The first film from the guys at Empire of Geeks has finally finished the screenplay, The Cross and the Mirror(which use to be Check Mate). The story has taken director/writer Peter Melancon three years to finish.  I've just talked to my friend Peter, whom I've known since grammer school and he always wanted to make films.  I, Warren Russel, sat down  with my friend and asked him a couple of questions.

WR:Why the name change of the script?

PM:Well I tried to make it a horror film but I wanted to add thigs that happened between me and my ex bf.  However, at the time I wasn't really ready to deal with it, so I put it away for awhile and then realized what that relationship really meant to me.

WR: I've known you since we were kids, what draws you to films and making them?  

PM: When I was a kid, my family and I lived across the street from a dollar cinema.  I saw BeetleJuice there, the Temple of Doom, Jurassic Park, Army of Darkness, Poltergeist III, Pinocchio, Karate Kid II, Silence of the Lambs and others.  I'd go with my family to watch and these movies left a mark.  

WR How?

PM:The idea that people would jump in rows in front of me in a horror movie and in comedies everyone would laugh together.  It was here that I thought, I'd like to do this.  I'd like to pull emotions from people in the audience to relate to people in the films. 

WR Any pacifics from certain films you remember getting or seeing reactions from?

PM:Oh Yeah.  I saw Jurassic Park and I was facinated with the realisim and I would believe that these dinosaurs were real and I remeber looking at my friend who was covering his eyes with his baseball cap and It was here that I realized that film has a different effects on people.  My friend was relating to the kids running from the Velociraptors in the kitchen and I was looking at it and seeing how smart the dinosaurs were.

WR: What is your favorite genre?

PM: Sci-Fi and Horror.

WR:Why?

PM: Because I love outlandish and crazy films that bring the audience into a different and strange worlds.  Plus I love monsters, I've always have."

WR:What is your film about?  Is it a horror story?

PM:Well, it's kinda of a horror film but it's really a morality tale.  I love sexy seductive looking monsters and I love a movie that takes you on a journey literally and figuratively.  The film is about a demon that gets loose, around 9 AD in the Germanic country side to stop the Roman army.  The story goes through the centuries in how people try to harness the demon and how others try to stop it. 

WR: What was your inspiration?

PM:hammer films and my ex B.F. (Best Friend)  When I was writing this I was reading a book on Hammer Studios and how they advertised their films and the style and look of their films. The fog and the dark and ominous looking sets and the dark english looking countryside.  They would do a photoshoot of a model or actress in a scantily looking or a provoctive pose and this would be their sales pitch.  I thought that was brilliant and fun.

WR: So what are you doing right now on the film?

PM: Well I'm still in pre production, however, I finished doing my location for the opening of the film and I'll have pictures up on my profile on facebook and on my producer of the romans.

WR:What happened to you and your ex B.F.

PM:I don't really like talking about it, but lets just say I was a douche.  I really miss her and I'd love to put her in one of my films one day.  We've made up but don't really talk.

WR: Well thanks for your time Pete, keep me updated, oh when or will there be a website?

PM: I dunno maybe it depends how much money we have left over.