Neal McDonough has been an actor for 30 years. Due to his Christian beliefs and love for his wife, McDonough does not take part in sex scenes. He plays the lead in the film, but also serves as a co-writer and producer.
The film was directed byDerek Presley and stars McDonough as a mercenary trying to escape his past life as a cold-blooded hitman. While hiding from an FBI agent in the Pacific Northwest, he comes across the widowed Catherine, played by Christiane Seidel, and her teenage son. When Catherine runs into trouble with the local criminal organization led by Mr. Fitzgerald, the choice is between remaining quiet or blowing his cover.
With the film coming out on April 1, McDonough sat down with Digital Trends to discuss his work with Presley, and the advice he received from Eastwood.
This is your second appearance as Nick Boon. What made you want to expand upon his story?
It is getting to know Nick Boon in the first movie. You think he's a terminator the first time you see him. He is a bad guy, but you quickly realize that he is not. He is the hitman because he did things in the past. He thinks he can do this job. He will soon have a call to faith. What should I do with this kid? I don't know if I should kill him or do the right thing. He has to take out all the bad guys because he found his heart and started doing the right thing.
The first film was more of a suspense film. The second is a Neo-Western film. The third film will be set in the city and will have a different feel to it. I jumped into this one because I got to produce it with my wife, but also we had to tell a story of myself having a romance in a film, which I generally don't do. I get to do it my way now that I'm producing and writing and creating things with my wife. I will finally be the hero. The guys are grappling with their faith. Everyone knows I'm a Catholic, but we all wrestle with our faith. We all make mistakes. We are all sinners. When we go to the cinema, I like to watch a guy who has to grapple with those things and in the end, dusts himself off and gets the job done. It is taking down bad guys.
I like the genre. It is what I grew up with. John Wayne's later films like The Cowboys or The Shootist were some of the best I've seen. He has to wrestle with what is the right thing to do in these films. When you have characters like that, like Tommy Flanagan, who knows how to act in front of a camera, as well as anyone I've ever acted with. He is so talented and driven to be the best he can be. He hopes that this guy has the courage to stand up to this guy who is absolutely evil.
The great thing about Westerns and Neo-Westerns is that. It is simple messages. I think that these simple, faith-friendly backdrop of almost biblical proportions is what people gravitate towards. Cinedigm has given us a chance to make these films and make more of them in the future. I get to do it with my wife, and I couldn't be happier.
You now have a more hands-on approach in these projects because you are also a co-writer and producer. How has your creative process changed?
It is vastly different. Instead of waiting for the phone to ring, what is my next job? When I did Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood said to me, "Look, you're fantastic at what you do and you understand." You are familiar with the process of making a film. I told myself that I had to stop being a gun for hire and start creating my own content. I had a creative say in the process of making that one. I said, "Hmm, this is pretty good because I know what works and what doesn't."
We did The Warrant with INSP and it was a huge success. I had to get into the character after Red Stone. I got to call in all my friends, from Tommy Flanagan to Jimmy Madio to Christiane Seidel, who is fantastic. All these actors that I think are fantastic, let's go play. Pat Monahan, the lead singer for Train, opens the film. We have talked about being in movies together for a long time.
We're going to raise the financing. Do it our way. If you make a good film at a good price, you can put it out to the market and see how it does. I'm really excited that I'm not the only one. I get to have the creative say with my wife and how to do these things, along with my other producing partner, who wrote and directed these with me. It is a great time for me. I like doing my own thing. If I never do a film for anyone else the rest of my life, I'm fine. I'm blessed if I can do them with the team we've created now and with Cinedigm backing us.
How did you write the film together? Do you bounce ideas off of each other and say, "I'll take this scene and you take that scene?"
I drive crazy. I'll wake up in the middle of the night and say "hello" I have a great idea for a film, but I don't have the time to sit down on a computer and make a movie. Like this wunderkind,Derek is like that. I came up with an idea for a story about a man and a woman in the West, and it was brutal. It was in my head for a long time and I told him to start working on it. What do you think? Great. Let's keep going. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. There are another 15 pages.
We wrote Boon so fast. We are writing a story called Faith. We started writing about a week ago. We are just past page 50. We will have the first draft ready by Friday afternoon and send it to Cinedigm to look at. We work fast and we know we have something good going. He is my director and co-writer. I'm his star, and the one who goes and finds the financing and makes sure that the cast is as great as it can possibly be, is the one who goes and finds the financing, is the one who goes and finds the financing, is the one who goes and finds the The magician behind the curtain is Jason Starne. He is the wizard of Oz for us. It is a great combination. Cinedigm is backing us.
I want to make films like this for years and years to come and make our kids like Mercury players like Orson Welles did when he was alive. There are some people from that crew that I want to get for my next film. We are building a team.
I was talking to one of the guys in Flags of Our Fathers and he said that he was on Clint's team. I've been with Clint for 13 years, but Jim has been with him for 27 years, and Paulette has been with him for 28.
Would you like to revisit this character for the third time?
Nick is awesome. He has an onion with a gun. You just keep peeling off the layers, didn't know that about him. He's tough. He is a sweetheart of a guy. He can fight. The next movie is going to be set in Chinatown and he goes back to his sensei. He finally gets away from it all and goes to Martha's Vineyard for the fourth film.
We are always thinking about where we can put Nick in where he is a fish out of water, but still running away from the past. The past catches him every time. We've toyed with him as a TV series or a wheel where we just keep making movies. I'm having a ball playing Nick Boon because there's a lot of me in him and the guys that I grew up with in Boston and Cape Cod. They are similar to this guy. He always tries to do the right thing, but sometimes doing the right thing isn't easy. I love that Nick is willing to do it.
On-demand and digital will be available on April 1, 2022.
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