A "Hell" Of A Ride

Tuna rolls and seaweed salad don't exactly scream bad-ass biker flick, but sushi was on the menu at the "Hell Fire" pre-midnight Sundance premiere dinner at the Heineken Green Room Monday night. Among the raw food revelers were writer/director/producer Larry Bishop, co-stars Dennis Hopper, Eric Balfour, and Cassandra Hepburn, a gray Polo shirt-clad Harvey Weinstein, and executive producer Quentin Tarantino, who joked he was wearing a red-and-white "Michael Madsen" shirt to the flesh-and-blood Michael Madsen before ducking out of being interviewed ("I'm done!"). Luckily, Bishop was in a more talkative mood. "Sundance is really hitting me the right way," said the multi-hyphenate performer. "Everything that I've been told about the festival, so far, has been right on the mark. The Robert Redford breakfast, with me and a hundred directors, was particularly cool. He gave a great speech about the purity of filmmaking; who knew Robert Redford was so eloquent?"

Bishop was equally praise-worthy of the instigator behind his satanic biker revenge film. "Oh, I met Quentin six and a half years ago, and the first night I met him, he said, 'This is your destiny, Larry,' said Bishop, who was introduced to Tarantino by an actress friend who was on a date with with the notorious B-movie fan. "He had seen me in some motorcycle movies as a kid, and told me I was destined to write, direct, and star in a motorcycle movie. I never took it that seriously, but now, even though I've got to wait until the writer's strike ends, I'm interested in continuing this, with Michael: 'Hell Ride, Vol. 2!'"

Comments

[wuster]

Mr. Tarantino spent an extraordinary amount of time discussing whether the film would be listed under "H," for "Hell Ride;" or "Q," for "Quentin Tarantino presents Hell Ride."

Perhaps working in a video store for so many years made the question seem important.

In addition to snubbing the reporter in this story, as above, he also kicked some hapless soul off his table.