Many know Michael Biehn from his iconic roles in James Cameron’s Aliens, The Terminator, and The Abyss, but in recent years he and his wife and business partner Jennifer Blanc-Biehn have been a tremendous force on the indie scene with their production company, Blanc-Biehn Productions, which provides a platform for indie filmmakers—including themselves—to tell new stories and interact with their dedicated fan base.
Michael and Jennifer were recently at San Diego Comic-Con to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Aliens, and I had a chance to sit down with the duo to discuss their grassroots approach to indie filmmaking, Michael’s desire to play Hicks once again in a new Alien movie, and much more.
Jennifer talked about the key to being a grassroots production company by interacting with fans and getting involved with talented actors, writers, and female filmmakers.
Jennifer Blanc-Biehn: There are a lot of people like this. It's so cool that we can touch base with them personally and see the excitement level on something that we created from scratch. It's different when you're an actor and you go to work and you're working on somebody else's project. It's amazing and I will continue to do it, and I'm sure Michael will, but to do this with new directors and all these new people high-fiving each other—there was nothing there and now there's that, and whether somebody hates it or loves it or is down the middle, you're creating emotion in somebody whether they hate you and loathe you or they love you.
Jennifer also reflected on her experience directing The Girl (which co-starred Michael) and her preference for promoting projects.
Jennifer Blanc-Biehn: [I directed] the whole thing. I don't want to be a director anymore, though. It’s not my thing. I like acting first and producing almost as much and I think I'm good at producing. I'm really good at rallying people, getting the promotion out there, and getting people excited about a project and working it out with people, so that it's boxed and our product is out there and there's a chance for people to see what they did. The directing is a lot of work. Not that producing isn't, because it's 24/7, but it's a different kind of work.
Michael Biehn: It's a lot more work, too, when you're working on a very low budget.
Jennifer Blanc-Biehn: And directing your husband because he yells at you a lot.
Michael Biehn: Instead of doing what Jim Cameron is doing, like two setups a day, we're doing 60 setups a day with one camera. That's when I was stupid enough to shoot my movie [The Victim] with one camera.
Jennifer Blanc-Biehn: He did a great job with that, though. We fought a lot. When one of us is in front of the camera for the other one, we fight a lot. There's a lot of “Making Of” videos out there of us like, "Shut the fuck up! Stop it! I would act normal if you just..." There's tons of that going on, and people around us don't know what to do—it's just passion and then we're good. We go home and have sex or whatever, but they think, “Oh my God, this is falling apart, no, don't fight.” We're getting it out, it's fine. We do that in our house in the morning and then we start the day. We got our yell match out.
The forthcoming months will be big ones for Blanc-Biehn Productions, as they have several films coming out on various platforms, and Jennifer teased their upcoming slate.
Jennifer Blanc-Biehn: Night Visitor 1 and 2 are now The Night Visitor Chronicles. They were put together in a package and they're releasing them in Walmart and on VOD through eOne and Splash House, and that's just USA at this point. Then Anchor Bay has The Night Visitor 2 out in Canada on just VOD. So we've got that out in November, The Night Visitor Chronicles, and then on December 2nd, Hidden in the Woods will have a limited theatrical release and before that, Sitges is going to show it in October.
Then we have The Girl aka Psychopath, coming out domestically the first week in January, and we have a new acquisition with Splash House and eOne, which is Psychophonia, and that is going to be a February release.
With Aliens recently celebrating its 30th anniversary, Michael discussed his desire to reteam with Sigourney Weaver and reprise his role as Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in the new Aliens sequel that filmmaker Neill Blomkamp wants to make.
Michael Biehn: I was with Sigourney [Weaver] recently and nothing was officially announced that they were going to make it. Sigourney was going to star and Neill was going to direct, Ridley was going to be the executive producer. Then something happened and Ridley decided he wanted to do Prometheus 2, which is now called Alien: Covenant, so he's doing that. Supposedly he's got a third one that he wants to do also. The question is, are we going to do [the new] Aliens next? I was with Sigourney two weeks ago in front of an audience and we were just hanging out and talking to the audience and she said, "We're making it, we're doing it."
I'm really proud of that [Aliens]. If they make another one I would love to be involved with it. I was hurt when they killed off Hicks and Jim Cameron, when they killed off Newt, I think that just broke his heart because his whole movie was about saving Newt.
[Alien 3 director] David Fincher at that time was young and they gave him a script that was not very good and he's gone on of course to become the director that he's become, so we'll see. I'm happy with what I have. I hope to do another one, it'd be great.
You know what I would really like it to be, perfectly honest, I'd love Sigourney to be happy with a send-off, a good movie to end her participation in that franchise. We're all getting a little too old to be chasing around aliens. Maybe she wouldn't say that, she likes to work [laughs].
Looking back at his time directing The Victim, Michael previously discussed with me how he got a taste for indie directing from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, discovering that there’s nothing quite like working for yourself.
Michael Biehn: I didn't realize I'd ever seen a grindhouse movie before. I had never heard of the word "grindhouse" before I met Robert Rodriguez. I used to go to drive-in theaters when I was a kid, my parents would take me. There would be a movie playing at eight o'clock, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof—that was the movie that was playing at the drive-in theater.
As kids, before the movie would start, we'd be down playing on the swings, and there was always a movie that came on at six, when it wasn't even really dark yet. That would always have Vic Morrow and Tommy Stevens or something in it, and that was actually kind of a grindhouse movie. I don't really know what the difference between a grindhouse movie and a B-movie is, but I describe the grindhouse movie as low-budget exploitation. I never would have made this movie [The Victim] if it hadn't been for Robert exposing me to the genre.
Quentin brought me over to his house and we watched a bunch of these movies, and it gave me an idea of what these movies were like and how low of a budget you could make a movie on and how fun they could be at the same time as being stories. They could be horror movies, but at the same time funny and fun. They really enjoyed them, and I can't think of anyone that enjoys a grindhouse movie more than Quentin Tarantino.
They exposed me to it, and while I was doing The Divide, I saw a kid reading [Robert Rodriguez’s] Rebel without a Crew. It reminded me of the good times I've had with Robert—he was so supportive and such a great guy. These guys love movies so much, I thought, "Maybe I'll go out and try to make a little movie myself, just for fun. I've never directed a movie before.”
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Be on the lookout for coverage of BlancBiehn Productions' upcoming slate of films over the coming months. You can also keep up with the latest from Jennifer-Blanc Biehn by following her on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jenniferblancb
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