A Bad Bad Man

Lou Diamond Phillips nods to Jack Palance and Charles Bronson in his Big Kill role.

- Henry C. Parke

Scott Martin has been cautiously optimistic about the future of Western films: “Until this resurgence, there hasn’t been the appetite for them. But we’re talking about doing them again—and I can’t wait!”

At last year’s American Film Market, he shared his belief that filmmakers in that genre “have to either make them small, as best you can with the resources you have, or you have to go big; there’s not a lot of middle ground.”

Martin was nowhere to be found at this year’s market; he was busy directing his first Western, Big Kill, from his own screenplay. At a budget of more than $1 million, this Western is small, but a big step up from his 2012 directorial debut, the WWII action film Battle Force, which he made for $35,000 in 10 shooting days.

For Big Kill, out this September, Martin has attracted stars with strong Western credits, including Jason Patric, of 1993’s Geronimo and 2003’s The Alamo, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Paré and Danny Trejo.

The attraction began with the writing. “Scott’s script was a lot of fun,” Phillips says. “From page one, I thought, wow, this is reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

Phillips, who will always be Chavez y Chavez to fans of 1988’s Young Guns, adds, “It had this retro feel; it wasn’t a cynical, gritty kind of Western. It was more of a real adventure, like Silverado.”