Taglines: Get in. Get out. Getaway.
Former race car driver Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke) is pitted against the clock. Desperately trying to save the life of his kidnapped wife, Brent commandeers a custom Ford Shelby GT500 Super Snake, taking it and its unwitting owner (Selena Gomez) on a high-speed race against time, at the command of the mysterious villain holding his wife hostage. “Getaway” also stars Rebecca Budig, Bruce Payne and Paul Freeman.
“Getaway” is a gritty, heart-pounding action thriller starring Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, actress and international music sensation Selena Gomez, and Academy Award winner Jon Voight. The film is directed by Courtney Solomon and written by Gregg Maxwell Parker and Sean Finegan, the film is distributed by Warner Bros., the last Dark Castle Entertainment film to be released by Warner Bros., as Universal Studios took Dark Castle over in 2013. Though originally reported to be a remake of the 1972 film The Getaway, the film is actually an original story. This is the first film directed by Solomon in 8 years, with his last being 2005′s An American Haunting.
Start Your Motors (2013)
“If you get caught, you’re a widower.”
In “Getaway,” two strangers, bound to each other by chance in a tricked-out Shelby Super Snake, are caught in a frantic, life-or-death ride that is going to make or break them. They cannot get out of the car. If they do, someone else will die.
Pedal to metal, they must drive wildly through the city, intermittently fed instructions by an unseen mastermind who knows their every move. As they carry out his bidding, the destruction mounts. But although every authority in the city is in hot pursuit, they must not get caught…no matter what. And the clock is ticking.
Director / producer Courtney Solomon states, “I thought it was a really great concept: trapped in a confined space on a wild chase for the duration, not knowing the identity of the person pulling the strings…literally driving for their lives.”
Executive producer Joel Silver, a longtime veteran of action features, says he responded to the central theme of the script, written by Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker. “The idea of these two strangers who end up together in a car, one trying to save a life, the other just trying to survive, was interesting to me. And Courtney had a fresh take on how to film it.”
To catch all the breakneck action from both inside and outside the Shelby Super Snake Solomon used a variety of cameras, numbering anywhere from 18 to 42, in any given scene.
The director reveals that in addition to the amped-up camera quotient, for him, the crux of telling the story was to eschew the comfort and safety of a soundstage and literally take the action to the streets, with actual engines racing, gears shifting, rubber burning and glass shattering, but virtually no green screen or CGI.
“Being able to put the audience right in the middle of the events, inside that amazing car, was enticing, but shooting real, high-stakes action made it even cooler for me,” Solomon states.
The cool factor was revved up even more for both the director and his stars by the choice of the Shelby GT500 Super Snake—a fast, powerful Mustang built to order and highly coveted by gearheads.
Ethan Hawke stars as Brent Magna, the driver behind the wheel of the Shelby Super Snake whose wife has been abducted by the faceless man who put him there. “My favorite car is the ’68 Shelby fastback Mustang, so I was immediately hooked,” Hawke attests. “Going off to3 Europe, racing cars around, banging up motorcycles and Mustangs and BMWs, old school, like those great ‘70s movies I loved growing up… Some 13-year-old boy that lives in me has always wanted to do a movie like this,” he smiles. “The film thrills me because it has a visceral feel to it. You can tell some metal was really scraped against some asphalt. There’s some real adrenaline to it.”
Selena Gomez stars as the complete stranger known only as “the Kid,” who ends up inthe passenger seat of the Super Snake. She loved the idea of doing her first big action movie, noting, “I’d never really done a movie like this before; so I thought it would be challenging and fun for me, especially since all the car stunts were real instead of effects. And they were awesome—the whole experience was.”
Jon Voight has a pivotal role in the story as an anonymous man with an agenda who is as treacherous as he is intriguing. Having previously worked in the theatre with Hawke, he was eager to collaborate with him again and saw the story and characters presented in “Getaway” as a great opportunity to do so. Voight relates, “I thought the whole chase idea was wellaccomplished and had an interesting design. It was a ride in more ways than one because the dangerous maze of events which transpire, with so many great twists and turns, kept me constantly guessing, ‘What is this guy really up to?’”
Writers Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker are admitted car aficionados who “thought of all the things we ever wanted to do in a moving vehicle but couldn’t because they are very, very illegal,” Finegan laughs, adding, “we’d have done the driving ourselves if they’d let us.”
“At first, the car is a prison,” says Parker, “but it becomes their only way out of the mess they’re in. By the end, you want Brent behind the wheel because that’s where he’s at his best.”
He continues, “For us, the story was always about putting people into a situation that forces them to show who they truly are. When they have no choice but to work together, you get to see what they’re really made of.”
Stuntman and choreographer Charlie Picerni, Sr., a veteran of many action blockbusters, previously worked with Silver on several films, including “Die Hard” and “Lethal Weapon.” He recalls, “When I first read the script it was loaded with action and I knew this would probably be the biggest movie in terms of car stunts I’ve done and I’ve done a lot of them. Every night there was a different car chase. Courtney had a mantra: This movie has to be fast driving and hard hitting!”
Drivers (2013)
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Brent Magna used to race cars for a living. Now’s he’s racing for his wife’s life. He is at the mercy of an unseen assailant, a voice at the other end of a GPS speaker… because his wife is at the mercy of this clever criminal. Brent’s only tool is the skill he once exercised on the track as a pro. He is now pushing that resource to its absolute limit. And beyond.
Hawke relates, “My character fell from grace in the racing world and moved to Europe to try and start over. He used to miss his career, but now that he’s found a different life with the woman he adores, he’s happy. Suddenly all that is in jeopardy.”
“You feel for Brent,” Solomon notes. “He’s a regular guy, sort of beaten down, and now the thing he cares about most is taken from him. He loves his wife so much that he’s risking life and limb to get her back. Ethan delivered a remarkable performance.”
Hawke admits it was a challenge to be in a limited space for the entire film. He explains, “Every scene for my character happens from the same seat. So it was interesting to dig for the emotional nuances while not having as much freedom of movement.”
While trapped in that driver’s seat, Magna is being watched by multiple cameras mounted on the Super Snake. Over the course of the night, he is directed to complete a series of tasks without getting killed, and in turn, getting his wife killed. Each task more dangerous for the people inside and outside the car.
Into that chaos comes the Kid, a young, hot shot, tech-savvy girl who pulls a gun on Brent, jumping in the front seat and demanding that he turn over the keys. Instead, Brent takes control and tells her to get out of the car. But the Voice has other ideas. Although they can barely tolerate each other, the two become dependent on each other to survive the events that unfold nonstop during the longest night of their lives.
Solomon says, “Brent and this girl don’t want to be there with each other. She can’t stand him. He thinks she is irritating and doesn’t need additional responsibility on his shoulders.He’s got enough to deal with.”
Since the audience is literally behind the dash with them the entire film, casting the pair was crucial. Solomon remarks, “Ethan’s an incredibly strong actor and in casting Selena, we thought she would be able to hold her own with him, and she did. There was a nice contrast and balance between them. She did a terrific job.”
Gomez describes the Kid as “spunky and edgy. She knows a lot about cars and technology, which I know nothing about, so, that was interesting for me. I learned a lot. I also loved working with Ethan.”
Of his on-screen costar, Hawke says, “Selena was an absolute pleasure. In a lot of ways she had a tougher role than I do. You know, my character’s motivation is incredibly simple. He wants to get his wife back, so he’s going to do what he’s told. It’s up to her character to go through all this rigmarole of figuring out a way to fight back. Left to his own devices, Brent would be dead and so would his wife. The Kid is the engine of the movie in a lot of ways.”
Gomez offers, “Brent is very intense. You can see that he’s extremely broken because his wife is his complete world. In the beginning, my character is very harsh with him and hard to get along with. But they spend all this time with each other in the car so they’re obviously going to get to know a lot about each other, whether they want to or not.”
The third person in the car—the remote Voice—created another interesting dynamic. Solomon says, “He’s hands free, so to speak. He could be using ISP addresses that nobody can track and could run an entire operation from anywhere in the world. That’s what technology does for us. But although he’s just a voice coming over the GPS, his presence actually takes up a great deal of space in the car with them.”
Solomon knew that the Voice had to have an especially commanding air and approached Jon Voight about participating in the film. He says, “Jon is a master and it was a thrill to have him involved. He brought an elegant flavor to his character.”
Getaway (2013)
Directed by: Courtney Solomon
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight, Rebecca Budig, Paul Freeman, Bruce Payne
Screenplay by: Sean Finegan, Gregg Maxwell Parker
Production Design by: Michelle Jones, Nate Jones
Cinematography by: Yaron Levy
Film Editing by: Ryan Dufrene
Costume Design by: Roseanne Fiedler, Irina Kotcheva
Set Decoration by: Frank Galline, Rosen Stefanov
Music by: Justin Caine Burnett
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for ntense action, violence and mayhem throughout, some rude gestures, and language.
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: August 30, 2013
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