Today’s guest is Aaron Lipstadt, best known from the mid-80’s onwards as a director on popular TV shows like MIAMI VICE, QUANTUM LEAP, LAW & ORDER, CROSSING JORDAN, THE 4400, BOSCH or ELEMENTARY. As a producer/director, he also worked on shows like THE MARSHAL, THE DIVISION, MEDIUM and GRIMM.
In our interview, however, we go back to the beginning of Aaron’s career – to an independent little science-fiction gem called ANDROID, which came out in 1982 and was compared by film critic Roger Ebert to cult debut films like George Lucas’ THX 1138 and John Carpenter’s DARK STAR. ANDROID was produced by Roger Corman and starred Klaus Kinski as a mad scientist working on a life-like robot called Max. The android was played by Don Opper, who also co-wrote the screenplay and then, a few years later, became a cult figure as bounty hunter Charlie in the CRITTERS series. In our conversation, Aaron recalls how he learned the ropes at Roger Corman’s company and how ANDROID came together, he discusses working with Kinski, talks about the ideas and themes of the movie and much more. Aaron also discusses his follow-up film CITY LIMITS, a post-apocalyptic action picture that, as he says, almost killed his career – and he recalls how he became involved with television directing, starting with an episode of MIAMI VICE.
The interview was conducted in connection with our German-language podcast Lichtspielplatz, so if you speak German, please check out our episode #63, which features an in-depth discussion of ANDROID. Also, make sure to listen to my interview with Barry Opper, the producer of ANDROID and CRITTERS, which will be released shortly here on Talking Pictures.
So without any further ado, here’s Aaron Lipstadt!
The mp3 file can be downloaded HERE.
Photo courtesy of Aaron Lipstadt
Thanks to Dr. Wily, my Lichtspielplatz podcasting partner for audio editing. The music was created by Clark Kent.
