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A Dallas Premiere flies at Exit Speed

Dallas recently had a night of stars and circumstance with the world premiere of a new action film Exit Speed.  Taking a path that had been traveled by old drive-in style entertainment, Exit Speed is a torque-inducing thriller, an exciting, electrifying ride into real life terror.  Set in the barren Texan landscape on Christmas Eve, a group of people from different walks of life have to band together after the bus they are all riding in becomes the focus of a band of meth-fueled nomads.  In a cross between Stagecoach and The Road Warrior, these individuals must work together to fend off the onslaught of horror.  It plays not only on the fears of the outside world, but on the fear of strangers brought together by happenstance.

Seldom is the Metroplex known for anything cinematic but on a hot August night, the Studio Movie Grill on Royal Lane was the setting for Hollywood in town.  The parking lot was filled with Hummer limousines and roaring Japanese racing bikes as the cast and crew of Exit Speed made their way down the red carpet and into the theater.

The biggest star of the evening was the charming Lea Thompson, from Back to the Future, Howard the Duck and the television series Caroline in the City.  In Exit Speed, she plays a mother who just wants to get home to see her two daughters.  She was stunning in a simple, white flower print dress. On how she got involved in making an action thriller, she said, “I liked the idea of doing an action movie.  I liked the character. I love Texas and I was happy to be here.”

The shoot was last summer in the Dallas area, the time of the biggest recorded rainfalls ever for the area.  “The weather was horrible, it rained everyday.  The mosquitoes were big and there was mud everywhere,” she said.  Since she had toured the nation in Chicago a few years back, Lea plans to go back to her stage roots and bring an original show on Broadway.  Between that and directing some projects, this actress is being kept much in demand.

The director Scott Ziehl was on hand and was all smiles like an expectant father waiting outside the delivery room. He even sported a Exit Speed ball cap on his head. On how he was chosen to put this work on the silver screen, he was very matter of fact. “My agent called me and said there is a lady in Dallas that wants to make a movie and it seems legit so go meet with her,” he explained.  “I thought the script was interesting and well done.  It had some very nice character development, which you don’t see in many action films.  It’s about a bunch of people that are on the run and have a lot of different things going on in their lives.  They get into this tragic situation and they come out of it better.”

When discussing on a dream actor to work with, Scott was straightforward.  “Someone who would get the movie out,” he said, “Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise.” And though he was still working on riding out all of the aspects of getting Exit Speed into the theaters, he did admit that he had a couple of directing interviews set up for the near future.

Seldom is the writer included in a Hollywood premiere.  But in the case of Exit Speed, the writer is also a producer.  Michael Stokes is not only the man who put pen to paper, crafting the original ideas behind Exit Speed but as a producer he was much more hands on in the actual production.  On the most challenging aspect of taking this idea to a visual form, he again talked of the weather.  “Considering that we had a twenty day shooting schedule and it rained for at least 20 of them,” he said, “we had to be on the bounce constantly.”

Since he had brought the Exit Speed story to life, it was asked how close the printed page was to the actual film.  He said, “Story-wise very close and character-wise very close to what was on the printed page but we were constantly on the bounce with the weather.  One location that was to taken place outside we had to move inside.  Most of the action is pretty close to as scripted.”

He had nothing put praise for his director Scott Ziehl.  “Scott did a fantastic job of bringing it to life,” he said, “the bus chase and the motorcycle guys.  It was Scott’s idea to use these underground bike crews that ride these Japanese street bikes.  The original script had Harley bikes.  He came in and said. ‘You should take a look at these guys and that was it.’ The stuff they could do with these machines was just incredible. They look like they could defy gravity.  Once we locked that it, it opened everything up in staging the action, what costumes looked liked, what the back-story, which the bad guys were.  From that we were pretty close to the script except for the storms.”

But there were changes from the shooting draft.  “The original set was a gas station but when we couldn’t find and abandoned gas station around Dallas that was large enough and in a deserted area, I decided we could stage the action in a junk yard.  That way we could control the action.”

Since he created the characters in his mind before they were on the screen, I wondered how close the printed characters were to the actual characters.  “That’s tough to answer in retrospect,” he said.  “They stepped in and became those parts.  It is kind of hard for me to step back and see anybody else in those roles.  They just seemed to take it and make it their own in their own lovely and unique way.  I don’t even remember my original impressions any more.”

One of the more impressive young stars on the red carpet was young Danielle Beecham.  Since this is her first movie, I wondered exactly what she thought about making a motion picture.  She said, “The hardest part was the waiting on the set.  I wanted to work a lot and they have to get everything ready.” As for her preferred scene of Exit Speed.  “My favorite part was my last scene because it was so dramatic and very high energy.” A junior at UTA, she’s a major of drama and psychology, “I figure if I have to hang out with crazy people, I might as well study them.” She did seem a bit overwhelmed by all the hoopla around the premiere but was taking it in stride.  “I wanted to be an actress since I was a little kid and walk the red carpet,” she said with a smile.

Another Los Angeles actor placed in the world of Exit Speed is Wally White.  Originally from North Carolina, this California man has known writer Michael Stokes for a long time and found a part for him.  And when asked if this could be his big break to a big feature, he smiled and said, “You never know.  I’ve worked production so I know that its gonna be what its gonna be.  You just enjoy the work while you have it.”

Since he has worked on both sides of the camera, Wally was comfortable on set but he did find a difference between his previous work and this shoot.  “I think that I now understand the difference between shooting for dialogue and shooting for the action.  It balanced out quite easily.”

By far the cast and crew ‘favorite actor’ on the shoot had to be Everett Sifuentes.  During the introductions before the screening he received a thunderous round of applause from his co-workers.  This former pharmacist and professional dancer has been pursuing acting since his retirement.  But it wasn’t an easy shoot for him.  “When we worked it was 95-100 degrees and you are inside a bus,” he said.  “They couldn’t have the air conditioner with the cameras on.” As for his advice to young actors, he joked, “Don’t! It’s not what it’s cracked up to be.  It’s work, real work.”

With all the actors off the red carpet and into the theater, the lights lowered and everyone—cast, crew, friends, well-wishers and media—were all treated to the newest film to grace the Silver Screen—Exit Speed.

Exit Speed opens in limited release on September 5,2008.
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