New York Comic Con 2017: Dean Devlin Unveils New Crime Thriller, by Andrew Benjamin

At this year’s New York Comic Con, one of the first panels to be presented was a reveal of director/producer Dean Devlin’s new movie, Bad Samaritan. The longtime producer, whose credits include Independence Day, Godzilla, and Stargate, is making his second foray into the world of film directing. His first film is the upcoming disaster film Geostorm.

According to IMDB.com, Bad Samaritan is “about a pair of burglars stumbling upon a woman being held captive in a home they intended to rob.” The panel debuted the trailer to the film and after the panel, press were invited to a roundtable where Dean Devlin and main star Robert Sheehan talked about their upcoming movie. Both were mum on in depth details of the film’s plot.

The prolific producer said he first read the script when writer Brandon Boyce was soliciting advice on his spec script. Devlin said Boyce “called me up and he said ‘Would you read the script and give me some advice?’” Devlin read the script and he had some simple advice for Boyce.

“My advice is don’t show it to anyone else because I am buying it from you right you.’”

Devlin is most well-known for his partnership with director Roland Emmerich with the two producing many big budget action movies. While he said he will blow something up in the movie, it’s going to focus more on the characters, something he admitted that past movies he was involved with may have missed.

“I’ve made big movies that worked and big movies that didn’t work. And when they didn’t work it’s cause I didn’t pay enough attention to the characters,” he reflected. “You can have all the expensive effects in the world. If you don’t care about the character, you don’t care about the movie.”

This will be lead actor Robert Sheehan’s second time working with Devlin. They worked on Geostorm and Devlin said he asked the writer to rewrite the lead specifically for Irish born actor.

“I was just crazy about him as an actor,” he said. “I begged him to do this part and he agreed.”

Sheehan said he saw the finished film and he thinks it will have the audience reflect on the moral dilemmas the characters are faced with.

“This is a film where everyone who watches it goes ‘Would I do the same thing in this scenario?’ he said. “It’s twisty turny drama like that that I absolutely love.”

Former Doctor Who David Tennant is also part of the cast, appearing to play the antagonist of the film.

Devlin, who said he was a huge fan of British sci-fi show, said he “always to work with [Tennant].”

“He agreed to do a Skype call with me and I was wearing a Doctor Who shirt. He overlooked all that and agreed to do it.”

The experience of making the film his own way, Devlin said, was something he really needed.

“It was such a refreshing experience to make a movie in a really pure way. There was no outside influences whatsoever, we financed the movie ourselves, we shot it with our crew in Oregon and I got to work with two of my favorite actors in the world,” he said.

“Bad Samaritan” does not have a finalized release date, but Devlin says the movie will come out in the first quarter of next year.