About Entertainment – Magazine – Double trouble

About Entertainment – Magazine –

Corden and Horne are joined by Paul McGann in the fight against the vampires

It’s hard to escape Gavin and Stacey stars James Corden and Mathew Horne at the moment.

As well as a new BBC Three sketch show, Horne’s West End role in Entertaining Mr Sloane, and Corden’s turn on Comic Relief, the comedy duo star in the film Lesbian Vampire Killers.

Corden and Horne play two no-hopers who go on a hiking holiday and find themselves stuck in a village where the women have been enslaved by a vampire curse.

Early reviews have been lukewarm and the film has been the target of criticism from an internet campaign by a pro-lesbian group.

Horne told the BBC this week that the the film was “a lot less gratuitous than you might think… it’s like Confessions of a Window Cleaner, but in a forest with vampires”.

Horne (above) and Corden were cast before Gavin & Stacey became a TV hit

The film’s 15-certificate is a clue as to the target audience. The publicity material promises “gags, girls and gore” – although most of the jokes revolve around swearing and a phallic sword handle.

There are horror film references galore, and it’s obvious that the makers of Lesbian Vampire Killers would love to emulate the success of Shaun of the Dead.

Here, Corden and Horne discuss vampires, the influence of Shaun and the perils of over-exposure.

So is Lesbian Vampire Killers a comedy-horror or a horror-comedy?

Corden: It’s a comedy-horror first and foremost.

Horne: And that’s why we did it really, because we thought the script was really funny. And I think the horror comes second. It errs on the side of campery rather than true gore.

Was it as much fun to make as it looks like you’re having on screen?

Corden: It was the most fun that either of us have had on the set. But it’s hard work making a film like this – so much of it is so technical. And we’d spend a lot of time just sat around covered in goo.

There were points when you were into hour 10 of the day and then the director Phil Claydon would come in and pick you up just like a kid who’d had too many sweets.

It’s been compared to Hammer meets Withnail and I. That must have been easier with Paul McGann (as a vicar vampire hunter) in the cast…

Corden: Paul McGann being around was one of the best things about it really. I got to do a lot of my scenes with him, and I got to wear a long coat so I started to feel like Withnail.

He had a really hard job on this film because he had to play it absolutely straight. We have to ask the audience the make a big leap of faith and he’s a major part of that.

Horne: We shot it in a studio and we had these real trees put in to make the forest. McGann was all over them! He just loved them.

Inevitably there are going to be some comparisons with Shaun of the Dead. Was the success of Shaun something that you had in the back of your minds making this movie?

Horne: Not at all, because at heart this film is a teen flick. The teen horror is an American thing, and not something we really do in this country.

Corden: I can understand the comparison – it’s a comedy-horror film, but I’d like to think our film stands on its own. I don’t doubt for a second that the success of Shaun of the Dead helped this film get made.

What was the first vampire film you ever saw?

Both: The Lost Boys.

Horne: And I still don’t know if I’ve seen a better one.

You were cast in this film before Gavin and Stacey became a hit on TV. Does your on-screen partnership still feel quite new?

Horne: James and I have only known each other about two-and-a-half years. I feel like it’s an early stage of everything. The working partnership came second – out of the blue really – the friendship was always first.

Corden: Mat and I would love to continue working together for a long time – but I don’t think we’ve got any aspirations to be Cannon and Ball! We’re both keen to do things independently in the hope that that will strengthen the stuff we do together.

You two are absolutely everywhere are the moment. Are you planning any downtime?

Both: Not really.

Corden: It’s a bit busy. The last thing we are going to do is complain about that. We are both aware of how lucky we are. We just hope the work’s good enough and we don’t get on people’s nerves.

Lesbian Vampire Killers is out on 20 March.

About Science-Nature Double trouble

About Science-Nature

Big cats have been poached for their pelt and bones

Conservationists in Nepal say efforts to save the nation’s dwindling tiger populations are facing a twin attack.

They have recorded a significant decrease in the number of the endangered species in some of the protected areas of the country.

The bad news comes just as concern is growing over the immigration of traditional hunting and poaching communities from neighbouring India.

During the 10-year Maoist conflict, which ended two years ago, poachers were already active in some conserved areas, cashing in on the absence of army personnel who were otherwise engaged in the conflict with the then rebels. Some of these poachers had been identified as Nepalese nationals.

The recent decline in tiger population, however, has coincided with the arrival of the Indian hunting tribes.

New threat

A recent count in the western Nepalese Shuklaphanta wildlife reserve, which shares an open border with India, has shown a decrease of about 50% in tiger numbers from just three years ago.

The 10-year Maoist conflict took troops away from wildlife protection patrols

Initial results of a tiger count in another nearby protected area, the Bardiya National Park, are not good either.

“It is very disturbing news,” says Diwakar Chapagain of conservation group WWF, which supported the government in the tiger count.

“More so when there are indications that the tigers did not die natural deaths,” he added.

Following the tiger count in Shuklaphanta wildlife reserve, the report submitted by the tiger task force concluded that there had not been a noticeable decline in the tigers’ key prey species.

“(Therefore) tiger mortality due to natural deaths and through poaching is worth exploring,” it recommended.

But conservationists closely monitoring poaching and illegal trading of wildlife believe they have some explanation for the observed decreases.

They say members of Indian traditional hunting communities – Bawariyas and Beheliyas – have been increasingly moving in after being hounded out by authorities in India.

Indian officials with the border security force told us that they had noticed some movement of these hunting tribes in border areas Hem Aryal, Banke district forest officer

“From our informers on the ground, we have information that more than 50 Bawariyas and Beheliyas families have entered Nepal and they are now in Nepalese-protected areas and jungles,” says Prasanna Yonjan of Wildlife Conservation Nepal, which has helped officials catch illegal wildlife traders and traffickers.

Hem Aryal, the forest officer in Banke district (where the Bardiya National park is located), says he has been tipped off about the arrival of the hunting communities by Indian authorities.

“In one of our recent bilateral meetings, Indian officials with the border security force told us that they had noticed some movement of these hunting tribes in border areas,” he said. “We are therefore on high alert.”

After arresting an illegal wildlife trafficker recently, Aryal’s team is even more convinced that the hunters and poachers are already active in the Nepalese side.

“This trafficker revealed to us that the leopard skin he was carrying was given to him by Indian hunters; their description perfectly matched with what the Indian officials have told us,” he said.

Crossing borders

Some conservationists in India share the same opinion as their Nepalese counterparts about the recent tiger poaching and the arrival of traditional Indian hunters.

Traffickers use devices like double-sided number plates to evade detection

“I believe there is a definite connection between the arrival of gangs of Bawariyas and Beheliyas in Nepal and the decline in tiger numbers there,” says Belinda Wright, executive director of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), a non-governmental organisation.

Although none of the members of these communities have been arrested in Nepal so far, some of them were detained in India last December.

According to WPSI, which took part in the police operation, 12 of the 16 people arrested with three tiger skins and skeletons in Allahabad of Uttar Pradesh, were from the Beheliyas community.

After years of being chased by Indian authorities, members of the Bawariyas and Beheliyas communities have now come across into the Nepali territory in search of safe haven, conservationists believe.

“At least five of them are on the wanted list of the CBI (one of the Indian intelligence agencies),” says Ms Wright.

“Members of these nomadic communities travel in small groups often with women and children. They usually set up camp 5-10km from a protected area with good wildlife populations.

“Men do the poaching, often assisted by local contacts, while women act as couriers carrying the skins and bones to their home base or to a known buyer.”

The tiger population in India has halved within a matter of a few years – from 3,000 just a couple of years ago to 1,500 today.

In Nepal, previous estimations showed the number of tigers to be about 350.

But conservationists say the recent count in some of the protected areas suggests that the number must have dwindled drastically.

Skins and bones of tigers and leopards are among the most frequently seized illegal wildlife goods in Nepal.

Wildlife officials say at least three such contrabands are seized across the country every month.

The biggest seizure to date took place in 2005, in Langtang National Park, north of Kathmandu.

An army patrol had then found more than 240 tiger and leopard skins in a truck heading towards Tibet.

Security officials and conservationists said most of the tiger products either originated in Nepal or were smuggled in from other countries like India, Bangladesh and Bhutan, and were often destined for China.

While the illegal trade continues to be a serious threat to Nepal’s conservation efforts, the arrival of the Indian traditional hunters and poachers canis sure to add up to its challenge.