Directed by Gary Jones
Produced by Jeff Miller and Gary Jones
Written by Jeff Miller & Gary Jones & Jason Ancona
ORIGIN OF THE FILM
Paul Bunyan is one of the most famous characters in North American folklore. He and his companion, "Babe the Blue Ox," are featured in tall tales of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bunyan was a lumberjack of great size and skill, rumored to be so tall that "his footsteps created the Great Lakes. He "dragged his axe and made the Grand Canyon."
Many states have statues, tourist attractions, festivals, and even football rivalries dedicated to the popular character.
BUNYAN is the first feature from company Kinetic Filmworks, founded by Jeff Miller and Gary Jones. Jeff and Gary have many years in the film business. They had been introduced through a mutual friend, actor Gunnar Hansen ("Leatherface" from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), with whom both Jeff and Gary had made films. Jeff and Gary eventually decided to form their own production company with an eye toward making genre films.
Jeff came up with the idea of BUNYAN while brainstorming at Solar de Cahuenga, a coffee shop in Hollywood, CA. He thought "What if Paul Bunyan was a real person, only he wasn't the nice guy everyone made him out to be?" He scribbled down a couple of lines of an idea, then later, at the same coffee shop, pitched the idea to Gary, who was instantly struck by it. The two then began to outline the rest of the story and decided to make it the first film for Kinetic.
After several drafts of the script, the movie went into production. It has shot in several locations over three states -- California, Ohio, and Michigan.