Production Stories

PRODUCTION STORIES, ANECDOTES, BEHIND-THE-SCENES FUN
or
"HOW I DID IT" by Pony R. Horton

 

JOKING WITH VULCANS.

   As a little script-related aside, for a while I had been having some confusion about Tim Russ.

   He kept suggesting that we need to see tentacles to represent the Creature in the sewers. At first I said nothing, thinking this was his way of participating, by tossing out ideas that might, or might NOT, be useful.

   Eventually, though, he kept adding tentacles to every mention of the critter, and suggested the poster have a tentacle rather than the hand torn-off and hanging on the metal rung.

   So I finally told him there were NO tentacles in this movie, and yet... he persisted.

   I'm kinda slow on the uptake sometimes, and this was one of those times. I swear, someone HAS to invent a Sarcasm font, or at least a punctuation for "Wink-wink-nudge-nudge."

   It finally occurred to me... Tim Russ was SCREWING with me!

   Oh my God... In a very subtle, dry, droll, Vulcan way, I'm being punked by LT. TUVOK!!!!!!!

   Ohhhhhh, he finally says!!!!!!!! (Hear the penny drop?)

   So, once I realized this, I took a new, jaundiced-eyed look at the shopping bag of tree-lemons he had sent me home with (like so many Southern Californians, Tim has a lemon tree in the backyard and it produces LIKE CRAZY. Such people will NOT let you leave without a harvest in a bag. Which you have to pick yourself.) with the idea on making not only a lemon pound cake, but a few projectile weapons as well!

   So, last time I spoke with Tim, I mentioned that, due to the dangers posed by those tentacles, I am writing-in a submarine into the movie. I'm calling it the Nautilus. It'll be armed with two steampunk lemon cannons (think potato guns California-style).

    I actually got the Vulcan to laugh!

    Next call, I'll sadly have to inform him that, due to budget and safety reasons, I've had to cut back and rewrite the script. We'll be getting rid of the submarine and replacing it with an Alweg monorail that will simply SLICE OFF the critter's tentacles while gliding silently past on a narrow beamway under clean, quiet electric power!

   Of course, we'll have to bring in Bob Gurr to consult!

    Ah, the shit one comes up with producing a movie!

- Pony 

Laugh it up!

 

 

Pony Horton on casting the roles for STORM DRAIN

I hafta blame social media for the whole thing. I live on Facebook, and several... actually all, of the actors in the film are not only Facebook friends, but in a few cases, real-life friends as well.

I did not have anyone specific in mind at first other than Jonathan Joss. He's a good-looking guy, a good actor, and a good friend, so it was natural for me to think of him.

As I got into the other parts, I thought, “Who of the people I know would be right for these parts?”

After that it was fairly easy to choose, and in most cases the people you see in the parts are the first choices I had. As to those that were not the first choices... I think they are, nevertheless, the RIGHT choices. It helps that all of them are also popular.

Part of what helped was the fact that I had attended a few conventions over the last several years, and had a chance to make direct, real, personal connections with several of the actors involved. That was important when the time came to approach them. At least they had some idea of who I was already.

I am fortunate, blessed, and honored that these actors have agreed to appear in my film. Essentially, to trust me and my judgement with their art and reputations.

Kinda sad when I consider the stuff the script has them saying...!