Interview by Rafy Mediavilla w/ Lionsgate “Wire Room” Movie Director, Matt Eskandari. Where we spoke about Kevin Dillon performace, and balacing tension and humor. Available in Select Theaters, On Digital, and On Demand on September 2nd!
Action legend Bruce Willis comes out with guns blazing as Shane Mueller, a Homeland Security agent who runs the Wire Room, a high-tech command center surveilling the most dangerous criminals. New recruit Justin Rosa (Kevin Dillon, “Entourage”) must monitor arms-smuggling cartel member Eddie Flynn — and keep him alive at all costs. When a SWAT team descends on Flynn’s home, Rosa breaks protocol and contacts the gangster directly to save his life. As gunmen break into the Wire Room and chaos erupts, Mueller and Rosa make a final, desperate stand against the corrupt agents and officials who seek to destroy evidence and kill them both.
Criticólogos:
When. Brandon brought you this script, how much did you know about what goes on in a Wire Room, or did you add something extra to the story, because the whole concept of the Wire Room is all too real?
Matt Eskandari:
Well, the funny thing is the writer Brandon, actually, hopefully I get this right, but he told me he used to work with Homeland Security. He is really like. That’s why I was super knowledgeable on that whole world of the wire room. And that’s one of the things that drew me in as well was like when I picked up that script, I was like, oh, wow, I didn’t know this. Like, this whole things existed. Homeland Security. I don’t know if I like this idea that Homeland Security is what he can watch people without their consent and everything. But yeah, I think he really brought in a lot of authenticity. And then once I was working with him during production, I just, you know, I made tweaks to just enhance tension or suspense for certain elements. But I really tried to keep it as real as possible because it was this is a real thing. This is coming from somebody who used to work there. So it’s kind of cool.
Criticólogos:
Now coming from that answer, now that you know a little bit about what these people have to go through, do you have a newfound respect for their work?
Matt Eskandari:
Definitely. I mean, yeah, it’s not easy. I mean, I could see why it’s like it takes a lot of training and they have to really put up with a lot of crazy scenarios sometimes to be able to, to, to, to work the job that they do. And there’s a lot of boredom involved, too. And we had that one scene where Kevin, he’s kind of he just shows up there and he’s not sure what to expect. So there’s just hours and hours of just him watching and surveilling and listening and trying to find those moments. I could definitely see that.
Criticólogos:
Being there in those two walls with Kevin and trying to maintain that tension and the thrilling moment. What were those challenges in production?
Matt Eskandari:
Yeah. I mean, with any film or any production you’re working on, there’s all different challenges for this one, obviously. If you look at my filmography, I’ve done a lot of contained thrillers, and one of the first films I made was a film called 12 Feet Deep and about two girls stuck in a pool. The whole movie is just two girls stuck in a pool, so I kind of know how to create suspense and tension within the confines of the location. So with this, it was a little bit even more challenging because it’s literally one character in a room, and as a filmmaker, you’re always trying to make everything as cinematic as possible.
So whenever you have that one location and like, how am I going to make this look cinematic? What do I have to do to make sure that it’s just it’s not just a guy sitting at a computer monitor for you, and it’s right, because it’s just going to be boring. So you have to try to find ways to visually create variety, camera movements, subtle things. A lot of times it’s just subtle camera moves. It’s trying to find different angles and different perspectives that we haven’t seen before. Once you’ve been in that white room for 20 minutes, you’ve seen every angle.
So how do you keep it exciting and interesting visually, cinematically? So the audience is pulled in by that. I think that’s the biggest challenge. And, you know, that’s always I just feel like that’s something that I’ve kind of honed in and learned over the years, doing a lot of contained thrillers.
Criticólogos:
The actions is really get really physical and really heavy. And I know choreography it’s really important to make sure that the actor know where they are. Can you walk us through that specific scene? How did that came about? Did the actors had fun doing all those different moves?
Matt Eskandari:
Yeah. I mean, for me, I always want to do practical effects as much as possible. I hate having to do CGI, so I’m always it could be something subtle is like squibs or, you know, a practical explosion. I always want to do it in camera because I feel like even if it’s not perfect, you can always enhance it with CGI rather than just going into it saying, Oh, we’re just going to do this on CGI. So that’s my mentality. Whenever I try to shoot an action scene is How can I make this look real? I can practically do this.
And then I go to the actors and I tell them, Hey, man, I want you to do these stunts. I want to try and get as much as you in your as possible. And even though there’s not a lot of time. Sometimes with the constraints, I try to get them to work with the stunt coordinator and, you know, the stunt doubles and really get in there and do as much as it themselves so that the end product, it just it just makes it more real and visceral rather than leaning on the CGI.
Criticólogos:
Kevin is just made the whole story work, did he add something extra to the to the scope of a story or did he just follow your lead all the way?
Matt Eskandari:
I feel like every actor brings something, especially a skilled actor. I expect them to bring me something right. I don’t want them to just show up like a robot and read and do whatever. And Kevin is one of those actors. I could see why he’s had such a long career as he shows up and he’s ready to is ready to bring in guys ideas, bounce back and forth. And I feel I feel like one of the best things that he brought to it was there is that sort of like that comedy element. There were scenes where at the end of the scene, I was like, I feel like, Kevin, there’s something and just ad lib a couple of lines here or something.
Just threw something at the end and he’d be like, Oh, I got you, man. Don’t worry about it. I got you. So then, you know, there’d be these funny moments in these funny looks or whatever. Just sometimes it didn’t work. But I feel like having that improv skill that he has was on Entourage for all those years and doing all the comedy he does, it just brings it. It’s funny, and sometimes it just works so well on screen. So that’s what I love about something like Kevin. You can bring a lot to that role and add add the comedy and make the character feel real, right? I mean, you can’t just play it like a one note scared rookie or something, right? So that was a cool element that he brought to it.
Criticólogos:
For people that I’m not absolutely sold on it. What makes Wire Room different of everything else that that we have seen before?
Matt Eskandari:
Yeah. I feel like it’s just it’s a new kind of world that you might not have seen before. I mean, not a lot of people, like you said, know about this world of the wire room and how that all kind of plays in. And it was written, like I said, by somebody who literally used to work for homeland security. So it has a lot of authenticity. I think it’ll feel real and interesting and grounded. So hopefully they’ll have fun watching that.
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