Brian Jaynes has made something of a name for himself in the world of low-budget horror films. Over the past three years, the East Texas filmmaker has helmed a string of cult successes, starting with Boggy Creek, about a bloodthirsty Sasquatch. That was followed last year by Humans vs Zombies. Completing the trifecta is the recent Patient Zero, also about zombies.
Those movies may have been low-budget, but they still cost money, so Jaynes enlisted Dallasite Bruce Kahn. Kahn, perhaps best known as that guy who tried (and failed) to buy the famous Nevada brothel Chicken Ranch, set up three single-purpose entities -- Boggy Creek Productions LLC, Humans vs Zombies LLC, and Patient Zero Productions LLC -- to oversee production of the films.
Under this setup, Kahn who put down the necessary capital. He says he paid for the lighting and props and other equipment. He bought the pricey HP editing suite with which the final cuts were produced. He even loaned Jaynes $75,000 to cover his living expenses while the films were being produced.
In return, Kahn would get 75 percent of gross revenues of the films' two distribution deals -- domestically with Hannover House Inc., internationally with the Phoenix Group -- and its broadcast agreement with Chiller TV.
Kahn says that never happened. He filed a lawsuit in Dallas County this week claiming that Jaynes, in collusion with Dallas developer and strip club owner Bryan "Niko" Foster, instead funneled the proceeds into their own bank accounts. By the time Patient Zero was ready for release, Jaynes had stopped returning Kahn's phone calls and had scrubbed his name from the credits. He refused to repay the $75,000 loan despite repeated demands, the lawsuit says.
Jaynes, reached at his home in East Texas, denied Kahn's claims but declined to go into further detail. (It should be noted here that Kahn is famously litigious, as noted in this Mark Stuertz feature story from 1999). He referred questions to Foster, who, he noted, bought the rights to the three films in question from Kahn.
Foster could not be reached at Jaguars, his strip club. A manager, asked how Unfair Park could reach Foster, said "You don't get a hold of him," then promised to pass along our phone number.
Update at 3:38 p.m.: Jaynes writes to clarify a couple of points above:
