Some are trying to relive the past, to reunite as Black Flag or Flag, and sue the hell out of each other, while other people, like Henry Rollins, couldn’t care less about the past. Instead, he will be starring in a new indie horror-thriller ‘He Never Died’ ! According to Rollins, the movie is currently being filmed in ultra cold and very dark Toronto, and this is how he described the shooting in his LA Weekly column:
‘Between takes, I was asked why I was laughing. When you’re that cold, in front of cameras with a bunch of people running around working their asses off, the combination of determination, absurdity and slight madness is hysterically funny to me. Yet at the same time, I will take this over a desk job any day. At its coldest and least enjoyable, it is still a total blast. I am not an actor or an artist by any definition. I am an employment hyena. I am happy to make a meal of what the lions leave behind.’
You should read the whole thing, here, it’s intense and extreme as everything Rollins does! Can anyone buy this man some warm clothes already? But what is this film about? Written and directed by Jason Krawczyk, ‘He Never Died’ tells the story of Jack (Rollins) a loner who has lived a very long life ‘fueled by blood lust and filled with crime and violence’,… Please, not another vampire movie! But not exactly, Jack is rather a cannibal, here is a synopsis:
‘He Never Died follows Jack in his battle with cannibalism and mental sobriety. An exceptionally prolonged life has brought depression and detachment. Jack buys stolen blood from a hospital intern, plays bingo, sleeps fourteen hours a day, watches television six hours a day, and lives alone. This is his life – he has shelled himself away from social interactions. The fuse is lit when Jack’s past comes back to rattle him. Jake must now walk a tight rope of sobriety and try to eat as few people as possible in this violent tale of personal responsibility and self worth. As it turns out, there are very few reasons to live when you can’t die.’
It looks very scary, and according to Variety, Krawczyk wrote the script with Rollins in mind for the role of Jake. Rollins was immediately very enthusiastic about the project after reading the role:
‘It’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. As a character, Jack is perhaps far less than normal, which suits me very well. He’s not all that bad a guy, which is different. I don’t get many of those. He is in a very rare and strange situation and I really want to be part of the action.’
He explained a bit more about his strange character in Rolling Stone magazine:
‘This is why the script has so much appeal to me. He’s just bored of everything. He has to subsist on bags of blood bought from interns that smuggle it out of a local hospital while they’re in med school.’
May be this weirdo cannibal character is a bit too close of what we expect Henry Rollins to be in a movie, intimidating, lonely, pissed off at people and damn scary, but it looks interesting nevertheless. Expect to see this film during next summer/fall in the indie festival circuit.