Howard Spence (Sam Shepard) has seen better days. When he was younger he was a
movie star, mostly in Westerns. At the age of sixty, Howard uses drugs, alcohol and
young girls to avoid the painful truth that there are only supporting roles left for him to
play. After yet another night of debauchery in his trailer, Howard awakens in disgust to
find that he is still alive, but that nobody in the world would have missed him if he had
died.
Howard gallops away on his movie horse in full cowboy regalia; fleeing from the film
and his life.
At an old train station, Howard trades in his costume for the shabby clothes of an old
ranch hand (James Gammon) and travels to Elko, Nevada, the place that he ran away
from years before and where his 80 year-old mother (Eva Marie Saint) still lives.
Mom takes him in and treats him as if he were still a boy. Perhaps Mom realizes that
Howard is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Meanwhile, the film shoot that Howard has abandoned is in chaos over his absence. The
insurance company hires a private detective, Sutter (Tim Roth), to find Howard.
Mom tells Howard that more than twenty years ago a young woman called her up trying
to locate Howard. Mom figured that the girl was pregnant. Howard is shocked at the
thought that he has a grown child somewhere. This child could be a ray of hope, a
possible salvation from his narcissistic and meaningless life. When Sutter appears in
Elko, reminding Howard of the reality he has escaped from, he flees again, this time to
find his child
His destination is Butte, Montana, the location twenty five years earlier where Howard
shot the movie that made him a star. It was also where he had an affair with Doreen
(Jessica Lange) who then, and now, is the waitress at the local coffee shop. She has a son,
Earl (Gabriel Mann), a rock musician and singer living in Butte with his girlfriend Amber
(Fairuza Balk). Howard’s meeting with Earl is violent and unsettling. Earl completely
rejects this unknown father who appears too late in his life. Saddened by this encounter,
Howard is ready to give up and leave Butte again, when out of nowhere a young woman
named Sky (Sarah Polley) appears. She is exactly the same age as Earl. She is, in fact,
Howard’s child, the product of another short fling that happened during the filming of the
same movie. She is Earl’s half-sister. These siblings do not know about each other.
That’s when the real complications of this American family reunion begin...
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
An old scrapbook. A vintage Packard. An urn filled with ashes. A couch in the middle
of a sidewalk.
Everyday objects such as these might be overlooked in many films, or perhaps briefly
considered as reflecting a plot point or symbolizing a character’s emotional state. But in
the films of Wim Wenders, director of DON’T COME KNOCKING, these elements help
construct the landscape of the story. Memories, relationships, images, emotions and
objects flow into each other, and come alive through the sensitive and vivid renderings of
very human characters experiencing remarkably frightening and honest moments of
enlightenment.
The hero of DON’T COME KNOCKING is such a character. Once upon a time, Howard
Spence (played by Sam Shepherd, who also wrote the screenplay) was one of
Hollywood’s hottest movie stars, his rugged good looks and quiet charm landing him
All-American roles in westerns. Now approaching 60, Howard is on the set of his latest
film when he decides he’s had enough and simply leaves. A short stay with a mother he
hasn’t seen in thirty years (Eva Marie Saint) leads to the revelation that Howard might
have a son in Butte, Montana, where thirty years before he made his first film and had a
short affair with a local waitress named Doreen (Jessica Lange). Arriving in Butte – just
ahead of the “bounty hunter” that has been hired to bring Howard back to the movie set
(Tim Roth) – Howard tries to reckon with his past while dealing with the very present
problem of speaking to a family that he’s never known. “The story is about so many
things,” says Shepherd of the script that he and Wenders developed over the course of
four years. “It’s about estrangement more than anything. It’s about this strange,
American sadness that I find, the alone-ness they feel. We don’t know each other in
America, we don’t even know who we are, we just don’t. I’m haunted by that American
character, and that strange, strange lack of identity.”
Imagining Shepherd – one of his generation’s finest and most respected playwrights, as
well as a noted actor – as Howard Spence was an early decision by both Shepherd and
Wenders, who worked together as screenwriter and director two decades ago on the
critically acclaimed “Paris, Texas.” “That was an ideal filmmaking experience,” says
Wenders, “so much so that we both shied away from repeating it, it was so perfect.
Then, after about twenty years, we felt it was long enough and we should try again.”
“Back then, I kept begging Sam to play the lead in ‘Paris, Texas,’” Wenders recalls today
with a smile, “but he didn’t want to. This time, it was Sam himself who said that he
thought he could play it.” “Playing Howard was in the back of my mind when we
started,” Shepherd admits, “and the more I worked on it, the more I wanted to do it.
With our first film, I didn’t feel confident enough as an actor to pull that off, and I
thought Harry Dean Stanton was far better for the role. But in this case, I thought maybe
I should try it.”
As Wenders and Shepard discussed the story and the character together, they changed
Howard’s occupation from being a banker to being an aging actor. “It’s not a story about
a film star,” says Wenders, “he just happens to be a film star. Although perhaps it’s easy
to imagine that a movie star like Howard has a useless life, and would be seeking some
meaning.” Another crucial element for Wenders became the location of Butte, Montana.
“I thought of the story in terms of one character and the idea of the place, of Butte,”
Wenders says. He’d visited the city before and admits to secretly hoping that no other
filmmaker would put it in a film: “No one’s been here to make a film in years,” Wenders
exclaims with incredulity. It was Sam Shepard who suggested that the scenes with
Howard’s mother be set in Elko, Nevada, a town that retains its western heritage while
still trying to be modern. Finally, the desolate flats outside of Moab, Utah provided the
ideal location as the setting for the film that Howard is starring in as the story begins.
“Growing up in Germany, westerns were my favorite films,” says Wenders. “Everything
was so narrow and civilized in Central Europe, but the idea of these empty spaces out
west was so thrilling. These movies proved that places like that really existed.” Wenders
has made several films in America, but even his early work in Germany seems to reflect
the wide-open spaces and possibilities of an “American” landscape: from the short
“Three American LP’s” (where Wenders and playwright Peter Handke discuss their
favorite rock and roll albums while on a road trip on a German expressway) to his
landmark “Kings of the Road” (about two truckers), Wenders has always had a sense of
the epic wonder of the outdoors that seems particularly endemic to the American west.
Finding the ensemble to fill out this landscape resulted in what Wenders now considers
an ideal cast – “I’ve never had a better ensemble in my life.” Wenders knew early on
that Shepard’s real-life spouse Jessica Lange would be great for the role of Doreen, but
her schedule forced them to look elsewhere. After different financial arrangements
forced Wenders to delay shooting, Lange’s schedule opened up and she quickly agreed to
take on the part. “Wim and Sam seem to share this tremendous sensitivity to loneliness,”
Lange says of working with the two men. “Sam is the storyteller in words, Wim is the
storyteller in images, and they have almost this psychic connection which you wouldn’t
expect, with Sam being from the American West and Wim from Europe.” As for getting
to play Doreen, Lange was thrilled to have a chance to bring one of Shepherd’s
characters to life: “His dialogue is almost like jazz,” she says, which offers the
performers a tremendous amount of room for interpretation and nuance. “There’s a
humor that doesn’t always come across on the page, but it’s there when you play it,” she
explains. “What’s wonderful about Doreen is she’s actually a really happy woman. She
has a son she adores, and she doesn’t harbor any resentment until this guy shows up and
won’t leave her alone. That makes her a very interesting character to play.”
It was also obvious to Wenders that Eva Marie Saint was the ideal choice to play Mrs.
Spence, the mother Howard hasn’t seen in thirty years. Watching them read together,
Wenders was convinced they were believable as mother and son, although one other
factor weighed into Wender’s casting decision. “Eva Marie Saint drove herself to the
meeting,” he remembers, “and I saw her driving away and she had a bumper sticker that
said ‘Get off the phone or get off the road.’ When I found out that she had been the one
who designed and marketed the bumper sticker, then I knew she was the one to play
Howard’s mother.”
A film veteran for nearly sixty years, Saint was delighted to get the chance to work with
both Shepard and Wenders. “I have, as most people do, a ‘thing’ about Sam Shepard,”
she admits coyly. “It’s that crooked tooth, you know, and the blue eyes. But he’s one of
those people that lives up to his image and beyond when you meet him.” A admirer of
Wenders’ films, Saint found Wenders’ relationship with his actors to be productive and
liberating: “He says very little, but when he does, he’s right on the mark – and it’s
interesting. Actors need that. You think you have it all worked out and then he’ll say a
few very specific words, and you think why didn’t I think of that? He’s just wonderful to
work with.”
Three younger performers – although each of them hardly new to filmmaking –
expressed similar enthusiasm at the possibility of working with Sam Shepard and Wim
Wenders. “I’m not sure how many people who have become legends manage to be so
generous and curious,” says actress Sarah Polley. “Wim Wenders is one of my favorite
filmmakers, probably one of three people I have been really desperate to work with. I
grew up with ‘Paris, Texas’ and ‘Wings of Desire’ is a film that my family watches
together all the time.” Polley plays Sky, another “outsider” in Butte who arrives in town
carrying the ashes of her recently deceased mother in an urn, and hoping to connect with
her own missing past. “I think a lot of the other characters are looking inward and
exploring themselves,” Polley says, “whereas Sky’s exploration is in the form of asking
questions and noticing things on the outside.” In earlier drafts, Shepard and Wenders had
toyed with the idea of making Sky part-Native American, but Polley forced them to
reconsider: “I was so impressed with her performance in a film called ‘My Life Without
Me.’ From the moment I found out she was available,” says Wenders, “I knew Sarah was
it.”
It also helped that Polley got along so well with Gabriel Mann, who plays Howard’s
estranged son, Earl. As Sky insinuates herself in the reunion between Earl, Howard and
Doreen, the characters discover unexpected connections and affinities. “Sarah and
Gabriel worked together so well from the beginning,” remarks Wenders, “it felt so
natural and true.” Like Polley, Mann was thrilled to get the chance to work with two of
his artistic heroes. “In fact,” Mann remembers, “at my audition, I brought one of Wim’s
books with me so he could autograph it. I didn’t care if I got the part or not, I was more
excited that he signed that book for me!” Mann’s ability to sing helped cement him in
the part. Wenders and composer T-Bone Burnett had planned on dubbing Earl’s singing
voice in two scenes at a local bar where Earl is performing, but Mann surprised them
with an impressive musical ear. “I really grew to understand this character through the
music, it gave me a way in to the rest of the story. Earl’s a guy who has resigned himself
to his fate, and then in the space of a couple of days his world is turned completely
upside down and suddenly he has to take action.” Echoing Lange’s comments about
Shepard’s gift for dialogue, Mann points out that Shepard himself is a lifelong musician
and drummer. “His writing is a lot like percussion,” Mann explains, tapping out a
rhythm with his fingers.
The supporting role of Amber was given to actress Fairuza Balk. It’s hard to believe that
it has been twenty years since Balk made her big screen debut, but the seasoned veteran
was relieved to finally get a part with some comic potential. “When I met Sam, he said
‘I’m glad you’re here because you are filling it in for me … because I didn’t know how
to write Amber.’ So we got to flesh it out together and it got sillier and sillier. It’s so
much fun to do comedy and make people laugh. I’ve never had the opportunity to do
that because almost all of my parts have been dramatic.” Playing the flighty Amber (“I
try real hard not to call her an ‘airhead’” Balk admits) also afforded the actress the
opportunity to work with the same team who had made one of her favorite movies
growing up. “It’s just about as brilliant of a combination as any actress could ask for,”
she says of working with Shephard and Wenders. “I literally jumped up and down when
I found out I got the part, because when I was young and living in London I was obsessed
with ‘Paris, Texas,’ I must have seen it twenty times. Gabe and Sarah and I were talking
together the other day and saying ‘Is this actually happening to us?’ That’s such a great
feeling, and it makes you want to do great work every day.”
Rounding out the cast is Tim Roth, who plays the role of Sutter, the no-nonsense
representative from the bond company who has been retained to bring Howard Spence
back to the set. Because of the film’s complex pre-production history, several actors
were at one time considered for the part. “Wim came to me, I was his last option,”
recalls Roth dryly. “It had fallen apart with various other actors, so he probably found
my number in his book somewhere so he gave me a call and said ‘Read this really
quickly.’” In fact, Wenders had cast Roth in a cameo in “Million Dollar Hotel” and
instantly warmed to the idea of making Sutter a foreigner, way out of place in the dusty
American west.
We started production of our first independent horror film - Diablero. Written by Nicholas Lovecraft, Diablero is a chilling tale of the legend of the Diablero - meaning "evil shaman" in the language of the Sonarian Indians of North America. 
