9 May 14 - 20, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents the USA Film Festival at the Angelika Film Center at Mockingbird Station rolled out the red carpet for an advance screening of Deep Water. At the center of the aquatic chaos were producer Gene Simmons and director Renny Harlin, both of whom were honored with festival salutes, a special tribute recog- nizing the lifetime achievements of industry professionals. The festival honored Harlin with the Great Director salute, while Sim- mons was crowned a Modern Maverick. Simmons, a frequent cameo actor, usually in KISS corpse paint with his tongue out, has launched a production company in collabora- tion with Arclight Films founder Gary Hamil- ton. The company, Simmons/Hamilton Productions, acquired a multi-billion-dollar financing deal requiring the production of 25 films over five years. The company will focus on original works with franchising potential. Deep Water is the first release. A few days after the Dallas premiere, we caught up with Simmons and Harlin via Zoom. They were stationed in Los Angeles, riding the relentless wave of their promo- tional tour ahead of the film’s theatrical re- lease. What followed was a conversation that perfectly encapsulated the two men: one a seasoned showman armed with stadi- um-ready soundbites, the other an earnest filmmaker eager to terrify you. A Match Made in Cinematic Heaven (or Hell) If you were to breed Die Hard 2 and Deep Blue Sea together, Deep Water would emerge. Harlin, who directed both of those works, returns to his comfort zone of high-stakes, enclosed-space sur- vival. The premise of the movie is straight- forward: an airplane crashes into shark-infested waters. But these are not your standard, leisurely cruising great whites. The sharks in Deep Water attack with a rabid, almost zombie-like ferocity, turning a sunken fuselage into an all-you- can-eat aquatic buffet. “Making a movie like this was kind of a childhood dream for me,” Harlin says. “Hav- ing grown up with the ’70s disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure, I felt like telling a story like this where, of course, there’s a big plane crash, and there are sharks and all that type of visual smorgasbord.” But Harlin is quick to point out that the carnage is only half the battle. “It’s really about the characters, and a big part of that is in casting,” he says. “It’s find- ing the right actors to play the right parts.” The Fine Art of the Pivot Deep Water boasts serious dramatic mus- cle, including Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart. Nobody is more thrilled about this than Simmons. When you sit down to interview a mem- ber of KISS, you might harbor hopes of un- packing his deep history with Dallas. You might want to ask about his favorite late- night haunts, his five decades of pyrotechnic concerts in the area or perhaps the Grape- vine outpost of Rock & Brews, the restaurant chain he co-founded. But Simmons is a man on a mission, and that mission is selling tick- ets. When asked how Dallas fits into his per- sonal creative journey, the Modern Maverick executed a pivot so flawless it de- serves its own masterclass. “If you’re talking strictly about the launch of a motion picture, that’s a separate sort of expertise,” Simmons explains, leav- ing our dreams of salacious stories from the American Airlines Center green room be- hind. “The real story here is how this magi- cal thing that started with a blank piece of paper and those first words that went on by a lonely screenwriter... grow and attract creative people.” Simmons was in full promotional stride, painting a vivid picture of the cinematic pro- cess. He praised the money men, the actors and, ultimately, his director. According to Simmons, a star like Eckhart only signs on if the man behind the camera has the chops. “He’s not going to be on a film that some schmecklehead is going to direct,” Simmons says. “Renny Harlin. I’m in.” Taking the Scenic Route In Deep Water, Eckhart’s character im- parts a bit of wisdom to a young girl: some- times in life, you have to take a few detours to get where you are going. When asked if they had any personal detours they were still navi- gating, the contrast between the two men was beautiful. Simmons, true to form, offered a booming, populist decree that doubled as the ultimate marketing hook. “I’m the luckiest guy who’s ever walked the face of the planet,” Simmons says. “Ev- ery day above ground is a good day. ... I urge everybody not only to go see it ... but I urge you and strongly recommend that you don’t go see it alone.” He then delivered the final knockout punch for his target audience. “It’s not an arthouse film where you go, ‘Huh, I wonder what that means.’ The hell with that stuff. This is a movie for America,” he says. But when it was Harlin’s turn to answer the same question, the director of some of the most explosive action films of the ’90s offered something entirely unexpected: deep, unshielded vulnerability. “I’ve worked very hard all my life and done my best in what I do, but in a certain way I feel like five years ago I realized that my entire life, in a way, had been a detour,” Harlin says. “My whole life was a detour. Now I’ve arrived where I wanted to arrive, with my wife and with my family, and now I’m where I belong.” Brace for Impact There is a poetic irony in Harlin finally finding a place of calm and belonging, only to spend his days dreaming up ways for pas- sengers to be torn apart by apex predators in a submerged metal tube. Deep Water promises to be exactly what Simmons advertises: a white-knuckle, the- atrical experience that leaves pretense at the door. It is a movie that knows exactly what it is, steered by a director who knows exactly what he is doing, and championed by a rock star who knows exactly how to sell it to America. Just leave your art house expectations on the tarmac, grab a friend and, whatever you do, do not unfasten your seatbelt. Deep Wa- ter is in theaters nationwide now.
