by Kevin Lindenmuth

Leader of Piranha Pictures and director behind the Slamdance film 23 Hours, filmmaker Eric Thornett took a few minutes to share his beliefs on life, liberty and the pursuit of... movies.

GC: What are the influences which lead you to become a filmmaker?

ERIC: There were a couple of movies that really influenced me at an early age. The biggest was King Kong. That used to play all the time on the creature features that showed on tv, and I would watch it every time. It's one of the greatest movies ever made. And then the first movie I saw on a VCR was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was also something that spurred me. It was so much better than many of the other movies I'd seen, and it's still much better than a lot of the action trash that Hollywood burps up. And of course the crappy kung fu movies that were shown on Saturday afternoons. My ambition was to be one of those background fighters that sort of circled the action for most of the fight, then ran in and got killed. But I try to have more of a varied bunch of influences, not only movies.

A lot of guys out there when you see their film, you can tell they've seen a lot of movies, but that's it. There's nothing else there beyond regurgitating movies that they've seen. Which is fine because a lot of those are cool, but I try to keep a broader range of influences. Kafka is pretty strongly represented in some of my stuff. I loved the way he would screw with his characters and wouldn't explain anything to the reader to make sense of it. The character would be as confused as us. I tend to do this too, although I usually cop out and explain everything in the last ten minutes.

I live in Fairfax, which is right outside of Washington D.C. I graduated with a B.A. in Communications from Virginia Tech. And now I realize how truly worthless a Communications degree is. But fun to get. You get to sleep all day!

GC: Who is your favorite director(s)?

ERIC: My old-school favorites would be Hitchcock and Welles. I love the way Hitchcock would do a lot of cutting, so much more sophisticated than anyone else was doing at the time. And I love how Welles would go on without cutting, giving you every bit of information that you needed in a single shot. Of course there were times that they would switch and Hitchcock would do a movie in long cuts and Welles would do more montage-style editing, but basically they stayed true to their styles. Hey, Film Theory class paid off! That Communications degree isn't as worthless as I thought. But still, two brilliant directors, and I love how a lot of their movies are in black and white.

As to directors working now, I'll go see anything by Tim Burton, the Coen Brothers, Jackie Chan...Jackie's not strictly a director, but he's definitely in control of his movies. If I hear a movie's coming out by any of these guys, regardless of what it's about, I'll be there to see it.

GC: Why did you decide to give the movie a retro-50's look?

ERIC: I like the style. This movie was my version of a detective film, so I wanted to keep it in the classic noir style. And since it's sort of science fiction, it made sense to slightly skewer the world in order to make it easier to accept these things. If the movie had been too realistic, I think that when things get more science fictiony, people would resist. It's sort of a mix of eras, really. The clothes are 40's, the cars are from the 60's to the 70's, everyone has modern technology, and it's all backed up by an art deco look for the buildings. The only characters who would seem out of place in a 1940s movie are the villains.

GC: How would you best describe 23 Hours?

ERIC: I generally describe it as a film noir mystery, but at the same time there's a lot more straight action in the movie than a film noir would have, so I don't know how to describe it. Action noir?

GC: How would you say 23 Hours differs from other independent movies out there?

ERIC: I would say that the main thing that's different is the action. I've never really seen an indie that had great action scenes. Even something like El Mariachi was pretty weak in that respect. All they really do in that movie is run down the street and then get shot. We do a lot more hardcore action, like people jumping off of buildings, and having highly choreographed fist fights. Lots of stunts. That's the stuff that really sticks out to most people, but I also think the story is pretty strong. It's fairly complicated, but I don't rip anyone off with the explanation. It makes sense. So I guess the intricate plot would make it different from a lot of other movies too.

GC: How did you cast your actors?

ERIC: I have a usual core group of actors that I like to use. Some can do different kinds of parts, some get typecast because they can play one specific thing really well, but may have trouble with something harder. David Stewart, who was the star, is my friend from the old high school days. I use him all the time; he's my go-to lead actor. In high school we always did these weird, somewhat esoteric comedies that would always seem to end in us fighting each other with giant chicken bones and getting thrown off the stage. Then in college, when I first started doing film and video work for the university's television channel, he would usually star or play a major supporting role. Now that I'm doing features, it's the same thing. Plus Jason Wauer who played a part in the film was the star of an earlier picture I did called Birdheart Pie. David Gebhard, who played the mean crusty boss was a friend in college and I like to typecast him as the aforementioned mean crusty boss. And of course Mica, who would perform stunts in the college movies, I brought in to play the head villain. Then there were actors who I got specially for the film, such as Baltimore underground star Cash Flagg Jr., whom I met on another film set when I was doing the action directing for a movie called Lethal Force, and Jennifer Reitz.

GC: How long did it take to shoot and edit the movie?

ERIC: I believe we shot the movie in about thirteen days, with a few extra hours here and there for pickups. Editing went on awhile, because I'm constantly tweaking it. The movie was pretty much edited within a month, but even now, a year later, I'm playing around with it.

GC: Were there any difficulties when making the movie?

ERIC: The one most memorable thing is this: Imagine, it's ninety degrees outside, and I have my guys walking down the street in big black winter overcoats and shades. That would be weird enough to the average person on the street, right? But this was a week after the Columbine killings, so black trenchcoats were especially suspect at the time. We walked by one museum and a guard came out and just watched us every step as we walked by. And later some police drove up to see what was going on. But I explained the deal and they went on their way. I don't think I've ever made a movie where cops don't show up, but they always leave us alone. On one movie we made in college, the police thought we were having a gang war as we were doing a fight scene at three in the morning, so we got completely surrounded. That was fun. Beyond the unfortunate Columbine stuff though, things went fairly smooth.

GC: What do you hope will happen with 23 Hours?

ERIC: Well, in terms of publicity, it's done pretty well for us. The movie has played some major festivals, such as Slamdance, so now we have the stink of legitimacy on us. I get a lot more spam in my e-mail. As for distribution, that's a bit rougher. So far no one has bit. I don't know if anyone will either. It would be nice. So if you're a distributor and you're reading this, send me a line! I'll sell it for a ham sandwich! But it better be a good sandwich!

GC: What is your next project?

ERIC: We are currently shooting a large scale action movie called Fifth City. It's the full-on kung fu movie that I've been waiting to do all these years. It's the last movie of this series, of which 23 Hours is a part. Basically, the movies all follow a vague storyline, so that if you see them all, you can get a better appreciation for the larger story, but you can see them individually and never even know it's part of a series. Everything's been coming to this movie, and it's going to be big. I have a lot of indie filmmakers and actors who have agreed to do cameos. It's a rather large list of people. And there's another project that I'm shooting at the same time which is a really dark horror-noir film that comes before Fifth City. I'll edit that one first, then Fifth City, mainly because the other picture will be fairly easy to shoot and edit, while Fifth City is massive and will probably require about six months of post-production to do the special effects. And then I'm going to sit back and chill for awhile.

Originally published in the August issue of GC Magazine - Edited by Jon Keeyes.

Eric Thornett sez:

GC Magazine is published out of Fort Worth, Texas, and apparently has the largest selection of strip clubs, porno shops, and adult bookstores in the United States. I loved getting a copy of the mag in the mail and seeing how I was part of the fifteen pages of actual content in a 90-page mag. Everything else was pictures of scantily-clad women, as well as some not even clad scantily. After an hour or so of looking at the pictures, I took a quick glance at what I had to say, and then went back to the real stuff. I need to move to Fort Worth.