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The long rows of rolling, green hills that compose the countryside of Southeastern Kentucky seem to stretch forever. This tranquil splendor is a true piece of rural America's heritage. But now, this rustic landscape faces certain destruction from a deadly secret that has been buried far beneath its surface for years.
Federal Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) Marshal Jack Taggart (STEVEN SEAGAL) has set out on assignment to avenge the ruthless killing of a trusted colleague. Following the murdered agent's trail, Taggart travels through the tiny hamlets that dot the hills of Appalachia to expose the people responsible for dumping hazardous waste -- lethal chemical time bombs such as dTCE, cyanide and benzene -- into abandoned mine shafts that most residents would rather forget. But some of the townspeople are getting sick, and whoever is behind the illegal dumping is protected by the silence of a town living in fear. The citizens close their eyes and shut their mouths while the quietly sanctioned industrial poisoning turns the lands surrounding their homes into a valley of death.
Working undercover as a carpenter through a local relief mission, Taggart slowly intermingles with these backwoods communities. Fixing stairs and roofs for the poor, distrustful townsfolk, he eventually becomes personally committed to the locals whose lives are endangered by the tainted terrain. While secretly searching for the shuttered coal mines, Taggart centers his investigation around mercenary mining tycoon Orin Hanner (KRIS KRISTOFFERSON), a local success story tied to the mines being used as illegal dump sites deep in the Bluegrass hills.
During his inquiry, Taggart also meets and romances Sarah Kellogg (MARG HELGENBERGER), a local outcast with a checkered past whose murdered father once worked as a miner for Hanner. Sarah shares her lonely existence with her brother, Earl (STEPHEN LANG), and the Kellogg family secrets that are as potent and deadly as the toxic burning that has been quietly raging for years.
Now, Jack Taggart struggles to avenge his colleague's death and to prevent an irrevocable ecological catastrophe that will turn this idyllic land into an uninhabitable wasteland for generations to come.
Warner Bros. presents "Fire Down Below," a Seagal/Nasso Production. Veteran television director- cinematographer FELIX ENRIQUEZ ALCALÁ makes his feature-film directing debut on the eco- thriller, working from an original screenplay by JEB STUART and PHILIP MORTON based on a story by Stuart. Seagal and his partner JULIUS R. NASSO produce the film, with veteran WILLIAM S. GILMORE and Jeb Stuart serving as executive producers.
"Fire Down Below" also stars HARRY DEAN STANTON as the town's handyman, Cotton, and actor- musician LEVON HELM as the local preacher, Reverend Goodall. Joining the film's supporting cast are BRAD HUNT as Orin Hanner, Jr. and figures from the world of country and western music: ED BRUCE as the town sheriff; ALEX HARVEY as the local bully Sims; country rocker MARK COLLIE makes his feature-film debut as Sims' sidekick, Hatch; RANDY TRAVIS, TRAVIS TRITT, MARTY STUART and PATSY and PEGGY LYNN, identical twin daughters of the legendary Loretta Lynn, also appear in featured roles.
"Fire Down Below" includes a talented team of behind-the-camera technicians, including a trio of Academy Award nominees -- production designer JOE ALVES ("Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") costume designer ROSANNA NORTON ("Tron," "The Flintstones"), and sound mixer CHARLES WILBORN ("Days of Thunder," "The Godfather, Part II," "Casino"). Joining them are director of photography TOM HOUGHTON ("The Beat Generation: An American Dream," "Close Harmony"), film editor ROBERT A. FERRETTI ("Under Siege," "On Deadly Ground") and stuntman BOBBY BROWN ("The Glimmer Man," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "Cable Guy").
About the Production...When Steven Seagal began looking for what would become his tenth motion picture project (and ninth for Warner Bros.), he turned his attention underground, literally. The star, who debuted in "Above the Law" a decade ago, discovered a script that he called, "a wonderful character piece. It reminded me of `Witness,' a film where the action is motivated by good drama and a good story."
What Seagal and his longtime producing partner, Julius R. Nasso, uncovered was a story set in the Appalachian hills of southeastern Kentucky, written by North Carolina native Jeb Stuart. The screenplay (by Stuart and Philip Morton), about illegal toxic waste disposal in the Kentucky mines, was based on Stuart's own experiences; the writer spent his college years working as a carpenter in Appalachia at a time when the illicit poisoning of the countryside was under investigation by the E.P.A.
Stuart elaborates, "People made extra money by allowing companies to dump toxic waste on their property. At the same time, there was a similar story in Germany, but the German mines are lined and the toxic chemicals dumped in them are disposed of properly."
The filmmakers soon turned their attentions to finding a director, someone attuned to the nuances of transplanting reality-based drama to the screen. Veteran television director and cinematographer Felix Enriquez Alcalá, acclaimed for his work on the multi-awarding-winning "I'll Fly Away" and "ER," signed on to direct his first feature.
While winning attention and nominations from both the Directors Guild and the American Society of Cinematographers for his television work, Alcalá acknowledges, "I'm known primarily for my work in television, so I was looking for something different. I wanted to find an action film in which to make my feature directing debut. What better way to do that than with a Steven Seagal film?"
The director likens the film to "a real classic Western. A small town is controlled by big money. And our hero, this outsider from the big city, comes to town and makes the citizens realize what they're doing is wrong. He rallies them and then it's time to fight back."
The filmmakers needed a strong and colorful cast to people this neo-classic Western.
Emmy Award-winner Marg Helgenberger was cast as the secretive local outcast, Sarah Kellogg. The acclaimed actress is probably best known to television audiences as the hardened hooker K.C. on the critically praised series "China Beach"; most recently, Helgenberger won praise for her recurring guest role on the hit series "ER."
Alcalá was also a veteran of "ER," having directed four segments of the Emmy-winning drama, but he had not worked with Helgenberger during her multi-episode cameo. He says, "I always loved her character on `China Beach,' always thought she was the strongest female character in the show. Here, she has the opportunity to play this wonderfully interesting woman who's got weaknesses, but becomes strong in the end."
"When I first met Steven, the first thing we said was, `Isn't this a great female role?'," Helgenberger recalls. "Sarah is a woman who's overcome enormous odds and has still managed to retain her dignity and grace. She's a coal miner's daughter, an outcast in this town, who's aware of what's going on -- that there is toxic waste being dumped in these abandoned coal mines."
Helgenberger dug into her role by exploring actual coal mines while on location in Kentucky. "I went into a couple of mines, five miles into one and two miles into another," she admits. "It was an incredible experience. These tunnels are 45 inches high and it's pitch black. You have to be a mole to stay down there for ten hours at a time."
Forty-year acting veteran Harry Dean Stanton was brought in to play Cotton, the town's seemingly confused handyman. Seagal asserted his respect for Stanton, the star of some 80 films, including "The Missouri Breaks," "Paris, Texas" and "Repo Man." Seagal notes, "I think acting with him is just magical."
Stage and screen veteran Stephen Lang plays the role of Sarah's brother, Earl Kellogg.
Filmmakers signed Kris Kristofferson as wealthy mining tycoon Orin Hanner, Sr. Kristofferson, the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, who most recently embodied a villainous Texas lawman in John Sayles' acclaimed "Lone Star," describes the ruthless Hanner. "The last guy I played in a movie was a bad guy. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said that when you get to a certain age, you get the face you deserve. I guess they decided mine was that of a bad guy."
The Oscar nominee (for his song score on the 1984 drama "Songwriter") adds, "I think Hanner is kind of an Ayn Rand character, carried to its logical conclusion. Rand thought that any mountain that wasn't dug into or made available to railroads or industry was a waste of land. Hanner is a self- made man who believes that the land is there to develop and pollute."
"He's a great character," Alcalá says. "Kris has usually played good characters, and I wanted this evil guy to be a very likable man. That's what makes him different."
Kristofferson, no stranger to demanding action sequences on the screen, was nonetheless relieved to hear that role did not include rough scenes with Seagal. "I was pleased to know that I didn't have to fight Steven hand-to-hand," the performer concedes. "The first day when we shook hands on the set, he said, `How are you?' and I replied, `Much smaller than you -- and older.'"
Blue Moon of KentuckyPrincipal photography on "Fire Down Below" began in the Cumberland range of the Appalachian Mountains in Southeastern Kentucky.
Jeb Stuart explains that "we scouted Southeastern Kentucky extensively when the film was first optioned. There is nothing on Earth like the Cumberlands, very different from any other area of the Appalachian Mountains."
Director Alcalá employed his skills as a cinematographer to capture some of the country's most beautiful landscapes for the production. With the coal- mining town of Hazard becoming the company's "old Kentucky home" for six weeks of production, Alcalá traveled to various points of surrounding Perry and Breathitt Counties to film the story during the resplendent fall foliage season.
Curiously, just as the film commenced production, life imitated art as local Kentucky newspapers reported an actual E.P.A. inquiry into an abandoned mine shaft outside of Pikeville (60 miles from the company's base), comparing the real E.P.A. agent, Fred Stroud, to Seagal's character in the film. When the actor heard about the agency allegations, he invited Stroud to visit the set and chatted with him about environmental issues and his work.
For two key sets, filmmakers chose spectacular natural settings -- elevated plateaus, themselves rejuvenated sites of former strip mines -- where production designer Joe Alves built, from the ground up, sets overlooking the breathtaking vistas of Kentucky's Cumberland hills: the Kellogg House and a country `cathedral.' Sarah's clapboard house was constructed on a mountain a mile above the picturesque tributaries of the Carr Fork Lake, and Reverend Goodall's Pentecostal church rose on a cliff high above the county's popular dirt track speedway.
"When I first got the script, I thought it would be more of a location type of show, working with existing locations," Alves explains. "When we couldn't find a church with any kind of view, I grabbed a book on Andrew Wyeth. I liked that look of starkness for the sets."
