Many will know indie horror director Jonathan Straiton from B-movie throwback Night of Something Strange, and now he is back with horror-action feature Johnny Z.
We got a chance to quiz Jonathan, all about the project, pitting the titular half-zombie against the undead.
What can you tell us about crafting Johnny Z with Ron Bonk?
I was struggling with adapting the story to screenplay form and reached out to Ron for help. Ron is an excellent writer, he’s written some of the best scripts I’ve ever read, half of which haven’t been produced yet. At the sametime he needed help with post production on “House Shark.” We spent about 4 days, Ron in one office writing the Johnny Z screenplay and I in another room color grading House Shark. We would work feverish into the night, we would take breaks and discuss ideas and how to best implement them. By the fourth day we had a solid screenplay. By the end we were pretty exhausted but looking back it was an incredible experience. There were a few revisions and the rest is history.
The story aims to mix action and horror, do you think these genres blend well together?
Yes, I think they blend well together. Having the characters be versed in Martial Arts provided them the ability to be able to defend themselves and gave them the edge that most traditional characters do not have.
It makes it interesting to watch: the perfect analogy would be like watching the dance between a ballet dancer and a wild animal.
Were there any inspirations behind the story idea?
The inspiration for the character Johnny Z stemmed from a mashup between The Crow and Spider-man.
The element of the story idea stemmed from an episode of 21 jump street where Johnny Depp’s character’s girlfriend is killed. His character became obsessed with watching the security video from the murder over and over and trying different routines that he could have done in the time frame that the killer came in and shot her. The goal was for his character to see if he could have done something different in that time frame to save her.
That episode has always been in my mind since I was a child. It really stuck with me.
The daily sirens for the “Zombie Broadcast System” actually came from when I lived in Oklahoma City. They would test the tornado sirens every Saturday at a certain time.
I was not initially planning on having bilingual elements in the film. There was a scene between Jason Delgado and Felix Cortez and once I cut they started bickering in Spanish and I really loved it. It brought out a level of expression between them that I could not capture in an English form. They were talking with their hands and the sound levels varied between the words they were spilling. It was a must-have add-in and brought a lot to the film.
What can you tell us about casting the film?
Felix Cortes: I had found a stunt team that I thought would be a great fit for the film. I had seen Felix in some of the Pre-Visuals that were sent to me and he had a very strong screen presence. He really felt right for the part of Jonray. I asked him if he had any interest in playing the lead role in the film. He was very interested in the offer and I cast him. Felix came on board and it was a godsend.
He is very talented; not only as a fighter but also as an actor and a teacher/mentor to our cast. He worked very hard on set and was responsible for reworking the previous fight scenes that did not play well for the camera and early on taking over as our fight designer for the film.
Michael Merchant: I had pictured Michael in the role of JZ from our many years of working together.
David McMahon: I had someone else envisioned for this role but David was super persistent and I am so glad that he was as he was better than I could ever have imagined and a “true” professional.
Jason: Jason Delgado is a filmmaker friend whom I thought had an interesting look and had great charisma.
Billy Garberina: Billy has been one of my favorite actors for years.
I saw Billy in Chris Seaver’s Death Bone in 2008 and thought he was great. I reached out to him when I was casting for Night of Something Strange and had a blast working with him.
Wayne Johnson and Trey Harrison: I had such a great time working with them on Night of Something Strange and wanted to work with them again..
Ellie Church: I was a fan of Ellie and her husband’s movies. We ran in similar circles and had discussed working together. The role was written and she was perfect.
Can we expect plenty of gore and practical effects?
Tons of gore, a healthy mix of practical and CGI effects. There is a lot of slicing and dicing action. For safety we used a prop sword with a half blade and the rest of the blade was added in post. My wife did the majority of the zombie makeup using different techniques and wasn’t afraid of trying different things.
You’ve previously worked with Michael Merchant, most notably on Night of Something Strange, how does he embody the titular character of Johnny?
Michael and I have worked together the longest. I had first cast him in my first film back in 2005. We then became close friends. He then killed the audition when I held the casting call for Night of Something Strange. While filming NOSS I really started to see a variety in his character build and could see him playing Johnny in Johnny Z.
He insisted on doing all of the stunts for the character Johnny and was very eager and able to adapt quickly while training with Felix. Several of the fight scenes that were originally scripted for the film were scrapped. Felix and Michael were able to work together to choreograph and rehearse the new scenes sometimes just 4-5 times and then they were ready for the camera. The dedication and hard work these two put into this film is impressive considering they worked in the blasting heat and freezing cold and making it look like they weren’t freezing or sweating their balls off in costume.
What are the release plans for the film?
Black Mandala is handling all of the release plans. We plan to do a few festivals other than that our distributor and our production partner will be taking it to the film market to sell. Once we have secured the deal we will be doing a limited run of blu ray and DVD’s for the Indie-GOGO contributors.
Look out for news on Johnny Z’s release soon.
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