{"id":1089,"date":"2012-01-25T09:54:40","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T15:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2012-01-25T09:54:40","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T15:54:40","slug":"steve-latshaw-following-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=1089","title":{"rendered":"Steve Latshaw: Following Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Steve Latshaw got an early start in the movie business. He was making headlines while still in high school by shooting comedy specials for the GE Cablevision channel.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old was featured in a Daily Review article in 1977 after making a Monty Python-like program with his friends. In the article, Latshaw was quoted as saying, \u201cI plan to do it for a career. If I have any luck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast-forward 33 years, and he is living it up in California, working as a screenwriter. In just the past few months, Latshaw has seen the release of some of the biggest projects of his career.<\/p>\n

In late 2009, \u201c1974,\u201d a documentary he coproduced about one of his favorite bands, the Beach Boys, was released. The film was made with footage shot on the road with the Beach Boys during their Midwest tour in 1974.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big dream come true for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But the biggest celebration came in November with the release of the DVD \u201cCommand Performance,\u201d a tongue-in-cheek action flick he made with Dolph Lundgren, the Swedish actor best known for his role as Capt. Ivan Drago in \u201cRocky IV.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best reviewed film I\u2019ve ever worked on,\u201d Latshaw said. \u201cA lot of my stuff has been done on the lower budget realm, and you can\u2019t help but get bad reviews on that level.\u201d<\/p>\n

He helped Lundgren write the screenplay after the action star asked him to join in on a project.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to make something that was fun,\u201d Latshaw said. \u201cIt\u2019s basically \u2018Die Hard\u2019 in a concert arena.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lundgren\u2019s character plays an ex-biker turned drummer who opens a performance by an American pop-star for the Russian president in Moscow. When the president and his family are kidnapped during the concert, Lundgren saves the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the film, Dolph really works hard to make fun of himself and his image,\u201d Latshaw said. \u201cHe just wanted to do something different that would be fun and loud and broke a lot of the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latshaw has worked in the straight-to-video tier of the movie world since 1987 when he was living in Orlando, Fla., and making full-length monster movies on the weekends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were huge home video hits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Then in 1995, he packed up his family and moved to Hollywood to break into the movie business. It took a little while for him to catch a break, but once he did, the screenwriter stayed busy making the type of science fiction and action films he dreamed of as a kid in Decatur.<\/p>\n

Latshaw started his love affair with film as an 8-year-old when he picked up his grandfather\u2019s Super 8 camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to run around in my old neighborhood on Cantrell Street near Lake Decatur and pretend we were all in a spy movie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At 16, he got a job as a news photographer at WAND, and he and his friends spent their free time making comedy shows for the local cable station.<\/p>\n

He went on to college at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he got into broadcast news for a while before finding his way back to movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the eventual direction was Hollywood,\u201d he said. \u201cI was always fanaticizing about L.A. while living in Decatur.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and his friends were known to practice their stunt man skills by staging fights on the hood of a 1968 convertible Camaro while driving down Lake Shore Drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just doing stunts to see if we could freak out the people standing outside watching,\u201d Latshaw said. \u201cNobody believed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Workman was the other stunt man Latshaw would battle on the hood of the car. Workman always expected Latshaw would end up working in movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always kind of assumed it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a pretty neat thing to be able to point to the TV or a movie and say, \u2018Hey, look, that\u2019s my friend.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Workman recently watched \u201cCommand Performance\u201d on Netflix and agrees that it\u2019s Latshaw\u2019s best movie so far.<\/p>\n

Dave Garriott, the driver of the \u201968 Camaro, said he used to spend his weekends with Latshaw watching movies and then attempting to make their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always the brains behind everything,\u201d Garriott said. \u201cHe would come up with the ideas, and we would all kind of embellish them together.\u201d<\/p>\n

He always knew Latshaw would end up working in movies, but even so he\u2019s still impressed with what he\u2019s achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a joy to see him get to where he\u2019s at now,\u201d he said. \u201cNot everybody has to be a superstar screenwriter to have success. To have anything released at all is quite an achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: Mission accomplished: Steve Latshaw followed his dream to Hollywood
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\nhttp:\/\/www.herald-review.com\/news\/local\/article_1ea77e00-0c38-11df-a3ab-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1kUBIszWI From the Herald & Review