Whenever we enter the holiday season, I tend to think of the many amazing opportunities the site has been offered over the years. It’s easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the release schedule, and I for one am so thankful for experiences on the press tours. And since 2011, we’ve spent time with numerous creative talents talking about their craft on projects big and small.
Some are our heroes, others are bucket list gets, some may be totally new territory, but all are welcome. At the very least, they are fun and informative. At best, they have become industry friends with whom we’ve chatted on several occasions. And, again, we’re thankful for it all. To the points made above, the chance to speak to today’s guest is one we never saw coming although he’s been our radar for decades. A director with a unique style, Martin Campbell is a proven hit-maker. When it comes to action, his hits land hard. Really, really hard.
Campbell is someone we’ve wanted to speak with ever since seeing Goldeneye when it first came out in 1995. But he impressed us even further by reinventing the James Bond series for a second time with Casino Royale. He’s also done a pair of exceptional Zorro films with Antonio Banderas, a relentless revenge film with Mel Gibson, and the underrated Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan-led film, The Foreigner among several others. One thing is for sure: you can count on Campbell to deliver the goods in big, big ways.
His latest is Dirty Angels from Lionsgate. To lead this effort, he cast the exquisitely talented and competent Eva Green. The French actress is always sincere in her delivery, and, maybe it’s just me, but I think the world is just a little bit brighter whenever she smiles. She came on the scene in a big way in 2006 opposite Daniel Craig in his first outing as 007. She was mesmerizing, and continued to do the same in films like Kingdom of Heaven, Cracks and Perfect Sense. As she reunites with Campbell here, Green pulls out all the stops for some tense, close quarter combat scenes. Move over Vesper, here comes Rambo.
It is worth nothing that making this a female ensemble is integral to the story and not just casting women to cast women. That’s the level of thought that Campbell has put into the story (which he also wrote). It’s a legitimate plot point that this team has to be women; they’re necessary, capable, rough and tumble, and when the action starts, shit goes boom.
Since Campbell has made a name for himself an action director, we were really excited to talk with him about his favorite action sequences. His career is full of standout, eye-popping visuals, but when asked which is his favorite it’s probably no surprise that he calls back to the Bond series. Campbell cites the opening of Casino Royale – a dangerous free-running scene where all hell breaks loose on a construction site. That’s one of the all-time best cinematic openers, 007 universe or otherwise. But he also has a lot of love for the dam sequence in Goldeneye. That death-defying drop is as elegant as it is pulse-quickening. All these years later, he’s still go it. Enjoy this chat with Martin and check out his new film when it hits theaters on December 13.
From Martin Campbell, director of Casino Royale, comes this tense action-thriller. When a group of schoolgirls is taken hostage in Afghanistan, an American soldier named Jake (Eva Green) joins an all-women commando unit to liberate them. The plan: Gain the trust of the terrorists by posing as members of a relief organization. But double-crosses, tragedies, and the ghosts of Jake’s past complicate the rescue in this do-or-die mission.
