THE TERRITORY
My guest
today is Ed Wheeler; Photographer -- extraordinaire, Cinematographer, director,
and writer.
EDWARD
WHEELER - Creator, Director, Producer
Being a professional martial arts instructor and acting since high
school, Edward became a stuntman performing in live shows and television around
the country, eventually writing, producing and directing his own shows. With
this experience he became a stunt coordinator, working behind the camera with
many directors to learn his craft. Edward has worked on 20 films, 16 television
shows and over 70 stage productions. His projects include Court TV's, Haunting
Mysteries, soap operas One Life To Live and Guiding Light, and the Fox Series New Amsterdam. More recent directing credits
include Good Will Industries documentary Breaking The
Cycle, pilot episode for The History Channel's Woman Warriors and the
television pilot for The Territory. Edward is now aMedia Production Director in
New York City and a staff photographer.
I met ED
while he was directing a trailer for a pilot Television series entitled the
TERRITORY. At the time, he was doing a
lot of the filming in Tucson’s Old Trail Dust Town. I was a weekly fixture at that
establishment. I had a table set up
outside Pinnacle Peak’s and was
selling and signing my novel PARTNERS.
Ed is the
photographer who allowed me to use his exquisite B&W photo for the cover of
my novel, HART RULES.
Q.. Ed,
let’s talk about THE TERRITORY. I noted that when I posted the old poster on my
blog a few weeks ago, I received a lot of action. Since it didn’t get off the ground during the
2006 depression, do you think it’s time to revisit the project?
A..In many ways the timing is more right now than back in ‘06.
We had a very real, gritty idea for how it should be shot that is more in style
now than 7 years ago. The main creative team of Alberto Bonilla, Jerry Woods and myself have put a lot of experience under
our belts since then. Also the technology is much more accessible.
The
nice thing about doing a period piece is they come back into fashion over and
over, particularly westerns. I’d like to believe this story transcends the
genre, but maybe that’s just me.
So
the answer is yes, we’d love to revisit this project.
Q . . In the promo piece you sent me, the
following excerpt caught my attention.
Is this still a valid assessment?
The Territory delivers
drama, action and rousing romance in the style of Dances With Wolves, Last
of the Mohicans and Legends of the Fall.
A……Did I write that? Those are big, big budget films, so of
course ours would be scaled back, but the world we would want to deliver is
similar. Those stories took place in a world you could buy into, believable.I
consider Last of the Mohicans Mann’s best work and I’d be honored if we could
capture even a little of Edward Zwick’s vision in our project. There’s no
flying through the air fight scenes and impossible stunts. The characters in
those films were involved in an amazing adventure, not an impossible one. It’s
very important to our team to “keep it real” and magical at the same time.
Q..Let’s
leave the TV format for a moment.In the above examples, those are all full length
movies. Dances with
Wolves was way over the two hour
norm. What is your opinion on that venue
for your story?
A..Well I believe the line between venues is increasingly
blurred. TV is shot like film and vice versa.
Back
in 2009 I was approached by a financial backer who was interested in the
project, but as a feature, not a series. So I worked up a treatment that I felt
worked great. In many ways it’s easier to get in and get out with a feature.
Obviously the funding I mentioned fell through, of events that should have been
made into a film of its own. I had to fly back and forth from New York to
Tucson, the backer was crooked, police got involved, I had to testify to the
TPD…it was very exciting. The good part is I developed a solid feature treatment
for the story.
Q..Let’s
assume you move forward in resurrecting the project. What is your next step?
Securing
funds, finding the talent and finalizing the script. Some of the members of our
team have moved on. Our good friend Bob Morgan,producer and horse wrangler, has
passed away and is sorely missed. The rest of us are ready to carry on.I’m a
big fan of getting the dialogue up on its feet and work shopped with actors,
historians for accuracy and great story tellers, like yourself, Robert, that can
work the script over, make it as clean and powerful as possible. Story, story,
story. That has to be right and we’d love your input!
Budget
of course affects all of this, but that’s the great thing about shooting this
story in Southern Arizona; we can make a budget go much farther than most would
expect.We shot the pilot for only $3,500.
Of
all the projects I’ve worked on over the years, completed and not, I believe in
this production the most. Everything is just waiting for us to “pull the
trigger”. We’ve developed original characters in an exciting story, in one of
the most starkly beautiful places on the planet. We’re ready.
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