FAQs

An interview with Writer/Director Martin Whitehead

Q:  Tell me a little about your film.

A:  In The Promise Keeper a supernatural entity threatens the lives of three attorneys through the use of their drives and compulsions.

Q:   Is the film based on a true story?

A:  Our film springboards from a 2,000-year-old African tradition [of] nail fetishes. We ask the question — what would happen if a powerful, malevolent Promise Keeper entity made its way from Africa to the Caribbean to a thoroughly modern Chicago law firm? Where of course…

Q:  Lawyers!

A:  Right. Where the lawyers couldn’t keep a promise if their lives depended on it.

Q:   Sounds cool.

A:  After the statue arrives, promises are made, and the lives of the law firm partners start to unravel.

Q:   And then…

A:  One of the partners is killed. It falls to our hero Bernard to unmake the entity. As Bernard starts to unravel the mystery, he finds out that his 14-year-old daughter Tina has made a promise. At that point in the film, the lives of everyone that Bernard loves depend on what he does next!

Q:   Cool. Ok. So, this film was made in Chicago.

A:  This film was written and produced in Seattle, filmed in Chicago, with postproduction in Chicago and New York.

Q:   How long was the shoot?

A:  We shot the film during a three to four week period. All preproduction and principal photography took three months.

Q:   How did you find your cast and crew?

A:  We found the majority of our cast and crew through the Internet.

Q:   Is that unusual?

A:  Well, the film was shot in Chicago, some of the scenes at my brother’s law firm, and we used WEB Sites like Mandy.Com and Craigslist.org to find and recruit talent.

Q:   How was that?

A:  Yeah. It worked out great. Modern technology really made this film.

Q:   How so?

A:  Well, first we shot on high-definition video which proved to be an affordable, fast option for us versus film.

Q:   Is high-definition video a new technology?

A:  Well. Newer. Filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez [editors note: Spy Kids & Sin City] and George Lucas [Star Wars Revenge of the Sith] are using it all the time.

Q:   How else has modern technology helped the film?

A:  As I suggested, the Internet made it possible to find the best Chicago area cast and crew in a fraction of the time it would have taken even two years ago.

Q:  Well, let’s move on. I understand that there were a number of unexplained events that happened on the set.

A:  Well, I guess.

Q:   After The Promise Keeper statue arrived.

A:  Well, there were some equipment failures we couldn’t figure out. Some “ghost images” if you will, in some of the dailies. Oh, and the fire alarm on one of our sets.

Q:   There was a fire?

A:  No, there wasn’t a fire, just a fire alarm. I was never quite sure...

Q:  I understand that a member of your crew believed he was cursed and had a nervous breakdown on the set.

A:  Hey. That’s unfair. That’s overblown.

Q:   Well, can you clear it up? Did somebody have a breakdown on your movie set? What happened?

A:  I don’t have any further comment on this.

Q:   Well, what else can you tell me about The Promise Keeper curse?

A:  There’s no such thing as a promise keeper curse. Thanks.