Punk Legend John Doe Gets Dark for a Weekend of Film Noir

John Doe in the new remake of noir classic D.O.A.

"I want to report a murder."
"Sit down. Where was this murder committed?
"San Francisco, last night."
"Who was murdered?"
"I was."

This legendary exchange opens up 1950 film noir classic D.O.A., in which Edmond O'Brien plays a man with 24 hours to find out who has poisoned him. Those words will also open the John Doe Noir Weekend, two days of crime from the dark heart of Americana presented by John Doe – co-founder of L.A. punk innovators X, Austin resident, and now star of his own remake of D.O.A., which also screens this weekend.

Doe first saw the original when he was in his 20s, five decades ago, and he called it "a beautiful movie with a great premise."

"It just looked cool," he added. "I've watched it since then, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense – which is the big difference between that one and ours – but it was just beautiful watching San Francisco in that era, and Edmond O'Brien was just so convincing in his desperation."

This is actually the second remake with an Austin connection, after the 1988 version with Dennis Quaid trying to beat the clock around Central Texas. However, this time Doe, director Kurt St. Thomas, and the crew exchanged the Bay Area fog and Austin sweat of the prior versions for the sea breezes and swamp miasma of St. Augustine, Florida. "It's gothic and creepy," Doe said, and the beachfront city helped shape the story, its locations adding a Southern twist – and an alligator preserve. "Kurt would call [screenwriter Nicholas Griffin] and say, 'I've got a lighthouse, I've got a really cool barbershop, and I've got alligators.' So Nick would put in the lighthouse, and he put the barbershop into a scene because it looked beautiful, and he put the alligators into a scene because they're a great metaphor. They're really destructive, but they're just nature, and nature will take its course."

Though he's arguably most famous as a musician, Doe is no stranger to acting, having appeared in dozens of films and TV shows, including Paul Thomas Anderson's ode to the porn business, Boogie Nights, and punk noir classic Slam Dance. Casting directors, it seems, have been drawn to his craggy charm as a character actor, but D.O.A. is one of his rare leading roles since 1992's blue-collar biker flick Roadside Prophets. Being offered a leading role by his friend St. Thomas was tough to turn down. "People look for deep reasons," Doe said, "and I don't have much choice in my roles. Either I feel I can relate to it and do something with it or not."

Now 70, Doe is the oldest actor to play the doomed protagonist (O'Brien and Quaid were both in their mid-30s), and that changes the tone of how much of a life is being stolen from him: As one character notes, what did Bigelow hope for, another five years? "He's running toward his destiny," Doe said, "but the faster he runs, the further he gets from what would really serve him. Because what would serve him is to be quiet and make the most of his time, but what drives him is injustice. Why did this happen to me?"

AFS Cinema presents John Doe Noir Weekend July 8-9