Doing interviews for this site is a lot of fun. So many of them have stuck in my head for a variety of reasons whether it was the witty banter, unexpected hilarity, great life lessons, or some other unique and intangible takeaway. If luck works out we get a follow-up with any particular creative for their new project, be it a film, show, score, album, etc.
So enter one James Cullen Bressack, a young writer/director who is about as self-made and humble as they come. He’s also got a wonderful personality and he sees films from a different perspective. He makes lean pictures, and there is a real fun to the process and production that has several actors showing up again and again just because they like working with James. In fact, some of the cast have become his best friends, and sometimes he casts his best friends. Just ask Zack Ward. Must be a joy to do what you love, and it’s clear that James is there.
Anyway, we got to sit with James to discuss his work on Darkness of Man, a modern noir starring JCVD. Yet the sly twist to this film is that he doesn’t play a hero who can do a dozen split kicks and save the day. Quite the opposite. Herein, the Muscles from Brussels is playing his age and it’s not a certainty he will prevail every confrontation when bullets and fists start flying. It almost plays like a Western, in the sense that you just don’t know if the protagonist is gonna make it to the end of the story. Will Hatch ride off into the sunset? Maybe so, maybe no.
But back to the point above, talking to James you can see why people work with him so frequently…even Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones. He’s very likable, personable, and has a great way about him. So enjoy our chat, as well as Darkness of Man.
Russell Hatch (Jean Claude Van Damme) is a washed-up, former Interpol operative who vowed to protect the son of an informant killed years earlier in a raid gone wrong. When merciless street gangs start an all-out turf war and the kid is caught in the middle, Hatch will stop at nothing to keep him safe and fight anyone who gets in his way. The cast includes Kristanna Loken, Emerson Min, Spencer Breslin with Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones and Shannen Doherty.
Darkness of Man arrives on Digital on May 21.
