BRIAN VAN HOL AND MARTIN HENDERSON TAKE CHRISTIAN AND ROGER’S PLACE. THEY ARE YOUNGER… A BIT MORE LOUD AND ROWDY.

BRIAN LOOKS LIKE A TEXAN, BUT IS ACTUALLY A MIDWESTERNER.

MARTIN IS SURPRISINGLY A NEW ZEALAND NATIVE. HE HAS LIVED THERE HIS WHOLE LIFE UNTIL RECENTLY… YET HE HAS NO ACCENT. WE THINK HE’S LYING, BUT HE’S NOT.

Ken: Brian, what was the BLACKHAWK DOWN shoot like?

Brian: That was a tough shoot… a very tough shoot. We shot in Morocco, which is a Muslim country. We shot for about 5 months… a really long shoot. The subject matter was very intense. The actual environment we shot in was a real village. It was very difficult. I wish I could articulate how intense it was. But I came home a changed man. Just like Windtalkers, we are portraying real people, and there’s a real pressure to make it real. I experienced a lot of hostility from the people, which I understand. I was judged by my color, which was educational for me.

AN ACTOR’S LIFE

Ken: Are you guys at the point where you’re picking and choosing roles now?

Brian: Right now I’ve been blessed with roles. I can’t say that I can pick and choose, but I’ve been blessed with being chosen for roles like this.

Martin: I’m finally at a place where I don’t HAVE to do a film to live. I can be a bit more selective. It’s a position where I can be passionate about what I choose.

BRIAN AND MARTIN ALSO SMALL TALK WITH US A BIT. MARTIN ISN’T SCARED TO DISAGREE WITH SOME OF THE PRETENTIOUS JOURNALISTS HERE. BRIAN SEEMS TO ALWAYS BE LAUGHING AND HAVING FUN.

TWO MEN TAKE THEIR PLACES. WE HAVE NO CLUE WHO THEY ARE. THEY SIT DOWN AND SMILE, “WE’RE THE WRITERS.” WE ALL LAUGH. IT’S A SAID THING, THIS BUSINESS, WHERE WRITER’S ARE THE BEGINNING OF A PROJECT… THEY GET NONE OF THE FAME.

JOHN RICE AND JOE BATTEER ARE SCREENWRITING PARTNERS. THEY HAVE MANY PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT, AND HAVE A HUGE RESUME INCLUDING BLOWN AWAY, SILVER SURFER (NOT MADE YET), CHASERS, ETC. THEY ARE STUDIO WRITERS FOR THE MOST PART, MEANING THAT STUDIOS COME TO THEM WITH PITCHES, AND THEY DECIDE IF THEY WANT TO WRITE IT OR NOT. HOW I ENVY THEM!

COMING TOGETHER

JOE: John and I had been writing partners out of USC for seven years, and then stopped for seven years. We were looking for a project to work on together again and the producers came to us with this story.

PAST CHANCES

Ken: What have you been offered before?

John: I was offered Minority Report … and I said it would never work (we all laugh)! I stand by it to and unless they have changed a lot it won’t. It might be great but I bet they changed a lot.

A MORAL DILEMMA

Ken: Why this story?

John: It automatically invites the multicultural issues to the viewer. Here you have the white guy, the red guy, secret issues beneath the surface. It just seemed explosively charged.

THE PROCESS

Ken: How many drafts?

John: We really didn’t have too many… and the rewrites we did were pretty small.

Joe: The film you saw was actually pretty close to the film we first pitched to the studio after coming up with our story based on the producers pitch. A lot of our writing is done in talking and prepping. When we actually wrote, we finished in about 6 weeks. People didn’t want to buy it at first. It was a period piece… big budget. They liked the story, but should they buy it. When John Woo was attached and then Nic Cage, we had a film.

John: When John Woo heard our pitch, it was pretty long. A the end he stood up and clapped and said, “That’s a story I want to tell!”

Joe: He’s a much better typist than I am too!

John: I fly.

ART OF THE WOOISM

Ken: At what point did John Woo write his Wooisms?

John: He never told us, he just shot them.

Joe: He didn’t want the doves in this one. Instead he offered up a seagull.

John: The whole Mexican standoff thing was accidental… we wrote half of it. In our version, Ben doesn’t want to kill another human being so he hesitates. That’s it. I don’t understand the whole standoff thing because, hell, I’d just shoot first.

Joe: He really didn’t have the whole slow motion thing in this one. It’s a bit different. He really is a master as far as having one action scene going, and then intercut to another… and another.

ADVICE FOR A GUY LIKE ME

Ken: I’m a screenwriter, like everyone else in this town, what advice would you give to a guy like me as far as getting your foot in the door.

John: Write a good script.

Joe: I had made a well-known student film from USC, so that really helped years ago. But I truly believe, and I get this question a lot, that if you write a truly great script, you will make it. People in this business are begging for a good script.

WHAT’S NEXT

Ken: Anything new?

Joe: Just sold three scripts to A-lists directors.

John: Well, director’s get all the credit when you get down to it so we're looking to direct soon.

Ken: Really?

Joe: We have a few deals we hope to close with projects for us to direct.

JOE AND JOHN ARE DOWN TO EARTH. THEY MAKE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A YEAR, BUT THEY LOOK LIKE YOUR BUDDY FROM THE MID WEST. WHILE THE ACTORS ARE DRESSED IN THE CLOTHES OF HOLLYWOOD, JOE AND JOHN COME IN WITH JEANS AND DENIGM SHIRTS. I THINK I LAUGHED THE MOST DURING THIS ROUNDTABLE. THEY DO HAVE A LOT OF CONFIDENCE… BUT WHO CAN’T HAVE AN EGO WITH A-LIST DIRECTORS KNOCKING ON YOUR DOOR.

Ken talks with Noah Emmerich and Peter Stormare in Part 1.
Ken talks with Christian Slater and Roger Willie in Part 2.
Ken talks with actors Brian Van Hol, Martin Henderson and writers John Rice and Joe Batteer in Part 3.
Ken talks with producers Terrence Chang, Tracie Graham and Alison Rosenzweig in Part 4.
Ken talks with director John Woo and star Adam Beach in Part 5.

Ken Miyamoto