Due to the tax breaks currently being offered to filmmakers in Michigan, there’s a plethora of movies being shot all over our the state. None, perhaps, are more interesting than the current Grand Rapids-based production of the “The Steam Experiment.”
Directed by Philippe Martinez (“Citizen Verdict,” “Wake of Death”) and starring Val Kilmer (“Top Gun,” “The Doors,”), Armand Assante (“American Gangster,” “Judge Dredd”), Eric Roberts (“The Dark Knight”), Patrick Muldoon (“Starship Troopers”), Eve Mauro (“Land of the Lost”) and Quinn Duffy, among others, the film tells the story of a professor (Kilmer) who is determined to educate the world about global warming through his theory that, as the temperature rises and the oxygen levels drop, mankind will devolve into a violent, instinct-driven race.
When nobody pays any attention, Kilmer’s character has a breakdown. He sets about proving his theory by locking six unsuspecting victims in a steam room and simulating the conditions that global warming will eventually provide us with. Needless to say, the number of people alive in the steam room soon evaporates.
MMX traveled to the set in Grand Rapids on a crisp September evening to meet with Martinez and some of the cast. For his part, Martinez was fascinated by the project from his first reading of the initial script. “What I liked about the screenplay was the concept of six people being locked in a room with the temperature rising,” Martinez says. “At first, it was just a concept but then I tried to find some kind of analogy of why somebody would do that.
“I came up with the idea that a guy who is a professor has a breakdown, and that guy falls in the hands of the wrong psychiatrist. The first script was very graphic, but now it’s more reaction vs. action. I’m more interested in how people feel when faced with a crisis than what they do. It’s going into the mind of the people. Why is it that these six people can’t sit down in the room and try to work things out? The problem is human nature, us.”
Assante plays a retired New York police officer in a race against time to find the six missing people before the pressure becomes too much. But the cop on the clock isn’t completely without sympathy for Kilmer’s mad professor character.
“Finally, my character does empathize with him. He’s not only a psychotic but also a manipulative psychotic,” Assante says. “By the end of the film, my character is very disappointed that not only is this crime not resolved but he feels that he himself has been manipulated -- not only by his superiors but also by the doctors. He feels not betrayed but shut down. It’s an interesting, film noir thing. It doesn’t have an ending.”
MMX also spent some time with Mauro and Duffy, both charming and charismatic young talents. The duo plays characters that are locked in the steam room, though whether either of them survives remains a mystery that will be unveiled once the film is released some time in 2009.
For Duffy, there was one big factor that persuaded him to do the film. “Eve Mauro. I heard she was doing the film and I was instantly in,” Duffy says. “The original script I was brought just took place in the steam room. It’s a lot more open now. It was very closed in and sort of like a play, and that’s what I liked when I first read it.
“This could have a two, three or even four (sequels) – who knows where this is going to go? And then I met Philippe and he’s the sort of director that I just had to work with. I want to see what he’s going to do with this. This is a high drama movie and I’m into drama. I hate bullshit comedy. All of the characters are very defined in almost a theatric sort of way.”
Mauro is quick to dismiss the widely-perceived notion Kilmer is difficult to work with. “He was great," Mauro says. "He made our scenes very easy. He’s a very friendly guy.”
Duffy also was feeling Kilmer: “He’s giving as an actor. Bro, you’re talking about Val Kilmer. Man, he’s a real actor. He and Philippe together are going to make the difference between this being a movie and a film. There’s a difference, and this has become a film."
"The Steam Experiment" will be released sometime in 2009.
