Arkansas Traveler – new article & more pics from the trailer shoot

KansasCity.com has a nice, long article about Arkansas Traveler here and they also posted a bunch of pictures from the trailer shoot.

A native of North Carolina and long a Civil War buff, Bridgers almost a decade ago began writing a screenplay about a fictional Confederate officer named Waylon McClawhorn, who in the last days of the conflict escapes a Union POW camp in Illinois and makes his way down the Mississippi and back to his home in Arkansas.

Along the way, Waylon encounters bad men of various stripes — whom he ruthlessly and efficiently eliminates — and reluctantly picks up fellow travelers such as the abused Myrtle (Bettis). Sometimes, Waylon gets advice from a shadowy figure named John Bass (Bridgers wrote that role for himself).

“Waylon’s got the Civil War version of post-traumatic stress syndrome,” the bearded, boyish-looking Bridgers said. “He hallucinates this specter that tells him what to do. Basically, John Bass is Waylon’s subconscious.

“In the end, it’s all about Waylon’s redemption, about how he rejoins the living.” (…)

“Sean gave me his script when we were both on ‘Deadwood,’” Dillahunt recalled. “I was really surprised. Good writing is hard to come by. It’s a sign of how much people like this script that they’ll work free to make it happen.”

Dillahunt said he jumped at the chance to play Waylon McClawhorn, if only in the trailer.

“I wish I had a high enough profile that just by my getting involved something like this could get made,” he said. “It’s important to me that it gets made. Doesn’t even matter if I’m in the finished film.” [KansasCity.com]

For more pics, go to Wide Awake Films’ Facebook page.