Posted in: Interview, Movies, Sony | Tagged: Chad Michael Collins, Sniper: The Last Stand, sony pictures

Sniper: The Last Stand: Chad Michael Collins on Franchise Evolution

Chad Michael Collins (The Bunker) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest action-thriller Sniper: The Last Stand, Ryan Robbins & more.

Chad Michael Collins is always grateful for the opportunities he's been afforded throughout his career doing his share of dramas, action, and video games. He's certainly no stranger to franchises appearing in several CSI and NCIS shows on CBS, CBS's MacGyver remake, Fox's reboot of 90210 and Bones, and AMC+ TV adaptation of the horror anthology series Creepshow. He's currently the torchbearer for the Sniper franchise, which began the original 1993 film starring Tom Berenger and Billy Zane. Collins has been a mainstay since 2011's Sniper: Reloaded, which also featured the returns of Berenger and Zane, who reprised their respective roles as Thomas Beckett and Richard Miller.

Collins is on his eighth Sniper film of the franchise with The Last Stand, the 11th of the franchise, returning as Brandon Beckett. To stop an arms dealer from unleashing a deadly superweapon, the Ace sniper and Agent Zero (Ryan Robbins) are deployed to lead a group of elite soldiers in Costa Verde. Taking an untested sniper under his wing, Beckett faces his newest challenge: giving orders instead of receiving them. With time and ammo running low, they must overcome all odds just to survive. Collins spoke to Bleeding Cool about the Sniper franchise's longevity, reuniting with Robbins, and working with director Daniskha Esterhazy and writer Sean Wathen.

Chad Michael Collins on Returning to His Eighth 'Sniper' film in 'The Last Stand.'

Bleeding Cool: This is your eighth film now in the 'Sniper' franchise. What do you think has been the key to the franchise's success?

This is the 11th film overall going back to the early 90s when Tom Berenger and Billy Zane kicked us off, and it's been the eighth one I've been a part of over the last 14 years or so. I don't know. It's hard to tell; we had a great first movie kicking off this franchise that people still love to this day. Our versions of this seem to do well, not just domestically, and on Netflix, but abroad as well, too. We've captured a fun international audience, which is rabid for this film. I don't know if this is the type of story or the kind of guns we shoot. It's hard to nail down why they're so popular, but we are grateful they're popular enough that they let us do more.

How have you and Ryan's chemistry sustained through each film, and how do you break down the growth and development between your characters, Brian and Zero?

Over the last four movies, we've had the great actor Ryan Robbins play Agent "Zero" Zeke Rosenberg. He is back in 'Sniper: The Last Stand.' This is our fourth one in a row, and you see Brandon and Zero's relationship, instead of partners who are thrown together to do good guy work, become real best friends and brothers. That's been fun exploring, having each other's backs, and getting to know each other more personally.

Having the locker room talk and taking the piss out of each other is humor that comes with the territory as brothers do. It's come a long way, and I love that they have this. For so long, the 'Sniper' franchise, I didn't have a grounding partner that stuck around. They either got killed, or we never saw him again when they were on my team or my spotter. It's been a real treat to have Brian and Zero, adding layer upon layer to the relationship and the characters across four movies, and going.

What's it been like working with Danishka and Sean as creatives, and how do they make this latest entry work?

Danishka Esterhazy is super talented and incredibly prepared, and she had an unbelievably specific, gritty, realistic vision for 'Sniper: The Last Stand.' We threw so much action in there that she had to have everything storyboarded meticulously planned because we didn't have a lot of days to do it. We don't have Michael Bay-kind of money to do it as well, so her preparation and story development were key.

Sean Wathen also threw together an amazing script that made it easy to give great performances in these characters, some of our new cast, and set up the stage for some fun stuff down the road. Those two were powerhouses, a pleasure to work with, incredibly fun visionaries, and awesome and open to collaborate with.

Sony's Sniper: The Last Stand, which also stars Sharon Taylor, Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz, Noxolo Dlamini, Sizo Mahlangu, Rob van Vuuren, and Arnold Vosloo, is available on digital.

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