Hulkamania is still running wild. In the '80s, the wrestler with 24" pythons told his young fans to train, say their prayers and eat their vitamins. In the '90s, he tried being a bad guy but everybody still loved Hulk Hogan. Now we know the intimate details of his family and divorce, thanks... more

Hulkamania is still running wild. In the '80s, the wrestler with 24" pythons told his young fans to train, say their prayers and eat their vitamins. In the '90s, he tried being a bad guy but everybody still loved Hulk Hogan. Now we know the intimate details of his family and divorce, thanks to VH1's Hogan Knows Best.

You never needed to follow wrestling to know who Hulk Hogan was. The persona of the red and gold bandana, tearing his shirt off in the ring and holding his hand to his ear to hear the applause wowed stadium crowds and television audiences. Hulkamania was a bigger phenomenon though, extending to movies, animated series and action figures.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling just signed Hogan to join their league, the only remaining threat to Vince McMahon's WWE empire. Hogan is a business partner with TNA owner Dixie Carter, but in wrestling, nobody is behind the scenes. He appears on camera for televised events and he's got big plans for TNA. He even spoke out against McMahon's stable in a press conference to the Television Critics Association.

"My philosophy is different than the WWE model where Vince McMahon will ride someone until they drop," Hogan siad. "He will shoot him and eat him. What I believe is if you can bring someone older to the table that has wisdom, that's established, that the young guys can get the rub off, there's no reason just to shoot them and eat them. Keep them around. Make them work. Make the transition. It's got to be a graceful transition. Nothing has to be edgy and personal and pull the carpet out from under people. There's a way to make all of this work, but the focus has to be on the future, and that's one of the things that has to happen. That's the biggest mistake that Vince McMahon made."

Hogan can work an audience of one as expertly as he can a conference of hundreds or a crowd of thousands. Walking down the hallway of Pasadena's Langham hotel, the still buff muscles of Hogan filled up considerably more than half the hall space. He kept his shirt on, and it was a black tank top instead of the old school gold one, but when he wrapped one of those guns around this reporter, it was Hulk's ultimate blessing of comfort and power.

Suicide Girls: You're not afraid to say what you really think of Vince.

Hulk Hogan: Oh, nothing but good things.

SG: But about how he's run things. You took a stand.

HH: I'm very opinionated about it because I was there so long, we've always been at odds. I never thought, like The Big Boss Man, a policeman character should be a bad guy. I never thought that a clown should be evil. I just don't believe that going against the grain is always the right way to go.

SG: What about the Gobledy Gooker? What was up with that?

HH: Dude, I don't know. I don't want to go there, brother.

SG: How do you think TNA has survived the domain that Vince McMahon's had on wrestling?

HH: I think they've got everything they need. They've got great talents. That ring that they have has provided a quick look see for people that weren't ready for that kind of really fast paced over the top robotic action. I think they've done a great job with storylines. They've survived, under all odds, and they've made a statement. They're here to stay so I just think they do a lot of things right with a lot of talent.

SG: What are your thoughts on TNA's hexagon shaped ring?

HH: I just want to destroy it and get rid of it. Wrestling was meant to be in a squared circle, brother. Not in an oversized playpen.

SG: Is this the new black shirt Hulk Hogan? Is red and gold gone forever?

HH: Nah, brother, it's not gone forever. This is just to let people know I made the transition. I'm a businessman now and I'm not going to do the ear thing and jump in the ring, tear the shirt and wrestle. I want everybody to know that I'm very, very serious about doing business so it's kind of like the black tie look for Hulk Hogan.

SG: It means so much to me that you call me brother. How do you maintain that sincerity when you call everybody brother?

HH: I'm horrible with names. I can never remember anybody's name so I give everybody nicknames like brother. Or Kevin Kay the head man [of Spike TV] I call Kev.

SG: Are you still about prayers, training and eating vitamins?

HH: Oh yeah, yeah. That stuff works. It's been proven over a period of time that all those positive things attract more positive things. It's like misery loves company. Whatever level you're vibrating on, you attract the same so why wouldn't you want to be training, saying your prayers and eating your vitamins.

SG: Where are you in your spiritual journey now?

HH: Probably more intense than I've been in a long time because the ultimate goal is to totally clean up all your thoughts. You have that little ping pong game between a lot of great thoughts and every once in a while you'll get a worry, fear thought. I'm really working on that but it's proved to be the only law to live by.

SG: Have you adopted any new teachings to help you on your path?

HH: No, I'm pretty much on the same line, working with the same set of rules, staying positive, just attracting other good stuff.

SG: Has your family adopted it with you?

HH: Yes, Brooke and Nick are way on the team.

SG: How are they all doing?

HH: Good, good. Brooke's back with me in Florida and I spent most of the day with Nick yesterday, but I had to get him a Z-Pak. He's getting really sick, kind of like the flu, so he's having fun in California but he wants to come back to Florida too. Everything's going great with my family.

SG: We're seeing new Mark McGwire stories. Why are steroids still an issue? Doesn't everybody know better?

HH: It seems like they would. Common sense usually goes a long way. Now that all these guys have been reeducated, it seems like they would have kind of gotten it. I know I feel better being down to my ninth grade weight, 285 lbs, than being 320-330 lbs. I don't know why they are still debating over yes or no.

SG: You got here early to do press. Did you have time to work out this morning?

HH: Mm-mm. I'm going back over to Santa Monica to meet Nick, and my son and I are going to go work out because we didn't train yesterday because he's really sick.

SG: Well, you have to give your body time to heal.

HH: Especially at my age.

SG: You've done movies, American Gladiators and reality TV, but have you found wrestling is really where you belong?

HH: It's instinct. It's in my blood. It's what I know. After the last couple years where there was such an upheaval in my life, I didn't know what was going to happen or what I was going to do, it kind of feels good to get back to the dance.

SG: Even though you're a businessman, in wrestling that's still part of the story, isn't it?

HH: Oh, of course. Of course, but it's also what's really going on with this company and with me and my contribution is I am participating on a business level so it's the real deal.

SG: What storylines are you excited about for TNA?

HH: The ones I'm going to make you watch because I'm not going to tell you because you'll tell everybody.

SG: What did you think of the movie The Wrestler?

HH: I thought Mickey Rourke did a great job. I think it was kind of taken out of context because it's just representative of a very small percentage of just a couple guys in the business because most of the guys that I know that are in the twilight of their career that are working high schools on the weekends are making $3000-4000 a weekend doing great. They're not diving to their death at the end of the match.

SG: What was interesting was how it showed all the camaraderie and respect, even between performers who were antagonists in the ring.

HH: Yeah, well, when you trust someone else with your body, you give me your body and trust me not to spike or break your neck, there's a certain amount of camaraderie that goes along with the trust.

SG: But you would never take a staple to the chest?

HH: Oh, of course I would. They told me it didn't hurt. I don't know if I believe them or not.

TNA Impact airs Thursdays at 9 on Spike TV.

Some people choose the easiest path through life; David Belle prefers to take the most interesting. As the world's premier exponent of parkour, a physical discipline of movement that's as much a philosophy as it is a sport, David Belle has carved a career out of taking the unconventional route. more

Some people choose the easiest path through life; David Belle prefers to take the most interesting. As the world's premier exponent of parkour, a physical discipline of movement that's as much a philosophy as it is a sport, David Belle has carved a career out of taking the unconventional route.

The freeform method of getting around is based on techniques developed at the turn of the last century by a French navel officer called Georges Hébert. Belle's father picked up the baton laid down by Hébert, building upon his techniques while serving in the French military. The passion for the physical discipline-cum-artform was then passed down from father to son. The latter helped brand l'art du déplacement (or art of movement) with its popular name, bringing "parkour" to the awareness of the mainstream through gravity defying appearances on TV and film. Thrusting parkour further into the popular psyche, Belle's stunts have also been showcased on TV commercials for companies such as Nike, Vittel and the BBC that have since gone viral throughout the net.

In 2004 Belle starred in District 13, a French language action movie co-written and co-produced by Luc Besson (who was responsible for the 1997 sci-fi classic The Fifth Element). District 13 was set in the near future in a fictionalized dystopian suburb of Paris, and was the first major film to feature parkour-inspired action sequences. Belle reprised his role as the gang-busting Leïto in a sequel, District 13: Ultimatum, which was released in Europe last year. Featuring spectacular rooftop chase sequences that should thrill action fans, the film is finally getting a North American theatrical release on Friday, February 5.

We called Belle up at his home in Corbeil-Essonnes, in the southern suburbs of Paris to find out more. With the help of a translator, we spoke about the new movie, the stunts it features, the origins of parkour and where it's taking him now.

Nicole Powers: This is the second movie in the District 13 franchise. How did it come about?

David Belle: Luc Besson called me to see if I was interested in doing a follow up adventure. As far as I was concerned there were no problems at all.

NP: The screenplay was written by Luc Besson, who also wrote The Fifth Element and The Transporter. What did you like about this particular script?

DB: I liked the storyline in general. I thought it was a good action film. The character is a little like me, not in everything, but I felt pretty close to that character, and I was willing to embark on this adventure.

NP: Obviously it's an action-based film. Did you work with Besson in the construction of the action scenes at the writing stage or was it more of a case of collaborating with the film's director, Patrick Alessandrin, at the point when you were preparing to shoot?

DB: As a matter of fact when Luc writes the action he doesn't write that much detail. He leaves us some room for maneuver and he allows us to make some proposals on the action. Then he picks what the best solution is and we move forward like that.

NP: Which was the hardest scene to shoot?

DB: The whole shooting was difficult. Keep in mind we were in top form so in the beginning you do one of these stunts and it's pretty easy. You do the scouting of these scenes and you say, "Ah, that's going to be easy," and you say, "I'm going to do this during the shooting." Then it turns out that something that was initially anticipated as something that was going to be easy turns out to be quite difficult. You've got to be very careful because at the end of the shoot you're exhausted. But we're under the same amount of pressure throughout the whole shoot, however, I should say, since we rehearsed in advance there weren't as many problems as one might have expected.

NP: I guess the issue of physical tiredness is compounded if you have to do multiple takes.

DB: Well yes, that is true. I should add that we tried to spare our forces, save our energy, as much as possible. When we had a stunt scene, we would rehearse the scene two or three times in advance -- everything but the stunt itself. Then we would do the shooting in just one take. We would rehearse it two or three times, when we were all psyched and we were ready, we would hit it and we would just do it. That was our policy for stunts which were really dangerous.

NP: Were there any injuries on set?

DB: I injured my lower arm. We were doing a chase scene in the Gypsy Quarter and there was a police car chasing me. So I'm running and I made a sudden turn and my arm got caught on a doorknob. The doorknob went into my arm. I needed five stitches. The doctor told me I had to rest for a week, but the next day it seemed like the stitches were holding so we started on the roof again.

The thing is, that door was supposed to be closed, but someone has left it half open. So when I was running, just like you might get your bag caught on something that's sticking out, that's what happened with my arm.

NP: Where were the rooftop scenes shot?

DB: On the roofs of Serbia.

NP: Were there any wires or other safety equipment used in those scenes?

DB: There were certain scenes, the scenes that were truly dangerous. Sometimes we had a cable, sometime we had a safety net, because sometimes we would have to rehearse or shoot a scene a couple of times until we got it right. With fatigue setting in you just don't know how you might react, and you're 20 meters up in the air, so sometimes we would shoot with a safety net. But generally speaking, we were free, our movements were free.

NP: The way the action scenes are cut together to pumping techno music, they very much have the feel of a music video. Were you happy with the way everything turned out?

DB: Generally speaking I like the film. As far as the music's concerned, if I'm watching the film and I don't like the music I just turn off the sound and put on a music track that I like. But I would have to say I generally like the music. It really meshes well with the pace of the film I believe.

NP: Going back to how you first started parkour, I know you had military and martial arts training, but how did a type of movement you used to run across town become something that you realized was a stylized thing of its self, something you could make a career out of?

DB: Of course, I was very active in sports when I was small, but it was because of my father that I discovered parkour. It was he who transmitted to me this art though his experience in the army and later as a fireman. He had worked on his own physical conditioning and I realized that the movement has a useful side to it. That you can move around to help people, to aid people, and not just to be an artist or to perform acrobatic tricks. There's a more profound side to parkour.

NP: With parkour there also seems to be a connection to your inner child. If you look at the way a child walks along a pavement, the last thing they want to do is walk in a straight line. They want to jump across cracks in the pavement or play stepping stones, and if there's something to jump up on, instinctively they'll want to jump up on it. Parkour seems to be very much about getting in touch with your inner child and taking the interesting way, rather than the easiest route.

DB: I think you summed it up in a nutshell. That's what it is exactly. That's the first time anybody has given me the proper definition of parkour. Bravo Nicole!

NP: Merci beaucoup! How has it changed since you started doing it? How has the art progressed?

DB: It's sort of like life. Initially the obstacles aren't too high, and as you gradually gain increasing self-assurance and greater amounts of confidence the obstacles are higher, and when you fall it hurts more. So you learn through good technique not to take stupid risks. I didn't ever want to give the impression that practicing this movement is crazy. I wanted to show that there's a method that allows you to overcome obstacles, to navigate obstacles without taking major risks.

NP: What do you do to train on a daily basis?

DB: I've worked on the foundations so much, it's similar to martial arts. When you practice a jump thousands of times for eight hours a day straight, your body develops a memory of it. You don't have to be practicing that everyday from a 20 meter high rooftop. The question for me now is to maintain this physical conditioning. Now I train less. I do it more by feeling. I don't have the same perspective anymore. My goal is to last vis-à-vis my age. I want to make sure that whatever my age is I feel good inside my body, and that I don't have the impression of destroying myself.

NP: Right, you don't want to over-train.

DB: That's right. I don't think it's worthwhile. It's not worth it to over-train. You know, we all have a certain lifespan. It's not like we're going to live 150 or 200 years and I could say, alright, I have 50 years to progress. Life goes by and it's full of things to do, and I don't want to get stagnated and be like an old karate professor who's 70-years old and keeps repeating the same movement. Today I do parkour, tomorrow I might play the piano, maybe the next day I might go fishing. I don't want to feel anchored. I want to continue to move, and of course I want to continue to practice my sport. But I'm trying to listen to my body and I try to always be interested in other things. I don't want to deprive myself of those other things just for the sake of parkour.

NP: I guess part of that goes back to maintaining the enjoyment by nurturing your inner child. It's something that gets forgotten as we get older, but it's important and intrinsic to the discipline too.

DB: Well you know I think everyone has a trigger in their lives and that's what parkour was for me. It's like someone who plays music as a kid, and then, through music, discovers art in general, and beauty. He may not play music [anymore] but he may go on to other things, but the trigger, the detonating influence was music. Well that's what parkour was for me. We all have something that when we're young we discover, and that something will lead us to a world of other discoveries. That's what parkour has done for me. .

NP: So can you see yourself down the line taking acting roles where the physicality is less important? Perhaps even roles that don't requite parkour?

DB: Well if movies give me that opportunity, I would take it up with the greatest of pleasure.

NP: Finally, I know you originally took up parkour with very practical, perhaps even lifesaving applications in mind. Are you doing anything to teach the next generation this skill and the practical applications too?

DB: You're completely right, we're already working with the firemen of Paris imparting parkour techniques, and we've set up a program with the city council of Lisses to set up a place where soldiers, policemen, young people -- anybody engaged in high risk professions -- can come and get training. It's not enough to just train in a gym. There we can move around a bit. We really can't explain the sport in such situations, so these special places we're setting up are much better for that.

NP: Thank you for taking the time out to chat, and good luck with the movie in America.

DB: Merci Nicole.


District 13: Ultimatum opens on limited release in theaters on Friday, February 5. You can also find it on VOD, Amazon, and XBOX Live.

The best horror films are always the simple ones, and Frozen is simplicity itself. Pretty college student Parker (newcomer Emma Bell ) flirts her way into one last ski-lift ride just as the slopes are closing for the night (and the week) and sets off on the lift with her boyfriend Dan (Kevin Zegers)... more

The best horror films are always the simple ones, and Frozen is simplicity itself. Pretty college student Parker (newcomer Emma Bell ) flirts her way into one last ski-lift ride just as the slopes are closing for the night (and the week) and sets off on the lift with her boyfriend Dan (Kevin Zegers) and his best friend Lynch (Shawn Ashmore). A shift-change mishap later, the three of them are stuck a hundred feet in the air, watching helplessly as the ski lodge’s lights are being shut off, the temperature is falling by the minute, and no one is responding to their screams for help. The film, which deftly explores a number of common fears, including extreme cold, perilous heights, being alone in the dark, and a final one that should remain a surprise, comes from lifelong skier and indie film wunderkind Adam Green, whose 2006 horror debut, the deliberately old-school boobs-and-blood slasher film Hatchet, stands as one of the most profitable films of its kind, ever. Green is currently in the midst of filming Hatchet 2 and recently called up SuicideGirls from the Sundance Film Festival, where Frozen is playing to sold out shows and critical raves.


Ryan Stewart: Let me tell you my solution to the main characters’ dilemma, and you can tell me if you’ve heard it before.
Adam Green: Tie the clothes together, right?
RS: Right! They should take off their clothes and tie their undergarments together like bed sheets, and use that as a rope to climb down.
AG: You know, we spoke to some Army Rangers about it, trying to shoot holes in the thing, and they said that’s actually the worst thing you could do. First of all, just trying to undress up there? Trying to even get your clothes off when you’re in a seated position like that? You could try it, but even if you did get them off the exposure to the elements would mean you wouldn’t make it. Even if you did get to the bottom, you’re then talking about at least a twenty to forty minute walk until you find anybody. Any people who are left up there with no clothes on aren’t going to make it, either. They said that’s the last thing they would try to do. These were military people, and they said their first choice would be to jump, although you have to jump a certain way. You’re going to break your bones, but you have to just hope that you don’t break them so badly that you can’t then drag yourself down the hill. That’s what Dan says in the movie, “Even if I hurt myself, I might still be able to make it down to the bottom.” But if you fall in a way that results in a compound fracture of both your legs, that’s kind of out.
The other option is to climb the cables, but in reality if you know anything about those cables you wouldn’t even try climbing them, because they are so sharp – they have to be, so that these metallic things can fit through the rungs and not come apart. They look like rope, but they’re really metal. MythBusters actually did an episode on this once, where they asked how you would get off a chair lift, and they tried climbing it and sliding on it with a jacket and it was impossible – it slices right through it. In the movie there’s a little bit of suspension of disbelief there, because Lynch actually does make it to the next chair, and in real life he probably wouldn’t have. It would have cut into his hands and he would’ve fallen and died, but nobody wants to see that ending!
RS: Speaking of Lynch, I noticed the character’s full name is identical to that of your fellow indie-horror director Joe Lynch. Joe must have been thrilled.
AG: [laughs] He was! So was my friend Dave Parker, who directed The Hills Run Red, and also my friend Dan Walker. I’m just really bad with names when I’m writing, and I’ll stick in my friends’ names all the time with the intention that sometime before we actually shoot I’ll go through it and come up with other names, but this time it was like, eh, why not? For the handful of people who get it, it’s kind of a funny joke when you hear those names go by, but the average person watching it obviously has no idea about that connection.
RS: Was there a real ski-lift tragedy that inspired you to write this, or did you just sit down and come up with something?
AG: I kind of just came up with the situation, because it’s a big fear of mine as someone who used to ski. The mountains I skied at, these places in Boston, they’re only open Friday through Sunday, and they’re really kind of crappy mountains compared to, like, what we have here in Park City. They don’t really get a lot of business and you kind of feel like you’re going on a carnival ride. There’s always that dude who’s just standing there smoking a cigarette as he’s sending you up. When we were scouting mountains we would ask them “Could this happen here?” and they would get very angry and defensive and say “Not at our mountain, we take precautions, we do this, we do that.” But if you persisted with could it, then they would say, “Well, it could, because there’s such a thing as human error.” You could have a guy who just isn’t doing his job right. I mean, how many times have you read stories about airline pilots that were drunk? How much trust do we put in strangers that they’re not going to do something that would kill us, you know? If you search online for stories of people being trapped, there are hundreds of stories every year. In fact, right here in Utah, one of the ski mountain people who came to our screening this afternoon said a kid recently fell fifty feet off of one of them – he just slipped off. While we were shooting Frozen a gondola fell in British Columbia, killing about seven people. There was also a group of cross-country skiers in British Columbia that went off the beaten path, got lost, and wolves ate this guy’s wife. So, all of the things in the film could happen, though they’re not very likely. “Likely” is people getting stuck in an elevator. Movies should always be worst-case scenario. I think because the concept and the trailer seem to be getting under people’s skin, there’s a knee-jerk reaction on the part of some to say “Well, this is ridiculous, it could never happen.” The fact of the matter is, it could.
RS: I was surprised to learn the whole film was done with practical effects, outdoors, and not on a stage. I’m sure the producers weren’t thrilled about having no sets.
AG: Well, there were four different production companies that wanted to make Frozen, but the only one willing to let me do it this way was Peter Block’s company, A Bigger Boat. He understood that if you’re going to make a survival thriller, it has to be real. You just can’t expect the audience to be scared if they know they’re looking at a soundstage. So that was the first thing. The bond company that had to insure the film was not happy about this at all, because we didn’t even have a single covered set in the original script. The compromise made was for me to move some of the dialogue into the lodge and have at least one scene that was on a covered set, so in case there was a blizzard or something we’d at least have something to shoot that day. The other compromise was that the producers and I agreed to defer our pay, so that if we went to the contingency, it was our own money. So, that made the bond company happy, and the last thing we shot was that stupid lodge scene that they demanded we have as a safety. We finished on time, on budget, and never went into the contingency. But there were blizzards and hailstorms all through the movie, and we just shot through it. I lucked out, actually, because the weather actually cooperated. In the script it’s like ‘a big storm starts’ and then it happened when we shot.
RS: You mentioned Peter Block – he also produced the abandoned-in-the-ocean thriller Open Water. You’re probably already sick of hearing Frozen be compared to that movie.
AG: Not at all. I like Open Water, and I take that as a compliment. This definitely is a kind of Open Water, worst-case scenario, what-would-you-do movie. Some directors get pissy about that kind of thing, they always want to think that their movie is the most original thing ever and no one’s ever done anything like it. Well, no one’s ever done Frozen before -- no one’s ever done a ski-lift horror movie -- but at the same time, just like with every movie, you get some degree of it being “like” this or that. With Hatchet, my God, everyone was like, this is a rip-off of Friday the 13th! Well, no, it was actually a rip-off of Fright Night and An American Werewolf in London, but people were too stupid to realize that. They just saw woods and Kane Hodder. With this, nobody’s really called it a rip-off of Open Water, but I have heard the comparisons. Where I see it as being different, aside from the obvious things, is that Frozen is a very hopeful movie and it’s really a character movie, a performance movie, whereas Open Water, to me, was a gimmick of real people and real sharks. Once they were left behind, the whole time you’re just waiting to watch them die. And then, in the end, they die. I liked the movie, and I think sharks are everyone’s worst nightmare, but I do feel like Frozen is that concept taken to a whole other intellectual level. I think there’s a lot more going on in Frozen than they had going on in Open Water.
RS: When you were auditioning actors for this film, did you sit them down and drive home what a physical ordeal this would be? God forbid they get out there and then bail on you.
AG: Oh, yeah. Everyone who came in to audition, the whole first five minutes of it was me explaining what this was, and many of them walked out right then. Some said “Oh, my agent told me only a portion of this would be practical and the rest would be soundstage.” And I was like, “No, none of that, and also, you can’t come down. That chair only moves forward, so if you decide to come down, that’s an hour out of our shooting day, so you can’t go to the bathroom and you can’t eat.” Thankfully, the people I had were down for it, and even embraced it. It’s a great opportunity for an actor – ninety minutes of your face and the whole movie hinges on your performance. There’s no horror gags, no action sequences, it’s all about you. Because of that, we actually ended up getting the cream of the crop of young Hollywood coming in to audition for this. It got competitive. Some people wanted to be in this movie badly. I’m sure that by night three our actors were kind of regretting it a little bit, but they never once complained and they never broke their stride or gave up, and now they’re seeing the rewards of that. To have every show at Sundance be sold out? To have a screening where someone faints? We had a screening this morning where two people vomited. The reviews have also been tremendous. It’s all been worth it. The fact that we’re getting a theatrical release in this day and age – that’s not easy for an independent movie, so we’re very fortunate, and I’m really grateful for all of it.
RS: What was Emma’s audition piece? She really gives a raw performance. Did you coach her through the heavy emotional stuff?
AG: Her audition piece was the "starving dog" story. And no, she needed no coaching with the tears, she's that good. In fact, Emma was the very first person to audition for Frozen, for any role! I was so sold that I didn't even want to waste time seeing anyone else, but of course the powers that be made me do my due diligence. So, four weeks and a hundred actresses later, Emma Bell got the part. How's that for a Hollywood rarity?
RS: All the actors get chances to shine, I felt. I liked that little scene at the beginning where Lynch meets a girl, Shannon, and tries to memorize her phone number because he doesn’t carry his phone with his ski suit. It turned a necessary “cell-phone explanation” scene into a little plot that may or may not get paid off.
AG: Yeah, that was two-fold. One, it gives Lynch something to focus on and remain hopeful for. He has his line about how if he ever gets off that chair he’s going to just call her up and ask her to marry him. And of course it was there to explain away the cell-phone thing without resorting to “Oh no, we can’t get a signal!” Most skiers that we spoke to said that whether or not they really bring their cell phone with them depends on the mountain. But with most ski mountains you don’t get any reception while you’re up there, so most skiers – because phones these days are expensive iPhones and BlackBerrys – they’ll put them in the locker and go do a couple of runs, and then come back and check their messages. They generally don’t ski with them when there’s a chance they’ll get broken. In fact, one of our actors had gone snowboarding about a month before we shot and he destroyed his iPhone. So, in my opinion that scene was a smarter way to get around the whole “Why don’t they just call somebody?” thing. If one of them had pulled out a cell-phone up there and then it said ‘no service’ you’d be like, oh God, this is terrible. I don’t know if you noticed, but we also got around the whole 555 thing by actually buying that phone number. We didn’t include the area code, but if people go and figure out that Boston area code and call that number, they’ll actually get that actress, Rileah Vanderbilt, saying “Hi, you’ve reached Shannon, leave a message.”
RS: There are a few scenes in the film where I noticed that you could have gone crazy with the gore, but you pull back a bit. Are you gun shy from your ordeal trying to get an R-rating for Hatchet?
AG: Hatchet 2 will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I'll go as far as I want with gore, with no regard for the MPAA and their bullshit. Nowadays, with the coveted unrated DVD release, no matter how much the MPAA castrates and abuses indie films, our vision still gets out there eventually. With Frozen, excessive gore would have ruined the film. It had no place in it and this was just not that kind of movie. Much like with Jaws, my biggest inspiration in Frozen, it was what you don’t see that really scares you. Hatchet may have been super gory and violent, but Frozen is a million times more terrifying and, quite frankly, a much better film. With Hatchet we had cheers, laughs, and applause. With Frozenwe're having fainting and puking from the tension.
RS: How’s the Hatchet 2 shoot going? I’ve heard Dark Sky is mapping out a franchise plan for even more films. Are we going to see “Victor Takes Manhattan”?
AG: It’s going better than we ever hoped. It's gonna blow people away. We have the time and resources that we never had when we made the first one, plus the story is so much darker and bigger. Way more kills, way more gore. We used fifty-five gallons of blood on the first and have already gone through a hundred and twenty on this one. It’s a better story, and has more suspense than the first. It's still a Hatchet movie and has humor and the same Adam Green tone of being fun and entertaining rather than morbid and depraved, but goddamn did we pull off some crazy shit that will blow your mind. Dark Sky is plotting many more films, much more theatrical support, and they are all having a blast working with us and becoming part of my Ariescope family. Victor Takes Manhattan? Hmmm, that's a great idea! No, so long as they let me steer I will try and do Victor and his fans justice. That's why I directed the sequel. I refuse to let someone make a shitty Hatchet movie after all the fighting we’ve done to get here.
RS: Have you seen a positive wind change for indie-horror after Paranormal Activity? Is there a bit more openness now than there was six months ago?
AG: Paranormal Activity was a huge victory for all indie genre filmmakers, but it hasn't really changed the playing field at all. If anything, it's now made things frustrating because now every studio wants their own "Paranormal Activity" and every meeting you go on has producers asking "Why spend money on a film when Paranormal Activity didn't and made a ton?" Much like with The Blair Witch Project, we'll see a few years of knock-offs that don't work and then it will go away. But goddamn, did I love Paranormal Activity. I was lucky to see it at home, years ago, and it scared the shit out of me. Best way to have seen it!
RS: As a horror fan, I'm as curious about the things a director in your position turns down as the things he takes. Have you had any wacky remake/sequel offers lately that you can share?
AG: I can't get specific, because to be totally honest, I'm flattered and honored that the big studios doing these remakes even know who I am or call me in to meet on their projects. I don’t want to burn bridges by making fun of what I've turned down. But that being said, I've turned down a lot or used the "I'm unavailable, sorry!" excuse for all of them. I am not anti-remake, but when they give you parameters that make it so that you don't even have a chance at doing it right, why take the job? For example, it's like being called in for a remake of Hatchet and having them tell you not to use Victor Crowley in it. Fuck that. I feel bad for some of the directors who've received such backlash from the fans for their remakes -- if you knew what they were put through by the studio you would feel bad, too. Thankfully, I've had great success with my original projects to date and I now have my own production company, Ariescope Pictures, so I do what I want and what I'm inspired to do. I don't need to take jobs for the money and if and when I accept a studio project it's going to be something I really am excited about and something I want to do. I'm discussing a few now, so we'll see what the next few years bring.

Frozen opens in select cities on February 5, 2010

As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make punk rock. OK, it doesn’t at all, but when Alkaline Trio’s front man and guitarist, the beloved and enigmatic Matt Skiba, found himself at a personal and professional crossroads he did what any true rocker worth his salt would do: he went back to... more

As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make punk rock. OK, it doesn’t at all, but when Alkaline Trio’s front man and guitarist, the beloved and enigmatic Matt Skiba, found himself at a personal and professional crossroads he did what any true rocker worth his salt would do: he went back to his roots, which were in this case, the melodic punk that cemented Alkaline Trio into the skull-tattooed hearts of their devotees.
While preparing for his current tour and his new album’s release this February, Skiba took a moment to chat with SuicideGirls about making the record, and the benefits of drinking beer at the movies.
This Addiction, the new record from Alkaline Trio, arrives in stores February 23rd. Check out ThisAddiction.org for all the updates.


Auren Suicide: Hey Matt!
Matt Skiba: Hi, how ya doing, Lauren?
AS: I’m awesome, how are you?
MS: I’m doing well.
AS: What are you doing?
MS: I am watching [the 2009 Lars Von Trier film] Antichrist, drinking a Perrier and anxiously awaiting a phone call.
AS: Good. From me, I hope?
MS: Yes! Your call.
AS: Excellent. Well then I’m glad I’m not taking you away from a better phone call.
MS: No! Of course not!
AS: Are you in California right now?
MS: Yeah, I’m in Los Angeles.
AS: You’ve lived here for what, five years now?
MS: Actually it’s closer to seven. I was up in the [San Francisco] bay area for a few years but I’ve been down in Los Angeles for almost seven years now, I think.
AS: So it’s been good, right?
MS: Not bad! I never thought I’d say I live in L.A., but I really dig it now.
AS: Why? Because it has a bad reputation?
MS: Not only because it gets a bad rap. I’ve stayed here a lot, I’d come down here and record and work. I didn’t know very many people and that’s one thing that’s key to L.A. I’m a bit of a loner anyway, but after awhile you want to go and have some fun and don’t really know where to go or who to go with. But in living down here I’ve made a small handful of really good friends and I’ve had friends move out here from San Francisco and Chicago, so it’s home now. And the weather’s always nice, there are oceans, there are mountains. There’s everything. And a lot of my work is in Los Angeles so that makes it a lot easier.
AS: Are you still surfing?
MS: Yes.
AS: In Malibu?
MS: In Malibu. All over the place. Wherever there are waves I go.
AS: So you live here, but you went back to Chicago to make This Addiction.
MS: Yes.
AS: There’s been a lot of talk about how this record is a return to your musical roots. What was the impetus to go home to Chicago and explore a different sound from your last few records?
MS: It was an organic thing. We funded the recording ourselves. We’ve always had complete creative control, but there are times when, especially with a major label, things have to be OK’d. We never had to fight with anyone over it, but there is still that outside influence. It’s been a long time since we’ve done exactly what we wanted to do without radio in mind and without anything, quote unquote, working. When we were on tour we started to play a lot of the old stuff and some of the old ideas inspired some new ideas. So it just sort of happened. There was never a finite moment where we decided we’re going to make [Alkaline Trio’s first studio album] Goddamnit part two. There was just a time when we slowly started to realize that we were making a punk rock record which I don’t think we had done in a little while. It was really fun. We went back and recorded with the guy that did the first three records. It definitely brought us back to our roots.
AS: Alkaline Trio has been through so many record labels. Now that you have your own imprint on Epitaph—Heart and Skull—what’s it like to actually be your own boss? 
MS: It’s good [laughs]. I mean, we’ve never gotten ourselves into a position that we didn’t want to be in. There have been times, bumps in the road, but nothing major to speak of. We’ve been very fortunate. We did a lot of label-jumping. Right when we started with labels is when the industry took a nosedive and things started changing really fast. And so we just had to go with it and not really worry about it, and just keep growing up. We’ve never really had too much stress related to outside opinions or anything we’ve always been allowed to make our own decisions and we’ve always been supported in those decisions. Whether that is creatively or business-wise. But it is a good feeling to have something that is ours and have it be a partnership with people that we’re so fond of. Being with Epitaph is perfect for us. And having our imprint, we’ll see what happens with that, but it is a new chapter. So it’s not a relief or anything. It’s just something exciting and new. When we were writing we had no label ideas in mind. We just knew that we were going to try and put it out ourselves.
AS: Right, so it’s a fresh start, this record.
MS: It is. We presented Epitaph with the finished product. And that’s what sealed the deal.
AS: I know you’re a big book guy. Is there anything in particular you were reading during this album process that stuck with you?
MS: Usually I’m reading a bunch of different things. There was a book I highly recommend called Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA [by Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara]. There are people who will argue that Dark Mission is a fictional book. But it is a non-fiction book. It was written by two scientists who were with the NASA organization for over 40 years. They exposed some pretty sobering evidence about the mysteries of the universe. For me, I find that pretty exciting. The mysteries of the universe, I don’t think they’ll remain mysteries forever. But I think that there are a lot of things, if people knew, would be terrified. Myself, I find it exhilarating. The New York Times called it, I think, ‘one of the most dangerous books ever written.’ It’s pretty profound.
AS: Really?
MS: Yeah. I was reading Dark Mission and that led to me reading a lot about secret Nazi technology that NASA ended up using. There were Nazi scientists that were pardoned and cleared of their war crimes, brought over here to build rockets for NASA, which was originally a weapons program. I’m going off on a tangent, but there’s nothing about space men or mystery machines in this book. There is just actual proof. I’ll let people find it out for themselves because if I were to just say it they’d be like, ‘no way—that’s not true.’ But it is. So yeah, Dark Mission, that was my main read, from the Feral House publishing company, who also put out the SuicideGirls book!
AS: Yes! So, your inspirational reads were Dark Mission, followed closely by our lovely SuicideGirls pinup book. I agree that the mysteries of the universe will be answered but the scary thing is, those answers just lead to more questions and even harder puzzles to solve. It’s an endless cycle.
MS: When you have mathematical measurements and they’re broken down into laymen’s terms you’re like, ‘wow.’ I was interested in reading this stuff at first because I was skeptical. But I love it. I’ve read the book like three times to try and wrap my head around the concepts. I’m entirely convinced.
AS: I get frustrated when I try to read that stuff.
MS: No way, this stuff is easy. People that have a lot of faith in religion…well, if religion is really making you happy then don’t read this book. I’ll put it that way [laughs].  
AS: Religion makes a lot of people pretty miserable.
MS: Religion has a lot to do with family and upbringing and I respect people with different faiths. My grandmother was Catholic. And she really believed it and I was very close with her and I respect people’s beliefs. I have friends who consider themselves Christians. I think it’s all a universal language all based on the same concepts. It all means the same thing. Science and religion can be synonymous if people are open-minded.
AS: Science is a religion, because science gives you answers.
MS: Yeah. It’s about fact. My religion is the truth. Without the questions and the mysteries that we have life would be boring.
AS: Are you painting these days? 
MS: I haven’t been. I’ve been moving. I just moved into a new house a few weeks ago so I’m waiting to get everything set up. We’ve been really busy with band stuff so I haven’t had the time to paint. But it’s definitely something I love to do when I have the time. And I’ll continue to do more of it.
AS: On your art MySpace page you have a postcard piece up. It looks like it has something to do with Kurt Cobain? It seems like it’s in his writing and its signed ‘Kurdt.’
MS: It’s a replica of a postcard that Kurt wrote to a friend of mine and she kept it. He wrote it to her and it’s exactly what it looked like. The stamp is Buffalo Bill, everything on there is the same. I just projected the actual postcard onto the canvas and traced the handwriting so it’s exactly what the postcard looked like. That’s how he actually spelled his name, with the ‘d.’ You know, whenever Kurt Cobain would sign autographs he would ask people what their name was and he would just write down their name. He was a pretty funny, groovy guy and I have friends who were pretty good friends with. They were all, you know, doing a lot of drugs together, but they spent a lot of good years with him and have a lot of his personal belongings. I thought that postcard was pretty amazing.
AS: Did you ever meet him? Did you ever see Nirvana live?
MS: I never met him, no. I did see Nirvana live though. I liked Nirvana when [their first album, 1989’s] Bleach came out and I was super excited when [1991’s] Nevermind came out, which is a great record. I felt like one of my favorite bands was taking over the world. There were people who were bummed, of course, but for me it’s great when great bands get big. You know? The world needs good music. And Nirvana stayed totally true to themselves. They kept cranking out great music.
AS: I agree! You know, a lot of people are like ‘In Utero, whatever,’ but it’s my favorite, I think it’s a perfect record.
MS: In Utero is my favorite Nirvana record. I love it. Steve Albini, man!
AS: So do the other guys in Alkaline Trio live in Chicago?
MS: [Drummer] Derek [Grant] lives in Chicago again but he was living in Indiana for Awhile. [Bassist and vocalist] Dan [Andriano] lives down in Florida with his wife and daughter.
AS: How do you guys come together to form a cohesive album when you’re not together?
MS: Well we were on tour most of the time we were writing this record so we actually were together the whole time during the writing process. We wrote the record intentionally while we were on the road. I would write a song one night and then the next day at sound check we would run through it. It came together pretty quickly, we were all on the same page. They are fun songs to play and they were fun songs to write. But this was different. In the last couple of years, we did a lot of it digitally. I could send you an MP3 in the next minute.
AS: So you just said that this was a fun album to play and write but a lot of the themes are pretty angst-y and heartbroken.  
MS: Yeah, I was pretty angst-y and heartbroken when I wrote all of those songs. And I think that has a lot to do with the tone of the record because I hadn’t been in that sort of mind frame for a while. I think a lot of people feel angry and heartbroken about whatever it is they might be going through—politics, relationships, friendships, a cat dying—whatever the case may be. And I had some things go on in my life that just brought me back to that very drunk, very angry and sad young man that I was ten years ago. I never went completely off the deep end but I had some dark times and therefore there is some darkness. Not spooky dark, just sad and angry shit.
AS:The title track, This Addiction, points out that love and addiction are the same things. You can be addicted to love or your relationship just like you can be addicted to heroin. What’s worse for you? Taking drugs or getting out of a bad relationship?
MS: Taking drugs you usually feel pretty good! Not to be pro-drug guy or anything but I will say I’m not anti-drug. I don’t do anything and everything, I pick my poison, but I also think that you need to moderate and you also need to handle your shit. I’m a kid 99% of the time, but there are also times, like now, where you gotta man up and have it together. I think even when you’re partying you should have it together. Losing someone, having someone die on you, having someone leave you, is a terrible process. I had a good friend of mine pass away, just as my marriage started to fall apart. Death and divorce are very similar feelings. One almost worse because it’s out of your control. One almost as worse because it is in your control. It depends on the person. You can’t compare grief. But whenever I’m confronted with some opposing force I always try and use it to my advantage. I never let it bring me down too deep.
AS: Well I’m sorry to hear that.
MS: I’m good. I’m good now!
AS: Good! Recently SuicideGirls put up an interview with Dita Von Teese…
MS: Nice, I’m a fan, she’s a sexy lady!
AS: She is a sexy lady! Anyway, in the interview she kind of gave her recipe for getting over a breakup. So do you have one? Since you’re all good now?
MS: I think drinking beer in the movies by yourself a lot is good. I think doing fun, spontaneous things is good. Rather than sitting around feeling sorry for yourself take your new freedom and run with it. Go explore. Have fun. It’s hard to get out of bed sometimes, but you have to understand that there’s going to be a light at the end of the tunnel and rather than walking towards it you should start running towards. Enjoy your life while you have it. So alcohol at the movies, solo, is a good one. That worked good for me. I was there a lot. Beer bottles clanking and stuff. I have a couple of really good friends that were there for me when I was having a rough time. I was on tour and my band mates were always there to yank me out of my bunk and force me to gallivant with them. We were all going through weird things at a certain time and we were all there for each other. You just gotta find yourself again, on your own. I love spending time by myself. I never yell at myself, I never get mad at myself if I’m late. Well, if I miss the previews I might be a little pissed [laughs] but if you can learn to love being solo again, that’s the key. And I think moving on as quickly as you can is good, but definitely not jumping into something else real quick. Have fun and hang out with people but also hang out with yourself. With beer. At the movies.  
AS: Did you make any resolutions for 2010?
MS: No! I’m doing the exact opposite. I’m going to do more of everything. If something’s affecting me negatively I just stop then and there. I don’t wait for the New Year to stop. But 2010 is going to be a good one. It’s going to be a party.
AS: Amen! Good luck on tour and congratulations on the record. Thanks so, so much for talking to SuicideGirls. Have a great day.
MS: Thanks, love!
Alkaline Trio’s seventh studio album, This Addiction comes out February 23rd on Epitaph Records/Heart & Skull. A full U.S. tour with indie rockers Cursive begins on February 16th. Check Alkaline Trio’s official MySpace for dates.

Tattoos are great...when they're well thought out. If you don't think ahead and do something you later want to get undone, you'll endure a lot of pain. Don't look at this if you don't like watching shows like CSI:NY. *spoilers* more

Tattoos are great...when they're well thought out.

If you don't think ahead and do something you later want to get undone, you'll endure a lot of pain.

Don't look at this if you don't like watching shows like CSI:NY.

There is an art to talking about Lost. You can't be too specific, for two reasons. One, the producers of the show aren't going to give anything away. Two, fans really don't want spoilers. We just want to discuss the complex metaphysical possibilities of the time traveling island of flashbacks... more

There is an art to talking about Lost. You can't be too specific, for two reasons. One, the producers of the show aren't going to give anything away. Two, fans really don't want spoilers. We just want to discuss the complex metaphysical possibilities of the time traveling island of flashbacks and flash forwards.

Damon Lindelof, the creator and show runner of Lost, is quite good at cultivating extended discussions without ever spoiling anything. As the man who came up with the ultimate six year plan for the show, and set an end date so the story would maintain the perfect momentum, Lindelof knows exactly what information he wants to be public.

There's plenty to analyze too. It's not just what's going to happen next? It's "what does this mean?" The history of Lost characters' lives, as we've seen in flashbacks, and their actions throughout the five seasons on the island, are morally ambiguous to start. Often, the show reveals that they didn't even do what you thought they did so you've been thinking about it wrong the whole time.

See how you can get caught up in vague Lost talk? Lindelof has been a giving spokesperson throughout the show's run. Even at other events, he addressed important Lost issues. Even on the picket lines outside of Disney studios during the Writer's Guild of America strike of two years ago, Lindelof would speak to press and address what a strike meant for the show (he wasn't able to stop ABC from airing the shortened season, but he was able to keep the fourth season to a tight 14 episodes.)

Now for the big finish. Lost's final season begins February 2 and it's so secret, they're not even showing footage in the TV previews. The final season premiere is so important that President Obama gave his State of the Union address last week to avoid conflicts. Lindelof gave a press conference to television reporters from across the nation, deftly avoiding specifics while giving thoughtful analysis to the issues the show must resolve in its remaining 18 hours.

Q: So you had a plan the whole time. Did you always have Ben moving the island, or did that develop later?


DL: Starting basically between the first and second season was when we started to cook the deeper mythology of the island, started talking about the physics of the island, how the island worked, why no one could find the island, who had been on the island before, what was The Others' story, how long had they been there, In those conversations, we started talking about the wheel, the idea that the island was moving not just through space but also through time and then the question just became when were we going to use that device? I do feel like we always knew we were going to do time travel on the show and we were setting that up as early as the second season.

Q: Has that been the most hotly debated jump the shark issue?

DL: Sure. I think that the show has probably jumped the shark at least a dozen times now. Fortunately for us as storytellers but unfortunately for a mainstream audience, yes, absolutely. There was a time when there were 23 million people watching Lost. That time has passed. Every time that this show takes a risk, declares itself more overtly, there are going to be people who say, 'I wasn't watching the show about time travel. I don't like that show. I don't want to watch this anymore.' We have to tell the story that we're committed to and hopefully the audience will stick with us but we can't really compromise that.

Q: But those people still watching are more passionate than ever. Does that count as much to the networks as ratings?

DL: I do feel like we are in a network climate where shows like Chuck or Friday Night Lights can survive and thrive with minimal audience but a tremendous amount of passion not just from the fans but also from you guys. I do feel like what the critical response is really makes a difference in advancing the patina of a network. People like Steve, as easy as this is for me to say because he's my boss, genuinely care about quality. It's great if you have both but sometimes they'll settle for one or the other.

Q: Does merchandising like DVD sets help?

DL: Sure, obviously for Lost the economic model of syndication doesn't really exist because you can watch an episode of Friends or an episode of Law & Order and just drop in but you're not going to in the middle of season four episode five of Lost. It's like picking up a Harry Potter book and flipping to a chapter. You have to read it beginning to end. So the DVDs I think have probably been a very profitable business for them and the brand itself has probably helped us as well.

Q: What series finales do you love and admire?

DL: I think that The Shield was a phenomenal series finale and certainly Newhart is one of my favorites, but my all time favorite series finale is MASH. I remember watching that with my folks. I remember everybody on our street was watching it. I remember Hawkeye basically saying, 'It was a baby! It wasn't a chicken, it was a baby!' And how emotional it was when the chopper finally lifted off and Klinger stayed behind. That's stuff that has stayed with me for my life and I do feel like to end the show that people still care about and to give the characters incredibly fulfilling resolutions, MASH is really the sort of pinnacle of something that we're trying to achieve. That being said, it wasn't a mystery show so we've got to kind of answer all our mysteries and give the audience those satisfying character conclusions so I'd like to say for the record that our degree of difficulty is very high.

Q: You got your end date and you've been planning your ending. Now how will you feel if people don't like it?

DL: Fortunately for us, we've been talking about how the show's going to end since Steve gave us an end date three years ago, so we really have no excuse to say anything other than this is the ending that we wanted to do on the terms that we wanted to do it. We didn't have to go two seasons too long. We've had a lot of time to think about it. Now there is certainly a hope on all our parts that everybody sort of universally loves the ending that we put forward. I don't think it would be Lost if there wasn't sort of an ongoing and active debate amongst the people who watch the show as to whether or not it was a good ending. If I could put on my predicting hat, there would be people over here who say it's the worst ending in the history of television, and hopefully to balance them out, my mom who will say it's the best ending, although she doesn't understand the show.

Q: What are your feelings as this comes to an end?

DL: You know, personally, I'm just feeling a tremendous amount of gratitude and the idea that we're getting to end something while anybody still cares and while we still kind of love each other as opposed to everybody saying, "It's about time." This is sort of a once-in-a-lifetime or once-in-a-career experience for a show that's still performing, for the network to allow us to end it is a tremendous gift. As I was walking onto the stage, I was sort of experiencing a sense of "I can't believe they're going to actually let us get away with this," so gratitude.

Q: You've said before that the last season will be a lot more like the first than it's been lately. Can you explain any more about what you mean by that?

DL: You know, for us, there's an inherent process when you're ending something to sort of be thinking about the beginning as writers, and in fact, the story of the sixth season very specifically has to go back to the beginning to examine a lot of things. I think one of the things is when you basically say, here is where our character started, when we first met them and here is where they've come to. If you think about a character like Sawyer or a character like Kate, this guy was basically the sheriff of the Dharma Initiative in 1977, and if you had said that that was going to be his eventual path five years ago, it would have sounded like the most ridiculous thing, but you take him there one step at a time.

Q: Looking back, was it really vital that you not tell the actors what was going to happen to their characters in advance?

DL: I think if we had called Terry [O'Quinn] during the shooting of "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," which is around the sixth episode of the last season, and said, "Hey, Terry, we do not want to confuse you, but the Locke that you are now playing on the island is not actually John Locke anymore, because thousands and thousands of years ago..." He'd say, "Stop." But instead you put in the script, "There's something about Locke that's different," and Terry plays something about Locke that's different. You keep it simple and you trust your actors, and it's worked out pretty marvelously for us.

Q: Quite simply, what are your most memorable moments over the past six years?

DL: There's a bridge that basically connects where the writers work on the Disney lot to where the ABC executive offices are. We start writing the show in the summertime, so usually in around June or July, Carlton [Cuse] and I have to walk across this bridge and meet with [ABC programming executive] Steve [McPherson] and a group of ABC executives to basically present to them what we're going to be doing the following season on Lost. There's a progression of bridge walks starting with, "Okay, we're finally going to tell them what's in the hatch." And last year, Carlton and I, I remember turning to each other and going, "Is there any other way to say 'time travel' without saying 'time travel'? Can we say 'moving through time' or 'the juxtaposition of story?'" But every time we'd get over there and have that meeting, the sort of reception that we got and the faith that we received - I know it sounds like it's blatant ass-kissing to say - but again, when you look at the 104 hours of [it]Lost that you've already seen, the things that we've been able to do on the show is pretty incredible, so I think about that stuff.

Q: How happy were you that President Obama moved up his State of the Union address to avoid your premiere?

DL: What's amazing is you realize how fickle your political affiliation is. I'm a lifelong Democrat, but when I first heard that they were considering February 2nd, I was like, "That motherfucker." Being honest.

Q: What kind of legacy do you think Lost will leave behind for television?

DL: We talk about what we think the legacy of the show will be, and it will probably be two things. There will be a legacy that in the week after the finale airs, people will be talking about I think just the finale. It's almost impossible to have any perspective on the 125 hours that preceded the finale. In the same way, we were talking about The Sopranos finale the other day. We were basically like, "I think A.J. was going to be in the army and then he wasn't going to be in the army," but we remember every shot of the diner scene, and of course, the cut to black. But then as time goes on, you think about The Sopranos as a series as opposed to just the finale. There will be kind of two separate legacies, and all that we can hope for is that the legacy that really matters, the one about the series is that people really feel like the experience of watching Lost was incredibly rewarding and that they're really happy that they dedicated all that time and energy to the show.

Lost airs Tuesdays at 9 on ABC starting Feb. 2.

Hulkamania is still running wild. In the '80s, the wrestler with 24" pythons told his young fans to train, say their prayers and eat their vitamins. In the '90s, he tried being a bad guy but everybody still loved Hulk Hogan. Now we know the intimate details of his family and divorce, thanks... more

Hulkamania is still running wild. In the '80s, the wrestler with 24" pythons told his young fans to train, say their prayers and eat their vitamins. In the '90s, he tried being a bad guy but everybody still loved Hulk Hogan. Now we know the intimate details of his family and divorce, thanks to VH1's Hogan Knows Best.

You never needed to follow wrestling to know who Hulk Hogan was. The persona of the red and gold bandana, tearing his shirt off in the ring and holding his hand to his ear to hear the applause wowed stadium crowds and television audiences. Hulkamania was a bigger phenomenon though, extending to movies, animated series and action figures.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling just signed Hogan to join their league, the only remaining threat to Vince McMahon's WWE empire. Hogan is a business partner with TNA owner Dixie Carter, but in wrestling, nobody is behind the scenes. He appears on camera for televised events and he's got big plans for TNA. He even spoke out against McMahon's stable in a press conference to the Television Critics Association.

"My philosophy is different than the WWE model where Vince McMahon will ride someone until they drop," Hogan siad. "He will shoot him and eat him. What I believe is if you can bring someone older to the table that has wisdom, that's established, that the young guys can get the rub off, there's no reason just to shoot them and eat them. Keep them around. Make them work. Make the transition. It's got to be a graceful transition. Nothing has to be edgy and personal and pull the carpet out from under people. There's a way to make all of this work, but the focus has to be on the future, and that's one of the things that has to happen. That's the biggest mistake that Vince McMahon made."

Hogan can work an audience of one as expertly as he can a conference of hundreds or a crowd of thousands. Walking down the hallway of Pasadena's Langham hotel, the still buff muscles of Hogan filled up considerably more than half the hall space. He kept his shirt on, and it was a black tank top instead of the old school gold one, but when he wrapped one of those guns around this reporter, it was Hulk's ultimate blessing of comfort and power.

Suicide Girls: You're not afraid to say what you really think of Vince.

Hulk Hogan: Oh, nothing but good things.

SG: But about how he's run things. You took a stand.

HH: I'm very opinionated about it because I was there so long, we've always been at odds. I never thought, like The Big Boss Man, a policeman character should be a bad guy. I never thought that a clown should be evil. I just don't believe that going against the grain is always the right way to go.

SG: What about the Gobledy Gooker? What was up with that?

HH: Dude, I don't know. I don't want to go there, brother.

SG: How do you think TNA has survived the domain that Vince McMahon's had on wrestling?

HH: I think they've got everything they need. They've got great talents. That ring that they have has provided a quick look see for people that weren't ready for that kind of really fast paced over the top robotic action. I think they've done a great job with storylines. They've survived, under all odds, and they've made a statement. They're here to stay so I just think they do a lot of things right with a lot of talent.

SG: What are your thoughts on TNA's hexagon shaped ring?

HH: I just want to destroy it and get rid of it. Wrestling was meant to be in a squared circle, brother. Not in an oversized playpen.

SG: Is this the new black shirt Hulk Hogan? Is red and gold gone forever?

HH: Nah, brother, it's not gone forever. This is just to let people know I made the transition. I'm a businessman now and I'm not going to do the ear thing and jump in the ring, tear the shirt and wrestle. I want everybody to know that I'm very, very serious about doing business so it's kind of like the black tie look for Hulk Hogan.

SG: It means so much to me that you call me brother. How do you maintain that sincerity when you call everybody brother?

HH: I'm horrible with names. I can never remember anybody's name so I give everybody nicknames like brother. Or Kevin Kay the head man [of Spike TV] I call Kev.

SG: Are you still about prayers, training and eating vitamins?

HH: Oh yeah, yeah. That stuff works. It's been proven over a period of time that all those positive things attract more positive things. It's like misery loves company. Whatever level you're vibrating on, you attract the same so why wouldn't you want to be training, saying your prayers and eating your vitamins.

SG: Where are you in your spiritual journey now?

HH: Probably more intense than I've been in a long time because the ultimate goal is to totally clean up all your thoughts. You have that little ping pong game between a lot of great thoughts and every once in a while you'll get a worry, fear thought. I'm really working on that but it's proved to be the only law to live by.

SG: Have you adopted any new teachings to help you on your path?

HH: No, I'm pretty much on the same line, working with the same set of rules, staying positive, just attracting other good stuff.

SG: Has your family adopted it with you?

HH: Yes, Brooke and Nick are way on the team.

SG: How are they all doing?

HH: Good, good. Brooke's back with me in Florida and I spent most of the day with Nick yesterday, but I had to get him a Z-Pak. He's getting really sick, kind of like the flu, so he's having fun in California but he wants to come back to Florida too. Everything's going great with my family.

SG: We're seeing new Mark McGwire stories. Why are steroids still an issue? Doesn't everybody know better?

HH: It seems like they would. Common sense usually goes a long way. Now that all these guys have been reeducated, it seems like they would have kind of gotten it. I know I feel better being down to my ninth grade weight, 285 lbs, than being 320-330 lbs. I don't know why they are still debating over yes or no.

SG: You got here early to do press. Did you have time to work out this morning?

HH: Mm-mm. I'm going back over to Santa Monica to meet Nick, and my son and I are going to go work out because we didn't train yesterday because he's really sick.

SG: Well, you have to give your body time to heal.

HH: Especially at my age.

SG: You've done movies, American Gladiators and reality TV, but have you found wrestling is really where you belong?

HH: It's instinct. It's in my blood. It's what I know. After the last couple years where there was such an upheaval in my life, I didn't know what was going to happen or what I was going to do, it kind of feels good to get back to the dance.

SG: Even though you're a businessman, in wrestling that's still part of the story, isn't it?

HH: Oh, of course. Of course, but it's also what's really going on with this company and with me and my contribution is I am participating on a business level so it's the real deal.

SG: What storylines are you excited about for TNA?

HH: The ones I'm going to make you watch because I'm not going to tell you because you'll tell everybody.

SG: What did you think of the movie The Wrestler?

HH: I thought Mickey Rourke did a great job. I think it was kind of taken out of context because it's just representative of a very small percentage of just a couple guys in the business because most of the guys that I know that are in the twilight of their career that are working high schools on the weekends are making $3000-4000 a weekend doing great. They're not diving to their death at the end of the match.

SG: What was interesting was how it showed all the camaraderie and respect, even between performers who were antagonists in the ring.

HH: Yeah, well, when you trust someone else with your body, you give me your body and trust me not to spike or break your neck, there's a certain amount of camaraderie that goes along with the trust.

SG: But you would never take a staple to the chest?

HH: Oh, of course I would. They told me it didn't hurt. I don't know if I believe them or not.

TNA Impact airs Thursdays at 9 on Spike TV.

(image) SuicideGirls were among the winners of the LA Weekly's 2009 Web Awards for being LA's Sexiest Site (but you already knew that right?). Missy and Radeo braved the chubby rain to pick up SG's plaque at a soiree held at Bardot on Thursday night. Other winners in SuicideGirls's... more

SuicideGirls were among the winners of the LA Weekly's 2009 Web Awards for being LA's Sexiest Site (but you already knew that right?).

Missy and Radeo braved the chubby rain to pick up SG's plaque at a soiree held at Bardot on Thursday night. Other winners in SuicideGirls's extended family included SG columnist Wil Wheaton, who won Best Personal Blog, and SG photographer Zoetica and designer Courtney Riot, who picked up Coilhouse's award for LA's Best Designed Site Aesthetic.

Hit our photo gallery for more images from the night.

Thanks to the LA Weekly's Erin Broadley for organizing and hosting the event -- and for making sure the open bar was open as soon as we arrived.