In 1992, I saw Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven." Before that, I'd never been really into western films. Though I liked "Winchester '73," "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid," "Rio Bravo," and a few other classics, they just weren't that exciting to me. But "Unforgiven" really rocked. I really dug its nihilism. I thought to myself, "Man, I'd love to write a western." But I never did. It just seemed kind of ridiculous, since I know nothing about horses, farms, prairies, or cowboy life. Over time, I've decided that it didn't matter. Story is story. After all, I didn't know anything about 1950s England before I wrote "Audrey Green."

It's taken a long time, but "The Battle for Carlyle" is my Western. Spurred on by seeing the excellent "Open Range" and the mediocre "Wyatt Earp" in 2004, plus reading the highly recommend 1985 Cormac McCarthy novel "Blood Meridian," I decided to finally just dive in.

"The Battle for Carlyle" is very typical Callahan stuff in that it blends genres. First and foremost, it's a western film. Added to that are elements of horror and action. It's a fairly big-budget script with lots of Hollywood-isms. My screenplay before this one, "Travel," was a low budget think piece; this is the complete opposite.

For a quick story re-cap, it's about a squadron of late 1800's U.S. Cavalrymen sent off to discover why everyone's lost contact with Fort Carlyle, a garrison of 500 men. When they arrive, they discover a disease has consumed much of the population of the town and the fort, making everyone turn deep black from head to toe and become horribly violent. Alamo-style, the squadron and the survivors try to stave off waves of attacking hordes and find a way to call for help. Mixed in are several big action set pieces, a light love story, and plenty of old fashioned derring-do.