Amusing Anecdotes about the Film Industry

People frequently ask me about amusing stories that I've been witness to over the years. Truth is, there are so many one accumulates in a lifetime of making movies that it would probably fill a book. That said, here is one of many. While filming "The Longriders" with Walter Hill directing we were setting up to shoot a sequence where a posse has the outlaws (James Gang) surrounded in an old chicken coop of a building. A sudden thunder shower came up and Walter and I ducked into the coop. A moment later the special efx gaffer came rushing in and told us it was probably NOT the safest place to hide from the rain. You see, prepartory to shooting the sequence, the efx dept. had wired in over 3,500 'bullet' hits into the building. Given that the roof was made of tin, a lightning strike could have set off all of the squibs - sending an extreme flurry of wood and glass shards in all directions. Needless to say, Walter and I scrambled out of the building and ran to a nearby car. For the record, a lighting bolt did strike one of our generators rendering it incapcitated for the rest of the day.