started, Danny Dark was the voice of

(12:11):
Superman then, but in the end room, because this was
a year before super Friends, they had someone else voice Superman,
and that was Lenny Lenny Ryan rib and he was
known to many people for voicing like bat Might in
the seventies Batman. Oh yeah, he he voiced, he loved.
He was the first voice of Scrappy Doo and Scooby

(12:34):
and the Scrappy Doo Show before Don Mesick took over
the role. You so, he had a bunch of voice
over credits to his name by this point. And I
did like his interpretation of Superman in that cartoon. But
it just it was just funny to just point that
out and getting to my geek mode a little bit, because.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
I I can tell you got it, you got it
going on.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
And so just just seeing her, I listen, I I
may be almost forty, but this was my life. I
call it my jam and just you know, Shannon being
an integral part of my television history playing an amazing
one of the amazing characters that I ever get to

(13:17):
see in a cartoon series. You know, hert and Susan
Eisenberg are both my wonder women in animated form. Obviously,
Linda Carter in real life form is the epitome of
wonder Woman, but I'm an animation form definitely show Shannon
Farnan and Susan Eisenberg, those are my Those are my girls.
I love them to death. So seeing her coming in.

(13:39):
I just saw her face right away and I didn't
even hear her voice.

Speaker 5 (13:42):
I immediately saw her face.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
I was like, there's wonder Woman.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
She's in this movie.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
This is awesome. So that was that was my thing
about that. I just wanted to mention having her out
of this Oh yeah, well one and and and then.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
I hadn't gone to that before.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Before you get to your comment, I also want to
give a shout out to Michelle Nichols. We miss you
and it's just it was nice to see her in
the trailer as well.

Speaker 4 (14:10):
Yeah, I'm wonderful.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Well so Shannon, at least still, I think she still
holds the place as the longest running wonder Woman because,
as you mentioned, she voiced wonder Woman for ten years
in the Super Fresh so she said, I think still
the raining longest running wonder Woman persona to portray the character.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yep, she has yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
So I think she's got that.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah for ten years, almost ten years. And it was,
as a side notes, guys, a devastating blow when she
was no longer the voice of wonder Woman for the
last years two years of the show. And we don't
need to get into the semantics of why she was replaced.
If you want to know why, go on Google and

(14:57):
find it, because, believe me, when you find that the
reason why she was a Wonder Woman after nineteen eighty three,
you probably might be pissed about it, as I was,
so I'll just give you that.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
But I wasn't.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
I was.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
I was disappointed as well.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
I did not feel that the actress who picked up
on the role for the remainder of the super Friends
Ron was an improvement, not at all.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
So I'll tell you this. It was two different actresses
who took on Wonder Woman for the remainder, one for
the season yep, one for the season after that, and
then for the final season of it in eighty five,
it was another actress.

Speaker 5 (15:38):
It was bj Ward in the last year.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Oh okay, I think bj she she She also picked
up on Jaana.

Speaker 4 (15:45):
Later as well.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
She was like the second Jaina from me Wonder Twins.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, I I do like dj Ward. I didn't really
have an issue with her because I've known her work.
It was just the reason why Shannon was dismissed. And
I can say this too, but again, Google is your friend, guys.
But I will say this that when she was dismissed

(16:09):
because they wanted someone younger.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
M M yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
I was not happy with that.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Decision and also too like the well, you know, we
can go along on about this, and just also to
the portrayal, Wonder Woman became, uh that's such a two
dimensional character. She became the damsel in distress, the the
the the the target of dark side affections.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
He was trying to woo her.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
She because she was almost it's just almost like relegated
not only to a damsel in distress, but also objectified
like that that she's this you know, romantic interest as
opposed to a superhero.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
So I felt like the.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Voice is not only weak, but they weakened.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
The character is terrible.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Dude. I love the fact that we could really much
talk about this for probably.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
The next hour.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
I think I think that we should literally do a
podcast where we're just talking about just comics and cartoons
and all this, like all of it, like surrounding these superheroes.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
I have with you know what I mean, I have
a ton of them.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
So The Stuff of Heroes has twenty celebrities in it.
Revenge of the sequel has over fifty, So you can
get pages.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
There's over fifty names.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
In Revenge of the Sequel, I mentioned the Doctor Who
tribute has thirty actors from the Doctor Who TV show,
from the very first episode of Doctor Who, Caroline Ford,
who played Susan Foreman, the granddaughter of the first Doctor,
all the way up to at that time to a few.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
Actors in Jody Whittaker's run.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
We finished the movie during Jody Whitterker's I couldn't get
Jody herself hurt her her agent said no, but we
got a few other actors that played in her seasons.

Speaker 4 (17:59):
So up up to the time that we finished.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
We had covered the first like someone from every era
of each Doctor from the first Doctor up.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
To the third.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
And then uh Surge.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Of Dawn was a smaller group of stars. As being
a crossover, I had so many other characters to deal
with with my colleague Alex Brinandez and his projects. But
we did have Shannon Farning come back.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
We did have Michael Gray come back.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
We had Joseph Colp who was the original Doctor Doom
to come back.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
You know.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
So there's there's there's a bunch of them, you know.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Lu Forreigno makes as a quick several of the characters
have quick character cameos in search of Dawn and then
coming back to where there's smoke.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
You know. Then then we kind of I kind of
focused a bit more on.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
How we used the stars, so I didn't want to
have too many, but also had certain ones that play
regular roles.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
And then wanted from yeah, it's great, like again, and
I agree with you, it's great to have the celebrities
here and the cameos put into place, but you don't
want that to overshoot the film as well.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
You don't want yeah, And I felt like I did
that already with Revenge of the sequel. I felt like
I did the stick stuff a celebrity in anywhere, any place,
people on the streets, news reports all over the places,
people like, all throughout the movie and all through the
end credits, and so I felt like.

Speaker 4 (19:27):
I already did that. So I didn't really want to
do that again. I really wanted to focus more.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
I we're introducing already a number of new characters, so
I wanted the audience to be able to focus on
a narrower group of people.

Speaker 4 (19:38):
So I didn't want the celebrity lineup to be like
too big. But I think it's still it still carries
the flavor of the surge.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Of power films by having folk in, having some stars,
having some people who've played superheroes or have played prominent
sci fi characters, but not so much that that's a
distraction to the film, right, They're kind of integrated as
characters and not throw away cameos.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
And and like you said, you you could create.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
A smaller scope of stars for you to look at
and appreciate it, say, oh wow, so and so is
in here, so and in there.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
One of And I mentioned this already when I just
gave her the shout out with Michelle Nichols, I kind
of want to piggyback off of that real quick.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
Because she's in all our movies and we'll be in
one more.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Knowing that this was one of her last performances, one
of the last performances for her before she had passed,
what do you say? What do you say to that?
Knowing that that's you? You, you basically got to work
with her pretty much one last time in basic in
basic sense.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah, well, she she's been involved in you know, ever
since the beginning. In fact, you know, we have videos
of her disgustingness behind the scenes and at the Theatrical
a mirror of the Stuff of Heroes, where Michelle explained
why she came on board because she saw what we
were doing and introducing you know, Cinema's first out date

(21:09):
superhero and for her having you know, played a uh,
the first black woman in a in a prominent bawl
of power on the crew of the Enterprise you right
up on the bridge, right exactly. So so there she
took a shine to us, and she said that this

(21:31):
she decided this was a project, she wanted to be
a part of it, made herself available for it, and
and then for her to come back and then to
come back again and come back again was really appreciated.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
And you know, we we learned to.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Work around she was having some health issues, so we
you know, accommodated them as best we could to make
sure that, you know, to.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
Keep on filming and keep her character going.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, and I was thinking ahead, just knowing that she
was having health issues, to you know, do some dialogue
that was a little bit more general because I kind
of knew where her where her story is going. So
I still have some footage that we plan on using
in our next adventure and then that will be her
her final.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
So the so the next one is the final? Okay,
got it?

Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (22:18):
All right, yeah, so I do we do plan on
and have you have you watched Where There's Smoke?

Speaker 1 (22:24):
I need to watch it this week. I'm planning on
it because I already said aside time to do it,
and I am looking forward to watching it. But I
also want to watch the press well because like I said,
this was my surprise a series of movie, so you know, I.

Speaker 5 (22:43):
Definitely need to get all of them under my belt.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
So yeah, absolutely so we so we have a very
nice uh, the way we wrote her her the way
we wrote her role in this movie, and uh, there's
a really nice send off for her. But then it's
also and you and you kind of get that feel
like it's a send off.

Speaker 4 (23:06):
For her, but it does note at.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
The end, you know, we have a little you know,
in memoriam for her, uh being credits, but it does
note that she will be back for another adventure.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
And so yeah, I want people to kind of wonder
about that too.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
It's like, wait a minute, if she if she, if
she died, how's she coming back? It's very Carrie Fisher
right with with Star Wars. Remember she she had passed,
uh yeah, and they wanted to still keep her in
the movie, so they kind of work worked around that.

(23:41):
But thankfully her character is a shape shifter, so I
mean amongst amongst her other.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
Abilities, you know, she's very mystical, and you know, it's
kind of.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Magical stage kind of characters, so you know, they can
do anything and disguise themselves and and that's how we
introduced Robert Piccard to be able to pick up one stuff,
to share the role with her in ways where her
health issues were preventing her. You know, I couldn't I
couldn't get her downtown to be running around and doing

(24:11):
action and stuff.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
So so that's probably kind of like, you know, built that.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Into her character of how do we handle her health issues.
I remember, like with Doctor Who, that's how the whole
concept of regeneration bringing.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
In new characters came about.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Was they were like, oh my god, what do we
do William Hartnell's having health issues? And that's how they
decided they introduced a new character. And so with us,
she decided like, well, she's magical, you know, and maybe
she she shaped shifts.

Speaker 4 (24:40):
And she can transform and she can be whatever she wants.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
To be or whatever that person needs her to be
in the moment, and.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
That works so well.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
I mean, honestly, that was a great comparison because with
with with doctor Who, with the regeneration process, as you said,
they could be whoever they want to be. It's like Mistique,
It's like Mystique.

Speaker 5 (25:01):
In a sense from X Men.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
She's a shape shift too, so she, you know, easily
to be whomever she wants to be. And yeah, I
think I keep thinking about that storyline where she is
Mostique is night Crawler's father.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Because oh, yes, because she was in a male form
at the time. I thought me this she was his mother,
but she's actually his father.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
I have to read, I have to read my X
Men history. But if I'm not mistaken, yes she is
Nightcrawler's dad because she was in the in the male
form at the time. So I'm like, oh, I.

Speaker 5 (25:43):
Think that's right, but let me correct myself.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
I think you're right too, And yeah, that reminds me
of never reminds me of an old South Park episode
where Eric Cartman's mother is actually his father. And you know,
I hadn't thought about this, but I.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
Hadn't really kind of like thought of it. In this way.
But it was actually Robert Ricardo who.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Kind of he added this line. You know, he he
showed up for the first time sharing the Omen role
with the shell I in Revenge of the.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
Sequel, and we brought him back for.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
This and he put in a line where you know,
Surge remarks on that it's not like he we're not
playing the audience for for for ignorance like they they know,
and Surged within the context knows she takes on different
forms and that's and that's referred to in the sequel,
and he always refers to her as she, even though
you know.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
She made take on different forms.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
And when you know, when he's talking with the Robert
Riccardo form of moments, you know, he makes a comment
about her about about his appearance, and I didn't I
did do this as Robert Piccardo on his own. He
came up with the fine He said, I was gender
fluid before it was.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
A thing, and so.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Turned he turned my Omen character into a trans character
on his own. Yeah, I think this is remarkable and
I and I kind of thought of it, you know,
quasi you know, a quasi trans allegory.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
You know, it's sort of like the mystique thing, right,
But then there is something, there.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Is something kind of you know, more you know, biologically
trans going on there.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Right.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
The mystique is when she's.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
In male form, is obviously genetically male, genetically male enough
to get somebody pregnant and be my crawler's dad.

Speaker 5 (27:42):
Right.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:45):
And so so just that one line that.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Robert Macarter threw in there, you know, I was gender
fluid before it was. The thing was kind of cute,
and uh, I think that adds a nice, uh dimension
to the character on top of many dimensions that the
character already has.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Like sing, there it is, I love it, I love it.

Speaker 5 (28:07):
I love it now.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
I wanted to ask this earlier, but we got we
got so into the Wonder Woman conversation.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
I was like, let's go with Wonder Woman right now.
Let's push this back in the middle of the conversation.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
So I do want to know how, because we didn't
get to touch on it, how did the whole series
come into play? What was what? What was it that
made you want to decide to create this twenty years
ago and still keep it going.

Speaker 4 (28:38):
Yeah, Okay, so.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
The you know, back back back in the day before
the surge of power stuff. I had made a number
of cops tunes of other people's characters, you know, I'm
going to comic conventions and stuff. You know, they call
it cosplay now, right, And there was a time where.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
So you were, was a thing too, right, So kind of, I.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Mean, well it was a thing, but I don't think
I don't.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
Think people like widely used the words.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
They didn't have.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
It yet, yeah, for for or wasn't in in widespread media.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
It wasn't like mark mainstream.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
The concepts or the you know, to to understand that
cosplay is adult costuming, you know, is a thing, right, Yeah,
And I mean I mean I think people knew generally that, Yeah,
people go to comic conventions and their geeks and theirs,
they'll dressed up in costume.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
But not everybody who.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Goes to a convention dressed up in costume, right, And
it depends on the convention you go to. Some some conventions,
maybe one out of ten people are.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
Are dressed up in costumes.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Some might be more intense, some might one out of
five people might be dressed up in some way. The
concept of cosplay it wasn't really like as formalized as
it is now, where some people like just have fan
followings of being cosplayers, the costumes, and they put out
a little they put up pictures and videos and stuff,
and they show up. They have their cosplay tables, autograph

(30:04):
tables and comic conventions and stuff.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
So you know, it's become like such a thing.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
But that didn't have It wasn't such a thing back
and then. But a company that I worked for at
the time in my in my non filmmaker life, in
my business life, I'm a corporate attorney. I worked as
a general counsel for for a tech healthcare tech companies.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
And a company I was working for at the.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Time had developed this superhero character cartoon looking that looked
like a superhero to.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
Sell a new product line.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
So the company's name was Electronics and this device was
called Export, and so they had this character and it
was that like a dark haired, mustard kind of looking character,
almost looking like like like get Creation, you know, the
place like Robin and night Wind. But it was but
it was a gray like two tones gray with X

(31:01):
on his costume and on his masks was orange because
those are the company's colors, gray and orange where the
company's colors. So Elantronics come up with this character.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Commander X was the name of the character, and one
of the marketing people have me make a costume. Well,
she didn't have.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
I kind of thought of it myself and said, hey,
maybe I'll make a costume of that for Halloween. And
she said, well can you do that?

Speaker 4 (31:24):
Now?

Speaker 2 (31:25):
This was like February, Like why would I make a
hallowek costume? Now she says, well, we have a trade
show coming up and it would be great to have
Commander X there. So like, oh, I've come up with
something good here. So I got a tailor involved with me,
and I need some of the like, you know, harder
like where non clothing kind of parts of the outfit.
And had the tailor a dude more like the the

(31:46):
jacket pants part of it, and I mede at that
time what I felt was my ps to resist some costumes,
and we displayed it for her boss. It was the
VP of marketing and she was helping me get into
the outfit in my office at work. And here I
thought he was going to show it to the marketing guy.
I step out of my office and like thirty people

(32:06):
of like the executive office are all standing outside my
office waiting to see Commander X and I come out
in the office, I come out in the costume, and
they loved it. They applauded, and then the VP of
marketing went over to my boss and said, hey, we
got to take him with us. So they would transfer
me out of the legal department into the marketing department
for trade shows and take me with them and I

(32:27):
would go and portray Commander X. That was kind of
like my first foray of like you know, being I
got like a company mascot almost, And that's where the
idea started of like wow, like if I could do
this with other people's coug why don't I do something
with a character of my own. And I had a friend,

(32:48):
the colleague in LA who had a short film of
his own that he was putting out in film festivals,
kind of a send up on like.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
B hard movies.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
And uh, and I have you know another, you know,
a filmmaker friend who was kind of toying around with
little short films himself. And although was, you know, doing
a couple of little, very little short films like six.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Minute and twelve minute things.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
So I thought to myself, well, maybe I'd do something
with a character of my own and I, you know,
and maybe I do, Like, maybe I just start with
a you know, a short film instead of just like
dressed up in my costume that nobody's ever seen a
boy who is this?

Speaker 4 (33:30):
Who is this character?

Speaker 1 (33:31):
And walk around a.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Comic convention like, well, maybe I make a movie.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
Maybe I start.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
I started talking with some folks and said, hey, you know,
I think I want to I'd like.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
To do this.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
And at first I thought it was going to be
a short film, never thought it would be, you know,
grow into a feature, and it ended up being this
eighty five minute long like I said, shot on thirty
five millimeter film, widescreen CinemaScope, and hadn't even thought about
you know, celebrities, and until we started doing it along
the way and then got folk like you know, lic
lu Farigno. At that time, Noel Neil came on board.

(34:00):
It was the original Lois Lane from the Adventures of Superman.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
She came back to the sequel. She brought her friend.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Jack Larson, who was Jimmy Nelson, and of course then
that and then of course the biggest was Michelle So
it thinks that we had like twenty twenty celebrity cameos
in the stuff of heroes, but Michelle.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
Being like the biggest of them. And then I thought, like,
you know, this is kind of you know, maybe maybe
this could be something. So if I'm going to do
if I'm going to.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Do this, I want to try and make my mark
of the world. So I wanted to bring comedy back
to the superhero genre a little bit in the flavor
of the Batman Adam West, but not as campy, I
as a bit more serious. Yeah, yeah, we're in a
serious world, but like there's comedy going on there. And

(34:50):
then also, you know, just for my own personal reasons,
like if I'm going to do this, I'm you know,
I want to I want my character to be gay
because I want to contribute this to the the entertainment
zekeeist is I'm putting out a gay superhero on the
big screen for the first time since the one else
has done it. And and so these are characteristics that

(35:13):
have like kept with the franchise as a franchise is
going to see like some of our stars have come back,
We've invited new stars on. So having celebrity presence is
you know, part of our stick, uh, you know, and
surge obviously. That's kind of one of our taglines is
similar cinemas. First out gay superhero and then the comedy

(35:34):
aspect too. Now comedy all all of a sudden, then
started to be started to return to the genre with
Deadpool and then Guardians of the Galaxy and the zam movies. Right,
So when Deadpool was kind of coming in and kind
of overtaking the like comedy angle, at least we had
that We've got cinemas first, Okay, superhero that's the thing. Plus,

(35:57):
we were breaking the fourth wall long before Ryan Reynolds
was a dead.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Have so you were the multiverse before the multiverse was
a day.

Speaker 5 (36:08):
Is how we're gonna the aspect of it?

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Well, and it's god of funny like years later, and
it would come to like explaining the movies. You'd be like, hey,
you're familiar with deadpools and people would be yet but
the Shizi movies, Yeah, I said, Okay, well, we're like
the independent version.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
Of you know, a fun comedy like you know, Superhero.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
But now I feel like I've really gotten it. I've
gotten the humor down with the serious world, mostly because
of Surge of Dawn, because I had to integrate with
my colleague Alex Fernandez.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
His his worlds.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Are dark and great, like Dawn is out, like you know,
vanquishing demons and killing people's very dark and gritty world.
And and after kind of like merging our worlds, I
realized how I could still keep a serious tone while
still preserving the humor. And so so I really feel

(37:05):
like with where There's Smoke, I've got it now. This
is really kind of like Guardians of the Galaxy kind
of like, you know, there's serious situations.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
People are dying there.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
There are real credible dilemmas, but the things that some
of the characters say and do are funny, right, And
I find it interesting that like even now where people
are really dying, I mean, this is my first movie
where like there's like some you know, significant death happening.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
In the movie.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
I find it interesting that reviewers keep commenting on the comedy,
so the comedy is like, really, I guess like what
they're coming away with feeling, right, they're not feeling as
much of the seriousness because they're writing more about the
humorous aspects of the movie than the serious aspects of
the movie, right, right, Because like you know what our
world premiere was was Saturday. So my publicists have, as

(37:58):
is typical, we wait until the reviewers are allowed to
put out their reviews on.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
The whole embargo until.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, so Saturday, so Saturday morning, like the first one
that popped up, and then you know, my assistant and
the publicists are you know, texting me throughout the day
of Like as articles were coming up, I was busy
with the well communcial I couldn't read.

Speaker 4 (38:20):
Them all, but I read like the first three of them.
They were all really good.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Like I said, they were talking more about the comedy
aspects of most of the serious stuff. So I find
that interesting. But I but so I kind of feel
like I've got it there from where I want to
be in not a canty slapstick humor, but uh an
integrated humor in.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
With in a serious world.

Speaker 6 (38:46):
Well, thank you for no, thank you for literally telling
me about it, because it's just like I said, I
I always want to know, especially if there's movies under
the belt, especially when it comes to can we call
this indie?

Speaker 5 (39:00):
We could say ind for this.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Right, this is independent because yeah, this is not a
big this is not Marvel, it's not it's not Sony,
it's not Disney. It's you know, I'm an independent studio,
so Enterprises is our is our indie studio.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
I feel with a lot of when it comes to
indie films, so much of how passionate they are of
their material and what they and what they put into it.
With everybody who I talked to in the independent film scope,
you know how much love and was crafted into into
it and how much thought was put into it. So

(39:37):
just listening to you tell your story, I already know
how much you really loved it.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
So, oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
I mean, that's literally one of the that's really one
of the things about indie indie films when I talk
to them who's involved in indie indie filmmaking, you get that,
you get that sense from them and I and it's
really it's really appreciated. So thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oh sure, well, then you know, I hope I answered
your question, like how did it come about? And you know,
at least that was how the first.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Movie came about?

Speaker 2 (40:06):
And you know I had in the back of my mind,
you know, of course I was creating the world. The
first movie is really the origin story, and you know,
you know there is of course, it leaves it open
for you know, for you know, further adventures and then
in the sequel. You know, I really tried to it's
kind of play. I wasn't It wasn't like at the

(40:29):
top of my mind at the time, but riding to
mind that they were I was promoting at San Diego
Comic Con, and uh and some other filmmaker folks who
I didn't really know that they were having trouble with
their badges, and they they and I said, well, you
can use my badges to come into comic Con, but
you have to work at my table. You spent half

(40:49):
your half your day working at my table and half
the day you can go do what you want to do.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
And while yeah for those badges like that, Yeah, that's
how that works. It actually, yeah, listen to this show.

Speaker 5 (41:00):
He was not giving his badge.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
That's not how.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
These matches are hard to come by and they're expensive,
and you know, ticket sell out so fast with comic Con.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
It's funny story about it, if you know. I I
don't think I'm revealing anything because and I say that
in the sense of my friend wants to do a
comic com podcast with me, and I feel like I'm
going to answer these questions there, But I just basically
wanted to say with getting into comic Con is very difficult.

(41:34):
I completely agree. It's so hard. It took me ten
years to the day, wow, ten years to the day
to where I got a press batch. So last year,
last year, the year when it was all kinds of

(41:56):
strikes going on the rightest strike, Yeah, yeah, I did.

Speaker 5 (42:01):
I got approved for a press batch.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Now, mind you, of course we didn't even know that
the strikes are happening at this point when the strikes
were about to happen. Obviously, I got approved.

Speaker 5 (42:09):
Before strikes came into play.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
So even then I was just kind of going in
my mind, I can't believe I'll say this. I did
start trying to apply for Comic Con in twenty thirteen,
and I did try for a few years, and then
I just stopped.

Speaker 5 (42:26):
I wasn't getting anywhere.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
I just gave up because I just didn't think I
was gonna get anything. So I then went the route
of trying to buy a badge. That's also difficult, guys,
because it's on a lot of rey system basically rid
a queue. You have to if you are lucky enough
to get picked to buy badges. Most of the time,

(42:47):
not all days are available because they're already sold out,
So you are fortunate enough to get a Sunday at
that point from what I've noticed, So I then just
stopped doing it completely to where trying to buy I
just just give up it. And my best friend literally
just says to me, I don't understand why you don't
try to get a press batch for Comic Con. You

(43:09):
have the resume, You've done all this stuff with it
on your show and the website.

Speaker 5 (43:14):
Why don't you try it? And in my head, I'm.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Going, I don't think it's gonna happen, but I'll give
it a shot.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
You know what, Why the hell not? You know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
So I did last for last year.

Speaker 5 (43:29):
I did submit it.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
I this is the first time I'm saying this on air,
but I submitted that application the day after the deathline.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
And the deadline. But you got in.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
I did, I got, I got, I got and they
approved me. But I did submit it after the deadline,
just shortly after. But see, I'm on East Coast time,
so I.

Speaker 5 (43:57):
Kind of use that as the excuse.

Speaker 4 (44:01):
Because hit your ahead.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
You definitely can submit it on the deadline but West
Coast time at midnight.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
Yeah, oh gotcha. Okay, she still made it.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
So I still got in it because of that reason.
So that's why I was like, oh, okay, let's make
this work. So that's how I was able to still
get in. So but again I didn't think I was
going to I looked it wasn't just because of the
fact of the lateness.

Speaker 5 (44:29):
I just didn't think I would.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Even even if you were late, you still would have
had the opportunity to be.

Speaker 5 (44:35):
Opportunity to be approved for wonder Con. So even then
I kind of was sitting.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
There going, I doubt they're gonna even attempt to look
at me for this. So then when I got approved
for wonder Con, I couldn't go because I had a conflict.
But then I found out before they sent me the
email that I was approved for. I got an email

(45:01):
basically saying all badge holders can book their hotels now.
But I was like, I don't have a b And
then I just literally just gassed like a humongous girl.
Like I literally was like, oh my god, did I
just get a badge for comic on? And lo and behold,
the next day they said we will say, if.

Speaker 5 (45:22):
You were improved for a.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Press badge, and the rest is history. At this point,
I couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe it. Ten years. It
literally was ten years.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
And I yeah, congratulations.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
Thank you, and listen.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
I for those of who are listening, I'm just telling you,
if you ever ever decide to go on comic Con,
if you have if you have a blog, you have
a podcast, and you feel like you can't get into it,
and you feel like you don't have you don't have
anything that it, you don't have any of what it takes.

Speaker 4 (45:59):
To get into comic Con.

Speaker 5 (46:00):
I'm just gonna tell you now.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
From someone who's been there and thought the same thing,
don't give up. Just still do it. It's like I said,
it's very hard. But once you build your craft up,
you personify to your personality and how you want to
do the show and how you want to present yourself,
they're going to respond to that and you may wind

(46:23):
up having a badge yourself.

Speaker 5 (46:24):
So I'm just gonna say, don't give up.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
I could even say that for you, sir, because you
literally just did the damn thing for twenty years. You
didn't give up. You started with a concept and you
you made it happen and you made.

Speaker 5 (46:39):
It work so well you yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
So to extend the so how this is continued is
that these filmmakers that eventioned, they were doing a film
film series they had called Swag. So're going around comic
con like shooting like it, would go to tables and have.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
Like what are they giving? You know, you know it's
swagg is right, I do?

Speaker 1 (47:04):
You know?

Speaker 2 (47:04):
And it stands for so many different things, but it
means the same thing, set with a gift, trying all
the freebie stuff, you know, right, so so yeah, and
so so they would go to tables and ask them
about their their swag, what kind of swag people.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
Were giving away, and you know, what advance and what
a right?

Speaker 2 (47:21):
And so they had interviewed me, and that's how I
how I originally missed them. And it was in a
subsequent year that they were they were back and like
I said, they were having trouble with their badges. Anyway,
they're they're working my table.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
As was the deal, like use my badges. You have
to spend half your half your day at.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
My table, you know, scheduled certain times and you're you're
to be here and then when you're not scheduled, you're
free to do whatever you want to do and then
see you see you back to your tomorrow. And so
while we're while we were promoting the stuff of heroes,
they were kept nudging. They They're like, are you going
to make a sequel? And I was like, well, you

(47:58):
guys want to live then they we're filmmakers. We can
We've got crew, we've got equipment, we can we can help,
we can.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
We can help make it.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
So that's where like the nudging to make the movie,
to make the sequel came from. And so like all right,
all right, all right, these guys are really enthusiastic and
you know, and and sum sincere, and that's how the
sequel got going. Yeah, and one of those, you know,

(48:26):
one of those fellows, Mario D'Angelis, he was the DP
on events of the sequel. But then also Mario had
done there was another film project, kind of a documentary
I think it was that he did called Whatever It
Takes and and that was kind of about I think

(48:47):
it's mostly about filmmakers, and and it was kind of like,
as you're saying, like the perseverance to do something, and
so I think it was sometime after the sequel.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
The sequel was very.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Challenging and.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
Uh, you know, and that too evolved.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
I thought I was gonna start off with a short
and ended up with a ninety minute movie, and I
certainly didn't expect at that time.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
At the time, I.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Started to like have fifty stars of the movie, but
there was a life happens and you.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
Know, maybe a story for another day of Uh.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
There was a big break in the middle of production
where like I just could not continue with the movie
and I.

Speaker 4 (49:28):
Had to sit for a while.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Uh as But after a few years, when when I
was able to get back to it and and you know,
resurrect it and build up momentum again. I kicked the
shooting off with a shoot with a bunch of celebrities
and that gave kind of like new life and new
energy and drew new enthusiasm from.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
From the crew. And then, just like with the first movie, the.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
More people we got into the sequel, then it became
that much easier because say, like hey, when I would
approach the next celebrity or the next agent or the
next manager, say hey, here's all the people from our
first movie. Here's all the people already shot in our sequel.
That is fifty percent on, that is sixty percent on,

(50:17):
that is eighty percent on now right, it was made
it that much easier to attract more people, and like
I said, I kind of went went nuts and figured like, hey,
you know, this is a celebration. I'm going to finish
this movie. And we were just like putting people in everywhere.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
And I was really happy to finally.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
When I was able to exhibit Revenge of the sequel,
like you know, after all the stuff I had gone
through and dealt with, it's finally able to be seen
by people.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
Over its festivil run one four awards, it got picked
up for distribution. So I was really delighted, like, oh,
this is working.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
And then when Mario was doing his his movie, his
like documentary whatever, it came an interviewing, it's almost like
it was almost like I now have to live up.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
To my own words.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Yeah, perseverance and so so, like I said, so we continued.
I'm like, well, you know, I can't I can't stop.
And so, like I said, you know, we did our
Doctor to tribute and that's that's it. At that time,
was like, well, I've just had two big features. I
just don't have it in me to just do this again.

(51:27):
But I start off small, and even the Doctor Who
tribute developed and I was like, all right, well, I'm
just going to go to town on Doctor Who. Actors
will chase as many down as we can and make
this fun little film. And then similarly, I thought I'd
start off small with the Surge of Dawn movie, doing
this like crossover concept because we're building out it's not

(51:49):
just my characters in the film, but it's other people's
characters too that are getting invited along the way. At
the at the very end of Revenge of the sequel,
there's a scene where Michelle as her character Omen is
opening up little magic whortles in front of her kind
of like mirror mirror on the wall, and she's looking
at other heroes, right, and the folks show up are

(52:10):
other people's characters from other independent creators, independent productions, or
books or novels of comic books, and their characters are
showing up for like, you know, ten seconds in my movie.
And that was my way of like trying to link
up with other people's worlds and create what I'm calling
her indie hero verse. I'm making an indie hero Verse

(52:34):
and Sergeant Vawn was like, yeah, yeah, I mean, everybody
creates their multi but they're they're they're cinematic universes, right,
I mean, even like the Godzilla movies and King Kong,
they're calling it the Monster versh When this when the
CW started off with the Arrow TV show that Arrow
did really well, and then then right then the Flash

(52:54):
spun off from that and they went, you know this Supergirl.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
And so forth.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
And so I'm creating an indie hero verse and linking
up with other Now. The thing that's different from us, though,
is Marvel's cinematic universe is all built with its own
Marvel characters. DC's cinematic universe is built with all its
DC properties.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
But you know, my universe is mostly mine.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
But I'm linking up with other independent creators, so their
characters are like.

Speaker 4 (53:25):
Coming over into my movies. So at the end of like.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
The Red Rivenngge of the sequel is my starting point
of that. And like I said, Surge of Dawn was
like a like a full on foray into merging two
worlds and having two characters run around together and uh,
you know, fight a common foe and it works, like
I said, I was taking my fun canty world and
somehow merging it with a very dark and gritty world,

(53:53):
and that turned out pretty successful. So thought, okay, well
let's keep on going. So with with where there's Smoke.
The guest hero here is the character of the Smoke.
He's a former pro wrestler, Eric Moran. When he wrestled,
he went by the Moniker of the Smoke. Dwayne Johnson, Yeah,

(54:14):
Joanie Johnson was called the Rock right when he was
in his wrestling days, he was the Rock. So Eric
Morian when he was in his wrestling days, he was
the Smoke. And you know he was also too, has
like a love of the comic genre. Colleagues of his
created a comic book character kind of based off of him.

Speaker 4 (54:32):
He's had a.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Couple of different incarnations, but he's had this comic character
of the Smoke and now Eric Marian is very big
into cosplay and still and he's still called the Smoke.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
Most of his friends like it.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Says it's his nickname, not just his wrestling moniker and
not just his super name superhero name.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
He goes by the Smoke.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
So we talked about him coming into the Surge of
Power world and now while his character kind of like
had different incarnations, he kind of settled in on this
kind of gun toting vigilante, kind of like the Punisher
kind of a character. But he also has a superpower.
He turns into smoke. It turns the gas, you know.

(55:15):
You know, it's so it's kind of like The Punisher,
but with a superpower. And so that's what where there's
smoke is is our characters meeting and him being the
guest hero, you know, in this world. And at the
very end where there's smoke, we have a little prologue
where you know, Surge goes off and he's meeting with
a couple of other heroes that again are other independent

(55:39):
Creators characters that are having little cameos where they're meeting
up with Surge and having a little you know, thirty
second one minute scene to further expand and build out
our worlds. So this my indie hero verse that I'm creating.

Speaker 5 (55:58):
I love the fact.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
I even thought when you were describing that weed in
verse as well, we even had a weed in verse,
so there was even we even had all of we
even had all of these verses in here. So hero verse,
I really did. I dug it. So that was a
good one. So I appreciate that. And oh my god,
we literally actually made it to an hour.

Speaker 5 (56:19):
We did it hour. That was the goal. That was
the goal, and we.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Made and we made it happen. We made it happen.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
And is there anything to be hadn't covered that you
wanted to asked about or talked about or so, I
don't know. I don't have to run immediately at the
at the strike of an hour, So if you have
any further thought or you know, last question or comment
or feel free.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
I definitely want to I definitely want to say this
was fun because I honestly this was this.

Speaker 5 (56:52):
This geeked my heart out.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
I like to say that it geeked my heart out.
But I will say I would love to have you
back anytime to talk any and everything. So please, please,
please please return, and then we'll easily have a long
talk about superheroes, TV, you name it, We're gonna talk
about it here.

Speaker 5 (57:12):
I would love to do that.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
Then why don't you just to make sure I saw
the phone numbers, but this is my mobile, So why
don't you text me your email address. I'll shoot you
an email. That way we could be in touch by
email as well, and.

Speaker 4 (57:26):
Then you know you want.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
To pick up on this or absolutely watched. If you
haven't watched Where There's Smoke, will send you the screening
link so you can watch it and if you want
to talk about that further afterwards, you know, we've we've
like I said, we've just had our world premiere weekend.

Speaker 4 (57:42):
We won the Best Fantasy Feature Film at this film festival.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
Tarzana International Film Festival is a lovely, lovely experience at
the film festival. Red carpet event went well. The theater
was packed for our movie.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
I mean there are.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Only seats open that the front row. That was it.
So I was delighted with the turnout. I was delighted
with the red carpet and delighted to.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
Get an award.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
And like I said, the reviews so far have all
been positive, so you know, I mean, I'm sure there's
gonna be some film critic at some point. You know
it's gonna be crusty, but at least at the moment,
reviews are positive. So I do hope you watch the
movie how.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
About this, and then we do we do a follow
up one where yeah, after you've watched it, yes, let's
make that happen.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
You text text me your email address so I'll send
you a screening link so.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
You can watch it.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
And then and also too, we have you know on
our website www dot sergeypower dot org there are there's
links to most missed the films, like there's buttons to
say watch our movies and that takes you to the
links to the Vimeo pages. Like all of the movies,
some of them are in on other platforms as well,

(59:01):
but Vimeo is a place where all the previous four
movies can be found.

Speaker 4 (59:04):
In one spot.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
So people want to familiarize themselves with the with the
Surge of Power universe before or after watching where There's Smoke.
And then also on our website, on our latest news spot,
we post all of the upcoming screenings, so you know.
We've got another comic convention fan X in Salt Lake

(59:28):
coming up September, La Comic Con in October. Oh HBO's
Urban Action Showcase is our next film festival at the
beginning of November. That's really exciting. We won Best Visual
Effects with Surge of Dawn for that one a few
years ago. And then last Con a science fiction convention
at the end of November, and then we've got a

(59:49):
theater that's going to play it in December and Philly,
so we'll have a Philly premiere early December.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
I'm in South Jersey, I'm forty minutes away from Philly.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Then you'll have to come out, come in, have the theater.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
Your experience, watch it in the theater with.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Us, jame on, game on.

Speaker 5 (01:00:04):
Yeah, I got your number. Now we'll make that happen.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
You are, you are invited.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Absolutely, I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Thank you so much, and thank you for telling me that,
because now I'm definitely gonna go. Good.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Yeah, I'll give you the inso, like you said, you
can make sure I get your email address, and you know,
we'll get you connected. And then you can decide whether
you want to watch where the Smoke through a screening
version or you want to wait and sit and watch
it with it, have a theater experience with the audience.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
I do both. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Those And there's so many jokes people say it takes
a second viewing for them to like catch everything that's happening.
But uh, but uh yeah, you could do both exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
This is great. Thank Vin, Thank you so much. I
really appreciate it. This was fun.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Yeah, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
You know, let me know when this stout too, and
we can help crush them out. We're very active on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
YouTube and Twitter. I just can't come to bring myself
to say X, so I don't I have to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Do it, but then I kind of correct myself later
and yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
Yeah I can't. It just can't.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
It's I can't, can't say X.

Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
But we're very active on those platforms, so certainly too.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Why I think we can do You know, we can
promote your show and you send me a link to
this and such, so we're happy to help out as well.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Awesome, definitely, I'll look you up on those two. But
this was great.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Thanks a lot, well, great, thank you for having me.

Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
Appreciate it exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
I look forward to seeing you there, meeting you in person.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Many thanks to Vincent Jay Roth for stopping by the
bus cast to talk about Surge of Power. Where there's smoke.
You can actually find them on x formally known as
Twitter at Surge of Power one, so when you look
it up, it's actually searche a power the number one.
That's how it's written. Out, so Surge of power one
and it's the number one. But that's gonna do it

(01:02:01):
for me For right now, I'm the Velgle making sure
you'd keep getting the latest buzz with Buzzworthy Radio by
logging onto our website at buzzworthyradiocast dot com. You can
also find us on x formerly known as Twitter at buzzworthyradio,
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(01:02:22):
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We'll see you guys next time.

Speaker 3 (01:02:28):
Take care, stay in the no catch up on all
the buzz podcasts and videos at buzzworthyradiocast dot com. Keep
getting the latest buzz with Buzzworthyradio now on Amazon Music