Director Clark Richey Talks About Mysterious Circumstance: The Death of Meriwether Lewis

Clark Richey is a lifelong Mississippi native with a long-time career as a professional Mechanical Engineer. “These days, however, I’d have to say I’m mostly a writer and director of feature films. Over the last couple of decades, I pursued various entertainment interests”, says Clark.

Clark continues, “about fifteen years ago, I started acting and directing in regional theatre across north Mississippi, and that activity ultimately inspired me to renovate an historic building in my hometown into a 90-seat, live performance venue. The Claude Gentry Theatre is now a local hot spot in my area of the country where we stage a wide variety of shows and plays.”

“In 2016, we produced an original stage play that I co-wrote, The Peacemakers, A Western, says Clark. “It was and is unique, we believe, in that it was a ‘Western,’ set on stage. He continues, “There aren’t many of those. So, following our live production, we decided to create an artsy black and white feature length film of the play right on the stage. That was the birth of my production company, Six Shooter Studios. Since then, our film company has created critically acclaimed features, music videos, and documentaries.”

Watch The Trailer for Mysterious Circumstance: The Death of Meriwether Lewis directed by Clark Richey

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Our current project – on which I performed the ‘trifecta’ of writing, producing, and directing – is the soon-to-be nationally released feature film Mysterious Circumstance: The Death of Meriwether Lewis. This movie is hitting theatres in the U.S. in September 2022. 

Other than working on my own projects, I’ve also served as field producer for multiple episodes of the History Channel series The UnXplained with William Shatner, and as an actor, I appeared in the 2021 Western feature film Bastard’s Crossing, the History Channel’s Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman, and in a cameo role in Mysterious Circumstance, among other things.

indieactivity: How do you choose a project to direct?
Clark Richey (CR): So far, I’ve directed one feature film.  I certainly plan to direct more, and I have several screenplays ready. This first movie was an historic tale – the kind I like best – and it was one that I wrote myself. Something I’ve written, and therefore know from top to bottom, I expect will always take priority over other screenplays, but that’s not to say that I wouldn’t direct someone else’s masterpiece.  I’d be glad to take on a great writer’s work if it was a story that grabbed me..

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Why filmmaking and screenwriting? Why did you get into it?
Clark Richey (CR): I love the idea of bringing a story to life. Human beings are simultaneously both natural-born storytellers and sincere lovers of great stories. In fact, we all universally know many of the same historic tales by heart, stories that are millennia old. The entire movie and publishing industries are clear evidence of this ingrained characteristic of ours. So, I think the compulsion to tell a story, and to enjoy one, is innate in all of us.

Screenwriting and filmmaking are at the pinnacle of the various ways this human need can be expressed. Frankly, I’m fortunate that late in life I found the opportunity to exercise my basic human desire to ‘tell a story’ and to do so in such a grand way as making a movie.

How can a filmmaker, if he so chooses, distribute his film? How do you get it in front of an audience?
Clark Richey (CR): A filmmaker has to make a good product.  They have to make a film that at least someone in the world besides themselves, first of all, wants to pay for and, second, wants to see. And they have to be prepared to sell their idea, their film, on the front end to investors and on the back side to theatres and chains. As an independent filmmaker, sometimes it feels like you’re selling encyclopedias door to door.  But you know it’s a ‘damn good encyclopedia’. 

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So, if one door closes on you, you pack up your books and you move to the next door. If you have a good product, eventually you’ll find the right consumer who sees it the same way you do.  With ‘Mysterious Circumstance,’ we know we’ve created a good product.  We’ve seen audiences respond to it.  And we’ve been able to ride the confidence we’ve derived from that into a limited theatrical release in both independent venues and cinema chains

Is there anything about the making of independent film business you still struggle with?
Clark Richey (CR): The greatest struggle in independent filmmaking is finding financial viability for your project. And the tasks associated with that – raising funds in the beginning and trying to return revenue to investors in the end – are such major detractions from the exhilaration of the creative side of independent film that you are constantly in a quandary as to whether what you are doing is worthwhile. I am hopeful that ‘Mysterious Circumstance’ is that rare bird that breaks out of the routine. We’ve seen some great signs so far that it is.

Talk to us about your concept of collaboration?
Clark Richey (CR): I have certain ideas about plot, performance, and structure that as a director I’m just not going to waiver on. There are things about any story that are the ‘key’ elements of what make the story what it is. Those things can’t change. But I certainly listen to creative ideas from the cast and crew. In ‘Mysterious Circumstance.’ I found some very nice improvements to my original plans with suggestions from our lead actors and my director of photography Michael Williams. 

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A director is the general manager, and he has to walk the line sometimes between valuable collaboration and excessive outside input. It’s a bit of a tightrope to listen to and incorporate good ideas but also keep the train moving, especially on an independent film that has limited time and budget.

When you are offered a project, what things do you put in place to deliver a good job?
Clark Richey (CR): I’ve only been involved as the director on ‘Mysterious Circumstance,’ but as a producer, or field producer, I am always going to request the inclusion of key people that I know and trust to get the job done. When a person around me demonstrates capability, and better yet exceptionalism, I am going to remember that. When the next project comes along in which I have some authority, I’m going to work very hard to include the people who can accomplish things as a part of our team.

How do you find the process of filmmaking as an indie filmmaker?
Clark Richey (CR): The process of filmmaking as an indie filmmaker is time consuming in the extreme, alternately frustrating and rewarding. Ultimately, you hope for more of the latter than the former.

Why would you choose an actor, writer, or producer? What do you look for?
Clark Richey (CR): Talent and professionalism. One without the other is not very valuable in the indie world, at least not in my experience.

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At what period in the filmmaking process, do you need to start planning for distribution?
Clark Richey (CR): If you’ve had an indie film already achieve distribution in the past, I believe you should plan for distribution on any subsequent projects at the outset, leveraging the fact that you have a track record, before you ever go into production. If you’ve never achieved distribution, you don’t really have a choice – you have to make your movie and try to sell it after the fact.

How do you think filmmakers can finance their projects?
CR: Filmmakers can finance their projects through outside investment if they can present a business model that at least gives those investors a chance for a return. The glamour or perceived glamour of moviemaking makes it an attractive business for many people.

Describe your most recent work, or film, take us through pre, production and post production?
CR: Mysterious Circumstance: The Death of Meriwether Lewis depicts entangled versions of Meriwether Lewis’s death at a remote wilderness inn, imagined by his friend Alexander Wilson (portrayed by New Orleans actor Billy Slaughter) during a tense encounter with the only witness to the American explorer’s final night alive, Priscilla Grinder (portrayed by Amye Gousset, who is also a producer on the project).

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In 1809, Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis & Clark fame) died of gunshot wounds at Grinder’s Stand on the Natchez Trace, an isolated frontier road connecting Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi. There are various theories as to whether or not the Governor of the Louisiana Territory committed suicide, as most history books report, or if it was something more sinister. It’s a wonderful historic mystery, the kind that perfectly translates into a movie. I describe it as a mystery/thriller.

We put together a phenomenal cast and crew, an award-winning group, including our headliner John Schneider (of Dukes of Hazzard and Smallville fame), Sonny Marinelli, and a rising star of the times, Evan Williams (from Versailles, Blonde, Westworld, etc.). Evan plays Lewis.

What is your experience working on the story, the screenplay, the production, premiere, and the marketing?
CR: I wrote this story when the COVID pandemic began back in the spring of 2020. Showing the finished screenplay (completed in about a month) to several actor and producer friends and getting a very positive response, I moved quickly to attaching John Schneider, Amye Gousset and Sonny Marinelli to the project. Having quality talent attached obviously helped us get funding for the movie. Once our funding was in place, and we knew we were going to be able to proceed, we began a search for the perfect “Meriwether Lewis.”

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We found him in Canadian actor Evan Williams, one of the stars of Versailles for five seasons. Evan not only had the look we needed for the historical Lewis, he also had the acting skills to achieve the difficult portrayal of the character that our script required. We completed the cast with veteran NOLA actors Billy Slaughter and Lance Nichols and legendary football great, and a fellow Mississippian, Marcus Dupree (the subject of an ESPN 30 for 30 and the Willie Morris book The Courting of Marcus Dupree).

How did you put the crew and cast together? Did you start writing with a known cast? What was your rehearsal process and period?
CR: Our cast was specifically picked, role by role, to exactly match what I had in mind as writer/director. When I was writing the screenplay, I did have a couple of actors in my thoughts, but I wouldn’t say a part was written particularly for anyone.

What and how long did it take to complete the script?
CR: I wrote the script over about a month’s duration in 2020. It was a solo effort, but I certainly had some trusted associates read drafts and give me feedback. You’ll understand when you see the film, but the writing of this particular story, the way it was structured, had to be very precise.

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Did the right shooting schedule make it harder or easier? How did it affect performances?
CR: We required very tight controls and planning to complete our film in the shooting schedule we laid out. We had a razor thin pathway to accomplish the work and finish principal photography on time with the full story successfully captured in the footage. Not only am I the writer and director of this film, but I’m also a registered professional mechanical engineer with over 25 years of project and business management experience. That skill set was invaluable on this project. Frankly, I don’t think we could have successfully completed the film with the time and budget we had if I didn’t have my engineering background to draw on. Our ship was very tight.

What other films have you written and made?
CR: Mysterious Circumstance: The Death of Meriwether Lewis is my first feature film. And for an indie debut, it’s already been very rewarding. The movie has been named Best Feature at five festivals across the country and internationally, including the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival in Dubuque, Iowa, and the Gasparilla International Film Festival in Tampa, Florida.

Beyond that, several members of our cast and crew have been honored individually during the film’s festival run – Amye Gousset (Best Actress), Evan Williams (Best Actor), Sonny Marinelli (Best Supporting Actor), our DP Michael Williams (Best Cinematography), and our Emmy®-nominated editor Keita Ideno (Best Editor). I got a couple of Best Director nods myself.

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Amye and Sonny, in particular, have been awarded multiple times during our time on the festival circuit. All the cast members delivered stellar performances, and that is probably the number one reason we’ve had success so far. They surely made my life as a first-time director a whole lot easier.

What do you hope audiences will get from the presentation of your film?
CR: We hope to shed light on a 213-year-old mystery involving one of the greatest national heroes of his day, while also transporting an audience to a true, exciting, sometimes disturbing, historical world at the edge of the American frontier in the earliest years of the 19^th century. We want to tell a ‘big tale’ of the ‘wild, wild west’ when the western frontier in America was still east of the Mississippi River.

What are your future goals?
CR: We hope to build from ‘Mysterious Circumstance’ and continue to produce similar films on subjects that pique our creative interests. We want to make movies that are a compelling mixture of historic fiction, indisputable facts, and the grey areas in between. We want to challenge the thinking of audiences while providing them with thrilling and provocative entertainment, over and over again.

Tell us about what you think indie filmmaker need in today’s world of filmmaking?
CR: The indie filmmaker today needs money and a marketable film idea that inspires him creatively. And money.

What else have you got in the works?
CR: We have several projects in the pipeline – one funded, one partially funded, and three or four scripts ready to go. I would certainly like to make several more films with the same historic feel as ‘Mysterious Circumstance.’ It’s the kind of project that really energizes me. I could definitely get behind the idea of having my own “MCU” – the Mysterious Circumstance Universe.

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