''Decoy'' is a 1995 Canadian–American action film directed by Vittorio Rambaldi and starring
Peter Weller
Peter Francis Weller (born June 24, 1947) is an American actor and television director.
He has appeared in more than 70 films and television series, including ''RoboCop'' (1987) and its sequel ''RoboCop 2'' (1990), in which he played RoboCop ( ...
,
Robert Patrick
Robert Hammond Patrick (born November 5, 1958) is an American actor. Known for portraying villains and authority figures, Patrick is a Saturn Award winner with four other nominations.
Patrick dropped out of college when drama class sparked his ...
,
Charlotte Lewis and
Darlene Vogel.
Plot
When a rival businessman, Jenner, threatens his daughter, Diana, tycoon John Wellington hires
Secret Service
A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...
man Jack Travis to protect her. In turn, Travis hires the eccentric mercenary Baxter, also a former Secret Service agent, to assist. So, Travis and Baxter are hired to protect his daughter. It all seems simple enough at the beginning, but shortly after the bodyguards meet Diana they quickly find themselves in an increasingly complex and deadly situation in which almost no one is exactly who she or he seems to be.
Cast
Production
Development
The movie was originally called ''Hunted''. It was going to be shot in
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
, but due to what was described as an "Indian rebellion" in
Chiapas
Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...
in winter 1993 (likely the
Zapatista uprising
On 1 January 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) coordinated a 12-day uprising in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, in protest against the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The rebels occupied citie ...
), its
completion guarantor blocked filming.
Canadian Antonio Cortese, a partner in one of the film's Los Angeles-based production houses, Gary Kaufman's Buffalo Films, sent feelers to his country's film officials in February 1994.
SaskFilm,
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
's film agency at the time, stepped in and brokered a co-production agreement with Kevin DeWalt's Mind's Eye Pictures of
Regina,
who was looking for a better deal than the production service contracts Canadian outfits usually received from their American counterparts.
Rob King, De Walt's partner at Mind's Eye, scouted various locations in the province, before traveling to L.A. to rewrite the script with U.S. writer Robert Sarno, and inject it with Saskatchewan flavor.
The revamped project was pitched to distributor Prism Entertainmeny at the March 1994
American Film Market
The American Film Market (AFM) is a film industry event held annually in early November. Historically, more than 7,000 people attend the eight-day annual event to network and to sell, finance, and acquire films. Participants come from more than 7 ...
, and its boss Barry Collier pre-bought international rights, providing the biggest piece of financing.
Through Lloyd Martell, a
Cree
The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
from
Waterhen Lake that Mind's Eye was mentoring as an associate producer,
an agreement was found with the Kitsaki Development Corporation, a
La Ronge
La Ronge is a List of municipalities in Saskatchewan, northern town in the boreal forest of Canada, boreal forest of Saskatchewan, Canada. The town is also the namesake of the larger #Population centre, La Ronge population centre, the largest ...
aboriginal company. It invested CAD$250,000, which entailed filming on nearby tribal lands and hiring local residents as part of the crew.
The project was billed as both the first international co-production and the first action film shot in the province.
Renowned effects specialist
Carlo Rambaldi
Carlo Rambaldi (September 15, 1925 – August 10, 2012) was an Italian special effects and makeup effects artist. He was the winner of three Academy Awards: one Special Achievement Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1977 for the 1976 ve ...
, the director's father, designed some of the film's more exotic weapons.
Assembling a crew proved difficult as the Saskatchewan industry's small resources were stretched by the concurrent filming of a television film for
CanWest
Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place (now called 201 Portage). It held radio, ...
, so technicians with local connections had to be lured back from larger production centers.
The title ''Hunted'' was changed to ''Decoy'' during pre-production after receiving a
cease and desist letter from the backers of the similarly named ''
The Hunted'', against whom a legal battle would have been too costly.
The collaboration between the Canadian and American sides was reportedly so good that a press conference was organized during filming in Regina to announce a new six-picture, CAD$20 million co-production agreement.
As part of the deal, a Regina warehouse would have been refurbished as a movie studio, which the province then did not yet have.
However, there is no indication that the planned films entered production.
Casting
The two stars, Peter Weller and Robert Patrick, signed on in May 1994. Weller was swayed by his interest in aboriginal cultures.
Patrick also indicated an interest in working with natives communities due to his partial
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
ancestry.
From the producers' standpoint, the hiring of Weller and Patrick aimed to appeal to international buyers by pairing iconic actors from the ''
RoboCop
''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American Science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen (actress), Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Dani ...
'' and ''
Terminator'' franchises.
Auditions for the local supporting cast were held in June, right before filming.
Blaine Hart, a high school acting teacher from Saskatoon, and Patricia Drake led the local cast.
The part of Charlotte Lewis' sidekick Archer was going to be played by an experienced actor brought in from Vancouver, but he dropped out for a better offer in the U.S., and the role was recast with a newcomer from
Regina.
The producers reached out to the
Saskatchewan Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 19 ...
, Regina's professional
team, looking for big men to portray enforcers in the film. Four were selected:
Peter Miller (who had some acting training),
Ron Goetz,
Gary Lewis and retired player turned radio analyst
Carmelo Carteri. However, the latter three's scenes were scheduled for a Friday, which conflicted with the
CFL
The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division and five in the West Division. The CFL is the highest pr ...
calendar, so only Miller could appear.
Filming and post-production
Principal photography was scheduled between July 19 and August 17, 1994.
The first part of filming took place in the Regina area, visiting such places as
Wascana Centre
Wascana Centre is a 930-hectare (9.3 km2/2,300 acre/3.6 mi2) urban park built around Wascana Lake in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, established in 1912 with a design from renowned architect Thomas Mawson. The park is designed ...
and the Assiniboia Club.
On July 28, the crew relocated to the
Lac la Ronge region for the rest of the schedule.
Their arrival generated great excitement in the small tribal community, particularly that of Carlo Rambaldi, due to his association with ''
E.T.''.
The shoot employed 125 Saskatchewanians out of a 220-man payroll.
According to DeWalt, natives amounted to 20 percent of on-screen performers and 20 percent of the crew.
According to Martell, 70 percent of trainees were natives.
Due to the unusually large distance between Regina and La Ronge, two production offices and two art departments had to be set up.
Weller practiced method acting, demanding to be called by his character name and being the only one on set to refuse ear plugs during gunfire sequences. Patrick was more laid back and would easily break character to chat with the locals.
A bar brawl against a group of lumberjacks was planned but dropped from the script.
On August 15, 1994, the crew had to suspend filming due to a sudden wildfire. Although the equipment suffered little damage, they lost several days. As a result, the film's wrap was delayed to August 24, although it still finished on budget.
DeWalt refused to disclose specific numbers, only mentioning that the film's cost was "substantially into the seven figures."
Local journalists estimated it between CAD$2 million
and 3 million.
Post-production
The film was edited in Regina by veteran Vancouver editor Frank Irvine,
although the audio part of post production was done in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. The score was also composed by San Francisco-based Mark Adler, and recorded by a local orchestra.
The finished film was delivered on January 15, 1995,
in line with projections.
Release
Theatrical
Originally, it was announced that the film would open in Regina, Saskatoon,
Prince Albert
Prince Albert most commonly refers to:
*Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria
*Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco
Prince Albert may also refer to:
Royalty
* Alb ...
and
Yorkton
Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about north-west of Winnipeg and south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province.
Yorkton was founded in 1882 and incorporated as a city in 1928. ...
, in October 1995 with eyes on a possible touring release across Canada.
In actuality, the film received an industry-only screening in Regina on December 1, 1995, which was inaccurately billed as its North American premiere (''see Television below''). The next day, it opened for the city's general public courtesy of local company Mind's Eye Pictures, a partner in the production.
The release was originally billed as a one-week engagement, but was extended for a second week.
Television
In the U.S., the film was picked up by
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
for broadcast as part of its "World Premiere" collection, and debuted on August 3, 1995.
Home media
In Canada, the tape arrived through
CFP Video in the week of December 12, 1995.
CFP also issued a French tape under the title ''Piège de glace'' ('Ice Trap').
In the U.S., the film was released by Prism Entertainment, through their output deal with
Turner Home Video, on December 19, 1995.
Reception
''Decoy'' has received mixed to moderately positive reviews. Patrick Davitt of the ''
Regina Leader-Post
The ''Regina Leader-Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper published in Regina, Saskatchewan, owned by Postmedia Network.
Founding
The newspaper was first published as ''The Leader'' in 1883 by Nicholas Flood Davin, soon after Edgar Dewdney, Lieutenan ...
'' criticized "a heavily-padded, below average action thriller, that manages to be cliched at its best and downright silly at its worst." He panned the gunplay as "ritualistic and uninteresting" with unscathed characters that stand out in the open.
Conversely, Rich Ryan of the ''
Staten Island Advance
The ''Staten Island Advance'' is a daily newspaper published in Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City. It is the only daily newspaper published in Staten Island and the only major daily newspaper focused on covering it exclu ...
'' and the
Newhouse News Service praised "a tense game of cat-and-mouse, with plenty of surprises and a great plot twist. All told, this is a cut above the average made-for-video movie."
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...
' ''Video Movie Guide'' was mostly favorable, finding that while it was an "otherwise average kill-or-be-killed saga", it was "highlighted by its unusual characters, notably Peter Weller as a bald disciple of
Cree
The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
mysticism." Writing for sister publications
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media
In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
and ''The Motion Picture Guide'', Robert Pardi assessed: "Better acted than most routine bonebusters, ''Decoy'' gets less mileage out of its central trumped-up plot reversal than it does out of the bloodbrother relationship of principals Peter Weller and Robert Patrick.
Lawsuit
In July 1996, stuntwoman Kathy Laloudakis filed suit against Weller and the film's producers, alleging that the star has failed to pull a punch during the filming of a fight scene, resulting in a broken nose.
The outcome of the case is unknown.
References
External links
*
* {{rotten-tomatoes, 1055674-decoy
1995 films
1995 action films
Films shot in Saskatchewan
1990s English-language films
English-language action films