ALEXANDER NEVSKY ON HIS SUMO-SIZED WESTERN, ‘THE WIDE WEST’, RUTA LEE ON AUDIE MURPHY AND ‘BULLET FOR A BADMAN’, PLUS ‘EDDINGTON’ AND ‘BURY ‘EM DEEP'’ REVIEWED!

 

HIGH, WIDE AND HANDSOME!

ALEXANDER NEVSKY ON HIS NEW FILM, THE WIDE WEST, AND HIS LONG, EVENTFUL JOURNEY FROM MOSCOW TO AN ARIZONA MOVIE RANCH!

(The Wide West trailer. A link to the film follows the article)

The Wide West, following Gunfight at Rio Bravo and Taken from Rio Bravo, is the 3^rd Western movie collaboration of star and producer Alexander Nevsky, director Joe Cornet, screenwriter Craig Hamann, composer Sean Murray, and cinematographer Sam Wilkerson. The seemingly absurd premise of a pair of Sumo wrestling stars stranded in the Old West is, surprisingly, based on – or suggested by – facts: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. In gratitude, and knowing the President’s interest in martial arts, particularly Judo and Jiu-Jitsu, a contingent of Japanese athletes, including Sumo wrestlers, was dispatched to Washington to entertain Roosevelt, sailing to California, then making their way to the East Coast.  In The Wide West, two of those Sumo wrestlers, Daiki (Hiroki Sumi) and Ichi (Takashi Ichinojo) find themselves stranded in a Western desert town, in mortal conflict with an outlaw gang led by villain Jarrett Kingrey (director Joe Cornet), and reluctantly befriended by a Russian immigrant, a gambler known as Max (Nevsky). It’s an amusing film that, happily, doesn’t take itself too seriously, except when it comes to action.

Alexander Nevsky is himself a world-class athlete and an immigrant. The three-time Mr. Universe, actor, producer, director, grew up picturing himself in movies, but not necessarily in Westerns. He loved the genre, but getting access to them in Russia was no simple task. “When I was a kid, we couldn't watch westerns from the United States, but we still watched some Easterns, as they call it, because in East Germany, they will make westerns. In Yugoslavia, they made westerns with Gojko Mitic, who was a big star at the time, playing Chingachgook (note: from James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer). And in Easterns, Indians were good guys, and all the cowboys, the army, they were bad guys, so basically it was all in reverse. But we loved it and we loved the culture.”

Don't mess with Max!

Nevsky wouldn’t have a chance to see the real Hollywood product in Russia until the 1990s, with the rise of bootleg videotapes. “The Soviet Union was collapsing, and pirated videos suddenly appeared at all those kiosks close to subway stations. They put two Hollywood movies on one video tape, and I was buying them every evening when I was going back home from my University or from the gym. I had old Korean VCR with my old Russian tv, only black and white picture,” he recalls with a laugh. “But even in black and white, it was almost like a window to completely different, magic world. And the funny thing is, those Soviet pirates who made those tapes, they didn't understand the difference between huge movies and small movies, right? They can put like Arnold's $40 million Commando or Predator, and second movie could be Lady Dragon with Cynthia Rothrock, or a Don “the Dragon” Wilson picture, because it was also action picture. It was all Hollywood, right? It was all magic. And now as a producer, I understand that piracy's bad. But sometimes it could be good, and it could give a lot of people a great escape, at least for a couple of hours. So you never know.”

He wasn’t a natural-born Mr. Universe. “I had a little scoliosis. I was tall already, but when I started to lift weights, I was young and very skinny, I didn't have muscles at all.” So he trained.

“My background in bodybuilding and in boxing taught me to be prepared for hard work. I was happy when I won Mr. Universe, and when I won a second and third one, but before I started to win, it was like decades of preparation and training.”

He came to the United States in 1999 well-prepared not only physically, but educationally. “I graduated from Moscow State University of Management, and I had my PhD in Economics.”  He’d already had considerable success at home. “I was established TV star in Russia, a bodybuilding star. I had my own TV show on Channel One Russia, and 20 million people watched my TV show every week. I already wrote three books about bodybuilding and believing in yourself, and they sold like hundreds of thousands of copies.  When I moved to Los Angeles, I just had student visa, because I became a student at the UCLA, I started to study English, and later, I transferred to Lee Strassberg Theater Institute where I started to learn acting.

“It was kind of like trip to the moon, because Russian Americans all knew who I was, but Americans, they didn't have a clue. I started from scratch and, like six months after I came, I started to get some callbacks from auditions.”

Max's nemesis, played by Joe Cornet

His first big opportunity was an athletic competition series. “Battle Dome was Columbia Tristar TV show, kind of like American Gladiator. It was open call. I saw probably 300 huge guys. They told me, just wear black t-shirt, blue jeans. So when I came, I saw like hundreds of huge guys in black t-shirts and blue jeans. Someone was a little taller, someone was a little shorter, someone had smaller biceps, someone had bigger biceps, but volumes of them! So when they call us back a month later, it was just fifty guys, just 15 guys two months later, then it was just five of us who they want to sign. When I saw the contract, of course it was almost no money. It was scale and whatever, but it was the first time when they described my character. It was like stupid stereotypical Russian, wearing a red star on the back. And when I said to casting director and to producers, I cannot play it, they looked at me like I was an idiot, because they chose me out of 300, and I didn't want to do it. But again, Henry, I didn't come here to promote stereotypes. I came here to crush stereotypes, but to be completely honest with you, it was heartbreaking.

“Then one of my idols, Jean Claude Van Damme, invited me to make a movie with him, called The Order, with Charlton Heston and Brian Thompson, in 2000. Jean Claude was playing an adventurer who was stealing things from museums. The great, late Jack Gilardi, vice President of ICM, introduced me to Jean Claude and Sheldon Lettich, the director of the film, who directed, in my opinion, best of Jean Claude's films in ‘90s, like Double Impact. Sheldon and Jean Claude right away created a part for me. I was happy, but when I read it, it was a security guard in some museum in Kazakhstan: just scream something in Russian, and fight with Jean Claude, and get killed by Jean. I explained it to them that I couldn't play these stereotypical roles, because my Russian audience will not understand it. And it was Sheldon who told me that, if I want to be a star, I should find a way to produce, because here, unfortunately, if you big Russian, you will play stereotypical roles. Back then it was heartbreaking. But I still think it was the right choice because, how Sinatra sang it, I did it my way. And 11 years later, Sheldon became executive producer of my director debut, Black Rose.”

I told Nevsky that my first job as a screenwriter had been a film called Speedtrap (1977), which I’d co-written with producer and Romanian immigrant Fred Mintz: we worked out the story together, I did the actual writing, particularly the dialog, and we’d rewrite it together. Nevsky’s first film as producer and star came in 2004. “I co-wrote my very first English-language motion picture, Moscow Heat, which was the great Michael York, and Joanna Pacula. It was the film which opened the door for me into action genre. I was executive producer, it was my first starring role and I co-wrote it with my American friend, Robert Madrid exactly the way you worked with your friend from Romania. I'm proud to say that I also created a story for my biggest one, Maximum Impact, which was written by Ross Lamanna, who wrote the Rush Hour movies for Jackie Chan.”

Max riding to the rescue!

So, how did Alexander Nevsky move on to Westerns? It was because of a meeting between Nevsky and Western director Joe Cornet, who were brought together by their composer. “Sean Murray, great composer, introduced us to each other. Sean wrote music for Joe's Western, The Promise, and he wrote music for my Black Rose. Sean told me that he wants me to meet with his friend because he wants me to try a Western. Sean, he's a great composer, but also he's a great friend. So I was honest with him. I told him, of course I'll meet you with your friend, I'll be happy to, but come on: me in a Western?” But they hit it off immediately.  “Joe’s like a walking encyclopedia of Westerns. I mean, all the knowledge he gave me, it was amazing. (With the) pirated videos in Russia, that's when I became a huge fan of spaghetti Westerns, of Clint Eastwood, the Sergio Leones, and John Wayne. John Wayne, I like him a lot because he was tall and big, right? And his movies, they were kind of like, if I can say, like clean Westerns, not so down-to-earth, like Sergio Leone kind of Westerns. John Wayne's Westerns were bigger and brighter and more positive. I just love him. But my point is, I was huge fan of Westerns, but I never really imagined myself in a Western. So going back to end of 2020, those conversations with Joe, he told me we should do a Western. ‘Trust me, you will love the experience, you will love the film.’ And I told him, Joe, if we doing something together, it shouldn't be just straight Western. Because my background is in sport and bodybuilding. I was a boxer and kick-boxer. And good thing about sport: sport will give you discipline.  So you always know your strong points and your weak points. I said, Joe, if we're making a movie together, it shouldn't be just a Western. It should be an action western, so we can bring together my favorite genre, which is action, and your favorite genre, which is Western.

“And that's how Gunfight at Rio Bravo was born. And Joe did an amazing job because he was always positive, he was always prepared, he was always very supportive. And before we started, we had like four-and-a-half months, and he even gave me his horse to train with, because I never rode a horse before. I never shot Western guns like Winchester or Colts. Of course I shot a lot of modern guns. He helped a lot. And by June, 2021, when we came to Arizona to make our first Western, I was prepared. And it was complete fun. It wasn't easy at all, but it was complete fun. And I brought my action guys with me. I brought Olivier Gruner and I brought Art Camacho, who is a great fight choreographer, and I brought Matthias Hues, and we all had fun. And thanks to Joe, we got a Western, like a real Spaghetti Western. And thanks to my team, we also got an action movie.”

Nick Baillie as the Judge, Tatiana Neva as a stylish shopkeeper

Also turning in a dynamic guest performance in one of Nevsky’s Westerns is another martial arts legend, “My great friend and colleague Cynthia Rothrock. I hope it was me and Joe who inspired her to make her great action Western, Black Creek. Because right before that, she made our Taken from Rio Bravo, and she was amazing in it. We introduced her to everyone over there in Arizona, to John Marrs, our armorer and also costar, and to other guys. She made her own Western, which is great.” You can read my article about Black Creek, and my interview with Cynthia Rothrock, here:  https://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2025/04/black-creek-action-star-cynthia.html

Now that he’s had extensive experience in both Action films and Westerns, which genre presents more challenges? “To be honest with you, making Westerns is harder. It's much more fun, but it's harder, because every time you're doing a film about something which happened many years ago, you really should be authentic.” I wasn’t going to say anything about his somewhat anachronistic costume, but he brought it up.  “Now, saying that, of course you know I was criticized because of my outfit in the films. Because even in the Westerns, I always have cool leather jackets. With one simple reason, Henry, and again, I'll be completely honest with you, because if we talk about business for a second, I understand that a lot of your readers, they're huge fans of Western genre, and they don't want to read about business side of film making. But we both understand that it’s really important. If you talk about sales, if you make any Western, you will almost always sell it in the United States. Because United States has a huge culture of Westerns, huge fan base for Western genre historically. But internationally, it's really hard to sell the Western, even if it's a huge studio Western. And that's the reason why studios actually stopped making big Westerns. So what I was doing as a producer, I was trying to put together Action and a Western. So in America, film will be sold because it's a Western, but internationally, we can sell it because it's an Action picture, because Action always sells. And that's why even in Gunfight at Rio Bravo, last 25 minutes of the film, I don't have my hat anymore. I just have my leather jacket, and I’m killing people, right and left, in very cool way. It's an Action picture, not just a Western. It's kind of the same thing in the Wide West, because in the end I have, yes, old-fashioned sunglasses, old-fashioned jacket, but still, I look like a Terminator,” he laughs, “in the Wild West. The cigar, of course, is in homage to Arnold's movies. So that's how I approach it.”

ICHI takes aim!

As international as The Wide West is, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that one of Nevsky’s major influences in creating it was the Western that James Bond specialist Terrence Young directed in 1971, Red Sun. “I think it was first Charles Bronson film released in Japan. And it was first Toshiro Mifune film that really made him popular in Europe and the United States. And Ursula Andress, she already did the Bond picture, Dr. No. The producers, they played their cards so smart, because they got American star, they got Japanese star, they got established European star -- because Alain Delon wasn't just a French star. He was one of the biggest European stars at the moment. They basically sold all the territories, even before they made the movie. So it was a terrific business model. Bronson, in Red Sun, he was my inspiration for my character Max. Because when you watch my action pictures, and both Rio Bravo movies, I always played like a stoic, hard-boiled action heroe. You don't have to ask me twice to protect you, to help you,

In this one, I was playing a different character, and Charles Bronson was my inspiration because in Red Sun, if you remember, he is not playing your hero. No, he's just the guy who's having fun. He wants to make money, he wants to get some revenge, but mostly the money. And of course, basically, he's changing over the course of the movie, but it's a different Charles Bronson.”

The Wide West is currently available exclusively on XUMO Play, for free!

In this one, I was playing a different character, and Charles Bronson was my inspiration because in Red Sun, if you remember, he is not playing your hero. No, he's just the guy who's having fun. He wants to make money, he wants to get some revenge, but mostly the money. And of course, basically, he's changing over the course of the movie, but it's a different Charles Bronson.”

The Wide West is currently available exclusively on XUMO Play, for free! Just click the link below:

https://play.xumo.com/free-movies/the-wide-west/XM0XFMQGKZICWS

RUTA LEE REMEMBERS AUDIE MURPHY AND MAKING 'BULLET FOR A BADMAN'

Here's the trailer!

 Kino Lorber has just issued Collection V – that’s 5 for you non-Romans – of the Westerns which Audie Murphy starred in at Universal in the 1950s and ‘60s. Each collection features 3 films, and this set contains Seven Way from Sundown, Walk the Proud Land, and Bullet for a Badman.

While I’ll soon write reviews for all 3, I recently had the pleasure of discussing one film from the set, 1964’s Bullett for a Badman, directed by R.G. Springsteen, with one of its stars, the still-lovely Ruta Lee, who recently turned 90. I highly recommend her hilarious, fascinating memoir, Consider Your Ass Kissed.

Ruta with Berkeley Harris

In Badman, Ruta plays the third point of a, while not a truly romantic triangle, a practical one, between Audie Murphy and Darren McGavin. If the other actors’ names that she mentions are not familiar, their faces would be. Alan Hale, Jr. was Skipper on Gilligan’s Island. Genial George Tobias, a comic character in 100 movies, mostly at Warner Brothers, is best remembered as Elizabeth Montgomery’s neighbor, Mr. Kravitz, on Bewitched. Skip Homier made his name as a child actor playing a Hitler Youth in Tomorrow, The World, and played many Western villains, memorably in The Gunfighter. If you haven’t seen Bullet for a Badman, you’re warned that there’s a big spoiler in Ruta’s first sentence. “Audie was of course the good guy, Darren was the bad guy, and I got shot with a bullet in my forehead somewhere in the movie. And my little grandmother, that I had brought over from Lithuania, had never seen television or the movies. She went screaming to my mother that I had been shot, and having hysterics when she saw that movie. I had such fun, because Alan Hale was in that movie, George Tobias, Skip Homeier. We laughed so hard. You know, it's surprising that they ever got a clear shot of us not laughing because we'd be out there and R. G. Springsteen, and God love him, he had a sense of humor too, but we laughed and laughed and laughed. And darling, the leading man of course was Audie, who was somewhat remote. You know, he didn't mix and mingle a lot, which is kind of sad because he would have had such laughs with us. When you have someone like George Tobias, who's been there, done it, seen it all, and has a story to tell about everything he's ever done, when you've got Alan Hale Jr., who carries on like a lunatic about things, and of course, Skippy Homeier as well. And my darling, Darren McGavin who's full of piss and vinegar, oh God, it was such fun! We were in St. George, Utah, but we travelled to a lot of different places. But I loved the Westerns. I didn't like the idea of having to get up at four to make it to the studio by five, so that you could be out on location at six. But what was really nice was that chuckwagon, the trailer that was the cooking wagon would be there at the location already. And you learned from the cowboys what to eat and you'd have every day, a bacon and egg and sausage and onion and tomato sandwich for breakfast. Boy, was that good! I can smell it now. You know, when you're sitting outside and it's cold and the coffee is there, and the sandwich is ready when you want it. Oh, that was great!”

Some of the spectacular mountain scenery!

You can read my Ruta Lee Western career article at the INSP blog, by clicking the link below:

Ruta Lee – Lithuanian-American Queen of the West

You can find Ruta Lee’s memoir at Amazon by clicking the link below:

Consider your Ass Kissed

And you can purchase Audie Murphy Collection V from Kino Lorber, including Bullet for a Badman, by clicking the link below:

https://kinolorber.com/product/audie-murphy-collection-v-walk-the-proud-land-seven-ways-from-sundown-bullet-for-a-badman?srsltid=AfmBOor-p5NVTnb6lc8ZBY9YcjU-Sq5B04LP4CPXhG6ujmhd-yWnNObF

 

FILM REVIEWS:

EDDINGTON

EDDINGTON TRAILER

Eddington is the new ‘Contemporary Western’ from the much-lauded writer-director of the Horror films Hereditary and Midsommar, Ari Aster. He has a wonderful cast – Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix, double Oscar winner Emma Stone, 4-time Emmy nominee Pedro Pascal, Oscar nominee Austin Butler. There are strong performances, and an intriguing premise – what happens in a tiny New Mexico town when Covid divides its mask/no mask residents politically during an election? I guess all that it lacks is a plot. There are countless mystifying loose ends, absolutely no characters you care about, and nothing Western besides the locale. It’s pointlessly, brutally in-your-face violent, and if you’re going to call your movie a ‘black comedy’, you need something comic to happen at some point. I counted 3 smirks in two and a half hours.  It’s currently in theaters.

 

BURY ‘EM DEEP

 

Bury ‘Em Deep is as unexpectedly enjoyable as Eddington is disappointing. A slim-budget, legitimate period Western, it stars Robert Bronzi, a Hungarian-born actor who has built a leading-man career – over a dozen films so far – based on his uncanny resemblance to Charles Bronson. Here he plays legendary bounty hunter Link Maddock; the kind they wrote dime novels about. He makes a bad choice when he delivers a corpse to Sheriff Michael Pare for the reward: the stiff is a relative of the lawman, and Maddock is shot down, only to revive some 3 weeks later, nursed back from the brink by an orphanage-running nun, Sister Marie (Rosanna Wyant). And wouldn’t you know it? The bank is foreclosing on the orphanage. Maddock heads out for his hidden cache of bounty cash, but is jumped, beaten, and again left for dead.

With the mortgage clock ticking, Maddock is hunting down each member of the ‘posse’ that robbed him. While in lesser hands, a simple checklist of killings would follow, the script by Eric Zaldivar, from a story he devised with Mike Malloy, gives each malefactor their own personal vignette, ala Hang ‘Em High or Chato’s Land. The actors are not familiar, but the performances are varied and original. Wisely, they are given most of the dialog, keeping Bronzi’s speeches down to semi-intelligible bon mots. Incredibly, it’s the 60^th feature Michael Fredianelli has directed since 2008, and his skills as an editor and cinematographer are also very much on display. It’s an often-stunning looking film, and the final shootout in a pumpkin patch, while perhaps too long, is a remarkable accomplishment of direction, photography and cutting.

Bury ‘Em Deep is available on Amazon Prime, currently for $4. Below is the trailer.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Please check out the July/August True West – here’s a link to my column looking at Val Kilmer’s first starring Western, Billy the Kid, an update on the progress of Young Guns 3, a DVD review of Was Once a Hero, and a chat with the director of the new Pierce Brosnan/Samuel L. Jackson Western, Unholy Trinity.

https://truewestmagazine.com/article/val-kilmers-billy/

Here’s my most recent INSP blog, Grit, Guns & Getting it Right!

https://www.insp.com/blog/what-tv-and-movies-get-right-and-wrong-about-cowboys/

And coming soon to the Round-up, I’ll be reviewing Ron Howard’s new film, Eden, looking at recent Westerns on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage, and sharing my Lone Pine interview with Robert Carradine, remembering John Wayne and The Cowboys!

Much obliged,

Henry

Copyright August 2025 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

This material is not to be used for Artificial Intelligence training.

 

‘TRADED’ REVIEWED, WRITER INTERVIEWED, PLUS TARANTINO TURMOIL, ‘DJANGO LIVES!’ SETS SAYLES, AND MORE!

TRADED – A Film Review

In 1880s Kansas, the Travis’, subsistence farmers, are hard-working but happy, until tragedy strikes: their young son Jake (Hunter Fischer) is killed by a rattlesnake.  Overcome with grief and guilt, his mother Amelia (Constance Brenneman), fearful of anything happening to their 17 year-old daughter Lily (Brittany Elizabeth Williams), makes the girl’s life unbearable.  Lily runs away, hoping to become a Harvey Girl at one of the famous restaurants at railroad stops across the country; but she never makes it to her interview.   Her father Clay Travis (Michael Pare) hurriedly traces her movements, and fears she’s been sold into prostitution.  He’s ready to do whatever it takes to bring her back.

Many will compare it to the TAKEN franchise, but I say think of it like THE SEARCHERS on speed!  As Clay races to rescue his daughter, time is not measured with the fluttering pages of a calendar but with a railroad-man’s precise pocket-watch.  En route, his farmer demeanor vanishes, and we learn that he has the sort of past that leaves him well-equipped to go against a string of villains, from those who will only provide information for a price, to those who will gladly kill to protect their income.  Pare, who became a star with films like EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS (1983) and STREETS OF FIRE (1984) has kept his good looks while developing the maturity and gravitas this role demands: you do not want to get in his way. 

Seen this girl?

And among the folks he meets along the way are Trace Adkins, Pare’s co-star in THE LINCOLN LAWYER (2011), who is chilling as a Dodge City saloon-keeper and procurer; and Tom Sizemore as Adkins’ unsavory competition.   Martin Kove has played many a Western villain before, memorably in WYATT EARP (1994), but I don’t think he’s ever portrayed as revolting a character as Cavendish; his daughter in the story, simply named Girl (Marie Oldenbourg) could not be less like him.

Kris Kristofferson, still a commanding presence at eighty, is striking as a barkeep who is at first reluctantly helpful, and has the most quotable speeches from Mark Esslinger’s screenplay.  

Kris is running out of patience

Esslinger’s script is smart without being smug, full of sudden, imaginative, and often brutal action.  And while the story is peopled by many cynical characters, it is not cynical itself; all of the action grows from a sincere love of family, and the knowledge that a strong person will do anything they can to protect it. 

Brittany Elizabeth Williams is missing...

Timothy Woodward Jr., directing his 10^th feature since 2013, tells the story with unrushed assurance, drawing mostly strong performances during a remarkably short shooting schedule.   It’s his third collaboration in two years with cinematographer Pablo Diez, who lights and composes with elegance.  Production Designer Christian Ramirez and costume designer Nikki  Pelly are Western specialists and have again done their work with style and historical accuracy.  Of course, no film is without errors.  One character is a young woman who is supposed to be hideously ugly.  Mistake one: a very attractive actress plays the part.  Mistake two: what was supposed to look like scars actually looks like she has oatmeal all over her face.

Constance Brenneman is the mother.

TRADED, from Cinedigm and Status Media opens theatrically today, Friday, June 10^th, in ten cities across the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and Nashville.   That same day it will also be available On Demand and Digital HD. 

Last November I had the good fortune of being invited by consulting producer Peter Sherayko to visit the set, when they were shooting at Big Sky Ranch.  You can read that article, and my interviews with Michael Pare, Timothy Woodward Jr., and Peter Sherayko, HERE.

AN INTERVIEW WITH ‘TRADED’ SCREENWRITER MARK ESSLINGER

At the premiere, Mark Esslinger with daughter Lana

TRADED author Mark Esslinger is the first screenwriter I’ve met in a long time who did not go to film school.  “I grew up in the northern part of New Jersey, in Bergen County.  I trained racehorses throughout New Jersey and New York while I was in high school.  I wrote from the time I was maybe ten; I was always interested in film and television.  When I was eighteen or nineteen I just decided to drive out to California and see what I could do.” 

Luckily, one thing he could do was be funny.  “I got a bunch of part-time jobs.  I hung out at the Comedy Stores.  I wrote comedy for stand-up guys like Garry Shandling and Howie Mandel when they were just getting started. I met a girl at a party, and she asked me if I wanted to write a couple of spec shows with her.  We wrote a spec TAXI.  She gave it to her father, and her father’d just got a green light for a show an NBC show at Paramount called THE BRADY BRIDES, a continuation of THE BRADY BUNCH.  Her father was (BRADY BUNCH and GILLIGAN’S ISLAND creator) Sherwood Schwartz!  So she showed it to him, and he loved it, and he asked us to be on staff, so we jumped at the chance.  I think I was 23 at the time.  And that’s basically how I got in.” 

But then, in 1981, the Writers Guild went on strike for Pay-TV and home video residuals.  “The strike hit for three or four months.  And then when it ended, THE BRADY BRIDES got cancelled because there was a shift of regime at NBC.  Brandon Tartikoff was going out, and Grant Tinker was coming in, and he didn’t like the show.  Then (my partner) went off and got married.”    Mark wrote without his partner, but didn’t get anywhere.  He went back to raising horses, while continuing to write.  “And then in ’96 I produced a film called DELIVERY, which is based on my food delivery company, which I opened in 1989.  I have a food delivery company where we deliver food from the high-end restaurants in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills to homes.”

Mark Esslinger, daughter Lana, Michael Pare

We talked about his breakthrough script, TRADED, and what led to his writing it.

HENRY: I notice you’ve written a few films about Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth.  I take it you’re a fan of American history.

MARK:  Yes, I am.  We made a short called GRACE BEDELL, maybe five, six years ago, that won festivals in Burbank, Buffalo and Vancouver.  It’s about a little girl who wrote to Lincoln when he was running for President in 1860, and she suggested that he grow whiskers to help him win the election.  And he took her up on it.  It’s based on a true story.  

HENRY: Was TRADED a story you developed on spec, or were you hired to write it? 

MARK:  I wrote it on spec.  I submitted it to The Black List (note: an annual list by studio development pros of highly regarded but unsold script), and it got two really excellent reviews, and it got me a lot of intros; a lot of interest.  But since they considered the (Western) genre basically dead, they didn’t want to do anything with it.  I kept pitching it here and there, and I ended up putting it on this website called InkTip.  It was on there maybe two or three months, and then I get a call that someone is interested in it, and is it still available.

HENRY: And that was Status Media, the folks who made it?

MARK: They outright purchased it – there was no option involved.  We just went back and forth, and negotiated the contract for two or three weeks; actually, while we were negotiating they were lining up locations and casting.  By the time I signed the contract, they were shooting.  They started shooting it immediately, or even before immediately, if there is such a thing

HENRY: Where did the original idea come from?

MARK: I wanted to do a Western, and I started breaking down what kind of a Western I wanted to do.  Maybe something that was a little more contemporary, that hadn’t been seen in a Western.  I know there’s THE SEARCHERS, where they’re hunting the niece, and I wanted to use the daughter; I wanted to do something in that realm, and TAKEN was a big hit a few years earlier.  From all the research I’ve done, they’ve never done a western where a father has to track down and rescue his daughter.  I just broke in an outline, and it came out kind of easy.

HENRY: I’m glad you brought up THE SEARCHERS, because while the parallels are obvious, THE SEARCHERS story takes place over a long period of time, while TRADED’s story is compressed to just one or two days.  Why?

MARK: I don’t really know; I think that’s just the way I write.  It helps with the time clock and the thriller elements. If it was prolonged, it would end up like THE SEARCHERS.  Just for the urgency factor I just had to make it quick.  I think the lead (character) has a sense that he has to get her back as soon as he can, before she becomes too much of a whore in Dodge City.

HENRY: You spoke about doing a lot of research among Western plots.  Did you do a lot of historical research?

MARK: I do a lot for everything I do.  I get as many books as I can on the time period.  And on the internet now you can get so much stuff.  I actually read the newspapers of the time period; it helps to give a sense of how people think and what they do during that time period, and how they react to certain things.  The government in each city at that time period – how it works. 

HENRY: What are the challenges of writing period stories for a modern audience?

MARK: Westerns that got produced weren’t very risky back then.  I mean, they wouldn’t have made a DEADWOOD thirty or forty years ago, and I think DEADWOOD is the ultimate, ‘what it was really like’ kind of thing; that’s what I strive for.  I’m trying to make it as realistic as possible to the time period. Back in the 50s or 60, most of the Westerns were pretty sanitized. 

HENRY: True; of course all films were when you go back far enough.

MARK: True; and especially television.

HENRY: How close is the finished film to your original vision?

MARK: It holds true maybe 80 to 85 percent.  There are some instances, because it is a low budget film, that they had to cut corners on.  As written, their son gets killed because of a bee attack.  Now they couldn’t do that because the bee wrangler would cost like $3,000, and that wasn’t in the budget.  So they changed it to a snake-bite.  But it loses my recurring theme of honey.  When I write something, I want to tie everything in, so everything has a reason; the foreshadowing.  When you have to cut some corners you’re going to lose a lot of that stuff. 

HENRY: You’ve done something with your script which many of us screenwriters find very difficult to do, which is to write a story that can be filmed for a reasonable amount of money.  How do you do that? 

MARK: I was conscious of that, mainly because I figured if I’m going to write a western, it’s going to be hard enough to sell it.  So I’d better make it that it can be shot for the minimum amount of money possible.  I tried to keep it low.  I’ve got the one train chase which they thankfully kept in the film.  And most of my stuff is character-driven anyhow, so the stories generate out of what they’re doing, as opposed to throwing in this big action sequence with a balloon or something that will cost a lot of money.   

HENRY: Quite a cast: Michael Pare, Kris Kristofferson, Trace Adkins, Tom Sizemore, Martin Kove. 

MARK: I think it worked out great.  When they told me Michael Pare was going to be the lead, I was really excited, because I was a big fan of EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS and STREETS OF FIRE.  I think he did a great job in the part.  And if you can get Kris Kristofferson and Tom Sizemore in the movie, you’re way way way ahead of the game.  And then they’ve got Trace Adkins in it, who is a country superstar along with Kris Kristofferson, so it’s going to appeal to all of his fans too.  And he does a great job.  He doesn’t have that much acting experience, but you’d absolutely not know it from the performance he puts in.

HENRY: Did you grow up with westerns? 

MARK: Yeah, I did.  I was born in the late ‘50s, so I grew up with the typical BONANZA, and probably my favorites were WANTED: DEAD OF ALIVE and THE RIFLEMAN, the two half-hour shows.  As far as films, I think my favorite Western film is Clint Eastwood’s UNFORGIVEN.  Growing up I was always a big fan of THE HORSE SOLDIERS.  I thought that film was really ahead of its time.  I read that John Wayne and William Holden didn’t get along.  But I think it helped the whole film.  Also Jimmy Stewart in SHENANDOAH.  I could go on and on – I also like all Randolph Scott Westerns.  RIDE LONESOME and BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE.  I thought Randolph Scott was just a great Western lead.

HENRY: Do you think there’s a real resurgence in Westerns?

MARK: I prefer writing period stuff, so I certainly hope so.  Like I said before, I think you can inject contemporary themes that were not available to use back when the majority of Westerns were made.  And that’s what I tried to do with TRADED; I tried to bring something new to the genre that wasn’t seen back then.  Even the taking of a daughter and basically trading her in to slavery, that wasn’t in a Western film back in the fifties or the sixties. I would love to see the whole genre make a comeback.  I’d like to see more on Television.  DEADWOOD is probably my favorite hour show – I think it was fantastic.  I wrote a pilot called SOILED DOVES that I’ve been trying to pitch for the last few years.  It’s DEADWOOD-ish, but it’s got a female lead, and it’s set in Alaska, during the Yukon gold rush. 

HENRY: What’s your next project?

MARK: I just finished another Western, I’m about to start getting out now.  It’s called DASH; it’s about a Kansas farmer whose about to lose his wife and his farm, and he’s offered a bounty-hunting opportunity. 

HENRY: So, the release of TRADED is imminent.

MARK:  It’s getting a ten-city release on the 10^th.  It’s going to be released on iTunes the same day.  There’s going to be a couple of deleted scenes, and a ‘making of’ film.  I don’t know what the deleted scenes are – I’m kind of scared to find out!  As long as it all makes sense, I’m fine. 

QUENTIN, THE TERM YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IS ‘SALOON GIRLS’

Quentin Tarantino, the ever-controversial and ever-entertaining filmmaker, got his ears boxed by feminists once again, this time for a casting call placed on Facebook, for roles in a new Western he is producing (though not directing).  Here’s the text:  “Casting Whores for Quentin Tarantino project. Caucasian, non-union females, ages 18–35. Western film shoots June 21st-25th in Los Angeles. No highlights, natural eyebrows, natural breasts, natural hair color to be true to the period. Dress sizes 2–8. Please send photo, including sizes, and write ‘Whore’ in the subject line.” 

I was a little surprised at the word ‘whore’, especially in the subject line, but not as surprised as when I was old enough to figure out what Miss Kitty’s girls were doing upstairs.  The Women and Hollywood website was particularly appalled, saying in part, “Putting a casting call out for, or including women in your script with the description of ‘whores,’ is not OK. Nor is asking actresses to submit their photos and information for consideration with the subject line ‘Whore.’ …  It would’ve been just as easy to have said that the project was looking for actresses to play prostitutes, saloon girls, or brothel workers… Words carry weight, and the word ‘whore’ comes with a lot of baggage.”  Okay.  Actually, I would have guessed that what they’d be upset about is that the casting notice asked for ‘Caucasian non-union’ whores.  Wrong again!  By the way, the film is written and directed by a woman.

‘DJANGO LIVES!’ TO STAR FRANCO NERO, TO BE WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY JOHN SAYLES!

Franco Nero signed this box from 

his 2nd DJANGO film for me!

It’s been long rumored but now confirmed that LONE STAR writer/director John Sayles will do the same chores on DJANGO LIVES!, and that Franco Nero is still set to star.   A project that’s been discussed since DJANGO UNCHAINED re-invigorated the DJANGO franchise, the project has shifted through many hands, but the premise is still the same.  Django, Franco Nero’s character from Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 film, is now much older, living in Los Angeles and, as Wyatt Earp and other real lawmen actually did, is working as a technical adviser on silent Westerns, when something happens that necessitates his strapping on his guns again.  A new description says he’s a wrangler and extra on the set of D.W. Griffith’s BIRTH OF A NATION.  The film is set to roll camera in September. 

MY NEWEST COLUMN FOR INSP

My most recent guest column for the INSP blog, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE GOOD-HEARTED BAD GUY, examines how the image of some hero and villain actors changed as their careers progressed.  You can read it HERE.  And please leave a comment if you like it!

THAT’S A WRAP!

Hunter Fischer (right), with a pal

Production Designer Christian Ramirez, with Mrs. Smith 

& wrangler Troy Andrew Smith

Here’re a few pictures I took on Wednesday night at the Beverly Hills premiere of TRADED.  I’ve got several more stories I wanted to include, but I didn’t want to make this Round-up more than one week late!  Happy summer!

Happy trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright June 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved