The director of the opioid crime film titled “King Ivory” and the rest of the cast have had a little different experience traveling to the Venice Film Festival today.
This frenzy began when the flight from New York fell behind schedule, leading to the stars of the six-some including Ben Foster, Melissa Leo, and their producer Jeremy Rosen, and writer-director John Swab waiting at Munich for the next flight after being on the waitlist for the only flight to Venice for that day.
Thinking that the likelihood of them all getting places to sit was pretty low, he made what Rosen calls an “executive decision” – a large Mercedes-Sprinter van was hired and they drove for over seven hours from Germany through the Austrian Alps into Italy.
“It was like going for a camp excursion.Only this was a camp excursion for very well-to-do kids.”, he notes other thoughts. There was also some element of risk; approximately halfway through the trip Swab recalls seeing Rosen “drifting off at the steer”. Thank goodness they had the rest of the trip by switching places.
However, all the drama and the struggle was for a reason.
Rosen and Swab received praise for their debut film King Ivory, screened at the Venice Film Festival Opening competition section a few years later. The film blends several sorrowful narratives about drug lords, addicts, gangs, and law enforcement — starring alongside Leo and Foster is Michael Mando, a central character in ‘Better Call Saul’ — and was essentially described as the ‘Traffic’ for the fentanyl epidemic.
The journey marked yet another highpoint of a rather short but fruitful creative partnership between Rosen and Swab and the expansion of their production base in Washington and now Oklahoma under Rosen’s Roxwell Films. “For the record, ‘King Ivory’ is their seventh film in five years and the longest one, the most comprehensive, and the most ambitious. We are proud to say that it’s the crowning of our efforts to date.”
The two of them first met quite by accident in a coffeehouse in Santa Monica during the 2016 American Film Market, where Swab was promoting his first feature, Let Me Make You a Martyr, and Rosen was in the city to promote for the first time on Paul Schrader’s Dog Eat Dog. A few weeks later, they were in Swab’s birthplace of Tulsa, looking for funds from rich local financiers of private equity funds. “In some shady basement… I think we got a couple of fish volatil muscles and some seafood, Rosen reminds us. It worked, and a couple of weeks later they started working on their first film together, ‘Run with the Hunted’, an action crime drama with Ron Perlman.
As a lawyer and entertainment agent for big names such as Boyz II Men, Aerosmith, Boy George and Frank Ocean, Rosen understands how priorities work: “John and I complement one another very well…We’re both antsy, so we don’t want to let the grass grow, but we don’t want to just churn out projects for the sake of it”. That’s why they sit down with unwavering goals: project moving forward without getting bogged down with insignificant things.
And that is exactly what happened. After the Grand Jury prize for the documentary “Body Brokers”, with Michael K. Williams in his final role, the team quickly filmed more projects, including the low budget “Ida Red”, “Candy Land” screened in Locarno Film Festival and “Little Dixie” and “One Day as a Lion” was released within the last year. While the action was in development, a large and stable investment gradually came in — leveling financing for the project with tax rebates and minimum guarantees from distributors.
In other words, as soon as the pressure grew stronger to arrange screener sessions each time. Rosen’s outspoken dissatisfaction is reasonable — many do not even understand why it is necessary to sell hot air, rather than just the product, and there are all ready to support the idea.
Emphasis is placed on the development of the industry and its evolution over the years. “It’s evolved, and now fortunately we’re in the mix with studios and streamers, where these minimum guarantees and credits are a lot less instrumental or live-or die,” he notes. Rosen further adds that closing the gap financing himself and being “I’m the living, breathing, walking backstop” has worked in everyone’s best interest, as they had already declined multiple domestic offers for “King Ivory” that would have put the project on hold during the actors’ strike.
Not only do they want to take advantage of the favorable tax rebates offered in Oklahoma, but there’s also the advantage of Swab’s position and connections in Tulsa which made Roxwell focus on this city as the focal point of his film productions.
There’s also a stocked Rolodex of contacts who have been helpful in opening doors, along with a trusty crew he has worked with on several different projects (a lot of whom he’s known since he was young and refers to as a “little bit of a militia”).
“We’re able to get into buildings in the middle of night, for example, because those guys love us, because we’re from here and we have their phone numbers to call police officers or sheriffs,” he explains. “Those types of relationships are one or two which we have in plenty and that’s what helps us to produce these films. For one hundred dollars, we can shoot downtown Tulsa, close it up and have a machine gun shoot out on a Sunday afternoon. You can’t get away with that anyplace else!”
However, besides the interacting elements of the setting, crew and various familiar faces that have made recurring appearances on screen like Frank Grillo who has featured in 4 movies of theirs as well as “King Ivory’s” Leo whom features 3 actors in background stars, there is something else that crisscrosses through a lot of Roxwell’s movies.
One notable recurring theme throughout the trilogy and other works of Swab is the struggle with crime, addiction, abuse and quest for redemption all of which the director is a walking testament. In fact, there came a time when Sean Baker sought out the performer from his award-winning movie “Anora,” after inquiring about the film “Candy Land,” a movie about sex workers.Swab recalls, “I had been an opiate user for almost a decade. Near the end of that era, I can remember fentanyl starting to come around and wiggling its way to the American distribution. Sadly, a couple of people who were actually close to me died from that epidemic.”
Swab made the decision to change for the better. “Some time later I got sober, found a purpose in life and started working with Jeremy who opened my eyes to the world of cinematography.”
Consequently, “King Ivory,” one of the many street names for Fentanyl, “this is by far the most personal movie” for the writer/director: “When I was almost clean for a decade, I began looking at the problem with a sober mind. I tried to interact with every type of person associated with that world: cartel members, migrants, police, prisoners and just about every other person I could find….” It was intriguing information.
As it stands, the writer depicts how thanks to early appreciation by the public and critics who embodied the Venice film festival, this film could be most important for the director and also his partner Rosen.
As the producer points out, he’s already, “Opening doors.” With the duo now, “In the mix for some studio projects with proper budget.” Further, there is also a reality in the future, “King Ivory”, which is a TV series, as Mando has already introduced the audience to his executive from Better Call Saul, Jeff Frost, the former president of Sony Pictures Television. “He’s on board with our series and he is in love with it and we are working on our pitch together,” says Rosen. The making of Lawrence’s upcoming trip to L.A. might not be futile since they might get agency representation.
But with their work looking like it is about to take a new turn, Rosen as well as Swab both who have a bunch of their own ready scripts to execute even there and then, followed a completely novel approach. A restorative one, since it’s been eight years since they have met and deterministically, yes, they have wanted to do this too.
“I mean as much as we hate letting the grass grow and sitting in still positions — I can tell you that it drives me mad — advocates pause among every possible notion that seems practical in this immediate situation,” says Swab. Not that Swab is now actually in a stationary posture, of course.
While talking, Mr. Quartin is doing a music video of The Bobby Lees’ lead vocalist and guitarist wife, Sam Quartin, who is also an actress and featured in a few of her husband’s movies like “King Ivory.” This is also their next step in making a feature film based in Oklahoma or a movie from a studio which seems very likely for them because of their great number of projects. Probably, this Venice exception will not be followed for quite a while for a filmmaking team which in less than five years made more films that many do in five years.
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