Posted in: Interview, Movies | Tagged: josh duhamel, london calling, quiver distribution

London Calling: Duhamel and Dir Ungar on Crafting Buddy Dark Comedy

London Calling star Josh Duhamel and director Allan Ungar spoke to Bleeding Cool about Quiver's buddy comedy, Jeremy Ray Taylor and more.

On the surface, London Calling looks like a traditional redemption story of a hitman trying to find his way back to his family after a job gone wrong, but director Allan Ungar, co-writers Omer Levin Menekse and Quinn Wolfe, and star Josh Duhamel looked to turn it into so much more. The Ransom Canyon star plays Tommy Ward, a hitman who accidentally kills a relative of his UK boss and flees to Los Angeles, and is tasked to help make his new boss (Rick Hoffman) by trying to "make a man" out of his social outcast son, Julian (Jeremy Ray Taylor), who shares a different set of passions from his father from video games to LARPing. Ungar and Duhamel spoke to Bleeding Cool about the inspiration behind London Calling, what it was about Tommy that resonated with the actor in the surrogate fatherly role, working with Taylor, balancing the action and comedy aspects, and if either had done Live-Action Role Playing (LARP) before.

London Calling: Director Allan Ungar and Star Josh Duhamel on Hard-Luck Buddy Comedy

Allan, what's the inspiration behind 'London Calling?' and Josh, what appealed to you about playing Tommy?

Ungar: The inspiration was derived from '90s buddy cop movies. I always wanted to make one, and I got this script sent to me by my agents while we were finishing up on 'Bandit' (2022). I read it, fell in love with it, and wanted to hark back to a time when Tony Scott and Michael Bay were the kings of that era, and gave birth to that genre. That was exciting for me.

Duhamel: [Allan's] been talking about this script since before we finished 'Bandit.' I figured he sends this off to somebody else, and I would watch this movie with some other guy in it. A couple of years later, he brought it to me and said, "I want you to read this." After reading it, I was like, "Whoa, this is fantastic!" I loved how flawed and imperfect this character was; it reminded me a lot of myself in many ways. A lot of guys our age, or at least my age, can relate to having lost a step. Maybe they don't quite have that juice on their fastball that they used to, so there's something about that guy who hasn't measured up in life, fallen off a step, but desperately wants to make things right, especially with his son. He sees a lot of his son in this kid, Julian, and that's why I wanted to do it.

What did you like about Jeremy? How was he perfect as Julian? Josh, what did you like working with Jeremy?

Ungar: I was a big fan of Jeremy in the 'IT' films, which had a lot of heart that came from those two movies came from his character, Ben. When we were looking for the right actor to play Julian, he popped up on a list, and I was like, "You know what? I like this guy." Josh and I met with him, and we both knew right then and there that he was the guy for it. I wasn't expecting his comedic chops to be as good as they were, but he blew everybody away. You could see in the film that their chemistry is incredible. It was an absolute pleasure to work with him.

Duhamel: Yeah, we needed a guy, somebody who was sympathetic in that way. Somebody who feels like they have never been given the attention or the respect. There's an insecurity about him since he's never quite lived up to his father's expectations. You can tell that that's affected him, and he lacks confidence. Jeremy does an amazing job portraying that, but in real life, he is a super bright kid and super athletic. He's far more athletic than you think he is, and so it played perfectly, because you don't think he could do the things that he does physically. I have so much respect for that kid.

Josh, what do you like about blending action and comedy in that space, and do those opportunities come up often for you?

Duhamel: A fair amount, but not to this degree. I looked at the comedy side of this more than anything. I loved the irony between what we've seen in movies like this before and what this was. I loved that it was a dark comedy that took risks. I don't think there's enough of that. Too many times, these days, we're afraid to hurt somebody's feelings, or we have to be extra careful not to get canceled, but this movie went there, and I enjoyed it. The action was all motivated by real things that were happening in the film, so it never felt like it was action for the sake of action, nor did it feel gratuitous. It's the same as the comedy; they all grew out of grounded situations in which these two unlikely characters found themselves.

Final question: Do either of you have any experience with LARPing before filming this? What were your thoughts about filming those sequences?

Duhamel: Have you LARped?

I tried it once.

Duhamel: You did?

Ungar: Josh does it every weekend. [Duhamel laughs]

Duhamel: I LARP for a living, man, so I was all for it.

Ungar: I'm a big gamer, but I had never LARPed. It had been a minute since I had seen LARPing in a movie, so I was pleasantly surprised when I got the script and it had LARP.

Quiver Distribution's London Calling, which also stars Aiden Gillen, is in theaters on September 19th.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!