‘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

‘TURN’ PREMIERES ON AMC, COWBOY FEST TICKET GIVEAWAY, PLUS FIRST LOOK AT ‘THE HOMESMAN’!

‘TURN’ - SERIES PILOT REVIEW

Tonight, April 6^th, at 6 p.m. Western time, 9 p.m. Eastern, AMC’s new drama series, TURN, will premier.  Set in the midst of the American Revolution, it is based on the true story of the Culper Ring, a group of grown-up boyhood friends who became a spy network working to get information on Redcoat troop movements for General George Washington.  

Based on the best-selling history book WASHINGTON’S SPIES by Alexander Rose, it is a spy-thriller with three-cornered hats, and I found the pilot enthralling.   Shot in Virginia, and set in New York’s Long Island, the story centers around farmer Abraham Woodhull, a married man with a baby son.  Long Island is occupied by the British, and the Woodhulls are among the families suffering the indignity of having a British soldier quartered in their home. 

Woodhall has other problems as well: his crop of cauliflower is infested with maggots, which makes it unlikely that he’ll be able to pay off his debts – owed to a tavern-owner now married to Woodhall’s former beloved.  With the government controlling commerce, the desperate Woodhall tries to sell a few head of cauliflower on the black market, unsure of whether he has more to fear from British or the gun-toting colonists – and his simple act sets wheels in motion that will change the lives of everyone he knows.

The at-first reluctant spy Woodhall is played convincingly by Jamie Bell – remarkable to realize that at the turn of the last century he amazed us all as the title character of BILLY ELLIOT.  Meegan Warner plays Mrs. Woodhall who wants her husband to have nothing to do with spying.  Heather Lind, who played Katy on BOARDWALK EMPIRE, plays Anna Strong, whom Woodhall would have married if she hadn’t spurned him.  And Seth Numrich, late of the grim comedy series GRAVITY, plays Colonial Army officer and Woodhall’s childhood friend Ben Talmage, who approaches Woodhall to help his country-in-the-making. 

Written by Alexander Rose and producer-writer Craig Silverstein, whose voluminous credits include NIKITA, TERRA NOVA and BONES, the plotting is clever, the telling is smart, quick and sensible, with a fine eye for historical detail that creates reality without screaming about it.  The action is exciting and not for the squeamish – the occupying army is unflinchingly brutal, and the occupied must at times answer in kind.  

Rather than being played as symbols, as is often the case with movies of this historical period, and despite the powdered wigs, the characters are motivated by a mix of practicality and ideals, just like real humans. 

For myself, the most unnerving aspect of the show is that Robert Rogers, of Rogers’ Rangers, is one of the principal villains of the piece!  Having grown up loving the NORTHWEST PASSAGE series, starring Keith Larsen in that role, as well as Spencer Tracy in the feature, it’s troubling to see the rest of his history on the screen.   For hero though Rogers was in the French and Indian Wars, he was fighting alongside the British against the French.  It’s disappointing, but not unreasonable that he sided with the British again during the American Revolution.  Here he is played with gravitas by Angus McFayden, who was excellent in the recent COPPERHEAD, and is perhaps best remembered as Robert The Bruce in BRAVEHEART.  

Tonight’s opener is ninety minutes, and will be repeated later tonight, plus on Monday, and next Saturday and Sunday.  The regular episodes will be an hour.  I’d make a point to see the pilot if I were you – it’s fine stuff, and my guess is it will continue to improve.

FIRST LOOK AT ‘THE HOMESMAN’!

Here are the first images from THE HOMESMAN, which will premiere on May 24^th at the Cannes Film Festival!  Co-written, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, based on the novel my Glendon Swarthout, Jones plays a rustler who takes on the job of transporting three madwomen across the desert to an asylum in Kansas. 

Joining Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones are fellow statuette owners Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep, as well as John Lithgow, James Spader, Hailee Steinfeld – Mattie Ross in the TRUE GRIT remake, William Fichtner, and Barry Corbin.  It’s produced by Luc Bresson, the French writer-producer-director who created the LA FEMME NIKTA, TRANSPORTER and THE PROFESSIONAL franchises.

Novelist Glendon Swarthout has an excellent record in the cinema.  Films adapted from his novels include BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN, WHERE THE BOYS ARE, and the Westerns 7^TH CAVALRY, THEY CAME TO CORDURA and, most famously, John Wayne’s final film, the marvelous THE SHOOTIST.  Glendon’s son, Miles Swarthout, wrote the screenplay for THE SHOOTIST, and was involved in THE HOMESMAN as well. 

I’ll be interviewing Miles Swarthout about his own and his father’s career at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, at Melody Ranch, on Saturday and Sunday, April 26^th & 27^th, at the Buckaroo Book Shop.  We’ll talk at 12:30 on Saturday and 2:30 on Sunday. You can learn all about the events at the Buckaroo Book Shop by going HERE.  https://www.facebook.com/events/434317293370585/434413240027657/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

You can learn all about the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival HERE http://cowboyfestival.org/

WIN TWO TICKETS TO THE COWBOY FESTIVAL!

Speaking of the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, and yes, I’ve been speaking about it a lot, it’s coming to the Veluzat family’s Melody Ranch on Saturday and Sunday, April 26^th & 27^th.   What started as a working ranch has been a popular location for filmmakers for nearly a century.  Owned at one time by Monogram Pictures, then purchased by Gene Autry and christened Melody Ranch after his radio show, nearly every A or B Western star worked there at one time or another.  A very busy movie ranch, in growing demand with the resurgence of the Western movie and TV series, it was home base for both DEADWOOD and Quentin Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED, as well as many other films, music videos and TV commercials.

The Festival is an outgrowth of a Cowboy Poetry Festival held annually at Santa Clarita High School.  When the 1994 earthquake demolished the school’s auditorium, the Veluzat family offered the use of their movie ranch, and a twenty-year tradition was born.  There’s still poetry, as well as food, shopping for all things Western, strolling the ranch and visiting its museum.  There activities for children and adults, and all manner of entertainment, including magician Pop Haydn, gun-slinger par excellence Joey Dillon, and lariat-tosser Dave Thornbury.  Then there’s the music – at five different venues big and small throughout the ranch, more than twenty acts will perform, including Don Edwards, Sons of the San Joaquin, Waddie Mitchell, Cow Bop, Dave Stamey and many more. 

Miles Swarthout & C. Courtney Joyner

And at the Buckaroo Book Store, run by the folks at OutWest, Western fact and fiction writers will be meeting fans, signing books, and giving talks.  Among the authors attending will be Cheryl Rogers-Barnett (daughter of Roy and Dale), Margaret Brownley, Jim Christina, Peter Conway, Steve Deming, Edward M. Erdelac, J.P. Gorman, Dale B. Jackson, Jim Jones, C. Courtney Joyner, Andria Kidd, Antoinette Lane, Jerry Nickle (a descendant of Harry Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid), J.R. Sanders, Tony Sanders, Peter Sherayko, Janet Squires, ‘Cowgirl Peg’ Sundberg, Miles Hood Swarthout, Rod Thompson, and Nancy Pitchford-Zee. 

And in addition to the interviews I’ll be doing with Miles Swarthout, I’ll also be moderating a pair of authors’ panels.  On Saturday from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST IMAGINED, and I’ll be talking with Western novelists Edward M. Erdelac, author of COYOTE’S TRAIL; Jim Christina, author of THE DARK ANGEL; and C. Courtney Joyner, author of SHOTGUN. On Sunday, from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST LIVED, and I’ll be talking to non-fiction writers Jerry Nickle, great-grandson of the Sundance Kid; JR Sanders, author of SOME GAVE ALL; and Peter Sherayko, author of TOMBSTONE – THE GUNS AND GEAR. 

Admission is $20 per day for adults, $10 for kids, but the good folks at OutWest – click their logo at the top of the page to learn all about ‘em – are going to give away a pair of tickets to the event!  Thousands will pay, but you won’t have to if you’re our lucky winner!  How do you win?  Answer this question: For a long time, after Gene Autry had stopped making movies at the ranch, Gene held onto the property to provide a home to one particular horse.  What was that horse’s name?  E-mail your answer, along with your name, address, phone number, and what day you’d want the tickets for, to swansongmail@sbcglobal.net , with ‘Cowboy Festival Ticket Giveaway’ in the subject line.  The winner will be selected randomly from all correct entries, and announced in next week’s Round-up.  Good luck!

ROBERT DUVALL IN ‘A NIGHT IN OLD MEXICO’

Check out the trailer for the new present-day Western starring Robert Duvall, Jeremy Irvine, and Angie Cepeda.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL OPENS THURSDAY APRIL 11

For details on what Westerns are playing, check out last week’s Round-up here: http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2014/04/free-tcm-movie-locations-tour-heston.html

For details on all films and events, go here: http://filmfestival.tcm.com/

SEE TY POWER AS ‘JESSE JAMES’ SATURDAY, APRIL 12 AT THE AUTRY

As part of the Autry’s ‘What is a Western?’ series, Henry King’s dazzling Technicolor telling of the James Brothers myth will be screened in 35mm!  The original screenplay is by the great Nunnally Johnson.  The cast includes Henry Fonda as brother Frank, Nancy Kelly, Randolph Scott, Henry Hull, Brian Donlevy, John Carradine, Donald Meek and Jane Darwell.  The film will be introduced by curator Jeffrey Richardson, who always provides fascinating background and insights into the films in this fine monthly series.  It’s at 1:30 p.m. in the Wells Fargo Theatre, free with your museum admission.

MICKEY ROONEY DIES AT 93

Just heard that the Mick has passed away.  I saw him at a number of events, but never got to talk to him.  But I had the pleasure of speaking with many child stars of the 1930s and 1940s over the years, and without exception they all held that the most talented and versatile of them all was Joe Yule Jr., a.k.a. Mickey Rooney.  A tremendous talent who will be sorely missed.  I’ll have more in next week’s Round-up.

THAT’S A WRAP!

I’ve got the TCM Festival coming up this week, Rob Word’s Cowboy Lunch @ the Autry saluting THE WILD BUNCH a week from Wednesday, and the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival the week after that!  Should be a lot of interesting stuff coming up in the Round-up!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright April 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

JOHN WESLEY HARDIN BIOPIC TO ROLL SOON!

Outlaw-turned-lawyer John Wesley Hardin is one of the most fabled characters of the Old West, and has been portrayed, on big-screen and small, by actors as talented and varied as Randy Quaid, Jack Elam, Charles Bronson, John Dehner, Neville Brand, James Griffith, Scott Marlowe, Richard Boone, Richard Webb, Rock Hudson, and Lash LaRue.  But he’s never been the lead character – it’s never been Hardin’s own story.  But that is about to change.  Partners Miguel Corona, Justin Ament, and Larry Zeug have announced HARDIN, their biographical film of the notorious badman.

The real John Wesley Hardin

Miguel, whose company is Southwest Pistolero Productions, tells me, “Larry wrote the script, I pulled the team together, and Justin is the one who is getting us our financing.  We’re working together.  Larry’s in Washington, I’m in California, and Justin’s in Oregon.  We’re buddies; we’ve all worked on films together in the past.  Last time, Justin had a movie called SHADOWHEART (2009).  Larry and I were actors in that film.  Now we’ve come up with our own film between the three of us.” 

“Where we plan to shoot is Texas, hopefully in or near Brackettville.  Larry has already been in touch with the Texas Film Commission, researching possible locations.  Because John Wesley Hardin was a son of Texas.  We’re going to do a historically accurate film.  The script is accurate, the guns are accurate, the wardrobe will be accurate. 

“He killed more men in the Old West than Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok and Doc Holliday put together.  He killed forty or more men.  Nobody else has a record like that, and yet no one has told his story.  We’re telling his whole life story, from when he was small, up until the end.

Producer Miguel Corona

“Larry did two or three years of research, and (based) a lot of it on Hardin’s own autobiography.  We’re really excited.  We hope to shoot sometime next year.  There’s not much more to tell you right now: it’s early in the production.”  I’ll be keeping in touch with Miguel, and keeping the Round-up informed.  

 23^RD LEBEL OLD WEST AUCTION SATURDAY, JUNE 23^RD, IN DENVER!

Sharpshooter Frank Butler's Shotgun

Once again, Brian Lebel’s Old West Show and Auction astonishes, with their amazing collection of art, artifacts and weaponry of the old west.  For Western movie fans, there are posters from Col. Tim McCoy’s movies and Wild West shows; hats of Tom Mix, John Wayne and Hoot Gibson; and Nudie-made Republic costumes of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.  For lovers of real-west paper ephemera there’s an arrest warrant signed by Pat Garrett; an autograph of bank-robber Emmett Dalton; and on a single slip of paper, signatures of lawman Bat Masterson and bandit Al Jennings. 

Wyatt Earp

There’s a ‘wanted’ dodger for Jesse and Frank James that I particularly covet, because it looks nothing like the fake wanted posters we used to see in the movies and on TV.  There is one of Zane Grey’s own photo albums; a collection of Pawnee Bill ephemera; and pages of Buffalo Bill Cody items.  There are weapons remarkable for who owned them; others remarkable for their rarity and beauty; and oddly enough, ‘relic’ guns valued for their degree of corrosion.  There’s a striking portrait of Wyatt Earp by Frederic Mizen, probably commissioned for Stuart Lake’s celebrated bio.  There’s even a drawing, by White Bull, of the killing of Custer, notable because, not only was White Bull there, he is thought by many to be the man who did the deed.  With over 400 lots, I can only whet your appetite.  To see the entire catalog online, and to bid, go HERE: http://www.denveroldwest.com/index.html.  While the auction is Saturday, the show is Friday through Sunday.

Black Bart

White Bull's Custer sketch

HATFIELDS VS. MCCOYS ROUND THREE HEADS TO NBC!

Just in case you watched Fred Olen Ray’s BAD BLOOD: HATFIELDS & MCCOYS, then watched Kevin Costner in the History Channel’s HATFIELDS & MCCOYS mini-series, and said to yourself, “What I need is more Hatfields and McCoys,” you’re in luck!  NBC has announced that they’ve acquired an H&M project from ABC, which will be produced by actress Charlize Theron, with EAGLE EYE writer John Glenn set to script.

This disappointing news is that (a) it will be not a period story, but a contemporary one, and (b) Charlize Theron, who has previously produced several movies, including her Oscar-winner MONSTER, is not, for now, set to appear in it.  Isn’t it time Charlize Theron did a Western?

ROBERT BLAKE TO SIGN NEW BOOK AT HOLLYWOOD SHOW!

Robert Blake, who first gained attention as Mickey Gubitosi in the MGM Our Gang comedies, then fame as Little Beaver in Republic’s Red Ryder film series, and as an adult starred in IN COLD BLOOD and the BARETTA series, will be attending the Hollywood Show at the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel & Convention Center on August 3^rd-5th.   Blake, who has kept a generally low profile since his acquittal for the murder of his wife, did show up unannounced at the Republic Pictures 75^th Anniversary celebration.  In February of 2011, he attended the Hollywood Show, and signed autographs for free.  This caused delight to the fans, and consternation among some stars who were there to sell their autographs, and Blake was eventually forced out by security!

This time he will be signing his new book, TALES OF A RASCAL, WHAT I DID FOR LOVE.  Priced at $25, it’s self-published, and while I haven’t seen any professional reviews yet, all six reader-reviews posted on Amazon are overwhelmingly enthusiastic.  Other stars attending the show who will be of interest to Western fans include Walt Disney’s Elfago Baca (and star of my film, SPEEDTRAP) Robert Loggia, DALLAS and TRIGGER FAST star Christopher Atkins, CAT BALLOU star Michael Callan, and MY NAME IS NOBODY and DALLAS star Steve Kanaly.

Blake with fan Mike Stern at Republic 75th

ROBERT HORTON NOMINATED FOR COWBOY HALL OF FAME

Robert Horton played Flint McCullough in 187 episodes of WAGON TRAIN, starred in the Western mystery series A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH, and has appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows.  As a kid I always was happy when WAGON TRAIN focused on Flint, and I feel the same way today when I catch the show on Encore Westerns.  He’s an excellent actor, from Westerns to sci-fi to romance. 

Oren Truitt put a notice up on the Wild West History Association Facebook page, which I wanted to share.  “Robert Horton’s name has been listed for consideration for the next Cowboy Hall of Fame award.  All the proper papers have been file.  We now need to send letters encouraging the committee to finally make this award, long deserved, and long delayed.

“Please write to: The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63^rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73111.  Letters are more effective than emails in this case.

“Bob deserves this award for his iconic role as Flint McCullough in WAGON TRAIN, A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH and his other roles in Westerns.  He has been an avid supporter of the Western genre and has received several awards for his contribution to Western films, and the ideals of a true Westerner.

“Let’s do this for Bob.  He is now 87.  Let’s not wait until it is too late for him to know how much we appreciate his contributions.”

I think this is a great idea, and I urge you to write a letter, and to pass this on to your friends who might do the same.

ANN RUTHERFORD DIES AT 94

The brunette with the huge, innocent eyes, who gained fame as Scarlett O’Hara’s youngest sister in GONE WITH THE WIND, has died.  Loved as Mickey Rooney’s love interest, Polly Benedict, in the ANDY HARDY films, and as Red Skelton’s girlfriend in the WHISTLING comedy series (which are delightful, by the way), she is also well-remembered as a favorite leading lady to Gene Autry, in THE SINGING VAGABOND, MELODY TRAIL, COMIN’ ROUND THE MOUNTAIN and PUBLIC COWBOY #1.  She also costarred with a very young John Wayne three times, in THE LONELY TRAIL, THE OREGON TRAIL, and THE LAWLESS NINETIES.  She took particular pride in being the only actress Gene ever kissed in a movie.  "I was Gene Autry's first leading lady and the only one he ever kissed.  After that, he kissed his horse."

That's about all for the Round-up.  Next week I'll feature details on the upcomng BBC America series COPPER, and reviews of two books by Peter Sherayko.

Happy Trails,

Henry

All original contents copyright June 2012 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved