The Fall Guy producer Kelly McCormick says the upcoming Ryan Gosling-led action movie feels just like director David Leitch's previous movies, such as John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and Bullet Train. During an exclusive interview with Collider’s own Alyse Wax for Violent Night, which McCormick is also producing, the producer also praised The Fall Guy's star-studded cast.
Inspired by the 1980s television series of the same name, The Fall Guy follows the story of a stuntman who sees himself accidentally involved in a dangerous criminal conspiracy. While the movie won’t hit theaters until 2024, there’s already a lot of buzz surrounding The Fall Guy, not only because Leitch is directing it but also because the movie counts on an impressive cast. Besides Gosling, The Fall Guy also stars Teresa Palmer, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke, Everything Everywhere All at Once breakout Stephanie Hsu, and Ted Lasso’s fan-favorite Hannah Waddingham. And how does it feel to be working with such a talented team? According to McCormick:
“It's awesome. No, we are having an absolute blast. Our full cast is here now, and we are in full-on. I just am so in awe of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt and Winston Duke and Hannah Waddingham and Stephanie Hsu. I just feel so lucky that we ended up with such an extraordinary cast and incredible actors. It's going to feel a lot like an 87North picture and a lot like a David Leitch movie – original, wildly inventive, and emotionally impactful. And I'm just really, really excited about it already.”
Before making his directorial debut in John Wick, Leitch worked for years as a stuntman and stunt coordinator in Hollywood. So, in a way, The Fall Guy is deeply connected to the director’s history, as the movie tells the story of a stuntman becoming more than he ever dreamed of. As McCormick tells us, what excites her the most about the upcoming action flick is:
“David coming from stunts, and telling a story about a stuntman who is coming into his own through having to investigate a crime. [It’s] incredibly special in the sense that we get to do – We're really trying to do a lot of practical action on this. We always do, but in this case, it's really big practical action. And it just feels like we're paying homage to the stunt community and to, really, cinema and those of us who make the movies. And it's sort of a love letter to the industry. On top of it just being really fun and what I think will be a really good time for the audience.”
How Does The Fall Guy Approach Its Practical Stunts?
Being a Leitch movie, we expect The Fall Guy to have a lot of practical stunts. While McCormick says they can never use 100% practical effects, The Fall Guy’s story demands them to create incredible stunts. As the producer puts it:
“All of them [stunts] will have elements of practical, and a lot of them will be 100% practical. In fact, our visual effects guys are happy and sad that their jobs are really marginalized on this one. Because these days, visual effects is really king. So they're sort of like, ‘This is amazing. And what's my job? What's my role? Because you guys are doing so much in camera.’ So that's where we want to be. And that's really exciting.”
By focusing on stuntwork, The Fall Guy promises to be faithful to its story and to the original 1980s series, which couldn’t count on VFX to create action scenes. In McCormick’s words:
“I'm not that familiar with the series, but it is a series I've gotten to know since I have been on the project. But it is definitely a series that a lot of stuntmen became stuntmen because of. And they did phenomenal action for the time. The practical action, weirdly, doesn't really happen in television shows anymore. But back then they were doing incredible stunts on the show every day. So it's pretty cool to have that as our ... trying to pay homage to that, I should say.”
The Fall Guy is set to debut in theaters on March 1, 2024. Check out our interview with Leitch and McCormick about Bullet Train below: