Here’s a quick video update on ‘Will’ and also on, the mysteriously titled, ‘Project X’.

Apologies for the poor quality. I’ll try to tweak that for the next one. Maybe CockCam® guy was right…

Well it’s been a while since I last updated the site so here’s a quick recap of what’s been happening…

Back in November last year, I finally released my short film ‘Change‘ online. It was a very challenging film to make for a whole heap of reasons but thanks to the hard work and dedication of the cast and crew, it’s a film that I hope everyone is proud to have been a part of. The feedback for the film has been overwhelmingly positive:

“outstanding”, “brilliant and contained”, “impressive”, “thought provoking”, “fantastic”, “moving”, “did in 10 minutes what Hollywood can’t in 120″

You can make up for your own mind by viewing the video below.

Around the same time, I launched the Easy Tiger Films website. Neil, Ray and myself have been making films together for 10 years. In fact, Neil directed me in ‘Zero Tolerance’, the first short film I did after graduating from Redroofs. As time has gone on, we’ve worked together on a number of different projects under various banners and decided that it made more sense to have a single identity moving forward. Why re-invent the wheel every time?

Under the Easy Tiger brand, we’ll continue working individually and collectively to produce web content, short films and feature films. Don’t expect any fluffy kitten videos, though. The unofficial tagline for Easy Tiger is “We make films where people die. Sometimes they’re already dead so we kill them again. It’s nothing personal.”

Since the last update, ‘Stag Night of the Dead‘ got picked up for US distribution as well as Australia & New Zealand. The film still gets regular TV viewings in the UK on the Horror Channel and it always amuses me when I read peoples feedback on Twitter. There’s no doubt about it. SNOTD really is a Marmite movie – you either love it or you hate it. One of my favourite quotes recently was “I tried watching SNOTD and now feel I’ve inflicted serious damage on my cerebral cortex”

I’ve finally managed to import all the old blog posts and comments from my other blog. Don’t worry, I didn’t spend two years doing it! It was just one of those “Eureka!” moments. Anyway, there’s more of my shit incisive writing for you to read on here now.

Talking of writing, since we last met I’ve written a shit-ton of stuff and one of the projects is coming to fruition. I’m looking to make my next short film ‘Will’ in the Autumn. I’ll be covering this in more depth, along with a video, in my next post [Note to self: Must make video] and I’ll also be looking to import some of my other online stuff into this site.

I’ve been publishing online in various guises since the mid 90′s and have covered the whole business of having multiple online personas before. Well now I’m looking at putting it all together in one Mike sized chunk.

Will I be including and, therefore, “outing” a certain individual who gained something of a cult following back in the mid-noughties? Probably not although I miss him and I wish he’d start writing again but I know he’d be unhappy with being unmasked.

Finally, my pal Mark Sanger won an Oscar back in March for ‘Gravity’. That means that I have now appeared alongside an Oscar award winning actor, been shot by an Oscar award winning cinematographer and directed by an Oscar award winning tall bloke. Add to that, I’ve appeared in a film where we knocked back an Oscar award winning actress who asked if she could be an extra.

It’s a funny old world.

So it’s October and I’ve decided to give the website a bit of a redesign. The old one was looking a bit tired and I hadn’t updated it for a while so figured now was as good a time as any.

If you visited the old site, you’ll have noticed a few changes and tweaks to the layout and functionality. One thing that will be glaringly obvious is that the News section has been rebranded as Blog. It’s not just a renaming but it’ll also mean no more pretending that someone else is doing all the updates by writing in the third person. Well, apart from the stuff on the front page…

The plan is that I’ll be updating the blog more regularly with news about the projects I’m working on as well as blog posts about films, the industry in general and maybe the occasional rant about the price of cheese. It’ll be a bit like my Twitter feed only with more than 140 characters.

Hey! Haven’t I heard that somewhere before?

Yes. Yes you have. On my other blog which I was originally going to move over here until WordPress decided to play silly buggers and not import all the comments. That’s one of the reasons why this site looks very similar to the other one. The other is the fact I’m a lazy bugger and just copied the theme.

Over the next few days I’ll be writing a new blog post about ‘Change’, the short film I’ve written and will be shooting in November. Until then, hope you like the new site and don’t forget to subscribe by clicking on the links over to your left.

The Danger Man fan film mentioned a few months back is now available to watch online at YouTube.

From the YouTube channel: A fan film tribute to the ITC series Danger Man based upon an original story (but unfilmed) by Philip Broadley.

The film features Patrick Freeman, Kit Benjamin, Clifford Allison, Mike Aherne, Rez Kempton and Scott Smith. Oh and Mike, of course.

This weekend saw Mike shooting a fan film tribute to the ITC series Danger Man. Shot on location at the beautiful Mansion House in Old Warden Park, the film is based on an original story by Philip Broadley which was never filmed for the 1960′s TV show.

Mike plays the part of Chambers, a secret service agent from M9, who is witness to the assassination of a Russian spy.

The film will be available online soon.

In other news, ‘Stag Night of the Dead’ was released in America last month and is available to buy on Amazon and download on iTunes.

It’s been a long time coming but ‘Hardcore: Bare Naked Talent’ has now been released in the UK on DVD and is available to buy on Amazon right now.

The film was shot back in 2005 and was initially released in 2008. However there seem to have been some problems with the original distribution which meant the film was taken out of circulation until now.

Mike plays the part of Randolph Gerbles, an offbeat European cinematographer who has a very unusual approach to shooting films and a very minimalistic approach to clothing.

You can read a review of the film here: Hardcore: A Poke into the Adult Film Orifice. The film also features Bruce Lawrence, James G Fain and Angela Bull from ‘Stag Night of the Dead’ which, incidentally, had its UK TV premiere Friday 13th on the Horror Channel.

Two regular guys. Two fantastic charities. One tough mudder funking challenge.

My nephew, Nick Pople, and his good friend Jack Yarrow are taking on quite possibly the toughest obstacle course you can imagine. Described as the premier adventure challenge series in the world, this 12 mile course separates the men from the boys:

Tough Mudder events are hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle courses designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie.

The pair of them are a couple of beer monsters. I know this having sat in on a couple of sessions with them! However, unlike a lot of lads of their age, they’re both getting off their arses and preparing themselves for what will be a grueling test of endurance and character.

Why are they doing this?

Because the charities they’re raising money for are dear to both of their hearts.

The two charities are Help for Heroes and the Bobath Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy. Nick served his country with pride and did a tour of Iraq when he was just 19 years old. Jack has a sister called Sarah with cerebral palsy who is one of the loveliest girls you’ll ever meet.

I’m proud to be supporting them both and I hope you’ll join me too in sponsoring these two young lads raising money for good causes.

Just the thought of attempting the course brings me out in a cold sweat. To both of you – Nick and Jack – I salute you.

Stag Night of the Dead is finally available to buy on DVD. It is available to purchase through a number of stores. Full details on the link below:

Buy Stag Night of the Dead

‘Stag Night of the Dead’ was announced as the Best Film at the Newport International Film Festival. Mike was there with director Napoleon Jones to accept the award.

Iver Heath Cricket Club was formed in 1947 by a bunch of alcoholics looking for something to do when the pubs used to shut on a Sunday afternoon. Sixty four years on and we’re still boozing!

We’re looking for new players to join our Sunday social cricket team.

Key requisites are:

• The ability to drink your own bodyweight in beer
• A photographic memory to recall outrageous umpiring decisions from years ago in order to bare long term grudges
• A sense of humour to enable you to take part in our sledging. Note: we never sledge the opposition, only our own players
• Cricketing ability would be nice too although not essential as we don’t want you showing any of us up!

We’re a friendly team who play our cricket hard but in the right spirit. The most important thing is everyone gets a game and has a good beer and a laugh afterwards.

We play our home games at the picturesque Farnham Royal ground which is between Beaconsfield and Slough and play on some of the nicest grounds in the Home Counties. Most of our players live in the West London area so can provide lifts if you don’t have a car.

Our season runs from mid April to the end of September with pre-season nets at the MCC Indoor School at Lord’s Cricket Ground.

So if you’re looking for a game of cricket on a Sunday and a few beers, drop us a line and we’ll sort something out.