Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: Off The Grid

Off the Grid Director on Making Non-Traditional Survival Action Film

Johnny Martin (Hangman) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest Lionsgate action thriller Off the Grid, Duhamel, Kinnear, Stormare, and more.

Director Johnny Martin always felt at home in the action genre since his debut in the 2004 TV movie Skeleton Man. A few of his more memorable films include FilmRise's Vengeance: A Love Story that starred Nicolas Cage (2017) and Lionsgate's Hangman (2017) with Al Pacino. His latest is the Lionsgate action thriller Off the Grid, working with his frequent collaborator, writer Jim Agnew. The film follows Guy (Josh Duhamel), a brilliant scientist who develops revolutionary technology his former employer, a morally bankrupt company, tries to weaponize. He goes off-grid to safeguard humanity. When the company sends a strike force to find him, they make their biggest mistake of all – they weaponize the man they are trying to catch. Armed with unrivaled brains and brawn, the wild genius turns guerrilla warfare into a deadly science. Martin spoke to Bleeding Cool about refocusing on his action roots, how the film took longer the shoot than usual and taking advantage of that extra time, and piecemealing filming to fit Peter Stomare's role as the mysterious villain Belcor amidst his busy schedule.

Off the Grid Director Johnny Martin on Making the Most of His Time to Complete His Dream Project with Josh Duhamel

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Off the Grid' and Jim's script?

Well, Jim and I have been friends for a while. We've worked together on a few projects, and the last four movies I directed were thrillers and dramas. I thought that it was time for me to do an action movie, which is the world I came from, but I wanted to do one that was different than anything I've seen. I told him I want to do a movie where the character doesn't have to kill 150 guys or shoot 100 guys, and I want him not to have to use a gun or knife, but use his brain on everything. Maybe he's a scientist and being chased, that's when you know he started thinking and he developed the script. I was a huge fan of Josh Duhamel and thought he was a true movie star. My god! He's got such great charisma; I started learning more about him and find out he lives off the grid. I'm like, "Let's write around this because I want to do a movie with Josh." He brings the emotional side of a character I really wanted to have in a movie.

You have an interesting ensemble, aside from Josh. How'd you get Greg, Peter, Maria(Elisa Camargo), Ricky (Russert), and Michael (Zapesotsky) involved?

Well, Greg was easy because [the studio] asked me. They sent me a bunch of guys to play the villain. I go, "No, we need a villain that people will love, people who don't have to hate him. Even when he's bad, he could still be entertaining, fun-loving in a way, and have a relationship with [Duhamel's] character [of Guy]." I said, "A guy like Greg Kinnear." They're like, "Greg Kinnear, really?!" I go, "Yeah," and Greg read the script, and he thought it was time for him to be a villain as well.

Thank God, I got him because he really added so much to this movie. With Ricky. I watched over 300 movies trying to find the perfect villain who wasn't a villain for the sake of being mean and ugly and looking mean all the time. I rented a movie called 'I, Tonya' (2017). I saw Ricky in it and had to talk to him. I reached out through Facebook and Instagram, and he wrote me back. We connected with the character, and he developed what I was looking for in this character.

Maria, I went on a worldwide search for her, and I found her in Spain. I went through every actress I could in Spain because I wanted a Latin flavor for this movie to come out. I wanted that kindness and love of a Latin person are what's needed in this character, and it was so different than what you'd pick in a southern movie. There are tons of cultures everywhere, so I thought Maria would be great. Thank God Maria took on this role because she was everything to me.

Michael was…I cast over 300 kids but only had one read for me, and that was Michael. I knew when I saw him that this was the guy who could tell the story through his heart and could really melt your eyes when you saw him perform. He's a great actor.

It was a while between projects. How did it feel to come back from your hiatus and go back to filming?

You always try to find the perfect script. This script was supposed to be made two years ago, but it kept getting pushed, so Josh and I had been connected to this movie for two years. With COVID and everything else, my last movie 'Alone' (2020), went through that, and it was a nightmare. Then this movie kept getting pushed, and at the end of the day, I thought it was a horrible thing, but it turned out to be "Time is your best friend" because you got to develop the characters and storyline and create these great little weapons that we made ourselves. We went to Home Depot and figured out how to create the weapons and test them.

For a good chunk of the film, we see the protagonist Josh's Guy interact with Greg's Ranish and his entourage, but we only see Peter's character, Belcor, remotely. Have you thought about having Josh and Peter share that space, or was it something that was on the cutting room floor?

Well, it was tricky. That role wasn't written to see the character (of Belcor). It was written for a monitor, and I wanted to see (Peter's) character and Greg's be in the face of a great character, so I didn't cast this role till almost a week before we shot it because I kept calling Peter and thought he would be the perfect guy. Unfortunately, he was always busy, and we only had a limited shooting schedule on these 19 days. I had one day to shoot this one character. It was difficult to shoot it within our schedule. We even moved back to LA at that point, and so really, I was lucky that I got an actor like Peter Stormare to play (Belcor), because it wasn't written for someone we could afford, or someone we had time with. Peter came in and kicked butt for me in that one day.

What was the most difficult aspect of production or scene to shoot?

The action scenes were easy for me. That's my world, and when you have an actor who's willing to give it all, that's the easy part. The dramatic part is all I care about, so that was easy. I would say the environment. The environment is 110 degrees of heat with snakes, ticks, and chiggers all around you and always attacking you. I got chiggers in the stomach, my DP (David Stragmeister) got ticks, and Josh had snakes running over his legs.

[The keys were] to find the perfect forest you needed for a movie like this because that's one of the stars; to find one that's not too dense, one that has a hill that gives you a little depth, and one that is pretty, but not pretty enough to stand out over someone's dialog where you're looking at the background instead of at the character. So finding the forestry was so important, and we found one in Mississippi that happened to be in a bad area with all these bugs, snakes, and everything else, but we're all willing to shoot there because we all saw what it could bring to this film.

Off the Grid, which also stars Ana Golja, Talia Asseraf, and Monya Tebji, is available in theaters, digital, and on-demand.

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