Writer and producer Michael Diliberti (30 Minutes or Less, Stop-Loss) is making his directorial debut with his upcoming movie Bad Man from Hemlock Circle Productions. In this Lethal Weapon-inspired film, the filmmaker worked with his hand-picked cast, including American Pie star Seann William Scott.
In Bad Man, Johnny Simmons stars as Bobby Gaines, a small-town cop who truly believes that all it takes to save the day is being a good guy. However, as his personal life worsens and a dangerous new criminal element settles down locally, it becomes too much for him to handle. Cue Sean William Scott's Bobby Gaines, a hotshot federal agent and bad boy who declares that he knows exactly how to fix the down problems—needless to say, things don't go as anyone expects.
Director Michael Diliberti sat down with The Direct's Russ Milheim to discuss how he could finally direct for the first time, prepare for that process, and outline the best parts of the journey.
"I always wanted to direct," Diliberti shared, noting that one of the big thing[s] for [him] was getting to work with the actors I wanted to work with," which is not something that happens for every project.
Diliberti, who racked up writing and producing credits before tackling the director role in Bad Man, first started by going to school at Johns Hopkins, where he "wrote, directed, and edited all [his] own films."
After a string of unrelated film industry jobs (working rental houses and focus pulling on nonunion gigs), he eventually worked under producers, which opened more and more doors for his career to grow—from countless writing gigs to being able to work on set as a writer, letting him gain more and more onset experience, something that turned out to be invaluable as he transitioned to being a director.
"I had written the script before the strike," Diliberti revealed, and since there was a pause in writing due to everything shutting down, he had the time to kind of figure out and put together a version of the movie."
Also in the cast of Bad Man is the talented Chance Perdomo, known recently for his work on Amazon Studios' Gen V, who sadly passed away early last year. On working with Perdomo, Diliberti admitted, "If you had told me that that guy was about to become the biggest movie star in the world, I would have believed you." He explained how Perdomo was "definitely one of these guys who lived life" and to have that "cut short [is] just incredibly tragic."
In explaining what he hopes audiences will get from the upcoming movie, which does not currently have a release date, Dilberti said that he wanted "to make a movie that has a lesson for everybody."
He elaborated on how "the movie is about a guy who loves this town and loves the people in it, and in a very complicated and difficult moral landscape, is trying to be a good man." Eventually, Johnny's ways are put to the test, asking whether it's okay to "do things the bad way a little bit" without undermining one's morality or ethics.
The director finished by noting that he "relate[s] to Johnny's character in that I love what I do, and I'm trying to get to the end of it and do it in a way that I feel good about and stay true to the things I love."
Hemlock Circle Productions recently released the horror film Marshmallow, whose cast The Direct also spoke with earlier this year.
Bad Man Director Michael Diliberti on Working With His Perfect Cast
"You Kind of Want to Work With Exactly the People You Want to Work With."
Bad Buy Director Michael Diliberti spoke with The Direct's Russ Milheim about how he loved "work[ing] with the actors [he] wanted to work with," including stars Seann William Scott and Johnny Simmons:
Michael Diliberti: The big thing for me was getting to work with the actors I wanted to work with... And definitely, like, at least, as a writer, I'm happy to write for absolutely anybody. I'm excited to just be able to do I love doing it... As a director, you kind of want to work with exactly the people you want to work with. And like, Seann [William Scott] is someone, obviously, I've been a fan of Seann since I was a kid.
I mean, obviously, I've seen the 'American Pie' movies. Johnny Simmons is someone who's just massively, massively talented and hasn't really gotten those opportunities to be a lead in a movie like this. I think he's great. And even the people around you know Ethan Suplee is the Bad Man in the movie. Obviously, he's been in amazing movies. Andre Hyland is hysterical in the movie. Rob Riggle is hysterical.
Even someone like Paul Felder, who's a UFC fighter, but I've seen him act, and I've seen him in stuff. I'm like, this guy's a great actor, and he's one of the Bad Mans in the movies, fantastic...
Diliberti also explained how studios aren't always on the same page when it comes to the talent they want to use, often either having their own picks first or not being onboard with what the filmmakers want:
Diliberti: I think a lot of times you write a movie, and then you're given a list of like, five people you can make the movie... I've had a few movies that our sales went, and part of the reason for at least two of them, they didn't go as they were, I had actors who were great actors and big actors, just the studios that were making them, or on board at the time, didn't see those actors in that part.
On working with the late Chance Perdomo, Diliberti exclaimed that "If you told me that that guy was about to become the biggest movie star in the world, I would have believed you:"
Diliberti: If you had told me that that guy was about to become the biggest movie star in the world, I would have believed you. I thought he was the most talented guy there. He was hysterical. He's good-looking. He had everything going. There's nothing else that you can want. He wanted. There's no more talent than that person could have. He was amazing. He was 27 so he's, like, on the cusp of everything...
And he's definitely one of these guys who lived life. So, he didn't just like show up to set, he showed up to set in like a shirring coat with a cigar and a boom box, and was having a blast. He definitely lived every moment of his life. It is massively talented, and it's obviously disappointing, because you work with someone like that, and you know, you're just talking like, oh my god, all the amazing things we're going to do. And for that to be cut short, it's just incredibly tragic.
Michael Diliberti's Journey To Directing for the First Time
"The Truth Is, I Always Wanted to Direct..."
Michael Diliberti explained in detail his journey to becoming a director, how it's always been something he's wanted to do, and how all of that prepared him for the challenges he would face: "The Truth is, I always wanted to direct," the director opened up, noting that he started with a "writing program" at Johns Hopkins," which eventually led him into other unrelated film industry work:
Michael Diliberti: The truth is, I always wanted to direct, and I went to both high school and college for writing... I went to Johns Hopkins, I went to the writing program there, and I was really anxious to start working... At [Johns] Hopkins, I wrote, directed, and edited all my own films, and I did have a level of technical knowledge in it...
So, I grew up building stuff, making things, and so we had to kind of check out our own cameras. And so then when I got out of school, I got a job [as a] rental tech, and I was writing the whole time. And within my senior year, I was a rental tech, and then I was a nonunion focus puller first AC, and so I had been on set, and then I was an assistant after that, because I just wasn't getting any writing done.
It was, like, such a full-time job, just finding work, and as a career thing, it's its own job, right? And so I wanted just more access to the industry.
The next step in his journey was interning for producers, a journey that eventually led him to work directly under a big-time Paramount executive:
Diliberti: So, I had interned for a producer named Scott Rudin in college, and then I went to go work for Scott full time for like—I worked for him, probably for almost three years as his first assistant. He gave me producer credit on a movie. So then I was on set constantly the whole time we were on set. And I think we probably made movies probably on three different continents during that period of time.
And then I moved out to LA and I wanted to work for a filmmaker. And I kept getting jobs for filmmakers and the movie [would get] shut down. So I was supposed to work for a guy named Luke Greenfield. The movie got shut down. I supposed to work for Michael Mann on I think was 'Public Enemies,' it got shut down—I think they got delayed. So, the job wasn't there.
And then I wound up getting another because the whole time I just trying to get an agent right, and I wound up getting a job working for a guy named John Lesher, who was running Paramount Vantage at the time, and then he took over big Paramount and I was a paramount executive for a year.
His stint as a producer's assistant was "about a two-year span," which allowed him "to write on a bunch of stuff" and "get better and better as a writer:"
Diliberti: So that was like about a two-year span. So I got to see—I was writing the whole time, and so I got to see everything, kind of behind the scenes, from working for a studio head, because they had a paramount time, and then being an executive and seeing all that.
So, it's just on set constantly and seeing stuff behind the scenes. And then finally, when I had that job, when I got promoted, I was able to get an agent, and because I was answering phone and I had just a level of access to do that. So by that time, I'd been on set so many times.
And then when '30 Minutes or Less' got made, which I wrote, they kept me on set for all the movies I did, on set for so many things, and I was able to do that. So I had that knowledge. I think just that movie enabled me to write on a bunch of stuff.
So, I wrote and I sent stuff everywhere. And I think that those opportunities are awesome, and you want to be able to get better and better as a writer.
When it comes to Bad Man, Diliberti revealed that he "had written the script before the strike," and once everything started chugging along again, the stars aligned that allowed his movie to be made:
Diliberti: And I had written the script before the strike, so I was gonna do work on it. So we set it up in such a way to do that. And then the strike ended, and I was just able to go make it. So, it was just one of those things that, because there was a pause in writing, I had the time to kind of figure out and put together a version of the movie, honestly, just using my script, but using the, because I have had a lot of production experience to begin with, and because I knew a lot of the cameras within the camera department, and I edited my own stuff, I always cut sizzle reels, I didn't want to write, so I worked with two editors on it, but I just saw editing credit because I basically did the final line on the movie. I was able to use those skills together, just do it at it, to make this on a budget that just enabled it to get made with the people I wanted to make it with.
Given all his experience on set and behind the scenes prior to his time on Bad Man, Diliberti said that he "went into it [with the] understanding that everything can go poorly, and it could go belly up:"
Diliberti: I really went into it [with the] understanding that everything can go poorly, and it could all go belly up. I think that, and hopefully the producers felt good about it, in that we definitely had, I mean, like anything, stuff goes wrong.
I think if you go into the expectations—I think you have to understand that you have to shoot, you have to shoot the movie that shows up that day, and you cannot shoot some version of the movie that you had in your head.
And that doesn't matter if you're on a giant Marvel movie or the smallest movie possible, you have to shoot what shows up that day to the best of your ability, because the actor may do things different than you expect, or this may happen, you have no idea, and so you just have to be willing to think on your feet.
What Director Michael Diliberi Wants Audiences To Take Away From Bad Man
"You Want to Make a Movie That has A Lesson for Everybody..."
Diliberti also outlined what exactly he wants audiences to take away from Bad Man at the end of the day and the themes at play within the narrative:
Michael Diliberti: I want them to take away the idea that the movie is about a guy who loves this town and loves the people in it, and in a very complicated and difficult moral landscape, is trying to be a good man, and that's really what the movie's about. You know, Johnny's character, his dad recently passed away. He's a cop. His family's business fell apart. He'd become a police officer. There's the girl that he's in love with who has moved away from town, and everything's against him. And then there's this unstoppable force, these Bad Mans in town who are just beyond what he's able to deal with.
And this really Bad Man shows up, and he's like, 'Well, I'll show you how to do it.' We're just gonna kick down doors and take names and Johnny attempts to keep his morality and attempts to do it the right way, and he does have to do things the bad way a little bit. But ultimately, he's able to get through and save the day for the things that he loves. And I think that's what we're all kind of trying to do...
Diliberti compared what he wanted to do with Bad Man to Lethal Weapon, a movie that people still care about to this day for a specific reason:
Diliberti: You want to make a movie that has a lesson for everybody. And I think that what people like about 'Lethal Weapon,' for instance, is that it's about a guy who thinks his best days are behind him, and that his life's over, and then he realizes, 'Oh, wait, look, there's something else out there.'
So, that's one of those reasons that that movie plays, where it's like, you can look at a cop movie, even if it's a better-made cop movie, no one cares about it 10 years later. But people care about it because it's about this guy who just wants, like, a reason to live right, and like everyone relates to that. I think everyone can relate to the idea that, like, the world's more complicated than ever.
He elaborated on why he related to Jonny's character in Bad Man and the messages he hopes the movie exudes:
Diliberti: If you love something and you're trying to stay true to it, maybe you could come out on the right side, and whether you're a cop in a small town, or whether you're a teacher, whether you're trying to make movies, and you're like, well, the business is fucked and everything's horrible, and I can do things the shitty way, or I could attempt to stay true to this thing I really love and kind of come out on the other side and maybe be a little savvy in my execution of it. I understood that, and I relate to Johnny's character in that I love what I do, and I'm trying to get to the end of it and do it in a way that I feel good about and stay true to the things I love.
Looking for more interviews from The Direct? Be sure to check out our conversation with the cast of The Old Guard 2.
