Martin Campbell and Pierce Brosnan non-Bond collaborations

Brosnan and Campbell are currently filming action thriller 'The Foreigner' with Jackie Chan and are set to team up after this again with Hemingway's last novel 'Across The River And Into The Trees'.

http://www.avclub.com/article/pierce-brosnan-and-goldeneye-director-team-hemingw-231972

Will definitely be checking these ones out, the former because Campbell does action well, and haven't seen Jackie Chan in anything for years, and the latter to see how Campbell does what sounds like a straight drama. Anyone read the book?

The filming of a scene from The Foreigner caused a bit of a hoo-hah recently, because it involved the blowing-up of a double-decker bus on one of the bridges than spans the Thames. It was felt in some quarters that inadequate warning of what was going on was given, and some people mistook it for a real-life terrorist attack.

Here's a poster for The Foreigner,



I'm looking forward to this. Two stars I've admired from my childhood uniting in a genre that their famous for.

Brosnan going for the "businessman who angrily yammers into his phone on the bus" look.

Side note: I wonder if this is indicative of Campbell's preferred working relationship with Brosnan than with Craig? Two films post-GE/CR with Brosnan seems pretty telling.

Who'd wanna work with a guy who'd rather slash his wrists than spend a few weeks every 3 years doing pretend gunfights and dry-humping attractive women for millions of dollars?

Looks like this is the film in which Brosnan plays an ex-Irish Republican terrorist turned politician (a while back there was Press comment about how much he resembles Gerry Adams, who pretty much is said character in real life).

CJB wrote:

Who'd wanna work with a guy who'd rather slash his wrists than spend a few weeks every 3 years doing pretend gunfights and dry-humping attractive women for millions of dollars?

Touché.

Trailer for The Foreigner. I'll see it.

A scene with Jackie Chan in action was released recently. Not bad for a man in his 60s. '90s wet dream, this. 

As I mentioned in another thread, I saw The Foreigner yesterday. It's a political version of Taken and benefits from two excellent leads who deliver two of the best performances of their careers. Incredible that a man in his 60s moves the way Chan does. He was perfect for the role, both for the physical action and the amount of pathos he brings to Quan. Brosnan plays a rather complex character with an intense desperation and an excellent Irish accent. Is he the antagonist? Maybe, but he manages to evoke a great deal of empathy from this viewer. 

I realised that David Tattersall photographed the film, which was a little disappointing considering his great work in the non-action scenes of Die Another Day. Bit of a reunion for Brosnan, this. I'm beginning to think Martin Campbell is more of a workman-like director, one who can get good performances from his actors, but banks on the conventions and trends of contemporary cinema. In this case, that steely/blue colour palette that Chris Nolan employs holds this film back from being all it could in my eyes. For example, Quan's Chinese restaurant could have introduced a lot of reds and warmer colours, which would have looked more striking, but also shown a contrast between this foreigner (originally, Chinaman, as the source material names him) and the Brits. Of course, this extends to Casino Royale where that saturated look of that era robs the film of any colour that characterises a Bond film. As it stands, Goldeneye and The Mask of Zorro are his best photographed films, yet. 

8/10. It delivered what it intended, I think.

Regarding Across The River and Into The Trees, the film fell apart supposedly due to pulled funds, but it's been refinanced so they're hoping to shoot next year according to this article:
https://www.monstersandcritics.com/movies/exclusive-interview-martin-campbell-makes-jackie-chan-serious-in-the-foreigner/

Ambler, if you haven't read the novel, I think you'll like it. It's got a 50 year old Colonel pulling a 20-something Italian Contessa who calls him daddy. Supposedly Hemingway's least popular novel at the time, but has since grown in estimation. Took me a weekend to read (though admittedly, it is rather short), but it is absorbing.

xx

Intrigued by this one. Can't imagine taking Chan seriously though. On the other hand, Brosnan's Gerry Adams impersonation looks spot on.

There may be one too many lingering shots on a grieving Jackie Chan in the first act, but he does deliver. You'll be surprised.

Ambler wrote:

Always interesting to see how others perceive you. 

You suggesting that isn't down your alley? 

x

Erica Ambler wrote:

 I'll look out for it on Netflix.

Just noticed some FB posts about The Foreigner's release on Netflix. Should be on there now.

It's not the worst film in the world by any means.

Some aspects of it vaguely reminded me of "The Long Good Friday".

The weirdest thing from my perspective was that this was marketed as a Jackie Chan movie but due the amount of scenes Pierce Brosnan is in, it feels more like he is the real lead. Brosnan is not bad in it either.

It sounds like you went in with the lowest of expectations and managed to find some pleasure in it. 

FieldsMan wrote:

It sounds like you went in with the lowest of expectations and managed to find some pleasure in it. 

I do think Jackie Chan is now probably too old to do this kind of stuff. But Brosnan's Gerry Adams shtick was enjoyable.

Just saw this now. People say that about Jackie Chan, but the fact the man is still doing it himself suggests otherwise.

This felt like two separate films badly stitched together. They should have had a better standalone Chan film with his more serious acting style that emerged in films such as New Police Story and had less of the Taken structure.

However despite my love for Chan (and he is great as always) his character's scenes felt like consistent interruptions in the real movie which dealt with the former IRA members now in government. THAT was the movie I was interested in and would have gladly paid to see a full length and more fleshed out story with that setting which I found endlessly intriguing. Ultimately this was a flawed but moderately interesting thriller that was rather competently made for the most part-much like the Edge of Darkness adaptation. Yet it never becomes anything special and it could have.

And as usual Brozzer knocks it out of the park and proves why he is still one of the most underutilized actors working today. There are many times where you can still see his Bondian flourishes-even in this film and I find myself sighing every time. The man still has it. Still.

As I've said elsewhere, the reason I like this film more than the Taken films is because of the political aspect, so there would be no qualms from me about expanding that web of a plot. But I do like how it intercuts with Jackie Chan's story because it gives the actor room to stretch and it's something I hadn't seen before from him. 

Good to see more love for Brosnan and naturally I agree - he does still have it. There's another thread I created here somewhere about Brosnan being in Skyfall, which I think would have been a more poignant film had he been in it (plus, I don't think Craig holds his own alongside Dench, Bardem, Marlohe, Finney, McCrory, Fiennes, Whishaw, etc. but that's another topic).

hegottheboot wrote:

This felt like two separate films badly stitched together. They should have had a better standalone Chan film with his more serious acting style that emerged in films such as New Police Story and had less of the Taken structure.

However despite my love for Chan (and he is great as always) his character's scenes felt like consistent interruptions in the real movie which dealt with the former IRA members now in government. THAT was the movie I was interested in and would have gladly paid to see a full length and more fleshed out story with that setting which I found endlessly intriguing. Ultimately this was a flawed but moderately interesting thriller that was rather competently made for the most part-much like the Edge of Darkness adaptation. Yet it never becomes anything special and it could have.

And as usual Brozzer knocks it out of the park and proves why he is still one of the most underutilized actors working today. There are many times where you can still see his Bondian flourishes-even in this film and I find myself sighing every time. The man still has it. Still.

This is spot on. Chan has surprisingly limited screentime. So little screentime, in fact, that this may as well have been a movie about Irish republican politics. Brosnan did do an admirable job and could've been the main lead.

Funds were pulled on Across The River... last year but I'd heard that it refinanced and was due to start filming this year. Going by Brosnan's FB page, he hasn't visited Italy for filming yet. Isabella Rossellini is no longer part of the cast. Probably for the best because I never recalled her character being in the book, so it would have been a small role anyway I'd imagine.