If you are fan of action movies and television shows, the Outdoor Channel has something new for you. The cable channel will debut a show on April 3 called “Hollywood Weapons” that attempts to recreate famous scenes with weapons from the action movies and TV shows America loves to watch. Can those fancy moves be done in real life or were we just watching special effects? Watch and find out.
The Outdoor Channel says the show was “created to try and answer questions like that by recreating classic scenes from some of the most memorable action, westerns and sci-fi movies of all-time, as well as television dramas…The show always involves action sequences involving firearms or weapons by comparing the actual scene with a real-life test of the firearm or weapon used in the making of the film or television show in the last 60 years.”
The show will recreate famous action shots from:
- Criminal Minds
- JAWS
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
- Die Hard
- The Score
- Rambo: First Blood
- Casino Royale
- Star Trek
The show stars Terry Schappert. Schappert is a retired master sergeant who led an A team in the U.S. Army Special Forces until October 2016. He is an expert on small arms, demolition, conventional and unconventional military tactics and combat medicine.
Each episode films Schappert and his team of experts setting up the “scene” with the original details and trying to execute the shot.
I sat down at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas to chat with Terry Schappert about the new show.
Schappert said not only will viewers watch the step-by-step real-life re-creation of the scenes, but they will gain some insight into the special effects involved in creating the original shot and how it was made for the camera.
He said the crew will work to set up the context safely, with that same weapon, under those conditions we see on TV and the big screen. “It’s a matter of problem-solving” explained Schappert. “If you make it, you make it” he said of the tests. There are no special effects for the show. In addition to Schappert, the show features special effects and film weapons consultant Larry Zanoff. Other members of the crew include veteran movie hands that do things like set up a re-creation of the air duct in Nakatomi Plaza for the “Die Hard” episode. These folks are serious about their tests.
I asked Schapert what his favorite scene to work on was and he answered it was definitely the Clint Eastwood stuff from “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” What other scenes would he like to do, beyond the scenes the show has already done? Primitive-weapon stuff, long bow, he answered. I suggested some moves from “The Hunger Games.” Katniss was pretty good with her bow and arrow.
Schappert said the goal of the show is not to determine if the original scenes are “bullsh*t,” but rather to have fun trying do the recreation and learning what goes into designing the shot. Many Hollywood fans are not familiar with firearms or long bows and have no experience using them. The audience will get an idea about how difficult it is to do what the silver screen portrays as easy.
The first season of “Hollywood Weapons” will have 8 episodes and debuts April 8. Tune in to watch; I know I will.
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