Renaissance Man
Ali Rasul, Renissance Pictures’ Director of Marketing, brings us exclusive news on all the latest going-ons at Xena’s production company. Interview by David Bassom.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 08
XENA MAGAZINE: The last few episodes of Xena’s fifth season have featured Adrienne Wilkinson as Xena’s 25-year-old daughter, Eve. How did Adrienne come to be a part of the show?
After an exhaustive search, Adrienne was cast through our agents here in Los Angeles.
Was there ever any thought of using Hudson Leick in that role, given that Eve is the reincarnation of Callisto?
No, we always intended to use a new actress to play Eve.
Looking back at Xena’s latest season, which fifth season episodes have you personally enjoyed the most?
Being the new guy here, I found it interesting to see how the storytelling process evolves and how so many different things have to be taken into consideration in order to produce a single episode.
I’m sure everyone can imagine what a challenge it was to deal with the world’s first ever pregnant action hero!
So that said, I’ve really liked God Fearing Child and Seeds of Faith.
Is Xena’s upcoming sixth season going to consist of a reduced number of episodes, like Hercules’ sixth and final series? Or are we looking at another full season of adventure?
Season six will be a full 22 episodes.
Wonderful! And how exactly is work progressing on Xena’s sixth season right now?
The show’s writers have been working on season six for a couple of months. Production is scheduled to begin on 10 May.
Finally, Ali, is there much new Xena merchandise coming up to keep everyone’s withdrawal symptoms at bay over the hiatus?
Yes, Columbia House [the US video membership company] will be offering Xena: Warrior Princess to their members. Each video tape will feature two episodes, starting in consecutive order with episodes one and two. Thereafter, each month a new tape will be released. A Xena anthology of short stories will also be released Stateside in summer 2001 by Penguin Putnam Books.