Yesterday ScreenAnarchy ran a brief interview with Michael Biehn in which Biehn discusses his experiences as the director of The Blood Bond in which Biehn states that he feels the film was taken from his control and mishandled by producer Bey Logan. In the interests of getting both sides of the story we immediately forwarded this story to Logan and invited his comments, which follow below.
From Bey Logan:
I have noted Michael Biehn's comments in your interview, and would like to preface my own by thanking him publicly for his hard work on Blood Bond: Shadowguard.
I am certain Michael did the best he could on the film. As his producer, I think I put an unfair amount of pressure on Michael by asking him to make his directorial debut on a film shot at a studio in China, given that he doesn't speak Chinese and doesn't seem to have any particular affinity for Asian culture, language or martial arts...
In retrospect, we should just have hired him as the fine screen actor he is. The studio was great and Michael is a decent director: it was just a bad match. I understand Michael is now directing his own films in the US, and I'm sure that, on his native soil, he'll have better experiences than he did in China.
I would also like to note that the viciously unfair review that started this dialogue was written by someone dismissed from the production very early in the process. (He does refer to this himself, but, then, 'qui s'accuse se excuse'...) [Logan is referring to this review by James Marsh.]
After a long road from shoot to screen, I believe Blood Bond:Shadowguard is a decent east-meets-west actioner, coming soon to a DVD store near you. Fans of Michael Biehn will see him in a neat Asian-set thriller that easily stands alongside most of his output from the last ten years, and in a film to which he made an invaluable contribution.
I hope, in time, the warm experiences we all shared while making the film will outweigh the bitterness Michael seems to feel now, and that he can enjoy this unique experience for what it was.
- Bey
From Bey Logan:
I have noted Michael Biehn's comments in your interview, and would like to preface my own by thanking him publicly for his hard work on Blood Bond: Shadowguard.
I am certain Michael did the best he could on the film. As his producer, I think I put an unfair amount of pressure on Michael by asking him to make his directorial debut on a film shot at a studio in China, given that he doesn't speak Chinese and doesn't seem to have any particular affinity for Asian culture, language or martial arts...
In retrospect, we should just have hired him as the fine screen actor he is. The studio was great and Michael is a decent director: it was just a bad match. I understand Michael is now directing his own films in the US, and I'm sure that, on his native soil, he'll have better experiences than he did in China.
I would also like to note that the viciously unfair review that started this dialogue was written by someone dismissed from the production very early in the process. (He does refer to this himself, but, then, 'qui s'accuse se excuse'...) [Logan is referring to this review by James Marsh.]
After a long road from shoot to screen, I believe Blood Bond:Shadowguard is a decent east-meets-west actioner, coming soon to a DVD store near you. Fans of Michael Biehn will see him in a neat Asian-set thriller that easily stands alongside most of his output from the last ten years, and in a film to which he made an invaluable contribution.
I hope, in time, the warm experiences we all shared while making the film will outweigh the bitterness Michael seems to feel now, and that he can enjoy this unique experience for what it was.
- Bey