Q&A with DEATH RACE: BEYOND ANARCHY Director Don Michael Paul

Revving its engines on Blu-ray, DVD, digital, and VOD platforms on October 2nd is Death Race: Beyond Anarchy. The fourth entry in the rebooted Death Race film series, Beyond Anarchy is directed by Don Michael Paul (Tremors 5: Bloodlines, Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell), and we caught up with the prolific filmmaker to talk about adding his creative vision to the Death Race franchise, his approach to the movie's character-centric story, and collaborating with the talented acting trio of Zach McGowan, Danny Glover, and Danny Trejo.

ndCongratulations on Death Race: Beyond Anarchy, Don. How did the opportunity to direct this film come about?

Don Michael Paul: I had made several movies for Universal 1440 when Patti Jackson came to me and asked if I was interested in making Death Race. It was a dream come true for me. These are the kinds of action movies I grew up watching and it fell right in my wheelhouse.

What elements of the Death Race world excite you as a filmmaker and made you want to add your voice to this franchise?

Don Michael Paul: The cars, the characters, and the chance to create a crazy iconoclastic world with no rules. And I loved the idea of a character entering hell on earth and finding love and deciding to stay inside for this love.

What was your shooting schedule for Death Race: Anarchy, and where did filming take place?

Don Michael Paul: 32 days in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The cast of Death Race: Beyond Anarchy includes Danny Glover and Danny Trejo. What was it like working with them to tell this story?

Don Michael Paul: Danny Glover starred in one of my favorite series of movies, Lethal Weapon. He will always be Murtaugh to me. He’s a legend with a huge screen presence, giving the movie not only star quality, but size and scope. Whenever you have an actor like Danny Glover on screen, it makes the audience feel like they’re watching a real movie star and gives the film a bigger look and feel.

Danny Trejo is amazing to watch work. He has “it”! He’s the real deal and Death Race needs him to give the movie grit and authenticity. He’s also a very skilled actor who makes bold choices and feels fresh and of this age. I am very grateful to the two Danny’s for elevating Death Race to another level.

Looking back at your time on set, is there a favorite or funny moment that stands out?

Don Michael Paul: Many fun and funny moments. But the stunt work and car action were really exciting. I loved filming our stunt team smashing the cars and walking away with smiles on their faces.

There are a lot of stunts and intense car chases in Death Race: Beyond Anarchy. What was the most challenging or rewarding scene to shoot?

Don Michael Paul: Oddly enough, the stunt work and car chases were not the most challenging scenes to shoot. Some of the other scene work, including the more racy material, I found to be more difficult and challenging. We had a lot of those moments in the movie and I found it to be harder to stage and bring to life than the action.

What do you hope viewers—both longtime fans of the Death Race franchise and newcomers alike—take away from Death Race: Beyond Anarchy?

Don Michael Paul: I wanted to have it be a standalone movie that anyone who loves action, cars, and craziness could enjoy.

Paul Bartel, Paul W.S. Anderson, and Roel Rene had already done very impressive work creating the mythology and staging gritty, brain-bashing action. With the budgets going down, I realized it was going to be hard to compete on the action level, so my hope was to compete on a character level, giving the viewer not only larger-than-life characters, but a larger-than-life antihero and a hero to watch compete in the world’s most violent game of “king of the hill.”

In addition to directing, you’ve had a lot of work as an actor over the years. How has your experience in front of the camera impacted your work behind the camera?

Don Michael Paul: I love actors and I appreciate how hard it is to stand in front of the camera and bring a scene to life. I have to work fast and often work with four and five cameras at once. I like actors to find their way through a scene. I want the movie to breath, so I put my cameras very far away and don’t get too invasive. I give the actors a space and a mood and let them loose.

You’ve worked on sequels for a lot of franchises, including Sniper, Tremors, and The Scorpion King. What do you enjoy the most about bringing your creative vision to a franchise that has a pre-existing world with more stories just waiting to be told?

Don Michael Paul: I never treat them as sequels or franchises. They are original films to me. It’s the same endeavor as creating original films. I always ask myself, “Why should this movie be made? Why now? Why here? Why at this exact moment in time?” Sometimes the answer is simple. Sometimes it’s for pure entertainment. These are the first questions I answer and then I get to work. The answers to my “why questions” for Death Race were different.

Our world is getting smaller and more complex. The walls are being built everywhere—not just physical walls, but emotional and spiritual walls, too. The answers to my “why questions” revolved around the central character, Connor Gibson. The answer surprised me. Why does Connor Gibson volunteers to go inside an alien world made up of violence and debauchery with a singular vision to kill one masked man? He achieves this goal, but that wasn’t what interested me. What interested me and tickled the soul of the “whys” was what he actually finds. He finds love in this cruel environment, and a place where he fits in and can effectuate change.

Can horror fans expect to see a new Tremors movie from you and Michael Gross in the future?

Don Michael Paul: You never know… Burt Gummer is a hard man to kill.

With Death Race: Beyond Anarchy coming out on October 2nd, what other projects do you have in the works that you’re excited about?

Don Michael Paul: Scorpion King: Book of Souls, also starring Zach McGowan, comes out October 23rd. On that note, Zach McGowan is an amazing action star and an unbelievably talented actor. I count him as one of my close friends now and look forward to making many movies with him in the future. He is destined for stardom; I only hope I can chase him to the top.