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You ever hear voice actor Robert Axelrod talk?  I have, after attending the anime convention Kuzuricon in Battle Creek, Michigan, over the weekend.  It was actually a pretty awesome convention, even if I spent most of my time there feeling like the creepy old guy in the room.  I swear, if it weren’t for my press pass they would’ve wound up putting me up for Carousel.

Anyway, Robert Axelrod.  You might not recognize the name, but you’ll know his work a whole lot more.  He’s the guy who voiced Lord Zedd, among a great many others, and if you don’t remember Lord Zedd then I don’t know where you were in the 1990s.

He delivered a pretty sweet panel, in which he gave the history of his voice acting career, and how it extended upward through years of work.  Interesting points:

1. Robert Axelrod owns a thirty-year-old chunk of his own hair.  It’s a huge ponytail from his musical days.

2. The band “John Castle and the Junkyard Angels” had only one Junkyard Angel.  It was Robert Axelrod.

3. There are actually several ways to get into the Screen Actors Guild.  None of them are simple.

All of these interesting facts and more were part of a terrific panel, so kudos to Robert Axelrod for putting on a great and deeply informative show.  And there’s actually a fair chance he’s reading this since I gave him the link to us, so if you are reading, sir, hello again and don’t we all wish you could’ve stuck around for the Rumble Roses tournament.  It might have even gone off that way.

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With the all too imminent release of A Haunting In Connecticut to DVD mere hours away, it’s interesting to note that the movie is indeed based on a true story.  Said true story was documented in the popular Discovery Channel TV series A Haunting, specifically, an unusually large ninety-four minute version that, for this series, likely meant it was split in two parts to accommodate the commercial break.

But is it any good?  Was it even necessary?  Can it possibly compete with the added force of the Hollywood wizardry the theatrical release brought to bear?  That’s what we’re taking a look at today.

When Karen and Ed Parker move into their new home, in order to help take care of their cancer-stricken son, they find that their new house has a whole lot of history to it…and none of it good.  But when the Parker family decides to stand and fight, they’re going to be taking a force of serious evil, and all they’ll have to fight with is their faith, a priest serving as exorcist, and that always-controversial of paranormal investigator teams, Ed and Lorraine Warren, the same duo who took on the Amityville haunting.

Anyone who’s seen the show A Haunting already knows what the format is like–part dramatization, part interview with the actual participants, and always present is the gravelly voice of the narrator. But for those of you who haven’t seen this show yet, man, you don’t know what you’re missing.  This is the SCARIEST kind of horror you’re going to see.  Why?  It doesn’t depend on blood or obscenity or anything else.  What it depends upon instead is the random juxtaposition of the mundane and the insane.  They’ll start out wiht something quiet and simple, like a little girl playing with her dolls, then they’ll let something flash by, almost too quick to be noticed.  Almost.

Then you find out what that something is, and man, you almost wish you hadn’t found out after all.

They are going to do things that you never thought were possible within the confines of a normal everyday television show–they’re going to scare you.  Why?  Because this show is the absolute unquestioned master of creating forboding, ominous environments.  They will SCARE YOU by virtue of creating an atmosphere of utter dread.  They will frighten you to no end, and you will enjoy it.

I’m stunned to report that, after having seen the theatrical version, and having seen THIS version, that there can be no doubt.  This version is wildly, WILDLY scarier.  Not to mention wildly, WILDLY superior.  It amazes me to no end to tell you that an episode of a pseudo-documentary television show can pack more punch than a theatrical release movie, but it is what it is.

I have little doubt that you’ll be patently amazed by what you see here, and cheerfully recommend it to you.  Enjoy to your heart’s content, because this sucker’s spectacularly freaky.

A Haunting In Connecticut is so spectacularly freaky, in fact, that it gets a full nine out of ten, with only its inherent limitations holding it back from true perfection.

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It’s a long interview but J.J. Abrams talks at our level, very intelligent and simple, worth the watch.

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Check out this behind the scenes footage from the Death Race DVD, in stores on Dec. 21

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Those looking to gobble up every last bit of information regarding the upcoming High School Musical 3 are in for a treat as Hollywood.com has recently released an interview with the movies front men, Corbin Bleu and Zac Efron.

In the interview they talk about life after highschool and, what else, yearbook singing. You can head here to see the full interview as they seem to have a problem with embeddable content.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year, directed by Kenny Ortega, is set for an October 24th release date.

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A portion of a behind the scenes interview from the DVD bonus features with Randy Couture on the set of The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior.  I have a copy of the DVD and can’t wait to see it.  The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Currently, a contest is going on at the official site.  Visitors can enter for a chance to win collectible memorabilia from the film with a grand prize package that includes a sword autographed by Randy Couture that was used in the movie AND a set of Sargon’s armor worn by Couture

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Tonight on the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION “Night Talk” anchor Mike Schneider talks to Actor Dennis Hopper about his films Elegy and Swing Vote.  I love Elegy.

Anyone who longs for stories about the studio days, this interview gives a taste as Hopper talks about what he misses about the old studio system. “The old studio system, in my mind at the time, we all hated it, but when I think back on it, it wasn’t bad. We were kind of indentured slaves, but at the same time we had pools of directors, pools of actors, writers, producers, all under Warner Brothers or MGM or whatever studio, 20th Century Fox, whatever studio you were with. And it was a great time.”

He shares how his demands for being in Apocalypse Now were not met. “I said I’ll be in the picture if I have one line with Brando…Marlon would not have me there the same nights that he worked. He would work one night and I would come in and work. And then he would listen to what I did the night before and I would listen to what he did the night before. So, one day I come in and they said – you know Marlon called you a whimpering dog last night and threw bananas at you.”

He talks about how Easy Rider’s themes ring true today. “How strange it is that I chose to put all the money into a gas tank that had the American stars and stripes on it and a big beautiful chrome machine blows up by the side of the road with all the money in it. I had no idea we’d have this kind of gas and oil crisis.”

 And he remembers his old friend James Dean. “He used to say the reason he was going to be remembered was because he had Marlon Brando on one hand saying ‘go screw yourself’ and he had Montgomery Clifton in the other saying ‘please forgive me’ and somewhere in the middle was James Dean.”

This interview is a treat. Don’t miss it. “Night Talk” airs in the U.S., Europe and Asia on Bloomberg TV at 10PM on weeknights and is simulcast on Bloomberg Radio at 10PM.  Bloomberg Radio is broadcast on 1130AM in the New York Metropolitan area and is available on XM and Sirius.  The Friday night Show re-airs over the weekend Sat at 8:00-9:00pm, 10:00-11:00pm and Mon 12:00am – 1:00am. 

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