By Danny Stewart.
While Rollerball was an inspiration [when writing the film in the 1970s], another major one was Rocky, [which] focused more on endurance, courage, and the punishment the main character endured rather than his skill.”
–David Webb Peoples
The interview below was excerpted from Saluting The Blood of Heroes: Behind The Apocalyptic Film (BearManor Media, 2024).
The American screenwriter and film director David Webb Peoples was born on February 9, 1940, in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. He is particularly notable for his work on the screenplay of the noir science fiction film Blade Runner (1982), which he co-wrote with Hampton Fancher. Additionally, he wrote the script for the dystopian science fiction film Twelve Monkeys (1995), which was inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 short film La Jetée. Peoples also directed and wrote the screenplay for the post-apocalyptic film The Blood of Heroes aka The Salute of the Jugger (1989), as well as the screenplay for the revisionist western Unforgiven (1992), directed by Clint Eastwood, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director, with Peoples receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
Below Peoples discusses creating the concept of The Blood of Heroes, starring Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, and Vincent D’Onofrio.
Did you write the screenplay for The Blood of Heroes A.K.A. The Salute of the Jugger in the 1970s? If so, I’d like to know where the inspiration for the film came from?
I think some of it was generated from, now let me be very clear, the short story that was published [I think in Esquire]. I may be wrong, but it was a published short story called “Rollerball.” And this is long before the movie came out. But it was a terrific short story. And it kind of energized me and got me thinking that way. So, I started writing and in the first versions of The Salute of the Jugger, the Juggers had rusted prosthetic arms, like old steel arms. And at least one position had a tiger on a leash as one of his weapons, and the other team obviously had another animal. So, it inspired me to start working on it. Eventually, it turned into what is The Salute of the Jugger, and this was in the 70s.
When you ask about the inspiration behind this story, Rollerball was an inspiration, although I didn’t like the business aspect of it. However, another major inspiration was Rocky. The film Rocky focused more on endurance, courage, and the punishment the main character endured rather than his skill. The makeup in the film was also incredible for its time; it made him look like he had the shit beaten out of him. I thought that this would be a makeup-heavy film that would amaze people. I believed that what I was writing would be a big hit. Unfortunately, it didn’t get made for many years, and later on, I became the director. But at the time, I thought, “Oh, this is going to be hot.” You always think that when you’re starting a script, and both Rocky and Rollerball played a role in that.
Even though it’s a post-apocalyptic film, it’s a sports film. It goes back to that Rocky element, the underdogs, and standing up.
Absolutely. It goes to my admiration for athletes. I’m not an athlete. And I have a granddaughter who is, and she’s like a Jugger, but I’m not. I am very admiring of athletes and their endurance, toughness, and guts. I admire their skill and stuff, but the main thing is their heart.
Journey of the 14 Presidents, and The Salute of the Jugger were written back in the 70s, which is when things should have happened on those scripts. They would have been fresh and would have been a breakthrough….”
Have you seen Quintet, the post-apocalyptic science fiction movie directed by Robert Altman and starring Paul Newman? It shares similarities with The Salute of the Jugger, as both films revolve around a fictional post-holocaust game.
No, I remember hearing about it and hearing about the subject. And I just don’t remember the movie. I think I’d already written Jugger at that time. But I’m not sure. So, I don’t know. I just remember that it was there. And it had a similar subject. And I just don’t remember if I ever saw it or not.
Was directing the film always your aspiration?
It was a film I thought to possibly to direct, but I was more interested at that time in writing films. So, I just went on to the next one. Then I kept on writing and editing. I was still making a living as an editor in the late 70s. My first response was, I hadn’t done the brilliant job as a director that I thought I was going to do. I’d had Tony Scott attached to be the director for a while. But we had some story disagreements, and Tony moved on to other things. And it would have been better if Tony Scott had directed because he’s a class director, and I was a beginning director. So when it came out, it was not the job I’d intended to do, no fault of anybody but me. I had all the support I could want, a great producer, great cast, the budget, and if I did it after three more pictures, I would do it a lot better. I was a first-timer, and I think it shows in the picture. And that disappointed me.
Another thing that disappointed me was that it was 10 years later than I wanted it to be. I’d written it in the late 70s. And that’s when I wanted it to come out. At that time, when your makeup stuff would have been new to people. Not old and all of that stuff. So in both cases, Journey of the 14 Presidents, and The Salute of the Jugger were written back in the 70s, which is when things should have happened on those scripts. They would have been fresh and would have been a breakthrough kind of thing. And as it was, it was a little different from other pictures. I hadn’t seen Terminator when I was writing Jugger. But later, seeing Terminator, what I loved about it was it raised the film above the genre. In other words, people who liked that genre would go see it. But people who didn’t like that genre would go see it because it stepped up. I mean, it’s just like when Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist stepped up, and they weren’t just run-of-the-mill horror films for a genre crowd. They were main things that grabbed all the audiences.
Editor’s note: Peoples’ film also inspired the creation of the sport jugger, also discussed in Stewart’s book.
Saluting The Blood of Heroes: Behind The Apocalyptic Film is available from BearManor Media.
Danny Stewart is the author of the Rondo Hatton Award-nominated Soldier: From Script To Screen and the author of War Is Hell: Making Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (both from BearManor Media). He also served as executive producer of the documentary Cleanin’ Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters.