According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Vic Armstrong is the most prolific film stuntman in the world. He's been a stunt performer, stunt coordinator, and/or director in over 250 movies, and he's arguably as famous as they come in the stunt community. Long before guys like David Leitch and Chad Stahelski broke out with "John Wick" and helped bring more attention to stunt folks in the modern era, Armstrong was doubling for Christopher Reeve in the first two "Superman" films, Harrison Ford in the first three "Indiana Jones" movies, and multiple James Bond actors over the years. At age 77, the days of performing stunts are behind him, but he's still working behind the camera as a second unit director, most recently on season 2 of Prime Video's excellent "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."
On today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, I spoke with Armstrong...
On today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, I spoke with Armstrong...
- 9/30/2024
- by Ben Pearson
- Slash Film
The most recent episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, entitled "Doomed to Die," is an action-packed affair. Adar and his army of orcs are attacking the Elven city of Eregion, while Sauron manipulates the city's leader Celebrimbor inside its walls. The fighting is brutal, and there are a couple of minor character deaths. At one point the eld Mirdania (Amelia Kenworthy) falls off a wall and splatters on the ground.
We didn't know Mirdania particularly well, but that's a rough way to go. And we didn't see the half of it. As stunt coordinator and second unit director Vic Armstrong explained to SlashFilm, Mirdania's original death scene was way, way more brutal. "[Director Charlotte Brändström] said, 'Give me some really gruesome bits!' So I said, 'Ok.'"
So I had [Mirdania] thrown off the roof, you see her go down and hit the ground, there's a really good shot,...
We didn't know Mirdania particularly well, but that's a rough way to go. And we didn't see the half of it. As stunt coordinator and second unit director Vic Armstrong explained to SlashFilm, Mirdania's original death scene was way, way more brutal. "[Director Charlotte Brändström] said, 'Give me some really gruesome bits!' So I said, 'Ok.'"
So I had [Mirdania] thrown off the roof, you see her go down and hit the ground, there's a really good shot,...
- 9/30/2024
- by Dan Selcke
- Winter Is Coming
Spoiler Alert !!!This article contains spoilers for 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' season 2 episode 7
The Lord of the Rings universe just keeps giving and giving. Heartbreaks, we mean. The latest episode of its prequel The Rings of Power was just released and let’s just say that fans who haven’t watched it yet are in for a rollercoaster ride. The battle we have all been dreading all this time finally arrived and fans are having a hard time coping with it all.
The Rings of Power season 2 episode 7 | Credits: Amazon MGM Studios
Ismael Cruz Córdova’s Arondir and Sam Hazeldine’s Adar came face to face during the Siege of Eregion and it did not end well for the former. However, in a recent interview, the Arondir actor revealed the very reason he had to rebuild their final choreography from scratch.
Ismael Cruz...
The Lord of the Rings universe just keeps giving and giving. Heartbreaks, we mean. The latest episode of its prequel The Rings of Power was just released and let’s just say that fans who haven’t watched it yet are in for a rollercoaster ride. The battle we have all been dreading all this time finally arrived and fans are having a hard time coping with it all.
The Rings of Power season 2 episode 7 | Credits: Amazon MGM Studios
Ismael Cruz Córdova’s Arondir and Sam Hazeldine’s Adar came face to face during the Siege of Eregion and it did not end well for the former. However, in a recent interview, the Arondir actor revealed the very reason he had to rebuild their final choreography from scratch.
Ismael Cruz...
- 9/27/2024
- by Mishkaat Khan
- FandomWire
Ismael Cruz Córdova wishes Arondir and Adar had more time together on “Rings of Power.”
Season 2 has kept viewers hopping all over Middle-earth but thanks to clues and trailers, it was clear a big battle was on the horizon. Episode 7 finally began the long-awaited Siege of Eregion. Among all the fighting and carnage, Arondir finally caught up to Adar (Sam Hazeldine) on the battlefield.
Arondir’s had a rough season, losing his love Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) to attacks from Adar’s orcs. Córdova tells TheWrap his character hasn’t had “the chance to grieve” at all this since the death and has been driven by a need for revenge.
What Córdova says is unfortunate, is that Arondir only wants Adar from a place of revenge. Where all the other characters have written Adar off as a villain for raising up the orcs, Arondir left his encounter with the scarred elf...
Season 2 has kept viewers hopping all over Middle-earth but thanks to clues and trailers, it was clear a big battle was on the horizon. Episode 7 finally began the long-awaited Siege of Eregion. Among all the fighting and carnage, Arondir finally caught up to Adar (Sam Hazeldine) on the battlefield.
Arondir’s had a rough season, losing his love Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) to attacks from Adar’s orcs. Córdova tells TheWrap his character hasn’t had “the chance to grieve” at all this since the death and has been driven by a need for revenge.
What Córdova says is unfortunate, is that Arondir only wants Adar from a place of revenge. Where all the other characters have written Adar off as a villain for raising up the orcs, Arondir left his encounter with the scarred elf...
- 9/26/2024
- by Jacob Bryant
- The Wrap
This post contains spoilers for season 2, episode 7 of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."
When it comes to the greatest battle episodes in TV history, "The Rings of Power" season 2 has just entered the conversation in a major way. The latest episode of the series showcased the Siege of Eregion in truly epic fashion, rivaling, if not topping, any of the battles in "Game of Thrones." In fact, if you ask Barrie and Sarah Gower, who worked as prosthetics designers and oversaw that department on both "Game of Thrones" and "Rings of Power" season 2, they say this episode was bigger than anything they've ever done:
"Nothing could have prepared us for the scale of 'Rings of Power.' Everything we've worked on sort of pales in [comparison]," Barrie told me. "On 'Game of Thrones' for each season, the battles got bigger and bigger and bigger," Sarah explained. "And...
When it comes to the greatest battle episodes in TV history, "The Rings of Power" season 2 has just entered the conversation in a major way. The latest episode of the series showcased the Siege of Eregion in truly epic fashion, rivaling, if not topping, any of the battles in "Game of Thrones." In fact, if you ask Barrie and Sarah Gower, who worked as prosthetics designers and oversaw that department on both "Game of Thrones" and "Rings of Power" season 2, they say this episode was bigger than anything they've ever done:
"Nothing could have prepared us for the scale of 'Rings of Power.' Everything we've worked on sort of pales in [comparison]," Barrie told me. "On 'Game of Thrones' for each season, the battles got bigger and bigger and bigger," Sarah explained. "And...
- 9/26/2024
- by Ben Pearson
- Slash Film
Action Unit Director Vic Armstrong has worked in the entertainment industry for over five decades starting as Harrison Ford's stunt double in Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Ark, Blade Runner, and many other iconic movies. For the last decade, Armstrong transitioned into directing as an action unit director, working on the last two seasons of Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Anderson breaks down his work on the series and some fun facts about Elrond's horse who comes from a famous lineage.
- 9/8/2024
- by [email protected] (Lupe R Haas)
- CineMovie
Every 90s kid will tell you there were several action films they never grew bored of watching; anything with Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, or Arnold Schwarzenegger in, and then Starship Troopers. The film was a huge pop culture hit, spawning a franchise still going today, and with multiple movies, animated films, comics, books, and of course video games.
Casper Van Dien was the hero of the story, playing Johnny Rico, a plucky private with a point to prove, before rising (and falling) through the ranks to end up where he is now, leading the upcoming console release of Starship Troopers: Extermination, as part of the single-player campaign not only contained within the same universe of the films but continuing on our favorite 90s sci-fi hero’s story.
We were lucky enough to speak to the man himself about the upcoming entry into the franchise, what the future contains, and the...
Casper Van Dien was the hero of the story, playing Johnny Rico, a plucky private with a point to prove, before rising (and falling) through the ranks to end up where he is now, leading the upcoming console release of Starship Troopers: Extermination, as part of the single-player campaign not only contained within the same universe of the films but continuing on our favorite 90s sci-fi hero’s story.
We were lucky enough to speak to the man himself about the upcoming entry into the franchise, what the future contains, and the...
- 8/5/2024
- by Luke Addison
- FandomWire
If the 1970s and ’80s represented a golden age of kinetic but grounded stunt work by pioneers like Hal Needham, Buddy Joe Hooker, and Vic Armstrong, the 2020s are proving to be a seminal moment for stunts in television. The urban action that used to be the bread and butter of Walter Hill, Richard Donner, and Peter Hyams has migrated from the big screen (now dominated by more visual effects-oriented set pieces) to network procedurals and streaming series where stunt coordinators have become adept at creating spectacular moments on tight schedules — all while keeping the performers and crew as safe as possible.
Since its 2020 debut, Dick Wolf’s CBS series “FBI: Most Wanted” has consistently showcased some of the best stunt work on television, with expertly choreographed action sequences that are realistic, thrilling, and heavily slanted toward practical effects. Season 5 included some of the show’s most dynamic set pieces to date,...
Since its 2020 debut, Dick Wolf’s CBS series “FBI: Most Wanted” has consistently showcased some of the best stunt work on television, with expertly choreographed action sequences that are realistic, thrilling, and heavily slanted toward practical effects. Season 5 included some of the show’s most dynamic set pieces to date,...
- 8/1/2024
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Award-winning stage actor Jos Vantyler and Niahm McCormack (Everything Now) are starring in an international action drama series the explores the dark side of detective work and artificial intelligence.
The pair will star in Cold Mind, an indie production from Algarve-based Spy Manor Productions that begins principal photography in Portugal next Monday (April 15). They’ll appear alongside Portuguese actors Joana Seixas and Paulo Calatre.
The show follows a young detective from London (McCormack) who is thrown into a Portuguese murder investigation, as a spree of horrific killings take place in the sunbaked Algarve. At the same time, other timelines on another continent as the plots dips in the action, detective, tech and mystery genres.
McCormack is best known for her role in Netflix’s British comedy-drama Everything Now and The Witcher. She is represented by The Lisa Richards Agency.
The pair will star in Cold Mind, an indie production from Algarve-based Spy Manor Productions that begins principal photography in Portugal next Monday (April 15). They’ll appear alongside Portuguese actors Joana Seixas and Paulo Calatre.
The show follows a young detective from London (McCormack) who is thrown into a Portuguese murder investigation, as a spree of horrific killings take place in the sunbaked Algarve. At the same time, other timelines on another continent as the plots dips in the action, detective, tech and mystery genres.
McCormack is best known for her role in Netflix’s British comedy-drama Everything Now and The Witcher. She is represented by The Lisa Richards Agency.
- 4/10/2024
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Hollywood stunt people are a breed apart. They look at a skyscraper, and wonder what floor from which they could plummet onto an airbag. They encounter a ravine, and instantly want to hop astride a motorcycle and jump it. They see a fellow stunt performer get blasted with fire extinguishers after being set ablaze, and think to themselves, "I could've stayed on fire longer than that." They're wild folk, and they can make the kind of movie magic you'll savor for a lifetime.
For movie lovers, stunt people like Dar Robinson, Vic Armstrong, and Evelyn Finley are as legendary as the stars they doubled. Among casual moviegoers, however, they aren't nearly as appreciated as they should be. So when films like Richard Rush's "The Stunt Man," Hal Needham's "Hooper," or David Leitch's forthcoming "The Fall Guy" (based on the classic 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors) crash into theaters,...
For movie lovers, stunt people like Dar Robinson, Vic Armstrong, and Evelyn Finley are as legendary as the stars they doubled. Among casual moviegoers, however, they aren't nearly as appreciated as they should be. So when films like Richard Rush's "The Stunt Man," Hal Needham's "Hooper," or David Leitch's forthcoming "The Fall Guy" (based on the classic 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors) crash into theaters,...
- 3/15/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" starts with Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones venturing into a booby-trapped tomb, defying death at every turn and escaping with the golden idol. Throughout the 1981 adventure epic, Indy finds himself in similarly precarious situations, managing to narrowly escape with his life in each instance. Frankly, filming "Raiders" itself sounds about as perilous.
There's a reason director Steven Spielberg was amazed Ford and his stunt team survived the shoot. He and his crew took several risks when it came to filming the action that could have easily resulted in tragedy, like making Ford run in front of a real 300-pound boulder for his dramatic tomb escape. The star even got his right leg trapped under a plane during the flying-wing fight scene. But Spielberg did have his limits. Ford was prohibited from doing the stunts that were more likely to lead to actual death. Those were reserved for the stunt team,...
There's a reason director Steven Spielberg was amazed Ford and his stunt team survived the shoot. He and his crew took several risks when it came to filming the action that could have easily resulted in tragedy, like making Ford run in front of a real 300-pound boulder for his dramatic tomb escape. The star even got his right leg trapped under a plane during the flying-wing fight scene. But Spielberg did have his limits. Ford was prohibited from doing the stunts that were more likely to lead to actual death. Those were reserved for the stunt team,...
- 1/15/2024
- by Joe Roberts
- Slash Film
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is often criticized for its culturally problematic portrayal of the Thugee cult, and its unsettlingly dark content that, along with "Gremlins," led to the Motion Picture Association's creation of the PG-13 rating. The former issue is wholly legitimate, but is anything in the 1984 sequel more violent than Nazis getting their faces melted or Pat Roach getting cut to ribbons by a airplane propeller in "Raiders of the Lost Ark?"
What's not up for debate is that "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" was a particularly rough shoot for star Harrison Ford. The actor herniated a disc in his back while performing a somersault during the assassination attempt in Indy's bedroom, and refused to leave the set for treatment. As George Lucas recalled in John Baxter's "Mythmaker: The Life and Work of George Lucas," "[Ford] could barely stand up, yet he was...
What's not up for debate is that "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" was a particularly rough shoot for star Harrison Ford. The actor herniated a disc in his back while performing a somersault during the assassination attempt in Indy's bedroom, and refused to leave the set for treatment. As George Lucas recalled in John Baxter's "Mythmaker: The Life and Work of George Lucas," "[Ford] could barely stand up, yet he was...
- 9/21/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Harrison Ford has been acting for over 50 years, rising to fame in 1977 for his iconic performance as Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise. Throughout his career, he has taken on legendary characters such as Indiana Jones and has had his fair share of injuries during filming.
Despite intense safety protocols on movie sets, injuries sometimes occur and can result in significant production delays. However, depending on the severity of the injury and the actor’s willingness to proceed, sometimes “the show must go on!”
That was the case in the 1993 film The Fugitive, where Ford tore several ligaments in his knee, resulting in his character having an onscreen limp.
The premise of ‘The Fugitive’
Nominated for the 1994 Best Picture of the Year by the Academy Awards, The Fugitive follows the story of Chicago surgeon Dr. Richard Kimble, played by the Indiana Jones alum. Kimble is unjustly accused of killing...
Despite intense safety protocols on movie sets, injuries sometimes occur and can result in significant production delays. However, depending on the severity of the injury and the actor’s willingness to proceed, sometimes “the show must go on!”
That was the case in the 1993 film The Fugitive, where Ford tore several ligaments in his knee, resulting in his character having an onscreen limp.
The premise of ‘The Fugitive’
Nominated for the 1994 Best Picture of the Year by the Academy Awards, The Fugitive follows the story of Chicago surgeon Dr. Richard Kimble, played by the Indiana Jones alum. Kimble is unjustly accused of killing...
- 9/9/2023
- by Suse Forrest
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Note: Den of Geek is a media sponsor of the London Action Festival.
If there’s one thing action fans love, it’s a sequel. We don’t want John McClane to have just one bad day dealing with terrorists. We want him to be in several wrong places at many wrong times. We don’t expect Rambo to embrace pacifism after dealing with power-tripping cops. We want him to strap on a bandolier and wreak worldwide havoc again and again. And Jack Bauer fighting baddies over one 24-hour period? That’s not enough. We want a whole week’s worth of wreckage!
It’s in that proud tradition that the London Action Festival returns to the heart of England this June 21 – 25. As shown in last year’s inaugural event, the London Action Festival celebrates cinema and television at its most kinetic. And it comes at the right time, as...
If there’s one thing action fans love, it’s a sequel. We don’t want John McClane to have just one bad day dealing with terrorists. We want him to be in several wrong places at many wrong times. We don’t expect Rambo to embrace pacifism after dealing with power-tripping cops. We want him to strap on a bandolier and wreak worldwide havoc again and again. And Jack Bauer fighting baddies over one 24-hour period? That’s not enough. We want a whole week’s worth of wreckage!
It’s in that proud tradition that the London Action Festival returns to the heart of England this June 21 – 25. As shown in last year’s inaugural event, the London Action Festival celebrates cinema and television at its most kinetic. And it comes at the right time, as...
- 3/23/2023
- by Joe George
- Den of Geek
After a blockbuster debut in 2022, the London Action Festival is set to return this summer for its second edition.
The festival is timed to be squarely in the middle of the summer action movie season. This summer will see the release of “Fast X,” “Kandahar,” “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One” in the May-July time frame and the festival will unspool June 21-25.
Highlights of the inaugural edition included The World’s Greatest Screening Ever… Probably! – an enhanced screening experience of “Die Hard” with director John McTiernan; a making of “Jurassic World Dominion” with an Academy Award-winning VFX panel presented by Proof Inc. and director Colin Trevorrow participating; exclusive previews of season 2 of Sky original “Gangs of London” with director Corin Hardy and Marv’s “School Fight” from stunt coordinator turned director Damien Walters; and...
The festival is timed to be squarely in the middle of the summer action movie season. This summer will see the release of “Fast X,” “Kandahar,” “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One” in the May-July time frame and the festival will unspool June 21-25.
Highlights of the inaugural edition included The World’s Greatest Screening Ever… Probably! – an enhanced screening experience of “Die Hard” with director John McTiernan; a making of “Jurassic World Dominion” with an Academy Award-winning VFX panel presented by Proof Inc. and director Colin Trevorrow participating; exclusive previews of season 2 of Sky original “Gangs of London” with director Corin Hardy and Marv’s “School Fight” from stunt coordinator turned director Damien Walters; and...
- 3/10/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Long before Tom Cruise snapped his ankle in half jumping from rooftop to rooftop while making "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," Harrison Ford was putting his body on the line for our entertainment.
There's a long history of lead actors getting injured on movie sets while trying to capture something truly amazing for the viewing audience. Silent star Wallace Reid was famously injured in a train stunt gone wrong in 1919's "The Valley of the Giants" to the point where he ended up addicted to his pain management treatment (at that time the options were morphine or to just grin and bear it). That addiction would end up prematurely killing the young cinema star.
The point is Hollywood has a long history of stars putting their physical health on the line for the good of the picture and one notable incident that isn't talked about nearly as much as it should be...
There's a long history of lead actors getting injured on movie sets while trying to capture something truly amazing for the viewing audience. Silent star Wallace Reid was famously injured in a train stunt gone wrong in 1919's "The Valley of the Giants" to the point where he ended up addicted to his pain management treatment (at that time the options were morphine or to just grin and bear it). That addiction would end up prematurely killing the young cinema star.
The point is Hollywood has a long history of stars putting their physical health on the line for the good of the picture and one notable incident that isn't talked about nearly as much as it should be...
- 2/28/2023
- by Eric Vespe
- Slash Film
Indiana Jones will soon return in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," another globe-trotting entry in the Indy saga that everyone's not really sure about because of a certain Crystal Skull of Akator. Still, franchise star Harrison Ford isn't worried, and has no hard feelings about "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." In fact, he's having a great time of late, forging a new prestige TV career by starring in the Apple TV+ series "Shrinking" alongside Paramount's popular "1923."
Some 40 odd years after Indiana Jones' 1981 debut, 80-year-old Ford can be found weathering blizzards on horseback and spending 10-hour days in the bitter Montana climate for his Paramount show. As Jacob Dutton, the Hollywood vet has shown a startling willingness to take on the physical demands of playing a rancher spending his twilight years protecting his family. But then, he's always preferred to perform as much of the on-screen action as he can.
Some 40 odd years after Indiana Jones' 1981 debut, 80-year-old Ford can be found weathering blizzards on horseback and spending 10-hour days in the bitter Montana climate for his Paramount show. As Jacob Dutton, the Hollywood vet has shown a startling willingness to take on the physical demands of playing a rancher spending his twilight years protecting his family. But then, he's always preferred to perform as much of the on-screen action as he can.
- 2/27/2023
- by Joe Roberts
- Slash Film
Click here to read the full article.
On the sixth episode of The Rings of Power — the first in Amazon’s mega-budget The Lord of the Rings prequel to truly erupt in action as Adar’s rampaging orcs finally come face-to-face with Galadriel and her fresh-off-the-boat, battle-hungry Númenóreans — there are a few moments where viewers over a certain age may experience a sense of déjà vu.
In one sequence, Arondir — Ismael Cruz Cordova’s extremely nimble, sharpshooting elven warrior — falls from a roof only to be cornered by a huge lumbering orc who proceeds to throw him around like a rag doll. Stunt coordinator and second unit director Vic Armstrong says he got the idea — which contrasts the quick-footed physicality of Arondir against the slower but more brutal moves of the orc — from a scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, in which Indiana Jones comes up against a stacked...
On the sixth episode of The Rings of Power — the first in Amazon’s mega-budget The Lord of the Rings prequel to truly erupt in action as Adar’s rampaging orcs finally come face-to-face with Galadriel and her fresh-off-the-boat, battle-hungry Númenóreans — there are a few moments where viewers over a certain age may experience a sense of déjà vu.
In one sequence, Arondir — Ismael Cruz Cordova’s extremely nimble, sharpshooting elven warrior — falls from a roof only to be cornered by a huge lumbering orc who proceeds to throw him around like a rag doll. Stunt coordinator and second unit director Vic Armstrong says he got the idea — which contrasts the quick-footed physicality of Arondir against the slower but more brutal moves of the orc — from a scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, in which Indiana Jones comes up against a stacked...
- 12/18/2022
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Actors must be experts in the art of acting — conveying emotions and information to audiences through their voice, body language and other subtle ways.
But this awards season highlights series that call on the actors to become experts in cooking, baking, sword fighting, archery and other skills in order to sell their characters to the audience.
Chopping, simmering and frying may seem like basic kitchen tasks that most adults can handle, and, peeling back the question of enjoyment, hitting adulthood generally means being able to feed yourself more than a frozen dinner. For the actors on the FX series “The Bear,” Canadian chef Matty Matheson’s training amounted to much more.
Matheson, who is credited as an actor and co-producer on the show, says it boils down to movement. Restaurant chefs are constantly on the go as they check out different stages of the cooking process, all the while understanding...
But this awards season highlights series that call on the actors to become experts in cooking, baking, sword fighting, archery and other skills in order to sell their characters to the audience.
Chopping, simmering and frying may seem like basic kitchen tasks that most adults can handle, and, peeling back the question of enjoyment, hitting adulthood generally means being able to feed yourself more than a frozen dinner. For the actors on the FX series “The Bear,” Canadian chef Matty Matheson’s training amounted to much more.
Matheson, who is credited as an actor and co-producer on the show, says it boils down to movement. Restaurant chefs are constantly on the go as they check out different stages of the cooking process, all the while understanding...
- 11/17/2022
- by Zoe Hewitt
- Variety Film + TV
It's nothing less than tradition, at this point. When approaching any adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's work, filmmakers can reasonably expect to have at least a few large-scale, ambitious, and technically challenging battle sequences to pull off. Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is filled with these moments, beginning as early as the prologue scenes depicting (spoiler alert!) the Dark Lord Sauron's defeat against the combined forces of Middle-earth and culminating with "The Return of the King." This continued in "The Hobbit," ultimately reaching its apex in "The Battle of the Five Armies" that essentially depicted a series of unending, loosely connected set pieces throughout most of the runtime.
Prime Video's "The Rings of Power" series lived up to such high expectations in a big way with episode 6, the long-awaited hour that finally pitted the Southlanders and eventually the late-arriving Númenoreans against the villainous Adar (Joseph Mawle) and his orcs.
Prime Video's "The Rings of Power" series lived up to such high expectations in a big way with episode 6, the long-awaited hour that finally pitted the Southlanders and eventually the late-arriving Númenoreans against the villainous Adar (Joseph Mawle) and his orcs.
- 10/7/2022
- by Jeremy Mathai
- Slash Film
It's one of the coolest fights in movie history. In Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," archeologist-adventurer Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has escaped from the Egyptian Well of Souls, linked up with partner Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), and plans to escape from the German Nazi forces (who are there in pursuit of a biblical artifact) by stealing a plane. All goes well until a German mechanic hassles a clearly out-of-place Indy, and a quick scuffle takes place. Despite being at a disadvantage, he disarms his opponent and scurries up the plane to take control. Then, a towering behemoth of muscle in the form of wrestler Pat Loach emerges from a normal-sized hut like Gandalf out of a Hobbit-hole, grinning at the prospect of a bare-knuckle fight.
The bout that ensues is seared into the minds of movie lovers around the world, a love letter to the old...
The bout that ensues is seared into the minds of movie lovers around the world, a love letter to the old...
- 10/4/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is a giant collection of individual pieces. Branch down from any one element and there are so many different parts that have to function together to make it all work.
Fight scenes are no different. For every wide shot of a skirmish — in the case of Episode 6, “Udûn,” ones in the Southlands village near the tower Ostirith — each bit of chaos has to mesh together. For series stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong, that starts with assembling a team.
When hiring local stunt performers, Armstrong looks not only at strength and agility, but the true element of performance that goes hand-in-hand with them. It can be as simple as seeing how someone can sell the idea of being hit by an arrow.
“One test is I send them running across a field and tell them to give me your interpretation of bullet hitting you.
Fight scenes are no different. For every wide shot of a skirmish — in the case of Episode 6, “Udûn,” ones in the Southlands village near the tower Ostirith — each bit of chaos has to mesh together. For series stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong, that starts with assembling a team.
When hiring local stunt performers, Armstrong looks not only at strength and agility, but the true element of performance that goes hand-in-hand with them. It can be as simple as seeing how someone can sell the idea of being hit by an arrow.
“One test is I send them running across a field and tell them to give me your interpretation of bullet hitting you.
- 10/1/2022
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Warning: spoilers ahead for "The Rings of Power" episode 6.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" was all action this week with an episode that saw our Middle-earth heroes engage in not just one major battle, but several. "Udûn" starts with a looming orc army and ends with the epic eruption of Mount Doom, and every moment between brims with either action or the anticipation of action. The episode was directed by Charlotte Brändström, who has previously helmed episodes of "Outlander" and "The Witcher," and it includes some of the show's most impressive visuals and strongest emotional beats to date.
It also, apparently, includes a surprise connection to another major franchise. In an interview with /Film's Vanessa Armstrong, VFX producer Ron Ames revealed that the episode got a boost from an unlikely hero: Indiana Jones.
"In this particular case, everything was completely planned," Ames says of the battle sequences' use of special effects,...
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" was all action this week with an episode that saw our Middle-earth heroes engage in not just one major battle, but several. "Udûn" starts with a looming orc army and ends with the epic eruption of Mount Doom, and every moment between brims with either action or the anticipation of action. The episode was directed by Charlotte Brändström, who has previously helmed episodes of "Outlander" and "The Witcher," and it includes some of the show's most impressive visuals and strongest emotional beats to date.
It also, apparently, includes a surprise connection to another major franchise. In an interview with /Film's Vanessa Armstrong, VFX producer Ron Ames revealed that the episode got a boost from an unlikely hero: Indiana Jones.
"In this particular case, everything was completely planned," Ames says of the battle sequences' use of special effects,...
- 9/30/2022
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
If you've been watching "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," you know that the show is expansive in scope, and that we see several major areas in Tolkien's world in full glory on screen. Creating these fictional fantastical places is a group effort of several different departments, not least of which is visual effects. "All of it is a construction, carefully crafted between props, set deck, set, and visual effects," explains the series VFX producer Ron Ames in an exclusive interview with /Film. "They're all one thing."
I talked with Ames about his work on the series, particularly about some sequences we see in the latest episode, "Udûn," that are certainly massive in scope. Read on for that discussion though be warned:
Spoilers through the sixth episode of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" lie below!
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
I talked with Ames about his work on the series, particularly about some sequences we see in the latest episode, "Udûn," that are certainly massive in scope. Read on for that discussion though be warned:
Spoilers through the sixth episode of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" lie below!
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
- 9/30/2022
- by Vanessa Armstrong
- Slash Film
Jake Gyllenhaal has been snapped up to take the lead in the remake of the 1989 Patrick Swayze-led ‘Road House.’
Gyllenhaal will play the role of a former UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but, according to the logline, “soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise.”
Billy Magnussen, Suicide Squad actress Daniela Melchior, Gbemisola Ikumelo and Lukas Gage are set to star. Hannah Love Lanier, Travis Van Winkle, B.K. Cannon, Arturo Castro, Dominique Columbus, Beau Knapp and Bob Menery also join Gyllenhaal on the cast list.
Also in news – London Action Fest Day 2 with Edgar Wright, David Arnold & Vic Armstrong
Doug Liman will direct the film from a script by The Nice Guys writer Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry.
Said Liman, “I’m thrilled to put my own spin on the beloved Road House legacy.
Gyllenhaal will play the role of a former UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but, according to the logline, “soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise.”
Billy Magnussen, Suicide Squad actress Daniela Melchior, Gbemisola Ikumelo and Lukas Gage are set to star. Hannah Love Lanier, Travis Van Winkle, B.K. Cannon, Arturo Castro, Dominique Columbus, Beau Knapp and Bob Menery also join Gyllenhaal on the cast list.
Also in news – London Action Fest Day 2 with Edgar Wright, David Arnold & Vic Armstrong
Doug Liman will direct the film from a script by The Nice Guys writer Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry.
Said Liman, “I’m thrilled to put my own spin on the beloved Road House legacy.
- 8/3/2022
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The London Action Festival continued at the Royal Geographical Society for its second night “Action’s Big Night Out”, with an evening of comedy, live music, quizzes and surprise guests.
Host/comedian Bennett Arron introduced the McBain quartet to kick off the evening with a classical rendition of the Mission: Impossible theme before magician Nick Einhorn performed film related tricks involving audience participation, mobile phones and the power of deduction.
Main festival guest, director John McTiernan was then re-introduced for a session entitled “Anatomy of a scene” during which he discussed, with Ian Nathan and director Corin Hardy, the sequence from Dr. Strangelove which sees Slim Pickens’ Major “King” Kong repair a malfunctioned missile before it’s accidentally dispatched with him straddling it.
Surprise guest Edgar Wright then turned up to dissect the bar fight sequence from The World’s End where Simon Pegg tries to salvage his pint while fighting aliens.
Host/comedian Bennett Arron introduced the McBain quartet to kick off the evening with a classical rendition of the Mission: Impossible theme before magician Nick Einhorn performed film related tricks involving audience participation, mobile phones and the power of deduction.
Main festival guest, director John McTiernan was then re-introduced for a session entitled “Anatomy of a scene” during which he discussed, with Ian Nathan and director Corin Hardy, the sequence from Dr. Strangelove which sees Slim Pickens’ Major “King” Kong repair a malfunctioned missile before it’s accidentally dispatched with him straddling it.
Surprise guest Edgar Wright then turned up to dissect the bar fight sequence from The World’s End where Simon Pegg tries to salvage his pint while fighting aliens.
- 8/1/2022
- by Daniel Goodwin
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
A galaxy of stars paid fulsome tribute to filmmaker John McTiernan and stuntman Vic Armstrong as they were both awarded Moving Target awards on Friday for their outstanding contributions to the action genre at the inaugural London Action Festival.
The awards were presented at London’s Royal London Geographical Society and icons from the action genre attended, including Corin Hardy (“Gangs of London”), composer David Arnold (“Casino Royale”) Robert Davi (“Die Hard”) and Edgar Wright (“Last Night in Soho”).
Prominent film personalities who have worked with McTiernan and Armstrong conveyed their appreciation via video messages. Harrison Ford praised Armstrong, saying: “We’ve been doing this Vic for like 50 years! You’ve had the good sense to turn it into a directing job ‘cos this running, jumping and falling down thing is a game for the young guys. The audiences loved the work you’ve guided in the Indiana Jones films.
The awards were presented at London’s Royal London Geographical Society and icons from the action genre attended, including Corin Hardy (“Gangs of London”), composer David Arnold (“Casino Royale”) Robert Davi (“Die Hard”) and Edgar Wright (“Last Night in Soho”).
Prominent film personalities who have worked with McTiernan and Armstrong conveyed their appreciation via video messages. Harrison Ford praised Armstrong, saying: “We’ve been doing this Vic for like 50 years! You’ve had the good sense to turn it into a directing job ‘cos this running, jumping and falling down thing is a game for the young guys. The audiences loved the work you’ve guided in the Indiana Jones films.
- 7/30/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Project Funding
The Asian Cinema Fund, a bursary scheme for film and documentary projects operated alongside the Busan International Film Festival, has announced six Korean recipients and seven hailing from elsewhere in Asia. The fund was put on hiatus during the two years of Covid, which also reduced the festival in size and turned the Asian Contents & Film Market into a virtual event. Three winners – “In the Land of Brothers,” by Raha Amirfazali, “Life I Stole,” by Putri Purnama Sugua and “Smart City,” by Rohin Raveendran – each receive KRW10 million for script development and are invited to participate in the Acfm’s Asian Project Market. Three films currently in post-production — “Birth,” by Yoo Jiyoung, “Juhee from 5 to 7,” by Jang Kunjae and “Mariam,” by Arvind Pratap — will receive in-kind support for digital intermediates, Dcp production, sound mixing and sub-titling, and are expected to premiere as finished works at the Busan festival.
The Asian Cinema Fund, a bursary scheme for film and documentary projects operated alongside the Busan International Film Festival, has announced six Korean recipients and seven hailing from elsewhere in Asia. The fund was put on hiatus during the two years of Covid, which also reduced the festival in size and turned the Asian Contents & Film Market into a virtual event. Three winners – “In the Land of Brothers,” by Raha Amirfazali, “Life I Stole,” by Putri Purnama Sugua and “Smart City,” by Rohin Raveendran – each receive KRW10 million for script development and are invited to participate in the Acfm’s Asian Project Market. Three films currently in post-production — “Birth,” by Yoo Jiyoung, “Juhee from 5 to 7,” by Jang Kunjae and “Mariam,” by Arvind Pratap — will receive in-kind support for digital intermediates, Dcp production, sound mixing and sub-titling, and are expected to premiere as finished works at the Busan festival.
- 7/15/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Sexy Beast and The Departed actor Ray Winstone will turn his cockney tones to a feature documentary on the heyday for British stunt performers in Hollywood.
Produced by Canal Cat Films Production in association with Red Rock Entertainment and Verax Films, Hollywood Bulldogs: The Rise and Falls of the Great British Stuntman will see Winstone tell the story of a small community of British stunt performers who dominated Hollywood in the 1970s and ’80s.
The film is directed by Jon Spira (Anyone Can Play Guitar) and features a cast of stuntmen including Vic Armstrong, Paul Weston, Rocky Taylor, Greg Powell, Ray Austin, Jim Dowdall, Richard Hammatt and Frank Henson.
The former bouncers, gangsters, and demobbed soldiers were prepared to do the dangerous work on set, paving the way for a new generation of professional stunt performers. It reveals stories of revelry and insights from behind the scenes on blockbusters including James Bond,...
Produced by Canal Cat Films Production in association with Red Rock Entertainment and Verax Films, Hollywood Bulldogs: The Rise and Falls of the Great British Stuntman will see Winstone tell the story of a small community of British stunt performers who dominated Hollywood in the 1970s and ’80s.
The film is directed by Jon Spira (Anyone Can Play Guitar) and features a cast of stuntmen including Vic Armstrong, Paul Weston, Rocky Taylor, Greg Powell, Ray Austin, Jim Dowdall, Richard Hammatt and Frank Henson.
The former bouncers, gangsters, and demobbed soldiers were prepared to do the dangerous work on set, paving the way for a new generation of professional stunt performers. It reveals stories of revelry and insights from behind the scenes on blockbusters including James Bond,...
- 3/30/2021
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Torun, Poland – While Gideon Raff’s Netflix thriller “The Red Sea Diving Resort” shot largely in South Africa and Namibia, the project was a welcomed opportunity for cinematographer Roberto Schaefer due to his own memorable travels through Ethiopia. The film, which screened in the EnergaCamerimage Intl. Film Festival’s Contemporary World Cinema section, is loosely based on an operation by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, to evacuate Jewish Ethiopian refugees to Israel in the 1980s using an abandoned seaside resort in Sudan. Chris Evans, Ben Kingsley, Michael Kenneth Williams and Greg Kinnear star. “Story-wise obviously it moved me very much,” Schaefer said, speaking at the film’s screening in Torun, Poland on Thursday. “I had sort of a personal connection to it because in 1972 I visited Ethiopia with my sister and my brother-in-law. We travelled around the whole country and we went to three different Falasha villages – Ethiopian Jews are Falashas.
- 11/16/2019
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
King of the second-unit cinematographers, Rexford Metz is second to none when it comes to getting shots on the ground, in water or high in the sky.
He operated the camera during the famed 10-minute chase sequence in “Bullitt” on the streets of San Francisco in 1968, and it was his coverage of muscle cars — and stuntman Bud Ekins’ motorcycle slide — that viewers could feel on the seat of their pants.
Metz was born in Los Angeles in 1937 to Glen and Mildred Metz. His dad built race car engines, and Metz graduated from Fairfax High School in 1955 with knowledge of two things: fast cars and using his 4×5 Graflex camera to photograph them.
On “Bullitt,” Ekins, who raced motorcycles with Metz, introduced his friend to star Steve McQueen, who got him hired on the film as a background actor. But after Metz shared his passion for cameras with Dp Bill Fraker, the cinematographer helped him change jobs.
He operated the camera during the famed 10-minute chase sequence in “Bullitt” on the streets of San Francisco in 1968, and it was his coverage of muscle cars — and stuntman Bud Ekins’ motorcycle slide — that viewers could feel on the seat of their pants.
Metz was born in Los Angeles in 1937 to Glen and Mildred Metz. His dad built race car engines, and Metz graduated from Fairfax High School in 1955 with knowledge of two things: fast cars and using his 4×5 Graflex camera to photograph them.
On “Bullitt,” Ekins, who raced motorcycles with Metz, introduced his friend to star Steve McQueen, who got him hired on the film as a background actor. But after Metz shared his passion for cameras with Dp Bill Fraker, the cinematographer helped him change jobs.
- 9/27/2019
- by James C. Udel
- Variety Film + TV
Gerard Butlers?s Mike banning is set to return with Angel Has Fallen, as the tough Secret Service agent. First he had to rescue the Us president after a terrorist attack on the White House, in the film, Olympus Has Fallen, and then he went on to save a whole group of world leaders in London Has Fallen.?
Now Banning is back in action with Angel Has Fallen, which opens in India this August 23rd by PVR Pictures and Mvp Entertainment.
As Butler goes from hunter to hunted, overseeing the scorching action were prolific stunt coordinator, Greg Powell, and legendary action unit director, Vic Armstrong.?
Talking about his experience working on the film Armstrong says, ?On Angel Has Fallen, we took everything bigger and faster in every moment: we have fast boats, fast trucks, fast drones, and huge explosions. ?
The audience is going to love it.? The film kicks off...
Now Banning is back in action with Angel Has Fallen, which opens in India this August 23rd by PVR Pictures and Mvp Entertainment.
As Butler goes from hunter to hunted, overseeing the scorching action were prolific stunt coordinator, Greg Powell, and legendary action unit director, Vic Armstrong.?
Talking about his experience working on the film Armstrong says, ?On Angel Has Fallen, we took everything bigger and faster in every moment: we have fast boats, fast trucks, fast drones, and huge explosions. ?
The audience is going to love it.? The film kicks off...
- 8/19/2019
- GlamSham
The Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival invites you to join it for a very special event this year in celebrating its 10th birthday as part of the Open House Festival.
Having moved the festival from Belfast to Bangor in 2018, the festival hopes to introduce itself to that new audience who will enjoy what it has to offer, from a wide range of independent films from around the world, Q&a sessions with the film makers, informative workshops, special guests from the film industry, and of course, the wonderful Gala Dinner Award Ceremony.
Brought to you by Bangor based award winning indie feature director, George Clarke and his team at Yellow Fever Productions, the Yfiff is known worldwide for its welcoming hospitality, independent charm and selection of alternative cinema promoting the very best of the indie film world.
This year, they have two amazing special guests: industry professionals Jesse V. Johnson...
Having moved the festival from Belfast to Bangor in 2018, the festival hopes to introduce itself to that new audience who will enjoy what it has to offer, from a wide range of independent films from around the world, Q&a sessions with the film makers, informative workshops, special guests from the film industry, and of course, the wonderful Gala Dinner Award Ceremony.
Brought to you by Bangor based award winning indie feature director, George Clarke and his team at Yellow Fever Productions, the Yfiff is known worldwide for its welcoming hospitality, independent charm and selection of alternative cinema promoting the very best of the indie film world.
This year, they have two amazing special guests: industry professionals Jesse V. Johnson...
- 7/4/2019
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
In today’s film news roundup, Marwan Kenzari joins Charlize Theron in a new movie, Darby Camp is starring in “Clifford, the Big Red Dog,” Vic Armstrong will direct thriller “Sons of the Cross” and Doc Society selects six documentaries for its Good Pitch program.
Castings
“Aladdin” star Marwan Kenzari has been cast opposite Charlize Theron and Kiki Layne in the action film “The Old Guard” for Skydance and Netflix.
Gina Prince-Bythewood is directing “The Old Guard,” based on the comic by writer Greg Rucka and artist Leandro Fernandez. The story, published in 2017 by Image, centers on old soldiers who never die, finding themselves trapped in immortality without explanation.
Producers are Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger; Marc Evans; and Theron and her Denver and Delilah partners Beth Kono and Aj Dix. Stan Wlodkowski and Rucka are executive producing.
Kenzari starred as the villainous Jafar in “Aladdin...
Castings
“Aladdin” star Marwan Kenzari has been cast opposite Charlize Theron and Kiki Layne in the action film “The Old Guard” for Skydance and Netflix.
Gina Prince-Bythewood is directing “The Old Guard,” based on the comic by writer Greg Rucka and artist Leandro Fernandez. The story, published in 2017 by Image, centers on old soldiers who never die, finding themselves trapped in immortality without explanation.
Producers are Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger; Marc Evans; and Theron and her Denver and Delilah partners Beth Kono and Aj Dix. Stan Wlodkowski and Rucka are executive producing.
Kenzari starred as the villainous Jafar in “Aladdin...
- 5/29/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Cinema Retro has received the following announcement from Bondstars:
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Bondstars have a handful of tickets left for their Chitty Chitty Bang Bang event on Sunday November 18th at Pinewood Studios, London England.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ian Fleming's most fantasmagorical flying car 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' on the big screen, they are hosting a special anniversary lunch event at Scrumptious Mansion, aka Pinewood Studios. Pinewood isn’t open to the public, so this is a rare chance to step into one of Britain’s most iconic film studios. The day will include a visit from the car herself; cast and crew members in attendance; screening of the film in The John Barry Theatre; a delicious lunch in the Pinewood Ballroom; a special Chitty quiz; Q & A’s with our guests from in front and behind the camera...
Normal 0 false false false En-gb X-none X-none
Bondstars have a handful of tickets left for their Chitty Chitty Bang Bang event on Sunday November 18th at Pinewood Studios, London England.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ian Fleming's most fantasmagorical flying car 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' on the big screen, they are hosting a special anniversary lunch event at Scrumptious Mansion, aka Pinewood Studios. Pinewood isn’t open to the public, so this is a rare chance to step into one of Britain’s most iconic film studios. The day will include a visit from the car herself; cast and crew members in attendance; screening of the film in The John Barry Theatre; a delicious lunch in the Pinewood Ballroom; a special Chitty quiz; Q & A’s with our guests from in front and behind the camera...
- 10/12/2018
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is garnering surprisingly glowing reviews. Don’t get us wrong, the creative team on both sides of the camera is solid and the franchise has never been less than interesting, but when five stars becomes the order of the day, something needs to be said.
What is being said, primarily, is that the story is compelling and the action set-pieces are thrilling. Which sounds an awful lot like praise for old-fashioned film-making mainstays. CGI has given us so much in the past 3 decades, but what it has clearly never been able to replace is the excitement of knowing that what you are watching *really happened*, that even though wires might have been removed and a stunt performer’s face might have been cleverly concealed, someone actually crawled under that moving jeep, someone crashed that car, someone delivered that jumping spin-kick.
The Mission: Impossible franchise has given us...
What is being said, primarily, is that the story is compelling and the action set-pieces are thrilling. Which sounds an awful lot like praise for old-fashioned film-making mainstays. CGI has given us so much in the past 3 decades, but what it has clearly never been able to replace is the excitement of knowing that what you are watching *really happened*, that even though wires might have been removed and a stunt performer’s face might have been cleverly concealed, someone actually crawled under that moving jeep, someone crashed that car, someone delivered that jumping spin-kick.
The Mission: Impossible franchise has given us...
- 7/27/2018
- by Dave Roper
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Bond girls Jenny Hanley, Caron Gardner, Francesca Tu.
By Mark Mawston
The ultimate “Bonding” session once again took place at the home of the 007 franchise, Pinewood Studios, on Sunday 24th September. Those lucky enough to attend were treated to a dealer’s room, a 50th Anniversary 4K screening of You Only Live Twice, at which organizer Gareth Owen read a message received from the e Prime Minister herself, Theresa May, which touched on the amazing feats of ingenuity and sheer technical mastery that went into the construction of the films famed volcano set; a three course lunch and afternoon tea and of course a "who’s who" from the world of Bond from both in front and behind the camera. These included:
Peter Lamont - Assistant Art Director - Art Director and Production Designer of 18 Bond films, Terry Ackland-Snow - Art Director on two Bond films, Alan Tomkins - Art director on five Bond films,...
By Mark Mawston
The ultimate “Bonding” session once again took place at the home of the 007 franchise, Pinewood Studios, on Sunday 24th September. Those lucky enough to attend were treated to a dealer’s room, a 50th Anniversary 4K screening of You Only Live Twice, at which organizer Gareth Owen read a message received from the e Prime Minister herself, Theresa May, which touched on the amazing feats of ingenuity and sheer technical mastery that went into the construction of the films famed volcano set; a three course lunch and afternoon tea and of course a "who’s who" from the world of Bond from both in front and behind the camera. These included:
Peter Lamont - Assistant Art Director - Art Director and Production Designer of 18 Bond films, Terry Ackland-Snow - Art Director on two Bond films, Alan Tomkins - Art director on five Bond films,...
- 9/30/2017
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
"Thunderball" co-stars Martine Beswick and Luciana Paluzzi.
Hammer and "Live and Let Die" actress Madeleine Smith.
By Mark Mawston
The London Film Convention, organized by Thomas Bowington was quite literally a Who’s Who of heroes and villains from the small and silver screen. The actual Who came in the shape of a Dr. himself in the guise of Sylvester McCoy, along with Who assistants Katy Manning who played Jo and Bernard Cribbins from both the Amicus film version and the TV version. There was also a rare appearance from Garial Woolf. The other key cult British film genres-the Carry On films, James Bond and Hammer horror- were all represented too, with many of the star guests appearing in all three: from the Carry On Films we had Fenella Fielding, Anita Harris and Amanda Barrie, from Hammer and Bond we had Maddie Smith, Valerie Leon, Martine Beswick, Eunice Gayson, John Wyman,...
Hammer and "Live and Let Die" actress Madeleine Smith.
By Mark Mawston
The London Film Convention, organized by Thomas Bowington was quite literally a Who’s Who of heroes and villains from the small and silver screen. The actual Who came in the shape of a Dr. himself in the guise of Sylvester McCoy, along with Who assistants Katy Manning who played Jo and Bernard Cribbins from both the Amicus film version and the TV version. There was also a rare appearance from Garial Woolf. The other key cult British film genres-the Carry On films, James Bond and Hammer horror- were all represented too, with many of the star guests appearing in all three: from the Carry On Films we had Fenella Fielding, Anita Harris and Amanda Barrie, from Hammer and Bond we had Maddie Smith, Valerie Leon, Martine Beswick, Eunice Gayson, John Wyman,...
- 9/20/2017
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
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Legendary stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong talks to us about his work on Highlander, Thor, Catwoman, and what makes a great action scene...
For over 40 years, Andy Armstrong has worked on a huge array of stunts and action sequences in TV and film. From directing 1,000s of extras in Stargate to a full body burn in Danny DeVito's Hoffa, Armstrong's experiences as a stuntman, stunt coordinator and unit director have taken him all over the world.
The brother of Vic Armstrong, the stunt coordinator and director who famously doubled for Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies, Andy Armstrong's career began when he doubled for Sir John Mills on the 1970s TV series, The Zoo Gang. That early job jumpstarted a life in filmmaking which has taken in three James Bond movies, 90s action (Total Recall, Universal Soldier) and superhero movies (The Green Hornet, Thor, The Amazing Spider-Man).
Those 40 years of filmmaking experience are the pillar of Armstrong's book, the Action Movie Maker's Handbook. Intended as a reference for those thinking of starting a career in stunts or action unit directing, it also offers a valuable insight for those outside the industry, too. The book reveals the range of talents required to bring an effective action scene to the screen - organisation, storytelling, an understanding of engineering and physics - and how much input a coordinator and unit director has on how those sequences will look in the final film.
We caught up with Andy Armstrong via telephone to talk about his book and some of the highlights in his career so far. Read on for his thoughts on creating the action sequences in Thor and The Amazing Spider-Man, his hilarious behind-the-scenes memories from the 80s cult classic, Highlander, and what went wrong on the 2004 Catwoman movie...
Your book gave me a new appreciation for what second unit directors and stunt coordinators do. I didn't realise how much design work you do when it comes to action scenes, for example.
Yeah, it is true that a lot of people don't realise how much development goes into action. Especially nowadays, it's such a complex business. That becomes a huge part of it - the technicalities of it and the storytelling part of it. Some things might look great, but when you put them all together they don't necessarily work for that movie. A lot of what I've made a living doing is really creating action that is appropriate for the movie. Because the wrong type of action is just like the wrong costume or the wrong actor or something - it just takes you out of the film.
You get a lot of movies that actually have too much action in them. Then what happens is, you can't appreciate it. It's like a feast where the starter is such a huge meal that you don't even want the main course because you're full. That's like so many action movies - they'd actually benefit from having some of the action taken out of them. I'm always fascinated when you see an audience in an action movie.
When I feel there's too much action in a movie, or it goes on for too long, I always look around in a cinema. It's interesting to see people chatting to each other or doing something else. You should never have that in an action movie. Action should be like sex or violence - you want to be left just wanting a bit more. That gets forgotten in a lot of movies, which are just relentless. Stuff going on the whole time.
What happens then is that, when it comes to something special for the third act, some fantastic fight or something, you can't raise the bar enough, because the bar's been high all the way through the movie. It's a weird thing.
They have to build, action scenes.
They do have to build, absolutely. That's why I do that little graph in the book, which is something I do in every movie, just to work out how much action there should be and where it should go and, on a scale of one to 10, how big it is. It's funny how crude that looks, and yet if you compare it to any of the really great action movies, they'll fit that graph. There'll be something at the opening, there'll be something happening at the end of the first act and into the second act, and there'll be bits and pieces happening in the second act and then a big third act finale. Whether it's a movie made in the 60s or now, that formula of action still becomes the sweet spot.
A lot of these superhero movies, there's some fantastic action going on, but by the end of the movie, nobody cares. You have nowhere to go with it.
Some of them are very long as well.
Far too long. Far, far too long. You're absolutely right. I think any movie, past two hours, has got to be either incredibly spectacular or it's an ego-fest for the filmmakers. Keeping somebody in a seat for more than two hours - you'd better have a really good tale to tell. And I don't think many of these modern ones do - they just have lots of stuff in them.
So what films have impressed you recently in terms of action?
Kingsman, definitely. I thought it was absolutely brilliant, a really good take on it. I loved that it was Colin Firth and not a traditional action hero that's covered in muscles and torn t-shirts and things. And for the same reasons, really, I love the Taken series of movies with Liam Neeson. I loved them, particularly because they're grounded in reality, or set just above reality. Obviously, Kingsman you go more above reality, but they're still grounded with real gravity and real people. It's a bit hypocritical, because I've made a great living doing some superhero movies, but they're not more favourite movies by any chance. I'm very proud of the work I've done on them, but the movies I love aren't even action, really. I haven't seen the third Taken, I need to get that, but I thought the first two Takens were really very cool.
I quite liked both the Red films. I was going to do the second one of those, because the guy who directed the second one is a friend of mine. So I'd have liked to have done that, but they wanted to go with the person they used on the first film. Dean Parisot is a very good friend of mine, I did Galaxy Quest with him. That's one of my favourites.
But a lot of movies I've seen lately, I've been underwhelmed by some of them. It's funny. I like tight little movies. I think it's a shame we've not had more John Frankenheimers making things like Ronin, you know. Great action but well placed - the right action in the right place. Again, grounded in reality, real people.
Do you think stunts go through trends? Obviously, you've recently been doing a lot of wire work on superhero movies lately.
Oh, absolutely. It's kind of gone in a tight full circle, because a few years ago action went fully CG, and then the brief we were given when we did the first Amazing Spider-Man is that they want to get away from that feel, to go more gravity based, more reality. That's what we spent a lot of time doing on that first Spider-Man is the way he jumps around. I based it on real physics.
Some of the stuff on the first Amazing Spider-Man I'm really very, very proud of. We filmed some groundbreaking rig systems and high-powered winches that moved around so there was a proper organic travel when Spider-Man jumps around. It's funny, because when I agreed to do the movie, that was the brief - they want to make Spider-Man's movement much more realistic. I said, "Yes, absolutely, we can do it." But when I came out of the meeting, I have to be honest - I had no idea how the hell we were going to do that.
We did a lot of testing. They were good enough to give us a lot of time to test. One of the things I did was bring in an Olympic gymnast, and I had him swing from three bars, from one bar to the next bar to the next bar, doing giant swings on them. I videoed it, because I knew that something on the original [Sam Raimi] Spider-Man didn't look right. It sounds really obvious in the end, because your eye goes straight to it, but when I brought the gymnast in, I realised that when you see a human swinging, their downward swing is really violent. It gets faster, faster, faster until it nearly pulls the arms out of the sockets, and then as they swing up it gets slower, slower, slower until they get negative. Then they grab the next bar and it happens again. It's the massive variation in velocity that made me realise, "I get it. That's what's real." Then you can tell it's a real guy. When you see Spider-Man and his speed is the same going down as it is going up, even though you haven't analysed it in your mind, you know that it's not right. It's like the five-legged horse syndrome: if you saw one standing in a field, even though you've never seen one in your life, you'd know that it's not something from nature.
It's something I spend a lot of time doing, making things organic and real. In the book you've see a lot of reference to Buster Keaton and things, because I like to go back to that. When you've seen something done for real, then you can make anything as fantastic as you want. But you have to know where the baseline is, where real is, before you start doing something too spectacular. Or what will happen is, even though an audience has never seen an athlete on giant bars, or a guy swinging on a spider web, they'll know instinctively that it looks wrong. We're conditioned to do that - no matter how realistic a dummy in a shop window is, we know as humans that it isn't a real person. Animals know all that - they can spot their own species, they can spot other species and know what they are.
It's why, with a superhero movie, especially, I like to do a bible beforehand, so that you can have a reference. How strong is Spider-Man? Can he throw cars or push a building over? Can he just pick up a sofa? You have to have a yardstick of what people can do. Otherwise it's all over the place. We've seen those movies, where the power of the superheroes [varies]. One minute he gets knocked out by someone in a bar, the next he's pushing a house over.
It has to have some kind of internal logic, doesn't it.
It has to have some kind of logic, no matter how mad that logic is, it has to be consistent. We had it on Thor: how powerful is Thor? How much can he do with a hammer? What happens when the hammer really hits something? You have to have all these mad conversations at the beginning of the movie. If you see someone punch through a building, it's tough to then see that same person slap someone in their face without tearing their head off. You need a yardstick to go to.
I was interested to read what you said about Catwoman, and the idea you had for the big fight.
Yeah, that was a classic case. In the end I was proved right. The movie could have been fantastic. Halle Berry - in the outfit, she could stop traffic. And she was such a perfect choice for Catwoman - she had all the abilities. The movement down, the whole thing. It was such a waste, because the script got crappier and crappier. There was a rewrite every week or so. Each one was worse than the last one. It was like someone was drinking and writing worse and worse versions of it. I feel sorry for Halle as well - I don't think it did her career any good. She's such a trooper anyway.
It's funny, I remember when I saw the first TV commercial for the movie, and I'd been a bit depressed - I don't like leaving movies. I remember coming out, and you always have that second thought as to whether you should have left it or not. But I'm quite strict about only doing good stuff. The interesting thing is, I fought to get the motorcycle sequence in there, and the directors and the producers - none of them wanted it. The moment I saw that first commercial, and it was nearly all motorcycle. I remember shouting at the screen that I was absolutely right. You know when they put that in the trailer that it's the only good thing in the movie! It's very funny.
Why do you think that happens sometimes in these big Hollywood films, where you get this death spiral of script rewrites? You hear about it quite a lot.
Oh, God knows. If you could answer that I think you'd be a gazillionaire. A lot of these rewrites just get worse and worse. It's like cooking, putting this and that in, until you've got this inedible bowl of crap that's like the vision you originally set out to make. That happens so often. I think part of it happens in the main studio system because a lot of films get made by committee. That happens a lot. It didn't happen with some of the greats of the 50s, 60s and 70s, because some of those people were tyrannical, but the movies they made had a personal identity to them.
John Boorman doesn't always make great movies, but he's a great moviemaker and every movie he makes is a John Boorman movie. You look at Excalibur, you look at Deliverance, you look at Hope And Glory, they're all different, you can like them or not like them, but they have a real authority and identity to them. What happens in a studio system is you have a lot of junior executives and they all want to put a comment in there, they all want to use this actor or that actress. In the end, for right or wrong, a film has to have one real author. If it doesn't... there's the old saying that a camel is a horse designed by committee. That's what happens to movies. There are so many people in different areas in the studio that want to keep their fingers in the pie.
The big thing about studios is, most studio executives are all eventually going to get fired or run another studio or something. The rule of thumb is, most studio executives want to be just attached to a movie enough that if it's a huge success they can say they were or part of it, and they can point out the bits they changed or suggested or whatever. And if it's a Catwoman, they can distance themselves from it as if it were a disease. That's a real thing - a fine line executives work. Because you can get the blame for a picture that you may have had nothing to do with in some ways, you had no say in it if you were a studio executive, necessarily, and you can also get lots of praise and lots of awards and a million-dollar job at another studio because you're considered to be the guy or girl that brought this or that movie to the studio and it made $300m. It's a funny game, that.
In the end, who knows what's going to be successful? Who'd have thought movies like Fast & Furious would still be successful?
Yeah, there's gonna be eight or nine of them.
It's incredible. Vic [Armstrong] and I were offered, I guess it was three or four, and then they made a change with the action team and they've had the same action team since. But we'd just started Thor so we turned it down. It's funny because they went off and did more and more of those Fast & Furious films and we did the two Spider-Mans and Season Of The Witch and some other things. I think in the end we kind of made the right choice. I'm proud of the stuff I've done.
When you think of how advanced the look of Highlander was - Russell invented that look. The very long lenses, the very wide lenses. Fantastic cuts between things. It's absolutely timeless. I watched it again recently. It's as good now as it was when we made it. And it's a beautiful looking movie.
I'm really proud of the stuff I've done on it. It's amazing to think it's 30 years [old]. There's a lot of funny stories about Highlander. When they hired Sean Connery first of all as Ramirez, it’s funny because it's a Scotsman playing a Spaniard and a Frenchman playing a Scotsman! The funny thing is, Peter Davis and Bill Panzer, the producers, cast Connery - and the movie's called Highlander, so Connery thought he was playing the Highlander!
He got some huge fee, and then they let him know that he's playing Ramirez, this Spanish guy. He went, "Oh fine", but his fee was the same - he got about a million dollars for however many weeks he was on the movie. And then Christopher Lambert, who'd only done Greystoke before, as far as English-speaking movies went, they cast him and hadn't met him. Apparently, when they did Greystoke, he learned his lines parrot fashion - he just learned the line he had to speak. He couldn't speak English. But he's such a lovely guy.
When they first met him and he answered "Yes" to every question, they realised he didn't know what the hell they were talking about. [Laughs] They were in a bar or restaurant, and Peter Davis and Bill Panzer both came outside, and they left him at the table, and said, "He can't fucking speak English!" And they'd already cast him! The deal was done! It was fantastic, you know?
It just shows you. He was so charismatic in that movie. He learned English during the movie and was brilliant.
He's also incredibly short-sighted, Christophe. I did some really cool sword fight sequences with him. He couldn't see the sword! Incredible. His muscle memory and ability to be taught a fight with his glasses on, and then take is glasses off and then shoot was absolutely astounding. I've never met anyone like it. He never missed a beat, and yet he couldn't see - he couldn't see which end of the sword he had a hold of.
You look at those sword fights, and he's better than most stuntmen doing them. Yet he could hardly see his opponent, let alone the sword. Fascinating.
Clancy Brown, who played the villain, he's still a friend. He was fantastic. A couple of funny things happened on that, I think they're in the book. We were doing some car action in New York, and I had cameras on the front of the Cadillac. The Cadillac was my choice - originally it was written as a big four-wheel drive. I wanted something classically American that would slide around.
When we were towing it through town with the cameras on for the close-ups of the two actors, Clancy's there with his slit throat with the safety pins in it and all that, and I would jump off the back of the camera car when we got to a decent bit of road or bridge or something, and I'd turn all the cameras on.
At one point, I was turning the cameras on and the cop who was helping us - or supposed to be helping us in a typical sort of New York, aggressive cop way, said, "If you get off the camera car again, I'm going to arrest you."
Now, meanwhile, the cameras are rolling. I'm not really arguing with the cop, but I'm a bit pissed off to say the least. So I got back on the camera car. But while I'm doing that, Clancy, just dicking around, was [sings] "New York, New York!" And that was just him playing around. It was actually in response to me arguing with a New York cop, really.
Anyway, Russell, when he was putting the chase together, loved that little moment. He'd done all the Queen videos, and that's when Queen came in and saw it, and they loved it. So that's when they re-recorded their version of New York, New York and it became a hit record for Queen.
That's amazing.
It started as a mild confrontation between me and a rather aggressive New York cop! [Laughs] Whenever I see Clancy, we still laugh about it. It wasn't in the script or anything, it was just one of those things.
Andy Armstrong, thank you very much!
Action Movie Maker's Handbook is available from Amazon now.
See related Does it matter whether stars do their own stunts? Speed 2: how a dream sparked one of the biggest stunts ever Olivier Megaton interview: Taken 2, Liam Neeson and stunts Sam Mendes interview: Skyfall, stunts & cinematography Movies Interview Ryan Lambie Andy Armstrong 14 Jun 2016 - 05:40 Highlander Catwoman The Amazing Spider-Man The Amazing Spider-Man 2 interview Andy Armstrong movies...
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Legendary stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong talks to us about his work on Highlander, Thor, Catwoman, and what makes a great action scene...
For over 40 years, Andy Armstrong has worked on a huge array of stunts and action sequences in TV and film. From directing 1,000s of extras in Stargate to a full body burn in Danny DeVito's Hoffa, Armstrong's experiences as a stuntman, stunt coordinator and unit director have taken him all over the world.
The brother of Vic Armstrong, the stunt coordinator and director who famously doubled for Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies, Andy Armstrong's career began when he doubled for Sir John Mills on the 1970s TV series, The Zoo Gang. That early job jumpstarted a life in filmmaking which has taken in three James Bond movies, 90s action (Total Recall, Universal Soldier) and superhero movies (The Green Hornet, Thor, The Amazing Spider-Man).
Those 40 years of filmmaking experience are the pillar of Armstrong's book, the Action Movie Maker's Handbook. Intended as a reference for those thinking of starting a career in stunts or action unit directing, it also offers a valuable insight for those outside the industry, too. The book reveals the range of talents required to bring an effective action scene to the screen - organisation, storytelling, an understanding of engineering and physics - and how much input a coordinator and unit director has on how those sequences will look in the final film.
We caught up with Andy Armstrong via telephone to talk about his book and some of the highlights in his career so far. Read on for his thoughts on creating the action sequences in Thor and The Amazing Spider-Man, his hilarious behind-the-scenes memories from the 80s cult classic, Highlander, and what went wrong on the 2004 Catwoman movie...
Your book gave me a new appreciation for what second unit directors and stunt coordinators do. I didn't realise how much design work you do when it comes to action scenes, for example.
Yeah, it is true that a lot of people don't realise how much development goes into action. Especially nowadays, it's such a complex business. That becomes a huge part of it - the technicalities of it and the storytelling part of it. Some things might look great, but when you put them all together they don't necessarily work for that movie. A lot of what I've made a living doing is really creating action that is appropriate for the movie. Because the wrong type of action is just like the wrong costume or the wrong actor or something - it just takes you out of the film.
You get a lot of movies that actually have too much action in them. Then what happens is, you can't appreciate it. It's like a feast where the starter is such a huge meal that you don't even want the main course because you're full. That's like so many action movies - they'd actually benefit from having some of the action taken out of them. I'm always fascinated when you see an audience in an action movie.
When I feel there's too much action in a movie, or it goes on for too long, I always look around in a cinema. It's interesting to see people chatting to each other or doing something else. You should never have that in an action movie. Action should be like sex or violence - you want to be left just wanting a bit more. That gets forgotten in a lot of movies, which are just relentless. Stuff going on the whole time.
What happens then is that, when it comes to something special for the third act, some fantastic fight or something, you can't raise the bar enough, because the bar's been high all the way through the movie. It's a weird thing.
They have to build, action scenes.
They do have to build, absolutely. That's why I do that little graph in the book, which is something I do in every movie, just to work out how much action there should be and where it should go and, on a scale of one to 10, how big it is. It's funny how crude that looks, and yet if you compare it to any of the really great action movies, they'll fit that graph. There'll be something at the opening, there'll be something happening at the end of the first act and into the second act, and there'll be bits and pieces happening in the second act and then a big third act finale. Whether it's a movie made in the 60s or now, that formula of action still becomes the sweet spot.
A lot of these superhero movies, there's some fantastic action going on, but by the end of the movie, nobody cares. You have nowhere to go with it.
Some of them are very long as well.
Far too long. Far, far too long. You're absolutely right. I think any movie, past two hours, has got to be either incredibly spectacular or it's an ego-fest for the filmmakers. Keeping somebody in a seat for more than two hours - you'd better have a really good tale to tell. And I don't think many of these modern ones do - they just have lots of stuff in them.
So what films have impressed you recently in terms of action?
Kingsman, definitely. I thought it was absolutely brilliant, a really good take on it. I loved that it was Colin Firth and not a traditional action hero that's covered in muscles and torn t-shirts and things. And for the same reasons, really, I love the Taken series of movies with Liam Neeson. I loved them, particularly because they're grounded in reality, or set just above reality. Obviously, Kingsman you go more above reality, but they're still grounded with real gravity and real people. It's a bit hypocritical, because I've made a great living doing some superhero movies, but they're not more favourite movies by any chance. I'm very proud of the work I've done on them, but the movies I love aren't even action, really. I haven't seen the third Taken, I need to get that, but I thought the first two Takens were really very cool.
I quite liked both the Red films. I was going to do the second one of those, because the guy who directed the second one is a friend of mine. So I'd have liked to have done that, but they wanted to go with the person they used on the first film. Dean Parisot is a very good friend of mine, I did Galaxy Quest with him. That's one of my favourites.
But a lot of movies I've seen lately, I've been underwhelmed by some of them. It's funny. I like tight little movies. I think it's a shame we've not had more John Frankenheimers making things like Ronin, you know. Great action but well placed - the right action in the right place. Again, grounded in reality, real people.
Do you think stunts go through trends? Obviously, you've recently been doing a lot of wire work on superhero movies lately.
Oh, absolutely. It's kind of gone in a tight full circle, because a few years ago action went fully CG, and then the brief we were given when we did the first Amazing Spider-Man is that they want to get away from that feel, to go more gravity based, more reality. That's what we spent a lot of time doing on that first Spider-Man is the way he jumps around. I based it on real physics.
Some of the stuff on the first Amazing Spider-Man I'm really very, very proud of. We filmed some groundbreaking rig systems and high-powered winches that moved around so there was a proper organic travel when Spider-Man jumps around. It's funny, because when I agreed to do the movie, that was the brief - they want to make Spider-Man's movement much more realistic. I said, "Yes, absolutely, we can do it." But when I came out of the meeting, I have to be honest - I had no idea how the hell we were going to do that.
We did a lot of testing. They were good enough to give us a lot of time to test. One of the things I did was bring in an Olympic gymnast, and I had him swing from three bars, from one bar to the next bar to the next bar, doing giant swings on them. I videoed it, because I knew that something on the original [Sam Raimi] Spider-Man didn't look right. It sounds really obvious in the end, because your eye goes straight to it, but when I brought the gymnast in, I realised that when you see a human swinging, their downward swing is really violent. It gets faster, faster, faster until it nearly pulls the arms out of the sockets, and then as they swing up it gets slower, slower, slower until they get negative. Then they grab the next bar and it happens again. It's the massive variation in velocity that made me realise, "I get it. That's what's real." Then you can tell it's a real guy. When you see Spider-Man and his speed is the same going down as it is going up, even though you haven't analysed it in your mind, you know that it's not right. It's like the five-legged horse syndrome: if you saw one standing in a field, even though you've never seen one in your life, you'd know that it's not something from nature.
It's something I spend a lot of time doing, making things organic and real. In the book you've see a lot of reference to Buster Keaton and things, because I like to go back to that. When you've seen something done for real, then you can make anything as fantastic as you want. But you have to know where the baseline is, where real is, before you start doing something too spectacular. Or what will happen is, even though an audience has never seen an athlete on giant bars, or a guy swinging on a spider web, they'll know instinctively that it looks wrong. We're conditioned to do that - no matter how realistic a dummy in a shop window is, we know as humans that it isn't a real person. Animals know all that - they can spot their own species, they can spot other species and know what they are.
It's why, with a superhero movie, especially, I like to do a bible beforehand, so that you can have a reference. How strong is Spider-Man? Can he throw cars or push a building over? Can he just pick up a sofa? You have to have a yardstick of what people can do. Otherwise it's all over the place. We've seen those movies, where the power of the superheroes [varies]. One minute he gets knocked out by someone in a bar, the next he's pushing a house over.
It has to have some kind of internal logic, doesn't it.
It has to have some kind of logic, no matter how mad that logic is, it has to be consistent. We had it on Thor: how powerful is Thor? How much can he do with a hammer? What happens when the hammer really hits something? You have to have all these mad conversations at the beginning of the movie. If you see someone punch through a building, it's tough to then see that same person slap someone in their face without tearing their head off. You need a yardstick to go to.
I was interested to read what you said about Catwoman, and the idea you had for the big fight.
Yeah, that was a classic case. In the end I was proved right. The movie could have been fantastic. Halle Berry - in the outfit, she could stop traffic. And she was such a perfect choice for Catwoman - she had all the abilities. The movement down, the whole thing. It was such a waste, because the script got crappier and crappier. There was a rewrite every week or so. Each one was worse than the last one. It was like someone was drinking and writing worse and worse versions of it. I feel sorry for Halle as well - I don't think it did her career any good. She's such a trooper anyway.
It's funny, I remember when I saw the first TV commercial for the movie, and I'd been a bit depressed - I don't like leaving movies. I remember coming out, and you always have that second thought as to whether you should have left it or not. But I'm quite strict about only doing good stuff. The interesting thing is, I fought to get the motorcycle sequence in there, and the directors and the producers - none of them wanted it. The moment I saw that first commercial, and it was nearly all motorcycle. I remember shouting at the screen that I was absolutely right. You know when they put that in the trailer that it's the only good thing in the movie! It's very funny.
Why do you think that happens sometimes in these big Hollywood films, where you get this death spiral of script rewrites? You hear about it quite a lot.
Oh, God knows. If you could answer that I think you'd be a gazillionaire. A lot of these rewrites just get worse and worse. It's like cooking, putting this and that in, until you've got this inedible bowl of crap that's like the vision you originally set out to make. That happens so often. I think part of it happens in the main studio system because a lot of films get made by committee. That happens a lot. It didn't happen with some of the greats of the 50s, 60s and 70s, because some of those people were tyrannical, but the movies they made had a personal identity to them.
John Boorman doesn't always make great movies, but he's a great moviemaker and every movie he makes is a John Boorman movie. You look at Excalibur, you look at Deliverance, you look at Hope And Glory, they're all different, you can like them or not like them, but they have a real authority and identity to them. What happens in a studio system is you have a lot of junior executives and they all want to put a comment in there, they all want to use this actor or that actress. In the end, for right or wrong, a film has to have one real author. If it doesn't... there's the old saying that a camel is a horse designed by committee. That's what happens to movies. There are so many people in different areas in the studio that want to keep their fingers in the pie.
The big thing about studios is, most studio executives are all eventually going to get fired or run another studio or something. The rule of thumb is, most studio executives want to be just attached to a movie enough that if it's a huge success they can say they were or part of it, and they can point out the bits they changed or suggested or whatever. And if it's a Catwoman, they can distance themselves from it as if it were a disease. That's a real thing - a fine line executives work. Because you can get the blame for a picture that you may have had nothing to do with in some ways, you had no say in it if you were a studio executive, necessarily, and you can also get lots of praise and lots of awards and a million-dollar job at another studio because you're considered to be the guy or girl that brought this or that movie to the studio and it made $300m. It's a funny game, that.
In the end, who knows what's going to be successful? Who'd have thought movies like Fast & Furious would still be successful?
Yeah, there's gonna be eight or nine of them.
It's incredible. Vic [Armstrong] and I were offered, I guess it was three or four, and then they made a change with the action team and they've had the same action team since. But we'd just started Thor so we turned it down. It's funny because they went off and did more and more of those Fast & Furious films and we did the two Spider-Mans and Season Of The Witch and some other things. I think in the end we kind of made the right choice. I'm proud of the stuff I've done.
When you think of how advanced the look of Highlander was - Russell invented that look. The very long lenses, the very wide lenses. Fantastic cuts between things. It's absolutely timeless. I watched it again recently. It's as good now as it was when we made it. And it's a beautiful looking movie.
I'm really proud of the stuff I've done on it. It's amazing to think it's 30 years [old]. There's a lot of funny stories about Highlander. When they hired Sean Connery first of all as Ramirez, it’s funny because it's a Scotsman playing a Spaniard and a Frenchman playing a Scotsman! The funny thing is, Peter Davis and Bill Panzer, the producers, cast Connery - and the movie's called Highlander, so Connery thought he was playing the Highlander!
He got some huge fee, and then they let him know that he's playing Ramirez, this Spanish guy. He went, "Oh fine", but his fee was the same - he got about a million dollars for however many weeks he was on the movie. And then Christopher Lambert, who'd only done Greystoke before, as far as English-speaking movies went, they cast him and hadn't met him. Apparently, when they did Greystoke, he learned his lines parrot fashion - he just learned the line he had to speak. He couldn't speak English. But he's such a lovely guy.
When they first met him and he answered "Yes" to every question, they realised he didn't know what the hell they were talking about. [Laughs] They were in a bar or restaurant, and Peter Davis and Bill Panzer both came outside, and they left him at the table, and said, "He can't fucking speak English!" And they'd already cast him! The deal was done! It was fantastic, you know?
It just shows you. He was so charismatic in that movie. He learned English during the movie and was brilliant.
He's also incredibly short-sighted, Christophe. I did some really cool sword fight sequences with him. He couldn't see the sword! Incredible. His muscle memory and ability to be taught a fight with his glasses on, and then take is glasses off and then shoot was absolutely astounding. I've never met anyone like it. He never missed a beat, and yet he couldn't see - he couldn't see which end of the sword he had a hold of.
You look at those sword fights, and he's better than most stuntmen doing them. Yet he could hardly see his opponent, let alone the sword. Fascinating.
Clancy Brown, who played the villain, he's still a friend. He was fantastic. A couple of funny things happened on that, I think they're in the book. We were doing some car action in New York, and I had cameras on the front of the Cadillac. The Cadillac was my choice - originally it was written as a big four-wheel drive. I wanted something classically American that would slide around.
When we were towing it through town with the cameras on for the close-ups of the two actors, Clancy's there with his slit throat with the safety pins in it and all that, and I would jump off the back of the camera car when we got to a decent bit of road or bridge or something, and I'd turn all the cameras on.
At one point, I was turning the cameras on and the cop who was helping us - or supposed to be helping us in a typical sort of New York, aggressive cop way, said, "If you get off the camera car again, I'm going to arrest you."
Now, meanwhile, the cameras are rolling. I'm not really arguing with the cop, but I'm a bit pissed off to say the least. So I got back on the camera car. But while I'm doing that, Clancy, just dicking around, was [sings] "New York, New York!" And that was just him playing around. It was actually in response to me arguing with a New York cop, really.
Anyway, Russell, when he was putting the chase together, loved that little moment. He'd done all the Queen videos, and that's when Queen came in and saw it, and they loved it. So that's when they re-recorded their version of New York, New York and it became a hit record for Queen.
That's amazing.
It started as a mild confrontation between me and a rather aggressive New York cop! [Laughs] Whenever I see Clancy, we still laugh about it. It wasn't in the script or anything, it was just one of those things.
Andy Armstrong, thank you very much!
Action Movie Maker's Handbook is available from Amazon now.
See related Does it matter whether stars do their own stunts? Speed 2: how a dream sparked one of the biggest stunts ever Olivier Megaton interview: Taken 2, Liam Neeson and stunts Sam Mendes interview: Skyfall, stunts & cinematography Movies Interview Ryan Lambie Andy Armstrong 14 Jun 2016 - 05:40 Highlander Catwoman The Amazing Spider-Man The Amazing Spider-Man 2 interview Andy Armstrong movies...
- 6/13/2016
- Den of Geek
Sean Cronin, who will soon be stepping foot in J.K. Rowling’s world of witchcraft and wizardry for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them later this year, is attached to helm a boxing biopic based on the life and career of British middleweight fighter, Michael Watson.
Variety has the scoop, revealing that the feature now holds the title Michael, and will chart Watson’s gruelling recovery after he was knocked into a coma by Chris Eubank back in ’91. A landmark moment for the sport that witnessed the inimitable Muhammad Ali visit Watson’s bedside, Cronin’s big-screen rendition will also chronicle how the knockout affected the British Board of Boxing Control and, in particular, how the governing body altered the rules when it came to ringside medical care.
Spanning an intense court battle with the Board of Boxing Control to defying the odds to run the London marathon, Cronin...
Variety has the scoop, revealing that the feature now holds the title Michael, and will chart Watson’s gruelling recovery after he was knocked into a coma by Chris Eubank back in ’91. A landmark moment for the sport that witnessed the inimitable Muhammad Ali visit Watson’s bedside, Cronin’s big-screen rendition will also chronicle how the knockout affected the British Board of Boxing Control and, in particular, how the governing body altered the rules when it came to ringside medical care.
Spanning an intense court battle with the Board of Boxing Control to defying the odds to run the London marathon, Cronin...
- 5/24/2016
- by Michael Briers
- We Got This Covered
In this second part of our chat with Vic Armstrong, we get an insight to his thoughts on the resurgence of practical FX, working on Eddie the Eagle and his latest projects. You worked on Mission Impossible III with Tom Cruise. How is it for you working with actors who are very much hands on when it
The post Exclusive Interview, Part 2: Vic Armstrong on Special FX, challenges w/ directors & William Shatner appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The post Exclusive Interview, Part 2: Vic Armstrong on Special FX, challenges w/ directors & William Shatner appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 2/9/2016
- by Thomas Alexander
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Exclusive Interview, Part 1: Vic Armstrong on Raiders of the Lost Ark, near misses and film mementos
The 2016 Glasgow Film Festival has well and truly upped the ante with a schedule featuring such as titles as High-Rise and Demolition not to mention Hail, Caesar! Marquee films aside, there are special events that really give the festival that added oomph. One such special event is a 35th Anniversary screening of Raiders of
The post Exclusive Interview, Part 1: Vic Armstrong on Raiders of the Lost Ark, near misses and film mementos appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The post Exclusive Interview, Part 1: Vic Armstrong on Raiders of the Lost Ark, near misses and film mementos appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 2/9/2016
- by Thomas Alexander
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Festival to host 60 UK premieres, including Time Out Of Mind [pictured] starring Richard Gere and Disney’s Zootropolis.
Glasgow Film Festival (Gff) has announced its full programme for its upcoming 12th edition, running Feb 17-28.
This year’s festival will host 60 UK premieres, 59 Scottish premieres, four European premieres and three world premieres among its line-up of 174 films. As previously announced, it will be bookended by the UK premieres of Hail, Caesar! and Anomalisa.
Richard Gere will attend Glasgow for the UK premiere of his new film Time Out Of Mind, while other guests include Ben Wheatley for the Scottish premiere of High-Rise, Game Of Thrones star Natalie Dormer for the UK premiere of The Forest, Joachim Trier for the UK premiere of Louder Than Bombs, veteran director Peter Greenaway and stuntman Vic Armstrong.
“The festival keeps moving forward, with new developments like our Industry Focus conference, whilst also maintaining our roots as an audience-focused festival where everyone can come...
Glasgow Film Festival (Gff) has announced its full programme for its upcoming 12th edition, running Feb 17-28.
This year’s festival will host 60 UK premieres, 59 Scottish premieres, four European premieres and three world premieres among its line-up of 174 films. As previously announced, it will be bookended by the UK premieres of Hail, Caesar! and Anomalisa.
Richard Gere will attend Glasgow for the UK premiere of his new film Time Out Of Mind, while other guests include Ben Wheatley for the Scottish premiere of High-Rise, Game Of Thrones star Natalie Dormer for the UK premiere of The Forest, Joachim Trier for the UK premiere of Louder Than Bombs, veteran director Peter Greenaway and stuntman Vic Armstrong.
“The festival keeps moving forward, with new developments like our Industry Focus conference, whilst also maintaining our roots as an audience-focused festival where everyone can come...
- 1/20/2016
- by [email protected] (Ian Sandwell)
- ScreenDaily
Indiana Jones gets ready to roll
Everybody loves a great action movie, but have you ever wanted to be part of the action yourself? Next year's Glasgow Film Festival is offering the next best thing, with a live recreation of some of Indiana Jones' most thrilling escapades performed by legendary stuntman Vic Armstrong, who stood in for Harrison Ford when the films were made. The event will take place in Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery ahead of a screening of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and it's just one of the exciting things the Gff has lined up.
He came from another world, so the city's Planetarium is the natural venue for The Man Who Fell To Earth, Nicolas Roeg's epic fable starring David Bowie, which will be celebrating its 40th birthday. Also celebrating a birthday will be The Silence Of The Lambs, which will enjoy a special screening...
Everybody loves a great action movie, but have you ever wanted to be part of the action yourself? Next year's Glasgow Film Festival is offering the next best thing, with a live recreation of some of Indiana Jones' most thrilling escapades performed by legendary stuntman Vic Armstrong, who stood in for Harrison Ford when the films were made. The event will take place in Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery ahead of a screening of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and it's just one of the exciting things the Gff has lined up.
He came from another world, so the city's Planetarium is the natural venue for The Man Who Fell To Earth, Nicolas Roeg's epic fable starring David Bowie, which will be celebrating its 40th birthday. Also celebrating a birthday will be The Silence Of The Lambs, which will enjoy a special screening...
- 12/16/2015
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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Looking for good books about the movies to read? We've got a bumper selection of recommendations right here...
A confession. I actually started writing this article in 2013, and the reason you've only reading it now is that I've made sure I've read every book on this list, save for one or two where I've marked otherwise. As such, what you're getting is a very personal list of recommendations. Each of these books has at least something to it that I think is of interest to someone wanting to learn more about film - or just enjoy stories of movie making.
I've tended to avoid picture books, with one exception, as these ones I've chosen are all intended to be chock-full of words, to relax with at the end of a long day. Which is what I did. There are one or two notable omissions, as I'm still...
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Looking for good books about the movies to read? We've got a bumper selection of recommendations right here...
A confession. I actually started writing this article in 2013, and the reason you've only reading it now is that I've made sure I've read every book on this list, save for one or two where I've marked otherwise. As such, what you're getting is a very personal list of recommendations. Each of these books has at least something to it that I think is of interest to someone wanting to learn more about film - or just enjoy stories of movie making.
I've tended to avoid picture books, with one exception, as these ones I've chosen are all intended to be chock-full of words, to relax with at the end of a long day. Which is what I did. There are one or two notable omissions, as I'm still...
- 12/10/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
Ryan Lambie Oct 3, 2019
Apocalyptic thriller Left Behind stars Nicolas Cage. Its reviews were not kind. And it features perhaps the worst movie break-in ever...
Films are sometimes critically panned not because they're inherently bad, but because of the larger story surrounding them. Consider Battlefield Earth, for example: a terrible movie, sure, but its production history (not to mention its connection to the Church of Scientology) made it an easy target.
Solar Crisis, released in 1990 was an equally awful movie--and with a budget of $55 million, just as financially calamitous--but it was largely ignored while Battlefield Earth's hideousness was trumpeted from the rooftops.
Which brings us to 2014's Left Behind, a film so universally panned by critics that its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at an abysmal three percent. This places it a mere whisker above such legendarily bad films as Jaws: The Revenge and Mac and Me, and a startling 10 percent...
Apocalyptic thriller Left Behind stars Nicolas Cage. Its reviews were not kind. And it features perhaps the worst movie break-in ever...
Films are sometimes critically panned not because they're inherently bad, but because of the larger story surrounding them. Consider Battlefield Earth, for example: a terrible movie, sure, but its production history (not to mention its connection to the Church of Scientology) made it an easy target.
Solar Crisis, released in 1990 was an equally awful movie--and with a budget of $55 million, just as financially calamitous--but it was largely ignored while Battlefield Earth's hideousness was trumpeted from the rooftops.
Which brings us to 2014's Left Behind, a film so universally panned by critics that its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at an abysmal three percent. This places it a mere whisker above such legendarily bad films as Jaws: The Revenge and Mac and Me, and a startling 10 percent...
- 9/14/2015
- Den of Geek
Apocalyptic thriller Left Behind stars Nicolas Cage. Its reviews were not kind. And it features perhaps the worst movie break-in ever...
Films are sometimes critically panned not because they're inherently bad, but because of the larger story surrounding them. Consider Battlefield Earth, for example: a terrible movie, sure, but its production history (not to mention its connection to the Church of Scientology) made it an easy target.
Solar Crisis, released in 1990 was an equally awful movie - and with a budget of $55m, just as calamitous, financially - but it was largely ignored while Battlefield Earth's hideousness was trumpeted from the rooftops.
Which brings us to 2014's Left Behind, a film so universally panned by critics that its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at an abysmal two percent. This places it a mere whisker above such legendarily bad films as Jaws: The Revenge and Mac And Me, and a startling...
Films are sometimes critically panned not because they're inherently bad, but because of the larger story surrounding them. Consider Battlefield Earth, for example: a terrible movie, sure, but its production history (not to mention its connection to the Church of Scientology) made it an easy target.
Solar Crisis, released in 1990 was an equally awful movie - and with a budget of $55m, just as calamitous, financially - but it was largely ignored while Battlefield Earth's hideousness was trumpeted from the rooftops.
Which brings us to 2014's Left Behind, a film so universally panned by critics that its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at an abysmal two percent. This places it a mere whisker above such legendarily bad films as Jaws: The Revenge and Mac And Me, and a startling...
- 9/11/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Bourne and Mission: Impossible, right back to Harry Palmer and Danger Diabolik - meet the many pretenders to James Bond's throne...
Since 1962, the James Bond franchise has come to define the spy genre, for good or ill. More broadly, every thriller and action film that comes out now either uses them as inspiration, or attempts to ignore or re-work the tropes that have come to be associated with the series.
Coming off the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service, and with the release of a new Bond film this year, now seems like the perfect time to take a look at a sample of the films which have been inspired by James Bond — either as homages, parodies or reactions.
The Ipcress File (1965)
Produced by James Bond producer Harry Saltzman as a more grounded alternative to the largesse of Bond, The Ipcress File is more concerned with the intricacies of real spy-work — the endless paperwork,...
Since 1962, the James Bond franchise has come to define the spy genre, for good or ill. More broadly, every thriller and action film that comes out now either uses them as inspiration, or attempts to ignore or re-work the tropes that have come to be associated with the series.
Coming off the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service, and with the release of a new Bond film this year, now seems like the perfect time to take a look at a sample of the films which have been inspired by James Bond — either as homages, parodies or reactions.
The Ipcress File (1965)
Produced by James Bond producer Harry Saltzman as a more grounded alternative to the largesse of Bond, The Ipcress File is more concerned with the intricacies of real spy-work — the endless paperwork,...
- 5/3/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
Five days into the new year and the movie awards season is in full swing. A chance to celebrate all of the cinematic gold bestowed upon us by filmmakers over the last 365 days, the majority of awards bodies veer towards the positive. The good, the great and the outstanding movie achievements. Of course, you can’t have yin without yang, and that customary glint of deviousness amidst the showers of compliments will soon be upon us, in the shape of the The Annual Golden Raspberry Awards.
Known informally as The Razzies, the achievements are dished out based on how bad the category nominees performed, and this year’s nominees have now been announced. Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways To Die In The West beat out its closest competitors for the esteemed honour of most nominations with a whopping eight altogether. Recent limelight comedy, The Interview, also snagged four nominations across three categories.
Known informally as The Razzies, the achievements are dished out based on how bad the category nominees performed, and this year’s nominees have now been announced. Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways To Die In The West beat out its closest competitors for the esteemed honour of most nominations with a whopping eight altogether. Recent limelight comedy, The Interview, also snagged four nominations across three categories.
- 1/5/2015
- by Gem Seddon
- We Got This Covered
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Cassi Thomson, Chad Michael Murray, Lea Thompson, Jordin Sparks, Nicky Whelan, Quinton Aaron, Martin Klebba, William Ragsdale, Georgina Rawlings, Stephanie Honoré | Written by Paul Lalonde, John Patus | Directed by Vic Armstrong
I read the synopsis of Left Behind aloud to a friend and at more or less the same moment we both said, “…so it’s The Leftovers?” I haven’t even seen that television programme, but knew enough about it that I could recognise personal hero Nic Cage’s latest vehicle to more than slightly recall the set up. For the uninitiated, the film asks what would happen to everyone else if the righteous were suddenly beamed out of our plane of existence, presumably ascended up to heaven. I understand that The Leftovers doesn’t directly address what has happened to those that vanished but in Left Behind we’re given a pretty clear indication that...
I read the synopsis of Left Behind aloud to a friend and at more or less the same moment we both said, “…so it’s The Leftovers?” I haven’t even seen that television programme, but knew enough about it that I could recognise personal hero Nic Cage’s latest vehicle to more than slightly recall the set up. For the uninitiated, the film asks what would happen to everyone else if the righteous were suddenly beamed out of our plane of existence, presumably ascended up to heaven. I understand that The Leftovers doesn’t directly address what has happened to those that vanished but in Left Behind we’re given a pretty clear indication that...
- 12/30/2014
- by Jack Kirby
- Nerdly
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