Were you involved with the film from the start and did you have any input into the story?

I was involved from the first scripting of the short story. Producer/actor Ron Marchini called me when he had the initial script. The script was just two acts. The Cop of the Future is already living outside the police compound, he has a few adventures then drives out of town with a girl he saves. Not a complete story.

When I was brought in, I worked with Marchini and another writer and we worked out a first act where the Cop is inside the compound with his three cop buddies. They go outside on a raid, where his buddies are killed, and he is caught in a solar flare. Because the solar flare has the power to transform people exposed to it, into crazy killers, he is not allowed back into the compound.

Instead of having one girl for the hero to save, we agreed to have three girls. Meeting them one by one throughout the movie, so as to 'refresh' the story each time a new girl shows up. It also gave us something pretty to cut to with opportunities for them to create conflict.

I had the idea to do a "Wild Bunch" style shoot out at a slave market near the beginning of the story, so as to eliminate his three cop buddies after they added production value to the opening and to give us a large scale shoot 'em up scene of the four cops versus twenty gangsters, while the slave girls and customers are running around getting hit by stray bullets.  One of the slave girls would show up later as a lead, so this was a great opportunity to introducer her.

I knew that there were pop oldie sounding songs available in music libraries for a reasonable price, so I introduced a character giving the cop hero a cassette tape of these songs to play in his jeep. This gave us great production value in the credits as the two jeeps with the four cops drive through the devastation of the future to the Beach Boys sound "Surfing USA" song. The audiences probably thought the song was a real hit in the past and that it truly was the beach boys singing. Other songs were used as well.

The final scene was added to have the hero run away from the exploding police compound just as the crazies over run it, giving the movie and Adam West a chance to go out with a bang.


How did you get the job as director?

I had worked for producer Ron Marchini fifteen years earlier co-writing and directing his first movie "Death Machines", that was instantly picked up by Crown International Pictures for distribution. I had directed three other features after that on my own and had a reputation of getting them in the can on budget with big production values for the money.

Was it a tight budget? Did you have long to film?

I remember the budget was $180,000 1980 dollars. Much of that going into the salaries of the the three Hollywood stars, Adam "Batman" West, Troy Donahue, and Stuart Whitman. I worked out a stick schedule of 21 days straight, including Sundays. This would keep the crew, hotel, and food costs at it's most efficient. It also meant that I had to capture 4.2 minutes of on screen film a day to make a 90 minute feature. And we did it in exactly 21 days.

Since I've been directing action films and scenes since high school, I knew how to start an action scene, get as much action as possible, then end the scene before the sun went down. This was, by the way, the main reason the producer hired me.

Was there much research done into the post-apocalyptic genre? Were there any previous films that inspired you?

No research was done, but we were inspired by "The Road Warrior", "The Last Man on Earth", and of course "Omega Man".  We had so little money, that we couldn't even try to get the production value of these films, but we through in everything was had to give that impression.

What were the actors like to work with? Do you still keep in touch with anyone?

The three stars, Adam West, Troy Donahue, and Stuart Whitman were dreams to work with. I was a true fan of all three. And they all came with ideas for their scenes. Adam West had more on screen time than the other two, so he had more room to work with his character. He is the one that came up with and wrote the opening monologue about the ozone layer and environment. Many people have commented on "the message' of "Omega Cop". That was all due to, and only because of Adam West.  I told him so 15 years later at a celebrity show where he was signing autographs. I gave him a DVD of the movie and a photo of him and I working on the picture. He said, "Paul, you are a true gentleman."


I did not meet Stuart Whitman again, but 10 years after "Omega Cop" I saw Troy Donahue signing autographs at a show and gave him a rare poster of his movie "Parrish". He said he didn't have that one and would put it up on his wall at home because that was his favorite movie that he made. I said, "I really enjoyed him working on our movie together and he said, "Let's do another one."

I remember when Troy was sitting down relaxing outside, I approached him and did the Al Pacino speech in the scene from "Godfather 2" that Troy with in. I said, "Connie, I don't know who this Merle is, but tell him you want to break up with him. And believe me, he'll understand."  Troy said, "My real name IS Merle, and that I invited Francis Ford Coppola to be in our high school drama club.

The make up girl and I sang to him the line from "Grease" "As for you Troy Donahue, I know what you wanna do." He laughed on that one. I also asked him if he wouldn't mind being scribed with a bullet hit for his death scene. He not only said okay, he did his own backward fall of his chair. What a pro.

What parts were difficult to film?

The "Wild Bunch" scene was the most difficult with all the actors, effects, three cameras, and a two day schedule to get it all was the hardest and the most fun to film.

What were you most pleased with?

After the "Wild Bunch" scene, I would say getting those three pretty and different looking actresses was the most pleasing. Two came from Hollywood, and the beautiful Latin one was found locally in Stockton, CA where we filmed. One of the crew said she was more beautiful than Sophia Loren. I agreed with him. At least in person she was.

What was the deal with the radiation in the plot? Did it kill people or turn them into scavengers? It’s hard to tell.

Yes, we kept that kind of vague, didn't we. The solar flare turn them into crazies with bad skin, is all I can stay. I guess it got into their eyes and affected their brain. Fortunetly the hero cop hid from the flare before it peaked. Adam West's character of the chief of police, just mentioned that the solar flare "made them crazy".

How did you get cameo’s from Adam West, Stuart Whitman and Troy Donahue?

They were arranged by going to those actor's agent. The producer Ron Marchini handled all of those negotiations. I was just excited to work with them and get the larger production value that they brought to the movie and the poster.

Did you enjoy the project?

I was very exciting and satisfying, especially to work with Ron Marchini again. This was out second film together and we had learned a lot doing projects seperatley for 15 years. We both had more confidence, so could enjoy the movie making process more. The previous movie "Death Machines" was a fun, but we always had the fear of "will a distributor buy it?"  "Omega Cop" had a distributor waiting, so that pressure was off.

We deffinetly had a lot of laughs on "Omega Cop". On "Death Machines" I thought I had to show every action of the three killers, such as getting in and out of their car and walking into their mansion. But I learned a lot when I saw how slow that was up on the screen with not enough running time to cut edit it out. On the very first shot of "Omega Cop" Ron Marchini was to drive up in his jeep to the police compound. He positioned his car at a distance and got ready for the take. He suddenly yelled out, "Do you want me to drive fast or slow?"  I yelled back, "Fast! We did it slow in 'Death Machines'." He laughed and waved his hand. And that was the feeling for the whole shoot.

Many thanks to Paul for taking the time to talk to us. 

You can see what Paul is up to now on his website:

http://www.xanga.com/featurefilmdirector

And you can read our review of Omega Cop here:

http://www.post-apocalypse.co.uk/omegacop.html

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