Action director Renny Harlin has shared his excitement over the upcoming survival thriller Deep Water from Simmons/Hamilton Productions, the new venture launched here by Kiss legend Gene Simmons and Arclight Films head Gary Hamilton, declaring: “I feel like a kid again.”
Talking to Screen, Harlin, whose credits include Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and Deep Blue Sea, said he had not planned to make another film so soon after wrapping production on Lionsgate’s The Strangers reboot trilogy and The Bricklayer for Millennium Media.
“I felt like I was in the strongest position of my career in 20 years,” the director said, “and then this bastard [Hamilton] sends me Deep Water. My wife [a co-producer on the project] told me that I had to. Big, epic action.”
DeepWater will shoot partly in Europe and post-production will take place in Australia.“It’s a real drama about real people in this unbearable situation. The hero of the story is this copilot who has two children, one of whom is cancerous. He is unable to spend quality time with his family.
,” said Harlin. He is the only person who can save the passengers on the plane. That’s how I related to this movie.” That’s how I related to this movie.”[because of work]Miami-based Harlin, a die-hard advocate of theatrical who had lived in Chna for six years making Jackie Chan films until the Covid outbreak, will use in-camera effects and said the plane crash, sharks and scares “will be taken to the highest level”.
He continued, “People are missing the reality. He continued, “People are missing the reality.” I want the explosions and action to be as real as possible. It will be more like watching
Die Hard 2
and Cliffhanger. I want the audience to get the real flesh-and-blood feeling of the movie.”He went on to say: “If you can’t make them cry or feel anything, you’ve failed. People want to feel something at the movies,” said the director. “They want laugh, cry, or be scared, and that’s what theatre is all about.” We want to make a theatrical movie to be able to do all the work we put into it. Do you really want it on your phone or tablet? No matter what anybody says, you really want to be sitting in a theatre.”“Auckland’s a great place to make films,” said Hamilton, who produces the New Zealand-Australia-EU co-production with Simmons, Harlin, Arclight Films’ Ying Ye and Rob Van Norden. New Zealand’s exchange rates make it very attractive and the people there are incredibly friendly. We’ll get a lot of support.”
Simmons added that key casting will be announced imminently. He said that the company, Hamilton, aims to produce “elevated genre movies”. “We only want the best directors and actors to work with us.” The script is the first step. Movie-making can be a fragile process. You have to combine art, acting and music with scenic design, acting and music. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t and cannot work harder to give people quality so in 10, 20 years’ time it will be remembered.” There’s no reason why you should not and cannot work harder to give people quality so in 10, 20 years’ time it will be remembered.”
Arclight Films is pre-selling rights in Cannes.
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