John Beaton Hill recently walked away with the Chris Brinker award at the San Diego Film Festival for his crime thriller Wolves of Savin Hill – and with good reason, the film is terrific. We spoke to the Boston-born filmmaker about his De Palma-esque thriller, due for release next year.
What is it about Los Angeles that lends itself to a good crime thriller story?
The setting. Los Angeles is a fantastic and beautiful place and when it’s lit up at night there’s nothing like it. It has its own qualities. It’s also big, and in this way a person can find refuge even from himself. There’s a duality to Los Angeles that makes it both quite beautiful and alluring but also sinister. As a setting, it can make a film special. We looked for this in our film and I think we captured the city well. We were certainly thinking in this regard.
How long ago did you set out to make the movie? How tough was it to get off the ground?
Approximately two years ago we started this journey and it just grew as we went along. From screenplay to the showing at the first festival, it was all of two years. I set out to make the film by making a decision. It was then a matter of bringing in actors and pulling a crew together. The way we did this was somewhat unorthodox, but this gave us time to really think about these characters and to develop a more compelling and satisfying ending to the film. The entire structure of the film in fact was a product of this longer time frame. We were able to make the adjustments we needed as we shot. We built our story and were able to make it more meaningful in that way.
There are a lot of Bostonian actors and crew involved. How did that come to be? Did you all come out together?
Old friends of mine… Sean Ireland, Paul Carafotes, Brian Scannell, and David Cooley are all from Massachusetts and so it kind of became a joining together of friends who had friends. It was good for me because of the content of the film. There’s a sensibility to Boston and these guys get it. We needed that.
You’ve got some big names in the film, like Jack McGee. How hard was it to get them onboard?
It’s the material. The screenplay… The actors came in for the table reading because either they knew me or someone else on the crew and so they were doing it out of generosity, but once we did the reading they all seemed to be much more interested in working with us. It was good material and they clearly wanted to participate. That was a good feeling. The content of something like this is so important and that was so clear to me once we went through the first reading. So, it’s friends, but it’s also at the material itself. You have to present them with something worth their status as actors. They have a lot of things to choose from.
David Cooley is very good in the film. Why was he chosen?
David is really good in the film, I agree. He is a producer on the film and wanted to play the role of Tom. Once we began and I saw what he could do, I was so pleased. He nailed it like I think very few could have. It’s a difficult part. But David is also just a generous person, so working with him day to day was a really nice thing. He brought not only a professionalism to the part, he also brought that same quality to the making of the film itself. He was invaluable in both ways.
How much did winning the Chris Brinker award help the movie?
Of course it’s had some impact. It brings interest. This is a big award. What it meant to me personally is also important. Chris was a great filmmaker and a great person. He was interested in making good films and working with good people and he was on his way to some very important films. It’s such a loss for the film community and I felt that when I received the award. It was that kind of moment. He had made such an impact in so short a time and here we were with a similar kind of way of making films and I’m receiving this award and I‘m inspired by him and his art and want to continue in the same traditions. I loved his style and I so much appreciated his drive and commitment to higher standards. That’s what we want to do.
Do you envision a theatrical release for the film, or will you be happy with a DVD or VOD?
Theatrical would of course be great. That’s what we always aspired to. What’s most important to me is that the film gets the exposure it deserves. They talk of numerous platforms. We’d like to see it in all of them.
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