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An unlikely celebrity: writer, director and movie star Joe Carnahan
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In September of 1997 a movie debuted at New York's Independent Feature Film Market called Blood Guts Bullets & Octane. From its opening rapid-fire montage of used-car pitches, to its closing "why the hell didn't I see that coming" surprise twist, this picture flies off the screen with the intensity of a runaway train. It isn't a subtle film--one look at its title could tell you that--but it has a relentlessness and a commitment to its own vision that is breathtaking and pure. It is also hysterically funny, tough, rough, vulgar and violent. It is also smart enough to keep you guessing about just what the hell is in the trunk of that car.
The picture is about two used car salesmen close to the end of their ropes handed a deal they know is too good to be true. They are asked to keep an eye on a classic red convertible for a few days, and, if there is no incident, they will be rewarded with much needed cash. These guys can smell a con (they're used car salesmen, for God's sake!) but circumstances dictate their involvement, despite their better judgment. Harsh title notwithstanding, this picture is a morality tale, so you can be sure their situation goes from bad to worse.
When Joe Carnahan showed this movie, which he wrote, directed and starred in, at the IFFM, he had a 16MM video edit with no licensed music. He'd sunk a little over seven grand into the project and hoped to get a little attention for himself. He wound up getting a Hollywood agent and finishing funds from IFC backed Next Wave Films. When the picture was blown up to 35MM, remixed and made all nice, it sold to Lion's Gate Films, the distributor of such indie hits as The Daytrippers, Buffalo 66, Gods And Monsters and Affliction.
The last time I had seen Joe was on the day Akira Kurasawa died, and he was screaming how it should've been a day of mourning. Carnahan is large, imposing man with a booming voice and (these days anyhow) a shaved head. On first glance you'd probably not think he was one who wrote snappy dialogue. Then again, who'd think Jesse Ventura was a governor? Joe's actually a pussycat with two small children who overtips cabdrivers. Just don't let him know I told you that.
I sat down with him again recently to talk about everything that's happened to him since that first screening, and the upcoming release of his film:
Jordan Hoffman: Joe, the legend that's being spread about you is this: You made the incredibly ballsy move to just stop working, scrape together $7,000, and write, produce, star and direct in an independent film, despite having a wife and kids. What the hell were you thinking?
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A scene from the movie
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Joe Carnahan: The reasons I decided to scrap a semi-lucrative gig doing on-air television promotions and cobble together my own little "indie" film even though I had a wife and two kids aren't even reasonable enough to be considered reasons. It was an idiot's folly, front to back. See, if I'm nothing, I am a blatant, shameless opportunist. After doing multiple short films on video and finally landing the TV job, I looked around the station and saw a lot of equipment and editing gear with a lot of free time on its hands. Defying the stations edict about not utilizing company equipment for personal projects, I set about doing the film, using every single resource I could scrounge for free. That included the digital editing system at the station, Pinnacle DVE, Grass Valley Switcher, lights, dolly, anything and everything. Now at this point in my career, I had the fortune of winning this big producing award in L.A. So the GM of the station (who was an asshole of cataclysmic proportion) pretty much left me alone. I did the whole "thirty-hour" straight edit over the weekend, sleeping underneath the editing console and having on of the air-ops wake me up after brief naps. My wife, God love her, was taking care of our daughter and was pregnant with our son at the time. The secret behind the whole $7,300 figure was shooting on film and then posting the entire film on video. I knew I had to keep all the cost down, because I was dipping into some savings money and hitting up some people for cash. I didn't want to start ringing up excessive debt on something that was, for all intents and purposes, done on a lark.
JH: What was it about Blood Guts Bullets & Octane that assured you that the film would "sell", when everyone knows that hundreds of indie films are made each year that never see the inside of a theater?
JC: The thing that escapes the mouth-breathers and low-brows regarding Blood Guts Bullets & Octane is the fact that it is basically a very veiled kind of parody. I started this whole thing with the Tarantino specter hanging over the independent film scene like the fucking Hindenberg. Nobody could move a muscle without some asswipe critic citing the "Tarantino Influence" ignoring the fact that when Tarantino was doing his first film it was the "Scorsese Influence." So I knew going into something that was decidedly in the crime-caper milieu, I would have to do something different, yet the same, if that shit makes any sense. Hence, people in the film look, sound and act like an amalgam of Tarantino, Rodriguez, The Coens, all those films that basically shaped the clichés of the new noir genre. So, I made it intentionally derivative of those elements, because, in those films and as is the case with most films, they don't strive to go beyond those very basic human layers of greed, avarice, brutality and the like. So, I wanted my characters and my story to behave that way, up until the very end, when you do realize that there is something to it all and not just baseless, expendable bullshit. The people that "get" this film, get it in a big fucking way and the morons that don't, I really have no time for. I knew, the end of the film, would vindicate the rest of it. That's how I knew I could grab an audience.
JH: Had you ever directed or written or acted in anything before?
JC: Like I said, I had only done a small number of films on my own and had acted exactly one time before Blood Guts Bullets & Octane.
JH: One looks at your film, and, more to the point, you, and sees something other than what is traditionally accepted as an indie film or indie film-maker. What do you think about the trend of scrawny, neurasthenic guys making highly personal, scrawny, neurasthenic films?
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Carnahan plays a used car dealer in a still from the movie
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JC: I think the fact that I'm 6'2 and go about 260, is maybe casting against type a bit in the indie film world. Like you so accurately point out, the current trend of the quote unquote "auteurs" on the American indie scene are of the pale, palsied reclusive type. Now, I love all film, I don't care who makes it, if it's effective and innovative and sticks with you and makes you think, I'm for it. I don't care what the filmmaker looks like, how often he masturbates, where his zits are, if he lives with his mom, I don't care. Me personally, I don't have a problem getting up in front of a crowd, I don't put on false modesty, cuz the shit never fits. There's no doubt in my mind, the fact that I have an admitted big mouth, talk shit and otherwise don't look the part, has cast a pallor over me and my film. I know festival programmers that haven't taken my film because of their dislike not so much for the film, but for me, or who I'm perceived to be. And I tell you, on all counts, I could give a shit. As long as my wife and kids love me, there the only ones who ever need to know who I really am.
JH: And it looks as if you're leaving the indie film world behind for now. The rumor is that you're working with former-agent-turned-producer Gavin Polone on a picture called "Narc." What can you tell us about this project?
JC: I think Narc still has the trappings of being considered and independent film just by virtue of its incredibly dark premise and the fact that it is almost exclusively dialogue-driven. So, I not exactly sure how far it'll stray into studio waters, but my initial guess would be, not very. Gavin Polone, who has a proven affinity for just this type of material, has been fantastic. [Polone's next picture, 8MM, is a thriller about snuff films - Ed.]We're sending out the salvos, so we'll see what comes back. I can tell you, flat out, if this film is done the way it should be done. It will burn itself into the collective consciousness of the film-going public and stick to the sleep of the weak-hearted for many years to come. No fucking doubt whatsoever.
JH: The other unbelievable turn of events is . . . wait, let me get this straight . . . Blood Guts adapted as a TV Series? How did that happen, and what is your involvement?
JC: NBC has, unwisely, given me money to develop Blood Guts into prime time fodder. Bob Levy, an exceptionally talented executive and one whom, I predict, will be piloting that fucking bird in the years to come, saw my film at Sundance and the rest, as they say, is history. Now, big networks are Cash Cows and I am a milking motherfucker, so just hand me the bib overalls and point me toward the pail. If these guys really believe that Blood Guts can fly as an hour long action-comedy on the Peacock . . . then who the hell am I to set 'em straight? I will be one of four levels of producer on the show, depending on how much the Show-Runner likes me. If we hit it off, I land one of the very tony "Co-Executive" producer slots. That's what I'm jockeying for now.
JH: Is broadcast TV ready for Joe Carnahan?
JC: Shit, if prime time can stomach Urkel for twelve seasons, I'll go down like filet mignon in a famine.
JH: Do you plan to continue to work within the business structure of Hollywood, with higher budgets, higher pay, but more hassles? Or do you think you may return to your balls-to-the-wall low budget roots?
JC: The money that the studios bandy about is frightening. To be on the receiving end of that money is everything good and bad about the business. I lucked out in the most amazing way, in that I'm in a position now where a lot of people in the studio realm want to work with me. I feel obliged to do it, since I've been dreaming of it as a kid. Moreover, when I look around at my friends and some guys I work with, I realize what a rare spot I find myself in. So few cats get a crack at this. I think for now, I'll pursue my own films, which are doggedly my own, sole creation. And then hire out for studio gigs. You can't go wrong there. Just like John Huston--for every Moby Dick and Red Badge of Courage, there was Wise Blood and Fat City. That's the kind of career I want. Health and Dental for my family, money for kids college, these are practical, pragmatic things that I need as a father and a husband. Beyond that, if I can blow people away from time to time with my own movies that I stamp my own name on and keep my "street cred" intact, beautiful.
JH: Finally, what movies did you watch over and over as a kid, to the point
of memorization?
JC: I watched Raiders of The Lost Ark a million times. I knew that film inside and out. Same thing with Jaws. Star Wars was something so big and so beyond my understanding at the time, that although I loved it, I didn't have the same kind of connection I had with the other films. Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory is still huge with me. I've watched it easily over a hundred times. Duel was another one. For some reason, I was always up late as a kid and that thing was always on. When I found out Spielberg directed it, I went out of my way to find that movie on late night. I remember Sharkey's Machine with Burt Reynolds was another one I loved. I wasn't allowed to watch anything "R" rated, so it was definitely taboo viewing.
Blood Guts Bullets & Octane will be released in New York, Austin, Seattle and San Francisco on Feb 26th, and in Los Angeles on Mar 12th.
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