I recently had the opportunity to speak with Brett Bentman, director of the new film 90 Feet From Home featuring WWE Hall Of Famer Shawn Michaels. Two of Bentman’s other upcoming films also feature professional wrestling stars, with Dustin Rhodes set for Cutter Bill and Rhodes, R-Truth and Kevin Nash rounding out the cast of Thunderclap! Bentman explained the premise of the latter, saying Rhodes is in the title role playing an aging wrestler that becomes a mentor to an awkward teenager.
“Thunderclap! is a really cool story. It’s a story about an aging wrestler, Van ‘Thunderclap’ Tenner, who is played by Dustin Rhodes. He’s an aging wrestler who’s past his prime and works in a museum fixing it up, and he takes this really nerdy, out-of-touch with himself 17-year-old kid and tries to build his confidence by teaching him how to be a wrestler. It culminates at the end of the summer with him working a match in his high school auditorium in front of the entire town—the school, the bullies that have been making his life hell.
Dustin will star in that as our main lead, Ron [R-Truth] comes in as our eccentric—if you want to call him that, that might not be the best word for it—wrestling promoter, and Kevin [Nash] has an interesting role. Kevin plays an ex booker that is way past his years as well, going across the country setting up these autograph signings at VFWs. Those are the three wrestlers we have in that film and it’s rounded out by people you’ll see week in, week out on TV shows. We’ve got a great balance for that because it’s not a traditional wrestling film, but there’s quite a bit of wrestling in it. I think there’s a good mix and I’m excited to start that project later this year as well with those guys.”
Dustin’s other film with Bentman is called Cutter Bill, described in the synopsis as ‘a story of Texas thieves’. Bentman explained how the project was presented to him and the real-life inspiration behind it.
“Cutter Bill is the name of the film, we’re going to be shooting here in August in Texas again. Dustin’s on the team again, we’ve got a great cast. One of the things that’s really prevalent in the North Texas area is something called the Cowboy Mafia. It took place in the ‘80s and ‘90s and it’s a really interesting story that was brought to my attention by one of my amazing producers, and she was obsessed with this story about this ranch and how drugs were being brought in on shrimping boats and distributed here in North Texas. They were hiding them in hay and actually inside horses, things like that. When we were developing the project and talking to investors—Dustin just has this really interesting look and he’s got this really interesting voice—he’s going to be starring as one of the thieves that’s trying to dig up $80 million of Cowboy Mafia money. It’s a really cool story; it’s just a cool Texas story and there’s a huge twist to it. It’s going to be a blast.”
