With high speed internet access becoming available to more people, prosumer video equipment getting cheaper and a trend towards "unscripted" reality shows on broadcast and cable TV, the web is become the go-to place for out of the box original programming. Web shows like The Guild, Pink, Legend of Neil, Angel of Death, Ctrl and Childrens' Hospital are bringing quality TV style programming to the web.
Actor, co-writer and executive producer, Mark Gantt teamed up with writer and director, Jesse Warren to create The Bannen Way, a glossy, fast paced crime story. Gantt and Warren then teamed up with Sony’s Crackle.com video hub slash web studio and secured Robert Forster (“Jackie Brown,” “Heroes”), Michael Ironside ("Terminator Salvation,” Total Recall," “V”), Vanessa Marcil ("Lipstick Jungle," "Las Vegas") and Michael Lerner (“Entourage,” "Elf").
We recently had the opportunity to check out the production of The Bannen Way, which was filming just outside of Downtown Los Angeles. While on set we talked to lead actor, Mark Gantt about the show.
CraveOnline: You were shopping “The Bannen Way” for while, how did you connect with Sony and Crackle?
Mark Gantt: We came up with a concept and it took us like seven months to write it and then we wrote the first six episodes. We started shopping it around and we met with Jesse (Jesse Albert, friend and Agent) back in November of 2007 and he said, “It’s too expensive, nobody’s going to buy it. It’s a great idea but nobody will do it”. And I said I feel like there is a need for that kind of thing there; something that looks like television has that production value and yet is not [a] two guys in a room comedy thing. So we shot it and then edited it… and then sent out an email blast to 700 people within ten minutes he emailed me and said, “I wanna sell it”. So he had the relations with Sony already and then we met with basically everybody from NBC to Fox and Sony just seemed like the right home.
CraveOnline: Has anything from the show changed from that initial development period, now that you are working with Sony?
Mark Gantt: We shot the first two episodes and we had to reshoot them due to SAG and AFTRA issues but it actually worked out better for us because we wound up re-writing things in the process.
CraveOnline: How did you wind up writing and acting in “The Bannen Way”?
Mark Gantt: It came out of the fact that I had no auditions. My girlfriend had booked a pilot and a Screen Gems movie as the lead. And I was like; hmm I can’t get an audition. I spent 12 years as a prop assistant and prop master, art director, PA… I directed couple of shorts and spec spots and I had a feeling that I loved making films and I love acting. So I wrote a couple of names down (Bannen Way co-writer) Jesse Warren was the first person on the list and he wrote this script.
CraveOnline: Tell us about your character, Neil Bannen.
Mark Gantt: It starts with [Neil’s grandfather] has this set of principles, which he’s lived his life by. He passed it on to his two sons, Chief Bannen (Michael Ironside) and Mr. B (Robert Forester). The Chief’s obviously used it to do good and Mr. B’s to do bad basically, and they both can justify how the same principle can be used in both ways. Neil is in the middle, he’s like in the grey area every day. He’s trying to decide if he’s going to transgress that principle or obey the principle.
We start the story [and] he wants to get out of his criminal lifestyle. He’s been fighting his Father (Ironside), going against him trying to be his own man but instead he’s been going more towards the criminal lifestyle. He basically makes the decision to go straight, get out of the business and pay off his debts. Being a criminal he also has many addictions… in terms of smoking, drinking, women, gambling and he’s this guy who is always trying to escape. So when he’s about to go straight, he loses the money. That’s basically the first act.
CraveOnline: At what part in the writing process did you decide to go episodic?
Mark Gantt: We, because we had no idea we’d be at Sony; at the end of the day we decided let’s do something that is feature length, that if for some reason we aired it online then we could then sell it as a DVD. We outlined it as a feature with the breaks for the episodes. We’re at around 14 episodes with the same three act structure as a feature.
CraveOnline: How did the cast come together?
Mark Gantt: In the original cast we had mostly our friends and when we got to Sony it just made more sense, from a financial point of view to cast some more recognizable names and faces. We had a great casting person from Sony who was helping us out with lists and making calls. What ended happening with Robert Forester is [that] our producer is friends with him… so he made a personal call and sent him the script and our two episodes and trailer that we had done, and he said yes. Michael Ironside was friends with our agent, Jesse Albert… so he called him and said here’s the script, here’s the trailer, these guys are great and within two days he said yes. Michael Lerner was through Sony casting and Vanessa Marcil was also through the casting director. At the end of the day we really stuck with who was right for the role and not the name. I think we’re really fortunate now as we’ve been shooting, that the cast is exactly the cast that we were supposed to have.
Head over to the official Bannen Way page on Facebook (The Bannen Way) and check back for interviews with director Jesse Warren and actors Robert Forster and Michael Ironside.
