THE PACKAGE (Jesse V. Johnson, 2012)

[Jox]

Speaking of Tough…

Well, another day on set has come to an end. Lots of gunfire today and tomorrow a high dose of brutality in the form of a heavy duty fist fight. This movie has more action than probably all the movies I’ve done put together. The director, Jesse V. Johnson is doing an awesome job. I will no doubt work with this guy again, if I’m lucky. He is going to very high places in this business. The cast and crew have been top notch. Everybody on set works their asses off and the whole place feels like a family to me. Lots of the locations have been inside, but all of the locations have been pretty cold. Vancouver has a kind of damp cold that settles in your bones and seems to chill you from the inside out. Nothing too brutal, but it’s always nice to thaw out in a long hot shower afterward.

I tweeted out a pic earlier of myself and my stunt double Paul Lazenby(@mmamauler on twitter). People immediately ask–You mean you don’t do all of your own stunts??? Hell no, I don’t. I do the bulk of the fights and I do all of the ‘safe’ action stuff. The tough, dangerous stuff, I leave to Paul. He’s a pro and that’s what he does. That’s what all stuntmen do. That’s what they thrive on…Helping their guy look like a million bucks. You will probably be hard pressed to find some actors admitting they have a stunt double, let alone two or three of them. I have no problem whatsoever letting my stunt double do his job. I made 15 years in the business of Professional Wrestling. I did all my own ‘stunts’. I took all of the bumps. I don’t have a need to act like a tough guy. My body of work and my list of injuries speak for themselves. My ability to work ‘hurt’ and through the pain was something I was always proud of. And I’m not blowing my own horn. They’re were lots of tough guys in the business. Mick Foley, Undertaker, HHH, and Ric Flair immediately come to mind. And basically to be in the squared circle at all meant you were tougher than most human beings. By the time you figure in working through the injuries, the travel, and life on the road, you had better be tough or you just flat out wouldn’t make it. And I’m only speaking of being tough physically. If you weren’t mentally tough there was no way you could make it…But that’s a whole other story for a whole other day. Back to the movie business. There are some days where Paul doesn’t have to do too much. And on a day where I’m fighting my ass off, Paul watches my style and technically advises me as to how to make my punches, etc. read as good as possible for camera. Other days he’s working his ass off. It may be fighting, falling, getting blown in the air from an explosion, anything…That’s what Paul does. I think this is the 6th movie Paul and I have worked together on. In the first movie Damage, we were fighting each other, and I got too close with a left hook and broke his nose. Pushed it over to the side of his face about a half inch. Paul looked at me and said “keep going!” Totally my fault and something you never want to do…But, accidents happen on the set. Luckily Paul has a tremendous sense of humor and is tougher than nails. Five minutes later, after I apologized twenty times, we were laughing about it. It’s been a couple years now and he still hasn’t given me a receipt. I’m still waiting…I know he’s too professional to give me a receipt, but I know I’m due for a hell of a rib one of these days. Thanks, Paul!

So I am totally focused on this movie. The name of the movie is The Package. I am a debt collector by trade and to get out of a bind, I agree to deliver a package to a certain individual played by Dolph Lundgren. There is a big twist that I will not ruin for you. I am having a blast working on this movie. My goal when I met Jesse was to make a bad ass action movie and have fun doing it. Jesse had the same goal as I. I think you’re gonna enjoy this one. I will sign off for now. I will bring you more updates about the ranch and some other very cool stuff I’m working on. But right now I’m dialed in on this movie. We have six days of filming left. And after that I’m headed to the ranch…

Hang Tough

Steve Austin

[preacher]

Austins blogging from the set i awesome!
I comes across as a nice guy too.
Good to hear that making "The Package" is a positive experience for him. This just might turn out better than expected.

How many days did Dolph put in?

[Tom]

Austin is a cool guy, very likeable. I'll be very curious to see how he comes across in this film because he seems far more suited to being a bad guy on screen than a good guy.

[Mosquito]

I think he's good as a good guy. I've watched The Condemned and he came across as a very sympathetic, caring guy. Good movie btw, although the big end fight was ruined by (yeah, yeah, I've complained a thousand times) shaky cam and hectic cuts. Totally unnecessary, IMHO. He can pull of a good movie fight after all.

[dolphage]

He's awesome. Such a cool, down to earth guy.

And an insane tough guy presence on screen. Truly menacing.

His on screen fighting abilities are not impressive, though. He is slow and clumsy, he can only kick as high as his own knee cap, etc, but all that wouldn't matter if they just let him do wrestling inspired stuff in his films. Throwing guys around and tackling them and all that.

[Jox]

Dolph is already wrapped of course, and the movie is wrapping at the end of the week I think. It was a quick but pretty intense shoot it seems and people working on it seem pretty excited and confident this is gonna be a kick-ass flick.

Austin's double Paul Lazenby just tweeted:

Second-last day on "The Package" tomorrow. I'm already missing it--one of the best shows I've ever been on.

[Jox]

That’s A Wrap

It is Monday, March 5. My pickup today is 3pm. It’s gonna be a long day at the office as we have some exterior shots and the last major fight scene of the movie. It’s a beautiful sunny day right now in Vancouver. That will all change as tonights fight scene happens in the rain. I expect to finish around 4-4:30 in the morning. Gonna be a cold one…

For the last few days I have been battling the flu and strep throat. Feeling somewhat better today but still a bit lethargic so I skipped the gym and cardio this morning. Gonna save my energy for tonight. From what I understand, this bug has been making the rounds lately. Not much you can do about it, just ride it out and let it run its course. So anyhoo…This has been a very intense shoot. Lots of fights and gunplay. This movie is more in line with my vision of what kind of movies I want to do in the future. And I will elaborate more on that in the very near future. The director on this movie, Jesse V. Johnson, has done a tremendous job. Definitely an awesome director with a very bright future. Everyone involved in this movie has been wonderful to work with. Dolph Lundgren finished a week ago. Mike Dopud, my partner in the movie finished last week. Thanks, Mike…You are most definitely a talented actor and a complete riot to hang around. Your mentality would have made you a great professional wrestler…Yes, I mean that in a good way. Scott Atteah and Paul Wu did a great job in coordinating stunts and fighting. And of course my old buddy Paul Lazenby made it through another endeavor completely unscathed and injury free…I hope that doesn’t jinx us tonite.

[...]

Steve Austin

More pics from Austin






Storm on the last night of shooting

[Nathan]

Looks great! Proper old-school DTV action. Jesse V does love that shit. Quite enthusiastic about this one and the dual machine-gun wielding, final fight in rain, flipping car pictures are a good sign of some carnage. I hope Dolph's part isn't too small though, that's the only downside to taking so many co-starring roles, thankfully I like Austin and would probably have bought this one anyway but if Dolph wasn't in One For the Chamber, I would have skipped it.

[abc1]

Just wondering how much would dolph and Austin be getting paid for this movie?maybe a million dollor each?

[Jox]

Dunno know, not sure the DTV stars are paid that much in today's economy, is that so important though? The movie had a short schedule and likely didn't have a huge budget so they better put the money on the screen. Since Dolph only part of half of it I don't know if he's paid less than for a starring role or if his comeback notoriety would make his fee the same even for a co-starring role...

Steve Austin with Jerry Trimble:

[Jox]

Director Jesse Johnson with some actors and stunt guys


Steve Austin and Darren Shahlavi

[Jox]

Jesse Johnson said on DL's FB:

"Dolph Looks great in the movie, a really slick performance. The music is being composed by maestro Sean Murray of "Call of Duty" fame."

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 852&type=3

[Jox]

http://www.cinando.com/DefaultControlle ... IdF=107810

[savagesketch]

This is pretty similar to the ONE IN THE CHAMBER poster... Same distribution companies and producer(s) I'm assuming?

[Jox]

Exactly the same (the ones who did ASSASS!NATION GAMES with VD and Adkins)!