Christian Sparkes

Broadcast Date: June 24, 2020

Our chats will be just that very conversational, not entirely sensible and with any luck totally enjoyable… And even though it’s been nearly 7 years since I last sat down for a chat with today’s guest – I knew it was going to be fun. That last interview was at the 2014 Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax when his debut feature the phenomenal CAST NO SHADOW swept every major category including the award for Best Director and Best Picture. And now that his fantastic follow-up film HAMMER is available to stream or digitally download – we had plenty of ground to cover – including the rave reviews he’s been receiving like – “Well crafted suspense” with “constant escalation” from Variety and “tense knuckle-biting plot twists” from The Hollywood Reporter. Indeed Bay Bulls, NL-born, writer-director Christian Sparkes has a hit on his hands – so we’ll talk about how that feels and so much more – including the long path from page to picture, how his family has been the foundation of his creativity, and how his approach to filming as evolved since his first feature. Plus we’ll talk about his incredible lead actors – revered character actor Will Patton and NL’s own Mark O’Brien (who’ll chime in on the project too.) We’ll even squeeze in a fun round of 1st Things First and some of the filmmaker’s favourite soundtrack cuts as well. So with all that ahead we best get to it – here’s my telephone conversation with the one and only Christian Sparkes (you’ll find the player at bottom of the post)

You can stream/download HAMMER on many platforms by clicking here.

For the full scoop on HAMMER follow them on Instagram @hammerthemovie on Facebook @HammerTheMovie2020 and on Twitter @HammerTheMovie and for a complete list of cast and crew check out their page on IMDb here. You can check out the trailer here…

You can watch my first interview with Christian Sparkes back in 2014 at the Atlantic International Film Festival here.

Christian appeared in part 1 of our AFF 2014 special along with star & BEST ACTOR AWARD WINNER Percy Hynes White, and co-star and BEST SCREENPLAY AWARD WINNER Joel Thomas Hynes. You can check out the trailer here…

You can listen to our full interview with HAMMER’s star Mark O’Brien here.

You can find out more on that Vancouver band CUB that Christian was talking about by clicking here.

We played some great music on the show and all the tracks are available on iTunes – to get your own copy just click on the Title – 2001: A SPACE ODESSEY (main title) by the London Theatre Orchestra, “Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead” by Joel Thomas Hynes, “Gayane Ballet Suite: Adagio” by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra (sorry for calling it ‘The Wheel Song’,) “Diamond Dust” by Mick Davis

For more on actor Will Patton check out his IMDb page here.