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‘The Hound of Heaven’ director on working with Hisao Kurosawa

The Hound of Heaven

Entertainment website Shadowlocked has interviewed author, screenwriter and director Nate “N.D.” Wilson, whose recent short film The Hound of Heaven was the first Kurosawa Production produced film to come out in over a decade.

In the interview, Wilson is asked about working with Hisao Kurosawa.

What was it like working with [executive producer Hisao Kurosawa,] the son of [legendary Seven Samurai director] Akira Kurosawa?

[Laughs] Stressful. He was very gracious, very kind. He could have walked away from us at any point if he didn’t like how it was going. We were Skyping with him – because he lives in Tokyo, and we’re in the North-West US – Skyping with him, showing him footage, showing him the rough cut, was very stressful. I was expecting him to destroy it. I was expecting him to destroy it, and one of our producers told us, “Man, he’s so very unkind, to any kind of artform, he destroys everything”.

So I was expecting him to say, “This is horrible, I want out of the project, I don’t want to work with you any more”, and instead he was really thrilled with it. And so, what it was like working with him was stressful and then thrilling. [Laughs] Because we’re trying to achieve a standard that’s incredibly high, and doing that for him sufficiently was quite gratifying.

You can read the full interview at Shadowlocked.

The Hound of Heaven is based on English poet Francis Thompson’s poem of the same name about a girl who believes that she is fleeing death, when she is actually running away from her only chance at life. The film was executive produced by Akira Kurosawa’s son Hisao Kurosawa, the chairman of Kurosawa Production. It stars Jason Petty, better known by his rapper stage name Propaganda, and debut actress Danielle Smith.

The 17-minute film’s official website is at HoundOfHeaven.com and you can watch the trailer below.


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