WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY-JANE-GOT-A-GUN? PLUS LA/ITALIA FEST HONORS MORRICONE, ‘WESTERN RELIGION’ ON DVD, AND MORE!

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY-JANE-GOT-A-GUN?

Did you miss it?  The Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan Macgregor opus that went through Hell to reach the screen came and went in about two weeks.  It’s damned good – you’ll find out when it makes its way to home video.  And you’ll probably join me in wondering why it was dumped by the Weinstein Company like week-old fish. 

This project was Natalie Portman’s baby from the start.  She knows from Westerns – see 2003’s COLD MOUNTAIN.  She snapped up the much-talked-about Black List script by Brian Duffield (Hollywood’s changed so much that The Black List is now where you want to be), pulled together financing, got director Lynne Ramsay (2011’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN), a cast…  And on the day shooting was to commence, Ramsay quit.  When she walked so did a lot of the cast, including Jude Law.  That would have killed most small films, but somehow they held it together, director Gavin O’Connor (2011’s WARRIOR) stepped in – dove in is more like it – and grabbed the reins.  On the eve of the film’s release, its distributor, RELATIVITY MEDIA, went bankrupt, and almost took JANE with them.  But The Weinstein Company saved it.  Then they released it with no press screenings, no publicity, and the only TV promotion I saw was Ewan Macgregor’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.   In this business, that’s the way you release a film that reviews can only hurt.  A stinker.  When I caught the movie at the Sherman Oaks Arclight, it was a kick to see three Westerns in the marquee – THE REVENANT, THE HATEFUL 8 – another Weinstein release, and JANE.  There were four other people in the theatre.  We all loved it.  I just don’t get it.

L.A./ITALIA FEST HONORS MAESTRO MORRICONE!

Franco Nero & Joan Collins on the Red Carpet

From Sunday, February 21^st through Saturday, February 27^th, the Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood will once again be the home of the 11^th edition of the annual L.A./Italia Film Festival.  Sponsored by the Italian government and various Italian businesses, this week-long celebration of Italian films, fashion and culture features both new and classic Italian films, and films made by Italian-Americans, and all of the screenings are free!  It’s done on a first-come, first-seated basis, and in four years of attending, I’ve never been shut out of a screening.

They’re honoring composer Ennio Morricone, and several films that he’s scored – the current THE HATEFUL 8, THE UNTOUCHABLES, THE MISSION, BUGSY, and DAYS OF HEAVEN.  My only complaint is that HATEFUL 8 is the only Western they’re showing this year.  You can learn all about the event, and find out when the screenings are, by checking out the official website HERE.

Just one word of warning: this event ends the day before the Oscars, which are held right next door at the Dolby Theatre.  In the day before the Oscars, more and more streets get closed off, so when you come to the L.A./Italia screenings, give yourself extra time to find parking.

‘WESTERN RELIGION’ ON DVD MARCH 1^ST!

If you’re a Round-up regular, you’ve been following the progress of WESTERN RELIGION since it first rolled camera in October of 2013, through their screening at Cannes and their L.A. Premiere a few months ago.  You may have read my interview with directorJames O’Brien, or learned about my adventures as a poker-playing extra in the film. 

The story of a sinister mix of gamblers who descend upon a tent city in Arizona to compete in a high-stakes poker tournament, it’s just been released on video-on-demand through iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, Youtube, and on March 1^st it comes out on DVD from Screen Media. 

GET-TV ADDS ‘CIMARRON CITY’ TO SATURDAYS FEB. 20^TH!

GET-TV is one of the new antenna digital channels, and it’s also available on some cable and satellite systems.  It’s a SONY channel, with lots of good old movies, and Saturdays they feature their Saturday Showdown Block (read my interview with Get-TV senior programming veep Jeff Meier HERE. Instead of playing often too-familiar Western series, they’ve specialized in quality shows that only ran for a season or two, and have rarely been shown again.  They’re adding CIMARRON CITY, which ran in 1958, a Gunsmoke-style series starring George Montgomery, John Smith who’d go on to fame in LARAMIE, and Dan Blocker who didn’t do too badly on BONANZA.  They continue to show MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH starring Robert Horton, HONDO starring Ralph Taeger, NICHOLS starring James Garner, WHISPERING SMITH staring Audie Murphy, THE TALL MAN starring Clu Gulager and Barry Sullivan, and LAREDO starring Neville Brand, Peter Brown, William Smith and Robert Wolders.  Incidentally, one of my most popular Round-up features is my interview with Robert Wolders.  You can read it HERE.

‘RANGER IN TIME – RESCUE ON THE OREGON TRAIL’ – A Book Review

I got some ribbing after the last Round-up for writing a book-review of a coloring book.  I may get more ribbing for reviewing RANGER IN TIME – RESCUE ON THE OREGON TRAIL, not because it’s a kid’s book, but because it’s about a time-traveling Golden Retriever.      The novel by prolific and talented kid’s author Kate Messner is the first in as series of four thus far.  Ranger is a 21^st century disappointment, a dog flunked from a search-and-rescue program because he was too easily distracted by squirrels.  He’s living with a modern family when he digs up an old first-aid kit in the back yard that somehow zaps him back to 1850 and the Abbotts, a family heading out on the Oregon Trail.  And wouldn’t you know it, that search-and-rescue training comes in mighty handy.

Don’t get bogged down in the science of time travel – maybe it’ll make more sense in the next book, about ancient Rome, but it’s just a MacGuffin to get a modern-day sensibility into a historical tale.   The fact is, it’s hard to get school-kids interested in reading history, and this story, with its nod to Jack London and his brilliant dog’s point-of-view novels, CALL OF THE WILD and WHITE FANG, is exciting, involving, and frank.  I was a little surprised that when other fuel became scarce, the kids had to collect buffalo turds, or chips, to make a fire.  I was startled that, after several family members die along the trail, their graves were purposely driven over by the wagons, to compact the earth, and make it harder for scavenging wolves to dig up.  It’s the kind of creepy but clearly authentic detail that would make a kid want to learn more. 

The book, aimed at 2^nd to 4^th grade readers, ends with an extensive chapter on the historical research behind the story, and suggestions for further reading. 

THAT’S A WRAP!

LAST WEEK THE ROUND-UP PASSED 250,000 HITS!

Thanks to all of my loyal readers, from more than 100 countries, who keep coming back to the Round-up!  I thought I’d have my interview with Crispian Belfrage about the making of THE PRICE OF DEATH, but I ran out of time, so that will be in the next issue.  Hope your Valentine’s Day was romantic, and your Presidents Day was…presidential!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

Get-TV ADDS ‘TALL MAN’, ‘WHISPERING SMITH’, ‘LAREDO’ TO SATURDAY SHOWDOWN! PLUS ‘BONE TOMAHAWK’, ‘WESTERN RELIGION’, OPEN THIS WEEK!

Get-TV ADDS ‘TALL MAN’, ‘WHISPERING SMITH’, ‘LAREDO’ TO SATURDAY SHOWDOWN! 

A TALK WITH get-TV PROGRAMMER JEFF MEIER

Audie Murphy in WHISPERING SMITH

Get-TV, a SONY antenna movie network, or digi-net, has doubled-down on their Saturday Western series offerings.  In September they premiered NICHOLS, HONDO, and A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH (you can read my coverage HERE.)

On Saturday, October 3^rd, they added three more Western series to their schedule: THE TALL MAN (1960-1962), WHISPERING SMITH (1961) and LAREDO (1965-1967).  While LAREDO played on Encore Westerns a few years ago, the other two have rarely been seen since their brief initial runs.  All are from Universal Studios. 

THE TALL MAN tells stories about Billy the Kid (Clu Gulager) and Pat Garrett (Barry Sullivan) when they were still friends (you can read some of Clu’s memories of the series – and a lot of other memories – HERE .) .   In WHISPERING SMITH, Audie Murphy, America’s most decorated soldier of the Second World War, takes on the role of the railroad detective popularized by Alan Ladd in the 1948 Paramount feature of the same title.  Based on the Frank Spearman novel, four earlier WHISPERING SMITH films was made starting in 1916, with the character variously portrayed by H.B. Warner, J. P. McGowan and George O’Brien.  In the series, Guy Mitchell plays Smith’s right hand, George Romack.  LAREDO, sort of a GUNGA DIN out west, is the story of three Texas Rangers, played by Peter Brown, William Smith, and Neville Brand (also one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War II), plus Robert Wolders in season two (read my interview with star Robert Wolders HERE ), and their long-suffering captain, played by Philip Carey.  

Earlier this week I had the chance to talk with Jeff Meier, get-TV’s Senior Vice President of Programming, about all of the exciting recent additions to the get-TV line-up. 

Audie Murphy and Guy Mitchell in

WHISPERING SMITH

Q: Most of the talk about ‘cord-cutters’, dropping satellite or cable service, is about people who decide to get all of their TV from the internet.  But there’s a whole other kind of cord-cutter, folks who are switching from cable back to antenna TV, and Sony’s Get-TV is a big part of that.  Why do you think it’s happening?

A: Well, the technology in the last few years has enabled the birth of a whole new group of channels, and that technology allows all the local (channels) to have the capacity to air three or four digital channels in addition to their regular feed.  Because there were already many millions of people who were just getting their television through the antenna, it created a market for these channels to develop, and it feeds upon itself.  Once you have another dozen channels available over the air, it makes people feel comfortable about using that as their main way to get entertainment.   

Q: How long have you been on the air?

A: get-TV’s been on the air since February of 2014.  So it’s been a little over a year and a half. 

Q:  I would classify you as a classic movie channel.  Initially, what audience were you aiming for? 

A:  We were looking for a classic movie audience.  We had looked at the landscape of digi-channels that had already launched, and it felt like there was a hole in the market for a classic movie channel.  And we were working at the Sony lot, and it’s something that I felt we could do really well.  We had always thought of the possibility of adding series to the channel, being generally classic across both TV and movies.  Now we’re at the beginning stages of adding some series to the mix.

Q:  Who watches – is it a rural or city audience, older or younger?

A:  Interestingly enough, our demographic information is not too extensive.  We gather a lot of our understanding of our audience by both social media, and by who writes to us.  I would imagine that our demographic is on the older side of the TV demographic.  It’s no surprise that when you’re airing classic TV and movies, the people who are most interested in that are people who experienced some of that content when they were growing up.  I wouldn’t make a guess as to whether we’re more rural or urban.  We’re carried in all of the top twenty-five markets, so we’ve got a lot of coverage in major cities.  By default, the most rural of places don’t get these stations because there’s not a local channel to carry our feed.

Q: Thus far you’ve drawn your content primarily – maybe exclusively – from the Columbia Pictures library, owned by SONY.  And you’ve had a particular focus on Westerns, both As and Bs.  Why?

A:  There’s such a passionate audience for Westerns.  When you look around the dial, whatever channels air westerns, they always get a tremendous audience.  So I knew there was a hunger there.  And I knew we had the potential to explore some Westerns that don’t get seen as often.  Since the very beginning of the channel we’ve been airing the Durango Kid movies, the Tim McCoys.  And those movies are a little bit on the older side, so they’re not the every-day fare of most of the channels that are airing Western content.  It felt like we could offer something new to an audience that was really hungry.  And that’s proven to be the case; we get a lot of great response about all of the Westerns that we air.

Q: How should viewers communicate with you, if they want to get in touch to say they’re enjoying something?

A: If you go to the get-TV website, on the bottom of the home page, there’s a section called ‘contact us.’  You can get in touch that way, if you want to reach us directly.  And on Facebook you can go to the get-TV page, like us there, and join that community – we have a very strong social media community, and we’re always looking to see what people say there.  And you can also engage with other viewers about the channel, and share your opinion.

Q: You’ve introduced an exciting new Saturday Line-up, Saturday Showdown, featuring NICHOLS, HONDO and A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH.  And now you’re adding three more: LAREDO, THE TALL MAN, and WHISPERING SMITH.  Why did you choose these particular shows?

A:  I had both an overall goal and some specific goals.  I’m really interested in the whole area of how popular culture gets passed down from generation to generation.  It often seems like only a few big hits ever make it through the clutter.  Whether that’s a few big Beatles songs that make it through the clutter of music, or whether it’s things like BONANAZA and GUNSMOKE – they’ve made it through the clutter of Westerns, and they’ll be here forever; and those are great.  But there’s a lot of other really good stuff out there, and nobody’s let it see the light of day.  And I really think that there’s a lot of rabid interest, particularly in the Western content arena, and I thought that (viewers) deserved to have a few more options.

Then with each of the specific shows, there were different things that sold me on them.  In some cases it was star power: you can’t go wrong with James Garner in almost anything he does – he’s just wonderful.  So NICHOLS was important to me for that reason.  Others of the shows, because these are the first series we’re putting on the air after being primarily a movie channel, I wanted to have connection to movies.  HONDO is based off a movie; WHISPERING SMITH is based off a movie.  And WHISPERING SMITH stars Audie Murphy, who has been in a ton of movies, so I liked that connection.

Q: I suspect you’re going to be introducing Audie Murphy to a lot of people, because although he was a very big star in his day, his movies are very rarely shown.

A:  We’ve actually had some experience with Audie Murphy, because at one of the other channels we work on here at Sony, The Sony Movie Channel, we’ve aired a bunch of Audie Murphy movies, and they do really, really well for us, so I already knew he had that potential.  Frankly I hadn’t known he’d done a series, and when I discovered that he had, I crossed my fingers that it would look good, that we could get the materials, that we thought it would be a good hit for the channel.  And we were really happy that we could get it.  I was really interested in LAREDO because there are not that many Westerns series in color from those later years of the Western.  It’s important to me to have a mix of black and white and color on the channel, and this series has a sense of humor, and was well-regarded.  For all of the series we looked through information on-line that fans had written.  And we watched them and we tried to figure out which held up over time, and these all made the cut.  It’s an interesting mix, and it’s one that we expect in the future to be folding new series in on.  Viewers, if they have some particular favorites, they can use that contact information.  We’d love to hear their ideas of what they’d like to see, that they haven’t seen in a long time.

Clu Gulager, center, Barry Sullivan, right,

in THE TALL MAN

Q: What in particular attracted you to THE TALL MAN?

A: What I liked about TALL MAN was it’s Billy the Kid and sheriff Pat Garrett.  And even though it’s a series people have forgotten about, they’re iconic Western characters that people can still tap into now.  It provides an entry point that isn’t obscure, and allows Western fans of today to have a context with which to watch the show.   It’s a different take on that relationship.  And on A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH, Robert Horton is from WAGON TRAIN, so he’s an established Western star.  This show didn’t fit a lot of my other parameters: it wasn’t based on a movie, it wasn’t in color, it wasn’t with a movie star.  But we watched it, and we just thought it felt like such a quintessential Western story that we couldn’t not try it out.  It also has a lot of great guest stars, and a great creative pedigree, and felt like it would be a fun show to watch.

Q: Does the smaller number of episodes in these series concern you?

LAREDO stars William Smith, Peter Brown,

and Neville Brand

A: No actually.  Because we’re airing our Saturday Showdown once a week, having a smaller number of episodes is fine.  If we were trying to air these episodes Monday through Friday for two years running, then I think they’d burn out pretty quickly.  But in the context of how we’re using them, I think they’ll be just fine.  And we hope to refresh the line-up and mix it up from time to time, too, so I think it’s just the right number of episodes.

Q: With adding these series, with adding THE JUDY GARLAND SHOW and THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW, are you redefining get-TV away from being a ‘movie channel’?

A: I think we are trying to redefine it a little, to be a channel that runs classics, and the classics can be classic movies or TV, but in no way are we going away from the core of being a classic movie channel.  Later this month we’re working with the Bogart Film Festival in Florida.  We’re always trying to figure out some classic movies we could help preserve, or premiere again.  And that remains very important to us.  We just wanted to add the extra elements and see how it goes.

Q: Did you grow up watching westerns?  Did you have favorites as a kid?

A: I’m probably too young for the core era of the Western.  I very specifically remember watching BRET MAVERICK, which was a sequel to MAVERICK, probably in the early ‘80s, with my father, who was always a James Garner fan – I remember that very vividly.  And we also watched a year-long mini-series called CENTENNIAL (1978-79), based off of the James Michener book.  I would say that was my first really big experience with an epic Western, and I thought that was a phenomenal show.  But like I was telling somebody yesterday, I’m from the LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE era of Michael Landon, not the BONANZA era of Michael Landon.

Q:  The kinder, gentler Landon.  What are your favorite western features?

A:  Oh gosh, it’s too hard for me to pick.  The most famous, classic ones, I fall in line with those:  HIGH NOON, SHANE, some of the big John Wayne ones.  Not an atypical general fan kind of point of view.   I have people here on my team who help us program all this, who are more specialists in Westerns than I am.

Q: What was your first job in television?

A:  I was an assistant in the scheduling department at Comedy Central before it was Comedy Central, when it was Comedy Channel in New York. 

Q: Are you a New Yorker?  I’m a Brooklyn boy myself.

A: I actually grew up in southern New Jersey, near Philadelphia.

Q: Anything else I should know?

A:  We’ll have more shows on the way, and more movies on the way.  And I hope people keep on watching, and let us know what they like.

Here’s the Saturday Showdown line-up:

Noon - THE TALL MAN

12:40 p.m. - WHISPERING SMITH

1:20 p.m.  – A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH

2 & 3:15 p.m. – LAREDO

4:30 p.m. – HONDO

5:45 p.m. – NICHOLS

You’ll notice that the half-hour shows are in 40-minute slots, and the hour shows are in 75 minute slots.  That’s because the episodes are being show with commercials, but uncut.

‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ PLAYS TUES 10/6 AT HOLLYWOOD EGYPTIAN!

As part of the Beyond Fest the much-anticipated new Western with horror overtones (if you consider cannibalism horrible), BONE TOMAHAWK, written and directed by Craig Zahler, and starring Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Sean Young, Matthew Fox and many other notables, will play at 7:30 pm at Hollywood’s famed Egyptian Theatre.  Director Zahler and star Matthew Fox will attend.  For more information, go HERE.  

On October 23^rd, the limited national release will begin. 

‘WESTERN RELIGION’ CONVERTS HOLLYWOOD OCT. 10-15!

WESTERN RELIGION, James O’Briens’s exuberant Western fable about a gathering of high-rollers for a legendary poker tournament, kicks off its national release with a private red-carpet opening on Friday, Oct. 9^th, followed by six days of screenings at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood, at 1625 North Las Palmas Ave., 90028.  It will also play dates in Austin, Iowa City and New York City.  Go HERE to buy tickets.   .  Go HERE  to read my review, and interview with James O’Brien.  Go HERE here to read about my on-set adventures: 

TED TURNER BUYS ‘DANCES WITH WOLVES’ RANCH!

Thanks to author and ‘Dances With Wolves’ soldier Bill Markley for passing this on to me!  Recently I wrote that the historic TRIPLE U RANCH, location for much of ‘Wolves’ was up for sale.  Good news: it has been bought by the man who created Turner Classic Movies, Ted Turner.  Details HERE.  

THAT’S A WRAP!

Angie Dickinson & John Wayne in RIO BRAVO

I’ll be at the openings for BONE TOMAHAWK and WESTERN RELIGION this week, and report back.  And hopefully I’ll have part two of my SILVER SPURS coverage in the next Round-up.  And speaking of the Spurs, Wednesday was the 84^th birthday of Angie Dickinson.  At the Spurs I had the chance to interview the talented and beautiful actress about her work on GUNSMOKE, RIO BRAVO and her other Westerns, and she could not have been more charming and funny.

And Monday was the 81^st birthday of Brigitte Bardot, a fine actress and eye-popping delight in VIVA MARIA, SHALAKO and FRENCHIE KING, and a lifelong advocate for the protection of animals!

And Friday would have been the birthday of the great singing cowboy, actor, filmmaker, sports lover, visionary Gene Autry!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright October 2015 by Parke – All Rights Reserved

SUTHERLANDS ‘FORSAKEN’ BOWS, ‘LEWIS & CLARK’ HALT, ‘WESTERN RELIGION’ DISTRIBS, PLUS ‘HATEFUL’, 'LONGMIRE' PEEKS!

DOUBLE SUTHERLAND STARRER ‘FORSAKEN’ TO BOW AT TORONTO FEST

The long-troubled Canadian-produced Western FORSAKEN, starring father and son Donald and Keifer Sutherland, Demi Moore, and Brian Cox, will have its world premiere this September at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), according to Chad Beharriell’s Westerns Reboot site.  Directed by Emmy-winning ‘24’ helmer Jon Cassar; scripted by Brad Mirmman, the story of a son (Keifer) who tries to live down his shootist reputation, and reconnect with his recently widowed minister father (Donald), the Calgary-shot production looked as if it might never see the light of day.

Lensed two summers ago, on May 1^st, DEADLINE: HOLLYWOOD and others reported that the producers might not receive the promised $1.7 million in tax incentives because the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled that the production had skipped town without paying some of the crew and suppliers. 

Keifer is no stranger to the saddle, having made an early and indelible impression in the seminal YOUNG GUNS (1988) and YOUNG GUNS 2 (1990).  In addition to the recent COLD MOUNTIAN (2003), father Donald starred in DAN CANDY’S LAW (1974) as a Mountie hunting Cree Indian Gordon Tootoosis for another Mountie’s murder.  

‘LEWIS & CLARK’ PROGRESS HALTED!

The lads who mapped the American West for President Jefferson are on an unexpected hiatus, until director John Curran, and cinematographer Rob Hardy can be replaced.  Shooting in Alberta, Canada had already been complicated by weather, but the HBO mini-series was plagued by artistic differences as well.

Produced by Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Ed Norton and others, the six-hour production is based on Stephen Ambrose’s brilliant history, UNDAUNTED COURAGE.  L&C stars Casey Affleck – Robert Ford in THE ASSASSINATION OF JESS JAMES – as Meriwether Lewis, and  Matthias Schoenaerts as William Clark.  Stephen Hill plays York who, despite being Clark’s slave, was a full member of the expedition.    

SCREEN MEDIA ARE CONVERTS TO ‘WESTERN RELIGION’!

WESTERN RELIGION, written and directed by James O’Brien, has been acquired Screen Media for a fall theatrical release, followed by a home video release.  The somewhat supernatural tale of a legendary Old West poker tournament made its debut at Cannes. 

I had the fun of being on-set, and being an extra in a poker-game in this one.  To read about my set-visit, go HERE.  To read about my adventures as an extra, go HERE.  To read my review, and post-production interview with James O’Brien, go HERE

FIRST TRAILER FROM TARANTINO’S ‘HATEFUL 8’!

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!”  Because that’s when HATEFUL 8 opens at a 70mm Panavision theatre near you!

FIRST LOOK AT ‘LONGMIRE’ SEASON 4 – THE NETFLIX YEARS!

LONGMIRE returns, with a new home at Netflix, on Thursday, September 10^th.   In my LONGMIRE article in the upcoming October TRUE WEST, I’ll be discussing the whole A&E/Netflix TV saga with LONGMIRE-creator Craig Johnson, and actor Zahn McClarnon, who plays Navajo Officer Mathias.

POSSIBLE ‘DEADWOOD’ FEATURE IN TALKS

A spokeswoman for HBO has confirmed that preliminary talks have begun about turning the ground-breaking Western series into a TV movie.  Wasn’t that the original idea when the series went off the air?  Timothy Olyphant, who starred as lawman Seth Bullock, just finished his run in the JUSTIFIED series, so the time might be right!

AND THAT'S A WRAP!

Yesterday would have been Robert Culp's birthday!  Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright August 2015 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

‘WESTERN RELIGION’ PREMIERES AT CANNES – BUT THE ROUND-UP GOT IT FIRST! OUR REVIEW AND INTERVIEW WITH DIR. JAMES O’BRIEN!

WESTERN RELIGION – A Film Review  

In 1879, a man (James Anthony Cotton) with a vision of turning his frontier tent city into a metropolis decides to sponsor a high-stakes poker tournament, with an unlikely prize: a cross of gold (and no, William Jennings Bryant does not present it).  Disreputable but well-heeled types from all over the world are drawn to the mythical (mystical?) town of Religion, Arizona to try their luck.  This is the premise of writer-director James O’Brien’s sometimes existential, sometimes humorous, sometimes grim and gritty film, WESTERN RELIGION. 

This is not your standard Western in any sense.  Once the characters are drawn to the town, it takes place all in that one locale, with a large ensemble cast, and no one character to be called the ‘lead’.  The ‘players’ include Chinaman Dan (Peter Shinkoda), an on-the-lam bank robber; Waylin Smith (Miles Szanto), a white raised by Indians, who has a mystical connection with his adoptive father (Sam Bearpaw); Zain Mohammed (Merik Tadros), an Arab Prince touring America, who cannot resist the challenge; Anton Stice (Claude Duhamel), a mysterious gunfighter; Saint John (Gary Kohn), a train-robber-turned-preacher; Raven McCabe (William Moore), a magician and professional card manipulator; Bootstrap Bess (Holiday Hadley), a saloon-girl hoping to win enough money to build her own ‘hotel’;  Bobby Shea (Sean Joyce), a handsome town carpenter, hoping to win enough to rescue his girl from the life she’s leading;  and Salt Peter (Louis Sabatasso) the Viennese, delightfully decadent dilettante, adept with cards, needles and knives.  There is also an impressive contingent of what Strother Martin called ‘prairie scum,’ and townspeople like bartender Southern Bill (Peter Sherayko).  Oh, did I mention that one of the card-players might just be the devil? 

The card-play takes place over several days, as various players are eliminated by the luck of the draw – sometimes cards, sometimes guns.  Relationships are built and broken, back-stories are told, lots of folks are shot, until just a handful of players are left, some playing for gold, some playing for their very souls.  The success of such a film must, to a great degree, succeed or fail by the quality of the performances, and while no face in the lead cast is familiar, they are uniformly talented and convincing.  In fact, a plus of having a cast of non-stars is that you have no idea who will die, and who will survive to the end.

Sean Joyce & Holiday Hadley

As a screenwriter, O’Brien deftly intertwines the lives and personalities of his blurring array of characters, avoiding clichés, taking them in unexpected but convincing directions.  Some may appear as caricatures at first, but as you learn about them they take on weight, and you care about them.  As a director, O’Brien not only stages the frequent and violent action well, he takes what often is tedious in films, watching a series of poker games, and keeps it interesting.  He wisely chose five card stud, a game that has four cards face up and one down, so players aren’t endlessly staring at a hand we can’t see.  And he never bores you with the play of an entire hand – it’s the key moments, whether that means who wins, who folds, or who gets a knife in their intestines.

Peter Shinkoda as Chinaman Dan

I tend to be less than a fan of Westerns with supernatural or sci-fi elements – they usually seem tossed in arbitrarily.  But in a way, WESTERN RELIGION is, like poker, about belief, whether in luck or in something higher, and it never gets heavy-handed, or bogged down with distracting special effects that are the antithesis of the western.   I enjoyed spending a day on the set of WESTERN RELIGION, and enjoyed the finished film much more. 

Gary Kohn as Saint John

Shot quickly on a lean budget, the visuals by cinematographer Morgan Schmidt never cut corners.  Without being self-conscious, composition is well thought-out, and the number of set-ups in even minor sequences belies the limitations of shooting fast.  Filming at Caravan West Ranch in Santa Clarita, in a tent-city built for the production, the photography, taking full advantage of the wild, mountain and desert terrain, is often striking, and frequently beautiful.    

Peter Sherayko as Southern Bill

The effective music score is by Ram Khatabakhsh; the songs heard in saloon scenes are sung by Kevin McNiven, an accomplished cowboy singer who just happens to also be the head wrangler on the film.  The unusually varied and correct costuming is by Nikki Pelley. 

Louis Sabatasso as Salt Peter

In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that I have a small ‘bit’ in the film.  If, in the first five and a half minutes, during a poker game, you notice a hand on the right side of frame, with a red and white checkered sleeve, picking up cards and putting down coins – that’s me! 

INTERVIEW WITH JAMES O'BRIEN, WRITER/DIRECTOR OF 'WESTERN RELIGION'

Dir. James O'Brien atop stagecoach

WESTERN RELIGION will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and May 16^th.  As far as I’ve been able to learn, it is the only Western scheduled to play this year at Cannes.

A week ago, I met up with WESTERN RELIGION writer/director James O’Brien, to get an advance copy of the film to review.  We met at a coffee shop called DuParr’s, in Studio City.  It seemed a fortuitous choice – Studio City, in the San Fernando Valley, was named after Republic Studios, birthplace of so many westerns, and the entrance to the old Republic lot, now CBS, is directly across the street from the coffee shop.  It had been about a year and a half since I’d visited the set (you can read that article HERE ), and a lot has happened since then. 

HENRY: When we first talked, on-set in November of 2013, you were a week into shooting.  You were already thinking of a possible sequel.  How about now?

Merik Tadros and Claude Duhamel

JAMES: It’s interesting; I've recently been in touch with a buyer for Showtime and HBO that wanted to discuss the possibility of turning it into a cable series, like DEADWOOD, but with a supernatural element. Working on something can change your thoughts on it. Many of the characters in the film suggest alternate stories, or following them further. It's certainly something I would entertain, though my thoughts on my next screenplay are elsewhere.

HENRY: How long a shoot was it?

JAMES:  It was a nineteen-day shoot, and we used every minute of it; though we did have a day afterwards for insert photography for the poker stuff, and one additional day for a pick-up shoot in Topanga Canyon, for the hanged man opening with Saint John, played by Gary Douglas Kohn.  

Claude Duhamel as Anton Stice

HENRY: You described WESTERN RELIGION as ‘an Altman western’, because there were so many characters.  Is there a lead character, or is the poker tournament itself the main character?

JAMES:  The poker tournament is a MacGuffin in a sense.  (Note: a MacGuffin was Hitchcock’s term for the object that motivates the plot – the stolen plans, the letters of transit, or the Lost Ark.)  In that it’s what draws everyone together.  I don’t think that I’d term it as a character per se.  I think the town of Religion is more of a character in the film.  But there is one villain, so to speak, that is the umbrella under which all these other characters gather to do battle.  That would be Anton Stice, Claude Duhamel, a fantastic Canadian actor that we were very fortunate to get less than a week before the production.  He was the last to come aboard, and I had the phone in my hand to call another actor, and something told me to wait just another day. A few hours later one of the other actors, Peter Shinkoda, who plays Chinaman Dan, told me to look out for an audition from a friend of his. That night I got an audition on-line from Claude, and the rest is western movie history.

HENRY: What surprised you in the process of making your first western? 

JAMES:  Well, I knew going in that the production would be on a much grander scale than my previous work.  So I was psychologically prepared for that.  But of course, the day to day reality of doing it, staging all of those action sequences, I knew it would be a challenge, and it did wind up being the biggest challenge, in terms of all the coverage you have to get to make that happen.  You know, I’ve been doing these run-and-gun independent films where you could just grab the camera, and jump out of the van, and do it on the fly, and often that would lend itself to the flavor of the finished product.  But this one, because of all the action, I had to do it more Hollywood-style, plan the sequences to the degree I could, then cover extensively. 

HENRY:  Did you story-board the film?

JAMES: Myself and the DP, Morgan Schmidt, made shot-lists for the action sequences; we wrote out the shots we planned on doing.  Sometimes we stuck to it, sometimes we improvised.  My first assistant director, a very good friend of mine, Ken August, wouldn't let me on set for the actions scenes if I didn’t deliver the shot lists with Morgan.  My fellow producer Louie Sabatasso agreed that it would be needed to make our days.  I feel very comfortable improvising on-set, but they asked for it, we delivered it, and that’s partly why we got the shoot done in nineteen days.

HENRY:  Morgan Schmidt’s photography is just beautiful.  Has he done any period pictures before?

DP Schmidt, 1st AD August, Dir. O'Brien

JAMES:  I knew that he had done at least one other Western film. He's shot a number of features across many genres, but was also known for doing high end commercial photography.  I met him at a party, and within a few minutes of talking to him, I said I’m doing this Western about gunfighters with different philosophies, and you’re going to shoot it. He said, ‘Deal,’ and it came together in ensuing months. 

HENRY:  Speaking of shooting, I remember you were shooting some 8mm TRI-X on the set.  Did any of that find its way into the movie?

JAMES: Indeed it did.  We experimented with using it throughout the movie, but it became a little too much like NATURAL BORN KILLERS, which I love as a film, but for our movie it took you out of the flow.  But I did wind up using it in the rather extensive end credit sequence, where we take you through the characters with the Super-8 footage, so it did what I wanted it to do; we show you the movie, and the last shot of the movie is black & white, Super-8, and then it goes into the end credits, giving you the sense that all of this actually happened. 

Miles Szanto

HENRY:  What were the best and worst parts of making WESTERN RELIGION?

JAMES: Well, the best part was gathering this incredible group of talented people out there in Agua Dulce at our caravan of trailers, where everyone got to take part in a feeling of time travel, by leaving Los Angeles and journeying back in time to our sets.  You mentioned that you couldn’t see any examples of the modern world when you were out there.  We never could have done that at the Paramount Ranch; we had very tight restrictions of hours, and the amount of people who could be there.  Being able to get that location, and gather the group that we did was the most thrilling aspect of it. It was kind of our indie Camelot. And I would say the most difficult part would be the pressure of having to raise money as we were shooting it – it’s not something I’d recommend.  But we committed our lives to doing this movie, particularly Louie and I, and we went into it without the full budget, raising it as we went along.  So the day-to-day pressures of, do we have enough money to make it into the next week, was probably the toughest part. 

HENRY:  All movie productions have challenges, but WESTERN RELIGION had a whopper, losing the Paramount Ranch location in the National Park shutdown.  How much time did you have to swing things over to Peter Sherayko’s Caravan West Ranch?

Sam Bearpaw

JAMES:  About two weeks.  Right at the start of the month, Tony Hoffman, the Ranger who runs Paramount Ranch, called me and said there was a slight possibility that the government could close down all of the National Parks. He thought it was unlikely to actually happen. I hoped we we'd be fine, until his call, two weeks from our start date. The Government had officially closed all National Parks. The Paramount Ranch, our set, was one of them.  That day we had a group meeting at our office.  Pete Sherayko was there, along with Louie, the department heads and Gary Kohn. Pete started taking out all these old photographs of tent cities.  And he just lit up like a kid in a candy store. He said, this has never been done, a western tent city done in a historically correct style. Hollywood actually invented the aesthetic of the western town. In reality, most of the mining towns of that era were tent cities.  Our focus shifted from a traditional western set to, hey, we’re going to recreate things the way they really were.  Once we made that decision, the wheels got set in motion, but we didn’t have a lot of time to do it. A big factor was clearing the land so we could actually build it.  Which we got right on top of.  But it really wasn’t until several days in that we had the beginnings of a set.

HENRY:  I remember well when, between takes, the hammers would start swinging, and during takes the hammers had to stop.  Because you were building the sets, whole structures, for the next scenes.  I found it invigorating, because it seemed like a real town growing out of the wilderness.

JAMES:  It really lent itself to the atmosphere.  The old saying of art imitating life.  It felt like we were living in a real pop-up town, much like the towns from that era.

HENRY:  Next week WESTERN RELIGION is having its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.  How did that come about?

JAMES:  Twenty years ago I went to the Cannes Festival with my first feature film, VENICE BOUND – that was one of the great experiences of my life, and I always had my eye on going back there with the right project.  I know that they sometimes do a spotlight on American independents, so I sent everything on our film to the people who run the Marche du Film there, Danielle and Tomas.  And they said, well, we have a few night screenings at the Palais, that we make available to independents, and we wound up being one of the fortunate ones who got one of those slots.   May 16^th, 8:30 pm, Saturday night at the Palais.

HENRY:  Are you planning your next film?

JAMES: One of my screenplays, THE BACKWARD PATH, a noir film about a detective investigating a case in Hell, is on the rails with Louie Sabatasso's new production company, Drawing Pictures. As far my next movie as a director, I'm angling to do a fantasy film: WARRIOR, MAGE, THIEF. It's being developed as a traditional picture as well as for the emerging Virtual Reality technology.  I’m writing the script now. 

HENRY:  The poker tournament that WESTERN RELIGION grows out of, was this something that was common in the old west, or was this your creation?

JAMES:  I believe poker was a way of life in the old west.  I don’t know if they threw poker tournaments as elaborate as the one in our movie.  But for sure, poker drove the saloon culture.  It was a dangerous environment full of grifters and outlaws.  I’m sure there were more battles over poker than anything else, except perhaps women.

HENRY:  And usually women were pretty near the poker tables, although rarely allowed to play.

JAMES:  Well we have one, Bootstrap Bess, played by Holiday Hadley, in our movie, who’s a card-playin’, whiskey drinkin’ gunfighter, so she got to the table.  It’s interesting the way a film – you go into it with certain intentions, but then it takes on a life of its own.  And it has a way of changing lives in ways that you never even imagined.  I just found out that two of the actors, Sam Bearpaw and Alan Tefoya, who are of the Apache tribe, are going to be attending the Cannes Film Festival; it’s the first time that anyone from their tribe has left the country.  And they’re leaving to attend our premiere in the south of France.  I never could have imagined that I could have influenced something like that.  It’s an honor for the film, and an honor for myself. 

HENRY:  What was the genesis of WESTERN RELIGION? 

JAMES:  It’s interesting to see things come full-circle.  The movie began as a…I don’t know if you’d call it a pipe-dream, because it actually happened.  But there was a group of us doing a demolition job on a house – (laughs) – it almost seemed like a chain-gang.  I was on that job with Louis Sabatasso, my producing partner on WESTERN RELIGION.

HENRY:  And an actor with quite a prominent part, as Salt Peter.

Waiting for ACTION!

JAMES: The ever colorful Salt Peter.  And also Sean Joyce, who plays Bobby Shea, the traveling carpenter.  He literally was a travelling carpenter on that job – he travelled cross-country, to put his hat back on in Hollywood.  He was working with us and Gary Kohn, who was also one of the co-producers on the film.  It’s interesting to harken back to us swinging sledgehammers on a demo job, saying hey, we’re gonna make this western.  It was almost like Butch and Sundance talking about going to Australia.   We needed to believe it. One day Louie, Sean and I met over tacos at lunch on the job and made the decision: we’re all in on this. We set as start date of Oct. 21^st. It was 8 months away. We didn't have a dime in our accounts but we decided to burn the ships behind us, and commit to this as if there’s nothing else after it. We laid out a campaign that started with crowd funding, then shifted to private investors. In its own way everything went according to plan, though it always came through at the very last second, like Maxwell Smart walking underneath the closing doors. It was all about Faith really. The bridge shows up under your feet with each step. It’s fun to look back on that time now, and know that we’ll be in the south of France next week for the premiere, and the indie dream really did take shape. 

HENRY:  Do you have distribution set?

JAMES:  The plan is for a theatrical release in the U.S.  We have just signed with sales agents Michael Lurie and Jeffrey Giles of Automatic Entertainment, and they'll be representing the film at Cannes and beyond. It’s possible we’ll have a deal before Cannes, but the film will be at its highest profile when we screen it there, so that’s likely where we’ll make it all happen. After the incredible journey of making Western Religion, we're excited to finally share our vision of the Wild West with the world.

‘CALL OF THE WILD’, ‘GOOD-BYE MY LADY’ MAY 9^TH AT UCLA/BILLY WILDER

As part of their William Wellman – Hollywood Rebel series, UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theatre will screen CALL OF THE WILD (1935), Wellman’s brutally poetic adaptation of Jack London’s stunning novel.  The film stars the radiant Loretta Young, and the man you wish you were, Clark Gable.  The script is by Gene Fowler and Leonard Praskins, and the black and white photography by Charles Rosher will make you shiver along with all the snow-bound prospectors.  It’s teamed with GOODBYE, MY LADY (1956), Wellman’s only film aimed at children, and stars Walter Brennan, Brandon DeWilde, Phil Harris and Sidney Poitier.  Both films are shown in 35 mm.   The program starts at 3 pm, and the director’s son, William Wellman Jr., will be there starting at 2, signing his book, WILD BILL WELLMAN: HOLLYWOOD REBEL.  More details here: https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2015/05/09/call-of-the-wild-goodbye-my-lady

GREGORY PECK IN ‘YELLOW SKY’ MAY 9^TH AT THE AUTRY

As part of their monthly ‘What is a Western?’ series, the Autry will screen YELLOW SKY, at 1:30 pm in the Wells Fargo Theatre.  Director William Wellman and screenwriter Lamar Trotti, who teamed in last month’s offering, THE OX BOW INCIDENT, this time tackled a W. R. Burnett (LITTLE CEASAR, HIGH SIERRA) story, about a pack of outlaws hiding out in a ghost town populated only by an old prospector and his daughter, Anne Baxter.  Also in this drama, suggested by Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, are Richard Widmark, John Russell and Harry Morgan.  The film will be introduced by Jeffrey Richardson, Gamble Curator of Western History, Popular Culture and Firearms.  Admission is included with museum admission, free to members.  Learn more HERE

http://theautry.org/programs/film/iyellow-sky-i-1948

CONEJO VALLEY DAYS – THOUSAND OAKS, MAY 7-10

You can celebrate the area’s Western roots and history, with plenty of live music, carnival rides, games, a western saloon, out-house races, food, hands-on exhibits, Kids Korral, and dog adoptions.  Participants include the Chumash Indian Museum, Joel McCrea Ranch, and The Stagecoach Inn Museum.  Go here for details: http://www.conejovalleydays.us/entertainment/

FIESTA CHARITY HORSE SPECTACULAR MAY 9 AT BURBANK EQUESTRIAN CTR.

The focus is on Spanish horses and other breeds, and music and dance and food, and raising funds for Kure It Cancer Research.  Learn more here -- http://www.fiestacharityshow.com/ -- and check out the video!

NORCO RANCH TOUR – MAY 9^TH

Tour six local ranches, enjoy pony rides and wagon rides, Cavalry displays and demonstrations, raffles, hot dogs, and more!  Learn more here -- http://www.friendsofnorcohills.com/

‘WORD ON WESTERNS’ RETURNS TO THE AUTRY MAY 20^TH!

As noted here a couple of weeks ago, Rob Word’s fun and fact-filled A WORD ON WESTERNS programs will be returning to the Autry starting on Wednesday, May 20^th, with  A Salute to Duke.  They’re going to be every other month, so the next one will be in July.  No word from Word on guests yet, but I’m posting the clip below as a teaser.  Rob went on location for this one, to Monument Valley!

THAT’S A WRAP!

Next week I’ll have my review of the long-forgotten but worth-watching SHANE TV series, starring David Carradine, and now available from Timeless Media.  And hopefully I’ll have the final part of my TCM Fest coverage.  The picture is of me, from the set of WESTERN RELIGION – keep your eyes peeled for those red and white cuffs!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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