With the surprising success of THE HONEY THIEF I decided that I should try to make a better film that might win a first place award. The result was PETER’S TREASURE (1988); another comedy made the following summer, with the same three principle actors – Johnny Johntz, Ali Rezaee and me. This time we play three friends, (Steve, J.B. and Parker) in Kansas City, who find a treasure map for something buried in Topeka, and we decide to go on a road trip to dig it up. Since this was another slapstick comedy, of course, everything that could go wrong does go wrong (including a very funny scene where J.B. tries to warn us in vain to avoid a nail in the road). But what made this film interesting was that along the way was the fact that each of the three friends has a fantasy of what they would do with the money. The first is Johnny, dreaming of being a famous pop star like Michael Jackson, and he even performs an amazing song and dance lip-synching to one of the King of Pop’s songs. What makes this sequence fun to watch is the mise-en-scene approach where we shot his performance in one long take. People were very impressed that Johnny was actually dancing like Michael Jackson. Johnny remembered, “What I remember was after your dad saw it (Johnny dancing in the Michael Jackson scene) he said, ‘You know, you really were good at that.’ And I thought, ‘Maybe I should go into dance.’ And I think I took a ballet class after that…I didn’t get too far with that.”

My fantasy is to become a lone super hero named Jake Powers, in his mind much like BATMAN or the ROAD WARRIOR but in reality much more like Inspector Clouseau from THE PINK PANTHER movies. Trying to stop a villain named The Big Cheese (Adam Leatherwood), Jake accidentally sets off a nuclear bomb, destroying Kansas City. In Ali’s fantasy, J.B. has found the cure for cancer, but almost has the source of his money revealed by a reporter (Jeany Donohue). He heads a company called DSI, or Drug Smugglers Inc. Just as he’s about to evacuate his hideout with the help of his bodyguard (Andrew Hoffman), Jake Powers shows up in his helicopter to stop J.B. and ruin his fantasy. In the end, Jake blows up everything again. By the time they reach Topeka they find the spot for the buried treasure, only to be told by a local resident (David O’Connor) the map was part of an old department store gimmick to hide a prize for a lucky customer to find. At the 1988 Kansas Film and Video Festival PETER’S TREASURE won 1^st place, after I cut the 56-minute film down to the more enjoyable 35-minute version.

Johnny Johntz performs his ‘Michael Jackson Dance’ in Steve’s fantasy sequence	Dr. J.B. and his bodyguard (Andrew Hoffman) wait for Jake Powers to arrive and ruin everything in J.B.’s fantasy sequence
The Big Cheese confers with one of his henchman about why he didn’t kill Jake Powers in Parker’s fantasy sequence	The Big Cheese tortures Jake Powers

Adam Leatherwood still remembered working on the film years later, “I do remember that one. It seems like we ran out of daylight (shooting my scene). It seems like I was also about two hours late to the set. Which also gets back to that issue between you and I, and the jealousy and the competition there. (Smiles because he is kidding. I’m pretty sure he’s kidding.) It seems to me like I was also late on the set at, uh – which film was I NOT late on the set for? I can’t recall. And we had shot (my scene for PETER’S TREASURE) in your backyard. We ran out of daylight pretty quick, as I recall. We had a brief discussion about the script, which was not written down anywhere, in any kind of cohesive form. ‘Just kind of stand over here. Do something like that. Say something like this.’ Hit and miss. And we would out-take it until we got it the way that you wanted the dialogue (to be). I think, to a certain extent, that was an advantage. Working without a script like that, you allowed us to explore a little bit the lines, and with the blocking, until we did what you were looking for - for the tone of the film we were trying to make. (To prepare for the role of The Big Cheese), as I recall, I drank heavily the night before, which partially explains my tardiness on the set. (Smiles) And I do recall it being, and I’m just going to have to ball-park this - we would have to check the national weather records to verify this, but I think it was around 140 degrees in your backyard that day. And as I recall, we couldn’t get the lining out of the trench coat. So I think I almost sweat to death on that film. Which brings me to the next question of Adamstar liability? (Smiles) I wonder if you ever had any of that? Some of the vicarious things that you put your actors through, ‘Could you just stand on the track until the train comes, please?’ (Laughs) And I think we just play around with (the scene) until we got what you were looking for - the flavor of the character that you were looking for. I can’t recall ever having played anything BUT The Big Cheese in your films, so once I found what you were looking for with that I ran with it and tried to be consistent in all of the Jake Powers films.”

The moment before Jamie Battmer steals Parker’s camera

J.B., Parker and Steve pose for a photo in front of the Kansas state capitol building in Topeka, Kansas

PETER’S TREASURE was almost never completed. In the middle of the production I was ready to give it up and walk away. There were two reasons for my sudden lack of interest in finishing the film; I just saw a bad movie and I just broke up with my girlfriend. During the summer of 1988 the film CADDYSHACK II was released, and I went to see it with several friends who were all big Chevy Chase fans and had liked the first film. I sat in horror as I watched this film desperately tried to be funny but fell short of its intended mark like a failed Iraqi SCUD missile. I could see what was the joke, how they set it up, and understood why it should have been funny. But I wasn’t laughing, and neither were my friends or the rest of the theater audience. I liked the actors, and I didn’t have a problem with the story. But it was like tasting a soup that had all the right ingredients but wasn’t mixed or prepared properly; it wasn’t quite right. There were the usual similarities that fell flat, like Jackie Mason taking over Rodney Dangerfield’s ‘outsider-who-threatens-the-establishment’ role, and Dan Akroyd in Bill Murray’s ‘crazy-gofer-killer’ role. (Why they thought his annoying high-pitched voice would be funny is beyond me.) But over all, the humor seemed forced and not natural; it was trying to be slapstick without being spontaneous. Although I must admit I did find Randy Quaid’s scenes as the sleazy lawyer hilarious. (Giving Robert Stack a major wedgie on the putting green was inspired, if not simply silly.) So when I left the theater, I immediately lost any self-confidence in this film I was making. It was a comedy about a group of friends on a treasure hunt, but will it be funny? Will the audience just sit there and not laugh at any of the jokes? Was there another way I could have filmed a particular scene or shot to make it funnier? I had to eventually just trust in myself and keep trying to make the best film I could create. But as I was wrestling with these fears and my weakening ego, I received another rip in my self-confidence.

I was dating a fellow KU student named Kelly that I met in a theater class. We had been dating for the spring 1988 semester, and she took a job out of state for the summer. Before she left I was trying to write my script for the treasure hunt story, but had it taking place in Kansas City. Kelly was from Topeka, and while I was visiting her in the state’s capitol city she took me to a place called Burnett’s Mound. She told me the story of this large hill in the southern part of the city that was near her house; there was a legend of an American Indian who was buried on this mound. He made his fortune as a bar owner during the old days of the American West, and buried his wealth somewhere in the city before he died. No one had found it yet. He placed a curse on the mound that, in effect, said if anyone tried to dig on the mound a terrible disaster would occur to the city. The example Kelly gave was that the water tower that now sits on the mound was built in the 1960’s, the same year that a devastating tornado hit that part of Topeka. I immediately thought about using this mound and legend as the destination of the treasure hunt, but I decided to change some things and make the legend more fictional. Instead of an Indian buried on the mound, the treasure itself would be located at this photogenic location. Then, as a twist, I made the whole legend and map part of an old department store promotional gimmick. After Kelly left for her summer job, and we started shooting PETER’S TREASURE, I received the good old “Dear John” letter from her. I won’t go into the details of her reasoning and my heartbreak and eventual depression. But I had started thinking of the film as something I was making for her in some way, since I was shooting in her hometown and using a variation of her story. I was constantly thinking if she would like this scene, or how would she react to the final film…you know, the usual ‘young love’ sort of approach to life. When she dumped me via first class mail I, of course, had no motivation to complete PETER’S TREASURE. But I thought about my friends who were helping me make this film and I didn’t want to let them down by just giving up, so I forced myself to keep shooting. In the end it was a successful film that everyone enjoyed watching, and I was glad I was able to complete it. To this day Kelly has never seen the film, in case you were wondering. 

A local resident (David O’Connor) in Topeka tells Steve that Peter’s Treasure was just a department store gimmick at the end of PETER’S TREASURE

We spent one very long day shooting all of the scenes and establishing shots of the Lawrence and Topeka locations. Heading out in two cars, we filmed on a very hot summer day, starting with shots of Johnny’s vehicle on the highway in Kansas City, and ending with the final scene on Burnett’s Mound in Topeka. If you were to ever see the film, the look of exhaustion on our faces during the final scene wasn’t acting - we were quite hot and tired by that point. But Johnny, Ali and David O’Connor were all amazingly patient with me as I took them from city to city shooting under the hot Kansas sun. I think Johnny has tried to forget that day, “That was a long hot day, that’s what I remember. I mean I can vaguely remember being like, “Come on, come on! Let’s hurry! Let’s wrap this up! Shoot it!” (Laughs) I’m sure there was a tremendous relief when you said, “That’s a wrap!” As people got out (at home) and left, you just drive on! No one says “Good bye!” It’s just “Go! Good riddance!” (Laughs again)” It becomes a very delicate balancing act for a director in my position; to shoot the film and get the necessary shots completed, but still make it an enjoyable experience for my friends so they’ll keep coming back to help me make the next movie. Early on I tried to make the mood on the set more relaxed for the actors to open up and kid around a little. Only a hand full of times over the years have I had to get really serious and push the actors to get the scene done because of a time constraint. Since the actors are donating their free time, I knew I couldn’t be a tyrant, and if they start getting silly and flubbing up their lines, I would allow them some fun. Over the years I’ve been able to record some very funny bloopers and general funny moments that have occurred while shooting the films. I would put together a blooper reel for the actors and hope that they look back on making the film as a fun time, since making a film is really a very time consuming, stressful and somewhat boring experience.