By Lindsey Bahr
Filmmaker Doug Liman realized quickly he wasn't on his home turf anymore.
Matt Damon, who he'd directed in "The Bourne Identity" over 20 years ago, had recruited Liman for his new movie "The Instigators," an action-comedy about a heist gone wrong. Though two decades of friendship is nothing to scoff at, here Liman was coming to Boston to work with Damon and the Affleck brothers, Casey and Ben, whose roots were twice as deep.
"I was suddenly being parachuted into someone else's family," Liman said. "Every family's crazy. And I loved it. I loved everything about it. In a way, I was back to the days of making independent movies where we couldn't get the attention of anybody in the industry so you're just doing it on your own with your friends. It's my favorite kind of filmmaking."
"The Instigators," an Apple TV+ release coming in August is a kind "throwback" movie, in the vein of "Midnight Run," producer Kevin Walsh said. Written by Casey and Chuck McLean, Damon plays a desperate father, Rory, and Casey is Cobby, a small-time criminal, who team up to rob a corrupt politician. It goes poorly and they find themselves on the run, with Rory's therapist (Hong Chau) in tow.
Liman was excited to direct Damon again for the first time since "Bourne," and in a role that's so different from Jason Bourne, who was essentially a hyper-competent superhero.
"You've never seen a character like this in a heist movie," he said. "This is a guy who doesn't speed. He's done everything in his life sort of by the books and this is the first time he's going to break the rules."
And while it was Liman's first time working with Casey, playing a guy who's "never gotten his act together," he said he's quickly become his favorite actor.
"The Instigators" was a largely free and creative environment, where everyone was chiming in on the script, including Damon and Ben, and working to make things better. He hadn't had that sort of experience huddling with his stars and brainstorming the script as they went since "Swingers."
And it was a stark contrast to their days on 'Bourne," Liman said, where there were all these "adults in the room telling us how the movie is supposed to be made."
"We obviously didn't listen to them and that's why 'Bourne' is as good as it is," Liman said. "But here, we were like 'holy —, we're the adults in the room. How did that happen?"
He praised the model of Artists Equity, Damon and Ben's production company, for getting rid of many of the costly excesses in filmmaking. But, he laughed, "It really feels like the inmates are running the asylum."
The filmmakers really used Boston as well, shutting down streets and tunnels for the chase sequences.
"We did a stunt that's along the Esplanade that runs along the Charles River, which they've never shut down," Walsh said. "We did some stuff that you'll never see in other films. It was challenging but really cool."
"The Instigators" was made in partnership with Apple TV+, which will give the film a limited theatrical run starting Aug. 2 before it hits the service on Aug. 9.
Liman recently criticized Amazon/MGM for not giving his "Road House" reboot a theatrical release. But he's not anti-streaming. This is a person who credits his entire career to home video, where most people saw "Swingers." He laughed that it would even be absurd to put "Swingers" up on a giant screen "given how shoddy the technical work on the film was."
His main concern, he said, is that the company is "in sync with the agenda of the filmmaker."
"It's not so much about whether you're streaming or theatrical. It's about what's the agenda of the company? Apple is a premium brand. They want to make aspirational movies because it's in sync with their brand," he said. "For a filmmaker like myself who wants to make smart commercial movies that are fun and glossy and, in the case of 'The Instigators,' don't take themselves seriously, it was a really great collaboration with a company."
Lindsey Bahr is an AP film writer
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More