Today we’d like to introduce you to Terry Weaver.
Hi Terry, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m just a kid who grew up in a trailer park, but I always had big dreams; they got a hold of me and wouldn’t let go.
I believe entertainment is powerful; in fact, if you study it, you’ll see just how powerful it is.
It all started when I was cast as a detective in a TV series. It was my first legitimate acting gig, and I would play the lead. I never auditioned; but instead, was found by the person in charge of casting. That led to four years of acting and film production experience.
Next came more acting roles; again, they found me somehow. I’m sure actors hate hearing this, but it’s true. After a few more acting gigs, myself and a friend decided we would make a movie ourselves.
Fortunately, we knew very little about the challenges we would encounter along the way, and since we’d both served in the military and deployed to a war zone, we naively told each other, “It can’t be that hard.”
Armed with a computer and a seed of the story, I began writing the script. At that point, I had written five books, but a movie script is an entirely different beast, so I read a lot from the masters: Truby, McKee, Field, and others, which helped tremendously.
Another resource we stumbled upon was a book by Texas Filmmaker, Robert Rodriguez, called Rebel Without A Crew. In it, he writes about making his first film for $7,000 and selling it in Hollywood for $250,000. Rodriguez blazed a trail. He did everything himself: wrote, filmed, edited, did sound, and more. He just figured it out. That inspired us with unwarranted confidence.
Anytime we were unsure about how we would do something, we’d say, “We’ll just go full Rodriguez on it.”
The script writing began in September of 2023, and I had it finished by the first week of December. From December of ’23 until August of ’24 we worked hard on the project, but we’d only raised twenty percent of the budget, and we were very worried.
We were roughly six weeks before principal photography was set to begin. My best friend had moved from California to Texas to help me with the production, we’d cast over 35 actors, had more than 40 locations, we’d borrowed uniforms and badges from the Sheriff, we’d spent nearly $50,000 in development funds, and we were beginning to wonder if we would have to shut things down and tell everyone who believed in the project it had folded.
The stress got to my partner, and he had to exit the project. I was now left without a director and partner, but I kept thinking about all the people who believed in the project.
I thought back to the very beginning, a year prior, when my pastor approached me and asked me if I was still acting. I explained that I was preparing to make my first movie. He asked me the title of the movie. “The Beast of Trinity Texas,” I explained. He then said, “Well, let me pray for the movie.” And he did.
Not knowing how to save the movie, I went to visit a great friend of mine, Duke Ensell. When he saw me, he said, “Terry, you look stressed. I can see it in your eyes.” I replied, “I didn’t even know you could see stress in eyes.” I felt it, and it was frightening.
I asked him if he would consider filling the gap funding we needed to make the movie, about 80% of the budget. He thought about it, then said, “I think Jesus wants me to do this.”
That day, just over a month before we began filming, the movie was funded. I nicknamed my friend, Saint Duke of Houston for good reason.
Looking back, we had massive favor, including finding our director of photography, Jordan Bradley, who’d worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood: Tom Cruise, Quentin Tarantino, and Michael Bay, to name a few.
But this is only half of the story; next, the hard work began. When I tell people what it was like making The Beast of Trinity Texas, I compare it to running a marathon a day for 30 days straight. It was brutal, but the people made the movie possible.
The people are the most important part of any film production: 95% of our actors were from Texas, but we had actors fly in from Tennessee and South Carolina. Quite possibly the proudest part of the entire experience was including over 40 military veterans in the film.
From our producers, to our assistant director, to our extras, we had pride, heart, and muscle fueling the production, and we believe you will be able to feel it in the final product. Plus, we had a BEAST! Could things get any cooler?
It has been two years since the dream started, and we just received word that the movie was picked up by the largest distributor in the world and is now available on Amazon, with more platforms coming on line soon.
On the final shooting day for the movie, my youngest son joined me on set. On the drive home, I said, “Liam, if you can get the right people to join you, and you work very hard, you can accomplish anything you dream up.”
Making this movie has been the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done, and I owe it to the amazing team we built, and Jesus.
The Beast of Trinity Texas, the next Texas Cult Classic is not streaming on Amazon Prime.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not having funding until five weeks before filming was the biggest challenge we faced, but it was just one. We had an extremely small team of scrappy producers; we had to figure out how to manage relationships with over two hundred people, which was the number of humans it took to make this movie.
From the locations, to transporting military vehicles and excavators, to organizing permits to shut down a bridge, to feeding the cast, crew and extras for thirty days straight; we had our work cut out.
The locals became our ‘twelveth man’ to borrow a term from my alma mater, Texas A&M University. We could not have completed this project without the citizens of Trinity and surrounding counties jumping in to help. In fact, the mayor, city manager, and the sheriff were all huge advocates for us.
If you want to make a movie, start building your army early because that’s what you’ll need to pull it off.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
About six years ago, I decided to become a full-time creator. Before that, I worked sixteen plus different jobs, ranging from a pizza flipper to a Navy Corpsman, and beyond. But when I found out that I could tell stories for a living, everything changed.
My acting experience includes multiple commercial film projects, two series: Breaking Strongholds and Sword of Alentius, the feature film, Parallel – The Triad, and the forthcoming movie Assassin Within.
My writing experience includes the Eli Ridge novel series: A Dark Day in Texas, Whitewashed Tomb, and A Long Night Cry. I’ve also authored two self-help books: The Evolution of A Leader and All My Best: Wisdom and Encouragement for a Better Life. I also publish weekly writing on Substack.
My latest project is a movie titled Texas Sins, a script adapted from my novel Whitewashed Tomb. We plan to film in October of 2026 in East Texas and are currently in the development phase.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
While serving as a Navy Corpsman with the Marines, I once snuck to Baghdad when I learned my unit would not be going. My thought was, I can’t go all the way to Iraq without seeing the capital. Makes complete sense right?
How about a little movie trivia to wrap things up. I borrowed inspiration from some of my favorite films while making The Beast of Trinity Texas. If you watch it, you may find some hidden gems from: The Big Lebowski, Chinatown, and Jaws.
To learn more about Terry visit https://terryweaver.substack.com/
To learn more about The Beast of Trinity Texas visit www.thebeastoftrinitytexas.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thebeastoftrinitytexas.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeastoftrinitytexas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebeastoftrinitytexas
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebeastoftrinitytexasmovie
Image Credits
Photo credits Big Feat Films LLC
