Completed Projects

Crossfire Trail 

TNT movie
Based on the novel by Louis L’Amour
Written by Charles Robert Carner
Directed by Simon Wincer
Produced by Tom Selleck and Michael Brandman
Starring Tom Selleck, Mark Harmon and Virginia Madsen

TNT approached Carner with a unique opportunity to adapt one of best-selling Western author Louis L’Amour’s novels as a vehicle to star Tom Selleck – one of the few leading men around today who knows how to make a Western. Carner leaped at the chance. “Crossfire Trail” would not be a modern western, a revisionist western, an anti-western, or any of those other gimmicks. The idea was to make a film in the classic, John Ford mold – with heroes, villains, and honor at stake. Mark Harmon portrayed the charming villain, and Virginia Madsen took on the Barbara Stanwyck role of the widow caught in the middle. Simon Wincer, who had done such a beautiful job on “Lonesome Dove,” directed “Crossfire Trail” with that same great skill. Brad Johnson, Wilford Brimley and Barry Corbin all played important supporting roles.

“Crossfire Trail” became the highest-rated, most-watched cable movie in television history.

Witless Protection

Lionsgate feature film
Story by Charles Robert Carner & Alan Blomquist
Screenplay by Charles Robert Carner
Directed by Charles Robert Carner
Produced by Alan Blomquist and J.P. Williams
Starring Larry the Cable Guy, Ivana Milicevic, Yaphet Kotto, Peter Stormare, Eric Roberts, Joe Mantegna and Jenny McCarthy

In this broad comedy, Larry the Cable Guy plays a small-town deputy with big-time law enforcement dreams, who thinks he is rescuing a damsel in distress. When the lady in question turns out to be a witness being protected by the FBI, Larry is off on a merry chase across America, squaring off against corrupt federal agents, the evil minions of Private Maximum Security (PMS), and an arrogant British aristocrat. Amid a barrage of politically-incorrect jokes that target everything and everyone from bodily functions to airport security bureaucracts, Larry bumbles his way to solving the case, bringing down the bad guys – and discovering that all he really wants in life is to go back home and settle down with his best girl. A great cast of supporting actors portray the eccentric characters that Larry encounters on his odyssey, which reaches its wacky climax when the bumpkin competes in – and demolishes – a charity polo match among the wealthy elite of Chicago’s North Shore suburbs.

Despite its genial nature and warm-hearted intentions, upon its theatrical release “Witless Protection” received some of the harshest reviews of Carner’s career, with critics vilifying the film as “disgusting, racist, clueless, sexist, infantile, mean-spirited and insulting.” Carner himself was considered a “demented child” for “presiding over this debacle.” Well. DVD critics have been a bit more rational, recognizing that the movie, while never intending to be a sophisticated drawing-room comedy, is – in fact – very funny. And making people laugh is the only goal of “Witless Protection.”

Lets Get Harry

One Woman's Courage

As with “A Killer Among Friends,” Carner rewrote an existing script and directed “One Woman’s Courage.” In this fictional suspense yarn, Patty Duke plays a woman who witnesses a murder and then is targeted by the killer so she cannot testify against him. Dennis Farina played Duke’s estranged husband, and James Farentino played the cop who tries to help her. The killer is memorably portrayed in subtly sinister fashion by Keith Szarabajka ("The Dark Knight").

JUDAS

“Judas” tells the story of Jesus Christ through the eyes of Judas, the disciple who went from being the Messiah’s biggest fan to ultimate betrayer. Tom Fontana’s fascinating script made a great effort to render Judas’s transformation in recognizable human terms. The intent was to be faithful to scripture, emotionally truthful, and dramatically interesting. Johnathon Schaech gives a powerful performance as Judas, the hyper-intense zealot who thinks Jesus is going to throw the Romans out of the Holy Land by force. Unable to comprehend the idea that Jesus is talking about a revolution in men’s soul, rather than a military campaign, he becomes disillusioned and is ultimately manipulated by the high priest Caiaphas (played by Bob Gunton). Tim Matheson plays Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor caught between religious forces he neither understands nor appreciates. “Judas” features a particularly graphic crucifixion scene, which seemed quite daring – until Mel Gibson produced “The Passion of the Christ”, the violence of which made “Judas” seem like a tea party by comparison. Academy Award-winning composer Bill Conti provided the beautiful score, and cinematographer Michael Goi composed the sumptuous imagery (which garnered Goi his second ASC nomination for Best Cinematography; his first had been for his brilliant work on "The Fixer").

. “Judas” was aired by ABC during the height of the worldwide controversy surrounding “The Passion,” and was reviewed in that context. Critics who loved Mel Gibson’s film considered Carner’s to be a cheap TV ripoff; those who loathed “The Passion” raved about “Judas.” “Judas” is neither small screen cheese, nor a masterwork. It is a unique look at “the greatest story every told.”

Vanishing Point

A man. A car. An impossible challenge. Like a lot of guys who went through high school in the 1970s, Carner was a huge fan of the original “Vanishing Point,” a low-budget existential thriller in the vein of “Easy Rider.” Barry Newman played an alienated Vietnam vet who bet his drug dealer that he could drive a 1970 Challenger from Denver to San Francisco – a distance of 1200 miles – in 15 hours. The film is one long car chase as the cops pursue “Kowalski;” it featured a lot of rock’n’roll music, and a fiery finale of Newman crashing head-on into a roadblock made of bulldozers. It became a cult favorite. Twenty-some-odd years later, Carner rented a VHS tape of the original, and was impressed by two things: 1) the movie had dated badly, and 2) the core concept was still viable. He came up with the idea of remaking it, asked his friend Alan Blomquist to produce it, and convinced the Fox network to go forward. The central theme – lone hero versus the all-powerful State – remained the same. An effort was made to strengthen Kowalski’s motivation, and to deepen the characters.

The film leaped into production off the first draft of the script, when Viggo Mortensen agreed to portray Kowalski. It was shot on a frenzied 22-day schedule for under $4 million, on location in Utah, Arizona and Los Angeles. In that first draft, as in the original, Kowalski died in the flaming collision. Fox insisted that Kowalski live. So Carner wrote a “Billy Jack” style ending of Kowalski stopping short of the bulldozers and being led away in handcuffs, as a large crowd of sympathizers offers support. Mortensen hated that ending. He wanted Kowalski to die. Two days into shooting, he threw down the gauntlet, saying that he would quit the picture if his character lived. Fox retorted that he wouldn’t have to quit – because they would shut down the picture if Kowalski died. As the story envisioned by Carner was a kind of mythic allegory, he suggested a “JFK”-style ambiguous ending which was open to interpretation. Everyone said OK, and production continued.

The “Vanishing Point” remake divided fans of the original, with some contending that the remake amounted to desecration, while others asserted that the remake was superior in every way. An interesting aspect of the film is that Viggo Mortensen began production without any experience in handling a powerful vintage muscle car (everything in the remake was updated – except the Challenger!), but he was such a quick study that by the end, he did his own driving in many of the hair-raising action scenes. He also broke a stunt man’s nose in a fight scene, but that’s another story.

The Fixer

Carner grew up on the South Side of Chicago, in a family that had deep ties to the city’s political machinery. He had long wanted to make a film about a “fixer” – a man that filled in the gaps between the legitimate world and the underworld, “fixing” problems from building permits to murder charges. The problem was: how could such a man, dedicated to expedience and moral ambiguity, face a moral crisis that might trigger a great dramatic confrontation? Any external pressure would be ignored or ameliorated.

Then Carner hit his head on the concrete bottom of a swimming pool and was paralyzed from the neck down. Fortunately, the paralysis proved temporary, and he eventually made a complete recovery. His life was taken away – and then given back. And he realized that this could be the key to the story he wanted to tell. So the film was born. Jack Killoran was the city’s top fixer, getting things done and living the good life. He is asked to handle a particularly sordid murder, and turns aside his own moral doubts to do just that. Then he gets hurt. And realizes he must change his life.

The film is about moral choices – and the price one must be willing to pay to make them. Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight plays Killoran, Brenda Bakke is his ex-model wife CJ, and Brent Jennings portrays Kenyan priest Fr. Njogu, who acts as Killoran’s spiritual advisor during his dangerous quest to go straight. Legendary Chicago actor JJ Johnston portrays the Outfit boss trying to keep Killoran in the corrupt fold. "The Fixer” was produced by Oscar-winner Tony Bill, Carner’s longtime friend and mentor, and Tony’s wife Helen Bartlett. It garnered some of the best reviews of Carner’s career (Daily Variety called it a “minor classic”), and won numerous awards including a Silver Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Red Water

TBS movie
Written by J.D. Feigelson and Chris Mack
Directed by Charles Robert Carner
Produced by Michael G. Larkin and Charles Robert Carner
Starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Kristy Swanson and Coolio

“Red Water” is a shark movie. And a heist movie. And a movie about a man with a past trying to redeem himself. There’s also an oil well. What happens when you have an oil well in a movie? It blows up. The film trades on a little-known fact: the species of shark responsible for more attacks on humans is not the infamous Great White of “Jaws,” but the Bull Shark – which also happens to be the only shark that can survive in fresh water. In “Red Water” a hungry Bull Shark is on the loose in the bayous of Louisiana – right smack dab in the middle of a cove where bad guys have buried millions in drug money. Lou Diamond Phillips plays an oil drilling specialist who has retired because people died during a blowout at a well he was working. Kristy Swanson plays his scientist ex-wife, who asks him to help drill in the bayou. Phillips reluctantly agrees. The two run afoul of Coolio, who leads a gang of baddies looking for money that had been dumped in the Atchafalaya River during a boat chase with cops years before. They all come up against the man-eating shark, who noshes on bikini-clad appetizers before coming after our heroes and villains.

The production of “Red Water” featured all the same challenges that plagued Steven Spielberg when he was making “Jaws.” Although technology has made enormous advances since the 1970s, it’s still difficult to get a mechanical shark to do what it’s told. “Bubba” was for Carner just as cantankerous as “Bruce” was for Spielberg. But it all worked out in the end. Supported by an amazingly massive publicity campaign, “Red Water” became the highest-rated movie in TBS history, and ranks with “Crossfire Trail” as the most-watched cable movie of all time. It got many very bad reviews, but what do critics know?

Christmas Rush

Carner got a call from Richard Rothstein, a producer working in partnership with Thomas Carter: “TBS wants to do a Christmas action movie.” “Let’s do ‘Die Hard’ in a shopping mall,” Carner said. And so they did. Dean Cain plays a Chicago cop who gets suspended for his role in a massive Chinatown shootout (during which a citizen is wounded). Erika Eleniak portrays his wife. And Eric Roberts plays Scalzetti, the master thief who comes out of retirement to pull one last score in order to finance his son’s life-saving operation. The breezy tone is set early, during the Chinatown shootout, when the bad guys open fire with machine pistols and expend thousands of rounds – all of which lay waste to the neighborhood but somehow manage to avoid hitting the hero even though he’s standing in the open right in front of them. After that, there’s the slickly-executed heist, followed by various shootouts, kidnappings and fistfights – during which the shopping mall is reduced to rubble. In the end, Scalzetti attempts to escape through tunnels beneath the city, only to be trapped by the cops (in a sequence that borrows shamelessly from the climactic sewer chase in Carol Reed’s classic, “The Third Man”). “Christmas Rush” gets low marks for originality, but passes the “popcorn movie” test with flying colors.

Who Killed Atlanta's Children?

The Atlanta Child Murders case was one of America’s most appalling series of crimes – the kidnap homicides of more than two dozen boys and young men in 1979-81. The case apparently came to an end with the arrest and conviction of Wayne Williams, a black music promoter. But some years later, Rudy Langlais, editor of Spin magazine, stumbled across evidence of a secret investigation that implicated the Ku Klux Klan in at least some of the murders. He sent two reporters to Atlanta to look for the truth. Their pursuit of what really happened, and who was responsible, formed the basis of articles published in Spin, which in turn became the basis for Carner’s film. James Belushi and Gregory Hines portrayed the reporters, and veteran Canadian actor Sean McCann portrayed the Atlanta policeman who held the key to the secret investigation.

The dramatic challenge in making the film stemmed from two difficult issues: 1) the murders themselves had all happened years before the film opens, and 2) there were a lot more questions than answers surrounding the case. In fact, the original title of Carner’s script was, “Unanswered Questions.” The story was told with a complex, three-level narrative: the reporters investigating, the emerging information about the secret investigation, and the murders themselves. Editor Marc Leif did an extraordinary job keeping all three balls in the air. “Who Killed Alanta’s Children?” was Showtime’s highest-rated movie of the year, and garnered numerous fine reviews.

A Killer Among Friends

Carner’s friendship with former TriStar President Jeff Sagansky paid off when Sagansky took over at CBS and offered him the opportunity to co-write and direct “A Killer Among Friends,” a true-crime yarn based on a famous Los Angeles murder case in which high school girls murdered their best friend and then led the police on a merry chase after red herrings. Patty Duke played the murdered girl’s mother. In a bizarre twist, the killer (terrifyingly portrayed by Margaret Welsh) actually moved into her victim’s home, and essentially attempted to become a surrogate daughter to “everyone’s favorite mom.”

Intense public fascination with the case combined with riveting performances by the actors to make “A Killer Among Friends” one of the highest-rated TV movies of the 1990s. An interesting sidebar to the story is that CBS executives were so disturbed by the actual murder scene – designed to be the film’s climax – that they tried to have the whole thing cut out. When Carner pointed out that removing the scene would destroy the entire movie and probably enrage the audience, they relented.