James T. North makes his feature directorial debut with Filthy Animals, a crime-western thriller about two misfits who hunt down sexual predators on Christmas Eve. In the piece below, he describes finding the perfect car for the film… and losing it.—M.M.

I knew when I was planning to make Filthy Animals in the South Bay of Los Angeles and show the beautiful landmarks in the place that I grew up, my leads had to look good getting around. What I didn’t know, however, is the car I chose would almost kill my lead actors multiple times… and then disappear.

I was originally going to use my friend’s Dodge Challenger because I wanted a car with some muscle. But a month before our shoot, I was in a grocery store parking lot when an old-school 1973 Mercury Brougham pulled into a lot. I took this to be a sign from the film gods, so I went up to talk to the owner, Geo Dayrit. I could tell by the way he was dressed he was likely a mechanic.

Right away, Geo was open to sharing the details of his car. I could tell this vehicle definitely had some grit, and aesthetically I thought it is exactly what the movie needed. I assumed that since Geo was driving the car that it would be fine for the shoot. So, I asked, “How do you feel about putting this beauty in a movie?” He was gracious and very open to the idea. So, we began planning his involvement — and using the Brougham.

Also Read: The 15 Most Beautiful Movie Cars

A few weeks prior to filming, Geo came to my house with the car to discuss logistics and for a test drive with my two lead actors, Ryan Patrick Brown, who plays Freddy, and Austan Wheeler, who plays Lars. Also present was my associate producer, Shun Muroyama, who was filming a documentary on the making of Filthy Animals.

Geo showed us how the car ran, how to drive it, and what to watch out for. Underneath the car, a Monster Energy drink can was attached to the muffler. The car was turning like a giant boat and not matching the feel of when you would turn. You might say that these were more signs from the film gods… to not use the car. But I stuck with it.

We took it for a test drive. Because space was limited in the car, Geo stayed back at the house. Austan took the wheel with Freddy in the passenger seat, and Shun and me in the back. As Austan started to drive the car away from my house, he was excited and said, “Now let’s open this up!” He stepped on the gas and drove faster.

Because of the blind spot on the car and because we were going up a hill, he didn’t see another car that was coming and had to veer off to the side of the road, almost crashing. At this point the Brougham immediately shut off.

After several attempts at starting the car, it finally worked and we took a short drive around the South Bay. As we drove up a hill, the car died again. We pushed it into a parking lot, and once it cooled down, we were able to drive it home.

Filthy Animals and the Mercury Brougham

You’d think the Monster Energy can and the two times the car died would have been enough to change my plans to use the car. After all, I am a cinephile and filmmaker, not a car guy. But given my budget and how limited we were on time, I decided simply to adjust the game plan. We strategically picked our spots when and where we’d use the car.

In the film’s driving sequences with Lars and Freddy, they are just driving around the same five blocks, only taking right turns. There was a car behind them and in front of them the entire shoot, just in case any mechanical issues came up. In the shots where the camera is behind the Brougham, you can see there’s a Toyota 4Runner in front of them the entire time.

When shooting the car at night, we could even see sparks under the car so I knew we were limited in how many people could actually sit in it while driving. I quickly realized, with me weighing 240 pounds, that I couldn’t be in the backseat behind the actors — which was yet another challenge in directing these sequences.

We had to jumpstart the car every time we had to redo a shot. In the movie, Lars and Freddy sit on the car eating cheeseburgers at San Pedro’s Downtown Harbor. Lars gets up, pats the car, and says “OK, Bro-heem, are you ready to do one more trip?”

That was actually the last time the car ever worked. From then on, it wouldn’t start, so we had to tow it to locations to shoot, including the third act’s final shootout in the desert. The car never actually moves in that scene. All the B-roll shots of the South Bay were shot later with a reliable car.

We had completed our main production shoot but still had one more scene with the car to do, which we postponed a month or so due to scheduling with talent and crew. During this gap, Geo took the car and said he was looking into selling it to someone who said they might fix the car, but would let us use it again for one more day when we were ready.

When I called this new owner to coordinate the shoot, the new owner said, “I scrapped the car. There are pieces in Texas, Nevada, and Oregon. The car is gone.”

In a complete panic, I called Geo, and told him I wasn’t upset because I knew he would help me find another similar car to use instead. He quickly found a 1969 Pontiac GTO. Fortunately, the final scene was all interior shots with the car stationary. We dressed it up to make it look like it was the original car as much as possible.

If you really study the movie, you can catch the differences, but I think we pulled it off.

Filthy Animals is now select theaters and available on VOD.