Oct 31, 2008 02:19 PM
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The Mighty Hercules and Andromeda Captain, Kevin Sorbo, has a new mission: escape the evil secret society whose head hitman he used to be. In his new movie The Illuminati, Sorbo gets to kick a little ancient secret society butt, and dabble with all sorts of deadly weaponry. We got a chance to pick Sorbo's brain about his fancy electrified dragon armor, and how breeding with reptiles can build you a super race.
The Illuminati has not started shooting yet, but there are already plans for a tie-in comic. Manifest Games has started work on the book and it will premiere at the 2009 Comic Con. The movie itself is being directed by David Winning (Stargate: Atlantis, Earth:Final Conflict) and the original screenplay was penned by Mark Sevi.
So you play the top assassin for The Illuminati group. Can you tell us more about your character? What's he like? What's his back story?
As the story opens, my character, Thomas Mant, is an elite warrior, bred to be one thing: a killer. He's trained in all forms of martial arts and weaponry, and has no emotion when it comes to carrying out orders that he's given by a secret group determined to rule the world called The Illuminati. Mant is a Prime 12 which means he's achieved the highest rank one of these warriors can achieve. Mant's lack of emotion is due to a horrifying process known as "partitioning," done to him when he was very young — he really has no choice but to be what he is. But that all changes when — in an attempted internal coup and betrayal within the Illuminati — he finds himself fighting his mentor and the partitioning begins to break down. Mant is still an elite warrior, but he's now on the run and as his partitioning continues breaking down, he's forced to confront his "human" side. He's discovering all the things about himself that have been pushed into the dark parts of his mind. Some of the script deals with his early training and how brutal that was. In remembering it, processing the horror, he struggles to move beyond it. But awareness comes with a toll. I won't say more beyond that.
This Illuminati group sounds really interesting what is this society all about and how is it science fiction?
The Illuminati is an actual secret society that was formed in Bavaria in the 1700's — and its mission was to form a New World Order. A lot of stuff happened, and they caused a lot of upheaval and the Society of The Illuminati was eventually banned by the government of Bavaria. But still today, many around the world completely believe the Society went underground and survived and still exists, and operates as a shadow government controlling world events. One of the leading world Illuminati experts is a consultant on our movie. The scary thing about a conspiracy theory is you can never prove it... yet, you can never disprove it either. So is there still an actual Illuminati still secretly controlling world events? Was a splinter cell passed down generation to generation through certain "bloodlines"? We don't know? But for our movie — we take the theory at face value and plunge headlong into this world — and it's really really interesting and scary stuff.
It's serious sci fi — in fact as I like to say: "real sci fi" in that the Illuminati created many technologies we don't currently have — like virtual mind-to-mind communication, intensive assassin training using psyops techniques, futuristic weaponry, and many things that would be considered science fiction today. The cool thing here is all the technologies in this script are extrapolated from real life technologies — like Dragon Skin armor — there really is such a thing. Of course, it's not electrified — like in the movie — or anything, but who really knows what the military has that they're developing? Charged armor that repels bullets and blades isn't impossible. It's probably right around the corner. In fact, everything in The Illuminati is "right around the corner". Again — grounded in reality — but not here just quite yet. That's what makes it good science fiction.
I read that there are a lot of human/extraterrestrial back and forth, what kind of cool aliens will we be seeing? Will there be a lot of "creatures" and special effects, be it CG or makeup? Or is it more of a "bad guy in disguise" idea?
The "creatures" and the Illuminati warriors may be one and the same, and you're going to see some very cool stuff. One of the conspiracy theories is that at a certain point the Illuminati bred or mated with reptiles in order to develop a "super race" that highlighted the "reptilian" part of the brain — which, again, actually exists. In fact there is an actual term "Reptilian brain" which comes from the fact that a reptile's brain is dominated by the brain stem and cerebellum which controls instinctual survival behaviors and thinking. By mating with reptiles — the Illuminati possess that capability. So... the "creatures" again are based in reality — but that makes them all the more scary and cool. Other films and comics have played with this — but not like we do in the Illuminati — where we've created a world and "creatures" that again are futuristic and nothing you've seen before — but could be real. In certain situations the reptilian part of an Illuminati will take over and then the "creature" is forced to show itself — kind of like a werewolf — but different. And will our viewers see that? — yeah! But can't say more at this point.
Have you seen any of the art for the comic? What's your take?
Amazing. It will just knock you out. Again — it's very out there stuff that's never been seen or done — but what makes it so cool is that it's all grounded in reality — which makes it really scary. Is it real or isn't it? We just don't know. But the comic is just non-stop action and reveal after reveal — that's the thing about the world of The Illuminati -it's like those russian nesting dolls — just when you think you've got it figured out — a whole new layer emerges and everything you thought you knew — changes — and gets kicked up a whole new notch.
What can our readers expect from the Illuminati?
Exciting, intelligent serious sci fi action. Challenging concepts. A lot of fun. This has it all — really — I know people say that all the time, but this project is layered and rich in so many stunning concepts, and thrilling in any action sense you care to name. As a fan of this stuff, I can't wait for it. It's that good. It's plot, character and action driven — so it hits you on every level.
You've played so many big characters from Hercules on down, how will this assassin stand out from the past roles that you've worked on?
In a way — it's not like anything I've ever done before — which is one of the reasons I responded to it immediately. There's a real heavy emotional dramatic backstory to my character that is quite a journey and I'm really excited by that. Your going to see some shades and colors of me that I've never gotten to fully play before — all wrapped up in nonstop action of course — but there's a personal journey here that I've never done before, which I believe will stand out.
This next year will be Kevin Sorbo's first Comic Con experience (amazing he hasn't been before) and there will be a special Illuminati moment, where hopefully they will screen some Illuminati clips or trailers. We'll be sure and keep you guys posted.
Send an email to Meredith, the author of this post, at meredith@io9.com.
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