First look at Karen Gillan in Mike Flanagan’s 'Oculus'!

Here it is – the first official image from Mike Flanagan‘s horror-movie Oculus, which is currently in post-production. It’s a pretty good look at the leading lady Karen Gillan aka Kaylie Russell, who will have to prove that a terrible crime was committed by a supernatural phenomenon and not by her brother Tim, played by Brenton Thwaites. Check out the rest of this report to find more details about the whole thing, and to take a better look at this image!
Writer and director of micro-budget horror pic Absentia, Mike Flanagan, directs Oculus from a script he co-wrote with Jeff Howard which centers on:

…a murder that left two children orphans with authorities charging the brother while his sister believed that the true culprit was a haunted antique mirror. Now completely rehabilitated and in his 20s, the brother is ready to move on but his sister is determined to prove that the haunted mirror was responsible for destroying their family.

Beside Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites, the movie also stars Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, Annalise Basso and Garrett Ryan.

Source (including photo): FilmOFilia

Karen Gillan

 Karen Gillan on the set of Not Another Happy Ending.

Interview: Karen Gillan on Amy Pond, Doctor Who and Not Another Happy Ending
Roles in upcoming rom-com and horror drama Oculus
Source: The List
Date: 31 October 2012
Written by: Eddie Harrison

After she played Amy Pond in Doctor Who, many wondered what Karen Gillan would do next. Eddie Harrison speaks to the Inverness actor about making the leap to the big screen with her first lead role in Glasgow-set film Not Another Happy Ending

Even if you’ve been hiding behind your couch for the last few years, (and viewers of Doctor Who are well known for doing exactly that), Karen Gillan needs little introduction. Playing Amy Pond opposite Matt Smith in the BBC’s highest-rating drama, the Inverness girl has become a genuine household name. Now making the transition from television to feature films, she spent part of the summer of 2012 shooting Not Another Happy Ending, a romantic comedy developed by Scottish company Synchronicity Films.
‘Actually, this film came about because my director John McKay, back when I was working on television for We’ll Take Manhattan,’ said, “You’re really good at falling over, you should read this script,” and gave me Not Another Happy Ending. I suppose I am one of life’s naturally clumsy people, I don’t drop stuff all the time, or break things, but I’m just generally a bit flustered.’
In Not Another Happy Ending, Gillan plays Jane Lockhart, an author who has hit writer’s block after the success of her first novel.
‘The problem is she can only write when she’s a bit miserable, and she’s now a huge success,’ says Gillan. ‘So her publisher Tom [Stanley Webber] goes on this secret mission to make her life a misery, and it’s all about how their relationship develops.’
Playing the role gave Gillan the chance to immerse herself in the rom-com genre, and enjoy a crash course in the most romantic comedies in cinema history.
‘I watched in chronological order the greatest rom-coms of all time, starting with His Girl Friday, then The Apartment, which is amazing, and then I was naughty because I watched a later one because I couldn’t wait to see Manhattan, then back to Annie Hall and then When Harry Met Sally... what I took from seeing them all was just how important the chemistry is between the two lead actors.’
With Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, Woody Allen and Rob Reiner setting the bar high in terms of getting chemistry from their leads, Gillan’s viewing left her plenty to ponder, not least how to create the right kind of connection with her leading man.
‘How do you create chemistry? If only I knew that! Some people say it’s a natural thing that you have with someone, and maybe it is to do with that, but I think you can work on it. We’ve been so lucky with Stanley Webber, because he’s so spontaneous and inventive, so I have no idea what he’s going to do next.
‘I’m used to shooting at this momentum and pace from working on Doctor Who, so coming onto this film with the busy timeline we have feels quite natural. I was allowed to jump on the sofa if I wanted to, so I just did, because it just felt right in the moment. There’s lots of improvisation in the film, we spoke about it with the director, and came to the conclusion that it was better when it was just free, and things could just pop out.’
Gillan’s next project takes her to Los Angeles for a horror drama Oculus, but she’s setting her sights even higher: she’d like to appear in darker, more dramatic films, and says her dream is to work with the Austrian director of The White Ribbon and Hidden, Michael Haneke, whose 2001 film The Piano Teacher is Gillan’s own favourite film. But for now, she’s keen to keep developing her craft, and Not Another Happy Ending gives her the chance to expand her repertoire with a coveted leading role.
‘Acting is all about finding the truth within whatever world you’re in,’ she says. ‘You just have to keep it truthful, rather than all this heightened acting. These are things that I’ve learned from watching the episodes of Doctor Who, just learning how to pitch a scene, so that you felt that you were doing enough to give the audience what they want at that moment.
‘I watched all the episodes as they were airing. At first, when I saw myself, I really did cringe, but that’s how you learn and get better. Now, I feel like I understand acting so much more, I’ve learned so much from working on Doctor Who and that’s really coming into play on Not Another Happy Ending.’
Not Another Happy Ending is due for release in early 2013.
Source (including photo): The List

Karen Gillan: 'Oculus' wraps in Alabama

‘Oculus’, starring Katee Sackhoff & Karen Gillan, filming underway in Alabama
Karen Gillan and Katee Sackhoff are currently in Alabama for Oculus, a horror film about a woman who believes her family was killed by an antique mirror and not her brother who was charged with the crime.
The movie, which has only been filming in Baldwin and Mobile Counties for about three weeks, already celebrated their wrap party and will complete lensing on Saturday, according to Alabama Film.'

Karen recently took an impromptu road trip from Alabama to New Orleans with one of her other co-stars, Brenton Thwaites. She shared some of the adventure with her Twitter followers, writing, “Crazy night in new Orleans. Got back to the ritz by donkey. I love that sentence.”

Source: On Location Vacations

Karen Gillan: Big Issue interview

Karen Gillan: My New Frontier
Karen Gillan has seen off Daleks, killed Hitler and even taken Manhattan in her spare time. So what happens after Amy Pond? 

There will be floods of tears next week, as a nation’s children – and many of their parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins and neighbours – tune in to the last ever Doctor Who adventure to feature Amy Pond. Karen Gillan, the flame-haired, razor-sharp Scottish star is waving goodbye to one of the most coveted roles on British TV.

She will leave behind the Tardis, her ‘raggedy man’ Time Lord, and probably the only part she will ever play that involves her interacting with Adolf Hitler and Vincent van Gogh, being scared to blink lest she’s ravaged by sinister statues and discovering she has given birth to a corkscrew-haired time traveller old enough to be her mother.

Though her adventures with the Doctor have taken up the lion’s share of her time since she first stepped foot in the Tardis, ex-model Gillan has also found time to impress rebel Cockney photographer David Bailey, both with her gazelle-like legs and her acting.

Playing Bailey’s muse-mistress Jean Shrimpton, she was stunningly ’60s in BBC Four’s We’ll Take Manhattan. It gave a taste of the bright future for the 24-year-old once she says goodbye to Amy Pond.

I first meet her in Almeria, Spain, on the set of last weekend’s Wild West Doctor Who adventure. Karen is sitting at the piano of a saloon bar, regaling an empty room with showtunes. After following up her turn on the keys with a knees-up around the stage, she says that she’s always ready to bang out a tune, though she doesn’t guarantee that it’ll get the party started.

“I think I was playing a song from Fame,” she laughs. “I’m usually like the weirdo at a party who plays really depressing music. I really like Chopin. Dark stuff like that. My party piece? I have my own composition, which is an easy one to remember, so I always whip that one out, but everyone is like, ‘Mood killer!’”

Five months later and The Big Issue catches up with Karen again. She has completed her final Tardis scenes and is about to jet off to New York for a fancy screening in front of the increasingly obsessive US fans who will, she assures us “scream and cry”.

Her final moments on set have been teary too. “It was just so sad. The last scene we filmed was me, Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill just walking into the Tardis together,” she says. “It is insignificant in terms of the episode, but was so huge for us. It was dark inside and we just hugged. It was lovely. Then I milked it for all it was worth and cried.”

Fans will also be bereft, but Karen at least leaves Doctor Who on a high, and on her own terms. The new series has ditched the complex story arcs in favour of individual, self-contained weekly adventures, each with its own movie-style poster and redesigned logo (for the first the title was styled like a Dalek, for the second it was a dinosaur and so on) – and both viewers and critics are responding favourably. After a final run-in with the Weeping Angels in Manhattan, Karen’s character will never return.

“It will be a real shock to the system when I realise I am not in it any more,” she says. “But I knew what I was getting into when I took the job. This is a show in which the cast changes regularly and that is why it is so long-lasting. I am going to feel sad, but I have had a pretty good run in the companion role, which makes me happy. It is a weird thing to be leaving, but you never really leave the Doctor Who family.”

Having experienced as much variety as any TV role offers, she is now looking to the future, starting with an indie rom-com, a cop show spoof and a US horror film…

So how on earth do you follow Amy Pond – adventurer, time traveller, ass-kicker, memorably worth “at least two men”? Well, I feel like I’m prepared for all the possible genres after playing Amy. And I certainly want variety, that’s for sure. What I enjoy most about acting is being versatile. I like actors like Robin Williams, who can do crazy, absurd characters. I would love to be an actor like that. The one I am really getting into recently is Olivia Colman. She does Peep Show and is brilliant at comedy, but I just watched Tyrannosaur – oh my god! I was on a train going through the Highlands of Scotland crying my eyes out. I want to play character roles, generally. That is my main ambition.

Have you talked about your plans with your on-screen hubby, Arthur Darvill and with ‘Doctor’ Matt Smith? Yeah, we talk about all that stuff. We are very close. It is like having two brothers with Matt and Arthur – the two brothers I never had, because I’m an only child. So it is kinda nice for me.

So you were in Glasgow recently filming Not Another Happy Ending with Life on Mars director John McKay. A low-budget Scottish indie comedy – it is not the most obvious next step… I was just passionate about the script and the role. It all came from playing Jean Shrimpton in We’ll Take Manhattan last year with John. He said I’d be perfect for this role in his film Not Another Happy Ending – because I kept dropping stuff and falling over. It wasn’t a grand plan; it was in the pipeline for a long time and we shot it as soon as I was available. I didn’t know Glasgow that well, although my mum is from there, but I’ve fallen in love with it and want to settle down there. I just love the people – I laughed so much.

You’re playing a novelist – has it made you want to write a book? I don’t think I have a book in me, but I reckon I have a screenplay. No ideas yet, I just like the idea of writing a screenplay. Hopefully I will do that in the future.

You want to settle in Glasgow, then, but where is home for you right now? Cardiff? London? Inverness? I don’t have a house at the moment and I don’t really have a home city. All my possessions are in a storage unit in London. I have a suitcase with a few pieces of clothing, so I’m completely free and home is wherever I end up working, really, and at the moment that is the best feeling in the world. I don’t feel like I need any material possessions. I’m free. I love it so much and I’ve realised that it is quite liberating living without all your material possessions. I’m working in Alabama for the rest of the year, which will be cool, and we will have to see after that. I just go with the flow.

Alabama? Sounds intriguing… Yes! I’m so excited about Oculus. It’s a horror film about a brother and a sister, filming in Alabama. It’s all so varied, which is great, but I’m doing things that I really care about. I’m getting to do so many things I wanted to do, so I’m really happy.

Does this mean Hollywood is on the agenda? If there is good stuff over there for me to do, then yes, of course I would. But I don’t want to do something for the sake of working, if I’m not that into it. When I was about to start on Oculus, I got the script for Charlie Brooker’s A Touch of Cloth. We were able to move the dates forward so I could do that as well. It is really clever at the same time as being ridiculous. It is right up my street, comedy-wise, as we are playing it completely straight and intensely, even though what we are saying is utter nonsense. All those detective dramas we know so well, we will never be able to watch them quite the same again after this.

When you catch your breath, what do you think will you miss most about Doctor Who? Working with my best friends every day has been amazing. I am certainly going to miss getting to do all the Doctor Who acting. It is all quite high-octane... creatures to be running away from – I don’t know how often I’m going to be able to do that in my future jobs. Tennis balls on a stick pretending to be monsters, before the CGI, I won’t be doing much of that in the future. I remember in my first episode someone had written ‘the scrotum’ on the tennis ball, which was a little off-putting. That was a nice welcome!

How would you like Amy Pond to be remembered? I love this girl. I would be too scared to act like her, but I get this artistic licence playing her. I love her dry sarcasm, wit and grumpiness. I’m not a grumpy person. I want to see her go out in flames of glory, where we see her at her absolute best. I just want people to look back over the Pond era fondly. I have had the best years of my life on this show, hand on my heart…

Your last episodes have been described by writer Steven Moffat as his love letters to the Ponds – this sounds pretty terminal… That doesn’t necessarily mean death, but it will be very final. So, yeah, you are going to cry. I hope so, anyway. I like making you cry. That makes me happy…

Source: Big Issue


The Mirror says Karen's moving to Hollywood
The Daily Record says she's moved back to parents

Karen Gillan: 'Oculus' casting update

BSG’s Katee Sackhoff to play Karen Gillan’s mother
Katee Sackhoff is joining Oculus, the horror movie from Intrepid Pictures that already has cast Dr Who sidekick Karen Gillan in the lead role. 

The plot begins a decade after a terrifying family incident left two young children orphans. Although her brother was charged with murder, Kaylie (Gillan) is convinced a haunted antique mirror is the real perpetrator and years later wants to prove that the mirror was responsible for destroying their family. Sackhoff, who stars on A&E’s Longmire, will play Marie, the mother to a younger version of Kaylie. Director Mike Flanagan co-wrote the script with Jeff Howard, and FilmDistrict is distributing in the U.S.

Read more at Deadline

Also reported by The Mary Sue

Karen Gillan To Star In Horror Flick ‘Oculus’

While fans of Doctor Who will be saddened when Amy Pond bids her final goodbye to the Doctor, fans of Karen Gillan won’t have to wait too long before seeing her again – this time on the big screen. Variety reports that the actress has officially signed on to play the lead in the film ‘Oculus.’

Perhaps most known for her work on the beloved BBC series, horror fans may remember her from the indie film Outcast. She’s returning to the genre playing Kylie, a woman whose life was destroyed as a child after her parents were murdered and brother was convicted with the crime even though she’s convinced the crime was committed by a supernatural force.

Here’s a short synopsis of the film:

Oculus tells the story of Tim and Kylie Russel, siblings reunited for the first time since a brutal murder-suicide shattered their family and their childhoods. Institutionalized for most of his life, Tim has come to terms with the tragedy that befell his parents, but Kylie is convinced that the strange, ornate mirror that hung in her father’s study had a supernatural influence over the violent events. Now she’s tracked the mirror down to an auction house basement and is determined to prove the truth about its powers both to her brother and to the world. As she does, the past bleeds into the present, the ghosts of their childhood are awakened, and they must confront the truth about their shared past at the risk of their sanity…or maybe even their lives.

Oculus is based on the award winning short film of the same name that was written by Mike Flanagan (Absentia) and Jeff Seidman. Flanagan will helm the feature version of his film which is being produced and financed by Intrepid Pictures. For an idea of what Oculus may be like, I’ve included the trailer for the short film below.

Production is slated to begin in the next few months in Alabama and as of yet, no release date has been given.

Oculus Short Film Trailer:

Source: ScienceFiction

Also reported by -
Variety
Brutal As Hell
Radio Times
Daily Record
BBC
... and many others!