With Bandit now playing in select theaters and available On Demand, I recently spoke with director Allan Ungar and Néstor Carbonell about telling the incredible true story of Canada's infamous Flying Bandit. If you’re not familiar with the Flying Bandit, aka Gilbert Galvan Jr. or Robert Whiteman to those who knew him, he was notorious for escaping prison in Michigan, starting a new life in Canada, and proceeding to successfully rob 59 consecutive banks, setting the record for most robberies committed in a row in Canada. In the film, Josh Duhamel plays Robert Whiteman, and Elisha Cuthbert plays the caring social worker named Andrea who Whiteman falls in love with. Bandit also stars Mel Gibson.
During the interview, Ungar and Carbonell talk about incredible true story it’s based on, the challenge of trying to make the film in 21 days, and how Carbonell helped direct second unit and why he didn’t enjoy wearing the ‘80s clothing in the heat of summer in Georgia. In addition, Ungar gave an update on the Driver TV series, and Carbonell talked about filming the Shōgun FX series and how they spared no expense in trying to recreate feudal Japan in Vancouver.
Watch what they had to say in the player above, or you can read the conversation below.
COLLIDER: I'm going to start with an individual question for Néstor. If someone has never seen anything you've done before, what is the first thing you want them watching and why?
NESTOR CARBONELL: Oh wow, that's interesting. I want to go with Bandit. I'm going to go with Bandit.
ALLAN UNGAR: Good answer, buddy.
CARBONELL: Listen, I've been very blessed, my whole life getting great opportunities. This was one of those, and I'm not saying that just because you're here. This was a true gift. I was in Pensacola helping my wife promote her book, when I get the call three days before I'm supposed to shoot this. An offer to do this film and I'm going, "What? This is crazy." And I read it right away. Immediately, of course, I say yes. I hop on a plane from there. Two days later, we're shooting. It turned into one of the most incredible blessings, the entire project. This man did the impossible, shooting this film in 21 days with this incredible cast. But I think for me, to tell audiences if there's something to watch, this one, because the experience was so free in the sense that there was no time to prepare.
We had to work with the constraints that we had. That kind of frees you up as an actor, in a weird way. Because you go, "Well look, I don't have this albatross of like, I've got to do so much homework." The homework I can do is defined by the time I have. So, I think subsequently between the way you directed and the constraints of what we had, it was for me one of the most freeing performances. To me, if you have that environment as an actor, that's a gift to the actor and hopefully to the audience.
I actually wanted to talk to you about that aspect is that you... I am very impressed with what you pulled off with the limited resources and time that you had. What was the thing that you were most scared about before filming began, about actually being able to do it with the limitations that were in front of you?
UNGAR: Yeah, I mean the big thing was trying to recreate Canada in Georgia. That was sort of the thing that terrified me. Luckily, Alicia had lived in Ottawa. She came on the location. She goes, "Yeah, this Victorian architecture, I think this will work for our house."
No, I mean just knowing that this should have been a 35 day shoot at a certain budget level in Canada and then becoming half the amount of time in Georgia was incredibly scary. But I had the most incredible cast. My art team was amazing, trying to recreate Canada. And all I did was just prep, prep, prep and learn everything off by heart so that there was just no way I could screw it up.
I would imagine that also impacts how many takes you have on set, how many locations you have to hit in a day, all of that stuff.
UNGAR: And we had 95 locations in the film in 200 scenes. So the original cut was three hours long. It was 21 days, which is sort of like a haha to the producers. We did it.
CARBONELL: Yeah, I know. Three hours. But yes. And this man knew every scene number, so I would ask about a question in a certain scene. He goes, "Oh, Scene 157?" He literally knew every scene by number. That's how much prep this man did.
That's why the movie looks as good as it does. The fact of, with the limitations you can't have even a half an afternoon wasted. Everything has to be on screen.
CARBONELL: No, no, no. And we ended up having to do some second unit stuff.
UNGAR: So Nestor, as an amazing TV director, I said to him, "Listen, this movie, we're never going to finish. We're splintering off into three units now. I'm going to be downstairs." We had this old courthouse that had 10 sets in it. So I'd be downstairs directing Josh and Elisha. They'd call cut and the walks say, Allan's coming up to the second unit and Nestor's kind of setting everything up. I call action, cut. Allan's running to the next unit. But Nestor essentially took over all of that.
CARBONELL: Well, I mean there was no, given the time, we didn't have a choice. We had to sort divide and conquer at some point. So my storyline was somewhat contained with Swen. So we could do that. But this man was running, no joke, between three sets at one. It was insane.
Anytime I've worn eighties clothing and makes me crazy. I hate it. I'm just curious what it was like for you and for everyone else, because eighties clothing is terrible.
UNGAR: Especially in Georgia humidity.
CARBONELL: And yeah, that leather jacket didn't, it wasn't very forgiving. And the dead heat of Georgia and Thomasville and Valdosta and the humidity was lovely. And the sweaters are great.
UNGAR: Josh's flannel sweaters.
CARBONELL: Ah, those were... I know, I saw that in the trailer was like, "Oh, I forgot about that sweater." Amazing. Yeah, the eighties, man, the Merry Go Round sweaters, those are the days. But I had the best laugh, at my wardrobe fitting. It was the first meeting I had after actually even before I met you, it was wardrobe and just going, "Oh my God, this has taken me way back. There's a good reason we got rid of these clothes." But I got to tell you, it was fun. Whenever you get to wear something like that as an actor already you're... It's almost like it's a gift to an actor because you're already developing the character. It's almost like a stage actor. The first thing they want to wear is a character's shoes to see how they walk. And it's no different with clothing.
One of the things about this film that you can't believe is true is most bank robbers are lucky to rob a few banks. Once you crack 50, it's preposterous, but yet it's true. Can you sort talk about that aspect of the story?
UNGAR: Yeah. Well the sheer volume, I mean that's what hooked me right from the get go. Cause I had heard the moniker Flying Bandit, but I didn't know the extent to which he had actually pulled off all of these crimes. And the way the flair and the panache, how he did all of that, it sucked me right in. And I knew that after reading the book, I was like, "Nobody is going to..." When we screened the first cut, someone said, "He just paid a homeless guy for his health card? That would never happen." I'm like, "No, it happened." And so that's why we ended up putting those sort of captions on screen, because people would be taken out of the film. "There's no way this actually happened." All of it did. Even the pizza ordering the pizza at the police station after being arrested. It was insane.
CARBONELL: Truth is stranger the fiction. It really is. But you're right. I'm so glad you did put those things. Not only are they funny, but you're right. You would question that. Yeah, that's part of the joy. The part of the ride of this is that it is so unbelievable and yet it actually happened. And few of these films are getting made, these incredibly beautiful, character-driven true stories that have elements of action. And credit to you, brother, and the investors to take a chance on this.
Last question, an individual for each of you. What's going on with this Driver TV series? Is that happening?
UNGAR: I'm waiting on the studio to call me. After I did Uncharted, I was very blessed to be in a position to get the rights to a lot of video games. People trusted me and sort of what I pulled off, and everything is sort of an initiative these days. All the studios, turnaround, development hell, how I'm always waiting on a call, so I'm ready to go.
I'm also very curious about Shōgun. And so what can you tease about that? Because the project seems very cool.
CARBONELL: It's an incredible project we shot at in Vancouver, which doubled for Japan, and I mean extraordinary production value. I mean, it was just unbelievable. They built three villages in Vancouver. And they really spared no expense in terms of the details and trying to really replicate the period. There's not much I can say. I'll-
UNGAR: The beard!
CARBONELL: Oh, I did have to grow this nasty beard and do some stuff to my head that I later paid for. But so much fun to dive into that kind of character work. I love disappearing into roles like that. I think it comes out, I believe 2023. So it'll be next year, sometime next year. But I'm looking forward to seeing the cut as much as anyone. It was extraordinary, the production was like nothing I've ever seen.
Cannot wait. Congrats.
CARBONELL: Thank you.
In 1985, Gilbert Galvan Jr (Josh Duhamel), a charming career criminal, escapes from a US prison in Michigan and crosses the border into Canada where he assumes the identity Robert Whiteman. After falling in love with Andrea (Elisha Cuthbert), a caring social worker he can’t provide for, he turns to robbing banks and discovers that he’s exceptionally good at it. Under the guise of a security analyst, Robert begins flying around the country robbing multiple cities in a day, eventually catching the attention of national news outlets that dub him The Flying Bandit. Addicted to the rush and money that provides his double life, Robert eventually turns to loanshark and reputed gangster Tommy Kay (Mel Gibson) for bigger opportunities. But with Robert’s notoriety growing in record time, he is put into the direct sights of a ruthless detective (Nestor Carbonell) who will stop at nothing to bring him down.