Former Jenks QB Brian Presley cast 'tough kids' in his new film 'Hostile Territory'

When he kicked off filming on his harrowing Western "Hostile Territory," moviemaker Brian Presley knew he needed a special group of youngsters to tackle such a grueling project.

Fortunately, the former Jenks High School quarterback knew just where he could recruit a squad of coachable children.

"I needed kids that were tough kids. ... I knew I couldn't bring in a bunch of Hollywood kids with parents I don't know and accomplish the movie ... on an independent-level budget dealing with the winter and snow," Presley said.

"I knew I could get my own kids ... and I've coached my son's football team for years. So, I decided to pull in all the other kids who were from the football team. I've been coaching these kids since they were 7. They'd never been in front of a camera, but I knew the strengths of each one."

Inspired by a true story, "Hostile Territory" — which Presley wrote, directed, produced and starred in — opened Friday, April 22, in theaters and set to open April 29 on digital and on demand.

"All the kids did an amazing job, and they all can't wait to go see the movie in the theater," Presley said by phone from Los Angeles, where he and his family live. "It's a fun memory to have with not just my kids, but all their friends ... and those families."

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'Hostile Territory' delves into post-Civil War history

Set just after the Civil War, "Hostile Territory" stars Presley as Union officer Jack Calgrove, who is presumed dead after his capture by the Confederate Army. Upon his release, Calgrove is horrified to learn that his wife has died and his three younger children have been put on an orphan train to meet their older brother, Phil (Cooper North), a soldier on the move to Montana, where he has been tasked with protecting settlers from Native American tribes angry at the encroachment on their lands.

Determined to safeguard his children, Calgrove sets off across the wintry countryside to intercept the orphan train, accompanied by a fellow former prisoner of war (Craig Tate), a troop of Native American sharpshooters and a former slave (Natalie Whittle) searching for her own displaced child.

"I love historic films and I love Western films, so I wanted to find something that I could blend the two worlds together," Presley said. "I was researching and came across ... the Orphan Train Movement. I thought, 'Wow, it's pretty fascinating that for 75 years, hundreds of thousands of kids were transported West by train to help give them a chance in life.' ... So, I wanted that to be the backdrop."

Although he cast his own three children in the period drama — Jackson, Emma and Ruby Presley play the three youngest members of the Calgrove clan — the filmmaker said depicting those harsh times meant acting out many violent moments, earning the movie an R rating.

"In war, terrible things happen. Do you blame the Native Americans for being hostile? No. ... The Trail of Tears was unforgivable, what the government did to the Native American tribes," Presley said.

"I didn't want your typical Western where you had the cowboys as the good guys and the Indians as the bad guys. There's good and bad within all races and cultures. ... There were good people fighting to end slavery, people fighting for equality, back then — and not just white people. There were Native Americans and African Americans that wanted peace, that wanted a chance to have freedom."

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Filmmaker follows Kurt Russell's advice

Born in Midland, Texas — “Friday Night Lights” country — Presley was still in grade school when his family moved to Oklahoma's own football hotbed.

A 1996 Jenks graduate, Presley played on the 1993 state championship football team and honed his musical theater chops in high school. He played football for one season at the University of Arkansas but then opted to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

In 2000, he was cast as a series regular on the "General Hospital" spin-off "Port Charles." He met his wife, as well as one of his "Hostile Territory" co-stars while working on the soap opera.

"Cooper North, who plays my oldest son in the movie, his dad played my brother (on the show)," Presley said. "I remember when Cooper was born and watched him grow up."

After "Port Charles" ended in 2003, Presley shifted his focus to film, starring in "Guarding Eddy," "Home of the Brave" and the 2012 football drama "Touchback," opposite Kurt Russell.

"At the time, I was thinking about getting behind the camera and directing, and he told me, 'I've had opportunities to direct different projects, and my biggest piece of advice I'll give you is, if you don't see the movie, then don't direct it,'" Presley recalled. "I would never set out to do one of these movies that I visually didn't see and I didn't have a vision for. ... I've always kept Kurt Russell's advice."

Presley made his directorial debut with 2019's "The Great Alaskan Race," another demanding project he also starred in, wrote and produced. Based on a true story, the action-packed drama follows a dog sledder who treks hundreds of miles in the winter of 1925 to ferry diphtheria medicine to remote Nome, Alaska.

"They don't get much harder than making a movie in the mountains through the winter with dogs and kids 12,000 feet up ... and then it was the same with this one," he said. "They were both really physically challenging. It was tough keeping the morale up and making sure the crews were treated correctly."

Oklahoma work ethic shapes career

As with "The Great Alaskan Race," Presley filmed "Hostile Territory" primarily in Colorado. But with Oklahoma's new film incentive and growing movie and TV industry, he said he hopes to bring some of his upcoming projects to his home state.

"Growing up playing football at Jenks, the level of work ethic they instill in you while you're there, I've taken with me throughout my professional career. When times get tough ... you reconvene and figure out a new game plan," Presley said.

As for his plan to cast his son and his football team in "Hostile Territory," it seems to have scored.

"When we did the film, they all had high-pitched voices. Now, they're all going into high school, and they all sound like grown men," Presley said. "But I still get messages from them saying, 'Hey, Coach, thanks for having me in the movie. I can't wait for it to come out.'"

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Brian Presley keeps film career grinding with 'Hostile Territory'