Summary: Jason Sims Puts You In Your Place is a series of conversations with creative people about how the places in their lives affect them and their work. Follow Jason Sims On Twitter by clicking here. RSS feed: Subscribe: Guest Barry Battles and creative partner Griffin Hood got started with the short film Mr. Extion (2007). The 11 minute story about two friends kicking around ideas was produced for less than three hundred dollars and screened at 40 film festivals, winning 14 awards. The following year they wrote The Baytown Disco with the intention of producing the film on a micro‐budget. “It was supposed to be my Clerks, my El Mariachi, my Evil Dead. We were going to sell our cars and put it on credit cards if necessary. We had no ties to Los Angeles and thought we’d be under the radar, but then Hollywood came calling” Battles stated. They spent the following year in Los Angeles and found their script about red neck mercenaries embraced when it was included on the 2009 Hollywood Black List. After developing the script throughout 2010 with producer Bob Teitel, William Perkins III of Lleju productions came on to finance and produce in January 2011. The film attracted an all star cast including Billy Bob Thornton (Slingblade, Monster's Ball, Armageddon), Eva Longoria ("Desperate Housewives," Arthur Christmas, The Sentinel), Paul Wesley ("The Vampire Diaries," "24"), Andre Braugher ("Last Resort," "Men of a Certain Age"), Michael Rapaport (The 6th Day, Special, True Romance), Daniel Cudmore (X2, X‐Men: The Last Stand, The Twilight Saga) In June of 2012, Berry Meyerowitz, President & CEO of Phase 4 Films, announced that the company acquired all North American rights to director Barry Battles’ highly sought‐after, action comedy THE BAYTOWN OUTLAWS (formerly titled THE BAYTOWN DISCO). Phase 4 plans to release the film theatrically in early 2013. Battles and Hood currently reside in Alabama and are working on their next project. Barry Battles Twitter
