NEW WESTERN WITH A NEW EASTWOOD, A NEW SPAGHETTI WESTERN WRAPS IN SPAIN, PLUS AMERICAN INDIAN MARKETPLACE AT THE AUTRY, AND MORE!

A NEW WESTERN WITH A NEW EASTWOOD!

And the new Westerns keep on comin’!  HATEFUL 8 and THE REVENANT are coming for Christmas, JANE GOT A GUN is coming in February, so what, you ask, do you watch in January?  How about DIABLO, the new post-Civil War drama from Momentum Productions and Orion Releasing, starring Clint Eastwood’s son, Scott? 

The story of a Civil War vet who must track down the kidnappers of his wife, DIABLO won the Best Narrative Feature award when it premiered at the 2015 San Diego Film Festival in October.  Also in the cast are JUSTIFIED star Walton Goggins – soon to be seen in HATEFUL 8, Danny Glover, and Adam Beach. It’s Scott’s second time to be directed by Lawrence Roeck.  The director’s debut feature, THE FORGER (2012), was the final film of Lauren Bacall, and also featured Scott, Josh Hutcherson, Alfred Molina, and Hayden Panettiere.  DIABLO is co-written by Roeck and his FORGER collaborator Carlos De Los Rios. 

29-year-old Scott Eastwood, who made a splash this year starring in the Nickolas Sparks rodeo-romance THE LONGEST RIDE, has already amassed about 25 screen credits, beginning his career under the name Scott Reeves, and has been directed by his father in FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS (2006), GRAN TORINO (2008) and INVICTUS (2009). 

The cinematographer is one of the greatest of his generation, Dean Cundey, who turned heads back in 1978 with the original HALLOWEEN, and went on to DP many other films for John Carpenter, the BACK TO THE FUTURE films, JURASSIC PARK (1993) , APOLLO 13 (1995), and so many more.  

DIABLO begins a limited theatrical release on January 8, and will be available on various on-line platforms on January 18^th.   Here’s a clip…

Diablo from San Diego Film Festival on Vimeo.

EURO-WESTERN ‘THE PRICE OF DEATH’ WRAPS IN ALMERIA!

Heard from Danny Garcia that he just wrapped directing his first dramatic feature, THE PRICE OF DEATH.  Part of the Chip Baker Films team, Danny was a writer and producer on last year’s very enjoyable 6 BULLETS TO HELL (if you missed my review, HERE is the link). 

Belfrage & Stielstra

How did he enjoy holding the reins on this one?  “I must say it's been a wonderful experience.” 

What’s it about?  “Ex ​gambler​-turned-bounty-hunter Kidd Coffin accepts the risky job of transporting across state one ​Harry Skinner, a ​well ​known dangerous criminal, but unbeknownst to Coffin, a gang of thieves and murderers led by sadist Dick Dixon are also after the high-priced outlaw.”  The three leads were also in 6 BULLETS.  “Ken Luckey stars as Kidd Coffin, Crispian Belfrage co-stars as Harry Skinner, and Aaron Stielstra is the leader of a gang of bandits. Besides them, we have Daisy Hughes as Maddie, Daniel Jordan as Sheriff Hopkins, model Erica Lawrence as Molly, and Al Matthews as the lovable town drunk.”

At Apache Rock

Besides Westerns, Danny Garcia’s other great passion is music, which has led him to create the documentaries LOOKING FOR JOHNNY – THE LEGEND OF JOHNNY THUNDERS (2014) and THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CLASH (2012).  It’s no coincidence that among supporting players in THE PRICE OF DEATH are Ray Gange from the Clash movie RUDE BOY, Richard "Dudanski" Nother, ex drummer of Joe Strummer's 101'ers and Public Image Limited (Johnny Rotten’s post-Sex Pistols band), and Nick Reynolds, harmonica player for Alabama 3 and, as fate would have it, son of Bruce Reynolds, mastermind of Britain’s Great Train Robbery.

Director Danny Garcia

Spaghetti western fans will recognize much of the landscape, and some of the sets.  “The film has been shot at Oasys Mini Hollywood, the set that Leone and (production designer) Carlo Simi built for the movie FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, and the exteriors were filmed in Gador, Abla, and Abrucena, in the Sierra Nevada mountains.”  I’ll have more updates as information becomes available.

Soiled doves Lucy Yang, Daisy Hughes & Erica Lawrence

‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ GETS 2 INDIE SPIRIT NOMS!

Craig Zahler

Writer-director S. Craig Zahler has been nominated for Best Screenplay, and Richard Jenkins – Oscar nom’ed for THE VISITOR – has been nominated for Best Supporting Male, for their work in the tough indie Western BONE TOMAHAWK.  The 31^st annual Independent Spirit Awards will air on IFC the night before the Oscars, February 27, 2016. 

AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS MARKETPLACE MARKS 25^TH YEAR AT THE AUTRY!

On Saturday and Sunday, November 7^th and 8^th, thousands of visitors the gigantic tent (26,000 square feet) in back of The Autry to be part of the 25^th annual American Indian Arts Marketplace.  Over 200 artists from more than forty tribes displayed and sold their art.  As always, the variety and beauty of the art was remarkable.

Flute maker Doug Norton is Dine.  He told me, “The flutes can take anywhere from four days to two weeks, sometimes longer.  My nicest flute took me a little over a year.  Sometimes it just takes a while longer because I look at it as an art more than just an instrument.  For the most part I use aromatic cedar.  But I also use other common woods; other exotic woods as well.  The wood does make the sound quality.  Softer the wood, you get a little more vibration in it.  The harder the wood, it’s a little bit clearer.  For the most part I do custom work, so people will tell me they want this kind of wood, they want it in this key, they want it adorned with a specific animal.  Most of the ones I sell on the internet, they’re looking for a flute that is made my a native artist.  Probably more than 95% of the flutes being sold on the internet are not from native artists.”  Learn more at: http://www.tsaileboy.com/

Potter Stacey E. Carr is from the Pueblo of Laguna, Hopi Tribe.  The shapes of his pottery tend to be traditional, but the designs on them are not.  “It’s more contemporary, just because it’s not the white or the grey clay that is traditionally used in Laguna Pueblo, west of Albuquerque.  It’s a red clay.  It’s contemporary in the sense that it was taught by an Acoma potter, but still we’re trying to hold onto what Laguna is actually about. ” 

While the overall shapes were balanced, the tops were irregular.  I asked him why. “Traditionally what you are looking at is a flat top.  And so what I’m doing now is just, wherever the clay runs out, that’s where it forms.  So every piece is unique just based on that; wherever you run out of clay, that’s where you run out.” 

One striking piece is decorated with many different bugs – a weevil, a darkling beetle, a damsel fly, ants, praying mantis.  “Everything represented in this piece, they’re all insects.  They all have six legs, they all have a head, thorax, abdomen.  The message that I have is that everybody really doesn’t like each other, yet we’re all humans.  The name of the piece is, ‘Bee kind to one another.’  That one took six weeks to make.  The fun part is making the pottery.  The painting is a pain in the ass.”  Learn more at http://www.theolddrybones.com/

Navajo weaver Mona Laughing, from Crystal, New Mexico, had just won a prize for a beautiful weaving.  “It’s called Crystal weaving; the designs with stripes.  They’re 100% wool, with natural colors.  This one took me about four, five months.”  You can contact her at laughingweavers@yahoo.com.

THAT’S A WRAP!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  One of the many things that I am thankful for is you good folks in over ninety countries who read the Round-up!  It’s great to get feedback from all over the globe, and to see how our shared interests and enthusiasms transcend our differences. 

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright November 2015 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

     

CAMERAS ROLL FOR ‘LAST DUANE’ AT MELODY RANCH!

On Saturday, August 18^th, I had the pleasure of watching the first day of filming for Zane Grey’s THE LAST DUANE, at the Veluzat family’s (formerly Gene Autry’s) Melody Ranch in Newhall.

The film, based on the novel LAST OF THE DUANES, is the fifth screen-telling of the story.  The first, in 1919, starred William Farnum; 1924’s starred Tom Mix; the first talkie version, in 1930 starred George O’Brien opposite Myrna Loy; and the 1941 version starred George Montgomery, Lynn Roberts, Eve Arden, George E. Stone and, in the role of Texas Ranger Maj. McNeil (a fictionalized version of Leander H. McNelly), the star of the 1919 version, William Farnum.

George Montgomery

Zane Grey, who died in 1939, was a tremendously popular and influential Western writer in his day, and his novels and stories have been the source for 113 movies and TV shows, and some, like RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, have been filmed many times.  Big budget and small, his stories were filmed frequently at Fox, Columbia, and a particularly fine series of about a dozen films were done at Paramount in the 1930s, many featuring Buster Crabbe or Randolph Scott.  From 1956 to 1961, Dick Powell produced and hosted ZANE GREY THEATRE, often showcasing Grey’s stories.  Though Grey is not much discussed today, a glance at Amazon.com reveals a tremendous number of his novels in print and available in paper, hardback, and e-book form – I recorded audio-book versions of one or two of his novels a few years back.

This newest version of the story, from Market Street Productions,  is being directed by Christopher Ekstein, and written by Ekstein, Jason Chase Tyrrell and Stacy Ownes Ekstein.  The lead has not yet been determined, but he won't be needed for filming this weekend because the twelve pages of script being shot center around a dramatic incident in his character’s youth.  His role will be played by a child actor, and you’ll see one of those ‘Ten Years Later’ titles, and then the story will continue.  The bulk of the movie will be shot starting in October.

Jason Patric

Danny Trejo

Rose McGowan

The stars of the opening sequence, who were hard at work at Melody Ranch yesterday, were heroic Jason Patric; villainous Danny Trejo; and beautiful Rose McGowan.  I’ve agreed to not post any pictures of the principals for now, and I don’t want to give anything away, but I was happy to arrive onset just in time to see someone shot to death in front of a saloon -- several times -- and there was a considerable amount of shooting and stabbing and riding throughout the day. 

Peter Sherayko & Anthony DeLongis

The Tiffany Grips

I tracked down Peter Sherayko, who in addition to being armourer, through his Caravan West outfit, supplies the horses, saddles, props and buckaroos.  I asked him what were the most interesting weapons in the show, and he said it was Danny Trejo’s pistols, or rather, their grips.  “Danny’s guns have 1851 Tiffany grips.  They made them for a lot of Civil War officers starting in 1865.  Jason Patric has an 1860 Army (Colt).”  Peter was ably aided by assistant armourer Heath Hammond and art director Christian Ramirez. 

I wasn’t familiar with the story they were filming, but historian Sherayko certainly was.  “THE LAST OF THE DUANES is one of Zane Grey’s better-knowns.  This part we’re doing now, it’s about Buck Duane as a nine-year-old kid.  He grows up later, and the novel really takes off with him being an outlaw at the beginning of it, and ends up with the Texas Rangers, one of Leander H. McNelly’s Rangers.”  Buck is fictional, but McNelly was the real thing.  Peter tells me that when the other Texas Rangers were issued Winchesters, McNelly insisted his men have Sharps rifles.  ‘But Winchesters are repeaters – with a Sharps you only get one shot.’ ‘I want my men to make every shot count.’  Sam Elliot is also going to be in the movie.  I don’t know who he’s playing, but I’d put my money on McNelly.

Chris Ramirez

Larry Poole, Willy Clark & Heath Hammond

As the day’s shooting progressed, Rose McGowan switched from a beautiful burgundy velvet dress to a black one.  The men who loitered on the street, or waited to be poker-players in the upcoming saloon scene, were an unusual collection that added to the atmosphere of the film.  Anthony DeLongis is an excellent horseman, and expert with whips and swords.  Ardashir Radpour is a great rider and professional polo player.  Larry Poole and Willy Clark, with his Gabby Hayes beard, look perfect in a saloon, but Willy is also an expert gunsmith.  Brian Herrington is a Western author (CAMPO – THE FORGOTTEN GUNFIGHT), and Tony Redburn is a quick-draw expert and gun-spinner. 

Addy Radpour

Brian Herrington & Tony Redburn

It was around three o’clock, about 100 degrees, when they started shooting the saloon interior, and between the art direction, the cast, and the smoky haze, the set looked perfect.  Danny Trejo entered from the street, and did what he does best: intimidate people.  They’d shot the scene of Danny and his two henchmen riding up to the saloon and dismounting that morning, and now, while Danny was doing the scene inside, a second unit was doing close-ups of Danny’s boots – on someone else’s feet – slipping out of the stirrups and hitting the street. 

With that shot done, the three horses were done for the day.  As they were being walked back to the stable area, Danny Trejo, between takes, caught sight of them passing by, and called for them to wait.  He dashed out of the craft services area with a yellow apple, and broke it into pieces to feed to the horses, talking to them and stroking their heads.  I’ll have more details on THE LAST OF THE DUANES in the near future. 

THE HIGH CHAPARRAL RETURNS ON INSP!

Beginning with an all-day marathon on Saturday, September 15th, the series about the Cannon and Montoya family, rarely seen in decades, will become a part of INSP’s SADDLE-UP SATURDAY programming starting September 29th, and join the week-day schedule as well.

Henry Darrow, well-remembered as fiery-tempered Manolito, says, “Folks never get tired of a good western. And The High Chaparral is one of the BEST. People often ask me why they can’t see it on TV anymore. Now, I can tell them, ‘You can! On INSP.’ I couldn’t be more thrilled.”

David Dortort, the show’s creator, had his first tremendous success with BONANZA, about a perfect family. He decided to try something new by creating a dysfunctional family, and the social and ethnic conflicts between Anglos, Hispanics, and Apaches were daring back in 1967, and seem remarkably fresh today.

The series, which ran for five seasons and 97 episodes, stars Leif Ericson, Cameron Mitchell, Henry Darrow, Linda Cristal, Mark Slade and Don Collier. 

‘YELLOW ROCK’ AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE!

The Western Heritage Award winner for Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Lead Actors is now available on DVD and a variety of on-demand and pay-per-view options.  The film stars Michael Biehn, James Russo and Lenore Andriel. 

I’ve been following YELLOW ROCK since they first rolled camera, and I reviewed it when it premiered at – and swept the awards of – the Red Nation Film Festival (you can read my review HERE )

When I reached writer/producer/star Lenore Andriel, she was just back from the Prescott Arizona Film Festival.  “We were there for four or five days, having the time of our lives.  They screened the film and we were very honored, it was right after their tribute film, which was DANCES WITH WOLVES.   The writer was actually there, Michael Blake, and I got to meet him, and tell him how his film influenced the heart and storyline of YELLOW ROCK.  It really made the entire festival for us – it was quite wonderful. 

“YELLOW ROCK was released August 7^th, across all platforms.  It was released for video-on-demand on Time-Warner Cable, Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, COX, WTC, NBC-Universal.  It’s coming to DirecTV.  And it was also released the same day on DVD through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Blockbuster, Family Video.  It’s available for pre-order on Nexflix, and it’s available at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, because that’s where we won Best Picture and all the awards.  It’s also available, streaming, on iTunes, Sony Platform PS3.  I believe in a month from now it’s going to be available in all the RedBox units across the country.  And it will also be available in WalMart the end of October.  We still have a couple more film festivals that we’re honored to be officially selected for.  One of them is the Almeria Film Festival, in Almeria, Spain.  That is October 11^th through the 13^th.  Then we’ll be looking at doing limited theatricals across the country in the New Year.”     

Also on the agenda are plans to make two more westerns.  “They say the first baby’s the hardest, but I finally gave birth to it.  It was very difficult making the film, but it’s been a real dream, and a very blessed film.  Now we have a lot more knowledge of how to do a western, and what not to do.  One of the things we’ll probably not do is shoot it in the summer (laughs).  But we will be back at the Veluzat Motion Picture Ranch, and at Melody Ranch as well.  We’ll be back with Daniel Veluzat, who’s been a wonderful partner to us.” 

I caught up with Lenore’s writer/producer partner Steve Doucette as he was waiting for Lenore to come over so they could start fleshing out the other two western stories.  It sounded like possibly a prequel and a sequel to YELLOW ROCK, but Steve wouldn’t commit to that.  “And what’s exciting about it is we feel we can go bigger on the other two budgets.  So we can keep the production value at least on par, and hopefully bigger and better.” 

I asked him if YELLOW ROCK had turned out bigger than he expected.  “Yuh, it blew up on us from day one, from when we wrote it to when we brought in bigger names than we ever dreamed we could get.  For a small independent western like this; most definitely.  Bigger in a happy way.  We didn’t think that we’d be winning numerous awards with this, which we’re proud of.  We’re thrilled, and we hope we have the same financial success with the way that it’s been received.

“You know, it’s a real shout-out to independents who can do it right.   You never want to slack off on the production value, like the sound, and the way the movie is shot.  There are certain areas with independents, that makes them look weaker.  So that’s where I opened up my wallet, to make sure we had good sound, good score, good production value.   I was reading some of the reviews on Amazon.com.  There are maybe ten reviews there, mostly four and five star reviews, and some of the things it’s being compared to, whether it’s DANCES WITH WOLVES, or the grittiness of UNFORGIVEN; that’s a real compliment to us.  We want to make everything real.  Although we do think it’s more PG than the R rating that we got.  Quite frankly, I just believe this is one that the entire family can sit down and watch, which was our intention.  We wanted, and our director Nick Vallelonga felt the same, to make a movie that was a throwback to the way stories were told when you and I were kids.  We were growing up in the ‘60s.  There were good movies with a good moral message to it, that the whole family could watch.  So whether it was SHANE or some movie like that, that’s what we were shooting for.  I hope that everybody sees it that way.  We’re very proud to be able to tell the story about Native American Indians.  That’s a big, strong point for Lenore and I.”

You can buy the DVD from Amazon.com HERE. In addition to the movie itself, the DVD includes a ‘Making Of’ documentary, deleted scenes, and a commentary track by director Nick Vallenlonga and Lenore Andriel. 

You can order it from NBC Universal on-demand HERE. If you have Time-Warner cable, it’s on demand HERE. 

LAST DAYS OF THE‘MUSEUM OF THE SAN FERNANDOVALLEY!’

If you’ve been meaning to visit the Museum of The San Fernando Valleythis summer, but haven’t gotten around to it, do it now! The Museum is currently located on the ground floor at Westerfields Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks, but it will be leaving at the end of August, and as of yet, it has no new home. Gerald Fecht, who frequently mans the Museum, told me that the group had been amassing a collection of artifacts for some time, but did not have a permanent – or even temporary – home until the Westerfields folks approached them. A California Pizza Kitchen had closed, and the Museum was offered the space, for free, until it was rented. Well, a Vietnamese restaurant is moving in on the first of September, so the Museum will be once again on the move.

Even before they had a physical home, the Museum was surprisingly active, hosting walking tours of various parts of the Valley, and sponsoring an oral history project, recording the memories of people who have lived or grown up in this once very rural farming area. They recently recorded the reminiscences of actor Biff Elliot, who passed away this week. Best remembered as detective Mike Hammer in I, THE JURY, he was also, as a soldier, part of every major battle in Italy during the Second World War.

The Museum and the Studio City Neighborhood Council ran the REPUBLIC PICTURES 75^thANNIVERSARY celebration in September of 2010, which brought together fans and a bevy of Republic stars (I covered it extensively in the Round-up, if you want to search back a ways).

Busts of Clark Gable, Martin Luther King

“We’re still getting residual effects from that event. Monte Montana’s kids recorded their histories for us as a result of that event, and we’re still getting contacts from people who worked for Republic Pictures. There’s a really good museum in Burbank, one in Chatsworth, one in Canoga Park, and a really good historical society, the San Fernando Historical Society. But there’s no museum that encompasses the whole San Fernando Valley area; and that’s our mission, to present the history and culture of the entire San Fernando Valley.”

I asked him what the Valley’s most important historical contribution was. “For 30,000 years we had the Tonga people living here. It’s never been a desert, but it’s arid. In modern times the greatest two contributions would be aerospace, and the entertainment industry.”

Their interests are also literary. On Saturday, the museum ran an event at the TarzanaCommunity Center, once within the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, celebrating the issuance of a postage stamp honoring Burroughs. There are also several large heads and busts on display, the work of a Van Nuys sculptor. They posses a growing collection of post cards and photographs from local, long-gone restaurants and businesses, film studios, and exotic wild-animal theme parks.

While they would dearly love a permanent address, they have also created traveling historical displays, such as the pictured one about water. Come by the museum if you have a chance. And visit their website for more information: http://www.themuseumsfv.org/

That’s it for this week’s Round-up.  Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright August 2012 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved