At an earlier time, the project was still being circulated as a potential pilot for a series, and I recently had the opportunity to screen that pilot which was shot in six days with a budget of $8000. Here, clocked in at forty-minutes with actors Frederick Szkoda and Lanny Joon starring, All Men Are Thieves centers on Vincent and Rich – seemingly two career criminals who end up reluctantly partnering for a series of jobs leading to a friendship that will ultimately test their loyalty to each other. The pilot also branches out into a few other intertwining subplots and a twist that coincide with the overall millieu Kim provides for our characters.
Joon and Szkoda aren’t given a lot of time for relationship to bloom on screen, so we get montages of different scenes that are suggestive enough to culminate development. It works in some ways, but the best part here is that both lead some cool signature performances that bode excellently for the film’s overall tone, and specifically with the subplots actors Christopher Shon and Daniel Davenport. Joon’s scenes are fantastic as well, joined by actor Young Nam Kim who plays Rich’s father – disgruntled over his career choices.
There’s more to the current story and unfortunately not too much I can divulge without spoiling a lot here, although there’s reason to believe Kim won’t be turning this into a series after all. Over the weekend, the director disclosed to Film Combat Syndicate that he is currently developing the short itself into an eighty-minute film, which should offer plenty of creative space for Kim to mingle and mix enough elements to befit a feature-length duration.
Other details are scarce at the moment but production will obviously take place in San Francisco for a hopeful 2017 release with cameras possibly rolling in May. In the meantime, if you’re just tuning in, feel free to check out a seven-minute highlight reel in the player below.
