| |
Outer Limits
Local director’s determination pays off with the DVD release of War of the Planets and a foray into the ‘supergirl’ genre
By Jarret Keene
UVF Exclusive
Better update your Netflix queues, B-movie maniacs: Mike Conway’s sci-fi/horror film War of the Planets is slated for a Nov. 15 release courtesy of Lions Gate Entertainment.
The saga of War of the Planets begins in the late ’80s, when Mike Conway was a college student in Arizona. During summer break he was instructed by his roommate to care for his pet tarantula, named Satan, which inhabited a terrarium.
“He told me to feed Satan some crickets,” recalls Conway. “So I did. The crickets would crawl under Satan and just sit there. I’d go to bed, and in the morning they’d be gone. It was creepy.”
Conway hit upon the premise of placing humans inside a terrarium. But Conway didn’t start writing the screenplay until 12 years later. After moving to Las Vegas, he had just completed a short film called Roadkill, shot on 16-millimeter film for five grand, and was looking to sink his teeth into a feature-length project. He decided to max out his credit cards and bear the production costs himself after his original financial backing fell through.
He began writing in January of 2000 and had a final draft by summer’s end. In it, 12 characters, trapped in their failed “cryo-beds,” are attacked by a carnivorous monster. Conway called the movie Terrarium, and settled on his backyard as a shooting locale, constructing a spaceship out of chipboard. “Sixty-four-feet long and 12 feet wide, it was bigger than a lot of my friends’ apartments,” says Conway. To create an alien landscape, he trucked in 20 sands of sand and several expensive boulders. Naturally, his neighbors hated him.
The cast includes a few of his inexperienced co-workers at Treasure Island and actors who answered a newspaper ad. Production began in September and October of 2000 with a silent-film camera. “Because it was cheaper that way,” says Conway, laughing at his own cost-cutting. Cinematography involved lots of handheld camerawork and one-light setups. He spent the next year dubbing the actors’ voices then another three months composing the electronic score.
Still, he wasn’t done. He built his own dual-processor computer so that he could screen Terrarium on the cheap, instead of renting a $250-per-day video projector. Terrarium premiered at the Paradise movie theater (now called Tropicana Cinemas) in January 2002.
After being told he needed more FX, he hired an ex-Westwood Games FX artist and another computer-graphics expert he met online to create 18 shots, all of which Conway added to Terrarium in early 2003. Finally, an independent film rep whom Conway also met online managed to get a screener copy to Mainline Releasing, who sold it Lions Gate. Lions Gate had one condition, though: Change the title to War of the Planets to capitalize on the DVD release of Spielberg’s War of the Worlds.
“We didn’t make a lot of money on the deal,” admits Conway, “but at least we got our indie movie on the shelves of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.”
On top of that, Conway has got his peers in the underground Vegas film scene talking.
“I think he’s clearly an example of how local directors try to put out a high-quality product on a low budget,” says Roger Erik Tinch, who recently completed his short film, Better Mask. “Mike proves that perseverance is the key, despite having been turned away by other production and distribution companies. A lot of the FX in The Awakening really work, and everything is placed in a way that benefits the story.”
Conway is maintaining his momentum. Last week, he premiered his superhero/techno-thriller The Awakening at Highland Office Park. Conway feels it’s his best work to date.
“By that, I mean there’s always something going on — gunplay, superpowers, explosions,” he says. “It’s not your average supergirl movie.”
Kelly Johnston is The Awakening’s producer and FX artist. He runs the “Girls of Steele” websites, which specialize in photo galleries of beautiful women dressed up in capes and costumes — just good old-fashioned American cheesecake. The story goes that one day
Johnston went to his corner Borders Books & Music and saw a copy of Terrarium for sale in the DVD section. Months passed, and he kept asking the store clerks if the film was any good. Finally, he took it home. Johnston enjoyed it enough that he looked for contact info on the back of the box,
“When Kelly called,” says Conway, “he wanted to talk about the film. Eventually, I figured out that he was prepping me to direct a movie.”
It turned out Johnston had already written and directed a 20-minute short called “Girls of Steele,” which he was selling via his websites. Indeed, he had initially tried to do his own full-length version of The Awakening, but ran into problems. And what convinced Johnston that he needed Conway to realize his ideas was a May 2004 gathering of independent filmmakers, called Vegas Indie Meet.
The event was held at Conway’s house. He set up a few mobile homes in his backyard. His wife, a professional chef, handled the catering. There was a meet-and-greet on Friday, and Saturday offered workshops for editing techniques, realistic gunshot wounds, and green-screen FX.
Johnston was blown away by it all. By Sunday, he really wanted to make a supergirl flick. He presented Conway with the concept and plot points.
“I said, ‘Oh,’” recalls Conway. “Then he explained the action scenes — black ops, flipping over vans. He asked if we could we do a full feature action movie for $5,000, and I said OK, knowing that it might take a miracle to pull off!”
Erik Manion in Florida wrote The Awakening’s original script. Manion and Kelly are partner/producers, along with model, Tamra Ericson Frame. Kelly and Tamra had failed on two occasions to bring Manion’s screenplay to life, so they were eager to get Conway on board. They knew he had the talent and drive to complete the project.
“And they knew I could compose original music, too, so that would avoid any copyright infringements,” says Conway. “Anyhow, after I read Erik’s draft, I asked questions like, ‘Where did this underground Marine base come from?’ ‘I don’t know, you’re the expert,’ Kelly would tell me. I wanted to make a believable fantasy, but there were some story elements that I thought were too far out. For example, in the original story, Tamra’s character floated and had laser-beam eyes. I said, ‘Kelly, if I join this project, I want to write the final script.’ He said, ‘Fine.’”
Johnston handled the FX himself, learning the software on the job. Once he figured out how to “double up” on characters, the production was off and running. After that, Johnston began “compositing in” characters, which quickly became his forte.
“I started calling him Kelly’s Industrial Light & Magic,” laughs Conway.
Conway didn’t kid himself about one thing, though: He knew he was making a no-budget superchick movie. At the same time, however, he wanted The Awakening to be a real film. Once it begins playing, you realize right away that Conway has created a classy adventure story, despite its fetish origins.
“There’s something alluring about what you don’t show,” says Conway. “Kelly and Erik understand the comic fan angle, so I'm confident they can market something like this.”
What is “this” exactly? The Awakening tells the story of Dr. David Andrade and his cancer-stricken wife Lara (played by Conway and Frame). To save Lara, Andrade develops a treatment, with just one side effect: super powers. Soon, Lara is feeling frisky, but a little moody. When she goes on a rampage, she draws the attention of a secret
government agency that wants Andrade’s formula. There are some great FX scenes in The Awakening, like when Lara effortlessly rips holes in the side of a van before knocking it over like a toy.
The Awakening premiered at Highland Office Park on Nov. 4 to a sizeable crowd. Judging by their positive reaction, Conway’s new movie should be able to reach an international audience just as War of the Planets did.
So what’s the next project he has lined up?
“I had wanted do another sci-fi/horror movie, because I just love the genre,” admits Conway. “And I wanted do a film called Pit Dweller, which involved a kickass woman protagonist. I had planned to cast my wife, who was working out every day for the role. But then we found out last week that she’s pregnant! Too bad, because I don’t know too many girls out there who will let you wrap them in latex for a two-week production schedule.”
To view the trailer for The Awakening, visit www.TheAwakeningMovie.com.
Jarret Keene is the editor of The Underground Guide to Las Vegas. Visit his underground Vegas blog at www.jarretkeene.com.
|
