Accidental Texan, a fantastic and amusing new film starring Academy Award Nominee Thomas Haden Church, Rudy Pankow, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Bruce Dern opens this week in theaters everywhere and Cherry the Geek TV sat down with the film’s director Mark Bristol to talk about the 24-year journey to get the film made.
in the film, fresh-faced recent Harvard student Erwin (Rudy Pankow) flames out of his first professional acting job when he forgets to turn off his phone and triggers an explosive nightmare on set. His career and cell phone in tatters, he flees the New Orleans set, only to have his car break down deep in the heart of Texas oil country. Seeking refuge and some possible phone service in a local diner, he meets Faye (Carrie-Anne Moss), a kind waitress who takes pity on him and offers up the local phone book to find a mechanic. Without enough funds to fix his car, Erwin accepts an offer from Merle, a local oil driller (Thomas Haden Church) only to find out he too is nearly bankrupt and cannot pay his bills. With both men in desperate straits, Merle realizes their only hope may be Erwin’s acting skills and a little help from Faye’s shotgun
“The story has always resonated with me growing up in Texas,” said Bristol. “I’ve known these larger than life characters like Merle and Faye and so the opportunity to bring them to life was a great thrill. It’s such a cinematic story (taken from the book Chocolate Lizards by Cole Thompson), and it gave us an opportunity to take this outsider played by Rudy Pankow and unveil the world of Texas and these characters through his eyes.”
Bristol has spent the last two decades building a career as one of the leading storyboard artists in Hollywood. He has collaborated with some of the industry’s top directors like Christopher McQuarrie on the last four Mission Impossible films, Terrence Malick, Spike Jonze, David Fincher, Christopher Nolan, and Richard Linklater, and has applied what he learned from them to Accidental Texan. “I’ve taken pieces and parts from all of these amazing filmmakers that I’ve worked with and synthesized that into my own. Through Terrence Malick I learned about the poetry of cinema–it doesn’t have to rely on dialogue. It can be told through music and composition and sound. Through Christopher McQuarrie, it was emotion in every scene. Through Ken Kwapis, I learned about demeanor on set. How to compose yourself and work with actors–how to be a positive force of energy and excitement. Through David Fincher it was the exacting knowledge of cinema and how to apply it. Each one of them was a masterclass that I was lucky enough to be paid to be a participant in but most people would pay to be a part of. They’ve all been mentors.”
One of the gags in the film involves chickens (While we won’t spoil it, some might say it is the greatest scene involving chickens in the history of motion pictures). Bristol said the idea came from producer Koen Wooten. While working on the story, Bristol saw the two main characters Merle and Erwin as knights on a quest and that he tried to come up with all these scenarios that would test this new friendship and also place Erwin in awkward, strange world. “He’s this Harvard educated LA actor and all of a sudden he’s in the middle of nowhere Texas. So Koen’s brilliant idea was this chicken gag which played off marvelously and of course Thomas Haden Church knew how to pull every comic moment out of that and they both just do a brilliant job,” Bristol laughed.
Bristol is currently working as a storyboard artist on the new Tron film Tron:Ares with director Joachim Rønning. “It’s in the hands of a wonderful director. I’ve admired so many of his movies. He’s bringing a fresh, new, exciting take on this world (of Tron) that we all love. I’m most excited about who is going to do the music. I still listen to Daft Punk’s Tron:Legacy soundtrack all time so I’m excited to see what’s the next evolution in that soundscape. We’ll see” teased Bristol.
You can watch the full interview with Mark Bristol by clicking on the link below:
Accidental Texan opens in theaters on March 8th.
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