Hi, I'm Rick James. I'm bringing sexy back, although admittedly I was the one who sent it away in the first place.
My first short film Bad Seed was screened at a couple of UK festivals in 2005, as well as the UK premiere of Hostel, presented by Frightfest. It has Nazi zombies and lots of blood. Making a zombie short film is not a cliche. It's a rite of passage.
My first professional feature film work was on Hostel Part II, directed by Eli Roth. I was a PA. It was great, a brilliant introduction to the film industry. I even got a part, though you'll have to wait for the dvd's deleted scenes to see me get crucified...
After that I went straight into Psych 9, directed by first-timer Andrew Shortell, with mostly the same crew as before. I was camera trainee, under DP Shane Daly. I made a lot of coffee.
Robert Rodriguez' Grindhouse trailer competition for SXSW Festival came along, and that was right up my alley. We wrote, prepped, shot and edited it in about 2 weeks. Check out our entry, Hell Hath No Fury in my video section. Nuns rock.
I did a little work on Babylon AD, directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. I assisted shooting behind the scenes during pre-production. It remains to be seen whether or not we'll be credited, but that's the industry for you. It was a great experience, one I'd like to see make it to the dvd, before detailing the otherwise somewhat troubled shoot.
I'm now working on Timur Bekmambetov's Wanted, which is pretty insane. Seeing such a huge Hollywood blockbuster is an eye-opener, and my camera crew are fucking top guys (although Chunky farts rather a lot). The action sequences in this are truly innovative (pretty rare these days).
Later this year I'll be shooting behind the scenes of Solomon Kane, directed by Michael J Bassett. Based on the classic short stories by Robert E Howard (who wrote Conan the Barbarian, although he never envisaged Conan punching a camel out cold), it's got a great script, deftly adapted by the director.
After that, who knows? I'd love to get work elsewhere in eastern Europe, and hopefully one day in Morocco and New Zealand too. Fingers crossed...
