Show me a young man who says he's never dreamed of being an action movie star, and I'll show you a liar. Londoner Gary Daniels certainly had that dream, but, unlike most of us, he spent long, hard years turning it into reality. Currently based in Hollywood, Daniels made his name by being a real diamond in some cinematic garbage. Gary shone all the more brightly because most of his early films were so bad. It didn't take producers long to realise that the man with the muscles, the mane and the martial arts moves was destined for greater things. Case in point: PM Entertainment. This L.A. film making organisation has the process of producing low-budget, quality actioners down to a fine art. Their films Street Crimes, Maximum Force and Little Ninja Dragon have enjoyed success on video in the U.K., and they were one of thefirst Hollywood outfits to make use of our home-grown superhero. Gary had featured roles in PM 4 chopsockies Ring of Fire, Deadly Bet and Final Impact, before moving on to a co-star status for PM's latest COP socky: Firepower. In the following feature, Gary reports from the location to give those of us who only dream an indication of how it must feel to be The Next Big Thing in martial arts/action films...
Firepower was one of the toughest projects I've ever worked on, and one of the most fun. It was a four week shoot set all over L.A., in Lacey Studios (where the t.v. series Cagney and Lacey was shot) and it was the first PM Entertainment movie to be shot partly at their new studios in Sun Valley. The hardest aspect of this shoot was that it took place ENTIRELY at night. It's always tough to adjust to the different schedule, especially when you have to fit in your workouts and try to eat properly, as well as getting your proper sleep quota. The crew, and the behind-the-scenes stall can look - how they like, but those of us in front of the camera hate to ti-, to look our best. Like the saying goes Pain is temporary, but film is forever!
Firepower is set in the near future, the stun concerns two LA cops. Braniff (Chad McQueen) and my character, Sledge. In the time in which the film is set, there's an un-policed area of Los Angeles called The Hellzone. The government figured that if they gave the criminals an area in which to hang out, then it would cut down the crime rate in other parts of the city. The denizens of this district are called Hellsiders.
The movie opens with Braniff and Sledge capturing a Hellsider outside The Zone, and bringing him in to be booked. While the station house, a major criminal known as 'Swordsman' is brought in by some other officers. Swordsman is played by Jim Hellwig, who's better known as die WWF's Ultimate Warrior. The Swordsman's Hellsider henchmen bust him loose, leaving many cops dead. Sledge takes off after him on a motorbike, but Swordsman's vehicle makes it back to the Hellzone before he can catch up. Braniff catches up with Sledge on the perimeter of Hellzone, and they decide to venture in to this forbidden area. Once there they discover a bar called Sin City in which both legal and non-lethal matches are fought in a caged ring. This is where Swordsman earned his name and his reputation. Our two heroes realise that they can do little as outsiders, so they take their leave.
Swordsman is working for a villain named Drexel who is manufacturing and distributing a fake anti-AIDS vaccine that's killing many people; so the cheif of police is forced to send Braniff and Sledge undercover as death ring fighters, and that's where the fun begins...
Working with Chad McQueen was a good experience. He has a great sense of humour, and there wasn't a night that went by when he didn't have a good laugh about something or other. He's also a competent actor who looks set to follow in his father's footsteps. In Hollywood, it's commonplace for producers to hire good actors for lead roles in martial arts action pictures, and then have them doubled for their fight scenes, which was the case here on Firepower. A lot of producers are nervous about hiring legitimate martial artists for leads because they consider them fighters, and not actors!
It was Jim Hellwig's first movie, and be was cast perfectly. He looks awesome, with die super large and super hard frame of a professional bodybuilder. His work with die WWF had already boned the type of acting skills lie needed to play The Swordsman. Jim can play a really frightening character, but off¬camera lie's a super nice guy, very humble and polite. Jim trained for the movie with Richard Rabago, number one karate student of Tadashi The Octagon Yamashita, and with the film's choreographer, veteran PM action arranger Art Camacho, for three to four weeks prior to shooting, to learn how to handle the sword his character wields. When it came to working out the fight routines, Jim was a willing student, and always ready to listen to your ideas. I think we'll be seeing a lot of limn in the action movie world.
Firepower features a lot of explosions, gunfights, car and motorcycle stunts, as well as die martial arts tight sequences, so it's really an action movie for everyone. For almost a week, we would block off whole streets and sections of downtown L.A. from about 8.00pm to 6.00am, so we could film car chases and crashes and so on. One night, we even had a helicopter chasing a car, with the chopper only about six feet off the ground! It was great to be part of a production of this scale, though I think the residents of the areas concerned got a little fed up with not getting any sleep night after night!
As is usually the case with PM productions, Art Camacho was the main fight director. However, for my own fights I enlisted die services of my Situ, Winston Omega. Being a perfectionist, I was constantly disappointed that our fights were not afforded enough time or coverage. This is a common problem here in the U.S. when you're making smaller movies. In Hong Kong, where I made City Hunter with Jackie Chan, they can take between three and five weeks to shoot one fight. Here in the States, it's always a matter of hours! Also, unlike Hong Kong, the fight directors here rarely get a say in the choice of camera angles or in the editing. Like I say, I'm a perfectionist, and I've been spoilt by my exposure to the Hong Kong standard of fight sequences. I'm confident that we did our best on Firepower, and that martial arts film fans will be far from disappointed with the finished result.
On Firepower, they saved all the Death Ring scenes for the last two days of the shoot. We shot all the masters in one day, which is to say that they set up three cameras and had all of the fighters go through all the lights. You had to perform the fight from start to finish, without cutting, which is very tough. Then, the following day, all the lights were broken down and the director came in close to shoot coverage. I don't personally think this is a great way to shoot lights, because it can get very boring when the cameras are in the same place for every sequence. However, PM have a very precise system that they work to, and, given the success that their films enjoy all over the world, it's certainly paid off for them. Fortunately, Firepower is packed with all kinds of action, and so the martial arts are by no means the only selling point. The film was a big seller at Cannes, even before a completed print could be screened, so it must be a project that the distributors have high hopes for. PM Entertainment has come a long way, especially when you look at some of the earlier efforts. Now Firepower director Rick Pepin and producer Joseph Merhi are making good quality movies that are doing well worldwide. I wish them every success, and hope they keep up the good work. As for me, I'm up, up and away to my six picture deal with Overseas Film Group, which kicks off with Fist of the North Star and then Union Jack, the former being an American-movie version of a Japanese aniniated film and the latter a kind of young James Bond project. I'm also considering an offer from a well-known independent film-maker, and I'd certainly come onboard with another PM production if I had the chance.
