‘AMERICAN WEST’ PRODUCERS SPEAK! PLUS ‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ CRAIG ZAHLER ON NEW WESTERN, 2ND GEN LEONE WESTERN!

‘THE AMERICAN WEST’ PRODUCERS SPEAK

I hope that, even as you watch each new episode of AMC’s HELL ON WHEELS, dreading the series’ imminent finale, you are staying tuned afterwards for the fascinating THE AMERICAN WEST, the documentary series executive produced by Robert Redford.  Focusing on the brief but tumultuous period between the end of the Civil War and the start of a new century, the series happily has a different plan of attack from the many entertaining but oftentimes repetitive docudrama series of the last several years.

The two men with boots on the ground for AMERICAN WEST are producers Stephen David and Tim W. Kelly.  Their previous history-based miniseries work together has included THE MEN WHO BUILT AMERICA (2012) about the great industrialists, THE MAKING OF THE MOB: NEW YORK (2015), the historical drama SONS OF LIBERTY (2015), and many others.  They’ve earned many Emmy nominations and other laurels for their work, and Tim won an Emmy for his sound work on SONS.  I had the chance to preview the first two episodes of AMERICAN WEST, and to talk with Stephen and Tim. 

HENRY: You’ve done both documentaries, and recently historical dramas like SONS OF LIBERTY, and experimental thrillers like REDRUM. What’s the most satisfying?

STEPHEN: I personally enjoy these big historical miniseries.  I like the fact that we get to learn, that when people are watching they get to see something they thought they knew, in a different way.   Our goal is to try and get more into what the truth is instead of the myth, or what we may have learned in school.  Because of the internet, and the way information flows now, I think people know that the mythologies that we learned in school don’t necessarily feel right; feel real.  There’s a much more human side behind all of this.  People do things because of their own desires, their own egos, and inadvertently it has a huge effect.  I love to delve into the psychology behind them.

TIM: It’s interesting now, with social media, you can watch live as the show’s happening , and (follow) on Twitter.  You see people reacting to the show, and it’s happening in real-time – it’s almost instant reviews.  It’s really interesting when you see teenagers Tweeting about history.  There’s something satisfying, to open this up to a younger audience, as well as the older audiences that are already interested in history.  In a society that can be very (busy) on their smartphones, to see them getting into history is sort of a cool thing.

HENRY: There have been a number of Western documentary series since the mid 90s, most of them focusing on the same less-than-a-dozen individuals.  Did you worry that they were overexposed?  That there was nothing new to say about them?

STEPHEN:  I’ve seen stuff where each character has an individual episode.  But what we were trying to show was that each of these people were living simultaneously, and had a cause-and- effect relationship on each other and the country.  I think the key to our show is, what this person did led to this, led to this.  The Little Big Horn led to the election of 1876 – you see how one thing causes another thing to happen.

HENRY: Which is very clear.  Because your premise, if I’m not misstating it, is that what we think of as the history of the American West is really all an outgrowth of President Grant’s attempts to unify a post-Civil War U.S., and fight a two-front war.

TIM:  That’s one of the jumping-off points to how the whole migration happened.  It played such a big role.  I think that a lot of these (other shows) look at the single story, and we’ve been able to look at the bigger picture of the whole country, and see how all of these different outlaws and politicians, and these legends of the west, all the roles that they played came together to cause the settling of the west that we have today.   

HENRY: What was the genesis of THE AMERICAN WEST?

STEPHEN:  We wanted to do something about all these names we knew something about.  And we found that they all lived and were big characters within a twenty-year time period, and it all came out of the Civil War.  At the end of the Civil War, the West became sort of a healing ground, and a lot of the people who had nothing to go back to, went west.     But many people who went out there were like the P.T.S.D. (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) survivors of the Civil War, a generation of men that grew up in extreme violence.  (It was) a unique period in American history where you have people who had learned to solve their problems through violence; you had a short but ultra-violent time.  We just found that fascinating, that that existed.

HENRY: It puts a whole different focus on what we think of as outlaws.

STEPHEN: What’s interesting about that time period, about the world in general, is that the people with money decide what the laws are.  And you really see that there, but I guess it always has been that way, and still is.  What we see when we talk about outlaws is that the line is very grey.  Who is an outlaw and who is the law can change overnight; we certainly see it with Wyatt Earp.

HENRY: You focus on a half-dozen iconic people like Custer, Crazy Horse, Jesse James.  Was it a tough weeding our process?  Is there anyone you regret leaving out?

STEPHEN:   If we could have kept going, I definitely would have had Butch Cassidy in there.  It’s an amazing story, and he grew up in this west that we’re talking about.  But by the time he was really becoming an outlaw, the West had been closed.  In 1890, they declared the frontier was closed: every piece of land had been claimed.  Our first year of research and outlines, Butch was connected; but we ended up having to take him out. 

HENRY: What is Robert Redford’s involvement?

STEPHEN: He is an executive producer.  He came in when we sold it; you also see him throughout the show, as an expert.  He is probably the most knowledgeable person we ever met about the West.  He knows a lot. 

HENRY: Obviously he played Liver-Eating Johnson and The Sundance Kid, but I didn’t know he was a real student of Western history.

TIM:  He’s lived in Utah the last thirty years, and he is extremely passionate about the West.  Back in the seventies he rode the whole outlaw trail, and did a book about it, with photos, and writing the history of it.  (Note: THE OUTLAW TRAIL – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME, by Robert Redford and Jonathan Blair, was published in 1978)  I think when he got into those roles, he got infatuated with the times, and the beauty of the west, and the characters.  He’s very passionate about the whole subject, about the Native Americans and their relationship to the land.  It’s something that he is extremely interested in, and cares a lot about.

STEPHEN: When he was making BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, he actually met people who had helped them out as they were riding across the country, trying to get away.  They hid them, and got them fresh horses.

HENRY: That’s remarkable.  You forget what a young country we are.  But when you think that movie was made in 1969, those wild days weren’t all that long ago. Your commentary seems evenly split between historians and cowboy actors.  How did you assemble your stellar cast?  Did having Robert Redford help a little?

STEPHEN: (chuckles) I think his name helped.  We got lucky that these people wanted to do commentary.  And it was interesting because a lot of times you get celebrities, and they may not really know, and you give them kind of general comments.  But these people really knew their history.  We found that as they prepared for whatever historical roles they were playing, they did a lot of research.

HENRY: That’s nice.  So you didn’t have to give, say, Kiefer Sutherland a script and tell him, this is what Jesse James was like?

TIM:  Kiefer was one of the more knowledgeable – we were amazed at how much he knew about all these characters and the stories.  I think from when he did his role in YOUNG GUNS (1988), he studied all these guys.

HENRY: Did anyone else stand out as knowledgeable?

TIM:  There’s Redford; Tom Sellick was great – he really knew his stuff.

STEPHEN:  I think what was really interesting about Tom Sellick was he really knew the big picture.  He knew how each of these smaller things affected the bigger picture.  You have to know a good deal about the subject to see all the relationships. 

HENRY: Your reenactments are a step above what we’re used to seeing.  The production values are great – it looks like a big-budget feature.  What is the casting process like? 

STEPHEN: We do film this like a movie.  We’ve done quite a few; we were the first to do the genre on a big scale, with THE MEN WHO BUILT AMERICA.  So we’re practiced, we use the same crews; we have a system of filming.  It feels like a drama, and you get into these characters.  We don’t want it to feel like a reenactment.  We just want the whole thing to feel emotional; have the archive and the voice-over and the drama all feel seamless.  I watch documentaries – and there are great documentaries – but a lot of times I’m washed over with a lot of information.  Our idea was, if the information added to the character’s stake, then you cared more about the information.  So when we’re looking at what information is in the show, and what is not, it really has to do with, does this move the character’s story forward?

HENRY: Just as you would do in a drama.

STEPHEN: Right. 

HENRY: Have you ever considered casting familiar actors?

STEPHEN: (laughs) If it was in the budget.

TIM: Even with MEN WHO BUILT AMERICA, about the industrial revolution, you know the names of these people, but there’s very few pictures.  So you don’t necessarily know what they look like.  So we try to make the (actors) look as much like them (as possible).  If we succeed, the people will just associate that actor; they have no other preconception.  They become that character.  That’s the hope. 

HENRY: Where was the series shot?  How long a shooting schedule was it?

TIM: We shot in West Virginia and in Utah; we had a split shoot.

STEPHEN: We had a shoot of sixty days.  To make it a little more complicated, we actually shoot with two crews simultaneously for thirty days.

HENRY: What obstacles did the production face?

TIM: One thing that was very important to us was handling the Native American story in a respectful way, and telling the real story.  I felt like it hadn’t been done.  So we wanted to make sure we got people who spoke Lakota, people who could channel the energy of these legendary characters like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.  It was an obstacle, but we ended up with an amazing cast of guys. 

STEPHEN:  We wanted to tell the full story; that they weren’t just victims.

HENRY:  Any favorite memories from the production?

TIM: One of the most exciting days was when we were doing Little Big Horn and the lead-up to it.  Obviously it was a horrible war.  But you get all those horses out there, and we had cameras and monitors set up in the ATVs, and we’re just tearing through these fields in the ATVs alongside horses that are at a full gallop – it was pretty exhilarating, pretty fun to get out there with the toys and get those amazing shots.

HENRY: Speaking of the equipment, what did you shoot with? 

TIM: We shot on the Arri Amira.

HENRY: Is there a moment you’re particularly proud of?

TIM: To me, one of the most fun scenes, is what they call ‘the big killing’.  It’s when Billy the Kid and his gang are tracked down to a house, and the local mayor, who is after him, brings in the government.  They bring in Gatling guns, and they have a huge shootout with Billy the Kid in this house – bullets are ripping through the house.  His whole crew gets killed, and he somehow escapes unscathed.  It’s an intense shootout scene that’s pretty fun to watch.

HENRY: The violence is more unflinching than it would have been in the past: when a character is shot in the chest, you can see his heart pumping out the blood from the wound.  When Jesse James shoots a man in the face, the back of his head explodes against the wall behind him.  Why so graphic?

TIM: I think the reality is this was a very violent time.  The amount of people who died in that war was mind-boggling; that’s what led to this violent time, and that’s what these guys were – they were violent.  A lot of them were murderers.  It’s the reality.  Not every scene we do in the show is that violent, but those moments, it’s impactful when you see that.  It is brutal, but it’s showing the impact of the war, and all that violence on them.

HENRY: I’ve only seen the first two episodes, so I don’t know where the story goes.  Does the story enter the 20^th century? 

STEPHEN: We take it to the end of the frontier, when the West is closed.

TIM: There is sort of a coda that takes place in the 1920s – I guess it would be a spoiler if I gave it away. 

HENRY: Are you planning on a sequel?

STEPHEN: I think we’ve gone to the end of the West.  When we start, we essentially have a North and South that go as far west as the Mississippi River, and beyond that you just have land.  By the end of this you have an America that’s from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that is all one America, and you see how that all happened in 25 years; and we think that is the story. 

TIM: In the last episode there’s a map that starts as we began the show, and it fills in where the people have all settled. You see the states start to fill in, and it’s pretty amazing to see the change that happened in that time period, to see that happen very quickly in front of you on the map.

HENRY:  Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

STEPHEN: As you get into episodes 3, 4 and 5, you feel this cause and effect that is very much like the election we’re going through right now.  The election of 1876 is very much like this election, and everything that is leading up to it.  There’s a divided country, there’s racism, there was a recent financial collapse caused by mass corruption.  There are rigged elections, there are political machines.  I think people are going to look at this and say, things haven’t change much in 140 years.

HENRY: They should be running this on CNN.  What’s next?

STEPHEN: We have MAKING OF THE MOB: CHICAGO coming on AMC. 

You can read my article on THE AMERICAN WEST in the August issue of TRUE WEST.

RIDLEY SCOTT TO HELM CRAIG ZAHLER’S ‘WRAITHS OF THE BROKEN LAND’

Craig Zahler

Back when we spoke on the set of BONE TOMAHAWK, writer/director S. Craig Zahler told me that much of the attention he’d gotten in Hollywood was due to his Western novel WRAITHS OF THE BROKEN LAND.  Now it’s been announced that WRAITHS will reach the big screen under the guidance of director Ridley Scott and scripter Drew Goddard, who collaborated on last year’s hugely popular THE MARTIAN. 

While I knew Craig had his hands full, prepping a pair of movies, PUPPET MASTER and BRAWL, I wondered how he felt about someone else doing the lensing of WRAITHS.  It turns out he’s even busier than I thought.  He told the Round-up, “I just finished my fourth script of 2016 – two of which are 179 page monsters – while prepping both those other movies and a third one to be announced.  The only way something as complicated, nasty, and challenging as WRAITHS OF THE BROKEN LAND gets made in Hollywood is by having well established people stand behind it, and Drew Goddard and Ridley Scott are two such people.  This director has the resources and visual acumen to get this giant western spectacle on the screen, and this writer has told me that he intends to retain the characters, violence, and moral complexity of the book in his script while making it fit that medium.  Goddard is a fan on the novel and has been instrumental in moving this whole thing forward from day one, and I am hopeful that he and Scott will inexorably push their oater agendum.”

THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEONES TO PRODUCE ‘COLT’ SERIES

The series star is in the center

According to The Variety, back in 1987, the great Sergio Leone got together with his writers Sergio Donati, (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, DUCK YOU SUCKER), and Fulvio Morsella (FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST), and began crafting a story around The Man With No Name’s pistol from A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS.  The idea was that, like WINCHESTER ’73, the sidearm would pass through many hands, each with a story. 

Alas, it never happened.  But now, long after the maestro’s passing, his daughter Raffaella Leone and son Andrea Leone, who together run Leone Film Group, are in pre-production for a six-episode (to begin) series.  It will be directed by GOMORRAH director Stefano Sollima, son of writer director Sergio Sollima (FACE TO FACE, THE BIG GUNDOWN).

THAT’S A WRAP!

I had a few video reviews I was going to include, but I’m going to have to stop it there.  I’m still catching up on a week and a half lost to jury duty, and I have an audio commentary to do tomorrow, so I’ll sign off now to prepare.  By the way, the jury duty was very interesting, and if you have the time I’d recommend not trying to squirm out of it when they call you.

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

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

     

‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ REVIEW & INTERVIEWS, PLUS JOHN SAYLES TO SCRIPT ‘DJANGO LIVES!’, ‘JUSTIFIED’ AUCTION, AND MORE!

BONE TOMAHAWK – A Movie Review

When a pair of literal cut-throats, played by David Arquette and Sid Haig, have to scramble up a mountainside to escape pursuers, they stumble into the hidden aerie of a lost, savage, cannibal  tribe.   One of the two escapes, and days later wanders into the quiet town of Bright Hope, population 268.  Unfortunately, he’s been followed, and he and the people with him -- a deputy and a woman nursing the wounded cutthroat -- are spirited away to the aerie.  A small group of men quickly assemble to attempt a rescue.  They are the Sheriff (Kurt Russell), his back-up deputy (Richard Jenkins), the kidnapped woman’s husband (Patrick Wilson), and the woman’s wealthy former suitor (Matthew Fox). 

This is the start of a sharply written, elegantly played western adventure.  While the most exciting parts of the adventure commence when they reach the aerie, there is great fun, and character development, during the cross-desert trek.  Much of the pleasure is getting to know the men, none of whom seem entirely up to the undertaking.  The Sheriff is a capable law man, but his predilection for shooting people in the leg makes one doubt his judgment.  The back-up deputy is too old for the job, and seems somewhere between eccentric and simple.  The husband is the sort of sexist that has a hard time admitting the value of his fine wife until she’s gone – and he is traveling with one leg in a splint!  The former suitor is such a pompous prig that you can’t wait for him to be deflated. 

And yet, impressively, all these fallible men rise to the occasion.  They live by a code of honor and duty, and their imperfections make their dedication all the more admirable.  When Sheriff Hunt, preparing to leave, addresses some townspeople, telling them to stay vigilant, he indicates the missing woman’s husband.  “I’m riding out with Mr. O’Dwyer because there isn’t a choice for either of us.”  He doesn’t ask the crippled man ahead of time because there is no need: of course he is going.

There’s plenty of action, beautiful landscapes, and fine performances.  Kurt Russell is an older and more cautious lawman than his Wyatt Earp, but he is just as solid.  Richard Jenkins’ sidekick combines all the strengths of Chester and Festus and Gabby Hayes without imitating any of them.  Though the role was brief, I particularly liked Sid Haig, who seemed to be channeling Slim Pickens. 

While all of the film is entertaining, and much of it amusing, it gets increasing grim, and there are cringe-worthy moments of savage brutality.  I saw the film at its Hollywood Egyptian premiere, and at a particularly ugly moment, the man next to me muttered to himself, “Wait: it gets worse.”  And indeed it did.  It’s a very enjoyable film, but not recommended for the sensitive, and very definitely not for kids.   BONE TOMAHAWK opens this Friday, October 23rd.

INTERVIEW WITH ‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ WRITER/DIRECTOR S. CRAIG ZAHLER

Writer/director Craig Zahler, in the soon-to-be bloody 

barn, in his Once Upon A Time In The West shirt

BONE TOMAHAWK’s writer/director S. Craig Zahler is a first-time director, and only one of his 

many optioned screenplays, ASYLUM BLACKOUT (2011), has been filmed.  So it’s kind of remarkable that he gathered such an impressive cast – Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, David Arquette, et al.  Producer Dallas Sonnier says, “It all comes down to the script.  It’s just so good that is what has attracted everybody; so it’s a leap of faith on the part of these actors.” 

Both a crime and a western author, A CONGREGATION OF JACKALS, his first western novel, was nominated for a WWA Spur Award and a Peacekeeper by the Western Fictioneers.  But what really established him in Hollywood was the still-unfilmed western screenplay THE BRIGANDS OF RATTLEBORGE, which made the 2004 Black List.  (In typically obtuse Hollywood fashion, ‘Black List’ no longer refers to writers who are unemployable because of their politics.  It now refers to the best unsold screenplays of the year.)

One night almost exactly a year ago I was visiting a century-old farm just outside of L.A., watching Craig direct Kurt Russell and others in and around a stable.  Between set-ups, we talked.   

HENRY:  You’re a novelist, a screenwriter; a director; I know you’re not shooting this one, but you’re a cinematographer.

CRAIG:  The way it worked for me was I went to NYU film school and I studied cinematography, animation, and directing, and took the acting courses.  I got out of school, and I had a bunch of day jobs, working as a catering chef, and I worked as a cinematographer, pushing heavy metal bands, and writing and directing these weird little one-act theatre pieces.  There was a point when I was working as a cinematographer where I realized that I could make somebody’s forty-thousand dollar indie feature look like a two or three million dollar piece.  But if the writing wasn’t there, and the performances weren’t there, it was worthless.  Good cinematography in a movie that didn’t have content, performance, wasn’t even the frosting on the cake; it was the color of the frosting on the cake.  And that was how I got out of shooting.  I think that was when BREAKING THE WAVES (1996), the Lars Von Trier, came out.  I saw that, and I thought it looked terrible.  But it was such an excellent movie, and the content was there, the performances and the writing.  And that was when I started focusing more and more on writing.  It was also a weird transitional period.  Because I was shooting film exclusively, and the digital thing was starting to happen.  But at the time the digital stuff didn’t look great, and I didn’t want to shoot that stuff. 

HENRY:  At that point, were you focusing on screenplays or novels?

CRAIG:  It’s interesting.  The thing with a movie is, you need a lot of people to believe of you in terms of the financial aspect.  You need to convince a lot of people.  I think one of the reasons I focused on the (novel) writing is because by nature I’m not especially collaborative, and that was something where I could just control every word.  At this point I’m fortunate that my fourth book just came out couple weeks ago, and these are pretty much exactly as I wrote it down.  A couple of words were changed, once I removed a chapter just to bring the word-count down, but the control there is great, and you don’t need to compromise because you’re losing daylight or your running out of money or your horse has flatulence.  It’s great in that there’s no limit when I’m writing fiction, other than how much time I want to put into it.  How much I want to refine the prose.  If directing movies wasn’t expensive I probably would have directed ten by now. Books are just time: my last book is just fifteen hundred hours of my time, and I completed it and it was published.  And the one before it was just twelve-hundred hours, so I just know what it is.

HENRY:  I’ve never heard a writer talk about how long he takes to write a book.  What is the new one?

CRAIG:  It’s called MEAN BUSINESS ON NORTH GANSON STREET, and it’s a crime piece.  There are a few genres I really enjoy writing and reading and watching more than others: westerns clearly, crime, science fiction.  They’re all very different for me, satisfy different things.  At this point Leo DeCaprio is attached to it, and I’ve got a really nice deal, and maybe it will get made and maybe it won’t.  I’ve sold twenty-two different pieces of fiction in Hollywood, and seen one made.  So the odds aren’t great.  But that’s a crime piece, and that’s something where I get to enjoy more intricate plotting than in the westerns, and really focus a lot on the dialogue.  It’s St Martin’s Press. 

HENRY:  That’s a terrific publisher.

CRAIG:  They’re pushing it big, and it’s my first time on a larger publisher, so we’ll see how it does. 

HENRY:  BONE TOMAHAWK – was this ever going to be a novel, or was it always a movie?

CRAIG:  The genesis of this is, one of the producers of this movie is Dallas Sonnier, and he’s my manager and really good friend.  He read a book that I wrote called WRAITHS OF THE BROKEN LAND, which is a western with a very strong horror component.  It’s a particularly savage western.  I certainly had some people read the first paragraph and put it down and say, ‘This is not a Western,’ or ‘I don’t want to read it.’  I’m not trying to shock people with the violence, but I’m trying to come up with something that’s interesting and memorable, and in so doing, I shock a lot of people, but that’s not really the goal.  I just want to come up with violent scenes that you haven’t seen.  It’s not just people being shot in the head and falling over.  Dallas read it and said, “This would be amazing to do as a movie.”  The scale of it is really huge, and could not be done with a small budget.  There are massive battle sequences, gigantic horse-slaughtering sequences.  It’s pretty ugly.  It’s character driven, as all of my stuff is.  (I told Dallas) there was no way I can write a low-budget version of it, because I would just be cutting out way, way, way too much.  But I said I could do another western that has a strong horror component, that is focused around an ensemble, that’s dealing with a rescue.  So that’s how BONE TOMAHAWK came to be. 

HENRY:  The genre of horror-western lately – I’m thinking of things like JONAH HEX (2010) and COWBOYS & ALIENS (2011) – they weren’t that good, and they didn’t do that well.

CRAIG:  I think you’re probably correct.  I didn’t see either of those.  The bottom line is people will classify this, and WRAITHS OF THE BROKEN LAND, as horror westerns.  For me they’re both westerns.  But the darkness and the violence gets darker, and the violence gets more intense than you’re expecting it to, so that’s what pushes it into the horror component.  So for me, because the first western I wrote, which set up my career as a screenwriter, was a piece called THE BRIGANDS OF RATTLEBORGE, that was the same thing, some people read and said, ‘this is a horror western.’  To me it was a western that just got nastier.  But it has that vibe, and the crime stuff I write has the same thing.  People find it scary, and I’m trying to make it intense, I’m trying to make it atmospheric, and I’m putting in all the details, if it’s working for you as the reader, it’s a vivid kind of reading experience, where you are uncomfortable; where the violence does go farther than you’re expecting, where every character is imperiled, and anyone might die, and a lot of them do. 

HENRY:  What western filmmakers influenced you?  What western movies do you like particularly? 

CRAIG:  For me, the real life-changing moment in terms of me knowing this was something I wanted to do, that I wanted to write, was when I was thirteen, and I saw THE WILD BUNCH for the first time.  And that was it – that was a movie I probably saw fifteen times as a kid, and I’ve seen on the big screen after moving to New York in revival houses multiple times.  I knew about the Leone stuff prior to THE WILD BUNCH, and I adore the Leone stuff.  So that’s what really made me a fan, and informed some of the western aesthetic that I like.  A lot of people think it’s just a crime piece with cowboy hats.  But to me it’s a distinctly different thing that I want to see in a western.  My favorite western filmmakers are Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone and Anthony Mann.  I like John Ford, although I don’t think the comedy in John Ford works especially well.   I adore John Wayne.  Actually my favorite John Wayne movie isn’t a John Ford, but RED RIVER (1948) .  And I’m a huge fan of THE SHOOTIST (1976).   Anthony Mann, like MAN OF THE WEST (1958), MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955), and all of his pictures working with Jimmy Stewart are terrific.  Budd Boetticher – THE TALL T (1957).  Randolph Scott’s probably my favorite western actor.  I just adore that guy in RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962).  Anthony Mann, Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah would be the top three, and then a bunch of other guys.

HENRY: How about people who have done westerns in the last few years.  Anyone impress you?

CRAIG:  THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007).  That’s the one; the mood there is terrific.  I’m going to sort of ruin the ending – so if you haven’t seen it, don’t read this part of the interview.  I think it’s fantastic how they kill off the protagonist, and then there’s thirty more minutes of movie, where you’re following another guy who becomes the de facto protagonist.  That’s a really ballsy move, and the movie gets even more interesting there.  It’s a gorgeous-looking movie – (cinematographer Roger) Deakins is as good as it gets.  And Andrew Dominick is one of the few best directors working now.  THE JACK BULL (1999) isn’t as recent, the John Cusak, L.Q. Jones western that was made for HBO.  It was extremely emotional: the whole ending section of that piece is really hard to watch, and fully realized. One other one I liked was BROKEN TRAIL (2006) – Robert Duvall is the platinum standard of acting, the finest actor ever to exist.There haven’t been a ton; not a lot to choose from. I didn’t enjoy THE PROPOSITION.  I just felt it was kind of heartless, and it was violent, and the textures were excellent, but I think you need more than that.  The movie I’m working on definitely has its scenes of violence; we’re about to shoot one of them, but proportionally, this is probably going to be well over two hours, and the violence is quick and sharp, and fast.  But it’s not what the movie is about, and the major part of the running time, you’re not dealing with violence.  I think that’s what the modern western should be.  What people want to see is basically an action movie, and that’s not what I think a western should be.  You can have those moments, but none of my favorite westerns are action movies.   

HENRY:  As a first-timer, did you have to fight to be the director on this?  Did people say, ‘we’ll do this, but with a more experienced director?’

CRAIG:  No.  I’ve had westerns floating around Hollywood, including the one that set up my career, for a while.  They haven’t been made, but with BONE TOMAHAWK, I wrote it to be small, and I wrote it to direct.  It’s the fifth western I’ve written.  I have a couple of westerns novels, three scripts, a television pilot that almost got made.  This one I wrote, contained, and I was really fortunate with the cast that it attracted.

HENRY:  How did you get Kurt Russell?

CRAIG:  I had a handful of actors we were going to for different parts.  And Kurt was a great choice for Sheriff Hunt.  What had happened was the character of Arthur O’Dwyer went to Peter Sarsgaard.  When he read it and enjoyed it, and signed on, his agent, who also represents Kurt Russell, was then comfortable showing it to Kurt.  Kurt read it.  He wanted to know about my background in terms of filmmaking, because if I’m a just novelist going on-set, I might not know my stuff, but this is actually my background.  And he came on board and has been unwavering in his support.  Alongside Dallas, he’s one of the reasons that we’re all here – he’s been terrific.  His enthusiasm is incredible. No one’s getting paid well on this movie; we’ve got a lot of people getting the worst paychecks they’ve ever gotten.  It really didn’t seem to matter with him or the rest of the cast.  They just wanted to be involved, and I feel very fortunate.  (Note: the role of O’Dwyer was eventually played by Patrick Wilson, not Peter Sarsgaard)

HENRY:  You have Oscar-nominee Richard Jenkins in your cast.

CRAIG:  There’s no better actor working than that guy – period.  He’s phenomenal.  I was really happy that we had time to do rehearsal prior to shooting, which obviously saves you time, and you’re not figuring out things for the first time on the day.   The amount of embellishments that he came up with, the little moments – he’s just an unbelievable talent.

HENRY:  You’re about two weeks into the shoot?

CRAIG:  Two weeks; today is the middle week.  Because the second half of the shoot is a little heavier with effects and stunts, the first half of the shoot we will have shot well over half of the movie.  We’re moving at a different clip than most movies.  We had a Friday where we (shot) ten and a half pages, which is a ton.  And the only way you’re getting that is having  a fast, hard-working crew, and incredible actors who can come in, run it through a few times, really chisel everything in, hit their spots and get to their moments.  And they’ve been doing it again and again.  It’s difficult for everybody.  This is what we have.  I would love to have twice as much time.  I would love to have even three extra days.  But it took us this long to get to this spot, and it was time to make it. 

HENRY:  How long did it take to get to this spot?

CRAIG:  I wrote it at the end of 2011, and there were a ton of different versions of this movie that almost happened.  I wrote this movie to be made really really cheaply with unknown people for maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars, a total guerrilla filmmaker thing, which is really my background.  Then when bigger names came onboard, and it became something else, there was a period we had it scouted, we were looking at New Mexico.  Then I went out to Utah and found a bunch of locations.  That version fell through.  There was a brief period when we were looking at Romania, which is where I believe they shot HATFIELDS & MCCOYS (2012).

HENRY:  And COLD MOUNTAIN (2003) and DEAD IN TOMBSTONE (2013).  They shoot a lot of westerns there, oddly enough.

CRAIG:  They have a western town there that’s ready-to-go, but it seems really absurd.  We’d planned to do it in Los Angeles, in outlying areas, and we found what we needed.  I had pretty specific things in mind.  Putting in the time has really paid off.  Freddy Waff, who is the production designer, has been killing it, and killing himself to make this look great.  Our editor is Fred Raskin, who cut DJANGO UNCHAINED.  He’s one of my closest friends, a college roommate of mine.  (note: in the finished film, Raskin shares credit with Greg D’Auria) He’s saying our footage, the cinematography by Benji Bakshi, looks incredible.

HENRY:  What equipment are you shooting on?

CRAIG:   It’s Red digital; we’re shooting widescreen.  The speed that we need to move at, it needs to be digital.  I like film, and when I was a d.p. that was all I did.  But the kind of coverage we need to run necessitated digital, but I’m hoping in the end it won’t look that way.

HENRY:  Who are your favorite westerns books?

CRAIG:  I’m a big Max Brand fan.  Sometimes his plotting is clunky, but his prose can be terrific, and especially BEYOND THE OUTPOST, that is just a terrific novel and really really thoughtful and interesting, what it says about the human psyche.

HENRY:  Is he the one who also created Dr. Kildare?

CRAIG:  He is.  His real name is Frederick Faust, which is a pretty badass name.  I think he wrote something like three hundred western novels when he was writing for the pulps.  I read a lot of pulps.  Walt Coburn is another; he was an actual cowboy writer.  The verisimilitude of his work is great.  THE OX-BOX INCIDENT is great.

HENRY:  Anything else I should know, but didn’t ask?

CRAIG:  I wasn’t really a fan of DEADWOOD.  I know everyone adores it as the great western of recent years.  To me the thing that it lacked, one of the most important things about a western is a sense of adventure.  The idea of a man going out into the wilds, and bringing whatever morals and civility he has in him into the wild, and imposing it on his group, or who he encounters.  DEADWOOD could just as easily been England and Dickens; (there was) nothing to do with that sort of experience.  There are good moments, but it missed what I most wanted in a western.  The first four episodes, when Wild Bill was alive, that there was a heart to the show, and then that heart went away, and it became ‘let’s see how grimy and filthy we can be.’  They’re stuck in that town, and there’s no adventure.  I think THE TALL T is a great western, and it’s kind of a chamber piece, but you still get that these guys are going out in the open terrain and imposing their morals upon each other.  The only city that’s there is the one inside of them, and that’s something I look for in every western.  That, to me, is what westerns are, like THE WILD BUNCH: are you going to let Angel get killed?  RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY – are they going to take a stand here?

A TALK WITH THE ‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ PRODUCERS

Producers Dallas Sonnier & Jack Heller

That same night I had a chance to speak with three of the producers on BONE TOMAHAWK, Dallas Sonnier, Jack Heller and Peter Sherayko

HENRY: I’m speaking to Dallas Sonnier, Jack Heller –

JACK: And Peter ‘Wild West’ Sherayko.

PETER:  Did they say anything good about me?

HENRY:  Not yet, but we just started.

DALLAS:  Let’s start with Pete, because it’s impossible to make this movie without him.  Because he knows everything about the westerns.  He’s got the horses, the props, all the guns, the contacts.  I met him as a coincidence.  I was scouting Paramount Ranch, where we shot the town sequences, and he was shooting a movie there.  I introduced myself to one of his wranglers, and he said, “You’ve got to meet Peter.”  So he brings me over to set.  Peter’s sitting there with a cigar in his mouth, of course.   He’s like, “Oh, you’re making a western?  Oh, you’ve got Kurt Russell?  Okay, I’m in!” 

HENRY:  Well, you two did work together before, I recall.

PETER:  Yes, Kurt and I worked on TOMBSTONE together; had a lot of fun there.  And we’re having a lot of fun now.  And as a matter of fact, when I wanted to shoot on our big ranch, where you’ve been to, and I asked Dallas to come on out there, Kurt said, “If Peter’s in, we’re happy.” 

DALLAS:  That’s right.

PETER:  I was thrilled with that.  It’s a great script.  It’s a lot of substance.  And when you don’t have a hundred-million dollars to do it, and you have a small cast, and Craig really cast some really good group of people in it.  Such a tight, tight group of people.  When I first read it, I thought, oh my, it’s like THE PROFESSIONALS (1966), which is a wonderful movie.  And this is going to be a wonderful movie, too, and I was able to add my little magic to it, and Dallas made me a producer. 

l to r, Peter Sherayko, Kurt Russell, Craig Zahler,

wrangler Kevin McNiven on horse

HENRY:  How did you gentlemen get involved with this project?  What was its genesis?

DALLAS:  Jack and I run a company called Caliber Media, and we’re Craig’s managers.  He’s written all these screenplays, and sold them to the big studios, and it was time for him to direct.  We had him conceive this script on a budget we thought we could achieve.  So for two years we humped it around town, and found a bunch of investors – some came and some went – and we made it this way, and that’s the story.

HENRY:  What changed in the two years of putting it together?

DALLAS:  Here’s the good news: we haven’t sacrificed.  That’s been a big commitment to Craig, to the movie, not to sacrifice.  The script we are shooting is the first draft of the script, with every single page, every single word in the movie.  We’re pretty proud of that.  The sacrifices have just been the creature comforts.

JACK:  There’s no producers’ trailer, and no big parties and limousines.  We’re all in it together, which I think it the best way to make a movie, and how Dallas and I usually do make movies.  We’re in the west together.

HENRY:  Is this your first western?

JACK:  It is.  Not our last.  Dallas is from Texas, and I think he was born with cowboy boots on.  I was lucky enough to grow up in New York City where, all the cable channels, every western you could possibly imagine was on.  We always had an eye to make a western, we both went to USC, where we took the same classes.  Every time we come on the set every morning, I’m pretty freakin’ giddy that we’re here. 

HENRY:  It’s interesting, talking to a director and two producers in a row who have all been to film 

school. 

JACK:  I hate to say it, but I haven’t seen many westerns in the theatre that were contemporary westerns.  I was too young to see UNFORGIVEN (1992) and TOMBSTONE in the theatre. 

HENRY: It stuns me to think that was twenty years ago.

DALLAS: I think I was thirteen when TOMBSTONE came out. 

JACK:  TOMBSTONE was the first DVD I ever bought.  My whole film love – and Dallas and I have talked about this a hundred times – when we were growing up, and  DVDs became huge, you would get director commentaries.  As they would reissue the older pictures, they would always get film historians, so even before I got to film school, I could quote commentaries on the DVDs, and Dallas was the same way.  Actually Patrick Wilson was telling us over dinner that he was the same way too.  He got into the behind-the-scenes stuff, too.  That was a great thing for our generation.  Having that really gave us a love for the classic westerns, and a lot of other movies.

HENRY:  Now BONE TOMAHAWK has been referred to as a horror western, which to me suggests supernatural or sci-fi elements, like JONAH HEX or COWBOYS & ALIENS.

JACK:  No, this is not supernatural. 

DALLAS:  No.  Yes, there are horror elements to the film, it’s very scary, but it’s a western.

JACK:  This is a western.  If you think THE SEARCHERS (1956) is a horror movie because they do 

horrible things, then that’s a horror movie.  This is a movie that pushes the limits for character stakes.

DALLAS:  It’s a genre-bending film.  I think it will satisfy the western fans and the horror fans.

  

JOHN SAYLES TO SCRIPT ‘DAJNGO LIVES!’

"Write well, my friend!"

I’ve been writing for a few years now about Franco Nero returning to his most famous role in DJANGO LIVES!  More than a year ago Nero had signed on to for the third time play Django, this time as an older man, living in Hollywood, working as a technical advisor on silent westerns.  But various co-stars, writers, directors, and production companies were announced, then disappeared.  Now comes word from The Hollywood Reporter that John Sayles, twice Oscar-nominated for his scripts for LONE STAR (1996) and PASSION FISH (1992), will be scripting.  Franco told the Hollywood Reporter, “John Sayles is a master of literature.  His LONE STAR is one of the greatest modern Westerns ever shot. He knows how to be exquisitely cultivated and people-oriented at the same time, exactly like another master I’ve worked with, Mr. Orson Welles. And that says a lot.”  The film is to being produced by Fast Draw Films. 

‘JUSTIFIED’ AUCTION OFFERS 300 SCREEN-USED LOTS!

Want to own Sam Elliot’s (Avery Markham’s) blood-soaked dinner jacket?  How about Boyd’s or Ava’s or Dickey’s prison jumpsuits?  Dozens of costume items, props from the U. S. Marshal’s office, signed scripts and more are going on the auction block!  Items signed by Timothy Olyphant will benefit his charity, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.  Bidding opened today, and will end on Thursday, October 22nd . You can see everything that’s up for bids, and register to bid HERE. 

‘MAGNIFICENT 7’ CONVENTION THIS WEEKEND AT L.A. CONVENTION CENTER!

Hope to see you this weekend at this event, Friday, October 23^rd through Sunday, October 25^th, celebrating the TV series.  For details and tickets, visit the official site HERE.

TARANTINO’S ‘HATEFUL 8’ TO HAVE TWO VERSIONS

If you decide to wait until after the Christmas  70mm Super Panavision limited engagement, to see HATEFUL 8 at your local multiplex, you’ll see substantially the same movie, but not exactly.  What you won’t get it the overture, the intermission, and six minutes of footage.  Tarantino told The Variety, “The 70 is the 70. You’ve paid the money. You’ve bought your ticket. So you’re there. I’ve got you. But I actually changed the cutting slightly for a couple of the multiplex scenes because it’s not that.”

‘THE REVENANT’ WAS NEVER GONNA BE CHEAP, BUT HOLY COW!

DeCaprio westerns budget swells from $95 million to $135 million or $165 million!  Read about why HERE. 

SPOOKY GENE AUTRY DOUBLE BILL NOON SAT. OCT. 24

To get you in a Halloween frame of mind, The Autry will be screening a pair of Gene’s 1949 Columbia films with spooky overtones, RIM OF THE CANYON and RIDERS IN THE SKY.  His performance of GHOST RIDERS IN THE SKY, from the latter film, is one of my all-time favorites of Gene’s musical numbers.

THAT’S A WRAP!

Have a great couple of weeks – the next Round-up will be Sunday, November 1^st, all things bein’ equal!  Have a happy Halloween!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright October 2015 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved