TRAINWRECK'D SOCIETY

Dan Frank [Interview]

Each and every day I become more and more intrigued by the immense creativity and talent that exists, even in places I would never expect to find.  For example: I am searching the YouTube universe for instructions on how to make some cocktails, as I often do.  And what should I stumble upon but some promotional videos for something called Bikini Kitchen, which features adult film stars instructing the viewer on how to make delicious cocktails, smoothies, etc.  The first thing I could think of was simply, what the hell?  How did this become a thing?  And my inquisitive spirit took hold and I completely forgot about the cocktails I was looking to make.  Instead, I moved on over to IMDB and looked into the series.  What, or should say Who, I discovered was definitely not what I was expecting.

Bikini Kitchen was developed and directed by a man named Dan Frank.  And before you start to think that Mr. Frank is some sort of exploitive mastermind (which he sort of is I guess), hold that thought.  I began to look into Dan’s career a bit further and found him to be a truly fascinating filmmaker who has worked in so many different realms in the world of filmmaking.  As a music lover, I became fascinated with a project he has in development entitled Coachella Massacre (please let Arcade Fire be the headliner and first to go!!!) and an adorable and intriguing documentary entitled Frank & Chip: The Olympic Experience.  And then there is yet another documentary about medical marijuana.  All of these things, and more, from a guy I thought had his world revolve around scantly clad women making him dirty martinis.  It just goes to show that you never know somebody until you really get to know them and what they are about.

So I decided I would love to get to know Dan Frank a little bit more.  And I will be a son of a bastard priest if I didn’t find out even more intriguing details about this extremely talented filmmaker when he was so kind to answer a few questions for us.  So ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce the illustrious Dan Frank.

Your work as a director for the series Bikini Kitchen is a bit of a stray from some of your other work. How did you become involved with this series?

In the spring of 2008, my documentary Medicinal was screening at Festival de Cannes in the market. Someone hypothetically asked me what I would make for the Food Network for a young male demographic… so jokingly, I came up with Bikini Kitchen. Next thing I knew, Tom Hillery from Starlights Productions had invested enough money for us to make 26 episodes. I had already worked with Mimi Miyagi in both Devil’s Canyon and Little Bruno. I thought the idea of an adult star making drinks was very sexy, and it would attract a younger demographic. Stormy Daniels was awesome and great to work with.

You have worked hand in hand with writer Daniel Calestina on several different projects. What is it that you enjoy about working with Mr. Calestina? What makes things work for you two?



My real name is Daniel Frank Celestina. In 1996, I was DJing at raves and clubs in San Francisco under the name Dan Frank. When I decided to become a director, the name just stuck with me. After I made my first movie, It’s All In A Night’s Work, I decided to put my real name on anything that had to do with ownership, like writing and executive producing.

How did you come across the stars of Frank & Chip: The Olympic Experience? And what intrigued you enough to make a film about them?
Frank & Chip: the Olympic Experience is about my grandparents, who lived during The Great Depression and went on to do great things. Other than wanting to honor my grandparents for being one of the first married couples to participate in the same Olympics, I was in the middle of my own “Great Depression.” I hit rock bottom on a bad investment at the wrong time. I had to completely start over. So just as my grandparents utilized their talents during the Great Depression to achieve greater things, I needed to do the same. Something I said over and over to myself was, “Why can’t I?” 
In 1983, my sister made a scrapbook about my grandparents, so I grew up thinking about making that movie from the age of 8. This was the movie that made me truly want to become a filmmaker. I started putting Frank & Chip together in 2009, and I finished it in April of 2012.

If you could create the biopic for any famous individual in American history, who would it be?

Well, it’s funny you ask that. I just finished Speed Dragon, starring Bai Ling, which is a rock ‘n’ roll drama. I really love music, history and anything that has to do with counter-culture… and so I am currently in the very early stages of development of my next biopic. It is a rock ‘n’ roll love story. At AFM in November of 2013, I met Ashley Cordelia, an actress and writer who came to me with the idea of a love story about a famous rock and roll couple from the 1960s. Instantly, I knew it was a brilliant idea. A love story about one of the most influential counter-culture couples of all time was absolutely the next thing I wanted to tackle… and after two months, we finished the screenplay. We are just waiting for the copyright to go through before we move forward. I’ve always been into counter-culture, and I’ve always made sure to express it in everything one of my movies. Long live classic rock!

I have come to understand that you have a project in pre-production entitled Coachella Massacre. Can you give us any details about this project?

On January 1st, 2013, we lost a major contributor to the Coachella Massacre producing team. Matt Calonica, one of my best friends and producer-mate, died suddenly of a heart attack. It was the most devastating loss of my life. I miss him everyday. Matt helped produce all my movies from 2005 and on. Things started to spiral out of control a little bit, so I decided to put everything on hold. Over the past year, I decided to not direct Coachella Massacre and rather to find the perfect director to do so. While I was at the Texas Film Awards, I met the agent of an actor who wants to direct it, and we are currently discussing and working out the details. So it will be on it’s way again very soon.

Anything else we should be on the lookout for in the near future? Anything you would like to promote?

In 2013, Speed Dragon, a rock n roll drama starring Bai Ling premiered at Festival de Cannes, and also screened at the American Film Market. This was my most favorite screening yet. It won Best Feature at the New York International Film Festival, and is now being represented by ITN Distribution.
While living in Paris in July 2013, I started making The Green Fairy, a fantasy-documentary about the history of Absinthe from 1730 to 1915. The interesting part about this one is that I filmed all over the world. I started in Switzerland, then France, then England, and then finally back in the USA. I filmed in New Orleans and Los Angeles. I have a fantastic cast and I plan to premiere it before Mardi Gras 2016 with the help of many local businesses in New Orleans, since that is where Absinthe was first exported to from France. And then The Green Fairy will go to Cannes.

What was the last thing that made you smile?


Answering these questions. It’s nice sometimes to sit back and look at what you’ve accomplished. I know I am far from where I want to be, but I couldn’t be happier doing anything else, meeting and working with the people that I do. I wouldn’t have been able to have done any of this without my family and my very close friends. I love them all.

Jim Towns [Interview]

Ever once in a great while, I tend to come across an individual in the independent film world that strikes me as absolutely amazing, and I become amazed that their talents are only now beginning to become acknowledged.  And they each seem to have one common aspect with one another:  Drive!  Regular readers may remember folks like Jacob Vaughan or Dan Dobi or Christian Grillo, etc., who we interview some time ago.  Well, now I have a really damn great filmmaker in our digital pages.  Introducing (although I shouldn’t have to), the great Jim Towns.

I recently discovered Mr. Towns when I got word that his latest film, House of Bad, had completely sold out on Amazon, and I was instantly intrigued.  I have spoken with several different folks from the indie horror world, and I knew this was quite the feet that should not be ignored.  I became instantly intrigued and decided I just had to investigate further.  And that is even before I watched House of Bad, and instantly understood the mass appeal.  It is an amazing film with the perfect blend of tension and terror.  It is a beautifully crafted indie horror masterpiece.  So, I thought it would be great to steal a few words from Jim Towns to tell us a bit more about House of Bad, his introduction to the film world, and……working on the TV show Reba.  Yep, Reba.  Enjoy!

When did you first realize you wanted to work in the world of film?

I came up through illustration, painting and comics, actually. That’s what I majored in in college. But growing up I’d always shot films with my friends and that cinematic style always influenced me in my artwork. It wasn’t until about 1999 when digital video and non-linear editing systems really came on that I started seeing the possibilities for taking the stories I was trying to tell on paper and making them come to life. One of the first digital films my friend Mike McKown and I created was a short called The Sleep of Reason, about a man in a turn-of-the-century insane asylum who’s in love with the nurse giving him electro shock treatment. It’s up on Youtube. I’d done it as a short black and white comic in college, but what I found was I could imbue the story with so many more subtleties in this new medium- for me, there was really no going back.

Has directing always been your number one goal when it comes to being a part of the world of film?

Pretty much. I enjoy screenwriting and have written a few films for other directors, but I enjoy taking on the challenge of taking something from the page that I wrote months or even years ago and making it come to life. Writing is a very solitary exercise, which can be nice, but I’ve always enjoyed the camaraderie that happens on set when you have a gang of folks all busting their humps to get all the day’s shots done before wrap. It’s hard but when you work with good people like I do, that challenge can be a lot of fun.

How did you come up with the concept for House of Bad?  What was your “inspiration” per say?

I’d had the idea of these three women stuck in a room (originally it was a motel room) with a suitcase full of stolen drugs for a long time. From back when I was doing comics and illustration. So it was originally going to be a graphic novel. Then when I started getting into film I was doing a lot of more artistic/experimental work, and I had the idea to put it on as a black box theater play, and then film it. Ultimately the cinematic nature of the story asserted itself, and in 2011 when I was looking for a straight-up bare bones thriller to shoot, there it was waiting for me. The idea of marrying the supernatural horror of the house with the real-world terror of the girls being hunted by the drug dealer they stole from emerged around that time, and from there the story all fell into place.

Exactly how excited were you to learn that Amazon had completely sold of copies of House of Bad?  Were you surprised at all? 

The release was kind of exciting and frustrating and mind-blowing all at once. I’ve never had a film come out on this level, with this much press and critical acclaim and all. The ramp up was really intense- that whole month of November I was doing tons of web interviews and radio and we were promoting online like crazy, so it was all a bit of a blur, but an amazing blur. I think Amazon wasn’t quite ready for how big the demand was going to be, and we were sold out by like 4PM the day of the release. Crazy. Then they restocked and we sold out again the next week. Our awesome PR chief Clint Morris and my producers Scott and Dorota and I were constantly communicating with a lot of fans online asking for their patience until all the backordered copies finally shipped, but they did and hopefully everyone thought it was worth the wait.

It’s an incredible compliment to have that kind of demand for something you’ve created, and I’m really appreciative to my producers, our distributor Osiris, October Coast PR, and the cast and crew for all pitching in to help get us to this point.

I noticed through some research (on IMDB, so it could be wrong) that you worked as a Production Assistant on the hit television show Reba.  That is quite a different setting from the terror filled movies you create in your own time!  But tell us if you will, are there any similarities to working on a family friendly show featuring a country music sensation and working on an independent horror film?  And besides the obvious things like budgets and special effects, what is so drastically different between the two?

Reba was my first real gig when I moved out to LA in 2005 with everything I could fit in the back of my Saturn. I was lucky to get the job, and luckier still that my first experience on a studio production was with the nicest production company and crew working in TV. In my experience that kind of attitude always comes straight down from the top. I’m not a huge country fan, but I knew who Reba was of course (one of our first conversations was about one of my favorite films, Tremors). It was intimidating at first, but Reba’s an incredible blend of talent and instinct and class, mixed with humility, courtesy, an incredible work ethic and an unrelenting drive to be the absolute best she can be. I’ve since worked with more than a few people that are labeled “superstars”, but let me tell you, that woman owns the title. What I learned from Reba is, when you’re the head of whatever you’re making, be it a sitcom or a film or whatever, if you really want to inspire everyone you have to set the example as far as your work ethic goes, which is what she always did. I really hope I’ll get to work with her again in some capacity someday.

As far as being different- I mean really, whatever format you’re doing- a 30 minute TV comedy or a 90 minute horror film- it’s really just all about actors saying lines and recording them on some form of media until you can put it together to make a complete story. At its most basic level that’s all we do… so the difference is maybe less than some people might think. Of course a studio-budgeted sitcom works on a much bigger scale than a small indie horror film. There are a lot more assets and luxuries- which are nice of course- but along with all those come a lot more people to please: producers to listen to, stars to manage, network executives to deal with. It’s not exactly a streamlined process. At the moment I’m pitching a ½ hour zombie sitcom around, so I very well may find myself in a similar position someday soon, but for right now I enjoy the fluidity of working small and fast, lean and mean.

Can you tell us anything about your upcoming project 13 Girls?

 13 Girls is on track to hopefully film this summer. It’s about a troubled female detective who is assigned to investigate the group suicide of a graduating class at an all-girls Catholic high school. As she delves deeper into the mystery, she discovers a demonic force at work behind the scenes, and is forced to face her own dark past in order to confront the evil and protect her world. The film stars Sadie Katz from House of Bad, who’s fantastic of course, on and off set, as well as some cool genre actors folks may know, like Daniel Roebuck and P.J. Soles. It’s a real step up in scale from House of Bad, and I think people are gonna dig it.

What else does the future hold for Jim Towns?  Any other projects you are working on that you can tell us about?

We’re in the early stages on a film I wrote which was originally called A Man with a Gun, but is now titled 2 Hell and Back. It’s set in the American Dustbowl era, and is about a retired gunman who makes a deal with the devil after his wife and son are killed. It’s got tons of action and horror and martial arts, so it should be a real cool film. So far we’ve attached Tony Todd and Dani Lennon to star in it, and right now we’re looking at locations to shoot as diverse as New Mexico, Spain, Canada and Australia.

If you could tell (or re-tell) the story of any famous serial killer, psychopath, murderer, etc. in history what would it be?  Why?

Hmm… that’s tough. I’m actually not that huge into the whole serial killer/true crime thing. It’s pretty done. I really liked Caleb Carr’s books The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness, which both have a loose base in historical fact. Those would be fun to try to adapt into films, I think. I’ve also worked up what I think is a pretty unique take on Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, which might make it a little more cinematically dynamic than what’s been done to date. Hopefully that may happen someday.

What was the last thing that made you smile?

My wife and I recently adopted an alley cat who used to hang out around our place, and now he’s pretty comfortable around us. Sometimes I leave my door open when I write, and he’ll wander in and hang out. He’s pretty good at letting me bounce ideas off him. Every writer should have a trusty assistant like that.

Pick up your own copy of House of Bad, which is once again available at Amazon.com

Daniel Pintauro [Interview]

Trainwreck’d Society is no stranger to interviewing actors who grew up in the spotlight, and often on television shows that required said actor have whole other family to perform with for several years.  And today we have another fine actor who did just that!  Daniel Pintauro has basically moved on from the world of acting lately, but he definitely will never be forgotten in the world of television history.  Daniel “Danny” Pintauro will always be remember as little Jonathan Bower, the toe-head and lovable son of Judith Light’s character Angela Bower on the brilliant sitcom that spanned 8 wonderful years, Who’s The Boss?  

And much like a Christine Lakin or a Karyn Parsons, who we have spoken with in the past, Mr. Pintauro has managed to live a very respectful life after his years as a childhood star, beating the odds and stereotypes that the media beset upon young Hollywood.  Even more so though, Daniel is a true inspiration.  Most young people today may not realize it, but a certain part of his lifestyle used to be a metaphorical pill to swallow in the 80’s and 90’s.  You see, Mr. Pintauro is gay.  (Pause for gasp coming all the way back from 1999)  Yes, this day and age, the most common answer (or at least it SHOULD be) will probably be “Yeah, who gives a shit?”.  Which is a good thing.  And of course I am not saying that the unnecessary bigotry and hatred doesn’t still exist in this country, it’s simply stymied a bit in the last 15 years or so.  And the only reason I even mention these facts about Daniel is to point out that he was one of the first celebrities who decided to “out” himself, in the days before people started getting some damn sense at decided to stop being such assholes.

I could go on and on about why I think Mr. Pintauro is such a brave and brilliant man, but I think it would be better to let the man tell you himself.  So, we are so happy that Daniel has agreed to answer a few questions for you fine readers.  Enjoy!

After spending 8 years of your life with a television family on Who’s The Boss?, did you all manage to create a real bond similar to a real family?  Are you still in touch with any of them? 

I’m still in touch with Tony [Danza]. My fiance and I sent him an invitation to our wedding which he was excited to receive. During the filming, yes, we did take on the role of family… and not just the cast. The crew who worked on the show all those years also became a part of my extended family. The bond that is the closest is between the cast, partly because we’re actors creating a familial bond in character – that inevitably blends into our personal feelings as well. For a few years after the show ended we did continue our relationships. I would call it an extended family relationship. You don’t speak to them all the time, but you call on holidays and enjoy seeing them at family gatherings. Now, with nearly 30 years having passed, I know that if I were to see any of them, we would smile, hug and reminisce.

What is your earliest memory of acting that you can even remotely remember?  Is it memorable to you in some way? 

I think my earliest memory is very likely having filmed a commercial for a toy called Clip Clop, the Wonder Horse, or something similar. It was an amazing rocking horse toy that was able to whinny and make noises while you rode it. I remember filming because I was having so much fun riding the horse, I rode it too hard and bonked my nose on the plastic mane.

What do you believe to be the deciding factors that made you NOT go absolutely insane from being a child star? 

Believe me, I’ve had some insane moments. I’ve had lots of down moments… tons of confusion about life and direction confusion. I’ve had very low moments that most people don’t really know about. That’s what being a child celebrity does. I truly think the deciding factor though in my lack of total demise into drugs and who knows what else was my education. My parents were starting to see the effects on child stars when I started 7^th grade, so they went to the producers of “Who’s The Boss?,” and told them either to let me go to an actual school or that I wasn’t coming back to the show. Typically a TV kid has a set tutor and picks up schoolwork from a school they don’t actually attend. I did the opposite. I went to school every day, then to work in the afternoon, where I worked with the tutor on my homework. That led me directly to wanting to go to college, to Stanford. All of that forced me to not spend my days wondering when the next acting gig was going to come.

In an interview you did with Metro Magazine in 1999 you were asked What can we do to get Hollywood to finally say, “Look, it’s okay to be gay and it won’t harm your career?”.  Your answer was simple: Time.  Well given that said interview was 15 years ago, do you think it has gotten any better in Hollywood?

YES. Completely. I mean, not just in Hollywood but the whole country is going through a ‘gay renaissance,’ of sorts. Other people are finding out that we are not scary or crazy. Its become the thing to stand behind, if one has any modicum of intelligence and concern for equal rights. I think I came out before Ellen and Rosie. I was one of the first, not the most famous, of course, but one of the first. At that time, the idea of a state allowing same-sex marriage was laughable. How many states…now?

What would you consider to be the hardest part for you when you decided to come out, although I understand the National Inquirer didn’t give you much of an option?  Do you still feel any sort of struggle to simply be who you are, and love whoever you please?

Yeah, it was not my choice. But Judith Light told me that I should speak to the Enquirer reporter who called me because ‘They can say what they want but they cannot misquote you.’ Turned out they wrote an unbelievably kind story! The hardest part by far was after college when I decided to pursue acting again only to find that my having come out was going to hinder the success of that career exponentially. This was 10 years ago when actors like Neil Patrick Harris weren’t coming out all the time and still having careers playing straight characters. This was when the only role I could potentially get was the queer friend or neighbor. Neither of which had more than a few lines in anything. [laughs] That was devastating because no matter how good an actor or how much I wanted it, I had a long list of items stacked against me, ultimately ruining my interest in being an actor altogether.

You seem to have chosen to move out of the spotlight not long after Who’s The Boss? ended.  Was there anything particular that prompted your departure, and brought on your on again off again relationship with the world of acting?

Stanford, as I mentioned above. Moving to New York City to be a theater actor, for sure. And lots of personal time trying to figure out who I was, and believe it or not, all of those things stacked against me, prevented me from making a splash again as an actor, to the point where eventually, after many, many tries, I gave up on acting altogether.

What are your plans for the future?  Any chance of seeing you on the silver screen any time soon?

No. No screentime any time soon. My fiance and I would like to eventually open up a Bed & Breakfast somewhere in Northern California wine country. He would like us to do a reality show about the endeavor, but I think it would ruin the passion I have for the project. He says that I should try acting again, here and there, but knows I have no interest. I mean, if someone were to offer me something and my availability allowed for it, I would say SURE! But am I ever going to pursue a career as actor? No.

What was the last thing that made you smile?

An hourly employee jokingly told me that my work outfit, though cute, reminded her of the outfit she puts her 7-year-old in on Easter Sunday. I laughed.