ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Long Gone Heroes director John Swab about the action movie. Swab discussed the film’s hectic filming, his upcoming film King Ivory, working with familiar actors, and more. Long Gone Heroes is now available on-demand and digitally.
“Gunner, a special forces soldier who has witnessed the darkest side of country and combat, is forced back into the field of battle to save his niece, who is being held in South America. As the fight intensifies, Gunner and his team discover that her disappearance is part of a corrupt private operation that hits way too close to home. Acclaimed actors Andy Garcia, Melissa Leo, Josh Hutcherson, and Frank Grillo star in a non-stop action thriller that will leave you breathless,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: I know you’ve worked with Frank a few times now. What made him the perfect fit for Gunner? He does a really great job leading this film
John Swab: Frank actually brought me onto the movie. It was already in development. I mean, they were about to shoot, they were about a month out from shooting, and they parted ways with the initial director. Frank and I have a rapport from our four movies we had done prior to this. So he called me and asked me if I’d be interested in coming on. So, it was actually the reverse. Frank was already Gunner, and I was called in at the last minute. So, yeah, I’m very flattered. I love Frank. He’s like family to me at this point.
You’ve worked with him several times, and the same with Melissa Leo. When you’re working with these actors that you really have these relationships with, how is it really getting to iterate? I assume just knowing how they work makes it go so much more smoothly.
Yeah, I mean, I’m blessed to have made relationships, and strong ones at that, with a lot of the actors in this movie, Frank, Melissa, Leo, George Carroll. I’ve done, I think, seven movies with Beau Knapp. I’ve done three with Eden, so there’s a lot of history with me and all these actors. With this script, it was in bad shape when I came on to do the movie. It was not a great script at all. Frank and the producers let me throw out that script and kind of rewrite a new one.
But because of the time constraints, I had to write a lot of it on the day or the day before. After we shot, I’d write the next day’s material. It made it much easier because I knew all these actors. I know their strengths, and I know how they speak, so I can write specifically to them as actors but also for the characters. So, it was a unique experience in that respect. But also the movie was really, really helped out a lot by having those relationships already with each of these people.
One of the aspects that I really liked about the script was that Frank’s character obviously wants to get his niece out of this terrible situation, but there’s this clash of ideals where the niece is kind of this idealist. She wants to really help the people there. While Frank’s character just wants to get out. Frank’s character has to kind of think of the situation differently and reimagine what he’s doing there. Could you speak to that theme?
It’s exactly as you said. Taking these two characters with these very different points of view on the world politically and just basic life mantras. They’re very different. Eden’s character, Julia, is obviously bleeding heart and wants to help people and really save this troubled country. Frank is only interested in getting her out at all costs. Obviously, as you mentioned, there’s a point in the movie where Frank has to change and sees an opportunity to change and does. I think he surprises himself as a character when he does change. Because it’s not in his nature at all to do so. But I think it adds an extra layer of empathy to the story and to rooting for them to get out by him doing so.
You mentioned writing dialogue the day of, and I think that ties into my next question. I wanted to ask about just this rapid pace you have. You’ve had so many releases lately and you got more stuff coming. How are you able to just stay this creative, while writing and directing while staying at a high quality?
Yeah, thank you. I’ve been extremely blessed with good people. Filmmaking is the ultimate team sport in the arts. It’s nothing one person can do on their own. Most of my movies, I work with my producer that I’ve done about eight films with, Jeremy M. Rosen, and, in the few I haven’t done with Jeremy, it’s been strokes of luck. When luck meets hard work. I mean, I work very hard, I love to write, and I love to make movies.
I always tell people when they ask me when they want to get into the film business, “How should I do this?” or “What should I do?” I say, “Well, you should make sure that you have no other options because it’s a very tough business to get into and to have success at, and to get any work in. Also, I don’t have any other options. I don’t know what else I would do if I weren’t doing this. I love doing it, so when given the opportunity, I take it. When I’m not working on a film or shooting a film, I’m writing another one and trying to get that going. So, I don’t know. I wanna keep getting better. I love doing this. I wanna keep doing it. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. So, why not make the most of it when you have the opportunity?
Another film you have coming out is King Ivory. That screened in Venice. How was that whole experience for you?
That was a dream come true, man. To me, the Venice Film Festival is the highest level of praise. There’s Cannes and Venice, and Venice is the oldest film festival in the world and, in my opinion, the most prestigious. So to have a movie that means so much to me in King Ivory, its very personal story, premiere at a festival like that, and be reviewed and received so well, it was kind of a pinch-me moment. I’m beaming with pride and I can’t wait for the world to see that movie, so I’m very proud.
Melissa Leo is in both King Ivory and Long Gone Heroes. She’s a great actress. What about working with her really stands out since this has been a very fruitful relationship for you both?
I met Melissa I don’t know how many years ago, it seems like forever ago. But I started taking her scripts early on, trying to get her to do a movie I had. The script was not in good shape. I was still learning a lot as a writer, and she would challenge me. I took a script to her one time, it was 127 pages. She said, “This needs to be 85 pages and needs to lose three characters.” I think she told me that thinking I’d never come back, and she would’ve scared me off. Instead, I drank a ton of coffee, and I stayed up for three days straight. I cut the script down by 37 pages, and I lost three characters. I went and knocked on her door, and I said, “Oh, here it is. There’s three less characters, and it’s 87 pages.”
She kind of had this look like, this guy’s crazy. I kind of kept doing that until she finally was like, “Yeah, I’ll do this movie.” It was Body Brokers at the time that I’d made. Melissa has served as a mentor to me and somebody who I don’t think wants anything from me but for me to succeed and get better. That’s a rare thing to find in the film business, is people that just genuinely root for you. Melissa’s one of my heroes in terms of actors. She’s as good as it gets. So anytime I get a chance to write for her and hear my words come out her mouth and collaborate with somebody who’s worked with the absolute best, I take it.
Speaking of the absolute best, King Ivory has Ben Foster in it, and he’s one of my favorite actors. How is it just working with him? He is one of the most underappreciated actors, I feel like.
Ben, to me, pound-for-pound is one of the greatest actors alive. If you had asked me before we cast King Ivory to make a list of my five actors that I’d wanna work with that I hadn’t yet, he would’ve been on the top of that list. He is as good of an actor as he is a person. So, I learned a lot from Ben. When you get to be around people like that you stay close and you listen. You don’t talk a lot, you listen. Ben and I were very collaborative in the process. He’s a very measured guy, and when he speaks, I listened because he has got a ton of experience.
I mean, he’s been in this business for about 25 years, around everybody, acted against, and beat the best on screen. So, I was floored to work with Ben, and he went to Venice with us and premiered the movie. It was a dream and a pleasure and I consider him a friend now, and I’m very proud of that.
But it goes the same with people like Frank or Andy Garcia in this movie, or Josh Hutcherson or Melissa Leo. All those people that have a long history in the film business. It’s such a dream and an honor for me to get to work with them because I get to learn so much. I’m also a film junkie, so I get to ask them about these movies they did when they were kids or whatever. I live for that stuff, man. It’s really the spice of life in terms of my career in the film business is just hearing that and being a part of it. So I’m very honored to be able to work with all these people.
