 "Photo:")
Writer/director Richard Shepard's newest film screened this weekend at the Austin Film Festival. "The Matador" is about a hit man, Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan), who is past his prime but needs to continue killing to make a living. Julian is placed in Mexico City for his next assignment and meets Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), who is trying to land a job in Mexico.
The Daily Texan spoke to Shepard in his hotel room before the film's screening.
Shepard said the inspiration for the film came after seeing "Sexy Beast." He wanted to redo the genre with an original and new design.
"While there's action and suspense and hopefully a lot of tension involving the hits, this film is also at its heart a comedy," said Shepard.
The film took more than three years to complete. He first started writing the screenplay and then put it away for about six months and then began writing again. After completing the screenplay, he sent it to Pierce Brosnan and Beau St. Clair's production company, Irish Dream Time, just to see if the company would hire Shepard for future projects. Then one day, Shepard got a call from Brosnan saying he wanted to produce and star in his film. Shepard thought "no sane actor would want this part."
"The Matador" is the biggest picture he has done thus far, although it did not always look as though this was going to be the case. His initial reaction to the script was that he was going to shoot it in digital format and only have a budget of $250,000. Things changed once Brosnan signed on. The budget went to $10 million and was shot on 35 mm film.
"The Matador" has been screened at the Sundance Film Festival. He had no one backing him financially and was afraid that no one would pick up the film, but it had the opposite reaction. "It became a bidding war," Shepard said.
Reflecting on the film's acceptance at the Austin Film Festival, Shepard said he considered it "a badge of honor."
Overall, the film is strong, the chemistry between the characters was different than what we were used to seeing. It was not your typical hit man movie, it was an action film with heart. "The Matador" will hit theaters nation wide in late December or early January.
Be the first to comment on this article!