Your upcoming movie Hellcat's Revenge - in a few words, what
is it about? Hi, thanks for having me. Hellcat's Revenge
is
basically an action picture that involves a female biker club (The
Hellcats) that ends up battling a criminal male biker gang after the death
of the Hellcats' club leader. With Hellcat's Revenge
being a biker movie, is that a genre that at all appeals to you, and some
of your genre favourites? In terms of decades, for the 70s
I like Nam Angels, Savage Abduction, and my favorite being David
Carradine's You and Me. Into the 80s I like Gary Busey's Eye of the Tiger
and into the early 90s Stone Cold and Beyond the Law. I'd
say those are my top favs in the "biker picture" genre. So those
are some of my fav's for sure. (Other) sources of
inspiration when writing Hellcat's Revenge? I try
not to be overly influenced going into something. But what me and my
editor (Chris Young,
www.cyoungmedia.com
[Chris Young interview - click
here])
discussed what we wanted to do with the movie and of course you say
"biker film" and most people think back to the 70s biker film
era. So we wanted a simple story/theme that would reflect that genre, push
the action, but also incorporate some stylistic elements like steampunk
costuming, loud colored hairstyles at times, things that would deviate
from the "down & dirty" style biker flicks.
Hellcat's
Revenge seems to require quite a bit of action - so how are you
planning to go about that aspect of your movie, and having done quite a
few action flicks in the past, how do you feel you're evolving as an
action director? I think as an action director it obviously
depends on what kind of picture you're shooting and of course you
choreograph to the setting, story, characters etc.For Hellcat's Revenge
there's mostly "more real" kicks & punches, scrappy stuff,
brawling stuff, but then of course some martial arts put in there as that
tends to separate my indie level of production with some others.
So in terms of planning to go about it, I approached the film with
"what happens & how often", meaning there's a "fight
or death" X number of times in our 42 scenes etc, and I
didn't want too many scenes or gaps without a death, a fight, a nude scene,
I had it all mapped out, lol. Action, like any other element in
the film is all about pacing and pushing the story. In Angel of
Reckoning the characters pushed the story, not the action in that film, in
Hellcat's Revenge it is what you would expect and that's action pushing the
characters to our story. What can you tell us about the
film's intended look and feel?
The feel is to have the
simple, direct story be indicative of 70s biker films but have some
stylistic elements and fight scenes that would differentiate the film and
make it more "ours". Anything you can tell us
about your projected cast yet, and why exactly these people? Our
lead in the film ("Kat") is played by Playboy Centerfold Lisa
Neeld [Lisa Neeld interview -
click here]. Why Lisa? Lisa knows how I work and move things along, so at this
point having worked with her a few times (she lives near me as well which
makes it nice) she knows how I like to run my sets. Playing a lead is also
demanding work, obviously having tons of scenes and not a
role where I can get you down in a day or two. Lisa has the talent and
work ethic to be a lead and in this film? She'll prove it. Rounding
out my cast, I wanted to bring in my strongest performers I've worked with:
Donna Hamblin ("Rosie") [Donna
Hamblin interview - click here] is simply a great actress, super
prepared, super dedicated to not just herself but the whole cast/crew.
Donna plays a tattoo shop owner who gives information to both
"gangs". It's a fun role and I was really hoping she'd say
"yes" to - and you know her
answer, lol. Debbie Dutch [Deborah
Dutch interview - click here] is one of the lead "Hellcats" in the
film, and when writing the script I had her in mind as i figured she would
have alot of fun with the role of "Asia" and she has the perfect
look for a biker picture! I myself play the role of
"Snake" the criminal leader of "The Vipers", a male
motorcycle gang. Seeing how well Angel of
Reckoning turned out, I really
wanted to stay mostly behind the camera for Hellcat's Revenge, but
a lot (and I don't mean one or two) of "fans" (hate that word), but
a lot of cast,
crew, fans, etc we're expressing that it was time I do a leading role. At
first I was reluctant, but I'm glad I decided to do it and it's been a fun
character for me to play. So if anyone likes my performance in the film -
thank my cast, crew, and KillerWolf Films fans!
But yeah, it's
been fun and a great few months for me since I started writing it in early
May. To round out my cast, I like to round up strong local theatre actors,
especially top shelf ones who also have seen the way I work before.
LOOK OUT and REMEMBER the name Hunter McKenrick, this kid's got all the
tools to be a great actor for a looooong time to come. Hellcat's Revenge
is no exception as I brought in Frederick Williams (soooooo good
in Angel of
Reckoning) [Frederick
Williams interview - click here], Jawn Gross (the same, lol), Adele Crotty-Gross,
Mark Kosobucki (pulling double duty as our special FX coordinator and
actor), Beard Joe and several others. But I'd like to take a
moment to thank ALL my boys & girls who came out to the
"clubhouse shoot" days for the
"Hellcats", "Vipers" and "Strip Club".
Extras (another term I hate) really make the scenes the best they can be
and I thank you all, this movie really is nothing without you giving us
your time and efforts! Thank you!
|
As we speak, your film's
still in pre-production - so what stage are you in, and what's the
schedule? Right now, we have about a dozen scenes shot or
so. By the end of August here, we will be down to just 2 scenes left to
shoot and those film out in the 2nd week of September. So we'll be
done with principal photography the 2nd week of September. From there,
Chris Young (also my editor on Angel of
Reckoning and also the DVD
coordinator for the Apocalypse Female Warriors special edition DVD that
came out last November) [Chris
Young interview - click here] takes over and starts working his magic. As for the
finished product, I'm hoping near end of the year-ish so we can possibly
get a release to DVD in the spring before another Kickstarter is to
be launched for a much more high profile project (which I am not writing,
but the gang over at Red Letter Media has those duties). That
way before we launch a mummy film project, I will have 2 released films
that potential fans, donators, etc can see in Angel of
Reckoning and
Hellcat's Revenge.
Even if it's waaay too early to ask, any
idea when and where the movie might be released onto the general public
yet?
As I said above, I'm hoping for maybe a local premier
around January-ish and really hoping for a finished product around
December-ish as when I sign a film to a distribution deal it generally is
at least a 4-5 month wait from signing to actual release. Any
future projects beyond Hellcat's Revenge you'd like to talk about? Not
to get to into it but Bite of the Mummy I think may be something some
people may want to see, I don't know. I wouldn't be launching the
crowdfunding campaign for it or the writing, but I will produce it, cast
it, and direct it. If the backers of this kind of project want to see
myself and the Red Letter Media guys in roles, I'm sure we'd make that
happen. This project is all about the fans more than any other picture
I've done. Normally I just develop stories and start writing my next
feature, but with this one I'll get a script and start moving with
locations, casting, etc immediately. If the funding turns out
successful, I WILL give the fans what they want here - without a
doubt. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
www.facebook.com/len.kabasinski
is my Facebook page and in the search box just type in "Killerwolf Films", or "Angel of
Reckoning", or "Hellcat's Revenge", and those film-specific pages will pull up.
I try to answer
ALL my mail though I'm sure some get lost in the avalanche of the
be-all-end-all of communications (Facebook), lol. And I'd love for people
to check out our brand new KillerWolf Films
website designed by Chris Young at
www.killerwolffilms.com.
Anything
else you're dying to mention and I've merely forgotten to ask?
First
up, Hellcat's Revenge still has a "funding" campaign going on
for those individuals who would like to chip in, get some cool perks, etc
etc on the project. I appreciate it! 100000% of ALL funds goes right to
the film. The site for it is
www.gofundme.com/hellcatsfilm
Second
up, Angel of
Reckoning comes out to cable services/on demand sites next
month (September)!!!! The DVD for the film comes out in November and is a
LOADED DVD with tons of cool features. So I hope people check it out. It is by FAR my best
work, my other films aren't even remotely
comparable. A very different style picture for me and I hope viewers see
progress in what I'm doing with my films. My associate producer Ruth
Sprague, editor/post-production coordinator Chris Young, and special FX
coordinator Mark Kosobucki have worked very hard to advance KillerWolf Films. I like to think of my gang as the "NWO" of indie
filmmaking. So I hope people check out Angel of
Reckoning and I certainly
look forward to some feedback on it J
Thirdly, Apocalypse Female Warriors has still been going strong especially on
Amazon. Again the edition released last November is loaded with bonus
features. So hope people consider checking it out. The DVD even has a Red
Letter Media audio commentary track.
|
Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
|
|
|
Lastly, Angel of
Reckoning &
Hellcat's Revenge at the end of the day
are "Len's films" for better or worse and put it on me, I'm cool
with all that. I write, I direct, I executive produce them all, but I'd
like to say in the last two films I have worked with my BEST group of
people and have honestly met people I hope to call friends for the rest of
my life. I truly care about my ladies and gentlemen and hope they know
this 2000000 times fold. Me, Chris Young, Ruth Sprague, and Mark Kosobucki
have all upped our game for Angel of
Reckoning and Hellcat's Revenge
and I hope you all consider checking them out and getting in on the
www.gofundme/hellcatsfilm campaign.
Thanks for reading the interview everyone and I hope to hear some feedback
on our new films soon! Thanks for having me Michael!
Thanks for the interview!
|