By James Whittington, 6th March 2023
The action-packed drama, He Who Dares is coming to Legend on Saturday the 11th at 9pm. In the movie, six SAS soldiers are sent to rescue the British Prime Minister's daughter, who is being held hostage in a multi-story car park wired to explode if anyone interferes. Directed and co-written by Paul Tanter the movie pushes all the buttons you'd want an action/adventure to press so we chatted to Paul about this adrenaline-pumping movie.
Where did the idea for He Who Dares comes from and did the script take long to get right?
PT: I think Die Hard has been hugely influential on action filmmakers for the past 35 years, to the point it's used in pitches as "It's Die Hard in/on a..." And the concept lends itself very well to indie filmmakers on tight budgets who are maybe trying to set and shoot the majority of their film in one location - the good guy or guys trapped in a place with the bad guys who they have to take on in order to survive. So, the initial kernel was wanting to do something in that genre, but be original with it. Die Hard was all about a huge building reaching up dozens of floors into the sky so we thought "what if we reverse that and set it as deep as you can go underground?" There's only one way in and out, which is blocked, so it's not like they can send in a helicopter to rescue people. It means the characters can't rely on the cavalry - the only ones who can save them are themselves. You really feel that sense of being trapped in there with them, which adds tension. Add to that the stakes of a high-profile target they need to rescue alive and you've got the perfect mix for a tense action-thriller as two highly trained and well-armed sides (the SAS and the terrorists) go at each other with guns, knives, hand to hand combat and a lot of explosives! We were careful with the script to make sure it had plenty of action and then tailored it to the location once we secured one that worked for our needs.
Did you and co-writer James Crow write it with a cast in mind?
PT: Some people we had in mind - mainly Tom Knight as Chris Lowe and Simon as Holt. We'd worked with Tom on White Collar Hooligan 2 and found he has a wonderful leading man quality, so we knew we had to have in the lead of something. This was a perfect fit as he's such an active guy who's great at fighting and stunt work. Simon was in mind when we wrote Holt as he's always so good as the bad guy. There's a charm and humour around the character along with a vicious ruthlessness. I think Simon was channeling a bit of Hans Gruber in the role. For the other roles we cast a mix of people we'd worked with before and some new faces.
Simon Phillips stars and is in most of your productions, is he your good luck charm?
PT: Simon very sensibly did what you see more and more actors do these days, which is refuse to sit and wait for work to come to him, instead going out and creating it as a producer. We've worked on numerous productions - feature films and TV series - since the start of our careers and found he's always great in the supporting roles; either the humorous ones or the morally questionable ones. We're often working on different stuff - I'll be off doing an action film in Ireland while he's shooting a movie with Bruce Willis or a TV series with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the U.S. But if there's a role suitable for him and he's available then I always try to have him in there somewhere as he's always fun to work with.
Did you do much research into the SAS?PT: The main focus of an action film should always be to entertain and excite, and that's the focus with He Who Dares. It's not a documentary and often movies have to embellish reality for the sake of entertainment. So, there wasn't much research and I think 99% of audiences aren't looking for complete accuracy, as long as they are having fun watching. Though if anyone served in the armed forces then I thank you for your service.
Did the cast have to undergo any physical training for their soldier roles?
PT: We were blessed to have a cast of health-conscious gym-goers, so physical fitness was never a problem. Everyone underwent a boot-camp before filming to instill some camaraderie among them and so they were comfortable handling weapons, etc. When it came to the fight side of things we had a great fight coordinator, Jude Poyer, who fastidiously went through the sequences with the actors and was brilliant at teaching complicated stuff quickly and making it look effortless.
Was it all shot on location and what problems arose from this?
PT: Nearly all of the story is set in the underground car park that the Prime Minister's daughter is held in by the kidnappers. Most of it was shot in a fifteen-story underground car park in Barbican in central London. It was winter but once you went two stories down you didn't really notice the cold. The main issue was there was no phone signal and the lift didn't work! So, once we were down there, we tried to stay down there to avoid losing time searching for people who had wandered off for a cigarette.
There's a lot of action sequences in the movie, without giving too much away which one was the hardest to set up?
PT: Safety above all else is paramount, so anything involving moving vehicles is always difficult and requires a lot of planning. There are some car scenes that were hard work but worth it. Anything involving explosions can be time consuming if you need to do more than one take because of the time it takes to reset everything. Even without pyrotechnics, just a dust explosion can take a while to reset, and every minute counts on indie films. As with most action films, there were a lot of moving parts - vehicles, explosions, blood effects, guns, choreographed fights, etc. Each has their own challenges but also their own rewards and when you see the end result you realise the graft and effort was worth it.
How hard is it to choreograph scenes where multiple guns are used and does this add to the pressure as a director?
PT: It's all about planning. I know how the gunfights will look before we shoot and come to set with a shot list and basic storyboard of the action. There's no pressure around the guns themselves as I only use Airsoft replicas - they just fire a puff of air and then we add the muzzle flash and bullet casings being ejected later with VFX. That way there's zero safety concerns and they are also easier to handle and reset, so quicker and easier to work with than actual replicas. I've been using them for years and finally the rest of the industry seems to only just be following suit.
When you get reviews saying "Die Hard mixed with The Raid" you must feel good about your work?
PT: I love The Raid and Die Hard is one of my absolute favourite films of all time, so while the comparison isn't one I would ever make, it is also very flattering. I can see why both films are used as reference - The Raid is about people taking a place a floor at a time. There's certainly a good amount of martial arts and hand to hand combat in He Who Dares, along with plenty of gunfights, explosions and car stunts. I hope people enjoy it as its own film without too many comparisons to others. Although it is set on Christmas Eve like Die Hard too!
How would you describe the movie to the Legend audience?
PT: A thrilling action film that sees an SAS team take on a highly-organised terrorist group who have kidnapped the Prime Minister's daughter and holed up in a fifteen-story underground car park rigged with explosives. The SAS must take the building a floor at a time with no backup and the result is a barnstorming ride of adrenaline featuring vicious fights, bloody shoot out and limb-mangling explosions.
You work in a lot of different genres, is this deliberate?
PT: Definitely. I'm a fan of so many kinds of films that I couldn't restrict myself to working in just one type. I've gone through periods of doing a lot of gangster films, or hooligan films, usually because of demand at the time. But I've directed action, comedy, thrillers, sci-fi, horror and drama and I loved working across them all. As long as I'm excited about the project then that's the main thing. You can't work on something if your heart's not in it. Ultimately, it's about entertaining and telling a story.
You're a creative of many talents, is there one job you enjoy the most?
PT: Outside of actually making films, I really enjoy writing about film and TV. I write for various magazines and publications such as Total Film, Film Stories and Radio Times, writing features, reviews, doing interviews etc. Writing for Total Film has long been an ambition of mine and it's something I hugely enjoy. I also love doing the Talking Bottom podcast where we celebrate the worlds best sitcom, Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson's Bottom. We've done over 50 episodes and got to interview talented creatives and comedy icons like Ed Bye, Paul Jackson, Jon Plowman, Robert Llewellyn, Helen Lederer, Lee Cornes, Roger Sloman, Lisa Maxwell and Kevin McNally. It's been an absolute dream delving into our favourite show, talking to the people who made it. But ultimately, my favourite job has to be directing. It's such a privilege to get to tell stories for a living, work with talented creatives and entertain people.
So, what are you working on at the moment?
PT: I've just produced a short film called Firefly down in Cornwall for the domestic abuse charity My CWA, exploring the issue of domestic abuse within the deaf community. I'm currently finishing off writing the book Talking Bottom: A Guide to the Cult Sitcom for publisher Unbound and an action film I directed in the Philippines called Escaping Paradise has just sold to several territories at the Berlin Film Market, so should have news of a release date very soon. It's about a couple whose honeymoon turns into a nightmare when one of them is kidnapped. Season 2 of my vampire series Age of The Living Dead will be out later in the year and I'm starting prep on a new film soon but it's under wraps until it's announced so I can't say what it is!
Paul Tanter, thank you very much.
PT: Thank you too!
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