WESTWORLD ROBOTS IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION! ‘POWDER BURNS’ SETS AIRWAVES AFIRE! PLUS GRIZZLY ADAMS REBOOT, COWBOY LUNCH & MORE!

‘WESTWORLD’ ROBOTS IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION! 

Ed Harris

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 9^th, the crew was told that they’d e wrapping on Thursday, the 12^th, 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.

POWDER BURNS Episode 1: A blind sheriff.

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.

WED. COWBOY LUNCH - SONS & DAUGHTERS OF THE WEST!

Dawn & Clayton Moore

On Wednesday, November 18, at high noon at the Autry’s Crossroads West Café, come for a delicious lunch, then enjoy Rob Word’s ‘A Word On Westerns’ discussion.  This month, the topic is ‘Sons and Daughters of the West,’ and Rob has gathered a remarkable group of offspring: Roy Roger’s daughter Cheryl Rogers-Burnett; Clayton Moore’s daughter Dawn Moore; Joel McCrea and Frances Dee’s grandson Wyatt McCrea; John Mitchum’s daughter and Robert Mitchum’s niece, Cindy Mitchum Azbill; and child star Robert Winckler’s son William Winckler.   

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 19^th.  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 21^ST !

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

‘HATEFUL 8’ READING REVIEWED, NOVEL ‘SHOTGUN’ REVIEWED, PLUS TCM FEST PT.2!

TARANTINO’S ‘THE HATEFUL EIGHT’ – THE STAGED READING

By Andrew Ferrell

(Note: I don’t think I’ve ever run an article by another writer before, but Andrew Ferrell, a friend of the Round-up, attended the event last night, and generously wrote this report.) 

Quentin Tarantino’s would-be next feature, The Hateful Eight, made its no-screen debut Saturday night at the Ace Hotel (formerly the United Artists Theater) in downtown Los Angeles as part of LACMA’s popular series of live readings of feature screenplays. The staged reading of what writer/director Tarantino himself described as a first draft, which was very publicly put on ice a few months ago following an internet leak, brought in a full house of QT fans at $100 - $200 a seat (the outrageous prices being part of a fundraiser for LACMA and Film Independent’s year-long programming).

Tarantino directing - photo from Thompson on Hollywood

As soon as the reading was announced in early April, the big draw, apart from the first legal opportunity for a select few to sample Tarantino’s latest western, became the mystery of who would be cast to participate in this one-time-only, never to be streamed or recorded performance. And what a cast it was, labeled the “Tarantino Superstars” by their perpetually excited ringleader, filled with a dozen famous faces and welcome character actors (plus the filmmaker himself, reading directions), each of whom having already worked with
Tarantino at least once before: Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Amber Tamblyn, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Denis Menochet, James Parks, James Remar, Zoe Bell and Dana Gourrier. The applause for the cast reveal alone would have been enough to cover most performances for an entire evening, but the reading itself kept the audience alternately cackling, cheering, applauding, and occasionally gasping throughout the whopping three and a half-hour runtime, which did include a very brief intermission.


The plot in a nutshell can be described as sort of a Western take on Reservoir Dogs, with the movie’s familiar single-setting, traitor-in-our midst set up being transported to post-Civil War Wyoming. This time, the criminals holed up in a warehouse after a botched heist are substituted for bounty hunters and various unsavory characters waiting out a terrible blizzard inside a cramped stagecoach stop. The setting becomes even more claustrophobic as the characters’ previous connections and ulterior motives are revealed, all the while exacerbated further by the lingering wounds of the Civil War and its outcome. In the event that everyone else does get a chance to experience The Hateful Eight for themselves in one way or another, to say anything more would be to give away the many twists and shifting alliances. This being a Quentin Tarantino script, however, it spoils nothing to say that this boils over into copious amounts of profanity and bloodshed before the storm is over.



Tarantino, dressed in VERY colorful modern cowboy getup and constantly clutching an old iron coffee pot (an important prop, as it would turn out), made some opening remarks reminding the audience of the script’s rough draft status and that the cast had about three days to rehearse. “We’re okay. We’re pretty good,” he half-joked. The performance and its staging remained pretty loose throughout the night, with most of the cast casually dressed and clutching their scripts, sitting in chairs roughly positioned to correspond with the imagined blocking of the scenes. During the more exciting moments and fights, the actors would get out of their chairs and move around a little. Once a few characters died, the very game thespians playing them fell
dramatically out of their chairs and remained on the floor for the duration of the show.


The only hiccups came with the occasional flubbed line (totally understandable, under the circumstances) and the occasional call from the jittery but authoritative Tarantino to re-do a certain bit. Thereading provided a rare glimpse of what it must be like on his sets, with the director occasionally breaking the fourth wall to joke with his old friends in the cast or chastise them for going off script and attempting to “co-write” (his words). If there was ever any doubt that he considers himself God on the set, this performance proved that every single syllable in a Tarantino script is there for a reason, and when giving direction the man knows exactly what he wants. Still, one of the most human and amusing moments of the night came when Tarantino leapt into the middle of a scene and excitedly whispered a new idea in Samuel L. Jackson’s ear. “He’s directing!” the actor quipped to the audience, which was met with wild applause.



Even without much to look at on stage, the words on the page provided a clear visual of how this would play as a movie. Tarantino’s uniquely conversational approach to descriptive writing, as well as his wildly enthusiastic and energetic delivery, painted a mental picture of every shot he had planned, from the opening images of a six-horse coach outracing the snow to the description of the room where most of the story takes place to the comically brutal violence that comes later. The words “in glorious 70-millimeter Super Scope” became the running joke of the evening. As for the expected historical and pop culture references, they flew by so quickly that they were hard to keep up with, though it’s safe to say that no character name is an accident. Samuel L. Jackson’s character, the former Union soldier Marquis Warren, seems to nakedly reference Rawhide and Gunsmoke writer Charles Marquis Warren (thanks to Henry for pointing that one out!), for instance.


As with all past Tarantino projects, casting is everything, and if this exact cast were transposed into the feature film version with a bit more rehearsal, hardly a critic or movie fan would be likely to complain. Not only did the evening provide a fun reunion for Tarantino alum from throughout his career, but they all seemed to legitimately have great fun with their characters and with each other, even while saying and doing some pretty terrible things. Kurt Russell affected his best John Wayne as the bounty hunter John Ruth while Jackson delivered one particularly filthy monologue with devilish glee as the aforementioned Warren. It was a treat to see Tim Roth and Michael Madsen playing off each other again, albeit as very different characters. Recent Oscar-nominee Bruce Dern, playing a former Confederate general, had few words to say, but gave them such quiet gravity and solemnity that one can see why the director apparently tailor-made the role just for him. Among the younger cast members, Amber Tamblyn really held her own as Daisy Domergue, the prisoner around whom most of the intrigue centers, and Walton Goggins provided a great deal of comic relief as Chris Mannix, another former Confederate and self-proclaimed Sheriff-elect. The entire cast proved that their charisma was not restricted to on-camera performing, as is sadly sometimes the case.


As for the lingering questions hovering over this project, Tarantino declared that he is already at work on later drafts, which would seem to pretty clearly indicate that this project is not dead, in spite of his earlier statements and the ongoing lawsuit with Gawker over linking to the stolen, unfinished script. The presence of Harvey and Bob Weinstein at the performance also suggest that, if this wasn’t the master plan all along, somewhere along the way this reading of a “dead” project became an unprecedentedly public workshop on the way to resuming pre-production.


The other question one might have after seeing the script acted out in its entirety is whether or not the produced film would make for a worthy addition to the Western genre or to the vaunted Tarantino canon. While it’s obviously hard to say and all still very hypothetical, the initial impression is that it’s about as much of a Western as Django Unchained. The setting is a bit more traditional than the previous film’s mostly Southern locales, and The Hateful Eight’s details regarding the hardships of frontier travel are more specific and pronounced than the more mythic qualities of Django. Still, this story lacks the sweep, scope and sensitive subject matter that made its predecessor such an “event”.

At least for the time being, it wouldn’t be unfair to call this minor Tarantino, something more in line with Reservoir Dogs or Death Proof, both stripped-down genre exercises elevated by the voice of their author. And even if it’s smaller, it’s by no means tighter, since the performance started at eight o’clock and let out a little before midnight. This dry run of The Hateful Eight consistently entertains, but its characters still require further definition. The broad strokes are there, but one can feel jokes still waiting to be found, and the emotional core is a little elusive. Tarantino continues to play with the juicier topics of the time period, such as race, gender and post-war attitudes, but it feels like he hasn’t quite yet found what it is he wants to say about them. The script, like many of Tarantino’s past works, is divided into chapters, with the final chapter already having been scrapped by the director, who has promised that any future version will end differently. That is probably for the best, as the ending we saw performed, while certainly exciting, might ring a little similar to past successes and thematically hollow or without a greater purpose, which can be somewhat applied to the script as a whole.


Having said all that, if Tarantino is still tinkering, and if he’s as hyper-aware of audience reactions as he seemed last night, there’s still hope. The lengthy standing ovation at the end may have been the encouragement he needs to whip this thing into shape. The guy remains incapable of making anything less than interesting, and his growing enthusiasm for all things Western can only be a good thing for the genre’s standing in Hollywood. Even in its current compromised, unproduced form, The Hateful Eight still makes an impression. And if, worst-case scenario, the movie still doesn’t make it to screens, Tarantino’s already got a hit play on his hands.

SHOTGUN by C. Courtney Joyner – A Western Novel Review

The paperback cover

C. Courtney Joyner’s first novel, SHOTGUN, has just been nominated for a Peacemaker Award as Best First Novel by the Western Fictioneers.  It will be published in June by Thorndike Press in a large-print, hardcover edition, retailing for $28.  What’s so unusual about this is that Pinnacle Books published it as a mass-market paperback in December of 2013 for $6.99.  This is the cinema equivalent of releasing a movie direct-to-video, and then opening it in theatres a few months later – it’s the opposite of the way these things are done, and it speaks volumes of the high hopes the publishing world has for SHOTGUN, which is surely the first of a series. 

Though this is Joyner’s first novel, he is no stranger to storytelling, with more than two dozen movies – some writing and some directing – to his credit.  And in a very cinematic, very visual opening, we meet the protagonist, former Civil War surgeon Dr. John Bishop.  One ‘Major’ Beaudine and his men want the half million dollars in gold they know Bishop has.  Beaudine was the cellmate of Bishop’s illiterate brother, and before brother Devlin swung, Beaudine ‘helped’ him by writing letters for him; letters that betrayed the Bishop brothers’ secret – although John swears there is no secret and no gold.  

Stopping at nothing to gain the knowledge he demands, the Major takes off most of the surgeon’s arm.  And that’s almost charitable, compared to what he does to Dr. Bishop’s wife and child.   When he recovers, the doctor has a shotgun mounted to the stump of his arm, and goes in search Major Beaudine, even as Beaudine and others are in search of the elusive gold.  The doctor is helped in his quest by a beautiful Cheyenne named White Fox.

The hardcover cover

The storytelling is unorthodox: instead of a chronological tale from a single point-of-view, it jumps from the major to the doctor, to the other characters, and forward and back in time, as needed.  You’ll learn everything you need to know, but not always in the order you’d expect.  You’ll understand White Fox’s loyalty to Dr. Bishop eventually, but for a while you’ll just have to accept it.  You’ll meet the blind officer Creed, hunting the doctor with as much determination as any seeing man, and sometimes leading the one-eyed and toothless.  You’ll meet a red-hooded band of renegades whose loyalties are not easily discerned.  You’ll be as happy as I was that the ending of the book is open-ended.  There will be more SHOTGUN stories.  There had better be.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FEST 2014 -- PART 2

The 5^th Annual Turner Classic Movies Classic Movie Festival – usually abbreviated to TCM Classic Movie Festival began on Thursday night, April 10^th, with a Red Carpet procession in front of the fabled Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and the screening of a restored OKAHOMA!, attended by star Shirley Jones and many others – if you missed my coverage of the Red Carpet, you can read it HERE .

           As soon as the Red Carpet ended, I raced across Hollywood Boulevard to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, headquarters for the TCM Fest.  After quite a few stairs and turns I made my way to poolside, where several of the screenings were to take place.  They would be screening AMERICAN GRAFFITI after the sun set, and while we waited, a Wolman Jack impersonator spun platters for a jitterbugging dance troupe.  By 7:30, dark had descended, and Ben Mankiewicz introduced stars Candy Clark, Paul LeMat and Bo Hopkins who, despite having done the movie forty-one years ago, all looked great.  Ben noted, “I’m going to start with Bo, because Candy, it was your first film, and Paul, it was your first.  But Bo, you made a film before.  It’s a film some people here are familiar with.  Tell the people what it was.”

            “Well, my first screen appearance was with Bill Holden, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine in THE WILD BUNCH.”  Hoots, cheers and applause! 

            “What were the similarities between George Lucas and Sam Peckinpah?

            “Night.  And day.”  Among the interesting revelations during that conversation: Harrison Ford talked George Lucas into letting him wear a cowboy hat in the film, so he wouldn’t have to cut his hair – it was a small role, and he was afraid that if he got his hair cut for the period, 1962, it would be too short for any other jobs he might get.  Candy Clark revealed that Richard Dreyfus had broken up with his girlfriend just before they started, and spent much of his time between scenes crying in his trailer – that’s why his eyes look so bloodshot throughout the film.  Paul LeMat admitted that at one point he picked up Dreyfus and threw him into a pool.  Unfortunately, he threw him into the shallow end, and his head smashed on the bottom of the pool.  The boys didn’t wear any make-up in the film, except Dreyfus, whose goose-egg-sized swelling had to be hidden. 

Candy Clark and Bo Hopkins

photo by Stephanie Keenan

            Candy Clark, then 25, was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, was up against 14 year old Linda Blair for THE EXORCIST, and they both lost to 9 year old Tatum O’Neal for PAPER MOON, who also defeated Sylvia Sidney for SUMMER WISHES, WINTER DREAMS, and Madeline Khan for PAPER MOON.  But the biggest indignity of all?  When the nominations are being read, and the five actresses faces are shown, they zoomed in on someone other than Candy Clark!  I watched as much as I dared of AMERICAN GRAFFITI – now I’m going to have to rent it! – then hurried over to the Chinese Theatre Multiplex, beside the big Chinese Theatre, and got on line for JOHNNY GUITAR.  It was introduced by film historian Michael Schlesinger, who revealed that we would be seeing the very first theatrical showing of the DCP, the digital restoration.  “JOHNNY GUITAR was shot in Trucolor, a misnomer if there ever was one.  It was Republic’s in-house color process, and if there was one word to best describe it, it would be ‘ghastly.’”  I always thought it ironic that a studio that majored in westerns would come up with a color process that couldn’t reproduce green – as in grass and trees – at all.  I remember Roy Roger’s TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD, about Christmas tree rustlers, was shot in Trucolor, and I couldn’t understand why anyone would steal grey Christmas trees – they were obviously dead!  On the other hand, it reproduced reds beautifully, which is  why Republic made so many films with beautiful redheads like Maureen O’Hara and Adrian Booth in the 1950s.  Paramount acquired the Republic library, and with greens added to the pallet, we were about to see a movie that, as far as color goes, was being seen as it was meant to look, for the very first time.

A show of hands revealed that about 60% of the audience had never seen the film before, and presumably had no idea of what they were in for.  As Schlesinger explained, this is a movie that works on many levels.  Number one, it’s a western, with horses, guns, stagecoach robberies, and manly men like Ward Bond, Sterling Hayden and Scott Brady.  Number two, it’s also a feminist film, in that while all the manly men are off to one side, “… Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge are doing all of the heavy lifting.”  And some would say that it’s a sub-rosa lesbian film, saying that while Mercedes hates Joan because she incorrectly thinks Joan loves Scott Brady, the undercurrent feels like they’re approaching BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN territory.  “Number three, this movie has a rabid gay following.  It’s ALL ABOUT EVE GOES WEST to them.

            “Number four, it’s a not-too-thinly-disguised attack on McCarthyism.”  Though the script is credited to Philip Yordan, he was acting as a front for blacklisted writer Ben Maddow.  And leading the posse in their frequent rushes to judgment is Ward Bond, the most virulently anti-communist actor in Hollywood.  Schlesinger claims that by 1957, Ward Bond had pissed off so many people that he was nearly unemployable, which is why he was thrilled to get then WAGON TRAIN.  With twenty screen credits – admittedly many TV – between 1954 and 1957, the ‘unemployable’ notion may be wishful thinking on Schlesinger’s part. 

            Joan Crawford bought the novel by Roy Chanslor, sold it and herself as a package to Republic, and hired Nicholas Ray, hot from REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, to direct.  It was not always a happy set.  Joan had chosen McCambridge as ‘the other woman,’ to make sure that was role was played by someone less attractive than herself, “…which she was, but she was also a better actress than Joan, and stole every scene she was in.”  Sterling Hayden was not a fan of Joan’s, and after making the movie, famously said, “There’s not enough money in Hollywood to make me do another movie with Joan Crawford.  And I like money.”   But tense sets can produce good movies, and JOHNNY GUITAR, for all its oddness is certainly entertaining. 

            On Friday morning there were two events of interest to western fans, the screening of STAGECOACH, introduced by author Nancy Schoenberger, and the dedication ceremony for the Charlton Heston commemorative stamp. 

            At 6 p.m., PAPER MOON was shown.  Star Ryan O’Neal was to provide the introduction, but he flaked (the only no-show of the entire event).  Ben Mankiewicz pinch-hit for O’Neal, revealing that PAPER MOON was originally slated to be directed not by Peter Bogdanovich, but by John Huston, with Paul Newman in the Ryan O’Neal role, and Newman’s daughter, Nell Potts, in Tatum O’Neal’s Oscar-winner role of Addie Pray.  Ben was as eager to hear what Ryan would have said about the project, and working with his daughter, since he was very enthusiastic at the time, but there have been problems between them since.  Here’s what director Peter Bogdanovich has said: “Working with Tatum O’Neal was one of the most miserable experiences of my life.”  It’s a wonderful movie. 

            As soon as PAPER MOON ended, many of us bolted to get on line for a movie made the next year, 1974, with three of the same cast-members: Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman, and Burton Gilliam – in PAPER MOON he’s the hotel clerk with the big-toothed grin that gets sent up to Madeline Kahn’s room.  That movie was 1974’s BLAZING SADDLES, which was shown in the giant Chinese Theatre, with director, co-writer and star Mel Brooks attending.  The newly renovated – but not ruined – Chinese Theatre is the largest IMAX theatre in the world, with 932 seats, and 932 of us were waiting outside the theatre, up the stairs to the Hollywood and Highland shopping center beside it, and around and around he walkways.  We got in, and there was not an empty seat in the house.  I’ll tell you all about it next week, in part 3 of my TCM Festival coverage. 

In the meantime, here’s Maureen O’Hara talking to Robert Osborne before the screening of HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY.

DON’T MISS THE SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND!

Just five more days until the big event, Saturday and Sunday, April 26^th & 27^th at Melody Ranch!   Since there is a film currently in production at the Ranch (everyone’s being pretty mysterious about what film it is), a small part of the Western street will not be available for strolling, but access to other areas has been expanded, and some venues will be in new locales – I know for instance that the OutWest Buckaroo Book Store will be in a large tent that will actually give them more room for author events than they’ve had in the past.  Good news for me, as I’ll be moderating a couple 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.

Author Peter Sherayko

And 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. 

Also on Saturday at 12:30, and Sunday at 2:30, I’ll be chatting with Miles Swarthout, who wrote the screenplay for THE SHOOTIST from his father Glendon Swarthout’s novel.  Miles is also involved with the upcoming movie THE HOMESMAN, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, from a novel by Glendon Swarthout.  You can learn all about the events at the Buckaroo Book Shop by going HERE.  

You can learn all about the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival HERE 

ROB WORD’S ‘WILD BUNCH LUNCH’ AT THE AUTRY A ROUSING SUCCESS!

Those of us attending the third-Wednesday-of-the-month Cowboy Lunch @ The Autry had a wonderful time listening to great Peckinpah stories from Bo Hopkins, L.Q. Jones, stunt ace Gary Combs, and WILD BUNCH costumer-turned Peckinpah producer and co-writer Gordon Dawson – that’s Dawson wearing the cross he made for Strother Martin to wear in THE WILD BUNCH.  I never noticed Jesus had been replaced by a bullet! Much more coming soon to the Round-up!

THAT’S A WRAP!

Hope you have a great week!  With six or seven authors to talk to at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Fest, I’ve got a ton of reading to do between now and next weekend!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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