Stefan Ruzowitzky
Stefan Ruzowitzky is back in the director’s chair this week for his new movie Deadfall, which sees him bring together a great cast that includes Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde.
We caught up with the filmmaker to chat about the new movie, working on such a tight time frame and what lies ahead.
- Deadfall is you new movie so can you tell me a little bit about it?
It is a thriller but there is a subtext that is all about family. It is quite a mix of interesting characters that are all involved in complicated and dysfunctional family structures.
But because it is a thriller some of these family problems can only be resolved with bullets and with some blood being spilled. I think we have tried to deliver this no nonsense thriller but we also wanted to have interesting characters.
And because we have interesting characters we are able to put together an impressive cast that include Sissy Spacek, Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde, Charlie Hunnam, from Sons of Anarchy, Kris Kristofferson, Treat Williams and Kate Mara - it was an honour and much fun to work with these people.
- So where did this project start for you and what was it that intrigued you about Zach Dean’s screenplay?
When the project started it was still called Kin, as I said before it is all about families and dysfunctional families, and I liked this mix of having a thriller, action sequences, violence and chase sequences but at the same time having interesting stuff with the characters as well.
I love genre but I don’t want to do some brainless action stuff but if you have both of these elements that is what really intrigues me.
- You have mentioned the cast already and you have assembled some great names including Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde and Charlie Hunnam so can you tell me a little bit about the casting process? And what were you looking for particularly in the actors when you were casting the lead roles?
With the supporting roles I think we really found the ultimate iconic American parents with Kris Kristofferson and Sissy Spacek.
They have known each other for a long time and have wanted to work together and this was their first chance to do a movie together.
Initially I had been a little bit worried about having all of these big egos in one room but it was actually quite the opposite as everyone was super disciplined and were competing in being nice and nicer and more professional than everyone else. So that really was a great experience for me.
- I am a big fan of Eric Bana as he is a very intelligent actor so how did you find working with him?
He is a great guy. Few people know that he actually started his career as a stand-up comedian in Australia and while he doesn’t look like a funny guy he really can be incredibly funny when he wants to; and that isn’t too often but when he starts to be funny it is really hilarious.
But he is very disciplined and very professional and t really was a pleasure to work with him. He also was crucial in putting the project together because he is a guarantee for his peers that this is a quality project.
I remember when we got into the casting process all the agents would ask ‘is it true that Eric Bana is in?’ and ‘is Eric Bana still in it?’ as this was proof that this is going to be a quality movie.
- I was reading that this movie was shot in just 34 days - which isn’t much time at all - so how do you find working under such tight time constraints?
You just have to. That is the joy of making commercial movies as the financiers want to make some money and so they push it to the limits. Of course it is always possible to do it in such a small amount of time but the difficult thing is to keep a high quality standard.
So you really do have to be very well prepared as you don’t have time to make mistakes or think later ’I should have do it in another way’.
For example the car accident at the beginning of the movie we had only one car to shoot this sequence and we did the stunt and it was horrible.
But because the car landed in deep snow it has not been damaged at all we were able to shoot it again and get the spectacular action sequence that you have in the movie.
If the car had been damaged I would have had a bad action sequence at the beginning of the film, which would have been a catastrophe.
- One of the most striking aspects of this movie is the cinematography as you really capture the harshness of the landscape and the cold weather. So how did you find working with Shane Hurlbut as your DOP?
Working with Shane was a coincidence as he entered the project pretty late.
As we went through the shoot I really started to love this guy because he has so much enthusiasm - that is so important for me - and he has an energy to do things and it always ready to try something new. These are all of the characteristics that I love in a DOP.
What we tried to achieve was on the one hand we found out that we could work with a lot of wide and super wide shots because of the graphic quality of those snow landscapes.
There is a sequence at the beginning of the movie and it really is just a lot of very wide shots but it just works because the images are so clear because of the graphic nature that you have with the snow.
- How have you found the response to the movie so far?
There are a lot of people who really love it - and that includes reviewers and we have been getting some rave reviews from the likes of the New York Times.
But there have been others that don’t like the concept. There are few who are indifferent; it seems there are either fans or people who don’t like the concept of it.
- Finally what is next for you?
I have produced a documentary feature; I haven’t done that in a long time. It is going to be a mixture of historical and psychological documentary.
Deadfall is released 10th May.