So let’s jump into…I do have a bunch of other questions but let’s jump into the reason I got to talk to you today “The End of the Line”.   So could you talk a little bit about how you got involved in the project and what it’s about and you know the basics?

Ashok: So about 5 years ago Tracey Jackson who’d written The Guru came to my office and pitched me sort of a 2-3 line idea about “the other end of the line” and I loved it.  So I took it to MGM which is my 1^st look.  MGM liked it.  Chris McGurk was running MGM at that time and so we decided to develop it and we developed it and we were into the 3^rd and 4^th draft and we were all enjoying ourselves with the script and then MGM got sold.  And you know, I found myself talking to Sony.  But MGM got sold and it really got put into limbo—a lot of the projects and there was big time….including “Premonition” by the way…so I took “Premonition” out of there and ending up making it with Sandy Bullock and Sony ended up distributing it.  Then I took “The Other End of the Line” out and we made a small budget, you know, lovely film which was sort of a labor of love and a passion project.  We brought Jesse on board first, who I think is perfect for the role, and then cast the Indian girl around him where I think the chemistry is terrific and works very well.  And that’s sort of how it developed.  So it took a number of years to actually get it made and it went through different iterations of should it be higher budget, smaller, how should it be done, who should it be done with, where should we shoot it?  And finally we ended up shooting the majority of it in India in a very quick shoot.  It was a 32 day shoot.  Built a lot of sets in India and then we shot 4-5 days in San Francisco. 

Okay, so let’s move on to…I know you’re attached to “The Dark Country”, “Dead of Night”, “Mandrake”.  I’m sure you have other projects, so I wanted to know if I could get updates on those 3, so let’s just start with that.  How’s the “Dark Country”?

Ashok: “Dark Country” is done.  Thomas Jane directed it.

In 3D no less.

Ashok: In 3D and that is done.  That’s with Sony-in fact a division of Sony.

Have you seen it?

Ashok: Yeah, of course.  Many, many times.  It’s very cool but it’s again a very small budget picture just so we’re clear about what it is.

Oh no totally.

Ashok: Under a $10 million movie. It’s very small.

But Tom has fans.

Ashok: Tom has fans. And I’m drawing a blank on the girl’s name…Lauren….a very, very beautiful girl isn’t it?

Shocking that Tom would want to work with a beautiful girl.

Ashok: It’s very good.  It’s very good.  Tom did a great job for his first directorial.

Exactly.  Is it a hard R?  Is it very violent?  What kind of…?

Ashok: It’s an R.

Okay.

Ashok: It’s an R.

Does it push the boundaries or is it sort of just to the violence to tell the story?  Or is it not violent?

Ashok: No, there’s a combination of violence and a combination of both psychological and visual violence, so it’s a small sort of edgy, dark film.

Okay.  Let’s jump into “Dead of Night”.  I know you’re working with Kevin Monroe or at least you’ve been scheduled to work with him.

Ashok: We are.  We are working with Kevin and Brandon.

How is that project progressing and when can fans look forward to possibly that being in front of the cameras?

Ashok: It goes in front of the camera first quarter of next year. February-March of next year we start shooting.  For a release, you never know these days, hopefully before 2015.  No, I’m kidding.  If it’s not the end of next year, it’ll be probably early 2010.  A lot of visual effects.

I was going to say Kevin obviously learned—cut his teeth—on TMNT and a bunch of other things and I’m curious how’s it been like working with him and…?

Ashok: Oh Kevin’s fabulous.  Kevin is just fabulous.  He is a non-stop workaholic.  And has really fine-tuned the script.  He, I think, is perfect for the project.  He understands it very well and he knows visual effects very well.

Absolutely.

Ashok: It’s sort of that fine mix.

For that project I’m sure fans are very curious.  Is it a mid-range?  Is it a low budget?  Is it a high budget?  What kind of thing?

Ashok: Mid range.

And does it already have a distribution deal set up?

Ashok: Not yet.

So is like an AFM kind of property?  Or is it…?

Ashok: We’ve already announced it. We announced it at Cannes.

Yeah, exactly.

Ashok: I mean, we’ll certainly have it at AFM, but we won’t make the domestic deal until we have something to show.

I got it.

Ashok: Because we’d like to…I think it’s going to be a very visually arresting project because the vampires, the werewolves and zombies and the relationship between the Brandon character and Marcus who’s the sort of human that becomes a zombie.  So that’s really interesting.

I’m very curious.  Is he shooting it on digital like an HD camera? Is it going to be filmed..?

Ashok: No, no, no.

Okay.  “Mandrake”.  What’s going on with that project?

Ashok: More difficult to give you an update, you know?  It’s all down to casting, you know.  Good script.  Terrific script.

Because the comic book superhero is…

Ashok: But it’s a much larger budget.

Ah yes.

Ashok: And as a result the casting becomes more sort of…having a larger budget is a double-edged sword so you then have to support that budget with a cast and director that means something more.

With the success of comic book properties recently and “Mandrake” I believe is based on a…

Ashok: Oh yeah a popular international comic book.

Absolutely.  So is it a little bit easier to get interest in this property now?

It is but it’s a tougher marketplace, you know?  Internationally, I think just globally with the financial crisis it is just a more difficult marketplace—not at the audience level—but the audiences will always go to the movies right?  And they’ll always….in fact in times of depression it’s been shown that audiences go more to the movies.

Absolutely.  Absolutely.

Ashok: However . . .

I totally agree with you that even in the Great Depression Hollywood was making gangbuster business, but it’s still the credit crisis.

Ashok: There’s players in-between that are much more withdrawn with the whole thing—banks, financing, distributors all get much more wary of things.

So this is a project that you have the script and it’s just a question of getting the behind the scene people?

Ashok: Yeah.  I mean it’ll get done.  It’ll get made.  It’s just a question of when it goes and I’d say it’ll get made in ’09.

Okay.  Last question for you; I was pulling some of these things off the “always accurate IMDB” but are there any other projects getting ready to go?

Ashok: Well there’s 2 others that are on the upper end of the interest level at Hyde Park, which is the remake of “10”, which I did the deal with Blake Edwards.  We’re partnered on “10” and so we’re going to do the re-make of “10” in ’09 and we’re working on the script.

I was going to say how is the script progressing and do you…?

Ashok: Well it’s a Blake Edwards script that we’re updating currently.

Are you already thinking director or casting?

Ashok: We are but I mean nothing that I can tell you.  But we’re working on all of that.  And the other is a project called “Persuaders” and the “Persuaders” was an old British TV show that I bought the rights to which starred Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.  And Roger Moore is a British Lord and Tony Curtis is a guy from the Bronx.  And you know hi-jinx, action, comedy.

Okay.

Ashok: And so this is a script by David Dorfman who wrote “Anger Management” and we’re just in the process of putting that together.  So those would be the 2 that….

The next 2 that are on the agenda?

Ashok: Would be.

Cool.  I know you’re being pulled 7 different ways so I’m going to say thank you.