COLLIDER: Jason’s making a sequel to aBeekeeper.
How are you not directing it?
DAVID AYER: [Laughs] My dance card, unfortunately, filled up.
Is it because of Brad Pitt?
What’s going on withHeart of the Beast?
Are you shooting that this year?
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing
Were going to camera shortly.
Im about to get back to Brad with another collaboration.
He is very hard to pin down.
He gets offered literally every script in town.
AYER: No, it actually came together really easily.
To be honest, he was the first and only actor we went out to.
Image via Amazon MGM Studios
Damien Chazelle will produce the film.
I know it’s about someone trapped in the wilderness with his retired combat dog.
What can you tell people about it?
Image via Amazon MGM Studios
AYER: All I can say is it’s just going to be a classic old-school adventure movie.
Have you cast the dog?
AYER: The dog has been cast.
The dog is the lead.
I can’t wait.
I’m so happy you guys are teaming back up again.
Jumping into why I get to talk to you.
I love watching Jason beat people up.
Obviously, the whole planet does, as well.
What is it about Jason that everyone loves watching him punch people in the face?
AYER: I think it’s because we can connect with him as a regular person.
He has that everyman quality.
He becomesourprotector and not just someone inside a movie screen.
What was it about this script that said, I want to do this?
Because you just worked with Jason onBeekeeper.
AYER: I was really looking for another collaboration with him.
I got [Sylvester] Stallone’s script, andit’s an action script by an action icon.
Stallone is part of cinematic history, and so it was really intriguing.
I’ve watched a lot of Jason Statham movies and he generally doesn’t connect with outside family.
He’s a loner.
Every once in a while, he has a daughter, you know what I mean?
AYER: Yeah, but that’s exactly it.
There’s something really interesting about him.
In a lot of ways, I feel like he’s been underutilized.
There’s so much room for him as a performer, so many lanes that haven’t been explored.
I’ve seen it before, and I’m like, Wait, it’s not going to happen?
I’m so shocked by this.
David’s a brilliant actor, and I couldn’t imagine anybody else doing that part of the film.
You know I love talking about editing; I’ve talked to you about it 1,000 times.
With this one, did it change a lot in the editing room?
What did you learn from those early screenings?
AYER: I always say films are made in post.
In this case, it came together pretty early.
The testing helped us take the movie to the next level.
I’m really proud of this one.
Can you specifically mention something that the audience taught you or informed you on that you then adjusted?
I think a good filmmaker knows how to listen to the audience.
I absolutely think the test screenings or friends and family screenings are incredibly beneficial.
You need fresh eyes to let you know what you have.
AYER: Yeah, because you know everything.
You know the whole movie.
You know the story, you know what you shot, you know what you didn’t shoot.
The audience only knows exactly what you shot.
I’m a fan of your action set pieces.
You have a beast of a set piece in the third act on this one.
Talk a little bit about shooting it because that’s not a simple two-day or one-day shoot.
AYER: No, we didn’t have enough time to shoot it.
You never have enough time for these things.
To do all that and do it fast and make it look good is just not easy.
I’m really proud of how it came together.
It just moves like fire.
There are a lot of people who watch these kinds of movies.
What do you think would surprise them to learn about making a genre pic?
AYER: I think in this case, the amount of thought that goes into it.
Im operating the camera during a lot of this.
I shot a lot of this action.
Now, I’m seeing it through the eyepiece and how you adjust things live.
In success, it just flows.
It just feels easy, in a way.
Butit’s all that hidden work I think would surprise people.
The action film reunites Statham with ‘The Beekeeper’ filmmaker David Ayer.
I’m just about out of time.
I know you’re doingHeart of the Beastnext.
Do you have other scripts that you’ve been writing that you want to get made?
Do you know what you’re going to do after that?
AYER: I might know what I’m doing afterHeart of the BeastIm not at liberty.
Then, I’m always a writer at heart.
A Working Manis now playing in theaters.
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