An energetic exclusive interview with director PATRICK HUGHES talking about the action and comedy of THE MAN FROM TORONTO and the impossibility of keeping a straight face with Kevin Hart onscreen.
Directing an action film is difficult enough. Directing a comedy film is equally so. But when you meld the two and have the comedy built within the action sequences, and Kevin Hart cracking up an entire cast and crew while you’re trying to film, that’s virtually impossible. But for a director like Patrick Hughes who wrangled action, comedy, and more than a dozen of cinema’s biggest stars with Expendables 3, nothing is impossible. And the proof lies within THE MAN FROM TORONTO.
SYNOPSIS: A case of mistaken identity arises after a screw-up sales consultant (Kevin Hart) and the world’s deadliest assassin (Woody Harrelson) —known only as The Man from Toronto— run into each other at a holiday rental. Directed by Patrick Hughes and written by Robbie Fox and Chris Bremner with story by Fox and Jason Blumenthal, THE MAN FROM TORONTO stars Kavin Hart, Woody Harrelson, Kaley Cuoco, Jasmine Matthews, Ellen Barkin, and Pierson Fode.
While action and comedy leap off the screen, at the center of THE MAN FROM TORONTO is heart and soul that we see progressively take shape within Hart’s madcap character Teddy and Harrelson’s stoic and unflinching “Man from Toronto”. For Patrick, once he has that “heart and soul” in place, he sculpts the action around that and works the comedy into the action sequences. It’s a delicate balancing act at which Patrick is very adept. Celebrating the “imperfections” of life and bringing those to the screen with a storytelling mindset of “how does [a character] just stay alive in this situation” and “we’re gonna have a really cool moment”, for Patrick and the audience, this is where the fun and games are.
A fun high-octane conversation, Patrick dives into the importance of pre-production, working with the writers in developing the action sequences and comedy, exponentially increasing action pieces as the film progresses, casting, the duality of Hart’s performance, designing the visual grammar and choreographing the camera with cinematographer Rob Hardy, rehearsal and blocking, editing with Craig Alpert and the importance of shot selection, judicious use of ECUs, eyeline, eyeline, eyeline, and more.
TAKE A LISTEN. . .
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 06/21/2022
