Knife Fight City (1984)

## Plot

Knife Fight City is a 1984 American action movie directed by Hans Olson and Produced by Beeple Studios. Set in far-off 2008, the story follows street punk Dirk Steele as he tries to gain control of Neo New York, colloquially known as the Knife Fight City, by competing in the tournament of blades against the Champions of the city's crime and corporate syndicates.

## Cast

Casting for the movie was tough, as some who were offered the role of Dirk Steele felt the movie was too dark and gritty, while some others felt it wasn't dark enough. Kurt Russel was offered the role of Dirk, but promptly left after reading the first few pages, screaming "This is just Escape From New York! You stole the plot of Escape From New York! John Carpenter's going to sue your asses into the ground!" Coincidentally, thanks to some good lawyers and a not-at-all-paid-off judge, in lieu of a lawsuit, John Carpenter agreed to score the film and compose its catchy theme, with the condition that the director "never fucking speak to me again!"

Sylvester Stallone was also invited to star as Dirk, but was dropped from the project by the director, saying "I can't understand a goddamn word he's saying. We need someone who can talk, not do stroke speak!" When asked about this later in life, Sly did not have an intelligible thing to say about the experience.

## Production

The original script was written by an unknown man named Frank "Knife Hands" McDermot. He said the movie was partially inspired by his time as a homeless person, or as he put it "living in shopping cart housing." Frank had planned to write a script about the dangers of "hobo life," and the violence innate in that lifestyle. He has claimed to have been in over 100 separate knife fights, fighting with other homeless for things such as food, shelter, and "the sheer thrill of it." But after sneaking into a movie theater to get away from a rain storm, Frank went into a showing of "The Road Warrior." The post apocalyptic setting and the desperate ways the characters were living pushed Frank over the edge, and he started tailoring his documentary into the 80's action flick that became "Knife Fight City,"

While set in "Neo" New York, most of the footage was shot in the 8 Mile area of Detroit. This was due to it already feeling post-apocalyptic and "knife-fighty." Hence why so much of the background was green screened in. One of the hardest parts was hiding the drive by shootings and gang violence from the cameras. Sometimes shooting would have to be delayed for half a day for the crime scene people to investigate the shooting from the previous night, which is one of the reasons the movie went weeks over on shooting time. But, it did mean that all of the pools of blood seen on the streets of Neo New York were real.

## Development

The development of the film is shrouded in mystery, uncertainty, and rumors. What little information relating to the film's initial development stages that does exist either doesn't corroborate with proven, known information, or comes from untrustworthy sources. On a macro scale there is some semblance of factual information regarding development, for example, it is known and confirmed that multiple actors were approached to fill roles in the film and turned the prospect down for varying reasons, but on the micro scale little to nothing is known as of now. In turn, this has lead to a number of rumors and/or conspiracies forming around this mostly unrecorded time of the film's development.

Despite many of these rumors being completely unfounded (for example, one believed the film was purposely engineered to kill as many people as possible to see if they could get away with it), a specific rumor has crept to the forefront of popular opinion among those who are aware of the Knife Fight City movies, that being that there was a "the making-of/behind-the-scenes" created by some unknown team member who was brought on in the first stages of development who decided to try and chronicle the film's creation. It is believed by some that for a number of possible reasons - ranging from thinking the side project was never completed, to the idea that the making-of was a massive legal risk considering the shady business practices it certainly captured that Beeple Studios are infamous for - the creation never saw the light of day and was locked away with the original copy of the film. This means that if the making-of project did in fact exist, it was destroyed in the Christmas Eve studio fire of 1989 that destroyed all of the original film copies.

Despite the rumor's relative popularity among those who are fans of the film and its series, no evidence suggests the making-of film ever existed. What cast and team members that survived that have been asked about the rumor have all stated they know nothing about it, but their general opinion seems to be that it could have been possible, if unlikely. Things aren't helped by the fact that the creative higher ups of the film are unwilling to talk about the development process or claim to not remember any specific details, once again possibly linking back with the potential legal ramifications that could surface as a result. Regardless, development of Knife Fight City (1984) appears fated to remain as an unknown variable in the history of the studio's history unless a major discovery is made in the future.

## Filming

There were four different cameramen that cycled through the project. Three of them dropped out within the first five days of shooting, citing "the horror of all the blood". One of them, Jaques Bartholemew, was placed in a 72 hour mental health watch, known as being Baker Acted, after having a mental break while filming the climax. He snapped and grabbed some garden sheers left by the landscaping crew outside the lot, and began attacking the extras in the shot. He left the camera on while cutting and stabbing the innocent extras, which made it into the final cut of the film. This is the reason for the "In Memory Of" section at the end, listing the eight people who died.

The final camera man that was hired was a former war photographer credited only as "Mr. Rhodesia." The reason he was hired, according to the executive producers was "he was the one person we knew wouldn't freak out from all the violence he was shooting." Mr Rhodesia was tracked down for the 20th Anniversary Blu Ray, and said in an interview, "When you make a living getting footage and photos of child soldiers stepping on landmines and shooting up entire villages of Africans, a few people dying on the set of a movie don't phase you."

One of the ways the producers wanted to make the film seem more real was what the crew called the "Stab Lottery". Half of the knives used by actors and extras were actual knives, not props. No one knew which knives were real or fake, meaning there was always a chance an actor would have a prop knife in their hand, or a razor sharp instrument of death. The look of fear on the actors' faces was genuine. In fact, the film company was dropped from their insurance due to the amount of actual stab and cut wounds, not to mention all the deaths on set.

## Marketing

The marketing department went with one of the most innovative movies to drum up interest in a movie in the 1980s. They made a deal with Kellogs; select boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch would come with a free miniature knife. It was considered a both a big success and huge failure. While it was considered a big help in getting more seats filled in theaters, Kellogg was the defendant in five class action lawsuits due to "child endangerment", and one due to "negligent homicide". The five former were due to children cutting themselves getting the knives from the box, and the later was filed after an underground "knife fight club" was found at a middle school in Montegut, Louisiana.

## Reception

### Accolades

Roger Q-Bert and Green Sisko enthusiastically hailed it " A movie that has happened. "

After a decade long tour on the movie festival circuit, the original VHS tape was so littered with cigarette butts and dolphin urine that it was awarded the largely honorary award of 'Palmz de Stabbing' at the Canned Film Festival.