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Your new movie The
Dragon Unleashed - in a few words, what is it about?
It’s about an assassin who questions if the child he
once was
would be proud of who he’s become. I
think I'm not too far off by saying The
Dragon Unleashed is an hommage to Cannon
action and especially ninja flicks from the 1980s - so what is it that
fascinates you about these movies, and some of your favourites?
You are correct. I specialize in making
retro style
movies.
Especially the Cannon
films kind. I think the 70’s and
80’s were the
best years for movies, music and comicbooks. Probably
because I
grew up in the 80’s so I may be biased. I’m not sure
what part of it
fascinates me, to answer your question, all I know is that
this is what I
was meant to do and how I feel I’m doing my best. I
don’t even know if
I’d have an interest in making a non-retro movie. Taking
away all the action, The
Dragon Unleashed can also be read as a story about a man searching
for his true self and his place in the world though - now where did that
come from, especially in the action context, and is any of it based on
personal experiences? I wrote the premise of this story around 20 years ago,
so I don’t
recall my state of mind at the time. As for your question
about it
being personal, I don’t think so. I used only
imagination to write this
story. There is a lot of me in any movie I make but the
overall premise
is not something that plagues me. I did imagine it would
weigh heavily
on the mind of a character like this. And I hoped it would
speak to
many of the audience members.
(Other) sources of inspiration
when writing The Dragon
Unleashed? This may sound silly but one of my inspirations was
Snake Eyes, a comicbook character and action figure I cherished as a
child. I
imagined I was making a story from a chapter of that
action figure's
life. The
Dragon Unleashed does feature quite a few elaborate action scenes
- so how were they accomplished, and how much preparation went into them?
On a micro budget movie, sadly, I have to use my
precious little
film time to compose the action scenes. No way to bring
actors or
stuntmen in ahead of time to rehearse. Whether it’s a
chase scene, a
shoot-out or even complicated hand-to-hand combat scene
with
intricate martial arts. But luckily, on the martial arts
side we had a
master of kung fu, John Ozuna. Not only is he a master but
he’s also
the Guinness Book world record holder for fastest punches
and he
also has a second Guinness Book world record for martial
arts but the
exact title of that one escapes me at the moment. Either
way, he did
all of the choreography and I’m super-impressed with him
in every
way. I also hope to film with him again. We also had a
dedicated
group of stuntmen for him to trade punches with.
What
can you tell us about your directorial approach to your story at hand?
Every actor and scene requires its own distinct
directing style. I
don’t impose myself. I am at the service of the movie,
the movie is not
at the service of my directorial whims. The only
pre-conceived
directorial impulse I made prominent was to make this an
80’s retro
style genre movie. Other than that, I go with the flow.
The story is in
charge. Do
talk about your key cast, and why exactly these people?
Chase Bloomquist was the male hero actor and he was
able to
convey the emotional torture. He made it real and
dignified. He was
also able to internalize, which was an important ingredient
for the
success of this character. He was the perfect choice for
this role and
we were lucky to find him. Emily Sweet was our female hero
and she
is just a really good actress. Finding beauty and talent is
a rare find but
Emily has an abundance of both qualities, and her work
ethic is
astonishing. Emily’s character was also on a journey of
change and
she was sincere in ever aspect of her performance. John
Schneider
was our lead antagonist and he is so much better than what
I
expected. I was just a casual Dukes of Hazzard fan so I was
blown
away by the level of his acting ability. He plays a
complicated
character who rides the line of being a patriot and a
villain. He knew
all of his lines too the letter and said them all with
authority. The way
only an accomplished star can. He’s also a director so
he had some
great suggestions for me.
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The
industrial compound where you've filmed the finale of The
Dragon Unleashed - you just have to talk about that location for a
bit, and what was it like filming there? And how did you find it even?
Hot - we filmed in the summer but those Industrial
compounds
were abnormally hot. My camera over heated. I had to put
it in a
refrigerator. One of the scenes was filmed in a
temperature of 140
degrees. There was great comrodery between the men and I
because
of this hardship. They all had heavy costumes and never
complained
once. The location itself is like a work of art. A
few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? Oh we all had a great time. It was actually a pretty
happy summer
of filming full of wonder and innovation. All of my film
shoots are fun
but this one was even more so. I’m not sure why. I’m a
one man crew
for the most part so it was mainly just my actors and I
bouncing
around. My producer Kasey Dollar came along for a few days
too.
Lots of fond memories of filming this movie. Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of The
Dragon Unleashed? Well the movie just came out today so I haven’t seen
any reviews
yet, but I’ve been down this retro road before. The
critics who are
educated on film will probably understand the entire retro grindhouse angle. As for the audience, there will always be a
section of
them who just do not like B movies and they refuse to give
them a
chance. And that’s fine. This movie is not for everyone.
I specifically
make movies for my target audience of old school retro
movie fans. Any future projects you'd like
to share?
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Right after The
Dragon Unleashed, I filmed a movie
called Cry
Havoc that I’m very proud of. At the moment, I’m
finishing up a
western that is turning out to be my most epic movie thus
far. I’m not
certain of what the title will be for this western, but
Cry Havoc is done
and there is a trailer online and will be released soon. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else? www.thedarkestmachines.com
www.facebook.com/thedarkestmachines/
Thanks for the interview!
Thanks to you for supporting indie films.
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