BY SUSANNE ROBBINS

I have to let you all in on a little secret. Dennis Hopper was my first...that's right my first one on one interview. I was going to call this piece "My first time with Dennis Hopper". However knowing that all the big publications log on constantly to read my writing, I was afraid the gossip columns would get wind of this and get the wrong idea. Then it would be splashed all over the magazine covers, besides I wouldn't want to steal Tom and Katie's thunder. That being said, I could not have asked for a better person to kick off my first time. Dennis Hopper, as we all know, is a screen legend, he has been in this business for many years, he has worked with the best actors, directors and flat out just about anyone who is anyone in Hollywood. Then again has he worked with them or is it the other way around? Have these people had the opportunity to work with the best having themselves worked with Dennis Hopper? Everyone has a favorite Dennis Hopper movie, I have too many to count (as I stare at my Flashback poster above my desk). After sitting with him I understand why people not only respect him, but come out of the woodwork to be in films with him.

With the upcoming release of George Romero's "The Land of the Dead" I got the chance to sit with Dennis and find out just why it is that "Zombies man, they creep me out".

CD: So Dennis tell me about this new movie Land of the Dead?

DH: You know George Romero's first film "Night of living Dead" came out in 1968. I was shooting Easy Rider that year and we released in 1969. When Easy Rider came out I was reading all these reviews that George Romero and Dennis Hopper used their films as a metaphor for what was happening in America. So anyway when we finally got Easy Rider out I went to see George's film and I liked it very much. That is the first part of the story, the second part of the story, Mark Canton and I played golf together for 12 years and Mark is the producer of this film, he has always said that someday we would work together. He finally came to me and he said "I have this part for you in this film if you would like to do it, George Romero's the director and George has agreed if you'd like to do it he would like you to be in it". So that is how I arrived in the part in the film, and I knew that I was going to be working with John Leguizamo and I love John he is such a terrific guy. Also Asia Argento is in the film and we had worked together on "The Keeper" and Simon Baker, I have never worked with Simon. I have not seen the film but it was an honor working with George Romero he knows exactly what he wants as a director.

CD: Was this the first time you had ever worked together?

DH: Yes we never worked together before and the great thing is that Mark Canton looked around and realized that all these people were remaking George Romero films. Where was George Romero? He was still alive and was in Pittsburgh, he never left Pittsburgh he made all his films there, he was an industrial filmmaker as well and did he commercials and he always made his films independently in Pittsburgh. So Mark Canton went to see him and as it turned out he did have another Zombie Movie, the fourth, that he would like to make. So Mark told him that he would like to produce it and have Universal produce it as well.

CD: Did you film it in Pittsburgh?

DH: No we talked him into going to Toronto...it's not that far from Pittsburgh.

CD: So who is your character exactly? Because you have the best line, you have the Tag line in the film.

DH: "Zombie's creep me out". That was actually an ad-lib. I play a man who has built a world that is safe, it keeps the Zombies on the outside, a domed in city called the Green where my people live, well the people I allow to live there. It is very plush and very nice and everyone wants to live there. Then there are the outsiders, they are the ones outside of that in the city, and then there are the Zombies. Now the Zombies are beginning to reason and of course they want to come into the Green and destroy the Green. Also they're very hungry and there are a lot of them, and they are flesh eaters. It's not about them walking fast it's just that there are so many of them.

CD: I always wonder how they catch you because they walk so slowly but they can always catch up with everyone.

DH: No they surround you, hundreds and thousands of them and they are ravenous.

CD: So how did you get involved with CineVegas?

DH: Robin and Danny Greenspun honored me three years ago, and I looked at the festival and said you know there should be a marriage between Hollywood and Vegas at this point. You are so close and this is such a great venue for everything. Every convention in the world comes here, so why not have a movie market here, to look at films who need distribution and give people an alternative way to look at them. Also as a way to honor the history of our films, because I feel that in America we have a way of losing our history because we are always about the next film the newest thing or if it is going to make the weekend gross. Also to really go back and honor people who created history in this business, so we have done that. Then we try to get a premiere and have a studio get involved, of course this year we succeeded in doing that we have Universal and Mark Canton and the Greenspuns and now we are putting on the world premiere of "Land of the Dead". It is a really great movie, and it is going to make a lot of money. So that was a dream of mine and I know it wasn't easy for everyone but it did come together and it is a great feeling.

CD: Even better to have someone who is an independent filmmaker and give him this huge film premiere here.

DH: Absolutely. Also we honored Nicolas Cage, Samantha Morton, Wim Wenders, George Romero, and to honor Rhonda Fleming, and Ann-Margret for the 100th year of Vegas. Also Johnny Brenden who's generous enough to let us use the theatres in The Palms and his grandmother is Rhonda Fleming so it all ties together. It has just been a wonderful festival, and it is great the excitement of the people here, the young filmmakers. We had the young filmmaker's awards this afternoon it was wonderful and very moving.

CD: I, of course, have a personal question that I would love to ask you. We all have our favorite Dennis Hopper movies, trust me when I told people about this interview everyone had their list of favorites, I, of course, have mine. Is there any one experience that sticks out to you? Maybe it is the people you worked with or a film that you did that changed you a little?

DH: I think some films, even though they may be great films some of them are life experiences that one never forgets. I had two of them back to back, one was Apocalypse Now with Francis and then I went straight from there to Wim Wenders in Germany on The American Friend. Those two were like life experiences that one never gets over. All films have their own personality but some of these life experiences that no matter how great the movie the experience is even greater than the movie. It doesn't happen all the time but when it does happen it is truly amazing.

CD: What are you working on next?

DH: Right now I am working on this new Jerry Bruckheimer series with Taylor Hackford who directed the pilot, we will be taking the West Wing spot from 9-10 it is called the E-Ring. I play a Colonel in the Pentagon in special ops and Benjamin Bratt is the young major that I brought out of Afghanistan to assist me inside the Pentagon. So it is really going to show how the civilian oversight of the military works and we are going to try and keep our stories as current as we can for what is happening in the world. It is really a beautifully acted and directed pilot.

I want to thank Dennis Hopper for taking the time to sit with me, you are truly an inspiration to all of us who work in film and who just down right love it. As long as you keep working, trust me, we will keep checking you out.