And I know by now you’re sick of me raving about the film and reading about it on every website. But there’s a reason the web community has embraced the movie…it’s fucking good. Seriously, it’s 90 minutes of pure action and it has a cast that makes it even better. Starring in the film is Clive Owen, Monica Bellucci, Paul Giamatti…you see where this is going.

So to help promote the movie I got to participate in some roundtable interviews with the cast, Michael Davis (writer/director), and the three people that are posted below… Producers Don Murphy, Susan Montford and Rick Benattar.

During our discussion we talk about everything. From how this movie came together to what they have coming up. It’s a great read and absolutely worth your time.

As always, you can either read the transcript below or listen to the interview as an MP3 by clicking here. You can also download the audio and put it on an iPod or any portable player for listening later.

“Shoot ‘Em Up” opens this Friday and I cannot recommend it enough. Look for more interviews tomorrow night.

Question: Don, we know you really championed Michael in doing this movie.  Can you talk about discovering and nurturing an artist like that and why don’t more producers do that?  Find these voices that can bring something to film.

Don: Yes, it was all 3 of us, all 3 of us were championing him.  What happened was it’s kind of a long story but what happened was Michael had gone to USC with me to graduate school.  He was 2 years ahead of me.  Michael and Jay Roach were like the 2 guys who liked walked on water.  Michael and Jay like 8 years later Jay wound up getting the Austin Powers movies.  Michael stayed in there doing these indie films.  We were friends with Michael.  Michael came to the 3 of us and said—our companies name is Angry Films.  He came to us and said I’ve written this script about the angriest man in the world. You guys will love it. We all read the script on one weekend and we all loved the script and we all looked at each other and I said you know, dollars to doughnuts he’s going to want to direct it, which like we knew he could direct it, but this is not going to be a $3 million film.  This is going to be like a $37 million film.  You have to convince people that you can direct it.  So he comes in the next Monday, we’re all sitting there and sure enough he wants to direct it.  We’re like great, which makes him the biggest genius we’ve ever come across. He turns around and puts a DVD into the DVD player and it’s 17 minutes of the film stick-figured—it’s all in your press kit or online or whatever.

He showed us on his iPod.

Don: But it’s 17 minutes of the film stick-figured animation.  All the action sequences etc, etc.  So it didn’t make it a no brainer but it did give us a tool. So when people said well, we like the script but how do we know he can do it.  It was like oh, well, here’s a DVD.

So is the answer then that you have to go back with the guy and know all their developing to be able to…?

Don: No, well, your actual question was why don’t more people develop talent and the answer is I don’t even know that we did.  We just knew the guy and we knew he could do it and we liked his script and so we fought for him.

Rick: There’s a bunch of things that have to fall into place.  Like Michael, he wrote a great script. Number one, and we loved that.  Then he’s got a background as a storyboard artist and he did these animatics and we thought that was great. So, I guess the answer is you never know if the person you’re going to nurture is ever going to be a success, you know what I mean?  So a producer isn’t going out nurturing talent because it’s a crap shoot.  Why go there if I know that this guy and do this.

Susan: Well the thing is that the script was so brilliantly written that you know we were pretty sure he would be amazing. You know, because someone with that amount talent as a writer then that amount of talent as a storyboard artist doing animatics and visualizing it.  You know it’s not that much of a crap shoot. 

Q: What in particular about the film or the script that made you guys say you’re going to back this?

Susan: We just loved it.  We wanted to see it as a movie.  You know, for us we come across material that speaks to us and we want to see it as a movie.  That’s a drive for us.

Q: It was good.  It was very entertaining more so than a realism. 

Susan: Well the humor just cracked us up. It’s there in the script—all the humor.  I mean, what you see on the screen is not much different than the script, because we didn’t develop the script. We took the script and we sold it to New Line. The only notes were to make some changes for Paul Giamatti when he came over. And they weren’t so much changes as an extension of his character so what was in the script is what we see him.

Q: The film is for a very specific audience those of us who might be as obsessed as Michael about the same sorts of movies, should it reach a more limited audience than we hoped; would there be any problem for Michael continuing a career in these sort of films?  What would happen in a worst case scenario?

Don: It’s a bifurcated question.  I don’t think there’d be any…if the film God forbid bombs?  I still think Michael’s made a great film and it’s being well reviewed and well received and I think Michael would work again.  You said would it be difficult for Michael to continue in these sort of films?  Michael’s written a possible sequel which is even more out there than this, if this somehow bombs then that would be difficult, sure.  But Michael’s career, I think, is established because he’s directed a really cool movie and you know done well with it. I’m not sure someone would say hey, can you do that but even more crazy? 

Susan: And for the budget, it’s really, really well done.  Because a lot of times you spend a lot more money on a film like that. 

Don: It’s because we kept it down to the budget that we did that I don’t think anyone at the studio even paid much attention to what we were doing.

Q: What was the budget on this film?

Don: $37.  Everything.

Q: I was just curious Don, do you think that it can possibly…how can I put this…when someone writes about a film and then you write a lot of responses, do you ever feel that as the producer it can be…?

Don: I know totally where you’re going and you’re asking if I’m too out there with my responses.  Having set up a message board on Transformers and having lived for a year and half with everything from Don Murphy’s great to Don Murphy’s raping my childhood and everything in between.  I’ve had people that promised me online that they weren’t going to see Transformers because I told them they were jerk-off’s or something and I don’t think that effected Transformers at all.  So at the end of the day I think what happens to people—I think people are surprised because I go on by my own name instead of like Jerk124 or something.  I think people are surprised that I’m actually me but for the most part—I mean the weirdest part of this is and you’re going to say where’s he going with this but if you watch that To Catch A Predator Show, I’m not sure those people are actually like dangerous pedophiles. I think these are people sitting there on their computers going to like a weird bad place and like imagining themselves doing strange things, right?  I think that’s what happens to a lot of people on the internet.  Oh, fuck Don Murphy, I’m going to kick his ass or whatever.  Then I come on and go hey, why don’t I kick your ass?  So the answer is no one takes the internet that seriously I hope not anyway.

Q: What happens then when your own director starts posting stuff on his blog, like Michael Bay did over the summer after the movie opened?

Don: Well, Michael got really angry at the other producer, Tom, because Tom had done a bunch of press promoting himself and I think I got a couple of slams in there but it was irrelevant to the process.  Michael and I are fine.