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‘Bullet Train’s Director & Producer Talk Brad Pitt, New Technology, IMAX, and More
During the fun and informative conversation, they revealed why they made Bullet Train after Hobbs & Shaw, Leitch’s history of being Brad Pitt’s stunt double, working with Pitt and Bad Bunny, the new technology used on the film, why they love IMAX and if they’ll use it on their next film, The Fall Guy, with Ryan Gosling, how they pulled off filming most of the movie on a Sony soundstage in Culver City, and how they stage action.
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Well, what I’m curious about is everyone in Hollywood is looking to cast Brad in a movie. He gets sent every script in town and basically, you know, he gets offered everything. So did your history give you the leg up to getting him in this movie? Had you been talking about working together for a while?
LEITCH: We had. I was really humbled to find out, he’d been watching my career since I started to move into second unit directing and directing. Obviously, John Wick, Atomic Blonde, he knew those things. We reunited on Deadpool 2 for that cameo. And he was like… He was a huge fan of the first film and he was also a fan of Ryan’s, and so to get him to do that, we got to reunite again. And he was just starting to see me as a filmmaker. So yeah, then it was a touch point, hey, we should find something.
Pitt Keeps a ‘Sh*t List’ of Actors He Won’t Work with, Says Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Don’t get on Brad Pitt’s bad side.
The Oscar winner apparently keeps a “shit list” of actors he won’t work with, according to “Bullet Train” co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
“He is in a new chapter of his life, I think,” Taylor-Johnson explained of Pitt during the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.
While Pitt is a “humble and gracious human being,” Taylor-Johnson added that the actor expects the same from co-stars in return. “He just wants to bring light and joy into the world and be around people who are there to have a good time,” the “Kraven the Hunter” lead said. “You work with many actors and after a while you start making notes: ‘I am definitely not working with this person ever again.’ Brad has this list too: the ‘good’ list and the ‘shit’ list.”
Lauren Lloyd on how she discovered young, pimply Brad Pitt
The director of an obscure Serbian film has shared the moment she “discovered” award-winning actor Brad Pitt as a young adult looking for his silver-screen debut, and how she was almost turned off giving him his start.
Before the fame of blockbuster productions like Ocean’s Eleven and Mr & Mrs Smith, a pimply but “electrifying” a 21-year-old Pitt responded to a casting call from the agency of Lauren Lloyd, former executive vice-president of Hollywood Pictures and Trust Sony pictures.
Lloyd described her first meeting with the young wannabe who would become a megastar back in the ’80s to Aussie podcast What is Was Like.
“So this kid walks in and I think he had done maybe one or two episodes in a soap opera … and I was like, who’s this kid? But it was like God walking in” Lloyd told the podcast.
“So I said ‘sit down and talk to me’, and he had kinda bad skin… but he seemed very calm for being one so young and non-experienced.”
How ‘Bullet Train’ Stunt Coordinator Trained Brad Pitt to Do His Own Stunts
Before he was a director of spectacles like “Deadpool 2,” David Leitch did stunts for dozens of productions, often doubling for Brad Pitt in films including “Troy,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “Fight Club.” Leitch puts his stunt background to good use in the action film “Bullet Train,” in cinemas now, in which he reteams with Pitt, this time as director.
Based on a Japanese novel, the action comedy revolves around five assassins from around the globe who find themselves on a fast-moving train. Pitt stars as Ladybug, alongside Sandra Bullock, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Shannon, Zazie Beetz, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Bad Bunny. Leitch aimed to deliver a character-driven story that captures the action in camera rather than relying on CGI and green screen. It was up to Greg Rementer, the film’s second-unit director and stunt coordinator, to deliver the helmer’s vision.
Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson to visit Korea to promote ‘Bullet Train’
Actors Brad Pitt and Aaron Taylor-Johnson will visit Korea to promote the upcoming film “Bullet Train” (2022), Sony Pictures said Friday.
The pair will take part in red carpet events on Aug. 19 ahead of the film’s premiere on Aug. 24.
It has been eight years since Pitt last visited Korea. He has previously made local press appearances for three other films “Moneyball” (2011), “World War Z” (2013) and “Fury” (2014).
USA Today
Don’t let Brad Pitt’s Ladybug fool you in “Bullet Train.” In the trailer alone for the action comedy, Pitt’s curiously code-named assassin gets table-slammed, stabbed, thrown through a glass door and pulled out of the high-speed Japanese train.
Not a problem for Pitt. Even at the road-tested age of 58, the Oscar-winning star had his stunt double-turned-director, David Leitch, watching his back.
“Yeah, it was always, ‘If it’s going to hurt, get Leitch,’ ” says Pitt of their early days as a team, laughing during a Zoom call with Leitch, 46. “I’ve never had a stunt double like Dave, that kind of collaboration. It’s just different now. And then he becomes a director, full circle. It’s just an amazing story. This kind of thing doesn’t happen.”
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