Adapted from a Joe R. Lansdale novel, Jum Mickle’s Cold in July is a thriller bursting with great actors – Michael C. Hall, Don Johnson and Sam Shepard among them. Apparently taking viewers on a wild ride (shut up, we do not want to know), you’ll be able to find out for yourself at the NZ International Film Festival. Director Jim Mickle kindly provided some As to our Qs.
Hello from Flicks. What have you been up to today?
Unpacking my life. Just went on a long camping trip with the gang from Cold in July and We Are What We Are and now depressed to be back in civilization.
Joe R. Lansdale has written a ton of great stuff, but only a few things have made it to the screen. Why do you think that is?
I don’t know why entirely, though I suspect it will change with the recent stuff he’s got brewing. I think the people who make decisions on what gets made have probably written it off before as “tweener” material which is why I like it. His work usually doesn’t fit into one genre or one type, and that probably seems like a challenge to people wanting concrete easy successes. But that’s also what makes his stuff special, so hopefully suits will look at Bubba Ho-Tep and Cold in July and say it’s unique and it works on film so lets do more of it. Unlike a lot of other prolific authors, Joe’s stuff runs a really wide range of styles and stories, so you’d never get stale adapting his work.
When did you first see his novel as a potential film?
While I was reading it for the first time in 2006. Each chapter jumped out like a great scene from a great script that hadn’t been written yet. Every time I got comfortable with what kind of story I was reading it would blow itself up and shape shift into an entirely new genre and I couldn’t stop ingesting it. Yet it also had this great point of view of a dad trying to do his best to navigate this pulpy crime underworld, so there was an emotional center to it that I connected to. It felt like a movie I always wished someone would make, and we were lucky enough to get Joe’s trust to adapt it.
I’ve done my best to avoid too much plot information about ‘Cold In July’, do you think that’s a prudent attitude?
Absolutely. Too many reviews or journalists get lazy and pad stories with long synopses, not just with our movie but everywhere. Our New York Times review was the worst—one long detailed explanation of the story with all of its twists, yet zero opinions about the actual movie. Why bother? Same with trailers. They’ve just become a cliff notes for a movie before the movie comes out. In this case, Cold is a movie best enjoyed going in with little story awareness.
You’ve assembled a kick-ass cast. Do you think audience expectations will be confounded a little by casting a post-‘Dexter’ Michael C. Hall as a killer, but of the average Joe kind?
Probably at first but the beauty of Michael and his performance is within one scene you’ve completely forgotten about the roles he’s most known for. He’s a chameleon and he enjoys bringing new characters to life and I think people will fall in love with him all over again in this role. He’s as talented an actor as you can find nowadays in any medium.
Sam Shepard and Don Johnson are no slouches. What was it like to work with them in a tale of violence and retribution?
A joy and a lesson all at once. I learned a lot from both of them in wildly different ways, from their experience and their instincts on their characters and the story. Yet they also had faith in us and the team to make the whole thing sing. We’re backyard low budget indie filmmakers so we had to throw a lot of tricks in along the way especially when it came to action. They had a lot of trust in us to not screw it up and that can be empowering to have that kind of collaboration. I think they’ve both gotten back in touch with their love for what they do which is really exciting to see.
What was the most memorable moment of the shoot?
Too many to narrow down to one, but every day was a surreal, pinch yourself experience. We had been developing this project for 7 years so to finally be on set, seeing these guys getting into character, shooting every little piece of something that had only been on paper for so long was like a weird alternate reality for 5 weeks. Seeing the chemistry of the main three guys, which is such an intangible, hard to formulate energy, was probably the biggest treat.
Who would be the best, and worst, people to bring along to your film?
Best — fans of pulp, noirs, westerns, 80s movies, and genre mashups.
Worst — people with shitty taste
What was the last great film you saw?
Recently re-watched Cronenberg’s The Fly and that’s still the best thing I’ve seen in a long time.
What are you thinking about doing next?
We’re adapting Joe Lansdale’s book series Hap and Leonard for the SundanceTV network and that’s been a blast so far. And a few cool feature projects that are starting to come into focus. All about schedules at this point.
