If you’re here for the Little House on the Prairie podcast, this isn’t it. I just can’t figure out how to change that image of the sheaves. For this podcast, a shared exclusive, I team up with Hollywood Heretic’s Wade Major, and esteemed filmmaker/teacher/commentator R.H. Greene, to discuss the career and filmography of a longtime colleague.
I first met Gregory Hatanaka when he was a publicist and I was an assistant editor, to arrange a New Times LA review of Master of the Flying Guillotine. I did a couple of DVD commentaries for his then-company Pathfinder, and when he put together the resources to direct his first movie, I made clear I was interested in being part of it. The film was Until the Night, and while my main scene was deleted, he kept a shot of me in for a post-credits tease. I got to hang out and work with a pre-A-list Norman Reedus, whom I knew would be something special, and I told Greg so when he was thinking of casting him.
This was all precursor to Mad Cowgirl, Greg’s second movie, which is to this day the wildest and best film I’ve ever been attached to. I played multiple small roles and worked several crew positions; my only regret is that the film didn’t really find the wide audience it deserves. Greg’s influences are so varied, from all over the world and at all levels of highbrow to schlock, and his movies wear them all on their sleeve. To the extent that I had an acting and filmmaking career — and I briefly did, and am not ruling it out for the future — Greg paved the way. As such, he’s indirectly responsible for my meeting my actress wife.
I could say more, but I’d be repeating what’s on the podcast. Greg deserves assessment as a cinematic visionary, and a theatrical retrospective. I hope somebody can make that happen.
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