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Your new movie Chase
- in a few words, what is it about? Chase
is an action thriller about a hitman who is torn between his best friend
and mentor and his girlfriend, who wants him out of the business and
distanced from his friend. What were your sources of
inspiration when writing Chase? I
grew up on 80s and 90s action films but also smart crime thrillers like
the ones directed by Scorcese and Tarantino so I think it was a blend of
that mixed with character driven people who all had inner conflicts
amongst themselves too. Chase's
title character isn't exactly the most, shall we say, "innocent"
man - so to what extent could you identify with him, actually? Or with any
of the other characters for that matter? Well he's a
killer, so I can't say I identify with him that much at all! But
seriously, I think the aspect of him trying to balance his 'work' and also
family is something that a lot of us struggle with too. Especially in this
business where it can be unpredictable, the schedule, hours, etc, it's a lot
of compromise when you take on any relationship, and there has to be
understanding and trust. Chase
does feature its violent outbursts for sure - so what can you tell us
about the bloody bits in your movie, and was there a line you refused to
cross regarding on-screen violence? I always like to push
the limits when it comes to some violent content on screen, but I knew I
didn't want to have any nudity in the film or any over the top sexual or
violent scenes that served absolutely no purpose to the story and were
just sensationalist in nature. I had to show that Chase is definitely a
cold blooded hitman and killer, but sometimes less is more and I leave it
up to the audience to see some of the violence that they know will take
place.
What can you tell us about your overall directorial
approach to your story at hand? I met and talked with most
of the lead actors in the film before shooting in person just to give them
a sense of how I saw the characters and already knew how talented they all
were so it really flowed naturally. All of the actors got along with the
other actors so it was really a positive set experience I felt, which made
it much easier for me as a director too. Do talk about Chase's
key cast, and why exactly these people? I had worked with a
couple of the actors before like Damien Puckler who played Chase and Paul
Duke who played Sergey, so I actually had them in mind while writing it too
and knew they would be great for it, and a few of the other actors I had
known before like Devanny Pinn [Devanny
Pinn interview - click here], and had met Aries a few months before so I was
familiar with all of their work and couldn't be happier with all of them,
from Jessica Morris to Harry Hains and even the youngest actor I've ever
worked with, Eli Michael Kaplan, who played Micah.
A few words about the
shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
The toughest
scene to shoot was the climax scene because we only had 2 days to shoot it
and there was a good amount of action and fighting that needed to be
prepped, but honestly it was the best set experience of my career. I felt
like we all got along really well and everybody believed in the project so
much so we all went the extra yard to making it happen. The
$64-question of course, where can Chase
be seen? Chase
will be on a lot of platforms including
Amazon, iTunes, Redbox, Fandango, Vudu and more! Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Chase? When
the film did its festival premiere at the Hollywood Reel Film Festival
we had a packed house there, and I felt the reception was fantastic. I had
colleagues of mine who had seen my other work say that this was by far my
best film and I feel that too. Based on a few of the reviews so far they
have been positive so I'm just very happy and proud of that! Any
future projects you'd like to share?
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I'm in the process of
hopefully shooting my next feature Shadows later this year that has
that same action thriller type theme to it which I'm very excited about.
Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else? I post a lot
about Chase so I'm on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram if you just look up
my full name Michael Matteo Rossi, and I tag the Chase's social media on
there all the time too! Anything else you're dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
I'm excited for everybody to see the film and really feel they will
enjoy it!
Thanks for the interview!
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