In the new crime-thriller Dead Man's Wire, starring Pennywise actor Bill Skarsgárd, former Princess Bride star Cary Elwes plays a cop involved in a standoff with Skarsgárd's character.
It's an intense watch, and Gus Van Sant's thriller harkens back to the golden age of movie stars in the '70s, when Al Pacino was doing films like Dog Day Afternoon and The Godfather.
Funnily enough, Pacino stars in Dead Man's Wire, playing the father of the hostage, M.L. Hall, a wealthy businessman. It's almost like a full-circle moment for Pacino, who now gets to be on the other side of a hostage situation in a movie.
Dog Day Afternoon is one of Sidney Lumet's seminal films, and even Elwes couldn't help but gush about it.
“It's one of the best,” Elwes raved. “I've studied that film too. You know, they rehearsed that like a play, and that's how they came up with a lot of material that wasn't in the script.”
Was Pacino's casting in Dead Man's Wire a tongue-in-cheek reference to Dog Day Afternoon? Perhaps on some level, as Elwes conceded that Dog Day Afternoon was “the reason we have Al Pacino,” calling him an “Easter egg” with “100%” certainty.
How Dead Man's Wire director Gu Van Sant paid homage to the '70s
Van Sant set out to pay homage to the '70s with Dead Man's Wire.
“Gus told us all at the beginning that he was gonna honor his favorite seventies filmmakers,” Elwes recalled. “Obviously, Lumet, but also Billy [William] Friedkin and Martin Scorsese, his pictures from the seventies, and [Francis Ford] Coppola. He really wanted to bring that authenticity.”
His inspirations are clear, and Van Sant effectively makes Dead Man's Wire like watching a movie from that era.
“There are very few filmmakers [who] can pull that off,” said Elwes.
How was Van Sant able to pull it off?
“He's a unique artist,” Elwes responded. “He came fully prepared to pull that off, that dream to make us believe we were watching a movie from that period, and he brought together the best team he could find to accomplish that both behind and in front of the camera.”
Dead Man's Wire was a breezy shoot. Elwes recalled shooting it in under three weeks, in just 19 days. “We just got down to it,” he remembered.
He gave a lot of praise to the crew. They are usually the most under-appreciated part of any film set. Without a steady crew, you have no movie. “My hat's off to the fabulous crew that we had in Louisville who worked very, very hard to achieve this dream,” Elwes said.
Cary Elwes on sharing the screen with Bill Skarsgård
Elwes gets to share a lot of scenes with Skarsgård. However, given that this is a hostage movie, they are rarely face-to-face. Generally, they speak over the phone or from several yards apart.
Still, Elwes “can't say enough great things about” the IT actor. Elwes was a “big fan” of Skarsgård even before Dead Man's Wire, specifically name-dropping The Crow and the recent Nosferatu remake, and is well aware of his “extraordinary” lineage (his father is the great Stellan Skarsgård, and his brother is Alexander Skarsgård).
“He [Skarsgård] showed up and was just as delightful and fun and brilliant as we hoped he would be, and very inclusive,” Elwes said of his co-star. “[He] brought great energy to the set and to his character. A lot of that dark humor [was] improvisational. It wasn't in the script, and that helped set the tone of the picture.”
A lot of credit will go Skarsgård's way, and deservingly so, but Elwes emphasized that Dead Man's Wire is an “ensemble piece.” The cast also includes himself, Dacre Montgomery, Myha'la, and Colman Domingo.
Van Sant brought his “joyfulness” to his direction, and pushed the actors to “bring our energy and our research and have fun.” The end result? Dead Man's Wire.
Dead Man's Wire is in theaters.
