Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 291: Inside One of the Most Dangerous Film Shoots in History with Jon Gustafsson

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BPS 291: Inside One of the Most Dangerous Film Shoots in History with Jon Gustafsson · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

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You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number two ninety one. Anytime a film scores a massive
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Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching you
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how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
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Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I am your
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by professional readers, head on over to cover my Screenplay dot com. Now,
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guys, we've all heard these stories of difficult and even dangerous film shoots
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from Apocalypse Now, Francis Orcoppola, and you know the Abyss with James Cameron,
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And we've all heard of these these kind of epic and mythical stories,
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but generally we don't hear about them in independent films. So when I heard
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this story, I had to bring the filmmaker onto the show. So today's
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guest is filmmaker Jan Gufsensson, who directed the documentary film Wrath of Gods,
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which documents one of the most dangerous and difficult film shoots in modern history and
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definitely in modern independent film history. Now, Jan wasn't only a documentarian,
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he was also cast in the film, which was called Beowulf and Grendel and
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also starred Gerald Butler right before he blew up when he did three hundred Now.
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The filmmakers anticipated the usual complications involving making a major motion picture, but
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what they didn't plan for was the ruthless, icelandic winter on the foreboding landscape,
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financial complications, and a bizarre run of bad luck that led them all
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to believe that they were cursed and they were in an epic battle with Norse
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gods themselves. And Jan was there the entire time for the insane, insane
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ride. I mean, the crew was battling hurricane force wins while the producers
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were trying to shore up a collapse financial deal, and so many other crazy
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things that happened, from the set burning down to a leaky Viking boat that
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if they fell into the water they would die within two minutes. It was
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an insane, insane story and all captured in the documentary Wrath of God's which
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is going to be part of indie film Hustle TV. And I will put
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links in the show notes on where you can watch this insane documentary. If
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you're a filmmaker, you need to watch this film. So without any further.
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Ado, Let's get into the weeds with filmmaker Jan Gufsen Stun. I
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like to welcome to the show, Jan Gustafsson. How are you doing,
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John, I'm very good. Thank you, how are you? Oh,
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thank you for it, thank you for being on the show. You are
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in coming from us from Iceland, probably one of the more safer places in
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the world to be right now regarding COVID, absolutely, and about to get
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even even more safe because there's some there's some big, big news happening here
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with with COVID in Iceland, and um, we we have like on every
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given day we have like between zero and maybe five positive spland stop it,
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stop it. I live in Los Angeles, please, oh, I know,
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but we are an Iceland, an island in the North Atlantic almost by
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the Arctic Circle. We have a population of three hundred and fifty thousand people.
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We have one international airport, so we can actually and they have put
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in restrictions. Everybody who lands in Iceland now is forced to have a test
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that at the airport and then quarantine for five days and then we tested again,
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so we we we cut them. You know, well, I I
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envy you, sir in many, many ways. So but we're here to
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talk about film talk AT's talk Shop. So before we get started, how
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did you get into the ridiculous film business? Um, it's a it's a
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bit of a long story that I'll just try to um compress a little bit.
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My first love was music, I UM, but I was never really
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that good as a musician. I ended up in studios, producing recording,
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UM and done in in high school. Basically, my friend of mine had
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a radio show and I figured, you know, hey, maybe he can
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get me a job on radio show on national radio. So I ended up
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getting a weekly show playing one hour a week of music. So I fell
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in love with radio and I decided this, you know, this could be
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a career. And I went to the BBC in London and studied radio production.
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And I came back and there was no There were no jobs for me
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in radio, So I figured television might be similar, you know, similar
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elements to work with. So I went to the TV station and there was
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a crazy guy who had taken over the programs a department, and he was
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an old film director who used to do Viking movies. And he saw me
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walk in and then he gave me a job on the spot. So suddenly
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I had a job in television and I he actually gave me my own show,
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just a sort of weird situation, and so I had my own television
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show for about two years. And then I think, hey, you know
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this is this is this is an interesting place to work. But I do
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I don't want to be in front of the camera. I want to be
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on the other side. So I started looking for a place to study television
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production and I found a school in Manchester, England, so and I,
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because I had worked in television, they let me into the second year,
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so I missed the first year. Beginning of second year was a class where
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they sat us down and said, now we're going to do a short film.
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Go home and write a script and bring it back and then we'll pick
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some scripts and we'll shoot them. And it was just an eye opening thing
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for me, like suddenly a whole new world opened up. So I finished
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my bachelor's at Manchester Polytechnic and soon realized they didn't know anything about filmmaking.
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This this sort of world of filmmaking that was opening up for me. I
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was already like you twenty five or twenty six, but so this world of
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filmmaking opened up. But the the the guy who was the head of the
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film school, he said in one of our first classes, he said,
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now now you're film students, you should see yourselves as filmmakers. So you
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know, don't be afraid to walk around like this and you're holding up I'm
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sorrying what is like? I know this, but I don't I don't know
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the Okay, so people listening, he's holding up. He's putting his hands
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together, and not the standard like you know, letterbox or the shot of
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like you're framing your shot with it, you know that famous those famous director
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shots where you see them holding up their hands trying to frame it with their
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fingers. He's holding up a drop some sort of I don't even know what
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that is. So that that says a lot about the teacher, I guess.
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But I the nicest guy you could find, you know, so supportive,
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so encouraging. But I found out his background was from the pottery department.
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He was a pottery teacher, so that would explain the look. Right.
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So you're starting off with you're starting off with a bang. Okay,
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yeah, but you know I actually, um it was you know, great
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class made one of my best friend from from from that class. It was
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a small class, but she ended up making a film that was distributed by
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Miramax all over the world and and so on, so so you know,
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it was not completely hopeless. But I realized that these people did not could
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not teach me filmmaking. And I was spent two years in Manchester and it
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was arraigning the whole time. We'll be right back after a word from our
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sponsor, and now back to the show. It was raining and cloudy,
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foggy, and I figured, I'm going to continue down this path, but
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I'm going to do it where the sunshines, you know. So I applied
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for some schools in LA applied to like three schools and got into one called
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car Arts, California Institute of the Arts, and got into a master program
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there for directing theater and cinema with actually an amazing teacher called Alexander McKendrick,
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who was one of the Healing Studios sort of Golden Years directors. He directed
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The Lady Killers, the original Lady Killers, Wow oh Wow, and another
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one called Man in the White Suit Um, which was a healing comedy.
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He made Whiskey Galorey, you know, the Lady Killers, probably the most
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famous one. And then he moved to the States, um and and did
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Sweet Smell of Success with Tony Curtis and Bert Lancaster. Wow. So he
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was he was. He was a heavy hitter of his day. He was
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very much. And then he pretty much got the ruined by Lancaster. Lancaster
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ruined his career and U and so he ended up teaching. He had amphisemia
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and and and he you know, smoked too much all his life, so
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he would drive his buggy around school and and and teach us directing and so
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so it was like old school filmmaking film language UM pretty much the way they
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would shoot films at ealing studios got it. So it was a very old
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It was an old style of filmmaking, like, you know, more studio
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style kind of filmmaking, which then leads me to um. One of the
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main reasons I got you on the show is because of your film Beowulf and
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Grendel Um, which is, uh, you know how, I'm just curious
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how that whole studio mentality worked on Belf and Grendel. I don't think it
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was very very similar or how did that work out well. First of all,
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tell us about bear Wolf and Grendel, how you got involved in the
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project, and then we'll go into the misadventures, let's call them of the
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making of it. Babelf and Grendel was directed by Um, one of my
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best friends, a guy called Sturla Gunnerson. He's one of the leading sort
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of directors in Canada. Um. He was born in Iceland, grew up
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in Canada, and it was it was his dream project. He has been
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had been making movies for a while and he was Oscar he's an Oscar nominated
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director, and he wanted to make this big, big film in in Iceland,
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Babel Story of Babel and Grantell. He wanted to shoot it in this
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sort of primal landscape of Iceland. And so he called me one day and
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asked he had a list of actors and he just wanted to, like,
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you know, run them by me. What do you think about you know,
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the world big names of young guys Um, and none of them seemed
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to seem to seem to fit. But the last name was Gerard Butler was
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pretty much unknown back then. And he said, so, you know,
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have you heard of this guy? And as it happened like for five days
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earlier, my friend from Mount Sister had called me and said, I just
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finished a film with Gerard Butler and UH and Emily Mortimer and it's going to
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be playing a Tribecca and Miramax is giving us a limo twenty four our limo
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like for the whole duration, you know, come down and and party with
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us for the Tribecca festival. And so I knew I was I was going
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to be hanging out with him. So I told Stirtler to come down to
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Toronto with me, and so we met up with with Jerry, and Stirtler
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ended up casting him for the film. So Stirtler basically asked me to come
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along and shoot sort of behind the scene stuff, to do a website for
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the film. It was probably the first time a film was being promoted as
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it was being shot, at least a film of that level. So I
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would be like interviewing Jerry, taking pictures, interviewing different people, putting it
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on the web as little web videos, a little behind the thing, behind
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the scenes. Thanks and with no money, just a little tiny, little
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sony mini DV camera. He gave me a little mini div camera and gave
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me a box of tapes. So in order to you know, justify having
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me there the whole time, he cast me as Babel's Warrior number two.
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Babel, played by Jerry, had an army of ten people and some of
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them had names, and then the Babel's Warrior number one, Babel's Warrior number
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two. Right, So I was just completely at the bottom of that list
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of ten warriors pretty much. I was some interesting guys in that in that
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team. One of them ended upon a Game of Thrones, playing the Hound
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on Game of Thrones, for example. And so I was there in Viking
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costume for forty shooting days. So I basically basically lived in these remote country
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hotels and guesthouses and forty shooting days in chain mail, um, you know,
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the sort of leather stuff helmet. I had my own swords and some
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other weapons. So then and then so he hired you basically to do a
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documentary or look behind the scenes or did you just just we were just there
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to kind of document things. And then you're like, wait a minute,
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there's a documentary here, let me do a little bit more with it.
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It's um, right from the start, things started going wrong. We were
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supposed to start shooting at the end of July, and because of financing,
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because of the British co producers mostly they didn't put in their money, the
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shooting got delayed. Everything got delayed into the fall. So this from from
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very early on, this became a story of things going wrong. So when
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you're when they when you built a set on top of a mountain on the
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south coast of Iceland with the open North Atlantic, um, right, they're
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in front of you. Um. And then you get delayed into the fall.
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You're into the storm season. You know, those big storms that come
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up the east coast of the US and and and they they spin up basically
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across the Atlantic. So we have a lot of those because some of some
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of those um storms and hurricanes hit the East coast, some of them are
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just out at sea, but they all end up in Iceland. So we
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have a very stormy season fall seasons. So things went wrong right from the
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start. And then so okay. So because from from your movie Wrath of
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God, you know it's it is arguably one of the most difficult sets and
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difficult productions I've ever seen. Going through documentary. I mean, I saw
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the documentary of The Abyss with James Cameron, which arguably was one of the
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toughest. Obviously Apocalypse Now Hearts of Darkness, obviously that's a very difficult one,
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but this is up there as one of the more difficult ones because it
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just seemed like you were just getting not only pounded, but you were getting
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pounded from multiple directions and nothing seemed to be going right. Can you tell
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me about the Viking blessing, because apparently it might have been a blessing where
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curse depending on how you look at it. The composure for the film.
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Babel grantl Is is an incredibly good composer. He's also the had Pecan Priest
19:52
of Iceland of the Pacan religion. We'll be right back after a word from
19:57
our sponsor, and now back to the show. So so Stutla got into
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come on, you know, the night before the first shooting day and perform
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this this ritual m a pagan blessing. And so he's doing his ceremony there
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and and and we don't understand a word he's saying. But we're all of
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the whole crew, you know. We have like you know, Jarald Butler,
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we have stellar Scar Scar from Sweden and and and you know, all
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these all these big actors and stuff people around. And then after the ceremony,
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Stutla the director he falls and hits his head on the rocks and on
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this beach where we were, it's a rocky beach and it's almost knocked out.
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And like the sound that went through the crew was like a sound of
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terror because we realized we may have just jinked the production. So you guys,
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already that was already a bad omen that the director almost knocked themselves out
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and almost killed themselves at the beginning where when the blessing was happening. So
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this was already a bad scenario walking in now. But but as you as
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you as you will see in this in the documentary Wrath of Gods, we
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were already almost canceled a few times. Everybody we sent home a few times
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because they couldn't pay the salaries because the funding was not in. And but
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that's the old Like I mean, I wrote a whole book about my adventures
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trying to make a twenty million dollar movie with the Mob, and it was
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similar. It was like the financing would like we just we got enough just
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to pay the crew and keep the crew happy for another two or three weeks
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and then we got to find more money and before the real money drops and
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it was just constantly chasing money. You have you know, you have people
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in another country and and you've got sets built and weather it's coming, and
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you've got issues with all that. Um, the financing, you know,
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the financing just never you were always behind the eight ball essentially with financing.
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Correct. The production was the you know, I'm spoiling the documentary completely.
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The production wasn't financed until two weeks after the shoot ended. No, why
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so then how did you guys keep going? Um? That's you know,
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Telephone Canada put in a few million and they decided to trust the process.
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The Icelic Film Fund put in like one million dollars and they were just told
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that everything was fine. They were just told, hey, you know,
23:00
it's all good, it's fine. Everybody's paid up, it's all good.
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And they decided to to trust the process. Why and paid all the money.
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So they managed to keep it going um, and managed to bring Jerry
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over and you know, start start shooting and all the time afraid that people
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that the crew would just disappear because if crew doesn't get paid, Like why
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why would they stick around? Right? This is not like crew not getting
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paid in Los Angeles, Sonny, Los Angeles where they might be able to
23:38
hang out for a couple of days. They're they're they're literally in battle with
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nature at this point in the game. I mean, you're getting hurricane storms
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hitting you. Um you, I mean tell me, is it true?
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Because I saw, I saw this, and I have to ask you,
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is it true that if a crew member would have fallen or an actor would
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have fallen into the water where you guys were shooting, that they had about
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three to five minutes before they die. Wait. They so they rented a
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Viking ship replica, like the only real Viking ship replica or like you know,
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full size Viking ship replica that is there is in Iceland, and they
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wanted to put it on what's called the Glacier Lagoon, which is like the
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coldest water in the world. It's a it's a lagoon where a glacier is
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melting, and you have these pieces of glacier breaking off and floating through this
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this rather big lagoon. And when they finally got the Viking ship to the
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lagoon and put it in, it turned out it leaked like a see because
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the boat had not been trapped, it had been standing on island for for
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a few years and there was no money to pay the owner to prep it
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to seal it. Actually everything was frying. Of course, you know,
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you need to put it in the water. The wood needs to expand,
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then all the cracks to close and all of this, so that this was
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never done. So once they put the ship into in the water, it
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started sinking. So they managed to make it float by putting in a lot
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of pumps. So we would sail with a full sail and everything through this
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glacier lagoon between the icebergs with Jerry and the army, ten of us on
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the on the boat, and they would they would shout, you know,
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cut the pumps, would turn off the pumps, roll the camera and we
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would row as long as we could. But the water was rising in the
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boats and when when we you know, when the coptain said that's it,
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they would cut the camera and we would start pumps. So you made it.
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So you made it. Tell me that you have your entire main cast.
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Gerald Butler is one of them, um big. He wasn't a big
26:26
movie start then yet but you have Gerald Butler, you have you and all
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the other casts with one of the main I'm assuming one of the main set
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pieces of the movie, which is his big boat in the coldest water in
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the world. And you decided, or or the director decided, you know
26:45
what, We're gonna go out with pumps and would pump out the water as
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we go. Now, if the pumps would have broken, the ship would
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have sank, and they really would have been a big problem. Is that
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correct? Well, you know, luckily we didn't find out. But but
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the guy who was like head of security for the lagoon said, if you
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fall in life, expectancy is between three and five minutes, So just wait
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for the rescue guys to come and pick you up. And it is,
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you know, incredibly called. But you have to trust that they had,
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you know, a way to get us back to shore and all of this.
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But if everybody had gone down at the same time, like you know,
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who would they say first? Exactly? So you this is insanity.
27:44
This is this is the definition of filmmaking insanity, because I mean, you
27:48
can see Terry Gilliam in the Last La Mancha and you can send it.
27:52
You can see these there's so many stories of crazy directors doing crazy things to
27:57
tell their story. And that's fine. I'm saying your director was crazy,
28:00
But this is this is a bit this is a bit insane. Um.
28:06
I mean, obviously you had safety. It wasn't just like you went out
28:08
with a bunch of This wasn't an independent film with a bunch of people,
28:11
let's go and risk ourd lives. You had safety crew around and and you
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know, but if something would have really gone wrong, there might have not
28:21
been the depth to help everybody. At the same time, I know I
28:26
was not first on the list. You were obviously well with Henchman two number
28:30
two, Babels Worrior number two, Wolf Warrior number two. You weren't even
28:37
Boe Wolf Warrior number one. You were not. So um I was.
28:45
I was hiding this little sony video right, you're shooting doing this behind my
28:49
shield right or or behind a cape. I had like this sort of cape
28:55
sometimes or like i'm a thingy or my shoulder, so I wouldn't I wouldn't
29:00
always carry this little sony camera with me. So you were filming, you
29:03
were filming the documentary while you were acting in the movie. So like between
29:07
takes, or between while they were pumping the water out or something, you
29:11
would start shooting behind the scenes, you would do something on the set interviews
29:15
because I saw there's a lot of on the set interviews with Jared Butler and
29:18
other cast members and things like that. That's insane. Let me talk about
29:22
a real true documentarian. You're in it. Yeah. And the the interesting
29:30
thing is that, I mean I had I had never really worked on a
29:36
big set like this, and I was just I'd done some documentaries before,
29:41
the television, smaller stuff. But I was watching my friend go through hell,
29:48
right, the guy who gave me his camera, and he gave me
29:52
a box of fifty tapes and said, just film stuff, just you know,
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right, we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and
30:04
now back to the show. And I was watching him basically go through hell,
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the director of this of this movie, right, and watching him,
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you know, I was I thought he was he was losing his mind.
30:18
You know, imagine being faced with this dilemma. Do I just cancel now
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and send everybody home, or do we go on that that leaky Viking ship
30:32
and and and try our best to tell a story story. Now, So
30:38
if it was and then there was there were some sort of there was at
30:41
times hurricane force storms that hit you guys while you were on on on location.
30:48
Correct. Yes, one. I remember waking up or getting up after
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a sleepless night and the coming out to the to the to the in to
31:02
the breakfast and being told the set disappeared. So the whole set got blown
31:07
out to sea, and because they had built a set down by the seaside
31:15
somewhere closer to the sea, and everything was just gone. And it's it's
31:19
in the documentary. I went on there with the first car and there was
31:25
there's like crew picking up stuff somewhere way far in the distance and trying to
31:30
drag it back. Um my god, all these all the dining facilities and
31:37
all the porter parties, and it was like it was like an explosion happened
31:41
and and it was a disaster scene. I just as you're saying, as
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you're telling because I've seen the documentary, I've seen pieces, I've seen this
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stuff. It's yeah, it's it's remarkable to think that you know the strength
32:00
that you need as a as a as a human being, as a filmmaker
32:04
to lead all of these people into into war. Because it is you're battling
32:09
the elements, you're battling financing, you're bottling. All of this stuff.
32:15
Is pretty remarkable, it really is. It's um it's absolutely incredible. And
32:22
you see another day, we lost eight cars because of flying rocks. The
32:30
wind was so strong that it was picking up rocks and smashing uh windshields and
32:37
and and so on. And when when when the front windshield or back back
32:42
window or whatever is massed out, you cannot use that car in a winter
32:46
storm, right, you just you know, put it away. So eight
32:51
cars, We lost eight cars in one day. And I was sitting in
32:55
one of them with a with a producer rolling the camera film. The producer
33:00
and the director arguing or having a heated discussion. Producer wanted to send everybody
33:07
home off the mountain. The director wanted to keep them there in case the
33:12
wind went down and we could shoot something. Then this rock comes flying and
33:19
smashes the rear window of the of the suv we are sitting in, and
33:23
and you know, I got it all on camera. And that was the
33:30
moment when I realized I have a documentary, I have a story, just
33:39
you know, catching enough stuff. When that happened. I figured this could
33:46
be a standalone documentary. So the this was supposed to be like you know
33:52
what you call it, like behind the scenes, the scenes, additional footage,
33:58
UM, sort of bonus bonus materials was called bonus material and a DVD,
34:04
you know, because that we would have the movie and then you would
34:07
have bonus materials. And that's that's what I was supposed to be doing.
34:12
And um, at this point I realized, I have my own story,
34:21
so the but the interesting thing is everybody, almost everybody. I'm just gonna
34:30
I'm just gonna lie and say everybody, because it's not true about absolutely everybody,
34:35
but almost everybody refused to leave the interesting They just said, we have
34:42
to get through this. This. This was such a such a challenge.
34:47
And the biggest challenge was not the British co producers who refused to send us
34:54
money. It was the elements, the storms. And um, I don't
35:01
know, have you've been out in a big storm, out on a mountaintop
35:05
in a big storm. It's it's it's fascinating because you you have the power
35:10
of nature that you're fighting, and it makes you stronger. Well, I
35:16
mean it's like a like a sword, Like a sword becomes stronger the more
35:22
it is bent and beaten and heated and bent. And that's how a sword
35:28
becomes stronger as you continue to fold it and fold it and beat it and
35:30
heat it and fold it. And that's as filmmakers, that's what happens to
35:35
us. Every time we're in a production. We're getting beaten, we're getting
35:38
folded, and we're and we're getting stronger and stronger. That's why when you
35:42
you know, I've had the pleasure of interviewing some very accomplished filmmakers who are
35:46
Samurai swords, who are like the ultimate Samurai swords because of the battles that
35:52
they've gone through. And then I've also talked to, you know, the
35:55
film student who has no idea what's coming to them. And that's what I
36:00
try to do with this show and with everything I do, is try to
36:02
warn everybody you're it's not a matter if you're going to get hit in the
36:07
face. Everyone gets hit in the face. I don't care who you are.
36:12
It's about keep keeping going and preparing for the hit. But you're gonna
36:15
get hit. There's no way that you're not. Every every filmmaker, ever,
36:20
every artist, ever gets slapped, hits hit, that's life. Um,
36:24
but you guys were man, you guys were you. I think it
36:29
was the entire UFC was coming in and being the heck out of you guys
36:32
at the same time. Now, is it true also that because it's not
36:37
enough that you had Hurricane Wins a leaky boat that can you know, water
36:40
that can kill you. Uh? The set caught on fire as well,
36:45
didn't it, Because they had like you know, it's it's a Viking longhouse
36:51
and there's everybody's was supposed to sit around the fire. So of course they
36:54
had some propane gas, you know, stuff going on underneath. One day
37:01
like this was this was towards the end when when I don't know, like
37:07
you know, imagine somebody who's been beaten down and just ris us up again,
37:10
like like like the spring, like you know, on a spring.
37:15
We were all like that. So when the sat caught on fire and these
37:19
guys come running and screaming, everybody out, everybody out, there's this fire
37:23
fire Like Jerry went walked calmly out and Stelln scarscart walked calmly out and just
37:32
lit a cigarette and he's like, you're really getting your stuff? You aren't
37:37
you? This is this is really good for the documentary, isn't it a
37:43
documentary? And if it became like he's sort of the documentary became in a
37:52
way something that that kept us together a little bit because we wanted this story
38:01
told, and especially Jerry at the end, wanted to this story of this
38:08
madness told everything we went through. And let me tell you, he was
38:15
not a huge star by then, but it was very obvious he was going
38:22
places, and that it comes out in the character somebody who's willing to do
38:29
this. We willing to suffer this much for what he's doing. And I
38:37
never heard him complain, like like not complain, complaint. You know,
38:42
we'd all say, you know, we're all cursed the weather and the conditions.
38:46
But he never showed anything other than determination. And it was so obvious
38:55
this guy is going to survive, this guy is going to go places,
39:00
and and and didn't you I don't remember, we're hearing it. But when
39:04
did he find out that he got three hundred? Because it was it was
39:07
a during, it was right after, it was right after it was um.
39:15
You never know the actual um the other side, but I know that
39:22
they were looking at our website, they were looking at our photos and our
39:27
videos and stuff that was coming out of our set, and it became very
39:34
obvious very early on that Jerry was material for a you know, I got
39:44
a hero Before that, he had done like um um Phantom of the Opera.
39:51
Right, we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor and out
40:00
back to the show, and it went nowhere sort of thing because it was
40:06
supposed to give him his recognition. But you know, then you end up
40:08
with a guy with a mask covering his face and you know, how do
40:13
you You don't get any phase recognition out of that. So so that didn't
40:19
work. But it became very obvious as he put on the chainmail and the
40:25
sword and the helmet and we were riding a lot of horses. I had
40:31
to like horse riding training for for three weeks to just be in the army,
40:38
and he did as well, and he was so good at it,
40:42
and he showed that like that that hero character, that that that warrior character,
40:47
and so three hundred was a logical next step. So if it wasn't
40:55
for Bailwolf, we might have not had a Gerald Butler Leonidas I'm I'm just
41:01
gonna I'm just gonna choose to believe that. I'm sure agency monitors and whatever
41:07
he's saying, Oh of course, but look, I've lived in this town
41:10
for a while and I know how this town works, and that they go,
41:14
oh look, he looks like like if you would have just had fan
41:16
of the opera, it would have been a tougher cell. But having those
41:21
images, that footage, that thing he look. I mean, you look
41:23
at look at him in Beowulf. It's not that big of a leap over
41:28
to three hundred. It's not at all. It's not at all. And
41:30
that's what Hollywood loves. Hollywood likes it. Okay, that makes sense.
41:34
He looks great. So it was basically a giant um casting video for Cherry.
41:42
I think I think it paid off for him. You know, he
41:45
did, he's done. Okay, he's done. Okay, he's But but
41:47
you see, if you, if you look at it, how many male
41:52
actors of that age with curisma have what it takes to play King Leonidis.
42:04
No, there wasn't many, and there was, and a lot of them
42:06
were part of the three hundred that might have been able to play that part.
42:09
But the gravitas that Jerry brought the the and then also the ability to
42:15
do that workout I mean he I mean that says a lot. That working
42:19
out that those guys did was ridiculous to get to that shape. So there
42:22
wasn't many at that time, there really wasn't, and it's he was a
42:25
special, special guy because like you know, you're gonna you're gonna edit me
42:30
out for being politically wrong but insulting. But a lot of the other actors
42:37
in a similar place at the time were not that manly. I agree,
42:44
I agree with you. No, that's not I won't edit you out.
42:46
No, I understand, I understand, I understand what you're saying. But
42:51
so he was able to show a manliness that that that that that justified him
42:58
being able you became. Yeah, he has the testosterone level um without without
43:06
question, Jerry, And it's not something that he tries to do. He
43:08
just has it. There's actors who have that, you know, from Stallone
43:13
to Schwarzenegger, you know, to those you know, the classics, like
43:15
those guys, they just have it naturally. And then you see other actors
43:21
who will remain nameless, who try to act it, but you can tell
43:25
that they're really not. Jerry's one of those guys that has it, no
43:30
question about it, you know, like Crowe has it. Oh hell yeah,
43:35
Russell so, so and and so. There are few, and he
43:42
was one of them. Yeah, no, no question about it. Now,
43:45
I'm not saying I'm not saying he was the best actor in the world
43:46
back then, but but he had what it took. He was the best
43:52
for that part. And I think and he was the best for Billwolf at
43:55
that moment in time. He did what he was He was a good man,
44:00
not just in front of the camera, but also behind the camera and
44:01
having the gusto to continue to move forward when obviously the gods were not with
44:08
you on this on the shoot in many ways. Oh, there were there
44:14
were days when we were on I remember the scene we're on. We Jerry
44:22
and his army. We all walked up this hill, to the top of
44:25
a hill and Stellan Skarska comes running out of the Viking long house, the
44:34
meat hall, and we all meet on the top of this hill, and
44:37
a gust of wind so strong came along and moved everybody about two feet to
44:46
the side, like the wind picked up everybody and just threw us two feet
44:52
and everybody just kept going with the scene because I mean, and William,
44:59
I've been on a lot of auctions where crew crew sometimes doesn't want to move
45:02
forward in the tough situations, or actors might not want to move forward.
45:06
And if in a situation like you guys were in, if you would have
45:09
had a lot of dissension in the ranks, um, it would have not
45:14
flown. If you would have If if Jerry would have been a prima donna
45:16
and said I don't want to do this, it's called it's done. You
45:20
can't move forward, the whole the whole production shuts down. Well, and
45:23
this is this is exactly it. Jerry was the opposite of that. He
45:28
was opposite of a prima donna. He was one of the one of the
45:31
main elements in driving this forward then making this happen by never complaining, you
45:37
know, stelling a scar Scar. You probably know who Stelen is. Yes,
45:42
Yeah, he was another one of those those guys. He like school,
45:46
coolest, a cucumber through the whole thing and you know, the toughest,
45:52
different, most difficult things. He's he's he's shoot, he's been through,
45:58
not necessarily, but one of them and nobody complained, um the incredible
46:08
crew and the stunts master, a British guy called Peter Pedrero. He was
46:17
he was very worried about the whole situation. He's done, like, you
46:22
know, stunts for all the big British movies, and he was quite worried
46:29
when we were on top of the mountain in a storm. But we've stayed
46:32
friends since, and he for at least many years after he always had a
46:38
DVD of my documentary in his back. So on these big movies, you
46:45
know, whatever they're shooting, James Bond or or or Harry Potter or whatever.
46:52
He said. He told me this once, he said, at every
46:55
every production gets to a critical point where people are getting tired and they want
47:01
to go home and they're about to give up and complaining like crazy. That's
47:07
when I have a beer night. I bring my whole crew and anybody who
47:12
wants to come with me, and I play them Wrath of Gods and I
47:16
say, you think you guys got it tough, take a look at this
47:21
documentary and it always fixed this morale. Like I know, we might have
47:28
a tough shoot, but nothing compared to that. Let's go out there and
47:30
finish this movie. Guys, now I have to ask you, would you
47:37
do it again? Yes? Of course that's the insanity of filmmakers. We
47:44
are we are insane, you know, and I do all the time.
47:49
You know, I think I decided to live in Iceland. You know,
47:54
I couldn't lived anywhere. But no, this is it's one of all things.
48:00
You know, if you you you, you make it through you.
48:07
I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was crazy, madness and
48:12
fantastic people. You know, on our one, this production, for example,
48:19
because we got delayed for for about three weeks. Stalin had arrived in
48:24
Iceland and then we got delayed. So for three weeks roughly, we had
48:31
nothing to do except sit in this mountain hotel, eat, drink, smoke
48:37
and tell stories. So every night in this one room, usually Stalent telling
48:46
stories, usually Stalent telling stories about last one trier Um, his brother,
48:54
you know, he calls it his brother, and and you know, enormous
49:01
um, camaraderie and and and then when you go through this, this hardship
49:07
together, it's sort of you know, bonds, It creates a little bit
49:13
of a bond. And and nobody wanted to leave because nobody wanted to be
49:17
the guy who left, you know, the guy who gave up exactly here
49:22
here in the States, we have I don't know if I'm assuming you know
49:25
who the Navy Seals are. And it's one of the most tough trainings in
49:30
the world to be a you know, a Navy seal. And there's that
49:34
bell and during their training if you if you quit, you have to hit
49:37
the bell on the way out. And nobody wanted to hit the bell on
49:40
the wolf right now. What but but mind you, with the documentary,
49:49
I couldn't tell the whole story in the documentary. We'll be right back after
49:54
a word from our sponsor. And now back to the show they were.
50:05
There were things that happened that I couldn't put into the film because at the
50:10
time they would have ruined people's careers. Because there were times when we basically
50:20
reached some sort of point of madness. And I remember this one night party
50:27
until five or six in the morning in this country hotel, Friday night,
50:32
everybody getting drunk and everybody on whatever mushrooms or whatever they could find. And
50:38
these two Canadian guys come to me and they're very high or somewhere out there,
50:45
and I said to them like stupidly, Hey, guys, you can
50:50
still make it to regularly in two hours and get there before closing time if
50:55
you hurry. And I shouldn't have said that, because they stole a landrover
51:02
and started driving at high speeds. The police found them in a field.
51:09
The landrover had exploded over this farmer's field. God, and the vehicle,
51:19
I mean, landrover is a tough vehicle, but it wasn't. Pete spread
51:22
all over the place. Both guys lived. They survived. They were bruised
51:29
and battered, but they they probably survived because they were so drunk and loose
51:35
and stuff. Right. Yeah, I couldn't put this into the documentary because
51:42
these were friends of mine and they would have exposed um, you know,
51:49
something that we didn't want to expose. There was a there was a um
51:53
not I don't think the same night, but a similar night, a British
51:59
stuntman and decided to walk these it's like three miles from the hotel where we
52:07
were living and partying to the place where he was living. And he started
52:10
walking on this black country road with no lighting, you know, wearing black
52:16
clothes, walking a lot a black sand. Another guy from a different department,
52:22
equally drunk decided to steal one of the grip trucks to drive home because
52:28
it didn't want to walk, and he hit the stuntman and that was like
52:34
a career ending injury. And these things I couldn't put in there, of
52:39
course, not no, of course you'll learned people's careers. Yeah, absolutely,
52:44
yeah. Wow, I mean talk about a curse. Jesus, Well,
52:51
there was there's like there's a hint. There's a hint at the end
52:53
of it, like what Jerry says. We've been through so much on this
52:57
film. We've had like you know, tons of injuries and car crosses and
53:01
stuff. But I didn't want to explain or you know, include that.
53:08
Please, we're all friends, friends of my life. Well, everybody listening
53:13
can watch Wrath of Gods on Indie film Hustle TV, which I'm so glad
53:17
I make it part of of of our streaming service because I'm proud to have
53:22
it. It is going to be, i know, a best very very
53:27
popular, very very popular on the on the platform. So I do appreciate
53:30
you, um uh putting it on our on our little platform. I appreciate
53:35
it, man. Um Now, I wanted to ask you before we go.
53:37
So it was it did really well on DVD back then because Jerry kind
53:44
of exploded became a huge star, and so it's sold a lot on DVD.
53:52
Great, those times are over, Yes, the DVD days are definitely
53:58
over, but it's still it's still valuable. I'm actually very proud of the
54:01
of the documentary. And and there's a there's a little group of documentaries,
54:06
like you said, um, Hearts of Darkness, UM, Burden of Dreams.
54:10
Have you seen that? Yeah, of course, yeah, the Wurner
54:14
Werner her talk. Yeah, And I met the I met the less Plank
54:19
who did that documentary he went with herds up to the Amazon forest. Metim
54:24
in Toronto once and and I ended up, you know, having a drink
54:29
with him and we were talking war stories, and I asked him, did
54:31
you ever feel like quitting and going home and giving up on this? And
54:37
he said, yeah, you know when of the natives were coming over the
54:42
hill and they were shooting at us with arrows. I think it was day
54:44
one. I mean, you just you have to laugh because it's so insane.
54:52
Um. But I think that this movie, this documentary definitely is up
54:55
in that, in that in that extra one. Um Now tell me,
54:59
can you tell me about your new film Shadowtown. Shadowtown is um. It's
55:05
um a low budget Icelandic film done in English um Um again a Canada Iceland
55:14
co production. It takes place in Rica vic Um. I stupidly decided to
55:19
film during the darkest time of the year, the you know, December,
55:24
November December, where we have three or four hours of half daylight. It
55:29
doesn't even get bright, you know, like it just the lightning would go
55:34
lift up a little bit and then fall back down. Um. But I
55:38
ended up with um Um, a British wealth actric of John Dregs Davis who
55:45
was in a lot of The Rings. Um in in one of the sort
55:51
of most important roles, a small small role. But Indiana Johns as well,
55:54
Yeah he was. He was in all the intended Johnes movies and and
56:05
which was Which was the only place I'd seen him. I've never seen a
56:08
lot of the Rings. But the first time I met him, we had
56:14
lunch when he came to Iceland, and he's walking towards me, and I'm
56:17
like, no, six feet something and he walks toward had had a big
56:22
beard at the time when we were shooting, and he walks toward me and
56:24
says, oh, my god, you look like a Viking. So so
56:32
I told him, well, actually, you know, I played a Viking
56:37
once or forty days and I had my own sword and the worst thing,
56:40
the hardest thing I've ever had to do, was to return my sword to
56:45
the props or due to the weapons department, because the sword became a part
56:51
of me. So maybe my im was connecting with my Viking heritage. And
56:55
he just looks straight at me and said, well, Vigo slept with his
57:01
sword, and there you go, and there you go. There you Now,
57:08
what are you and what are you up to next? What are the
57:12
projects you got? Um? The one that I'm um trying to finance now
57:21
is called Drama Club. Um. When I graduated from from directing in California,
57:29
i came back and I thought I was going to, look, you
57:30
know, start getting work as a theater director. And the only job I
57:35
got was to direct an amateur theater group in a small town, isolated town.
57:39
And I went there and from from day one it was a disaster because
57:45
the three best actors in the in the whole group had to leave because they
57:50
were all farmers. And the lamb bearing season started the night before, so
57:54
I ended up with three car mechanics who couldn't act and that sort of thing.
58:00
So it's UM. It's a story of UM, a young young director
58:05
who gets that job to direct an amateur theater crew. Okay, So I'm
58:10
hoping to do that this summer. I've started the financing process for that,
58:15
and if that, if I don't get the financing this year, I have
58:21
UM one of those micro budgets projects going that I I. You know,
58:28
one of the reasons I started listening to your podcast is is that approach the
58:32
the the tiny crew. I mean. I was actually a volunteer at Sundance
58:39
when Robert Rodriquez showed up with El Mariachi. Oh wow, that must have
58:45
been amazing. So I knew him and his girlfriend and his two lead actors
58:52
for five days. Always had lunch together for five days in a row.
58:55
And then on day six he didn't show up, and I was sitting there
59:00
with his two actors, and they said, where where is Robert? What
59:05
happened? And he had been just whisked away into stardom, you know,
59:08
he was signing deals somewhere and and so on. So I've always loved that
59:14
that approach. So so I have this small project ready that I want to
59:20
do with you know, one camera, one sound, two actors, and
59:25
it's a it's a story about two people, two young people, stuck in
59:30
Iceland and for three days and three nights, and both their lives had changed
59:35
at the end of it. And it's a story about why we're never happy
59:39
with what's right in front of us, um, Why why we always think
59:45
there's something better, The grass is greener on the other side of the pants.
59:51
It is. It is an illness that we it's a filmmaker specifically have,
59:54
but other most people have as well, the glass crass, periading.
1:00:00
It's it's a it's a human condition. And we'll be right back after a
1:00:04
word from our sponsor and now back to the show. But I need I
1:00:14
need two young actors to smuggle them into Iceland during COVID times and then we
1:00:21
can just isolate ourselves and shoot this film. That's the way to do it.
1:00:24
I look, I did to My last two features were done like that.
1:00:27
And I can't tell you how much how freeing it is. It's so
1:00:30
fun and it's a really wonderful creative process. So if you need any assistance,
1:00:36
you let me know. I'll be more happy to help you. And
1:00:38
I'm gonna ask you a few questions. I watched I've seen at least one
1:00:43
of them. Yeah, and it's fun. Yeah, And I find this
1:00:47
so fascinating to do it this way. I mean, this is how it
1:00:52
two documentaries, and I want to do it exactly like you do it,
1:00:55
except except I want to meet the actors before I start fitting. You know
1:01:00
what I'm gonna say, You should meet actors before you start shooting, and
1:01:04
don't don't just meet them on day one of the shoot. Generally not the
1:01:07
best way of going about it, but um, but I have to.
1:01:12
I've I've I've directed a lot of theater. I love spending two months with
1:01:16
actors just chewing on the line. Absolutely, But unfortunately, I just had
1:01:22
four days to shoot an entire movie at Sundance, so you know, and
1:01:25
that's a whole other story. Um, but respect, respect to you,
1:01:30
man, I appreciate that respect to use my French trust me after seeing that
1:01:34
documentary. Much respect. Now I'm gonna ask I'm gonna ask you a last
1:01:37
few questions. I ask all my guests, what advice would you give a
1:01:39
filmmaker trying to break into the business today, don't run away, run away.
1:01:49
But you know, I've I've realized it helps to to study acting.
1:01:57
Um, and it really helps to to to be your own actor or marry
1:02:02
an actor, you know, because getting getting to getting a relationship. You
1:02:09
know, we couldn't name it. We could have like a list of actors
1:02:14
who have done it this way, acted in their own films because they have
1:02:16
the charisma to do it. But if you're going to be a director,
1:02:22
the best thing is read as much as you can and study acting. Become
1:02:25
an actor, join a theater group, or start doing scene work with with
1:02:30
other actors. Understand what an actor goes through. Understand what it takes to
1:02:35
make a scene work. This is this is because anybody can learn you know,
1:02:39
the equipment and stuff, and this is this is what makes it makes
1:02:46
you a much more interesting director and filmmaker. Now, what is the lesson
1:02:52
that took you the longest to learn, whether in the film business or in
1:02:53
life. Yeah, um, basically, you know, not being too hard
1:03:01
on myself. It's uh, it's actually it's actually what you know. John
1:03:07
Drees Davis said when I was saying goodbye to him because I was kind of
1:03:13
I was kind of devastated because I didn't get enough dates to shoot and and
1:03:16
and I was missing this. I was missing that, I was so much
1:03:20
more that I wanted to do, and and and he said, um,
1:03:25
listen, nobody is going to be as critical of your film as yourself.
1:03:30
So give yourself a break, good advice, and three of your favorite films
1:03:36
of all time. This is a horrible question. It's horrible. I love
1:03:42
I love asking it. Can I can I say like all Cohen brother films?
1:03:46
And okay, so that's one, all Cohen brother films. That's one.
1:03:50
Okay, number two. Oh bloody, I've only have two left because
1:03:55
I have such a long list. To be fair, to be fair,
1:03:59
I gave you like thirty movies in the first one, so that's I mean.
1:04:04
Um, I'm I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say Sweet Smell of Success
1:04:15
because it's an amazing film. And if you, if you, if you
1:04:18
watch mac on on Netflix, they they studied Sweet Smell of Success when they
1:04:26
were before they shot Macy. They it's it's an incredible film. And the
1:04:32
last one is called Three Colors Blue by Christoph Kisski. Of course I loved,
1:04:41
I loved, I love all of them, but I think Red was
1:04:45
my favorite. I loved, absolutely loved Red. I um, um,
1:04:50
I want to see Blue with a friend of mine and this has never happened
1:04:55
before. When the movie ended, we just sat there silence, and we
1:05:01
just couldn't speak. We looked at each other and we just we were we
1:05:05
were speechless. They that experience of watching that film in a in a cinema
1:05:12
when it came out, it was like it felt like something had changed.
1:05:17
Your world had changed a little bit. And this is the magic of movies
1:05:23
if you every now and then a movie comes along and you feel like it
1:05:28
has opened a new channel in you, in your your emotionally, and you
1:05:35
when you leave the theater, you're you're slightly different. If anyone listening has
1:05:42
not seen the trilogy Red, Red, White, and Blue by Christoph Kislovski,
1:05:48
you have to watch them. They are masterpieces, they really are.
1:05:51
And Double Life of Arnick I love. Double Life of Vernick is the one
1:05:57
I hit it right before. That trilogy was amazing. Um. Now,
1:06:00
where can people find you and find out more about what you're doing? Um?
1:06:06
I do a lot of aerial photography, helicopter photography. You can find
1:06:15
that on Iceland Gone Wild dot com. My my film company Arto Films u
1:06:23
A r t Io Films dot com and if you look up my name on
1:06:30
Google you'll find my website. You're on Gustopson dot com. John, I
1:06:35
appreciate you being on the show. You you're telling us your amazing adventures battling
1:06:42
the gods in Iceland. Um and I cannot recommend the movie enough Wreath of
1:06:47
Gods for everybody listening. If you're a filmmaker, you have to watch it.
1:06:53
You have to watch it. So thank you, my friend, Alex,
1:06:55
thank you. Thank you for the podcast and everything you do. It
1:06:59
really of some purpose. It is especially in COVID times that is giving all
1:07:04
of us filmmakers that are sort of stuck around the world a community. It
1:07:10
feels like you are a center point for that in the community that I cannot
1:07:15
go and meet in Berlin or can So it's very valuable what you're doing and
1:07:21
incredible interviews. So thank you, and that means a lot to me.
1:07:26
So thank you so much. I appreciate that very very much. My friend,
1:07:29
Be well and stay safe. Thank you. I want to thank Young
1:07:32
for coming on the show and sharing his insane story about the making of Beowulf
1:07:40
and Grendel, and that he actually captured all of this on film, so
1:07:44
it's not just some sort of mythical story you hear about, but you can
1:07:47
actually see it for yourself now. If you want to get links to anything
1:07:51
we spoke about in this episode, including how to watch, you could either
1:07:56
rent or watch it. All you have to do is head over to the
1:07:59
show notes at Proofscreenwriting dot tv. Forward slash tune ninety one. Thank you
1:08:03
so much for listening to guys. As always, keep on writing no matter
1:08:06
what. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting
1:08:11
podcast at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.