‘TRADED’ REVIEWED, WRITER INTERVIEWED, PLUS TARANTINO TURMOIL, ‘DJANGO LIVES!’ SETS SAYLES, AND MORE!

TRADED – A Film Review

In 1880s Kansas, the Travis’, subsistence farmers, are hard-working but happy, until tragedy strikes: their young son Jake (Hunter Fischer) is killed by a rattlesnake.  Overcome with grief and guilt, his mother Amelia (Constance Brenneman), fearful of anything happening to their 17 year-old daughter Lily (Brittany Elizabeth Williams), makes the girl’s life unbearable.  Lily runs away, hoping to become a Harvey Girl at one of the famous restaurants at railroad stops across the country; but she never makes it to her interview.   Her father Clay Travis (Michael Pare) hurriedly traces her movements, and fears she’s been sold into prostitution.  He’s ready to do whatever it takes to bring her back.

Many will compare it to the TAKEN franchise, but I say think of it like THE SEARCHERS on speed!  As Clay races to rescue his daughter, time is not measured with the fluttering pages of a calendar but with a railroad-man’s precise pocket-watch.  En route, his farmer demeanor vanishes, and we learn that he has the sort of past that leaves him well-equipped to go against a string of villains, from those who will only provide information for a price, to those who will gladly kill to protect their income.  Pare, who became a star with films like EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS (1983) and STREETS OF FIRE (1984) has kept his good looks while developing the maturity and gravitas this role demands: you do not want to get in his way. 

Seen this girl?

And among the folks he meets along the way are Trace Adkins, Pare’s co-star in THE LINCOLN LAWYER (2011), who is chilling as a Dodge City saloon-keeper and procurer; and Tom Sizemore as Adkins’ unsavory competition.   Martin Kove has played many a Western villain before, memorably in WYATT EARP (1994), but I don’t think he’s ever portrayed as revolting a character as Cavendish; his daughter in the story, simply named Girl (Marie Oldenbourg) could not be less like him.

Kris Kristofferson, still a commanding presence at eighty, is striking as a barkeep who is at first reluctantly helpful, and has the most quotable speeches from Mark Esslinger’s screenplay.  

Kris is running out of patience

Esslinger’s script is smart without being smug, full of sudden, imaginative, and often brutal action.  And while the story is peopled by many cynical characters, it is not cynical itself; all of the action grows from a sincere love of family, and the knowledge that a strong person will do anything they can to protect it. 

Brittany Elizabeth Williams is missing...

Timothy Woodward Jr., directing his 10^th feature since 2013, tells the story with unrushed assurance, drawing mostly strong performances during a remarkably short shooting schedule.   It’s his third collaboration in two years with cinematographer Pablo Diez, who lights and composes with elegance.  Production Designer Christian Ramirez and costume designer Nikki  Pelly are Western specialists and have again done their work with style and historical accuracy.  Of course, no film is without errors.  One character is a young woman who is supposed to be hideously ugly.  Mistake one: a very attractive actress plays the part.  Mistake two: what was supposed to look like scars actually looks like she has oatmeal all over her face.

Constance Brenneman is the mother.

TRADED, from Cinedigm and Status Media opens theatrically today, Friday, June 10^th, in ten cities across the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and Nashville.   That same day it will also be available On Demand and Digital HD. 

Last November I had the good fortune of being invited by consulting producer Peter Sherayko to visit the set, when they were shooting at Big Sky Ranch.  You can read that article, and my interviews with Michael Pare, Timothy Woodward Jr., and Peter Sherayko, HERE.

AN INTERVIEW WITH ‘TRADED’ SCREENWRITER MARK ESSLINGER

At the premiere, Mark Esslinger with daughter Lana

TRADED author Mark Esslinger is the first screenwriter I’ve met in a long time who did not go to film school.  “I grew up in the northern part of New Jersey, in Bergen County.  I trained racehorses throughout New Jersey and New York while I was in high school.  I wrote from the time I was maybe ten; I was always interested in film and television.  When I was eighteen or nineteen I just decided to drive out to California and see what I could do.” 

Luckily, one thing he could do was be funny.  “I got a bunch of part-time jobs.  I hung out at the Comedy Stores.  I wrote comedy for stand-up guys like Garry Shandling and Howie Mandel when they were just getting started. I met a girl at a party, and she asked me if I wanted to write a couple of spec shows with her.  We wrote a spec TAXI.  She gave it to her father, and her father’d just got a green light for a show an NBC show at Paramount called THE BRADY BRIDES, a continuation of THE BRADY BUNCH.  Her father was (BRADY BUNCH and GILLIGAN’S ISLAND creator) Sherwood Schwartz!  So she showed it to him, and he loved it, and he asked us to be on staff, so we jumped at the chance.  I think I was 23 at the time.  And that’s basically how I got in.” 

But then, in 1981, the Writers Guild went on strike for Pay-TV and home video residuals.  “The strike hit for three or four months.  And then when it ended, THE BRADY BRIDES got cancelled because there was a shift of regime at NBC.  Brandon Tartikoff was going out, and Grant Tinker was coming in, and he didn’t like the show.  Then (my partner) went off and got married.”    Mark wrote without his partner, but didn’t get anywhere.  He went back to raising horses, while continuing to write.  “And then in ’96 I produced a film called DELIVERY, which is based on my food delivery company, which I opened in 1989.  I have a food delivery company where we deliver food from the high-end restaurants in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills to homes.”

Mark Esslinger, daughter Lana, Michael Pare

We talked about his breakthrough script, TRADED, and what led to his writing it.

HENRY: I notice you’ve written a few films about Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth.  I take it you’re a fan of American history.

MARK:  Yes, I am.  We made a short called GRACE BEDELL, maybe five, six years ago, that won festivals in Burbank, Buffalo and Vancouver.  It’s about a little girl who wrote to Lincoln when he was running for President in 1860, and she suggested that he grow whiskers to help him win the election.  And he took her up on it.  It’s based on a true story.  

HENRY: Was TRADED a story you developed on spec, or were you hired to write it? 

MARK:  I wrote it on spec.  I submitted it to The Black List (note: an annual list by studio development pros of highly regarded but unsold script), and it got two really excellent reviews, and it got me a lot of intros; a lot of interest.  But since they considered the (Western) genre basically dead, they didn’t want to do anything with it.  I kept pitching it here and there, and I ended up putting it on this website called InkTip.  It was on there maybe two or three months, and then I get a call that someone is interested in it, and is it still available.

HENRY: And that was Status Media, the folks who made it?

MARK: They outright purchased it – there was no option involved.  We just went back and forth, and negotiated the contract for two or three weeks; actually, while we were negotiating they were lining up locations and casting.  By the time I signed the contract, they were shooting.  They started shooting it immediately, or even before immediately, if there is such a thing

HENRY: Where did the original idea come from?

MARK: I wanted to do a Western, and I started breaking down what kind of a Western I wanted to do.  Maybe something that was a little more contemporary, that hadn’t been seen in a Western.  I know there’s THE SEARCHERS, where they’re hunting the niece, and I wanted to use the daughter; I wanted to do something in that realm, and TAKEN was a big hit a few years earlier.  From all the research I’ve done, they’ve never done a western where a father has to track down and rescue his daughter.  I just broke in an outline, and it came out kind of easy.

HENRY: I’m glad you brought up THE SEARCHERS, because while the parallels are obvious, THE SEARCHERS story takes place over a long period of time, while TRADED’s story is compressed to just one or two days.  Why?

MARK: I don’t really know; I think that’s just the way I write.  It helps with the time clock and the thriller elements. If it was prolonged, it would end up like THE SEARCHERS.  Just for the urgency factor I just had to make it quick.  I think the lead (character) has a sense that he has to get her back as soon as he can, before she becomes too much of a whore in Dodge City.

HENRY: You spoke about doing a lot of research among Western plots.  Did you do a lot of historical research?

MARK: I do a lot for everything I do.  I get as many books as I can on the time period.  And on the internet now you can get so much stuff.  I actually read the newspapers of the time period; it helps to give a sense of how people think and what they do during that time period, and how they react to certain things.  The government in each city at that time period – how it works. 

HENRY: What are the challenges of writing period stories for a modern audience?

MARK: Westerns that got produced weren’t very risky back then.  I mean, they wouldn’t have made a DEADWOOD thirty or forty years ago, and I think DEADWOOD is the ultimate, ‘what it was really like’ kind of thing; that’s what I strive for.  I’m trying to make it as realistic as possible to the time period. Back in the 50s or 60, most of the Westerns were pretty sanitized. 

HENRY: True; of course all films were when you go back far enough.

MARK: True; and especially television.

HENRY: How close is the finished film to your original vision?

MARK: It holds true maybe 80 to 85 percent.  There are some instances, because it is a low budget film, that they had to cut corners on.  As written, their son gets killed because of a bee attack.  Now they couldn’t do that because the bee wrangler would cost like $3,000, and that wasn’t in the budget.  So they changed it to a snake-bite.  But it loses my recurring theme of honey.  When I write something, I want to tie everything in, so everything has a reason; the foreshadowing.  When you have to cut some corners you’re going to lose a lot of that stuff. 

HENRY: You’ve done something with your script which many of us screenwriters find very difficult to do, which is to write a story that can be filmed for a reasonable amount of money.  How do you do that? 

MARK: I was conscious of that, mainly because I figured if I’m going to write a western, it’s going to be hard enough to sell it.  So I’d better make it that it can be shot for the minimum amount of money possible.  I tried to keep it low.  I’ve got the one train chase which they thankfully kept in the film.  And most of my stuff is character-driven anyhow, so the stories generate out of what they’re doing, as opposed to throwing in this big action sequence with a balloon or something that will cost a lot of money.   

HENRY: Quite a cast: Michael Pare, Kris Kristofferson, Trace Adkins, Tom Sizemore, Martin Kove. 

MARK: I think it worked out great.  When they told me Michael Pare was going to be the lead, I was really excited, because I was a big fan of EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS and STREETS OF FIRE.  I think he did a great job in the part.  And if you can get Kris Kristofferson and Tom Sizemore in the movie, you’re way way way ahead of the game.  And then they’ve got Trace Adkins in it, who is a country superstar along with Kris Kristofferson, so it’s going to appeal to all of his fans too.  And he does a great job.  He doesn’t have that much acting experience, but you’d absolutely not know it from the performance he puts in.

HENRY: Did you grow up with westerns? 

MARK: Yeah, I did.  I was born in the late ‘50s, so I grew up with the typical BONANZA, and probably my favorites were WANTED: DEAD OF ALIVE and THE RIFLEMAN, the two half-hour shows.  As far as films, I think my favorite Western film is Clint Eastwood’s UNFORGIVEN.  Growing up I was always a big fan of THE HORSE SOLDIERS.  I thought that film was really ahead of its time.  I read that John Wayne and William Holden didn’t get along.  But I think it helped the whole film.  Also Jimmy Stewart in SHENANDOAH.  I could go on and on – I also like all Randolph Scott Westerns.  RIDE LONESOME and BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE.  I thought Randolph Scott was just a great Western lead.

HENRY: Do you think there’s a real resurgence in Westerns?

MARK: I prefer writing period stuff, so I certainly hope so.  Like I said before, I think you can inject contemporary themes that were not available to use back when the majority of Westerns were made.  And that’s what I tried to do with TRADED; I tried to bring something new to the genre that wasn’t seen back then.  Even the taking of a daughter and basically trading her in to slavery, that wasn’t in a Western film back in the fifties or the sixties. I would love to see the whole genre make a comeback.  I’d like to see more on Television.  DEADWOOD is probably my favorite hour show – I think it was fantastic.  I wrote a pilot called SOILED DOVES that I’ve been trying to pitch for the last few years.  It’s DEADWOOD-ish, but it’s got a female lead, and it’s set in Alaska, during the Yukon gold rush. 

HENRY: What’s your next project?

MARK: I just finished another Western, I’m about to start getting out now.  It’s called DASH; it’s about a Kansas farmer whose about to lose his wife and his farm, and he’s offered a bounty-hunting opportunity. 

HENRY: So, the release of TRADED is imminent.

MARK:  It’s getting a ten-city release on the 10^th.  It’s going to be released on iTunes the same day.  There’s going to be a couple of deleted scenes, and a ‘making of’ film.  I don’t know what the deleted scenes are – I’m kind of scared to find out!  As long as it all makes sense, I’m fine. 

QUENTIN, THE TERM YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IS ‘SALOON GIRLS’

Quentin Tarantino, the ever-controversial and ever-entertaining filmmaker, got his ears boxed by feminists once again, this time for a casting call placed on Facebook, for roles in a new Western he is producing (though not directing).  Here’s the text:  “Casting Whores for Quentin Tarantino project. Caucasian, non-union females, ages 18–35. Western film shoots June 21st-25th in Los Angeles. No highlights, natural eyebrows, natural breasts, natural hair color to be true to the period. Dress sizes 2–8. Please send photo, including sizes, and write ‘Whore’ in the subject line.” 

I was a little surprised at the word ‘whore’, especially in the subject line, but not as surprised as when I was old enough to figure out what Miss Kitty’s girls were doing upstairs.  The Women and Hollywood website was particularly appalled, saying in part, “Putting a casting call out for, or including women in your script with the description of ‘whores,’ is not OK. Nor is asking actresses to submit their photos and information for consideration with the subject line ‘Whore.’ …  It would’ve been just as easy to have said that the project was looking for actresses to play prostitutes, saloon girls, or brothel workers… Words carry weight, and the word ‘whore’ comes with a lot of baggage.”  Okay.  Actually, I would have guessed that what they’d be upset about is that the casting notice asked for ‘Caucasian non-union’ whores.  Wrong again!  By the way, the film is written and directed by a woman.

‘DJANGO LIVES!’ TO STAR FRANCO NERO, TO BE WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY JOHN SAYLES!

Franco Nero signed this box from 

his 2nd DJANGO film for me!

It’s been long rumored but now confirmed that LONE STAR writer/director John Sayles will do the same chores on DJANGO LIVES!, and that Franco Nero is still set to star.   A project that’s been discussed since DJANGO UNCHAINED re-invigorated the DJANGO franchise, the project has shifted through many hands, but the premise is still the same.  Django, Franco Nero’s character from Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 film, is now much older, living in Los Angeles and, as Wyatt Earp and other real lawmen actually did, is working as a technical adviser on silent Westerns, when something happens that necessitates his strapping on his guns again.  A new description says he’s a wrangler and extra on the set of D.W. Griffith’s BIRTH OF A NATION.  The film is set to roll camera in September. 

MY NEWEST COLUMN FOR INSP

My most recent guest column for the INSP blog, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE GOOD-HEARTED BAD GUY, examines how the image of some hero and villain actors changed as their careers progressed.  You can read it HERE.  And please leave a comment if you like it!

THAT’S A WRAP!

Hunter Fischer (right), with a pal

Production Designer Christian Ramirez, with Mrs. Smith 

& wrangler Troy Andrew Smith

Here’re a few pictures I took on Wednesday night at the Beverly Hills premiere of TRADED.  I’ve got several more stories I wanted to include, but I didn’t want to make this Round-up more than one week late!  Happy summer!

Happy trails,

Henry

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

‘HATEFUL 8’, ‘KEEPING ROOM’ REVIEWED, PLUS BIG DOINGS AT THE AUTRY!

Kurt Russell & Samuel L. Jackson

THE HATEFUL 8 – A Film Review

In Wyoming, in the dead of winter, a chartered stage-coach is flagged down by Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a bounty hunter with a stack of frozen outlaw cadavers – he needs to get them to town for the rewards.  But the renter of the coach, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell), wants no more passengers, living or dead: he’s already transporting murderess Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) whom he intends to hang, and the company of another bounty hunter holds no appeal.  John Ruth finally gives in, and the trio of passengers are barely on the road when who else appears, thumbing a ride, but Sheriff Clay Mannix (Walton Goggins), the new lawman at the town where both Ruth and Warren are expecting to collect their bounties. 

Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh

The group arrives at a stagecoach stop, and find it full of an interesting and sinister mix of characters: Bob (Demian Birchir) is minding the place while the owners are away; Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth) is a British traveling hangman; Joe Gage (Michael Madsen) is a hard-looking cowboy and would-be writer; and General Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern) is a former Confederate officer still clinging to his past status.

Bruce Dern

Guess what?  They’re snowed in: everyone will have to spend the night.  This concerns John Ruth because he’s convinced that someone, perhaps more than one someone, is not who they say.  Someone is there to free Daisy Domergue, and will willingly commit murder to do it.  And he’s right, of course.  From there, 99% of the movie takes place in the one big room of the log house stagecoach stop, as characters confront each other, secrets are revealed, and people die. 

That’s right, it’s what’s known in the TV vernacular as an ‘elevator show’ or a ‘bottle show.’  It’s a funny and audacious decision by Tarantino to do a big-budget theatrical feature version of what is done on TV to save money.  Tarantino explained in an interview with DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD that his influences were series like THE VIRGINIAN, BONANZA, and THE HIGH CHAPPARAL.  “Twice per season, those shows would have an episode where a bunch of outlaws would take the lead characters hostage. They would come to the Ponderosa, or go to Judge Garth's place — Lee J. Cobb played him — in The Virginian and take hostages. There would be a guest star like David Carradine, Barren McGavin, Claude Akins, Robert Culp, Charles Bronson, or James Coburn . I don't like that storyline in a modern context, but I love it in a Western, where you would pass halfway through the show to find out if they were good or bad guys, and they all had a past that was revealed. I thought, 'What if I did a movie starring nothing but those characters? No heroes, no Michael Landons. Just a bunch of nefarious guys in a room, all telling backstories that may or may not be true. Trap those guys together in a room with a blizzard outside, give them guns, and see what happens.”

Samuel L. Jackson & Walton Goggins

What happens, very entertainingly is the HATEFUL 8 – it’s full of the droll characters and crackling dialogue that helped make Tarantino famous.  And this kind of claustrophobic DESPERATE HOURS sort of story is the kind that he excels in, as he proved in RESERVOIR DOGS (1992).  Are the characters over the top?  Sure, but they’re meant to be: this is stylized story-telling, not docudrama, and the ensemble is a delight to watch. 

Tarantino loves to shock us, of course, and there is a lot of blood and vomiting, and there is an extended sadistic story-telling sequence where Warren psychologically tortures General Smithers with what may be a real story, or one as invented as the characters’ identities.  It’s too ugly, and too long, but at least its flashback gets us out of the cabin for a bit. 

Michael Madsen

Of course, Tarantino has fun with his inside jokes.  Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Major Marquis Warren, is a nod to novelist, independent Western filmmaker and screenwriter Charles Marquis Warren, a protégé of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who was one of the great story talents behind GUNSMOKE, RAWHIDE and THE VIRGINIAN series.  Tim Roth plays Oswaldo Mobray as a delightful impression of British character Alan Mobray.  And Michael Madsen’s Joe Gage character is a wink at Nick Adams’ character, Johnny Yuma, from THE REBEL series, a former soldier roaming the West and writing about his experiences.

The acknowledgment of THE REBEL is particularly interesting because, while this sort of snowed in ‘Zane Grey meets Agatha Christie’ story can be found in other series – the STOPOVER episode of THE RIFLEMAN, directed by Budd Boetticher and written by Arthur Brown Jr, is particularly memorable – an episode of THE REBEL, entitled FAIR GAME (1960), written by Richard Newman and directed by Irvin Kershner, is unexpectedly close to HATEFUL 8.  It’s fascinating to see what Tarantino does expanding what was a thirty-minute plot to 168 minutes.  The entire run of the exceptionally good THE REBEL series is available from Timeless Video, and after you’ve seen the feature, it’s definitely worth your time to watch the short, as well as the whole series.

One of the great joys of HATEFUL 8 is the new score by the maestro Ennio Morricone.  Although he made his name putting music to Sergio Leone’s ‘man with no name’ films, he hadn’t scored a Western since MY NAME IS NOBODY, forty years ago. 

One of the great virtues of HATEFUL 8 is the beauty and grandeur of its outdoor visuals for the brief time that the story is out of doors.  Thrice Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson has shot several other films for Tarantino, as well as for Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone: he knows how to get details and definition out of what could simply be a whited-out snowscape in other hands.  It may seem like a crazy film to shoot in 70mm Panavision, but that decision halted Kodak’s plan to shutter their movie film stock production entirely. 

The whole presentation sentimentally harkens back to the time of road-show movies of the 1950s and ‘60s, when seeing a big movie was a big deal, like going to the real theatre.  People dressed up, the seats were reserved, there was a musical overture, and an intermission.  Moviegoing, like the rest of life, is less ‘special’ today.   People go to real theatre today attired in a way I wouldn’t dress to mow the lawn.  So, see HATEFUL 8, and if you can, see it in the longer road-show version, with the overture and intermission.  And maybe dress up.  Just take off your Stetson when the lights go down and the curtains part.

THE KEEPING ROOM – a Film Review

Brit Marling takes aim

In 1865, in a location identified only as ‘The American South’, three women survive on a crumbling plantation, trying to keep body and soul together, and just barely managing.  Augusta (Brit Marling), perhaps twenty, is the daughter of the plantation’s owner who has gone off to war.  She hunts rabbits for stew.  Mad (Muna Otaru), a young slave, searches the overgrown fields for edible vegetables.  Louise, (Hailee Steinfeld), is sixteen, Augusta’s baby sister, and unable or unwilling to face the realities of war; she refuses to work, and seems at times to drift into a fantasy world, donning her late mother’s elegant clothes when she should be dressed for picking and planting.  When asked by her sister to work, she refers tersely to the woman who helped raise her.  “The nigger should do it.”

Her sister Augusta responds, “Like I told you, Louise.  We all niggers now.”

Unbeknownst to the three women, greater danger than starvation is on its way.  Union General William Tecumseh Sherman is coming, cutting his bloody slash “…from Savannah to the sea.”  And in advance of his army come his foragers, or as they were known, ‘Bummers,’ men sent to seize supplies or destroy them, to prepare the ground for invasion.  Mostly they are unregulated, many of them destructive, sadistic, and homicidal.   A pair of them, Moses (Sam Worthington) and Henry (Kyle Soller) introduce themselves with an apparent rape and several murders that mark them as men without conscience. 

Sam Worthington

Back at the plantation, the power shifts between the three women with each challenge they face, until everything comes to a head with a potentially disastrous accident: Louise is bitten by a raccoon, and they lack the medicine to treat the infected wound.   Augusta heads to town looking for medicine – the ‘town’ being a single business, a store, saloon and brothel – and comes to the attention of the Bummers.  She barely escapes, and soon the Bummers are on the hunt for Augusta and the other women.

Not a traditional Western or War Movie by any measure, THE KEEPING ROOM is also a suspense and adventure story, and above all a character study of three finely drawn, very different women.  Elegantly written by first-timer Julia Hart, it’s directed by English-born Daniel Barber, whose previous Western, the short THE TONTO WOMAN (2008), from the Elmore Leonard story, garnered Barber an Oscar nomination. 

Muna Otaru

Cinematographer Martin Ruhe, known for filming crime thrillers like HARRY BROWN   (2009 – directed by Barber), and THE AMERICAN (2010), worked with natural light and source light – lanterns and candles – to give an authentic and often beautiful look to  the interiors.  The exteriors, forest and field, are equally convincing.  Remarkable to think that they were found not in Georgia but in Romania, where COLD MOUNTAIN (2003) and HATFIELDS & MCCOYS (2012) were also filmed.

The structure is unusual, and often admirable.  Among the highlights are a pair of intercut sequences where the women are separately stalked.  Author Hart has a fine ear for dialogue, and the script is at times unexpectedly generous, allowing a humanizing of the Bummers, and raising intriguing questions of how life might have been, had the characters met under different circumstances. 

Hailee Steinfeld

The cast is tiny – only seven actors have speaking parts, and only two scenes have any extras at all.  This serves to make the story intimate and personal, and it also puts a great burden on a very few individuals to carry the entire story, which is fraught with tension and suspense.  Fortunately, the triumvirate of actresses are up to it.  Muna Otaru, a relative newcomer, seems all the more powerful for her halting, soft-spoken performance.  Hailee Steinfeld, playing a weak and self-centered character diametrically opposed to her Matty Ross in TRUE GRIT, turns us off, then wins us over when her character rises to the occasion.  And blonde and beautiful Brit Marling, half Matty Ross herself, and the better half of Scarlet O’Hara, is who we all wish we’d be when the chips are down.

Of course, no film is perfect.  The smallness of the cast can be a problem: would Sherman ever send just a two-man force, and if he did, why didn’t the Southerners just pick them off?  And as smart as Augusta is, why does she keep ignoring warnings to leave the store, and why does she keep making eye contact with men she should know to avoid?

Highly recommended, THE KEEPING ROOM, from Alamo Drafthouse, will be available on VOD in early January.

PLENTY HAPPENING AT THE AUTRY IN JANUARY & FEBRUARY

Kenneth Turan, renowned film critic for The Los Angeles Times and NPR, will be introducing the first two film programs for 2016 in the Autry’s monthly What is a Western? series.  On Saturday, January 16^th at 1:30 pm he will introduce the John Ford/John Wayne classic THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962).  On Saturday, February 13^th, at 1:30 pm he will host a double feature, SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (1956) and RIDE LONESOME (1959).  Star Randolph Scott and producer Harry Joe Brown had formed the Ranown production company, and these two films are part of the fabled ‘Ranown cycle’ of exceptionally fine, tiny budget Westerns, all starring Scott, all directed by Budd Boetticher, and written by Burt Kennedy. 

Also screening at the Autry on February 27^th at noon are a double-bill of Gene’s films, BACK IN THE SADDLE (1941 Republic) and RIDERS OF THE WHISTLING PINES (1949 Columbia).

On Wednesday, January 20^th at 12:30 pm, Rob Word will present the Cowboy Lunch @ The Autry.  After lunch it’s Rob’s A Word on Westerns discussion.  This time the topic is KINGS OF THE COWBOYS, and as we get closer to the date I’ll let you know what exciting guests Rob has lined up. 

For folks who still remember how to read (there are still quite a few of us), One Book, One Autry  is a year-long series of programs focusing on Owen Wister’s genre-creating THE VIRGINIAN.  The first two events are Saturdays, Feb. 20^th & 27^th, with more to come.  If you don’t have your own copy, you can get one at the Autry Store.  (And you can read it, and learn that the great HIGH NOON is actually plagiarized from the last seven or eight chapters). 

Sunday, January 3^rd is the last day to see the magnificent exhibit Empire and Liberty: The Civil War and The West.  From February 6^th through March 20^th you can enjoy Masters of the American West, and if you have deep pockets, you can buy! 

Between book signings, performances and other events, I’m barely scratching the surface.  You can learn more by visiting the official Autry website HERE.  

And admission is free on Monday, New Years Day, and free Saturday and Sunday, the 2^nd and 3^rd, to Bank of America card holders.

THAT’S A WRAP! 

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas (see above, a favorite gift from my wife), and I wish you a Happy New Year!  I’ve got a lot of stuff cookin’ but I don’t want to say too much and jinx myself.  But I’m very excited that I’ll be a guest of Jim Christina and Bobbi Jean Bell on THE WRITERS BLOCK radio show on Thursday, January 7^th at 8 pm, when the BIG guest will be LONGMIRE creator Craig Johnson!  If you haven’t tuned in to this entertaining and informative interview show about the art and craft of writing, here’s the link:  http://latalkradio.com/content/writers-block.

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright December 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