New Kevin has films in his 'Blood'

By Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY

His license plate says N2ISHN.

Kevin Williams always follows his intuition, he says. "It's my religion."

Williams: Architect of his own destiny.

It's also what led him from being an architect who designed Kevin Costner's South Dakota gambling resort to becoming a filmmaker. His first feature, Blood Type, premieres April 8 in Los Angeles.

"People have to keep reminding me this is a major thing I've done," he says. But he says he's been moving toward this all his life.

Born in New York City, he was raised in Kentucky, studied architecture and then moved west. Costner didn't help his career, except to remind him that he was drawn to movies and to writing scripts.

In less than four weeks, he wrote his first one, Mud Flap Women!. "When I get into it, there's this aura around me. Don't come near me," Williams says. "It comes to me or through me — not necessarily from me."

He told his architecture boss he was moving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and he took on a producing partner. But he could never quite get the project going. He decided to turn to another story he'd been mulling, sat down and wrote Blood Type, a social satire, in a week.

A friend of his faxed it to George Lucas, who called the friend with some comments. "It totally boosted me," says Williams, 29. He wrote two more drafts and then made 100 phone calls to find an investor.

"I called my dentist back in Kentucky. I called my uncle in Florida," Williams says. Finally the $350,000 came through, and shooting began with a cast including Tom Hanks' brother, Jim, whom Williams met when he auditioned for Mud Flap Women.

Hanks won't talk about his famous brother. "I don't want this article to be about me or Tom. I want it to be about Kevin. He has an incredible amount of energy, and it is all positive, even during the shooting, which was under the gun, low-budget. He just rides that energy of his and says, 'I'm not going to wish I did it. I'm going to do it.' "

Note: Don't confuse Williams with Kevin Williamson, who did the Scream movies.

But Williams does remember how one day his intuition led him to "drive in a weird direction, to a movie set. I get out. I run over. I land myself right next to the director, and it turns out to be Kevin Williamson. I was totally blown away."