The Guilfordian

Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Features

According to the teaser trailer for "Sin-Jin Smyth," an upcoming horror/thriller film, "Every Halloween at midnight, The Devil simultaneously appears in two places ... the high plains of India, and a quiet cemetery in Kansas. October 31st. Two Federal Marshals have a midnight prisoner transfer of a man with no past and no identity. He is known only as ... Sin-Jin Smyth." The film is set in the near future with the world under martial law in the climate of World War Three.

"Sin-Jin Smyth was written and directed by Ethan Dettenmaier, and its cast includes Roddy Piper, Richard Tyson, Kevin Gage, and Jenna Jameson. As well as selling and directing his own work, Ethan has also scripted work for Steven Seagal, Oliver Gruner, the producers of The Blade films, and has worked on projects designed for Owen Wilson, Jamie Foxx, Damon Wayans, and several others. The following interview is between Guilfordian writer Ben Dedman and Dettenmaier about his upcoming films "Sin-Jin Smyth" and "Knight Fever," as well as his other experiences and projects in the film industry.



Q: So, according to IMDB you started out in the film industry by working for Warner Brothers in the mail room.

A: That's right.



Q: How old were you when you started there, how long did you stay there, and what was your big break that got you out?

A: I was about 28 when I started there and they fired me about a year into it (opens a beer). So my big break had to wait 'til later.



Q: What other projects did you work on before Sin-Jin Smyth?

A: "Knight Fever" was the script everyone seemed to want a piece of. That script (written in 2000 and now in pre-production), about renegade GI's in Vietnam working with the Khamir Rouge, trafficking opium to the (United) States in the bodies of dead GI's and a special task force of SWAT, Vice and The Bomb Squad that are assembled to stop it, was what got me out of my "day job."



Q: What happened with that script?

A: It became a work sample around town and got me hired out as a script doctor, which is basically a hired gun who gets brought in to punch up weak material.



Q: What stage of production is Knight Fever in now?

A: We are in (the) pre-production/casting phase of "Knight Fever."



Q: What is your favorite project that you've worked on?

A: That depends; there are moments where all the work has that effect. (It) depends on the day and date.



Q: How about today? What is your favorite project today?

A: "Soldiers of Destruction," which is based on true events, follows a platoon of German Panzer commanders who survive the battle of Stalingrad to join the 'bomb plot' to kill Hitler. Also "Battle Flag," about Navy Seal advisors in Vietnam.



Q: And why?

A: "Battle Flag" is a script that is unforgiving. It's unapologetic ... it works without the emotional back bone that most scripts require ... and it's all fire power! Sometimes when you are free to write a hard-hitting script without being concerned of the consequences it breaks the conventional format that can 'slave up' the creative process and can get entertaining.



Q: Who would you most like to work with?

A: Alan Ladd Jr., the man who gave the production green light to Star Wars, Alien, The Omen, and Young Frankenstein, Darryl Zanuck (Jaws), Coppola, Pollack.



Q: Whose work do you respect the most?

A: In addition to Ladd and the others … Kurosawa. John Ford. (Orson) Welles. Walt Disney.



Q: And from an actor/acting stand point?

A: Oldman, Bruno Ganz, David Suchet, Jeffrey Wright. Geoffrey Rush...



Q: What are the biggest difficulties you've had to overcome to reach where you are today? What have you had to learn to make things work?

A: Tolerance. Being a low-level player you have to slug your way through a lot of shit, but it builds character. You either break them or the situation breaks you!



Q: How did you come up with the idea for Sin-Jin Smyth?

A: In 2002 a producer had read a horror script I had written called Tatterdamalion ... We, my partner Lota Hadley and I had just started renting an independent office at Warner Brothers and he came to see me to talk possible low budget film ideas...I wrote up a list of 25 log lines (Story ideas) and Sin-Jin Smyth was on it ... He didn't want anything to do with the Devil because the subject matter made him nervous. But I thought it was interesting, the idea of a midnight prisoner transfer, a maximum security situation and...SATAN! AHHHHHH! What more do you need to wreck a police mission right!?! So, I decided to hammer out a script in any event and that is what became Sin-Jin Smyth.



Q: You say that it has a politically charged ending...

A: I didn't say that, the distributors say that. To me, it has the right ending.



Q: What studios did you pitch Sin-Jin Smyth to, and why did they reject it?

A: It went to Warner Bros. who thought it was too violent/dark. Also Warner Independent. An early draft also went to Sony and few others.



Q: Are you back on good terms with them, including Warner Bros.?

A: Depends on who you talk to.



Q: What stage of production are you in with Sin-Jin Smyth?

A: Sin-Jin Smyth is in distribution talks right now with Lion's Gate, The Weinstein Co., [and] Warner Independent.



Q: In Smyth, you have a very colorful cast, and many of them are to be in your other projects as well.

A: I like to know who I'm working with, and there seems to be a genuine camaraderie between cast and crew. From the actors to the musicians handling the orchestral score, Billy Duffy of the UK band The Cult, everyone seems to belong.



Q: Let me mention some names (of people you've worked with or are planning on working with): Sonny Landham (48 Hours, Billy, the Indian from PREDATOR), Kevin Gage (Waingro the bad guy opposite DeNiro in "Heat") Roddy Piper, Diamond Dallas Page, Jeff Fahey ("Wyatt Earp," "The Lawnmower Man"), Michael Wincott ("The Crow," "Alien 4"), Jonathan Davis (Korn) Jeremy Bullock (Boba Fett from "The Empire Strikes Back"), Jouko Ahola ("Kingdom Of Heaven"), Richard Tyson, Michael Bailey-Smith ("The Hills Have Eyes" remake), Olivier Gruner ("Nemesis"), Adult film star Jenna Jameson, Jacqueline Moore (WWE, TNA), Michael Paré ("Eddie And The Crusiers"), Reb Brown ("Uncommon Valor," "The Cage"), Jamie Dukes (Of the NFL Network), the members of Black Book Romance, and John Philbin ("Tombstone," "Point Break"). All are career bad guys ...

A: Depends on your perspective.



Q: Some have described these actors and the people you work with as the industry's "Dirty Dozen" or "The Oakland Raiders of the film business."

A: I happen to like The Raiders ... and Jamie Dukes (mentioned above) was an Atlanta Falcon, not a Raider!



Q: How did you find these cast members that include a porn star (Jenna Jameson), a couple of wrestlers (Roddy Piper and Jacqueline Moore), a Grease alumn, a Korn band member (Jonathan Davis), the chef from South Park (Isaac Hayes) and the bad guys from Heat (Kevin Gage) and Kindergarten Cop (Richard Tyson)?

A: You need to go with the best people. A cast you can count on. Sin-Jin Smyth was a film that takes place moments after a tornado warning hits the region so when we filmed in the elements, wind, rain and all at night ...when you work in those conditions on a limited budget you need people you climb in the production trenches and punch it out.



Q: I've read that you put a lot of your own money into Smyth. What was the budget for it, and where did the money come from?

A: Most of the film's budget was raised by private investors. I put my own check book into it along with whatever money I had from script assignments, so we could get the best film possible for the audience ... because that's ultimately what it's about, that's who we work for ... the audience! And they deserve our best effort.



Q: Is it to be like this for Knight Fever too?

A: If it comes down to it ... You cannot be afraid to invest in yourself, Ben.



Q: Of the two main characters in Sin-Jin Smyth, one is a combat veteran just back from a foreign war, who also happens to be a suspected war criminal; the other is an instructor at the Federal School of Interrogation, a bureau you created for the film. Are there any good guys (or girls) in Sin-Jin Smyth, or are they simply the lesser of the evils in the film?

A: It depends on your definition of good versus bad. These characters punch a time clock like everybody else. A storyline only becomes effective if the characters who have to execute it believe in what they're doing. Bad characters don't always strive to be bad, they go about their business in a way society doesn't approve of; it never occurs to bad guys that they're bad. Or does it? Here, these are tough characters in tough situations who are in a war they want to win.



Q: Do you ever show the devil in India?

A: Maaaaaaaaybe.



Q: Making the film on a modest budget, what problems and complications arose?

A: Where do I start! Do you really want me to bore your audience with an answer to that question?



Q: What sections of the production team (producers, cinematographers, FX, make-up, audio, etc.) added significantly to the film, and what were their contributions?

A: The production team is who actually made this film what it is, they are the real experts. If we are fortunate to build any sort of audience with this film at all, credit for that is due much more to them than to me. As a director, I still have a lot to learn but the cast and crew really pulled it together and made this film happen.



Q: "The Horseman of the Apocalypse," your next film (after "Knight Fever") is behind the writer, director, and producer steering wheels in pre-production. What's it about?

A: A platoon of special forces' specialists who smuggle a nuclear bomb into the US and gradually through the eyes of the secret service and federal law enforcement who try to hunt the platoon down, it becomes clear that the United States is not the democracy we all like to think it is....towards the end the President dissolves the Senate and then the thing opens up into a domestic civil war.



Q: Do you think you'll have similar problems pitching it to studios?

A: That's tough to predict. It also depends on the current political climate here at home.



Q: You have been described as "Staff Sergeant Barnes" after the psychotic character Tom Berenger played in the film "Platoon." Where does that come from?

A: Some asshole sitting in an office, probably.



Q: But do the names apply?

A: Barnes seems to fit. If that name is meant to mean that I tend to get tough as a situation gets tougher then there may be something to it. But people depend on me, not just to survive the film making process but to get it done in a way they can be proud of. And, like I said, we have something to prove to the audience, every scene has to meet their approval. Sometimes you need to swing the hammer to meet those demands.



Q: Does the name or reputation bother you?

A: Na. The only thing that bothers me is when people form an opinion without the benefit of an introduction. Personally, I'm grateful to even make a living in this business, so if someone wants to stoop to name calling it's their problem. All I can do is keep my ethics intact and try to do the best work possible.



Q: It's also been said that you survived the 1996 bombing during the Atlanta Olympics.

A: I don't know why that keeps coming up. I was in the production tent across the street having a beer when that thing went off. I was trying to take a nap … It's not worth talking about.



Q: How was working for Steven Seagal?

A: Ahhhh ... interesting. He's interesting.



Q: It's said he suffers from a bad reputation…

A: He does. But with a little work he can turn that around.



Q: What films did you help him with?

A: We scripted out a film titled "Snow Blind," about the wreckage of a diplomatic flight in the Himalayas and a rescue mission that spirals out of control. There was also talk about him being involved in "Respect the Dead" at one time.



Q: I was told you were called in to help him re-invent himself. What were your plans to do that?

A: I designed a film centered around combat in the Middle East where a NATO/UN team is investigating a possible war crimes situation and in the third act it's revealed that the bad guy behind it all, when he steps out of the shadows, it's Seagal. And he gets killed. No karate, no love interest, just bad.



Q: What's the funniest thing you know about someone famous you've worked with that the public may not know about?

A: Where do I start with that!?! Ya know, the only way for me to answer that question is to talk about funny shit I've done...I'm not comfortable talking about anybody else in that capacity ... I don't want to embarrass anyone.



Q: OK...What funny shit have you done? What mistakes have you made?

A: That's a very long list. If you want me to get into that, we'll be here a long time!



Q: How did you learn to make movies? Did you go to any film schools, or was it a sink or swim type deal?

A: I didn't go to college so I pulled what information together I could from books, documentaries and first hand experience ... My advice to anyone who wants to get involved is get a library card, get on the internet, start reading, then pull the trigger. Get out there and do it.



Q: What other projects are you cooking up for the future?

A: "Respect the Dead," about a grave robbing racquet operating on the edge of the New Orleans bayou. "Soldiers of Destruction." "Unholy Pope," based on the book written by Jamie Dukes. "Basement Television," with the comic stylings of Mike Eshelman and Alex Lavasseur of www.bumscorner.com. "Mark of the Villain," about a turn-of-the-century Scotland Yard investigation into a corrupt medical school, and also a western about Confederate soldiers who refuse to surrender after the end of the Civil War … (plus) a few other things.



Q: What's "Skippy With a Vengeance?"

A: (He laughs) It's a film we have in pre-production about an angry or ... misunderstood puppet.



Q: So it's a puppet movie?

A: No, everyone else in the film is a real person! Skippy is the only puppet or ... (cyptic tone) IS HE!?!



Q: What about "Shadow of Death?"

A: That's based on a book (that Dettenmaier wrote) about a trigger officer in a nuclear silo who survives the apocalypse. And the character, Warrant Officer Daws first has to re-build the world around him, then he has to fight the new mechanized, part man/survivor, part cyborg soldier of the re-constituted United States.



Q: I understand that it's about to become a comic…

A: That's right.



Q: And "Project Minxx?"

A: "Project Minxx" is a mockumentary tv show that follow two guys in Vegas who build, own and operate a gentleman's club in Las Vegas. It's a real club with real people but (show) has a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" style to it. It was also the scene of a rumble and alleged shooting involving Adam Pac-man Jones (of the Tennessee Titans NFL franchise) after NBA all-star weekend.



Q: When can we see it?

A: You can see something on Skippy right now on the website, www.skippyshorts.com, and Minxx will be available this fall.



Ben: Take care Ethan, and good luck with the new flicks.

Ethan: Thank you, Ben. Thank you for taking the time.


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