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These days, no matter how many Get Outs and Parasites we throw at them, Hollywood is reluctant to make any movie that isn’t part of a franchise. There was a time, however, when the bigwigs could be approached with a sequel idea and say, “Actually, that’s good enough to stand on its own.” They weren’t always right, but at least they could say it.

5 Die Hard

You might know that Die Hard is based on a book, 1979’s Nothing Lasts Forever, but did you know that it’s actually a sequel to 1966’s The Detective? That’s right: Die Hard is technically Die Hard 2. In fact, The Detective had already been adapted in 1968, and the star of that film, Frank Sinatra, had it written into his contract that he must be offered the starring role in any sequels. Fortunately, Die Hard was given the chance to develop...

If you were waiting for John Woo‘s latest action thriller film The Killer, featuring his signature action style and a thrilling story. Then the wait is finally over as the Nathalie Emmanuel and Omar Sy-led film is finally available to stream on Peacock. Based on Woo’s 1989 film of the same name, the Peacock film is co-written by Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell, and Matt Stuecken and it follows the story of a deadly assassin as she refuses to kill a young blind woman and in turn her employer puts out a hit on her, forcing her to kill the people coming after her while being hunted by a relentless cop. So, if you loved the high-octane action, thrilling story, and interesting characters in The Killer here are some similar movies you should check out next.

The Killer (Buy DVD on Amazon) Credit – Magnum Presentation

The Killer is a...

Pierre Morrel's 2008 film "Taken" is brazenly morally irresponsible. 

"Taken" was not so much a thriller as an indulgent "dad fantasy," rooted in xenophobia and male sexual hysterics. The lead character, Bryan Mills, played by a wholly devoted and utterly capable Liam Neeson, was a divorced dad of a teenage girl named Kim (Maggie Grace) who saw his clout as a parent disappearing into the wealthy black hole of a cold-shouldered ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and her attentive new husband (Xander Berkeley). Bryan is a former CIA agent, and his job kept him away from home enough to damage his marriage. When Kim announces that she and a friend are going on an international holiday together, Bryan warns her that such an excursion is dangerous; kidnappers, he knows, often target traveling American teenage girls and sell them into sexual slavery. It sounds paranoid and everyone dismisses him.

Perhaps predictably, Kim is almost...

Kevin Turen, a producer on HBO’s Euphoria and The Idol and Ti West’s X, Pearl and MaXXXine, has died. He was 44.

A spokesperson for Penske Media Corp., the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter, confirmed Turen’s death. No other details were immediately available.

“Despite his many achievements in Hollywood, Kevin’s greatest passion was his family and friends,” Jay Penske, CEO of Pmc and a close friend of Turen, said in a statement. “He was so proud of his children. He and his wife, Evelina, were resolved that their children grow up with great values and ensured they make a difference in the broader world. Our collective heart breaks for them, and we all feel such a profound sense of loss. We will miss Kevin so much, and this town lost one of its brightest rising stars.”

Turen was closely associated with Sam and Ashley Levinson. The trio co-founded Little Lamb Productions,...

Colombiana's ending conclusively resolves the storylines and delivers retribution for Cataleya's parents' murder, showcasing the overarching theme of revenge. Cataleya's strategic planning and underestimated abilities enable her to outsmart her enemies, allowing her to successfully exact her revenge. Cataleya's call to Danny at the end signifies forgiveness and the possibility of a new, peaceful life for Cataleya, now that her mission of revenge is complete.

2011’s Colombiana had an action-packed ending that managed to conclude many of the thriller's storylines. Coproduced by Luc Besson and directed by Olivier Megaton, the script for Colombiana was based on Mathilda, originally written as a sequel to 1994’s Leon: The Professional by Besson, who wrote both the iconic crime drama and the 2011 action thriller. Many of the themes of Colombiana and Leon overlap, with Cataleya’s story, sounding eerily similar to Mathilda’s with her being taken in by her uncle Emilio after...

British singer-actor Luke Evans and Taiwanese female actor Gwei Lun-mei will co-star in “Weekend Escape Project,” an action thriller being produced in Taiwan by EuropaCorp.

The film marks a further comeback for EuropaCorp after a four-year hiatus that followed the personal travails of its founder, Luc Besson, and financial difficulties at the company. EuropaCorp was taken over by its junior lender, Vine Alternative Investments, in 2020, as part of a restructuring deal.

Besson and Virginie Besson-Silla are producing the movie for EuropaCorp. Kinology is handling international sales.

Directed by George Huang, the film (aka “Weekend in Taipei”) is set to start shooting on July 3 in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. Production is expected to take three months and take in locations including the Ximending district, Zhongshan Hall, the Dome and Taipei City Hall.

In February, Besson-Silla scouted locations for the film with director Olivier Megaton (“Transporter 3”) and met with Taipei mayor Wayne Chiang.

Léon: The Professional has a pretty strong cult following and meme-worthy presence thanks to Gary Oldman, but Natalie Portman isn’t so sure it has aged all that well in the nearly three decades since its release.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Natalie Portman said of Léon, “It’s a movie that’s still beloved, and people come up to me about it more than almost anything I’ve ever made, and it gave me my career, but it is definitely, when you watch it now, it definitely has some cringey, to say the least, aspects to it. So, yes, it’s complicated for me.” Portman previously told Empire, “There’s a lot of stuff in there that’s not amazing through today’s eyes…Even though I totally understand – I don’t know how I’d show that to my kids.”

There are a number of reasons...

Netflix has released a new trailer for its upcoming docuseries, Monsters Inside, about Billy Milligan, the first person to be acquitted of a major crime based on a defense that he suffered from a dissociative identity disorder.

In 1977, Milligan was arrested and charged for a string of rapes that took place at Ohio State University. While the evidence clearly pointed to Milligan, when he was taken into custody, Milligan claimed he had no memory of the assaults.

Milligan was later diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (then known as multiple personality...

Action movies are always going to remain one of the most popular genres in cinema, because there’s no better form of escapism than leaving your brain at the door, sitting back and enjoying two hours of fist fights, car chases, shootouts and explosions. That’s one of the many reasons why Extraction ended up becoming Netflix‘s most popular original ever, but it’s far from the only actioner to gain a huge audience on the world’s biggest streaming service.

Over the last few months, we’ve seen Dwayne Johnson’s Die Hard knockoff Skyscraper, Idris Elba’s French-set thriller Bastille Day, bargain basement sequel Rogue Warfare: The Hunt and John Travolta’s From Paris with Love all crack the Top 10 most-watched list, and each of those B-level action movies could be generously described as mediocre at best. The latest forgotten title to find a second life on the platform,...

The critics, so far, have a unanimous verdict: “The Last Days of American Crime,” Netflix’s new sci-fi/heist mashup that features scenes of police brutality and other gratuitous violence, is one of the worst films… ever.

The movie, released on Netflix June 5, has a 0% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, which means none of the 26 critical reviews tabulated by the site were positive. Overall, the site assigned a 2.27 out of 10 rating for the film across reviewers.

“The Last Days of American Crime” joins only 42 other films (with at least 20 reviews) to receive the dubious distinction of getting a Tomatometer goose egg, including Netflix’s “The Ridiculous 6” from Adam Sandler, “Gotti” starring John Travolta, 1990’s “Problem Child,” “Staying Alive” (also starring Travolta) and “Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol.”

The consensus is that, with protests nationwide over the police killing of George Floyd, the timing of the movie’s release is a disaster.

Everybody knows that the best movies aren’t always the most successful ones, as more than proven by Michael Bay’s Transformers films earning over $4 billion at the box office despite getting progressively worse with each new installment, while an all-time classic like The Shawshank Redemption initially bombed before everyone figured out that it was one of the greatest movies ever made.

The advent and subsequent increase in the number of big budget projects that are designed exclusively for streaming has only muddied the waters further, because it doesn’t matter what it is, if Netflix drops a brand-new and splashy looking film onto the homepage of their 183 million subscribers worldwide, then huge viewership numbers are almost guaranteed, especially right now when there are millions of people still stuck at home looking for anything to whittle away a couple of hours.

Their last original movie to generate huge buzz was Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction,...

There’s 40 days and counting until the still-tentative opening of “Tenet” — and with it, the hopes for a successful reopening of theaters worldwide. Meanwhile, over the next two weeks, we’ll see the streaming debuts of three films that would have had a theatrical presence under normal circumstances. Netflix will debut the Spike Lee drama about black Vietnam veterans, “Da 5 Bloods,” on June 12; the same day will see Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island,” which will be available from Universal as a $19.99 rental. Universal also just announced that Blumhouse’s horror mystery “You Should Have Left” with Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried will debut on VOD June 19.

At this point, it seems fair to declare Universal the king of VOD. “Trolls World Tour” and “The Invisible Man,” along with specialized unit Focus’ “The High Note,” “Harriet,” and “Emma” all scored high in VOD rankings. “Trolls” returned to #1 at Amazon Prime,...

Hmmm. I’m not often one for starting an article with one long reflective exclamation (is anyone?), but that’s my immediate response after learning this.

Netflix’s number one film today – a dubious distinction given that its one of their originals – is The Last Days of American Crime. However, despite its popularity on the platform, the newly released action thriller has a 0% score over on Rotten Tomatoes. Yep, 18 reviewers have sat down to digest it, and 18 reviewers have emphatically thumbed it down. The average rating in those reviews was 2.4/10, and considering the bottom grade that many reviewers give is 2/10 (or one star), that’s pretty catastrophic.

This caught my eye because I remember covering the trailer for The Last Days of American Crime a few weeks ago. Now, this wasn’t exactly the science of deduction, but I’ll refer you to the following paragraph from that piece:

From...

Netflix may be slowly but surely establishing themselves as one of Hollywood’s major players thanks to critically-acclaimed awards seasons favorites like Roma and The Irishman, along with headline-grabbing blockbusters 6 Underground and Extraction, but the streaming service’s original output is generally wildly inconsistent.

For every hit, there seems to be more than a few misses, with their frequent collaborations with Adam Sandler’s crew and Marlon Wayans being repeat offenders, and many others simply appear one day with little fanfare and then quickly sink without a trace, like the $60 million Brad Pitt satire War Machine or The Cloverfield Paradox.

Based on the reactions online, it appears as though The Last Days of American Crime is going to perform the impressive task of falling into both camps. Directed by Taken 2 and Transporter 3’s Olivier Megaton, the action thriller only hit Netflix on Friday but is already being...

Netflix has been bringing us a solid helping of original movies over the last few months. However, it must be said that the quality has varied quite a bit. Coffee & Kareem was pretty terrible, while Extraction was all kinds of awesome. Still, both saw very solid viewing figures. Now, their latest original is available for you to stream and it comes in the form of sci-fi heist drama The Last Days Of American Crime.

Helmed by Taken 2‘s Olivier Megaton, the pic is based on a 2009 graphic novel by Rick Remender and Gregg Tocchini and boasts a strong cast that includes Michael Pitt, Sharlto Copley, Edgar Ramirez and Anna Brewster. Set in a crime-ridden “not too distant” future, in which the Us government is looking to introduce some sort of technology that makes it impossible for citizens to commit crime, The Last Days of American Crime certainly has an intriguing premise,...

In the not-so-distant future, the U.S, government has developed the “American Peace Initiative,” commonly known as A.P.I. It’s essentially a piercing signal that, when deployed, prohibits a person’s thoughts regarding the practice of criminal behaviors — unleashing “the cop within,” according to its slogan. Announcers and electronic billboards count down the number of days until free will becomes a thing of the past. Until then, however, lawlessness rules the street, in the form of violence, looting [cue Gif of man pulling shirt collar away from neck and making Garrggh face], and topless ladies dancing on the roofs of cars.

It...

It’s hard to imagine that the definitive studio movie about Trump-era authoritarianism would come from the guy behind “Taken 2” and “Taken 3,” but that sure didn’t stop him from trying. Of course, you should never doubt the delusional self-confidence of a man who changed his last name to “Megaton,” just as you should never put your faith in a filmmaker who’s basically the Mr. Brainwash to Luc Besson’s Banksy.

Here’s the thing about “The Last Days of American Crime” — you don’t have time for this shit. None of us do. And that’s not just because Olivier Megaton’s agonizingly dull Netflix feature is 149 minutes long (a crime unto itself). While there’s never really a good moment to introduce a bad movie into the world, . We’re all for escapism where you can get it — this critic has streamed an ungodly amount...

Netflix has been delivering a steady stream of original movies in 2020. The quality has certainly varied, though. Coffee & Kareem was dreadful while Extraction kicked ass, though both saw healthy viewing figures. Now, their latest original is available, and it comes in the form of sci-fi heist drama The Last Days Of American Crime.

Directed by Taken 2 and 3 helmer Olivier Megaton, the film’s based on a 2009 graphic novel by Rick Remender and Gregg Tocchini and stars Michael Pitt, Sharlto Copley, Edgar Ramirez and Anna Brewster. The tale is set in a crime-ridden “not too distant” future, in which the United States government is about to introduce secret technology that makes it impossible for citizens to break the law. On top of that, they’re introducing a new currency system, which replaces physical money with cards to which amounts can be charged.

Small-time criminal Graham Brick concocts a plan to steal one of the charging machines,...

These days, searching for solace amid a global pandemic and nationwide protests, film critics frequently find themselves referring to “the movie we need right now,” lavishing that clichéd description on anything that offers the slightest comfort or context in a world turned upside down. Let me assure you, Netflix’s “The Last Days of American Crime” is not that movie. In fact, this gory, excessive and frequently incoherent near-future heist film from Luc Besson protégé Olivier Megaton is pretty much the opposite: It’s an offensive eyesore in which

Perhaps some would take comfort in such a distraction, although for anyone paying the slightest attention to what’s going on in the real world, it’s hard to stomach a film that so frivolously engages with circumstances in which overzealous police are no longer necessary. That radical advance comes thanks to something called the American Peace Initiative, a “controversial” new...

The new live-action feature "The Last Days of American Crime" based on the Radical Comics title is directed by Olivier Megaton, starring Michael Pitt, Sharlto Copley and Edgar Ramírez, streaming June 5, 2020 on Netflix:

"...in the not-too-distant future, as a final response to terrorism and crime, the government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts.

"Now in a country overwhelmed by chaos, the government is about to activate a signal...

"...that makes it impossible for people to commit criminal acts as a bunch of thieves have one week to pull off the perfect heist..."

Click the images to enlarge...

The new live-action feature "The Last Days of American Crime" based on the Radical Comics title is directed by Olivier Megaton, starring Michael Pitt, Sharlto Copley and Edgar Ramírez, streaming June 5, 2020 on Netflix:

"...in the not-too-distant future, as a final response to terrorism and crime, the government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts.

"Now in a country overwhelmed by chaos, the government is about to activate a signal that makes it impossible for people to commit criminal acts as a bunch of thieves have one week to pull off the perfect heist..."

Click the images to enlarge...

Considering how profoundly the coronavirus has affected the film industry, the vault full of original content Netflix had ready to pump out is an impressive coup. Obviously, they will run out eventually – the shutdown is going to catch up – but for now they seem to be coping fine.

Case in point: The studio have dropped a new trailer for the latest of their original movies, which they’ve pencilled in for release in the near future, Olivier Megaton’s The Last Days of American Crime. Based on a graphic novel, the film will posit a world where all crime will soon be obsolete, with the Us government planning to broadcast a signal that makes it impossible to commit unlawful acts. That leaves a career criminal looking to stage one last heist before it’s too late to do so. Sounds bonkers, right?

Want to see the trailer? It’s in the usual place,...

Netflix has launched the first trailer for crime thriller ‘The Last Days of American Crime’ starring Édgar Ramírez.

As a final response to terrorism and crime, the U.S. government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts. Graham Bricke (Ramírez), a career criminal who was never able to hit the big score, teams up with famous gangster progeny Kevin Cash (Michael Pitt), and black-market hacker Shelby Dupree (Anna Brewster), to commit the heist of the century and the last crime in American history before the signal goes off.

Based on the Radical Publishing graphic novel created by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini, the film is directed by Olivier Megaton and also stars Barry Levine, with Sharlto Copley.

Also in trailers – Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams get Icelandic in music video from ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga’

The movie hits Netflix on June 5th.

Shakespearean Transformer Olivier Megaton is back with a brand new actioner. The Versailles-born director of Taken 2 and Taken 3 will bring his latest cars-and-shooting movie to Netflix in June, and the streaming service has just released a first trailer for it.

The Last Days of American Crime is based on the 2009 Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini graphic novel, and has been adapted for the screen by Oblivion scribe Karl Gajdusek. It’s got a decent cast, too – The Assassination of Gianni Versace‘s Edgar Ramírez leads the pack alongside Anna Brewster (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) with a surprising appearance from Boardwalk Empire‘s Michael Pitt, who appears to be firing on all cylinders at Full Michael Pitt. That just so happens to be our favorite level of Michael Pitt, so we’ll probably have to check this one out.

An official synopsis from Netflix lies yonder:

“As...

"So you want revenge, I want legacy!" Netflix has debuted an official trailer for a new action thriller titled The Last Days of American Crime, which is based on the graphic novel of the same name. In the not-too-distant future, as a final response to terrorism and crime, the Us government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts. A career criminal puts together a team to pull off the heist of the century and the last crime in American history before the signal starts. From the director of Taken 2 & 3. Starring Edgar Ramírez, along with Michael C. Pitt, Anna Brewster, Patrick Bergin, Sharlto Copley, Tamer Burjaq, and Daniel Fox. This definitely looks like an Olivier Megaton movie - excessive action galore, incoherent / dumb plot, attractive women, violent men. Might be a fun one? Here's the first trailer (+ poster) for Olivier Megaton's...

For an 80-minute action drama, "Earth And Blood" seems like a patchwork of genre-specific scenes set up to decidedly arrive at a set-piece climax of violence. Which is not saying much, because the action ending is hardly innovative in the entertainment quotient it manages to strike. The finale makes you realise you have just watched a compilation of action movie cliches and little else.

Julien Leclercq's new French film, with a translated title as fetching as "Earth And Blood", promised much -- especially if you had sampled its blazing trailer, or if your inner action addict came of age watching Luc Besson, Louis Leterrier or Olivier Megaton's simply irresistible bloodsoaked fare that influenced French violent cinema -- nay, cinema of violence anywhere in the world -- over the past decades.

Leclercq himself would perhaps find an indulgent nod in the club of new-age mainstream action titans from France,...

Annapurna Pictures’ president of film Ivana Lombardi is leaving for a new job as Netflix’s director of independent film, where she’ll oversee titles like the upcoming sequel to hit teen rom-com “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.”

Lombardi joins Ian Bricke, who holds the same title, at the indie division. Like Bricke, she’ll report to Lisa Nishimura, VP of independent film and documentary features, when she starts the job November 6.

Nishimura was promoted to oversee the indie division in March. Prior to that, the division was led by Bricke and Matt Brodlie, who left Netflix to join Disney+ in June. Before Nishimura moved into her new role, the duo reported to Original Film head Scott Stuber and had full greenlight authority for all films budgeted under $10 million. These included titles like Tamara Jenkins’ “Private Life,” starring Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn as well as made-for-streaming...

After inverting the backwoods horror sub-genre in Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (which might be followed up with a sequel) and exploring the terrors of parenthood in Little Evil, filmmaker Eli Craig will next focus on the scary side of weddings in Argent Pictures' new horror comedy Bride and Doom:

Press Release: May 1, 2019 – Los Angeles, CA – Argent Pictures, the film production and financing outfit run by Jill Ahrens, Ryan Ahrens and Ben Renzo are partnering with Jason Michael Berman at Mandalay Pictures on an original horror comedy titled Bride And Doom and have tapped Eli Craig to direct and co-write along with Josh Parkinson.

Argent’s Jill Ahrens, Ryan Ahrens and Ben Renzo, and Mandalay’s Jason Michael Berman will produce the film. Executive Producers are Argent partners Drew Brees, Tony Parker, Michael Finley, and Derrick Brooks.

Cloverfield meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding in Bride And Doom – a...

Anna Brewster, Michael Pitt, and Sharlto Copley have rounded out the cast of the Netflix pic “The Last Days of American Crime” starring Edgar Ramirez.

“Taken 2” director Olivier Megaton is helming with Karl Gajdusek adapting the script.

Based on the Radical Publishing graphic novel “The Last Days of American Crime” by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini, the story is set when, in a final response to fight terrorism and crime, the U.S. government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts. Graham Bricke (Ramirez), a career criminal who was never able to hit the big score, teams up with Kevin Cash (Pitt) and Shelby Dupree (Brewster) to commit the heist of the century and the last crime in American history before the signal goes off.

Jesse Berger at Radical Studios will produce along with Jason Michael Berman at Mandalay Pictures, as well as Barry Levine.

Jason Statham is back for a third time in the blockbuster actions series when Transporter 3 arrives for the first time on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital) August 7 from Lionsgate.

Jason Statham is back for a third time in the blockbuster actions series when Transporter 3 arrives for the first time on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital) August 7 from Lionsgate. This edge-of-your-seat thriller stars Jason Statham, Natalya Rudakova, François Berléand, and Robert Knepper. Experience four times the resolution of Full HD with 4K along with Dolby Vision Hdr to bring to life the stunning cinematography of this action-packed film. Dolby Vision transforms TV experiences in the home by delivering greater brightness and contrast, as well as a fuller palette of rich colors. The release also features Dolby Atmos® audio mixed specifically for the home to place and move audio anywhere in the room,...

In today’s film news roundup, Edgar Ramirez is in talks to play a criminal, Kiersey Clemons is in negotiations to portray a flower arranger and finalists have been announced for Universal’s Film Music Composer Initiative.

Castings

Edgar Ramirez is in talks to portray a career criminal in Netflix’s near-future movie “The Last Days of American Crime.”

The project is based on the Radical Publishing graphic novel by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini. Olivier Megaton (“Taken 2”) is directing from an adapted screenplay by Karl Gajdusek, whose credits include “Oblivion” and “Stranger Things.”

The story centers on U.S. government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts. Graham Bricke, a career criminal who was never able to hit the big score, teams up with Kevin Cash and Shelby Dupree to commit the heist of the century and the last crime...

Edgar Ramirez is in negotiations to star in The Last Days of American Crime, Netflix’s adaptation of a Rick Remender comic book title.

Olivier Megaton, who directed action thriller Colombiana and two Taken movies, is helming the gritty crime thriller that has a screenplay written by Karl Gajdusek. Gajdusek wrote the Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller Oblivion and is an executive producer on Stranger Things.

The story is set in a near future where the U.S. government, fighting terrorism and crime, plans to begin broadcasting a signal that makes it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit an unlawful act.

Ramirez will star as ...

Edgar Ramirez is in negotiations to star in The Last Days of American Crime, Netflix’s adaptation of a Rick Remender comic book title.

Olivier Megaton, who directed action thriller Colombiana and two Taken movies, is helming the gritty crime thriller that has a screenplay written by Karl Gajdusek. Gajdusek wrote the Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller Oblivion and is an executive producer on Stranger Things.

The story is set in a near future where the U.S. government, fighting terrorism and crime, plans to begin broadcasting a signal that makes it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit an unlawful act.

Ramirez will star as ...

36th Fajr International Film Festival announces the Winners

Closing ceremony of the 36th edition of Fajr international film festival was held in presence of Iran minister of culture and Islamic Guidance Abbas Salehi, head of cinema organization Mohammad Mehdi Heidarian, festival director Reza Mir Karimi, and prominent Iranian and international cinema individuals including Oliver Stone, Reza Kianian, Oliver Montagon, and many well-known personalities. Reza Mirkarimi director of the festival delivered a short speech and said nothing could be don…

Director Oliver Stone says Iran is the heart of Middle East for me and I’m astonished by its cinema

American movie director Oliver Stone arrived in Tehran Monday morning aiming to attend the 36th edition Fajr international film festival runs April 19–27 in Tehran, Iran. Stone hosted a workshop for filmmakers at Tehran University for the students craving to learn more and benefit from the knowledge and experiences of the prominent individuals.

French filmmaker reveals fresh details about his Lourdes doc.

French filmmaker Thierry Demaizière has revealed fresh details about his joint work Lourdes, exploring the motivations of the millions of sick pilgrims and volunteers who flock to the French famous shrine town, which Upside Distribution launches at the Efm.

Mars Film has acquired French rights to the film, which marks Demaizière’s latest collaboration with Alban Teurlai after Reset, about Benjamin Millepied’s ill-fated tenure of the Paris Opera Ballet, and Rocco, an authorised portrait of legendary Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi.

“It came as a bit of a surprise to find ourselves making this film,” Demaizière said. “When we embarked on this film we had just come out of a documentary about the pornography world.”

He said part of the attraction to the subject was the discovery that no other feature documentary had been made about Lourdes even though there are close to six million visitors each year.

“It...

French filmmaker reveals fresh details about his Lourdes doc.

French filmmaker Thierry Demaizière has revealed fresh details about his joint work Lourdes, exploring the motivations of the millions of sick pilgrims and volunteers who flock to the French famous shrine town, which Upside Distribution launches at the Efm.

Mars Film has acquired French rights to the film, which marks Demaizière’s latest collaboration with Alban Teurlai after Reset, about Benjamin Millepied’s ill-fated tenure of the Paris Opera Ballet, and Rocco, an authorised portrait of legendary Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi.

“It came as a bit of a surprise to find ourselves making this film,” Demaizière said. “When we embarked on this film we had just come out of a documentary about the pornography world.”

He said part of the attraction to the subject was the discovery that no other feature documentary had been made about Lourdes even though there are close to six million visitors each year.

“It...

The Keanu-ssance is in full swing, but here's some news which could cause that upward trajectory to come to a crashing halt.

Before we get to the bad news, let's all get on the same page. We've known for months that Keanu Reeves is set to star in a China-set film racing movie called Rally Car. Here's the synopsis:

Rally Car centers on a hot-shot former champion Nascar driver (Reeves) who doesn’t want to believe his glory days are behind him. When his professional and personal life begin to spiral out of control, he’s forced to take part in a high-stakes international rally race across the face of China, with a young Chinese girl as his co-driver, in order to prove he’s still the badass racer he thinks he is.

That alone might not be so terrible...the bad news is who is going to direct it.

Exclusive: Paris-based Upside Distribution is screening a teaser trailer at Efm.

French action director Olivier Megaton is hitting the European Film Market (Efm) this weekend with a teaser screening of his upcoming documentary Roc, The World’s Greatest Con Artist, about infamous French con artist Christophe Rocancourt, which is currently in post-production.

The Taken 2 and Taken 3 and Transporter 3 director reveals that between big budget action pictures he likes to make documentaries.

“I started out as a painter, not a director. Documentary helps me return to something more human and artisanal that I had when I was painting,” says Megaton.

“As time goes by the films I make are more and more heavy, complicated and pressured. When I am not making films, I need to do something different as I am addicted to work and find it impossible to stop. Documentary is something perfect for me. There’s not so much pressure and I love...

Exclusive: Paris-based Upside Distribution is screening a teaser trailer at Efm.

French action director Olivier Megaton is hitting the European Film Market (Efm) this weekend with a teaser screening of his upcoming documentary Roc, The World’s Greatest Con Artist, about infamous French con artist Christophe Rocancourt, which is currently in post-production.

The Taken 2 and Taken 3 and Transporter 3 director reveals that between big budget action pictures he likes to make documentaries.

“I’m started out as a painter, not a director. Documentary helps me return to something more human and artisanal that I had when I was painting,” says Megaton.

“As time goes by the films I make are more and more heavy, complicated and pressured. When I am not making films, I need to do something different as I am addicted to work and find it impossible to stop. Documentary is something perfect for me. There’s not so much pressure and I love...

Keanu Reeves is in the midst of a pretty awesome comeback right now. After appearing in two of the most iconic action films of the 90s, and quite possibly of all-time, the actor didn’t have the best luck. In recent years, however, his fortunes have turned, and that’s mostly thanks to John Wick. The film saw Reeves play the titular hitman and though it didn’t do gangbusters at the box office, it became something of a cult hit and turned enough heads to warrant a sequel.

This weekend, John Wick: Chapter 2 shot its way into theaters and so far, things look promising for the flick. Reviews are very positive and though it’s going up against The Lego Batman Movie and Fifty Shades Darker at the box office, it should have no trouble pulling in a good chunk of change. So, where does Keanu go from here?...

Keanu Reeves is going to play an American Nascar driver down in the dumps. Almost a year and a half ago, the John Wick: Chapter Two star became interested in Rally, an action-comedy prominently set in China. Reeves’ character gets a second chance at greatness when he enters an international race across China. Below, learn more about the new Keanu […]

The post Olivier Megaton Directing Keanu Reeves in Nascar Movie ‘Rally Car’ appeared first on /Film.

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

-Sony Pictures is acquiring the worldwide rights to “Greyhound,” the World War II drama written by Tom Hanks, Deadline reports. Hanks will also star in the film, which will be directed by Aaron Schneider (“Get Low”), and produce with his Playtone partner Gary Goetzman.

In the film, Hanks plays George Krause, the commander of a Navy destroyer called the Greyhound. Sony acquired the rights to the film at the Berlin International Film Festival’s European Film Market.

Read More: Shia Labeouf, Rooney Mara and More: 10 Hot Projects at Berlin’s European Film Market

-Lionsgate has acquired U.S. rights to action film “Rally Car,” starring Keanu Reeves. The film will be directed by Olivier Megaton (“Taken 2,...

The company announced in Berlin on Thursday it had acquired Olivier Megaton’s upcoming action film to star Keanu Reeves.

Jeremy Lott wrote the screenplay to Rally Car based on a treatment by Hamel about a self-absorbed Nascar driver who teams up with a young Chinese woman in a cross-China race.

Reeves stars for Lionsgate-Summit in this weekend’s release John Wick: Chapter 2.

The film will shoot in China and the Us. Hamel and Reeves of Company Films produce with Mark Gao and Gregory Ouanhon of Fundamental Films.

Gary Glushon will serve as executive producer and Im Global represents international rights.

“We are thrilled to be in business once again with Keanu Reeves, who is extraordinary in the John Wick franchise, and we believe Rally Car has tremendous potential to see Keanu in action once again, this time behind a steering wheel,” said Jason Constantine, president of acquisitions and co-productions at Lionsgate.

“Jeremy has done...

Lionsgate, which is releasing the Keanu Reeves-starring John Wick 2 nationwide tomorrow via its Summit label, has just acquired U.S. distribution rights to Reeves’ film Rally Car. Deadline revealed last month the distributor was in pole position to land the film. The China-centric movie will be directed by Olivier Megaton (Taken 2, Taken 3, Colombiana) and be shot from a script by Jeremy Lott based on a treatment by Stephen Hamel. The film, described as in the vein of Can…...

On the first day of the Berlin Film Market, Lionsgate has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Keanu Reeves starrer Rally Car. The movie, which will be directed by Olivier Megaton (Taken 2, Taken 3, Colombiana) from a script by Jeremy Lott based on a treatment by Stephen Hamel, stars Reeves as an American NASCAR driver.

Rally Car will be produced by Hamel and Reeves of Company Films and Mark Gao and Gregory Ouanhon of Fundamental Films. Gary Glushon will executive produce.

The film tells the story of a self-centered American NASCAR driver who revitalizes his career by entering an international...

Let’s get this out of the way, vulgarians: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is a bit different than the past Paul W.S. Anderson-directed entries. As evident from its initial trailer and clips, hand-held camerawork and frenetic cutting have come to replace the balletic action choreography praised as “bodies in motion and / or space” by numerous online film pundits. Which is not to act as if Anderson handed off the reins of his beloved franchise to Olivier Megaton or somebody, but this newest installment can’t necessarily be treated as another victory lap for Anderson’s superior technique. (Don’t worry: there are still plenty of corridors and trap doors to waltz through.) Yet once one is acclimated to this chaos-cinema form, even if it’s a bit more assaultive in post-converted 3D, the writer-director’s simultaneous economic storytelling and boyish imagination come into clear view.

It may have...

Director Olivier Megaton is set to direct a sci-fi action film called The Champion. The movie is described by THR as being in the "vein of a futuristic Spartacus, Champion tells of a man falsely imprisoned for an act of terrorism who must battle through the prison’s gladiator program to regain his freedom."

Megaton has a solid resume of action films that include Taken 2, Taken 3, Transporter 2, and Colombiana. He will be directing the film from a script being written by actor-turned-scribe Hal Ozsan (Dawson’s Creek).

The Champion sounds like it could make for a really cool action film. Who doesn't like gladiator movies?!

Whether you’ve seen the Stanley Kubrick classic or Starz’s (shockingly good) television series, or have just cracked a history book or two in your day, you’re probably familiar with the basics of the Spartacus story: gladiator defies Roman empire, leads a massive rebellion, etc. The details always get fudged around, but the basic beats tend […]

The post ‘Taken 3’ Director Olivier Megaton to Helm “Sci-fi Spartacus” Film ‘The Champion’ appeared first on /Film.

Joseph Baxter Aug 31, 2016

The director of Taken 2 and Taken 3 - Olivier Megaton - is set to tackle The Champion...

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a science-fiction stylised take on the Gladiator genre is in the works with the Taken sequels director Olivier Megaton. Brandishing the title, The Champion, the prospective film is being described as 'a futuristic Spartacus', depicting the ordeal of a man imprisoned for an act of terrorism he apparently didn’t commit and forced to participate in a type of gladiator arena that yields the possibility of winning his freedom.

It’s a familiar sounding story, recalling the various versions of the Roman Empire-era-set Spartacus story like the 1960 Kirk Douglas-starring classic and the iterations of the 2010-2013 Starz Spartacus television series like Blood And Sand, starring the late Andy Whitfield. A futuristic take on the grueling grandiosity of the gladiator arena should make...

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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.

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