Interview With Michael Lombardi For ‘The Retaliators’

An added bonus to any great film is a killer soundtrack. To this day, I still listen to the ones from Natural Born Killers, The Crow, Footloose, and Flashdance, among others. A memorable soundtrack gives any movie, whether the story was enjoyable or not, a little something extra to remember it by. The Retaliators takes the amazing soundtrack one step further by including some of those musicians in the film, thus making it a gory, bloody fun time. To celebrate the release of The Retaliators, I chatted with co-director, producer, and star Michael Lombardi about casting the film, how he got involved, why he wanted to be an actor, and more!

PopHorror: I loved how bloody The Retaliators is. It was a ton of fun, so I’m super excited to speak with you.

Michael Lombardi: Thank you very much.

PopHorror: You co-directed, produced, and starred in the film. What intrigued you about the script, and how did you become part of the project?

Michael Lombardi: It’s a long story, so I’ll try to make it short. Back in 2009, I had a record deal. I was in this little band, and we had a record deal. My music manager used to say—and I was living in California at the time—“Hey, you have to go write with these guys. They’re brothers, and they’re so talented and write music. Write songs.” So I used to drive from LA to southern California to write. Darren Geare and I just hit off so much. Our creative instincts were just so aligned with our tastes, and our influences, and our inspirations. So it was a really tremendous experience for me. We wrote a bunch of songs together, and I hadn’t talked to him in several years. Then I was doing a charity event, and one of the songs that I had to perform at the event—not with my band but the house band—was “When Heaven and Hell Collide.” So I called Darren after several years, and I go, “Hey man, what have you been up to?” He says, “My brother and I have been writing screenplays.” So I was like, “Send them to me immediately.” And one of them was The Retaliators, and I fell in love with it.

PopHorror: That’s super awesome.

Michael Lombardi: I fell in love with it, and to answer your question as to why I felt this desire, this passion to get the project across the finish line. It’s so funny because none of these answers are short. It’s been three years of my life. It’s like a family member. I have a lot of passion for this story and the project. When I read it, I was like, “Man, this wink at the ’80s, this beautiful small town, the beginning, a Dante-esque Gremlins-y, Spielbergian… I saw elements of Sin City and this graphic novel with the bad guy. I love that the bad guy is like The Terminator. He’s not layered; he’s just there. And then the Tarantino-ish third act and the nod to Evil Dead. I called Darren and I was like, “Dude, this is amazing!” And he was like, “Yeah, exactly!” It just really hit me. And then the character, John Bishop.

Another thing that I cannot leave out is the fact that it’s a story first. It’s a slow burn, and I really appreciated it and wanted to act in this. Like, every aspect of it. I would give the movie away if I talked about all of the things that really excited me, because there’s so much. But yeah, the story. And it’s a fun popcorn movie, right? At the end of the day. But it also will make you think, hopefully, a little bit. It does question religion, morality, justice, all those things and more that really turn me on about it and fueled me. I don’t even know how. I can’t tell you how much I learned over the last three years just to bring this thing across the finish line, no matter what. To get what I read on the screen was my goal.

PopHorror: I liked the story. I like that it’s a revenge film that any father that had something as devastating like that happen to them, that they would love to be able to do themselves. And I really liked the story part because it really motivated him to go out there. And the third act that you mentioned… Just wow!  That made up for the slow burn. That was some great kill scenes.

Michael Lombardi: That’s the payoff. It’s a slow burn, but we get there, don’t we? The movie takes these certain elements pretty seriously. I was discussing with you about morality, religion, justice, the story… it also doesn’t take itself too seriously in moments, which I think is really fun, too. And yeah, the third act is nuts! All practical effects, by the way, which is really cool.

PopHorror: That’s amazing.

Michael Lombardi: We had some amazing people work on this.

PopHorror: That’s so cool. Practical effects are always the way to go, in my opinion. There’s nothing I hate more than CGI blood. That is the worst.

Michael Lombardi: So lame. 

PopHorror: Was there anything that you were adamant about bringing to your character?

Michael Lombardi: It’s funny. Honestly, this is the first thing that popped into my head and not to send like a thespian, but truth. Like really try to work to understand a pastor beloved by his communities in a small town, wanting to help people. Where did he come from? What’s his backstory? And then fill it in with what happens, this revenge, this primal instinct, and try to make it truthful. That feeling of loss. Because I think if you can tell the truth and make it real and really try to explore those in your mind and really try to fuel yourself, and then let it go. And then just put your feet on the ground and listen and answer in the imaginary circumstance. Don’t push for anything, and then hopefully people will be along for the ride.

I was nervous being the lead of something like this because it’s a little challenging. And I remember Darren and I talked about it, and I said, “Man, it seems like it’s easier, possibly, if you come in as a supporting character, you can come and out and be amazing. But when you’re on screen the whole time, people could get sick of you.” And maybe that does happen. But at the end of the day, if you can say that you liked the film, then that means you were seeing it through the lead character’s eyes and you were with them. So that was always a challenge. I was just like, “Listen, I’m going to let all that go. The number one thing is about the work.” So do the work, and hopefully, the rest will come. And that’s still my motto with everything. Denis Leary told me that one time. I was on a show called Rescue Me about New York City firefighters post-911, and I can’t believe how much I learned from him because he was the star of the show, the producer, the co-creator. I didn’t realize it was almost 100 episodes. It was a long run. I was pretty young, but I learned a lot from him on that, that I was able to now bring to the table in this, that I maybe hadn’t realized at the time. But the bottom line is, it’s all about the work in every aspect of it, and then you’re here doing an interview with someone who likes the movie. That’s pretty cool.

PopHorror: That is pretty cool. I had read that you had started out as a musician, and then you mentioned having to perform in your band and stuff. What then made you want to become an actor?

Michael Lombardi: You know, there’s so many different things. When I was younger, I was in a few plays, like really young. And I always liked it. I always respected it. I used to watch spaghetti westerns with my dad, like Clint Eastwood. I always thought he was so badass and cool. I love music and film both very much, and actors. I was drawn to that aspect of it, but I think it wasn’t until I started storytelling with music and I was in New York studying music actually when I took this summer intensive at the William Esper Studio. This guy, Bill Esper, is one of the best. Sam Rockwell went there, Kathy Bates, Jeff Goldblum, Paul Sorvino, and the list goes on and on. In fact, while I’m talking about it… and then I’ll circle back. Marc Menchaca from the movie, he plays Jed the detective, he studied with Bill Esper as well. 

PopHorror: Oh nice!

Michael Lombardi: Yeah! So we had so much fun in these scenes together because we would just be truthful and let moment to moment play out. You do the homework but then, where does it go? Anyway, I took this summer intensive there. It was like this six week thing, and then I was like, “I love this.” And I went into their full program. I never left music because music drives so much. Again, the two go hand-in-hand, you know? I’m inspired by music as a character sometimes. In this film certainly, a huge character.

PopHorror: Not only with the musicians that are in the film, but with the soundtrack as well. This is a movie that heavily relies on music, so it seems like the perfect fit for you.

Michael Lombardi: It really was, and it’s serendipitous really. The music came in, but my goal was to make this a movie first. I really wanted it to be a film that hopefully, people in the genre liked. There’s a guy named Allen Kovac. He’s the CEO and founder of Better Noise Music. I brought him the movie and the script, and he’s like, “Okay, let’s do this.” He’s a legendary music manager. He has over 40 huge bands. He had the Bee Gees, Meatloaf. Now he’s got Five Finger Death Punch, Mötley Crüe, Ice Nine Kills, all these amazing bands. Papa Roach. So he said, “Let’s put in the bands. Let’s have some cameos throughout the movie, and let’s have an awesome soundtrack.” Because like I said, it has a wink of the ’80s and all those great soundtracks like The Lost Boys, The Crow, all those from the ’80s and ’90s, so that’s what I wanted.

It was perfect the way that it could come together in this manner, because now I had access to incredible musicians and incredible songs. We carefully put all the musicians in their roles, cast them, talked to them about it, and made sure they were, of course, comfortable and wanted to jump in. Because I wanted it to be symbiotic. I didn’t want to leech off their fan base, their built-in core audience and leech off that. I wanted movie people in our genre, who like the movie, to go, “Oh my God, that bad guy, Jacoby Shaddix. He’s so good. Let me look him up. He has a band called Papa Roach?” I want that kind of thing.

We were fortunate enough to be in FrightFest and Scream Fest, and arguably some of the most respected fests in the world, and we started getting good reviews. I was like, “Oh my God, maybe we did this!” It’s not easy. Obviously, if you had said you have this many musicians and this many songs, maybe it’s not going to be a good movie, because some people might want to pop Tommy Lee in their movie so they get people to see it. But that wasn’t the goal here. The goal was to bring a new audience to both and have it work together. But how many can be in that position? So it was fortunate.

PopHorror: It’s a great way to blend the two worlds. It’s a great way to turn non-horror fans into horror fans. What is up next for you?

Michael Lombardi: So about five or six weeks ago, I did a movie that was like a romantic comedy. So different than this, and it was so fun to be stupid and improv and do over-the-top fun things. It’s called Plan B, and Tom Berenger played my dad. That was amazing! Talk about a wealth of information and stories.

 

Thank you so much, Michael, for taking the time to speak with us. Be sure to check out The Retaliators, in theaters now!