Posted in : Lionsgate , Movies| Tagged : brian skiba , Gunslingers , heather graham , lionsgate , nicolas coop , stephen dorff
Writer - Director Brian Skiba ( Clear Cut ) spoke to Bleeding Cool about the Westerns that influenced Gunslingers , Cooper Barnes & more .
Article Summary
author and directorBrian Skibahas made a lot of friends in Hollywood throughout the years , and it helped him land his ensemble cast in his belated WesternGunslingersfor Lionsgate . The pic follows a wanted man ( Stephen Dorff ) who surfaces in a small Kentucky town with a premium on his head as force start lose in . As buddy face off against one another and bullets bust the town to shreds , this lightning - fast gun makes his enemy pay the ultimate price for their greed . Skiba utter to Bleeding Cool about getting inspiration from a Lionsgate executive , casting , how the film becameCooper Barnes’sfirst post - Captain Man role once his commitments with Nickelodeon wrapped , and quality backstories .
Gunslingers Writer-Director Brian Skiba on Living His Dream Through His Love of Westerns
Bleeding Cool : What was the inhalation behind ' Gunslingers ? '
It was a love of Westerns , produce up watch out them . I love Westerns , and I had been talking to one of the CEOs , Barry Brooker at Lionsgate , about his love of Westerns . He referred me to watch a few old Django - type western sandwich , and I started view some of those , and I was like , " Yeah , man . " I get it on the storytelling , and it ’s very ' Unforgiven'-esque where it ’s bad guy wire who are good and doing good acts . I took that and put my own twisting on it .
Were there other ones that you gravitated towards growing up before you were told to look at ' Django ? '
It ’s ' The Good , the Bad , and the Ugly ' ( 1966 ) and ' Unforgiven ' ( 1992 ) . I think [ Clint ] Eastwood is a maestro of take his characters from his Westerns in the ' 70s and ' 80s , take the bad guy and make him good , you get it on , " Paint the town black . " He ’s a sorry guy who follow in and saves the town . That ’s probably one of the biggest influence is that one .
How did casting come together ? You got Stephen [ Dorff ] , Heather [ Graham],Nicolas [ coop ] , Jeremy [ Kent Jackson ] , Tzi [ Ma ] , and Cooper . Can you recount me how you got such a talented corps de ballet ?
A set of them are masses I ’ve worked with throughout the years . Stephen Dorff and I ’ve done three to four movies . Jeremy and I have done quite a few picture show . Laurie Love is my bring forth better half , and we ’ve done a lot of movies together . Cooper and I did a Christmas moving-picture show days ago ( ' Defending Santa ' in 2013 ) , and then he got cast as Captain Man . Nickelodeon told him he ’s not permit to act on anything else .
I observe scream him , saying , " Coop , let ’s do something . " He ’s like , " I ca n’t , " and then , he lastly quit . I heard on the newsworthiness that he ’s like , " Captain Man was done " and they filmed the last instalment [ in 2024 ] . I squall him , " ' Can you work now ? " Cooper ’s like , " Yeah , piece . What do you got ? " It was perfect timing , so I nab him flat out of the Nickelodeon pack . He ’s a phenomenal worker , and Cage andHeathercame through . I also partner with Randall Batinkoff , a phenomenal actor , on quite a few thing , not to mention he ’s been a Brobdingnagian keep and producer on the film . He helped fetch [ Heather and Nic ] to the mesa , so it ’s relationship , invaluable support , and a caboodle of love .
Your eccentric are such an eclectic mix . Were any of the characters based on real mass ? One that stood out for me was Cage ’s preacher case , Ben , and his raspy voice .
No , I did n’t base anybody on real figure . It was n’t like anybody ’s playing Jesse James or Wyatt Earp . western in that stop have a stack of thematic component that transcend the genre . You ’ve got bad guys being good and good guys being bad . Cage ’s type is one of those bozo where it was like , you know , the backstory behind Ben is he was hung , God keep open him from the hanging , and the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree broke . We ’ve written out these backstories , the tree broken , and that ’s why he ’s got the raspy voice now . My hope is that the picture does gangbusters , everybody watches it , and I will go out and expand , build some more picture about these fiber and telling their backstories .
Gunslingers , which also starsJeremy Kent Jackson , Costas Mandylor , William McNamara , Mohamed Karim , Scarlet Stallone , Bre Blair , Forrest Wilder , Forrie J. Smith , Laurie Love , Eric Mabius , Mitchell Hoog , , andAva Monroe Tadrossis in theaters , on - demand and digital .
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