Your new movie Guns of
Eden - in a few words, what is it about?
Guns of
Eden is about four campers who witness an execution and find themselves
hunted by different factions of a militia. I’ve described it as Deliverance meets
First Blood, because it’s a throwback to 70s survival
films and 80s action films, and serves as the origin story for a female action hero.
What
were your sources of inspiration when writing Guns
of Eden? Besides the films I already mentioned, the
Cannon films of the 80s, Walter Hill
movies, and John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13. Do talk about Guns
of Eden's approach to the thriller genre! I
wanted it to start out small, so the audience would think they knew where
it was heading, and escalate things – it gets bigger and bigger, and we
pull off some pretty ambitious moments, like our helicopter sequence. I
also wanted the audience firmly on the side of my hero, Megan Forest. You of
course also have to talk about your movie's stunt and action scenes, and
how were they achieved? The
two big hand-to-hand fight scenes were choreographed by Alexander McBryde,
who’s an actor and a martial artist. He also choreographed two fight
scenes in Johnny
Gruesome, and he’s acted in all of my Buffalo films. I
wrote fairly detailed descriptions of the scenes in my script, but he was
free to deviate from what was on the page, and rehearsed with the actors
without me, and then Chris Cosgrave, the cinematographer, had to figure
out how to shoot them. The two fights are stylistically very different:
the longer one is filmed with coverage, and the shorter one is done in one
long take; both work exquisitely. But there are other types of action,
too: foot chases, a car chase, a helicopter chase, gunfire exchanges. We
used cold weapons at all times, and took safety very seriously, and Chris
added muzzle flashed and blood spats in post.
A few words about your overall
directorial approach to your story at hand? I
work hard at casting my pictures, and believe in working with the actors
and cinematographer to get the most we can out of each scene with the
limited amount of time we have. Sometimes I have a preconceived plan and
we stick to it; sometimes we deviate from it; and sometimes we completely
wing it, based on location needs and benefits. I try to be flexible and
still make our day. Do talk
about Guns of Eden's
key cast, and why exactly these people?
It’s a huge cast, 65 roles. The whole thing hinged on having the right person
in the lead role. Alexandra Faye Sadeghian was recommended to us by John
Woodruff (Animal Among Us). She’s a NYC based actor who impressed us
with her audition and attitude, and did a great job, just
really delivered and was great to work with. Most of the rest of the cast
were local to Buffalo, where I live. Pete Johnson is someone I’ve worked
with in different capacities, and I knew he would be great as Jeremy,
Megan Forest’s police partner. For the villain, I didn’t want the fat
small town sheriff, which would have been too close to
First Blood; I
wanted someone who looks like he could be the hero. I cast Bill Kennedy, a
Niagara Falls actor I’ve known for years but never got to work with
before. Both of these guys were great. And I always wanted Lynn Lowry to
play Frances, the hermit in the woods, basically a western character.
I’d worked with Lynn on two other films that I didn’t direct, and I
wanted to work with her on that level. And then there are so many other
people, like Dominic Luongo, Nicole Colon, Tim O’Hearn [Tim
O'Hearn interview - click here] and Jessica
Zwolak, just to name a few. We needed an army.
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What can you
tell us about Guns of Eden's
pretty impressive outdoors locations, and what was it like filming there?
And how did you find them even?
Chris and I wanted to make sure the locations stood out, because woods usually
don’t, especially in independent films. We scouted a lot of local state
parks, some of which I’d known about already. The most impressive one,
with those big rock formations and crevices, was Little Rock City, which I
visited as a kid. That one was 75 minutes away and very remote, with no
bathrooms or electricity. We shot at Chestnut Ridge for five days, which
was only 20 minutes away and had public bathrooms. The great thing about
that park was that we just had to turn the camera around to get a
completely different landscape, which saved time. We shot at another park
half an hour away just to have a waterfall, and we jumped through hoops to
shoot our opening in downtown Buffalo. So we definitely put in the effort.
A few words about the
shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
Every film I’ve made has been a fun shoot because I crew up and cast very
carefully. It’s important to have the right array of people, both
professionals and amateurs getting their feet wet, with no primadonnas or
egomaniacs. Everyone was there because they wanted to make the film, not
to get a paycheck. It was a very low budget film, needless to say. Anything you
can tell us about audience and critical reception of Guns
of Eden? We had maybe seven screenings total, and I attended all but one, in Puerto
Rico. It’s an audience picture, so the reactions were excellent. Reviews
are coming out now, and they’re about what I expect: the positive ones
are from folks who love the movies that inspired me, and really like it,
and the middling ones dismiss it as just another action movie. Since we
made this for a specific niche of action fan, I can’t be upset when
someone who doesn’t like those films thinks we just went through the
motions on ours. Whatever, you know? I’ve been doing this for almost 40
years, my skin is pretty bulletproof. I know we made a solid, entertaining
film on a ridiculously low budget. Any future projects you'd like to
share?
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I wrote the screenplay for Showdown in Yesteryear, produced by Tim
O’Hearn, who plays one of the killers in Guns of
Eden. It stars Debra Lamb [Debra
Lamb interview - click here], Vernon Wells, and Jeff Grennell, who’s also in
Guns of
Eden. That turned
out great. I’m trying to raise money for a werewolf movie right now. I
wanted to do it several years ago, but Widow’s Point happened first, and
then the pandemic. Guns of
Eden was more practical to do than the werewolf
flick. Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever
else? People can follow Guns of
Eden on Facebook, and can follow me on Facebook at Gregory
Lamberson Author and Filmmaker. I won’t be on Twitter much
longer, I’m just riding it out to promote this film. Thanks for the interview!
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