Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with our own Hawaiian correspondent, Moon Yun, who has the lowdown on an indie flick called ZZYZX. I know many of you will be dumbfounded by that title... I was, too, and I have even seen what it is based one. ZZYZX is an exit sign you see when driving from LA to Vegas on I-15. Some small, teeny tiny town of some sort with a name that looks like a spoonful of Alphabits. Anyway, Moon Yun has the dirt on the flick and a little info on the indie distribution side of things (ie, you can click on a link below that'll send you to a site to download the flick for $2.99.) Enjoy!
Aloha, Moon Yun Choi signing in from Hawaii where I’ve found my flower cactus of the dessert.
I got a chance to see an awesome indie flick (mainland produced) called Zzyzx® (Z?–Zux). You see Kenny Johnson of THE SHIELD play the other side of the law with the same raw intensity and vigor as we see him in the edgy cop show.
Richard Halpern, the director/producer of Zzyzx, says what is so great about Johnson being in Zzyzx is that his character in Zzyzx and THE SHIELD has some similar parallels.
”They are both characters who live life on the edge and are deceitful. They are both lovable charmers. Where they differ though is in their conscience: on the SHIELD, Curt "Lemonhead" Lemansky has a very guilty conscience that creates dilemmas for his strike team that works around him (they create corruption while Lemonhead strongly opposes),” says Halpern.
For Johnson, he only had three days to prepare for the movie. “I felt I had a take on this guy…that the first time I read him. Usually if you understand a character it’s not hard to memorize because you understand where he’s coming from.”
Halpern is blazing new trails by premiering the movie on to people’s ipods and Playstation Portable and charging only $2.99 per download, which is available on www.zzmovie.com.
Hoo! Hoo! Downloading movies for a charge. For struggling filmmakers, is this the next step in finding that lucky pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Halpern says there’s “no pot gold of yet, though, with great PR and Marketing, it will grow!”
The SHIELD production style is very similar in look and rawness of Zzyzx: very grainy, handheld, cameras always moving, kinetic.
Halpern inspiration for the movie was Zzyzx, the famous exit sign seen and questioned by tens of thousands of drivers daily as they travel to and from Las Vegas on Interstate Highway 15.
One day, a Mexican family makes a pit stop and low and behold what the urine washes away – someone’s bones.
Halpern back tracks in time to the scene where Lou, played by Johnson of THE SHIELD, and Ryan, played by Ryan Fox, enters into the “mythological Zzyzx.” Out of frustration and pure disdain for each other, Lou and Ryan run over and kill a wandering Indian (played by Kayo Zepeda).
SPOILER ALERT: Candice (played by Robyn Cohen of THE LIFE AQUATIC) gives a marvelous performance as a very dangerous lady who preys upon people just like vultures in deserts.
I won’t spoil the rest of the movie by revealing the good parts but as you can guess one is pretty much done for when killing an American Indian.
Mahalo (thank you in Hawaii),
