Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: brian skiba, Elizabeth Ludlow, emile hirsch, exclusive, interview, Jake Manley, john cusack, lionsgate, Pursuit

Pursuit Director Brian Skiba on Making Walking Tall Variant & Casting

Brian Skiba kept himself busy in his over-decade career writing and directing films. His latest is the action thriller Pursuit for Lionsgate, which follows a detective's hunt for a ruthless hacker who is desperate to find his kidnapped wife taken prisoner by a drug cartel. I spoke to Skiba about how the film came to be, casting the principal roles in Emile Hirsch, Elizabeth Ludlow, and John Cusack, and what he struggled most during filming.

"The initial concept came from producer Andrew Stevens, who's an actor, producer, and a guy to really look up to," Skiba said. "He came to me and said, 'Hey, I want to do another 'Walking Tall,' which is one of his franchises. He wanted to put it on its head to see something a little different. So he had a script written by Ben Fiore and Dawn Bursteen, and they took the script and molded it. Filmmaking's like clay for me. I like to mold, so we molded, got the actors involved, developed these characters, and here comes 'Pursuit.' [When I signed on], I did a director's pass; Dawn's was always in the process. Dawn and Alan [B. Bursteen] are producers in their own right were outstanding, and I loved working with them. We've got other projects working on now. It was always a collaborative process between Andrew, Dawn, and I."

Skiba broke down how the cast came together, assembling a mix of veterans and up-and-coming talent. "John actually came on first [to play John Calloway]," he said. "He and I found the script, and he wanted to talk to me. We had a conversation, and then he and I spent about three months just really honing the script as we were casting the rest of the characters really getting it where it is today. Then Emile came on board shortly thereafter. Emile was all about the character, and he enjoyed playing Rick [Calloway]. He brought this vibrant character that you see on the screen. Elizabeth was actually like four or five days just getting done with 'Peacemaker.' I think she had been off 'Peacemaker' for like one or two days and was just getting ready to fly back from Canada. Her people came to us and said, 'Hey, Elizabeth's free.' I was like, 'Outstanding.' She's such a phenomenal powerhouse that's just up and coming in. I'm excited to watch her career because she's going places."

While action films exhibit their own kind of challenges due to the stunts involved, it was actually something else that vexed Skiba during filming. "I think it was more about the days we filmed in Arkansas," he said. "Of course, we had to choose summer, because everybody films in the middle of the summer in Arkansas. I think it wasn't so much like scenes because I love these action scenes. I love filming action. So that's like a party for me. It doesn't bother me. It was more about the heat. There was a couple of days there when we were at the hotel. All the hotel scenes were shot over a period of four days, and those were brutal. It was like 104, 105 [degrees], and 90 percent humidity. There wasn't a moment where you were when you were dry. It was just constant wet. You go on to the shore constantly wet. We were just dipping rags and water and putting them on our heads, trying to stay cool. There was no AC at that hotel. It was condemned. I think it's been bulldozed since. The only cool hiding place was either in a car or in the trailers. You don't get to spend much time in the trailer as a director. So I think that was more of the difficult aspect of it. So all of this sweat you see is 100 percent real [laughs]." Pursuit, which also stars Jake Manley, is in select theaters and on-demand on February 18.

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