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Riding into Uncharted Territory: The Wide West Saga · Cinema Yūgen

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G'day. That's right. It's that time again. Time for Cinema Yugen.
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Music.
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Yes welcome back cinema you
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again i'm your host can't hill this week we have alexander nevsky and joe cornet
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back to talk about the wide west three-time mr universe alexander and Nevsky
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joins sumo champions Hiroki Sumi from John Wick 4 and Ichi from Ballerina,
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and also Nick Bailey from Relicious Tatiana Naiva from Taken at Rio Bravo in
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an epic Western adventure directed by Joe, the King of Westerns,
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director of Promise, Prayer for the Damned.
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In 1907, a professional gambler, Max, played by Nevsky, aids a travelling Japanese sumo wrestlers.
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With the local judge, Nick Bailey, and the beautiful store owner,
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Sybil Tatiana, against the ruthless outlaw, Joe Cornett,
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and his gang who have attacked the small Californian town.
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It's a film inspired by true events in history.
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It continues the winning streak of great action westerns. by this duo,
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please welcome them to Cinema Yugen Joe, the king of Western's Cornette, and Alexander Mr.
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Universe Nevsky!
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G'day Joe, g'day Alex! Thank you very much.
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Good to see you again. Fantastic. Western, did you both get to have a look at the review already?
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Yes, thank you for the kind words. We appreciate it. Thank you.
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Yes, yes, we're so glad you liked it.
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It was a real cracker, and didn't expect this one. This one's a little bit of a change of pace.
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It's not part, as I say, not part of the Taken series. This is a completely
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separate episode unto itself, where I was surprised you two gentlemen play adversaries
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this time, not partners. Oh, yeah.
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Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So what was that like going in, knowing that you weren't
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going to be the heroic duo? This time you were going to be at odds, if you were. I loved it.
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Any actor will tell you that it's more fun to be the bad guy than it is to be
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the hero. Now, I like being a hero.
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Alexander is a hero. Yes. But I liked this departure. I had fun with it.
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And that was it, plain and simple. It was fun.
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Yes, it was a very nice turn for me, Joe. You reminded me very much of Henry
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Fonda from Once Upon a Time in the West.
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Well, that's high praise indeed. Thank you, Jim. With your steely-eyed menace.
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And Alex, you're a little bit of a traveling gambling man in this one.
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Being a producer is a bit like being a gambler, isn't it? uh
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it is it is and first of all let me
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compliment my friend joe because he
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did an amazing job as a bad guy and me
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personally i never saw him as a bad guy either
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because in all his movies he was great as
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a hero you know and in this one
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in my opinion you remember before the show
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i mentioned those great western which
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tom selick made in australia and i think alan rickman
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from quickly down under he wasn't your
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usual bad guy he was very charismatic he.
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Was actually likable sometimes and he was as cool
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as tom selick and all of that and that's exactly i think what
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joe did in this movie but was we had
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a couple of funny moments because when we released the trailer and don't
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forget people expecting us to make third rio bravo
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film so some people thought it's a
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third rio bravo film but suddenly it was joy
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and me shooting at each other i was getting calls from
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everyone like what happened why are you guys shooting at each
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other i said it's a different movie it is a different movie
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but as you mentioned in your great review my
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character is different as well because he's
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not just your like straight hero you
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know who is ready to defend everyone ready to be
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killed for everyone no he's there in
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town just to make money just to meet the
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beautiful store owner who tatiana so greatly
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played and just you know to have fun she's
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not ready to shoot anyone i mean when he has that danger uh right right there
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in a saloon in the beginning of the movie i mean we had to interrupt because
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i mean person can shoot him but in general you know to you know to be hired
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as a you know as a shooter and suddenly you know.
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Be like a deputy, a deputy sheriff, he doesn't want to do things like that.
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And for me, it was funny to play and actually fun and funny.
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And Joe, again, as a director, helped me a lot because I don't think I played characters like that.
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Definitely not in Westerns, you know, and I had to make this character different
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from John Basil Turchin.
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And I hope I did. I hope I did with Joe's help.
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I think your character is very much like a snake Plissken in this movie.
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That's a good comparison He's not a Not a bad guy Not really a good guy but
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Self preservation Is high on
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the List but he's not above Getting involved in a good cause So he's the,
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He's not exactly the antithesis Of a hero but he's the You know he's not a fool
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either i mean like most like most men that get involved in uh how should we
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say troubles at that time i mean you've got to consider the fact that you could get shot too so.
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You know it wasn't called the his his character is very interesting from the
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point of view of the different levels of motivation because normally with the
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traditional hero you know Of course,
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he's going to go to the ends of the earth to save the town,
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to save the leading lady, to catch the bad guys, whatever.
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This character, Max, has these different levels of motivation.
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Usually, as a traveling sporting man, as they would have called it in the early
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1900s, would have been referred to, his motivation is money.
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He's sort of an anti-hero. is the best way I know how to describe it.
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So he's motivated by personal gain. But he has a moral compass that comes through eventually.
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And you see that as well. But there's a great scene in which,
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and I don't want to spoil it, but I'll just say it's between the town judge
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and Alexander's character, Max.
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It's an interesting scene because it's almost like a negotiation process.
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That they go through and you know, the scene I'm talking about. Yes, yes, certainly.
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Yeah. No, it's, um, uh, it was, I mean, look, people can see by the,
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the advertisements and the trailers for this, that it's not,
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it's not your typical rest Western.
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I mean, you've got a Russian cowboy, you've got two semi wrestlers,
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you've got a very varied cast.
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Some people might think, does it all go well in the blender?
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Of course the answer is yes.
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Because you boys, a well-oiled machine. I mean, the Western movie-making machine,
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you've done two Taken films. I know you've got a third in the barrel.
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Being that this is the, I know, not third in the trilogy, but sort of the third
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Western you're doing now on the trot, is the shorthand very prevalent now?
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Like, is it smooth sailing, making these films now that you've done a few in a row?
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I will start, and maybe Joe will continue, because Joe is helping me to produce
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all of them, and he's executive producer on all of these movies.
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But just to be honest with you, of course it's not getting easier.
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You know what's going on in the world, unfortunately, right?
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And it's just, there's so much negativity around, and in film business as well.
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And especially like last couple of years even
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if we talk about independent filmmaking all these
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strikes all these problems with independent
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film companies distribution companies i can
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i can you know me i'm a positive guy but i can talk
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forever about all that i think the strongest
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point which me and joe share
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we don't care we will continue you
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know because when we met joe already made three westerns
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himself you know he produced that and he
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got them a distributed because they were everywhere from
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prime video to 2b to everywhere in north america and they
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started to be started to be released internationally and when
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we start to make movies together of course i'll
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you know i'll i just hope that i
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brought more on the table because of my experience with
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selling action movies how to promote them better
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how to get wider releases how to get out
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more publicity and all of that but just to
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answer just to answer your question western is
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just also amazing fun it's it's always.
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A struggle it doesn't matter what you produce right now if you produce an action
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film or a horror film or a western it's it's it's always a struggle because
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i mean you you know that you're involved in independent films yourself not just
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the journalist but also the writer
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and you're thinking about producing and and all of that so it's just.
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In end of the day uh kent and it's i'm
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telling this to you but i also i'm also telling
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it to everyone who is listening us right now because there are so many people
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talented people who of course they know like it's almost impossible you know
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to find money to find a good script to make you know movie from the beginning
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to an end because it's an it's a journey by itself you You know,
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just to shoot it and finish it post-production-wise.
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And after that, sell it, sell it domestically, sell it internationally, promote it.
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Get yourself another movie and all of that. So it sounds crazy and unbearable, right?
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But in reality, it's all doable. And I just hope that Joe's and mine example, you know, will help.
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Because exactly four years ago, Ken, exactly four years ago,
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me and Joe in Arizona started our first western gunfight at rio bravo four years
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later we're releasing our fourth one you know and right now it's on an nbc universal
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zoom play and you know zoom was basically nbc's answer.
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Universal's answer to tubi because flex entertainment but tubi uh i think in
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our trailer you can watch tubi right yes you can uh yes and not yet but universal
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just bought it last year when we made a deal for taking and now they're pushing
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it basically as an answer to Tunez.
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Because you know in ADOG, they can bigger and bigger. People,
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they don't have to pay for subscription. They can watch it with ads.
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But again, going back to Westerns in general, amazing thing is, it's also fun.
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It's fun. And I hope Joe will add to that. But it's fun. Right, Joe? It is fun.
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And to echo what you just said a little bit more, does the process get easier?
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I mean, we have a kind of a slick machine going here now.
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That's true. So the operation is like...
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We know the approach, we know the strategy, and we game everything out,
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not just the production, but the post.
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And then what do you do with it after you finish in post? So everything is gamed
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out, as I like to say. And Alex is very good at this.
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Let's talk about the two big men in the film, two men bigger than you, gentlemen.
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Haruki, Sumi, and Ichi, those fellas look like they're a whale of a time.
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What was it like wrangling the giants of the land of the rotten sun?
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Let's start. Okay. This was the first time I've ever directed a film where I
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had need of a translator because I don't speak Japanese.
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These two gentlemen speak a tiny bit of English, a few phrases here and there,
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some of which are in the movie.
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But but i don't speak japanese and
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they don't really speak english now the other gentleman kaz kobayashi
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who you must check out everyone must check
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out because he's just so great in this he did
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he does speak english but i found myself you know our our other producer on
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this andrew freund great guy and he he basically acted as the go-between between
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me and and these two 525 plus pound gentleman.
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And, you know, because I knew what they were there to do. I mean,
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I kind of relied on Andrew to sort of watch over what I was doing with them and to add his own.
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Contributions. So it was interesting working, you know, I didn't have to do
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it too much, but I would explain certain things and then, you know,
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it would be translated to the two boys and, you know, it, it didn't take much.
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I mean, I kind of felt like Sergio Leone, you know, I speak Italian,
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Clint Eastwood doesn't speak Italian, Lee Van Cleef doesn't speak Italian.
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We go through translating.
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So actually it was kind of wild. It was kind of wild
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and it kind of fun but i i got
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you've seen it i got everything i wanted out of
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these boys oh yeah yeah and and not to give
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any anything away to our listening audience but uh the
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the two the two uh sumo wrestlers
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i was waiting for them to to get involved and they
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do get involved near the end you
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know quite once once everything i mean there
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are parts of a western that just
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have to happen they're the tropes that you have to trip over
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there has to be right you know the lone gunfighter has
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to ride into town the bad guy has to
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be peeved off and and called into vengeance there has to be a love instance
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love interest and there has to be a a gunfight right at some point and it's
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what what's great about this western is it doesn't all fall that way all the time which adds an air of,
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unpredictability, plus with this one you've gone for a completely different
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sort of, this is probably the most stylized, would you agree, of your westerns so far?
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It is very stylized. I always try to make all of the stuff we do very highly stylized.
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You've, you've seen it. You know, I tried to do that with night of the caregiver,
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you know, as a, as a horror angle.
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But with this one, yeah, you must, because you're dealing with such an unconventional
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and unusual story, a story that, yes, it was based on a true incident in American history. Yes.
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But, It's so wild. And that's the constant word I use to describe this movie. It is so wild.
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You just got to take it up to the next level where it's just like,
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you're not going to believe this one.
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You know, if you think, if you think the mashup of cool action guys in a spaghetti
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Western or traditional Western context is wild,
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you ain't seen nothing yet.
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This is truly a wild ride and that's
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what i tell people in fact we we we had
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a screening of it a week or so ago and the
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audience went crazy and just loved it
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and this woman comes up to me and says wow what a hoot that was such a good
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time and that's what i was hoping to go for yes you know yeah there's a historical
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accuracy angle but don't worry
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about that because it's more about the rollercoaster you're about to see.
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Yeah. And I hope that came up. And if I can add...
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If I can add a couple of things, the screening Joe just mentioned,
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it was in the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles.
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And there was hundreds of people over there. And we had our sumo guys over there as well.
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And, you know, people, they loved the film.
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And they said so many great things to draw. And don't forget, he was playing a bad guy.
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But he was basically rooting for him. They were happy that he wasn't killed
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in the end and all of that. And, of course, they were rooting for the heroes,
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the sumo wrestlers, because I'll remind you, Kiroki and Ichi,
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they both big champions in real life.
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In real life? Ichi has Emperor's Cup, for God's sake, you know?
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So, that was a great screening, which Andrew, Andrew Brown, helped us to organize.
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And Andrew's amazing. Andrew's my friend for 25 years.
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And for his credit, he helped Joe a lot, and he helped Joe a lot with translation,
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with, you know, Japanese guys, and he was working with Joe, and,
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I mean, he was working with all of us.
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He spent a lot of time, and, you know, he was driving them around unsaid because
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it's hard for them to walk around much.
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He was driving them from one part of the town to another. He did an amazing job.
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And here's for our team, because our team, again, which Joe and I put together was great.
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You know, again, it was heroic. It was Ichi, Andrew, Nick Bailey,
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also co-produced with us, and he played judge greatly.
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You know, I think you can see...
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Gary cooper sometimes in his character from high
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noon uh you know and of course tatiana never beautiful
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tatiana i mean she's amazing and you know
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uh as you wrote as you wrote in the
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review actually she helped us really to opened
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up the film in a way so it's not just big guys tough guys
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whatever it's also beautiful women and kerry
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goodwin you saw kerry goodwin yes yes she
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did an amazing job and madeline allen so we
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had a great team of people in our town
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and as joe just mentioned what we should you know praise him for he's making
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every movie bigger yes of course i'm helping him with that but you know you
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know that's a huge huge job you have to do as a director i I know that because I directed one film.
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And Joel is the freaking that just made the seventh, you know,
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and just to look at his t-shirt, he has Promise on his t-shirt,
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and Promise was pretty big movie.
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It was his biggest film before we met, and the big great Western.
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He was able with the White West to make it even bigger because we have wrestlers from Japan.
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We have actors from Canada and United States.
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We have writing this universe oh god's sake
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i mean we have like a big international cast and
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you know joe uh was able
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to do it and also he's great in the movie as an actor and i think personally
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i don't know if you both agree with me but uh for actors yeah of course it's
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tough to direct no question but for actors sometimes it's easier because they
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know how to operate on set how to connect with other performers,
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how to connect with other crew members because they had those acting experiences
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as actors, as stars of the film. What do you think, Joe?
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Does it make it easier for you because you also act?
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Absolutely, because you're not just behind the camera.
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You know all the ups and downs of standing in front of that very tricky lens.
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So you know where to guide and
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place your actors and and because you
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do it yourself and so you know okay
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i i know where i want you know
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the eyeline i know where i want this i know where i
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want that because you do it if you
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do it over and over and over and over again
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you know it gets to be a sixth sense so
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i like doing it because it keeps me keeps me
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you know sharp and it keeps me in contact with the performance and the performers
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and this practice does indeed make perfect and it really gets you in tune with
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it i'd like to say another interesting aspect angle to this movie i've always wanted to do,
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a later Western and can't ill appreciate this. Cause I'm a big fan of the wild
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bunch and the professionals, which are all set.
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I noticed your Sam Peckinpah flourishes in this one year.
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Yeah. The slow mo slow mo. That, that, that I thank Alexander for it.
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So, but I, I think this is a very interesting era because there was still a
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lot of the skullduggery that was happening in the,
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in the 1800s well into the early
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1900s but for the most part it had been pretty much cleaned up but what it what
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it afforded me to do is something i've long wanted to do and that's use different
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types of weapons in this movie yes for instance judge ogburn nick bailey sports a.
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1897 Winchester pump shotgun, the first pump shotgun ever made.
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Yes, yes. It was used by... Your character too carries a different weapon.
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And my character carries 1898 broom handle Mauser, which I've always wanted to use in a film.
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Yes. And you get to see it in this and in action. That's a big weapon.
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I mean, it's heavy, it's big, and it's unwieldy, but it was great fun.
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So I got to use different things like that not not
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to give anything away about the ending because we want people to go
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and watch the movie but the way your character
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uh ends up in this movie joe does that belie a
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possible sequel now what do you think but he who he who fights and flies away
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lives to fight another day he came up with this twist and it's it's brilliant
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and and i i think it really it It amps everything up.
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Again, wild ride, that certainly makes it even a wilder ride.
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And I had a bunch of people at the screening coming up to me and saying.
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Things about that ending and just to
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give another compliment to craig craig common because i
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can't you watch the movie and uh we created
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the story together it was andrew it was me it was
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correct but it was written completely by
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craig and what he achieved in the script because we
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have different stories there is a story of sumo
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wrestlers traveling through united states it can't be
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just a movie about that there's a story about
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bad guy who when i've entered that or he is
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a younger brother that can be only about
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that there can be a story about just the gambler you
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know big guy who doesn't want to be shooted but
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he in the end of the day he is whatever that's another
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story so crack was able to connect
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them all together and even what you just mentioned because your
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character basically left and stayed
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alive but my character still had great
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standoff in the movie so we still had a standoff absolutely
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and we still exactly so everything paid off so big compliments to craig big
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compliments to craig yeah yes great another another great script from from craig
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all around great lines i love joe's line what is it i'm gonna miss i'm gonna
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miss it like i miss my daily headaches.
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Exactly. Good one, too. Yeah. I like that.
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And of course, Alex, you got a great one. I want to kill you, but I can wait. Yeah.
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Yes, and as you saw, I mean, it's great to be a producer.
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It's great to be a producer. Because at the end of the day, I also got those
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Terminator things again.
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And yet, it wasn't a real Bravo movie. It was a different movie.
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But again, I got my leather jacket. I got a cigar.
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I got old-fashioned sunglasses, and I started to kill people all around.
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I was about to say, you wear some very nice jackets in this movie.
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Thank you very much. I bought it in a store in Tatiana. store in beautiful Tatiana's store.
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But let me ask you, Ken, because you compared me, and thank you for the compliment
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with Kurt Rattel character, right, and Snake and all of that.
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But with Joe, we have a tradition.
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Before we start any movie, I'm asking Joe to recommend me some Westerns to watch.
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And of course, before we started The White West,
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Joe reminded me about a great film, which I loved
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and watched and finally that video many years ago many
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many years ago in Moscow on VHS Red Sun
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Red Sun Red Sun yeah
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with Bronson and Mifune exactly and Alain Delon the bad guy and all that but
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and I'm sure Mifune of course but the way Charles Bronson played his character
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because if you remember him from other movies action movies or westerns or I
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mean he played completely different guy
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He was almost funny.
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And he wasn't a hero at all.
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He was probably anti-hero, who changed by the end.
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But he was always like, yeah, well, I mean, he wasn't ready to die.
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He wasn't ready to whatever.
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So I was trying to use his character as an inspiration.
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In your opinion, as a professional writer and reviewer.
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Were they successful? Yeah, totally. Totally.
27:02
Another film that I thought of after I watched it was Judge,
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The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. Have you both seen it? Yeah.
27:12
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I really thought, I mean, not the whole film,
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but because of the very different tone of this one compared to the Taken films,
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because, I mean, that film's an acquired taste, but it's very well constructed.
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Thank you just like just like this one it people
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might be afraid of all the elements like russian
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cowboy sumo wrestlers how is it all going to work well the answer is it does
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work it works tremendously well because when you have very talented people like
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yourselves your incredible cast everyone behind the camera just it works it's
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it's fun it's exciting it's unpredictable Often awesome.
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Of course, Alex gets to wear an incredible jacket.
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And, of course, you get to come out, as you say, in the end,
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all guns blazing with the cigar, with the sunglasses, and the biggest gun in town. Yes.
28:11
And it's always exciting. It was incredible to watch.
28:15
And, yeah, I really – all I can say, fellas, if you find a winning formula,
28:22
stick to it, which you obviously are.
28:24
So, more power to you, gentlemen. More power to you.
28:28
Thank you very much. And film is released right now in North America.
28:31
It's exclusively on Zoom for the next three months.
28:34
But in September, it will be released here on BOG and in the theaters and on
28:40
all the platforms. Also in Europe.
28:43
Also in Australia and New Zealand.
28:45
And if you allow us, as soon as we have a DVD, maybe even before it's released over there.
28:51
I know you're, like us, you're a huge fan of this kind of thing,
28:55
right? DVD and the little ones.
28:57
We'll sign it and we'll send it to you for your collection.
29:00
Awesome. Yes. Very cool. Very cool. Ladies and gentlemen listening to us.
29:05
Alexander Nevsky, Joe Cornett, they're a winning movie-making machine.
29:10
Their new film, The Wild West. I nearly keep saying The Wild West.
29:14
The Wide West is available now on Zoom. I play, we'll put all the relevant links
29:19
in the description, including a link to my review of the Wide West film threat.
29:26
Alexander Nevsky, Joe Cornett, my very good friends, very talented filmmakers. You've done it again.
29:32
Thank you, Ken. I know you've got more on the boil and I look forward to it
29:37
all. Gentlemen, thank you once again for being my guest here on cinema. You get,
29:41
Kent, we appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you for your support. Yes, the Wide West.
29:47
Check out the links in the description to the trailer.
29:50
Check it out on Zumo Play. That's right. Zumo Play is a fast and easy way to see the Wide West,
29:58
the third in a great run of action westerns from my guest Joe Cornett and Alexander Nevsky.
30:06
Check out my review and all the links in the description.
30:11
And as always, my little Eugenites, thank you for listening to us on Spotify
30:17
or wherever you choose to listen to your favorite podcasts.
30:20
I'm Kent Hill. And until next time, you've been listening to Cinema Eugenite.
30:28
Music.