Michael Biehn talks The Victim and Take Me Home Tonight

From James Cameron to Robert Rodriguez, Michael Biehn has been in some great genre films. Terminator. Aliens. The Abyss. Tombstone. Planet Terror. Now, Biehn is directing his first genre film in The Victim, as well as playing Topher Grace’s dad in the 1980s sex comedy, Take Me Home Tonight from Universal. Killer Film catches up with Michael and his new projects. Read on!

Jon: IMDb says you co-directed Blood Bond, so what made you want to get back behind the camera for The Victim?

Michael Biehn: I wouldn’t say I co-directed Blood Bond. What happened was Bey Logan wanted my help on the film he was producing. So I said yes, and flew over to Hong Kong. I think he wanted a “name” to center the film on, but it wasn’t SAG affiliated. When it came to post, I still wasn’t paid, and I didn’t want to lose my benefits. I called them, apologized to the Guild, I swore to them I didn’t know they were doing it unapproved. They then dubbed me, re-shot footage, and even then Bey Logan called me to get me back to Hong Kong! I told him no I can’t. I need my benefits, it’s not SAG-approved and he said he would do so, but I’ve never heard back.

As far as I’m concerned, that movie has nothing to do with me. He dubbed over my voice with an other actors voice! It’s not my movie.

Jon: Wow, that’s interesting. Fans recognized Bey Logan for his line of martial art DVDs called Dragon Dynasty.

Biehn: Yeah, well, it was very disappointing. But when I did a movie called Planet Terror for Robert Rodriguez, I told him I was going to make a movie one day. He just said: “Do it, man.” I’m in post-production now. But then, it was just something coming up after something coming up, and one day at a coffee shop, I saw this kid reading Robert’s book “Rebel without a Crew” and my idea just came back from there. I had to write the script from a story by an author named Reed Lackey. I wanted to make a grindhouse-styled film, meaning low budget, small crew, hot chicks, some gore, you know. I’m finally at the point where I got a rough cut. I’m pretty happy.

All of this, while I’m doing The Divide from director Xavier Gens [Frontier(s) and The Hitman] with Heroes‘ Milo Ventimiglia. It’s looking great. It’s shot great, very creative. I had a lot of fun making it and I’m sure you’ll all be hearing about it in the near future.

But with The Victim were doing some post-VFX, some sound, and am getting ready to show it to some international buyers. I think I proved I can shoot a film on time, on a low budget, and would love to do a sequel.

Jon: The footage I’ve seen online looks great. Speaking about The Divide and how well that was shot, I beleive you shot The Victim on the RED. Why that choice for a camera?

Biehn: Yeah, we shot it on the RED, the Mysterion. We had one camera and had like 40 some shots a day to shoot. So we were shooting the scene, moving the camera, shooting the scene, moving the camera and on and on. Everything had to be quick; we were shooting for 12 hours a day. The camera was our DP’s Eric Curtis’, a still photographer by day, he was really familiar with the camera, which helped. The film looks like we shot it for $2 million. I’ve very proud of it. Everything in the film I had a hand in. The casting, the birds chirping, doors slamming, all the Foley stuff, which locations we were going to shoot it at, everything. While it’s not a true horror film per se, it’s definitely suspenseful, at times gory, and has hot ladies.

Jon: Getting to the said violence, I was happy to see Robert Hall and Almost Human FX handle the gore.

Biehn: Rob really wasn’t on the set, although he set-up one scene. He’s very, very good. While it’s a gridnhouse-ish, violent, sexy film, it’s all of those things, but it’s not shock and cheese.

Jon: Switching gears here, how was doing Take Me Home Tonight, after Bereavement, The Victim, and The Divide? The films are polar opposites from gory films to playing Topher Grace’s dad in a comedy.

Biehn: Fantastic! Topher is one of the nicest guys I know. He called me up one day saying he doing this comedy for Universal and wanted me as his dad in the film, since he was a big fan of Terminator and Aliens growing up. I’m happy for him. I know that it was a struggle for him to get this film out the way he wanted. He had a cut, Universal had a cut, but it’s hysterically funny. I didn’t think it would come out on such a profiled weekend like it is [March 4th] and I hope it does $100 million. I was shocked and esctatic seeing the Super Bowl spot.

I had a fantastic time in it. I play a father with a strained relationship with my son, who’s aimless in life right now, and while it’s a comedy, it’s not like Meet the Parents. But no offense to Robert De Niro, it has a heart, more tender, despite being really funny. I think there’s some laughs on my expense. I hope it does great. Topher’s a nice guy, I know there was a struggle to get the film out the way he felt, and it looks like it is, and I hope everyone enjoys it.

While The Victim is in post, Take Me Home Tonight is in theaters March 4th, from Universal.

Jon Peters

I love film. That is all.

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