I have been meaning to mention this, but it’s so odd…and oddly wonderful…that I haven’t got around to it, till now.
But I have two indie movies shooting right now. If you make these update/blogs a regular stop, you’ll already know I am in the midst of a two-week shoot on Death by Fruitcake, bringing to life the Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery series that Barb and I write as “Barbara Allan.”
More about that later.
But another movie I scripted, Mickey Spillane’s Saturday Night in Cap City, began shooting its two-week schedule on the very same day Fruitcake started rolling.
Sharing script credit with me is director David Wexler. He is also one of the stars of the movie. We have been developing this project for several years – and were about to begin a more elaborate version when Covid kicked in and de-railed us for a time. David became a fan of Mickey Spillane and me out of a general enthusiasm for Hard Case Crime. He knew Mike Hammer wouldn’t be available, but inquired about the novella “A Bullet for Satisfaction,” which I completed for inclusion with Mickey’s final completed novel, The Last Stand, which HCC published.
Read about the talented David Wexler here.
David had me work up a script based on the novella, which I did in tandem with him, and we worked on it in that fashion for some time. When that somewhat ambitious version didn’t get sufficiently off the ground, one of us suggested (I think possibly David, because of an actress he thought could be signed) for me to use my Ms. Tree muscles and turn the protagonist – a rather typical Spillane cop anti-hero – “Dex” Dexter – into a female. This was a fairly elaborate rewrite, if a fun, challenging one; but the Spillane story remained largely intact.
This version attracted several female stars and, again, almost got off the ground. When it seemed doomed to stall yet again, I shared my Blue Christmas approach with David – limit the story to one set and make a micro budget possible.
“A Bullet for Satisfaction” began at the crime scene in a hotel where a wild party had taken place…and also the murder of the mayor of this equally wild town.
David liked the idea, and I wrote a new draft and he adapted it to fit a location he could acquire. For some time the film had been called simply Cap City, but I suggested Saturday Night in Cap City to reflect the action taking place in a hotel suite after a swinging Saturday night party.
That we are shooting simultaneously is a complete coincidence, though it’s a fun way to show that I am indeed back in the filmmaking game. The black-and-white photos here are from the production in progress.
director/co-star David Wexler
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A very nice early review of Quarry’s Return has rolled in from Publisher’s Weekly. Here it is:
Quarry’s Return
Max Allan Collins. Hard Case Crime, $12.95 trade paper.
Retired hit man Quarry returns to the killing business with ruthless efficiency in the highly satisfying 17th entry in Collins’s crime series (after Quarry’s Blood). When a journalist shows up at Quarry’s door searching for his daughter, bestselling true crime author Susan Breedlove, Quarry senses trouble. Predictably, the reporter turns out to be a hired assassin, and his expert knife skills make him more than a match for the 71-year-old ex-killer. Fortunately, Quarry’s former lover Luann Lloyd, who he believed was dead, arrives in the nick of time to rescue him. But Quarry’s daughter is far from safe; evidence suggests she’s been abducted while investigating a series of cold case murders, forcing Quarry to return to Port City, Iowa, where he met Susan’s mother and left contract killing, and where Susan had been conducting research. With Luann’s help, Quarry begins his own investigation into the killings Susan was writing about, in the belief that exposing the culprit will lead him to her. The fluid narration is better than ever, and Collins brings the proceedings to an exhilarating and unexpected conclusion. Fans will hope Quarry returns again soon. (Nov.)
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The first week of Death by Fruitcake went extremely well, sometimes surprisingly so – this is the first time I remember on a movie set where we completed the day’s work early…and it happened most days.
This week will be harder. Our male lead, Rob Merritt (star of Blue Christmas), is working only on the second week, meaning the first week had to shoot material that, obviously, didn’t involve his character. So we shot 30 pages of a 90-page script, meaning (my math skills come into play here) we have 60 pages yet to shoot. We do have an extra day (we’re working Saturday), but that hardly covers it.
I am not worried because this cast is doing incredibly well, and when Rob comes in, a real pro will be among us (as are Paula Sands and Alisabeth Von Presley). This bunch works hard and never complains, making for a real team effort. Also, our first week knocked off some of the most elaborate, toughest scenes on the schedule.
There are always fires to put out, and changes that have to be made on the spot, which is why I think having the writer be the director makes a lot of sense. Barb and I spent much of the weekend studying shooting schedules and call sheets and making last-minute arrangements.
Friday night had us bringing in a group of around sixty or seventy to be the audience for the play-within-the-movie, Vivian Borne’s The Fruitcake That Saved Christmas. My grandson Sam and granddaughter Lucy were among the highly cooperative audience members who gave us what we needed (“Now laugh big, as if you just saw for the first time Gene Wilder’s big scene in The Producers!”) even as they had a good time doing it.
Producer/director of photography Chad Bishop had a stellar week and rounded it off with a screen cameo as Louis Wilder, who accompanies wheelchair-bound FDR to the fruitcake factory to be presented with the key to the city. Turns out that specific fruitcake has surprising recuperative powers….
This is hard work but I love it. I never dreamed I’d be back on set again in this lifetime. Glad I was wrong.
Alisabeth Von Presley as Brandy; Paula Sands as Mother
The Suspects (some of ’em)
Tommy Ratkiewicz-Stierwalt as FDR (with M.A.C.)
The Least Efficient Assembly Line Anywhere (with M.A.C.)
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We appear to be very close to making a deal with the terrific actor we have chosen to play Nate Heller in True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak. In case you haven’t been by lately, that’s our fully immersive audio drama based on the first Heller novel, True Detective. The ten-episode production is written by me and directed by Robert Meyer Burnett. Our fellow producers are Mike Bawden and Phil Dingeldein. It’s an Imagination Connoisseurs presentation.
You can order True Noir in various forms from our Kickstarter page here.
The Kickstarter campaign ends in 17 days, so get crackin’. As of Sunday we were at $20,290 of a $30,000 goal. Unlike most such crowd-funding campaigns, you will receive what you order in a short period of time. We already have most of our amazing cast recorded, and editing and sound design are well under way.
True Noir is one of the best (and rewarding) projects of my fifty-year career.
M.A.C.
