Posted in: Movies, Universal | Tagged: David Leitch, The Fall Guy, universal, Universal Pictures

The Fall Guy: Director David Leitch Says They Are "Celebrating Stunts"

The Fall Guy director David Leitch said they are "celebrating stunts" and had to "be authentic to that and do it practically."

When your movie is about stunts and a stuntman, the right move would be to sign on a director familiar with that world. Luckily for Universal, two directors who have been very open about their history in stuntwork and how that has impacted them as directors are working right now. And while one of them has been busy making one of the greatest modern series of action movies ever (don't @ me), director David Leitch hasn't had as many home runs. His last film, Bullet Train, looked like it should have been a lot of fun and completely fell apart by the end. So, bringing on Leitch to do the movie adaptation of The Fall Guy is probably a good idea. It's a film about a stuntman, and as he explained to Total Film, "We're celebrating stunts. When we're doing a movie about stunt people in this world of stunts, we just felt we had to be authentic to that and do it practically."

The fun thing about this movie isn't just that they get to do a lot of fun, practical stunts, but that The Fall Guy gets to show in-universe stunts that happen while Colt (Ryan Gosling) is shooting the movie and what that looks like and we get to see practical stunts within the film itself. It's like the stunt version of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Stunts is another one of those categories of filmmaking that is often overlooked and where the people involved don't get their flowers very often.

Leitch hopes that this is something that will change soon. "I think that's speaking to where we're headed with the Academy," he said. "How can we get stunts recognised? Obviously, there's that, but it's not about fame and glory and anything like that. They'd love to be able to celebrate with the rest of the below-the-line crew in the joy of making movies." You'd have to credit the entire team instead of one person for stunts because stuntwork takes a crew to work correctly. Maybe it can be like a Best Ensemble type of award; instead, it goes to Best Stunt Team. Will The Fall Guy be the movie that initiates that conversation? Maybe, maybe not, but it's good to know that Leitch and director Chad Stahelski aren't turning their back on where parts of their career began anytime soon.

The Fall Guy: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Oscar® nominee Ryan Gosling (The Gray Man, La La Land) and Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place films, Edge of Tomorrow) star in this feature film inspired by the hit 1980s TV series. The Fall Guy is directed by David Leitch, the blockbuster director of Bullet Train, Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and the producer of John Wick and Nobody, from a screenplay by Hobbs & Shaw screenwriter Drew Pearce (Hotel Artemis, Iron Man 3).

The film also stars Golden Globe winner Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train, Tenet), Winston Duke (Black Panther franchise, Us), Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso, Sex Education), and Academy Award® nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). The Fall Guy is produced by Kelly McCormick (Bullet Train, Nobody, Atomic Blonde) and David Leitch for their company 87North, by Ryan Gosling, and by Guymon Casady (Game of Thrones, Steve Jobs) for Entertainment 360. The film is executive produced by Drew Pearce, Geoff Shaevitz, and the creator of the original Fall Guy television series, Glen A. Larson. It will be released on May 3, 2024.

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