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 18th. Here’s
a clip…
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 31st
annual Independent Spirit Awards will air on IFC the night before the Oscars,
February 27, 2016.
AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS MARKETPLACE MARKS 25TH
YEAR AT THE AUTRY!
On Saturday and Sunday, November 7th and
8th, thousands of visitors the gigantic tent (26,000 square feet) in
back of The Autry to be part of the 25th 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
Production on HBO’s WESTWORLD was abruptly halted
last week, with only seven of the ordered ten episodes in the can. In production for more than a year, the HBO
sci-fi-western series is based on the 1973 movie from writer-director Michael
Crichton, produced by Saul David. It’s
about a resort where people pay a lot of money to live out their fantasies in
various eras including the old west, in a town peopled by human-seeming robots
who are programmed to cater to their every wish. The original film stars Richard Benjamin and
James Brolin as tourists, and Yul Bryner – looking exactly as he did in
MAGNIFICENT 7 – as a robot who develops a mind of his own, and won’t let the
humans outdraw him anymore.
Anthony Hopkins, seated
They’ve been very quiet about the new version, so it’s
not known how closely they’re sticking to the original plot. Ed Harris has the Yul Bryner role, and looks
great in the stills. The cast includes
Anthony Hopkins – Oscar winner for SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, as a new character,
Dr. Robert Ford (don’t know if it’s a coincidence that it’s the same name as
the man who shot Jesse James), James Marsden, Thandie Newton, and Evan Rachel
Wood.
They’ve had Gene Autry’s old Melody Ranch locked
down tight as a drum ever since DJANGO UNCHAINED left. While the order was for ten episodes, and
seven have been shot, on Monday, November 9th, the crew was told
that they’d e wrapping on Thursday, the 12th, to allow for reworking
the last three scripts for the season. They’re scheduled to restart production in
January. The series is set to premiere
on HBO in February. Stand by for
updates.
NEW RADIO WESTERN ‘POWDER BURNS’ SETS AIRWAVES
AFIRE!
Dramatic radio was a wonderful medium for
Westerns. Although they featured
breathtaking vistas and violent action, the audience created all the visuals,
so they cost no more to make than any other program. A horse was easy to create
with a pair of syncopated cocoanut shells.
For kids there was THE LONE RANGER, THE CISCO KID, and RED RYDER. For adults, GUNSMOKE starring William Conrad,
TALES OF THE TEXAS RANGERS starring Joel McCrea, FORT LARAMIE starring Raymond
Burr. Then audiences started drifting to
the grey light-box, where you didn’t have to use your imagination – you just
had to squint. Most of the shows segued
to television, or simply disappeared.
HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL reversed the process – starting on TV, starring
Richard Boone, and then spawning a radio version starring John Dehner. GUNSMOKE had six concurrent seasons on both
mediums, but on June 18, 1961, the last radio episode was broadcast. In October of 1962, the very last radio
drama, SUSPENSE, played its final show.
The era of dramatic radio was officially over.
For years, the old shows were only available on
records, then cassettes. Now they’re on
CDs and MP3 downloads. Once every major
city in the United States had some OTR – old time radio – program somewhere on
the dial; most of those are gone now as well. There have been sporadic new
shows from time to time: TWILIGHT ZONE and its imitators. But I can’t think of a Western since
GUNSMOKE.
Until now.
David Gregory and his associates have created a new Western radio series
– he calls it audio rather than radio – called POWDER BURNS. Burns is the name of the lawman it features,
a lawman who’s recently gone blind. It’s
recorded in New York City, in a cramped sound-booth where DORA THE EXPLORER
started out. And they’re attracting some
strong talent: Robert Vaughn, the original MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., and the last
man standing of THE MAGNIFICENT 7, guest stars in episode 4. You can hear the first 18 minute episode by
clicking the link below. And you can
read my interview with its creator, David Gregory.
HENRY PARKE: I’m going to play devil’s
advocate. Have you not heard that
dramatic radio died in 1962? And
westerns are supposed to have been dead for years. Why did you decide to revive them both by
creating POWDER BURNS?
DAVID GREGORY: I’ve always wanted to do a radio
drama, because I grew up with them. I
have sort of the same memories as my grandparents have of listening to these
shows, because I was given some tapes and cassettes as a kid. I got so into it that it’s something that
I’ve always wanted to do. I felt that in
today’s very visually-oriented society, if we’re going to do another audio drama,
we’ve got to really market it for today’s audience. And the only way I thought that would be
doable would be to do it from the perspective of somebody who is blind, so the
modern audience wouldn’t think that they were missing anything. I tried it in a few different genres first –
the western was not the first one I went for.
It’s my personal favorite genre, but I didn’t think this kind of a story
would work as a western. I tried it as a
sci-fi piece first, sort of like when Charlton Heston first wakes up in PLANET
OF THE APES, and his crew is dead, he’s the only one alive, and he doesn’t know
what’s going on. My initial idea was
something like that, where all he’s got to talk to is the ship’s computer, and
he can’t see, and he’s trying to figure out what’s happened to his crew. I actually wrote two episodes, and my
computer crashed and I lost them. Then I
tried it again as a private detective, and I got a couple of pages in, and I
couldn’t figure out how to keep the longevity of the character going. The western was the third try, and I wrote
four episodes in two weeks, and it just worked. Maybe because it was more character-driven –
I didn’t over-analyze it, I knew it was working. So that’s where I approached it from, trying
to make it where someone like my little brother (would listen to). We have different tastes in movies. He’ll go out and see TRANSFORMERS in the
movie theatre. If we’re going to make
someone like that listen to this, what’s our angle? It’s that you’re not missing out on anything,
because he’s supposed to not see, and neither are you. That’s sort of the pitch.
HENRY: That
makes perfect sense. I was wondering
why you chose to make him blind, other than the novelty, but that makes perfect
sense for an audience who is used to seeing everything. I can see you’re a young guy by the picture
on the website. How old are you?
DAVID: I just turned thirty.
HENRY: What
sort of radio shows were you given?
DAVID: I’ll
never forget. The first one I was given
was the first episode of THE LONE RANGER.
My grandmother found it at a Cracker Barrel, and she told my mom,
“You’ve really got to get this for David – I think he’ll really like it.” Because I grew up watching John Wayne
movies. I wanted to be John Wayne.
HENRY: As you
were growing up there weren’t very many westerns series on TV. Were there any that you watched?
DAVID: I do
remember DR QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN, very vividly. That was a big one. Obviously it was a strong
female-character-driven show, which was unique, not only for the time, but
still. But there was still something
there for the guys. Sully, the lead male
character, he had that axe that he threw in the opening credits. I just remember between the John Wayne movies
and that, having an affinity for the genre.
POWDER BURNS table read - that's Robert Vaughn
in the red jacket
HENRY: How do you go about creating a dramatic radio
show today? There’s not a Red or Blue or
Mutual Network to take it to.
DAVID: I knew
this guy who had done some engineering work.
And I approached him because we both loved the old time radio shows. He’s 31, and I hadn’t met anyone else my age
who I could mention someone like Virginia Gregg or John Dehner, and he’d know
who they are. There’s nobody my age who
knows who those people are. So I
approached him with this script, and I said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do
with this, but I’d like to try it, I’d like to give it a shot.” This is about October of last year. And we thought, let’s try to raise some money
and record a pilot. Which is frankly, a
lot cheaper to do as a radio show (than a TV show), because you don’t have to
pay for cameras or make-up or costumes.
I did the pilot with friends of mine, so I guess I could have asked them
to do it for free. But I think actors
should be paid for what they do. And I
wanted these particular actors to know that I was very serious. So I approached my cast, and everyone said
yes, and we recorded it in February. And
then used that pilot as a jump-start to do a Kickstarter campaign. And that’s how we raised money to do more
(episodes), just to cover studio costs.
I ended up approaching Robert Vaughn to do a guest star role. I wanted to make sure we had enough in the
bank to offer him. To come to his
manager with a legitimate offer, so that he’d know we were serious. Knock on wood, no one’s turned us down
yet. It’s been pretty exciting.
HENRY: That’s great.
How did you know Robert Vaughn?
DAVID: About
four years ago, I was cast in an independent film that this woman, Donna
McKenna, a casting director in New York, was putting together, (EXCUSE ME FOR LIVING - 2012). Part of the selling point for me was we’ve
got Christopher Lloyd, we’ve got Robert Vaughn, we’ve got Jerry Stiller, we’ve
got a lot of great actors in this movie.
So I did the film, and a couple of months ago I approached her
again. I said, Kat, I know you’re good
at getting these kinds of names in small productions. I was wondering if you could help get Robert
Vaughn for us. This guy’s old-school
Hollywood. He doesn’t do emails, so I
had to messenger a physical copy of the script, and wait with bated breath as
he read it. I wrote him a little letter
– I knew his father, Walter Vaughn, was a radio actor, who did GANGBUSTERS, and
played a lot of heavies. I said I know
this is some of your family’s legacy, and you’ve done some yourself, and would
you honor us by jumping back in the saddle, to do this? And I can’t believe it, but he said yes. And I’m proud to say, when we did bring him
in, we rehearsed him, got him in the booth first, and got him out with ten
minutes to spare. And he said it’s the
fastest and most efficient anyone’s ever let him in and out for a job.
HENRY: That’s
terrific, and he’s certainly had all kinds of experience. And as you pointed out, he’s the last of THE
MAGNIFICENT 7. How would you describe the
premise of POWDER BURNS?
DAVID: POWDER
BURNS is an original Western audio drama that takes place solely from the
perspective of a blind sheriff, so the audience sees them as he sees them,
without sight.
HENRY: And he’s got a very interesting backstory. He was a Confederate General.
DAVID: He
fought four years in the war, and returns home pretty much unscathed. But it was a freak accident when he was
hunting with his son that ends up blinding him and killing his son. So there’s the guilt of having to deal with
the death of his son being his responsibility.
And we’ll learn more and more in each episode what really happened. And then in the finale of our first season
we’ll find out what actually happened on the day.
HENRY: You’ve
already posted four 18-minute episodes.
How many episodes will there be this first season?
DAVID: It’s
going to be seven. They’re all written;
they’re all ready to go. The idea is,
it’s his last week as sheriff, and there’s going to be an election at the end
of the week. So each episode represents
a day as we go through the last week of his term as sheriff.
HENRY: Is
your intention to continue with more seasons and more adventures?
DAVID: I’d
absolutely love to. The show was born
out of a desire to work. I was having
trouble finding acting work at the time that I was putting it together. And it was sort of a way to keep myself busy,
and it’s been a blessing. But we’re
always at the mercy of these other actors.
Nobody’s doing this show to make a living; we’re doing it out of the
love for it. So as long as people are
free and have some time, we’re going to record more episodes. But it’s becoming very difficult to get
everyone in the booth (at the same time).
John Wesley Shipp plays the sheriff.
In the third episode, he and I carry the first half, sitting around a
campfire. And because of scheduling, he
and I were not in the same room on the same day. We luckily have a wonderful engineer/director,
Noah Tobias, who put it together in such
a way that you couldn’t tell. So I’m
glad it worked out, but I wouldn’t want to do it again.
HENRY: Do you
like to do it the traditional way, when everybody’s standing at microphones and
doing it at the same time?
DAVID: Oh, I
love that, and there’s a chemistry that happens when people are reading live,
off of each other. We had an actor in
episode two that wasn’t available, so we recorded him at least a month and a
half prior, and plugged him in, and it worked, you really can’t tell at
all. But I want to make sure that when
we can, we get everyone together, because that is part of the joy of it, the
experience of doing it together, just as if we were living in the golden age,
and having everyone gathered in what is now a very tiny booth.
HENRY: Why
did you decide to go for a continuing story instead of contained episodes?
DAVID:
Initially I was going to do self-contained episodes, and I think the
first two are sort of structured that way.
Then I realized that the way things are done today are very very
serialized. You look at the big shows
like GAME OF THRONES and BREAKING BAD.
HENRY: Really
everything that’s mattered since THE SPORANOS has been structured that
way.
DAVID: I just
felt that we had to make sure we had something that brings in the crowd that
knows THE LONE RANGER and GUNSMOKE. And
we’ve also got to have something to bring in the crowd that, when they think of
a Western, thinks of DJANGO UNCHAINED. I
had to find the elements, the best of the Western. The things I like to listen to. So the music
is a little more Clint Eastwood than John Ford/John Wayne. And that, for some people, can be
alienating. But at the same time I think
the story structure, and the ultimate moral is a little more John Ford. It can be sentimental and old school, for a
lack of a better term. And those are all
things that excite me, and things that I grew up with. I actually had someone on Twitter the other
day, recommending it to someone else say, “You’ve got to listen to Powder
Burns. It’s the Lone Ranger meets Clint
Eastwood meets the BBC.”
HENRY: That’s a great compliment. Age wise, what audience are you aiming for?
DAVID: I had
someone send me a message the other day; they said they had two children, ten
and
fourteen, who really enjoyed the show.
And the ten year old really surprises me, because I thought we’d be over
their head, just a bit. My rule of
thumb, as my director was saying, is nothing I will write is anything you
wouldn’t have in a John Wayne movie.
There will be the ‘Hells’ and the ‘damns’, the western style –
HENRY: But
it’s not going to be Tarantino dialogue?
DAVID: (laughing) Not in the least! I don’t know that we could get away with
that, especially in an audio-only medium.
HENRY: Do you
intend to keep POWDER BURNS as a strictly radio show, or have you contemplated
other media, like film or TV?
DAVID: I’d
love to do film or TV. It’s funny; the
last couple of months I’ve been in L.A., and whenever someone asks me about it,
they love the idea, and I tell them we’d be open to doing it as a limited series,
or something along that line. But
everybody thinks it’s a comedy. I had
someone say, “A blind central character doing that doesn’t make any sense.” And I say, what about RAY? And SCENT OF A WOMAN? Those are two of the best written characters
ever on the screen. I feel like Emmett
Burns could be one of those. But what I
get from Hollywood types is laughter.
Part of the point of the show is he’s just as capable of doing his job
without his sight, and maybe more so.
Because I’ve worked freelance with the Healthy Eye Alliance back in the
tri-state area, and part of the show is to illuminate to the sighted what it
might be like to be blind. I’ve had
people tell me they listen to the show and say they forgot he was blind. And that’s kind of the point; you should
forget. Because he doesn’t go through
the show saying, “I’m blind! I’m
blind!” He’s owning his disability; the
line from the opening episode is, “I’m blind, not a cripple,” and that’s sort of the thesis of the show.
John Wesley Shipp, Robert Vaughn, David Gregory
HENRY: It’s
interesting. What you have is sort of a
reverse fish-out-of-water story, in the sense
that this is his water, this is his world. And yet his circumstance has changed so
radically; he’s not someplace new, but the world has changed around him. That’s a really unusual premise, and I buy
this in a way I wouldn’t buy it if he was a blind man running for sheriff.
DAVID: And that’s something he says in every
episode, “Nobody wants a blind sheriff – me included. I’m not going to run for reelection.” We find out later the only reason his deputy
is sticking around is because he says, “You’re not fit for command,
sheriff. I’m just here so you can finish
your term, and then we’re done.” I
wanted to make sure that the crux of this season is, is he or is he not going
to run for sheriff. And there’s
something else that drives him to maybe run for sheriff.
HENRY: David, in your official bio at the site, it
says, “David is known primarily for saying
lines on TV in his underwear.” What’s
that about?
DAVID: (laughs) I was on a soap
opera, ONE LIFE TO LIVE, for three years, and I was rarely costumed. That’s actually how I met John Wesley Shipp,
who plays the sheriff; he played my villainous father on the show. I sent to him an email saying I have this
script. Would you like to take a
look? He said, let’s do it. We hadn’t worked together in a while, and it
was such a great excuse to get together and work together again. Florencia Lozano, who guest stars in episode two is another ONE
LIFE TO LIVE alumnus, and it was the same thing. I called her up and said I can give you this
amount of money, and here’s the script, and she said yes.
HENRY: In addition to creating
and writing and producing POWDER BURNS, you also play Deputy Bell. You’re the boss – why didn’t you give
yourself the part of Sheriff Burns?
DAVID: Actually, when we were
trying to raise money to do the show, my initial plan was to do a six minute
clip from the show to help sell it. John
was not available at the time, and somebody said David, why don’t you do
it? But it wouldn’t work. The quality of my voice, that’s not who he
is. I know for a fact that this story
works because we have a sixty-year-old man playing this war-torn sheriff. And he brings it – there is something very
special to what he’s doing. And I know
that I fit the best in the character I’m playing. And I almost didn’t play that part. I thought maybe I should just be on the
technical end of things so I don’t spread myself too thin. But I thought no, it’s a part I want to play,
it’s a part I know how to do, and I think I can bring something to. Everybody that’s involved in their specific
role, I think they fit perfectly. It
really makes quite a symphony of talent.
To learn more, and to hear the
other episodes, go HERE.
Find out
what it was like to grow up in Hollywood’s golden years, as kids of some of your
favorite Western stars! And If you want
to be sure and get a seat, better come early – Rob’s events are always packed! The event is free (you’ve got to buy your
lunch, of course), and the fun is priceless!
JUST ADDED – Special guest star,
the lovely Joan Collins!
GRIZZLY ADAMS REBOOT UPDATE!
Dan Haggerty as Grizzly Adams
In the December TRUE WEST MAGAZINE, I write about
the Ten Best Mountain Man movies, in preparation for the Christmas release of
Leonardo DiCaprio in THE REVENANT. On
the list of course is THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GRIZZLY ADAMS, which starred Dan
Haggerty, and became a very popular TV series.
The rights to Grizzly Adams were offered for sale in June, which was
surprising, since he was a real man, not an invented character. What they’re actually selling is the
fictionalized version of the man, as it was developed by GRIZZLY ADAMS producer
Charles Sellier. Last week the Abrams
Artists Agency came on-board to represent all rights. The man behind the move to revitalize Grizzly
Adams is Tod Swindell, who is now teamed with Michael Greenberg, exec producer
on MACGYVER and STARGATE SG-1.
Why the sudden interest in the bear-lovin’ mountain
man? The beard and the flannel – Dan
Haggerty as Grizzly Adams – is the man that the hipster lumbersexuals are
trying to be. The GRIZZLY ADAMS
franchise brought in over $140 million in the 1970s – that would certainly be
twice as much in today’s dollars.
By the way, Dan Haggerty was actually the second man to portray Grizzly Adams on
film. The first? John Huston, in THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE
ROY BEAN, 1972, which Huston also directed, from a John Milius script.
‘JOHNNY GUITAR’ AT NEW YORK’S FILM FORUM THRU THURS.
If you’re in New York City, a beautiful new
restoration of JOHNNY GUITAR is showing at the Film Forum through Thursday, the
19th. If you haven’t seen
this western, it’s a real love it or hate it film. It stars Joan Crawford and Mercedes MacCambridge
as dueling land baronesses. The male
leads are Scott Brady as The Dancin’ Kid and Sterling Hayden as Johnny Guitar. The traditional sex-roles are reversed, with
the men playing it ‘straight’ and the women chewing the scenery. It’s great nutty fun, with a great
supporting cast -- Ward Bond, John Carradine, Ernest Borgnine. It’s directed by the great Nicholas Ray, who
gave us REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, IN A LONELY PLACE, THE LUSTY MEN, and many
others. When I was in college, at NYU
Film School, I actually got to work with Nick Ray for one weekend. All I did was repair torn sprockets, but it
was a thrill to just be around him and listen to his stories.
‘GUNSMOKE’ RADIO REENACTMENT AT THE VAN NUYS ELKS
SAT. NOV 21ST !
Unexpectedly, I get to end with
another Western radio item. This Saturday
night at the Elks Lodge 2790 will kick off their annual Holiday Food Basket
Drive to benefit families in the Van Nuys area with a night of Old Time Radio
reenactments! I’ve been asked to take
part! We’ll be performing episodes of
GUNSMOKE, MY FAVORITE HUSBAND – on TV it became I LOVE LUCY, and a great
Sherlock Holmes story, A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA.
It’s open to the public, and admission is canned goods, food
or cash donations. Dinner is at six, the
play begins at 6:30. The Van Nuys -
Reseda Elks Lodge 2790 is located at 14440 Friar St. Van Nuys, 91401. It should be a lot of fun – hope to see you
there!
AND THAT’S A WRAP!
Had a great time this Saturday at
the Autry, introducing the screening of THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, and even
getting input from its costar, Sondra Locke!
Thanks to the more than a hundred folks who came. I’ll have a feature on the making of JOSEY
WALES in the Round-up very soon! And
good news -- the folks at getTV have come aboard at The Autry as sponsors of
their monthly ‘What is a Western?’ film series.
Happy Trails,
Henry!
All Original Contents Copyright
November 2015 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
Two Wednesdays ago I drove to Simi Valley and for
the first time visited the glorious Big
Sky Movie Ranch. Originally 12,500 acres of land that were
purchased in 1903 to be the Patterson Ranch Company, they raised livestock and
grew grain. Some critters still roam
there today, each waiting for their close-up.
Its verdant flat valleys and strikingly barren hills have been seen on
big screen and small for many years.
Much of the RAWHIDE cattle-drive footage was shot here. It stood in as large parts of The Ponderosa
on BONANZA, and turned up in GUNSMOKE episodes as well. Michael ‘Little Joe’ Landon returned and
built his little town for LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, and blew it up in the
final episode. WILD BILL (1995) and THE
GAMBLER TV-movies were shot there. More
recently it was seen in the Walt Disney/Mary Poppins story SAVING MR. BANKS
(2013) and DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012).
Currently it’s the location for several key
sequences in TRADED, a new Western from Status
Media, the third film in their current five-picture pact with distributor Cinedigm. I knew nothing about the plot, and Producer
Michael Long tantalized me, telling me one of the great strengths of the
project is the screenplay by Mark Esslinger.
“It’s a great script. We’ve had a
lot of people interested in it. Agents have come and made offers to us based on
the script.” We both agreed that it’s
prime time for sagebrush sagas. “Everyone
gets excited about Westerns. There are
like twelve Westerns being made over the next year.”
Costumer Nikki Pelley was taking the leading lady
away for a wardrobe change when I arrived.
I poked my head in the barn, saw a wooden coffin sitting on a pair of
saw-horses. It was too small for an
adult. Producer, prop-man, period
advisor and actor Peter Sherayko caught up with me. “Want to talk to Michael Pare’?” I surely did.
The star of the film, Pare’ first made a splash in the title role of
EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS (1983), and soon followed with STREETS OF FIRE (1984)
for Walter Hill. Among the other top
directorial talent he’s worked with is John Carpenter, in the remake of VILLAGE
OF THE DAMNED (1995), along with many crime and action films that make use of
Pare’s strong presence and powerful physique.
His face was battered and bloody (stage-bloody), as he sat on a rocking
chair, on the porch of a stagecoach stop you’ve seen a hundred times, and
talked about TRADED.
Michael Pare and Dir. Timothy Woodward (n shades)
HENRY: I just
saw you on the big screen about a week ago in BONE TOMAHAWK.
MICHAEL:
That’s great! You know, Kurt
(Russell) and I met back in 1979; we had
the same manager. He was one of the
first Hollywood people I met. A fine
actor and a great guy.
HENRY: I’ve
been following your career for years, but I never thought of you as a Western
guy until recently. But in two years isn’t this your third western?
MICHAEL:
Well, they say that STREETS OF FIRE (1984) was a Western. Walter Hill is famous for his western – he
has trains in every one of his movies.
We had the Iron Horse motorcycle.
But three other times I’ve ridden horses in movies. I was in a vampire movie (BLOODRAYNE 2:
DELIVERANCE - 2007). I play Pat Garrett; I kill Billy the Kid, who was a
vampire in the story. I did another one
called TRIPPLECROSS (1995) with Billy Dee Williams and Patrick Bergin. Three times I’ve ridden horses, but this is
the first real Western I’ve
done. (Note: in BONE TOMAHAWK Michael
doesn’t ride a horse).
HENRY: And
how are you enjoying it?
MICHAEL: It’s
great. You know, everyone who comes to
Hollywood wants to make a western, a gangster movie, a sports story – these are
the classic Hollywood genres. And love
stories.
HENRY: Did
you grow up with Westerns?
MICHAEL:
Yeah, you know, I’m a baby-boomer, so we spent a lot of time in front of
the television watching all those great westerns – TRUE GRIT with John Wayne,
STAGECOACH, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY – all the great Clint
Eastwoods. UNFORGIVEN is one of my
favorites.
HENRY: What
attracted you to this role?
MICHAEL:
Well, I’ve worked with Tim Woodward; he’s directed me in a few movies
now (4GOT10, CHECKMATE, SWAT: UNIT 877 – all 2015). He kept talking about a western, and I was just
hoping to be in his western. When he handed me this script, and he said,
“This is my next movie,” it’s just a flawless script. There are just no mistakes, no moments where
you say, “Why would they do that?” Or
“How did this happen?” Just a flawless,
classic Western. Then about a week ago
he told me, “Mike, I want you for the lead.”
I almost dropped the phone. It
was like a dream come true. I like
working with Tim a lot. I have complete
trust and faith and confidence. It just
seems to go well
HENRY: What
is TRADED about?
MICHAEL: I
don’t want to give away the whole story.
My wife, my daughter, my son and I are all living this peaceful
existence. Then things start to go
wrong, and all Hell breaks loose. The
old demons rise up, and you know, you can use them to your purpose, if you have
a strong enough will. And we have a
happy ending.
HENRY: Tell
me more about your character. What does
he do for a living?
MICHAEL: I’m
a dirt-farmer. I plant, we have a
subsistence farm. Maybe we get lucky,
and we can sell something that’s left over, or a sheep or something, but we’re
just subsistence farmer’s living in God’s country.
HENRY: When
you look at Westerns, are there any actor’s roles you look at and say, I wish I
had his part?
MICHAEL: Most
of the hit movies, there’s a part in there for me. (laughs)
HENRY: Would
you like to do another Western?
MICHAEL:
Absolutely. I’d like to go away
for a few months and shoot a movie. Take
three or four months, and just live on the ranch, in the bunkhouse, with the
director, the d.p., all of the principal cast and crew, and really do something
special.
HENRY: We
talked about Western movies. Were there
any Western TV shows you watched?
MICHAEL: Like
I said, I was a baby-boomer, so BONANZA, RAWHIDE, Marshal Dillon on
GUNSMOKE. These were all classics. BONANZA was every Sunday night up until like
7th grade.
HENRY: Which
son did you identify with?
MICHAEL: I
guess Adam, because Hoss was kinda dopey, Little Joe was cute, and I wanted to
be the one who won all the fights. The
smart one.
Michael Long, Ardeshir Radpour
Michael Pare & Timothy Woodward
I was lucky to finish with Michael, because he was
needed on set. A climactic scene was
being shot, with Michael riding up, against the sun sinking behind the hills,
and a setting sun doesn’t permit too many retakes. I watched director Timothy Woodward Jr., get
his scene, and then we went back to that porch, and he gave me a run-down of
the story.
TIMOTHY: TRADED
is a period-piece western, takes place in the 1800s. Our lead character and his family start off
very peaceful, a very happy family. They
lose a child, and then their daughter leaves to become a Harvey Girl. The father goes out looking for her. We find out that the father was an outlaw;
he’s retired from it. Now he’s on this
mission to save her from a prostitution ring she’s been taken into. He comes in to save the day, and has to
battle some of his own demons. I like to
say it’s like TAKEN in the Wild West. I
did a movie before, my last one , 4GOT10, starring Dolph Lundgren and Danny
Trejo, and it was shot a lot like a modern western – spaghetti style. While we were doing it I really started
falling in love with doing a Western. I
always loved Westerns growing up as a kid.
I started doing a lot of research to see if we can pull off doing a
Western. What will it take? We were finding locations, and a script came
in that was just written very, very well.
Our (studio) readers loved it, I loved it, And it fit. It took a lot of convincing of a lot of
people, a lot of begging, but there’s a lot of people in this town who are very
supportive of doing a western, very excited about it, so we’ve got a good team.
HENRY: There
does seem to be a resurgence of interest in Westerns.
TIMOTHY: You
know, when you’re making a movie, you’re trying to tell a story, you’re trying
to create a world that’s real. A world where
people can believe what they see is actually happening. When you do a Western, you take away the
technology, you bring people back to the simple life, you kind of transport
them into this world. And it’s a lot easier to get their attention, because it’s not something they’re seeing
every day, like in modern films. It’s
almost like putting someone on another planet.
Because it is something that no one living has ever experienced, other
than reading about it, or seeing great movies.
HENRY: Why do you think there is such a resurgence
of interest on Westerns at this time?
TIMOTHY: Again,
people are looking for an escape. And
there’s always this fascination about gunslingers, outlaws, the country when it
wasn’t yet developed, and the Wild West.
There came a time period when (film) was about CGI and things like that,
and I think now we’re getting back to a place where it’s about story-telling
and connecting with characters. And in a
world where everybody sends a text-message or an email, let’s get introduced to
some simple people who believed in love and compassion and communication.
HENRY: Is
this your first period picture?
TIMOTHY: This
is my first true period picture. I did a futuristic movie last, but as far as
one that takes place in the past, this is my first.
HENRY: What
are the biggest challenges going from doing a present day story to a period
picture?
TIMOTHY: Everything has to be created from the
ground up. Anywhere you look now,
there’s going to be high-rise buildings.
Every single thing about the characters and what they do has to be
period. Clothing. Horses.
There’s no cars, no cell phones.
There’s no outlets in the walls.
When you’re location scouting, you’re trying to find a house where
there’s nothing in the walls. Where can
I find furniture that’s hand-crafted? Everything
to keep it authentic. Lucky for us, we
were able to connect with Pete (Peter Sherayko), who had a large supply of
things. And we were able to land really
good locations like BIG SKY, PARAMOUNT RANCH and WHITE HORSE MOVIE RANCH, and
we’re huge about shooting in Southern California. We’re excited, being a smaller movie, to be
shooting here. We’ve got a big train
sequence – one of our guys is going to jump from a horse to a train, they’re
going to fight on top of a train. We’re
pushing the boundaries, and having a good time doing it.
HENRY: You
said you were a fan of westerns. Did you
grow up with them?
TIMOTHY: Of
course. TOMBSTONE is one of my favorite
movies of all time, hands down. I like
WYATT EARP a lot, too. 3:10 TO YUMA is
one of my recent favorites. I like TRUE
GRIT, the remake. I have seen the John
Wayne classic, and I like it, but I do like the remake a bit better. I love all of Clint Eastwood’s movies. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY; great
film. I used to watch THE LONE RANGER as
a kid, from five to ten, every Saturday morning. What kid doesn’t grow up playing cowboys and
Indians?
HENRY: How
many pictures have you directed before this?
TIMOTHY:
Seven before this, so this is number eight for me. Things have been moving very fast for
me. But we use a lot of the same actors;
we use a lot of the same crew. We’ve got
a unit, we’ve got a team, and it works. So
we keep creating. I love being
on-set. I love being able to create, to
make things happen. I love seeing the
crew and everybody — it’s like a big family, and I love doing this.
HENRY: How
long a shooting schedule do you have?
TIMOTHY: Eighteen
regular days, plus five second-unit days, for horse-riding stuff, so
twenty-three total.
HENRY: Who
else is in your cast?
TIMOTHY: Trace
Adkins and Kris Kristofferson are signed on, and we may have someone else, but
I can’t say right now for sure.
HENRY: Do you
know what your next project is?
TIMOTHY: I’ve
got one scheduled that’s a modern movie, about a death row inmate, and the last
interview he’s going to give. But I would
love to do another Western. Aand I’m even looking at the possibility of doing a
TV series.
HENRY: I’m
not going to ask how this one ends, but is there the possibility of doing a
sequel?
TIMOTHY:
There’s always a possibility. We have
a distributor that stands behind us, and they do a really good job of marketing
our product and getting it out. So if TRADED
does really well, and people want it, it could happen.
HENRY: Speaking internationally, where is the
audience for Westerns?
TIMOTHY: I
honestly think everywhere. I think everybody is fascinated by it. It’s funny, because a lot of the
international sales guys go, “Oh, Westerns are a tough sell sometimes.” But our guys are really excited about the
project and excited about the prospects.
I think any time you can transport someone’s mind and make them believe
in this other world, it’s interesting.
This story has love, it has drama, it has action, it has suspense, so there’s
a lot of stuff going on. Michael Pare is
the man – he’s an all-star. Peter Sherayko
helped make this all possible, we wouldn’t even have attempted to do all this
if we didn’t have one guy able to really to show us the way. If I say, “Hey, would this happen?” he’s right
there to tell me. In addition to just supplying the stuff, his knowledge is
huge. And having his team is huge. And we have a young crew of good guys. Don’t ever say you can’t: you can.
Peter Sherayko, Producer Michael Long, propman Christian Ramirez,
Wrangler Adeshir Radpour, Cheryl Rusa - wardrobe, photog David Coardoza
There were a lot of familiar faces on the crew,
members of Peter Sherayko’s Caravan West
outfit who’ve worked together on dozens of films, TV shows, commercials and
documentaries. In addition to Nikki
Pelley, Christian Ramirez was working props, horseman and cowboy poet Troy
Andrew Smith was wrangling, as was Ardeshir Radpour, sporting a scruffy beard
for his on-camera role in the upcoming WESTWORLD. I asked Peter how he got involved with
TRADED.
Peter Sherayko
PETER:
(Producer) Mike Long called me about a month ago, and said we have a
western to do, and he’d gotten a recommendation on me. They came out to the ranch, they looked at
the location, the costumes, the props, the guns, the horses. We started talking, and Timothy, the director
said, “And you were Texas Jack in TOMBSTONE!
We’ve got to have you!” So I’m
going to be acting in the movie as well.
And because of the amount of stuff I’m bringing in, they made me the
consulting producer on the movie. So I
get another producer credit, which I’m very proud of. It’s something that has happened over the
last two years that has really surprised me.
HENRY: Who do
you play?
PETER: Almost
Texas Jack. They want me to dress the
same way, and Timothy’s writing the part in as we speak. It’s not until the last week of shooting,
because next week I’m in Louisiana doing ROOTS.
I’m a Confederate officer, leading a charge against Fort Pillow.
HENRY:
Weren’t you just on the other side, playing General Grant?
PETER: I was
so thrilled with that. I took the
director and writer and producer on a tour of the Caravan West Ranch. They were just doing a promo shoot to see if
they could raise the money to shoot a movie called ELLEN BOND, who General
Grant hired to be a spy in the Confederate White House. As I’m giving them a tour, and naturally I
have a cigar, the director kept looking at me, and finally he says, “Would you
like to be General Grant?” I said, “Well
yeah, I’d love to.” Then they put me
through make-up – which I never do –
and when they were finished, I did look like General Grant. And I have scenes with the slave, the slave
owner Grant is trying to make a deal with, and with President Lincoln.
Peter, Nikki Pelley
HENRY: You never stop working.
PETER:
Yup. I’m gone for the week while TRADED
is at Paramount Ranch. I’ll be finishing
up in Louisiana, and driving straight to the set at White Horse Ranch in Yucca
Valley.
HENRY: I
haven’t been to White Horse Ranch. Isn’t
that near Pioneertown?
PETER:
Yes. White Horse Ranch only has a
saloon, a jail, and maybe one other building, but a lot of false fronts and
small buildings. But this movie takes
place in several towns, and they couldn’t shoot in Melody Ranch because of
WESTWORLD. So we’re doing White Horse as
Wichita, whereas Paramount is going to be Dodge City.
One great thing about visiting the sets of small
movies is important stuff is shot every day – there’s no dead time. The first thing I’d seen shot was the very
end of the picture. I’d missed the kid
brother’s death earlier in the day – I hear it was heartbreaking – but I
watched the scene of the boy’s body being laid out. By then the sun was gone, and I had to be on
my way. I still have a tape-player in my
car. I pushed in a cassette of THE LONE
RANGER radio show, and listened to The William Tell Overture as I passed hills
and trees, cattle and sheep, but not a power-line or car headlight until I was
almost out of the Big Sky property. It
was perfect.
SHOOTING SCRIPTS – FROM PULP WESTERN TO FILM by Bob
Herzberg
A Book Review
The knowledgeable, entertaining and prolific Mr.
Herzberg (REVOLUTIONARY MEXICO ON FILM, THE F.B.I. AND THE MOVIES, THE LEFT
SIDE OF THE SCREEN – COMMUNIST AND LEFT-WING IDEOLOGY IN HOLLYWOOD, etc.) takes
Western writing seriously. He treats it
not as an escapist trifle, but as literature of real merit, and SHOOTING
SCRIPTS is an often amusing and always enlightening study of seven writers
whose novels, and sometimes screenplays helped define how we look at the West.
Starting with the basic premise that God created
Owen Wister (THE VIRGINIAN), and Wister begat Zane Grey, Max Brand, and
Hopalong Cassidy-creator Clarence Mulford, Herzberg examines the highly productive
seven – not all of them magnificent – whose work so frequently graced the
screen from the Great Depression through the 1970s: Ernest Haycox, Luke Short,
Frank Gruber, Norman A. Fox, Louis L’Amour, Marvin H. Albert, and Clair
Huffaker.
His analysis is in-depth. Each author receives a detailed biography, and
each of his filmed novels receives a step-by-step comparison of where plots
were followed, and where they strayed, where it helped and where it hurt. Mr. Herzberg is not shy in offering his often
withering criticisms of much-loved writers.
He considers Frank Gruber a talentless hack, and Louis L’Amour endlessly
repetitive, and with something of a master-race obsession. He has laudable respect for the Ernest ‘STAGECOACH’
Haycox, and Luke ‘Everything with Randolph Scott’ Short. He also gives Huffaker, the screenwriter of
many of the best big and small-screen Westerns of the 1960s, attention that is
long overdue.
Every period film, consciously or not reflects two
periods: when the story is set, and when the film is made. An unexpected element of the book is Herzberg’s
political analysis of the films, often revealing an undercurrent of McCarthyism
or Communism that went over the audience’s heads. His discussion of L’Amour’s SHALAKO alone is
worth the price of admission.
The one thing this volume lacks is a simple list of
credits for each author. It’s all there,
but you have to search through the text to find it. Published by McFarland, SHOOTING SCRIPTS is
available from Amazon and other fine booksellers for $35.
ENJOY ‘RAMONA MOVIE NIGHT’ AND ‘RANCHO CAMULOS DAY’
THIS WEEKEND!
Rancho Camulos, the ranch home a mile from Piru that
inspired Helen Hunt Jackson to write the international best-seller RAMONA, will
celebrate its history this weekend with a pair of Ramona-centric events! On Saturday night, November 7th,
you can have an elegant candlelight dinner at the 1852 adobe, and then watch
two – count ‘em two – silent film versions of RAMONA, both filmed at the Rancho.
The 1910 version, directed by D. W. Griffith, and starring Mary
Pickford, will be followed by clips from the recently discovered, long ‘lost’
1916 version, starring Ada Gleason, which in its original full version was said
to run over three hours! The price per
ticket is $50. On Sunday, Rancho Camulos
Day, from noon ‘til 4, enjoy a variety of historical entertainments,
reenactments, food and fun, and a 3:30 pm screening of the 1928 Dolores Del Rio
version of RAMONA. Tickets are $5. For more information, and to buy tickets,
visit their official site HERE.
JOIN ME AT THE AUTRY SATURDAY, NOV. 14, FOR ‘OUTLAW
JOSEY WALES’
I’m tremendously flattered that I’ve been asked to
introduce THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976) at the Autry, as a part of their
long-running ‘What is a Western?’ film series.
This emotional and highly personal post-Civil War drama, directed by and
starring Clint Eastwood, is as good as anything else he’s directed before or
since. It features a powerful cast,
including Oscar nominees Sondra Locke (for THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER) and
Chief Dan George (for LITTLE BIG MAN), John Vernon, Sam Bottoms, and many
others. I can’t wait to share some of
the remarkable behind-the-scenes stories about Clint, screenwriter Philip
Kaufman, and novelist Forrest Carter.
The program takes place at 1:30 pm, at the Wells Fargo Theatre, and is
free with your paid museum admission. I
hope to see you there!
AND THAT’S A WRAP!
Me, Bobbi Jean Bell & Jim Christina
Something new has been added! Jim Christina and Bobbi Jean Bell, the good
folks who do the Writer’s Block Show on radio every Thursday night at eight,
have made me a regular part of their program.
Every other show, I’ll drop by to give a sneak preview of the next
Round-up!
And coming soon to the Round-up will be my interview
with Western actor Bruce Boxleitner; director Steve Carver, who has been
working for years on a stunning Western photography project; and David Gregory,
who has created a new Western radio drama.
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Material Copyright November 2015 by
Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
