The Point Radio: What Scared Marina Sirtis?

STAR TREK favorite Marina Sirtis has a chilling role in a new SyFy thriller premiering this weekend (Saturday at 9pm ET). FINDERS KEEPERS also stars Patrick Muldoon (from STARSHIP TROOPERS), and both actors are more than willing to talk about how the movie gave them the creeps. Plus NEW YORK TIMES best selling author, Jan Karon, has thrilled her fans by doing her the first new novel in her beloved Mitford series in almost a decade, and she tells us there’s more to come.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Raub. After being away nine years, author Jan Karen is back in Midford, North Carolina. And she's bringing her scores of fans with her to a brand new Midford novel. We'll find out what the story is on that.

Plus a new sci-fi movie debuts this weekend. It's a little spooky and it stars Marina Sertes and Patrick Muldoon. But tell us about exactly what got them scared. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point.

The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. Finders Keepers is an original movie on the Sci-Fi network premiering this weekend. It tells the story of a child obsessed with an evil doll left behind by the previous occupants of her new home.

The film, among others, stars actress Marina Sertes and actor Patrick Muldoon. And I asked Marina to describe her role. What interested me about playing the character was that she's kind of a crazy cat lady. Eccentric, a little nutty, not something that I've played before on film. So it was just, you know, at this point in my career, there's very rarely something that

I haven't played before after doing this for nearly 40 years. So that's why I did it. I thought she was, I thought she was kooky and funny and a bit wacky. So that appealed to me being as I tend to get very, you know, serious, dramatic roles and I've answered the change.

And for Patrick. My role in this, my job in this was, you know, to try and get my family back together. Jamie's character and I are estranged and she takes her daughter and moves away. There's some reference to maybe, I don't know, maybe a bit of infidelity on my part, but there's definitely, with the first scene that Jamie and I, there's definitely, you

see that I've messed up and they moved to this house where the problem originates. But definitely, I'm still in love with my wife and, you know, through the journey, through this journey of battling some very extreme, bad spiritual circumstances, you know, and saving our daughter, we come back together as a family. So that's kind of it from my perspective.

So Marina admits to being a little freaked out over all of the paranormal. I get creeped out. I get totally creeped out. I did a horror, the other horror movie that I did was The Grudge 3. And when that creepy Japanese lady came to kill me, they were real screams.

There was no acting involved. I'm such a wuss when it comes to scary things. I'm scared of the dark, all those, you know, that grown people shouldn't be, but it's that thing like going on a roller coaster. We know you're gonna be scared to death, but you still do it anyway.

And that's kind of how I feel about the horror genre. For Patrick, his big fear dates back to a certain horror film. For me, the one movie, horror movie, that probably had the most profound effect on me when I was, you know, probably 11, 12 years old was the second omen. And I happened to catch it.

It was playing on TV, you know, where Damien grows up. And I watched it, I'm probably like 11 or 12 years old. And I freaked out. I was sitting next to my father. I ran in the bathroom.

You know where Damien checked his head to see if there's a 666? Yeah. I ran in the bathroom just to make sure that I wasn't. By the way, I did that for years afterwards as a teenager because the movie freaked me out so bad.

So this is, you know, with her, our daughter kind of taking on that role of possession, which is, possession itself had me as fascinating to me. You see all these ghost stories and these kinds of television shows and paranormal stuff. Finders Keepers premieres this Saturday on the Sci-Fi Network. But if you miss it, you can always catch it at Sci-Fi.com keyword now or on demand with

your local cable provider. Here you go with the latest in pop culture. Warner Brothers sent a few billion dollars worth of lightning bolts into the fan community with some announcements on films that date ahead as far as 2020. The list begins with a Suicide Squad film planned for August of 2016.

Then the next year, 2017, we'll see what Wonder Woman film, the one announced as part of that three picture deal a few months back. And the first part of a Justice League movie directed by Zack Snyder, which they say in their recording year has the core cast from Batman versus Superman. Also coming up and then the next year in 2018 will be a Flash film and an Aquaman movie.

After that in 2010 is the Shazam film, the one that Dwayne Johnson has been talking about. Second part of the Justice League movie is also scheduled for that year as well. And looking ahead to 2020, a Cyborg film and a new Green Lantern reboot along that same time as well.

Mage Wars is coming to Dynamite Entertainment. The company has announced a new licensing agreement that will allow them to publish comics, graphic novels, prose novels, prints, and even an art book as well. First one to come will be Mage Wars Nature of the Beast. It will be written by Will McDermott and it will be in comic stores as a 150 plus page

graphic novel in January. Friends is coming to Netflix all 10 season, all 236 episodes will be available in the streaming service. It will be the first time that's ever happened, all the episodes being in one place and you'll be able to pick those up from Netflix starting in January.

With the success of Batman 66 and Batman 66 meets Green Hornet, DC Digital has some more titles on the way, some with some familiar faces. Wonder Woman 77 continues the legendary 1977 and 79 TV series and of course will star Linda Carter as Wonder Woman in the comic just like Adam West appears as Batman in Batman 66. There will be new chapters added every week and then everything will be collected into

a print graphic novel as well. The work will be done by Mark Andreko as a writer with covers by Nicholas Scott. And also from DC Digital you can look for the Mortal Kombat X game digital comic which will be based on a new version of that popular game. And in December Fables the Wolf Among Us that adapts the Telltale Games video game adaptation

of Bill Willingham's Vertigo Comic Fables. Some pretty big rating stories over the past few days. First of all American Horror Story has premiered their freak show run of episodes and has become the most watched single program in the 20 year history of FX. And of course because of that they've already greenlit another season of the show for 13

episodes next year. In the meantime The Walking Dead did manage to turn in some 17.3 million viewers, 11 million of which were in the key demo as well making it the number one show on regular and cable television for the night of its premiere. Add to all that Gotham success story adding 6 million viewers when ratings were added

together for not only the original showing but for a full 7 days of DVR watching as well. Because of that Fox has now renewed Gotham for a full season this year. Sci-fi has announced a collaboration with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and their production company for a new futuristic thriller that is set to debut sometime in 2015. It's called Incorporated.

Meantime also from Sci-fi, 12 Monkeys now has a premiere date as well. The retooled time travel movie into a regular series will premiere on the network on the 16th of January next year. It's been 20 years since author Jan Karen introduced us to Midford, North Carolina. In her words the fictional small town that takes care of its own.

For 11 years and 9 novels she gave us the story of a tender tribute to the extraordinary beauty of ordinary lives. Now after 9 years Jan is back with a new Midford novel called Somewhere Safe with Someone Good. I asked Jan to go back to the beginning and tell me how the original idea started.

The idea came sort of around 2 o'clock in the morning. I had moved to the little town of Blowing Rock from a fairly important career in advertising and I spent many years in advertising actually. That's where I learned to write fiction anyway. So I went to Blowing Rock to write a novel.

That's every copy writer's dream I think and I found that I had nothing to say which was as you can imagine sort of woman's dream turns to nightmare. And then there came to me at this 2 o'clock time this image, metal image of a short balding overweight man walking down a village street. I knew he was a priest because he was wearing a collar and I can't remember any more details.

It was a pretty simple visual image really. I got up and started writing about this man. We went from there. I didn't even know what I was doing because I had come up there to write a completely different kind of novel which wasn't working.

So that's how it started and look where we are today. If that's not a miracle I don't know what is. Jan's stories are unique especially in today's market with no real violence or vulgarity. I asked why she made that particular choice. I wanted to write a book that I could read and enjoy reading.

I remember going to the little public library in the small town of Blowing Rock. There was a big, big blockbuster out on the market. I had always been too much of a snob to read best sellers. Can you imagine? I've changed of course from such wavered instincts.

But I was thrilled that the little library had gotten it in. I took it off the shelf and opened it to the first page. I was just, I've got to tell you, I was absolutely floored by how this book even opened. Put it back on the shelf and said, I'm just going to keep reading dead authors like I've been doing for a long time and I'm just going to write a book that I'd like to read which

is what I tried to do. It's interesting that in the first novel not a great deal happened. It was pretty much finding my way with characters. It was character development. It was some plot, but that plot is not my great gift.

Characters seem to be what's given to me in such a wonderful way. So we just went from there. So after nine years, why come back to Midford? I actually was by no means lounging around eating bonbons during that little void there. I was writing, continuing to write about Father Tim.

We took him to Holly Springs so he could try to learn what happened in that relationship with his father. Why had there been so much dysfunction in his family as he was a young man growing up in Holly Springs? There was a lot of healing in that book.

Then we went to Ireland. He took his wife to Ireland for her birthday. He was going there to look into the history of his Irish family and ended up looking into more than the history of yet another Irish family, not his own. So there was a lot of growth and healing in that book too.

So it's important, I think, to read those novels when we come to Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good. I was ready to return to Midford. Everybody likes to come home from a trip. Everything is great.

Coming home is often even better. My readers wanted that, perhaps even more than I did. I think that the main character of the Midford series is actually not Father Tim, but the town itself. Jan came to writing a little late in life, moving over from another successful career,

something that a lot of folks more than likely envy. I asked her exactly how that all came to be. That's a great question. Thank you. I knew that I did not want to remain in advertising.

I was getting older and advertising really is wired for young people. But more than that, I didn't want to end up just some dusty old hack under a fluorescent light in the back room. I had a wife since the age of 10 to write a novel. I thought, okay, if I don't do it now, when am I going to do it?

Never is if I don't do it now. I began to pray. I prayed for two years, very ardently for two years. I finally got the green light and God spoke to my heart and said, go and don't look back. I'm with you.

I got to tell you, I was out of there so fast. I put my house on the market. It sold in a day and a half of something that would hardly ever happen in today's market. The green light, yes. I went and then that's when I discovered once I'd made that change that I didn't have

anything to say. I didn't know how to write a novel, but the novel did, of course, come. It took a lot of courage. I have to tell you, the weight, the long weight of getting to the kernel of that nut was exhausting. I didn't really have the money to do it.

My mortgage at that time was like $464. You would give anything to have a mortgage like that. It was hard to pay it sometime. They always did, but it was difficult. For people wanting to step out on faith or just to step out at all, it's not always going

to be. It's not a bed of roses if Steve and Job says success, overnight success takes a long time. Of course, the one thing your fans all want to know is there more Mitford on the way? There's definitely more on the way, Mike, but it's not going to be set in Mitford precisely. It will be 20 miles outside Mitford.

We're going to pass the torch to the next generation. I'm very excited about that. I'm in the middle of that next novel, the ones to follow somewhere safe. We'll always have Mitford right up the road and somebody will always be running into town and they have to.

It's the closest town. Jen, Karen's new Mitford novel, Somewhere Safe with Someone Good, available right now in bookstores and of course from amazon.com. That's a wrap for right now, but you can always find us at all usual places at ComicMakes.com, michaeldavisworld.com, getthepointradio.com and always in the iTunes podcast directory.

You can keep in touch with us too on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram under The Point Radio and make a note to come back here because we'll meet you in just a few days.