Actor Rutger Hauer, who starred this year in the Anthony Hopkins thriller The Rite, is the main attraction in the violent and pulpy indie action drama Hobo with a Shotgun. Like the Man with No Name from the Sergio Leone films, Hobo (Rutger Hauer) is a stranger who exacts his own brand of justice in a lawless town.  Armed with a shotgun and a boatload of moxie, Hobo is on a bloody mission to exterminate a money grubbing crime boss (Brian Downey) and his two sleazy sons, Slick (Everwood’s Gregory Smith) and Ivan (Nick Bateman).

The picture’s concept originated in 2007, when director Jason Eisener and producer Rob Cottteril entered (and won)  the Grindhouse Trailer Contest which was co-sponsored by the SXSW Film Festival and Robert Rodrigez (he directed the Grindhouse segment Planet Terror).  Eventually becoming a viral hit, the trailer inspired the filmmakers to turn the project into a movie, and the pair focused their efforts on a lead actor.  Rutger Hauer’s agent, however, was not a fan of the script.  “For Rutger, he just finds that interesting when someone thinks he’s not going to like something,” said Eisener during a recent interview with HollywoodOutbreak.com.  “And that really peaks his interest.  So he read the script and thought it was crazy and he got on Skype with us to talk about the idea of the film, what our ideas were.  He just saw it as a lot of fun and a great opportunity for him to act like a naughty kid again.”

For Eisener and Cotteril, releasing an indie film into the world requires extensive social networking.  “We’ve been working on this film every single day for the past four years,” adds Eisener. “We are a part of everything and we spend a lot of time marketing the film ourselves, and finding people to create material to put out there for fans.  We’re creating videos and interacting with fans as much as possible.  It’s not every day when you get the opportunity to make a feature film, or a feature film that people are actually interested in…we haven’t taken a vacation yet since we started writing this movie.  We are working our asses off because this is a lifetime opportunity.”

Wannabe filmmakers who want to shoot their special effects old school style, sans the CG, should listen to the following clip as Eisener discusses how he came up with “low budget tricks” for the movie. 

Hobo with a Shotgun, which is currently available On Demand, opens in select theaters Friday.

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posted by Greg Srisavasdi