Your new movie Once
Upon a Time in Deadwood - in a few words, what is it about?
A gunman is poisoned and won’t be given the antidote until he
completes an seemingly impossible mission. With
Once Upon a
Time in Deadwood being a western, is that a genre at all dear to
you, and some of your genre favourites? Yes. I love making westerns. I’ve made
several of them now but it’s always exciting. I like how raw westerns
can be. It’s a uniquely American genre. It’s rumored that you are a
crew of one? Is that true? If so, how it is possible on a movie like Once
Upon a Time in Deadwood? Yes. I’m almost always a crew of one.
It’s just my actors and I. I’m used to it now. And the actors help
when they can. Once
Upon a Time in Deadwood has its fair share of fights and
shoot-outs - so do talk about the action scenes in your movie for a bit,
and how were they achieved? It was all done for real, the
shoot outs, the fist fights, the chases, the horse stunts and even the
hanging. No visual effects. It’s all old fashioned action movie making.
Down and dirty. The actors just rocked it all out and I tried my best to
keep up with them with my camera. What were the specific
challenges of bringing a western to the screen? A western is one thing, but this
one is an epic. We go from the desert to the snow and everything
in-between. Out of all of those locations I’d have to say the snow was
the most difficult part of filming. By far.
Do talk
about your directorial approach to your story at hand! My only intent was to make an old
style western with modern day action sequences. I usually make 80s
style movies. In this case I went all the way back to the 60s. It’s
the style I went for. I think the 60s was a sort of golden age for
western movies. So I thought I’d go for that style with my little B
movie. What
can you tell us about your key cast, and why exactly these people? Well both I and the producer Jeff Miller were interested
in doing a western specifically for Bronzi. Who wouldn’t? Karin Brauns
is a great young actress that I’ve worked with many times. She’s a
trusted friend and she will climb the highest peak to get a great shot.
She’s got an excellent work ethic and she’s talented. We were also
lucky enough to get Michael Paré to be our main bad guy. It’s great to
have an A list actor in our little B movie. You
of course also have to talk about your locations, and what were the
advantages but maybe also challenges filming there? The location of note was in Almeria
Spain. It was the same exact set used for Once Upon a Time in the West.
The producer Jeff Miller allowed me to film out there for a couple of
days. It was amazing. Very inspiring to be in a place where one of the
greatest westerns was filmed. A
few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? Well Bronzi and I had a great time in Spain. We
met some great actors and actresses. Good memories. Karin and I had a fun
time filming with Michael Paré here in the USA. The weather was difficult
but we had fun during filming. Lots of getting stuck in the storms and
snow but we made it through with smiles.
The
$64-question of course, where can your movie be seen? It will be on
digital October 1st and then
on DVD in November in the USA. International dates will be different. Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Once
Upon a Time in Deadwood yet? The few critics have been kind. But
the movie isn’t out just yet. At the time of this interview we’re
still weeks away from release. Any future projects
you'd like to share? I just finished a horror/action movie called
Cabal. Very happy with that one. I also did a movie called Cry
Havoc that is coming out soon. Probably my scariest movie yet.
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Thanks for
the interview!
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