The producers of Transcendence gave a press conference today and spoke at great length about details of the Point Break remake they are producing. Alcon Entertainment producers Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson described footage their second unit has already filmed, and name dropped some interesting casting to join Gerard Butler as surfing bank robber Bodhi and Luke Bracey as lawman Johnny Utah.
“We’re negotiating with Ray Winstone to play the role of Pappas,” Kosove said. “We’re also negotiating Til Schweiger to have a role in the movie.”
While principal photography does not begin until June, second unit has begun filming the stunts, which go beyond surfing in the new Point Break. They are employing real athletes to perform extreme sporting stunts, because they are the only ones qualified to perform the stunts because they are too dangerous for even movie stuntmen to attempt, Kosove said.
“We were in the Italian Alps with the greatest extreme snowboarders in the world shooting footage,” Kosove said. “The movie is being shot in 10 countries across the globe. Jeff Corliss who’s the greatest Wingsuiter in the world and his team will be doing work for us over the summer in Switzerland, and motocross and so on and so forth. In any event, principal photography starts in June and let me say this. Garrett McNamara has done a bunch of work for us and I think he’s one of the best today. Then Laird Hamilton. We got a couple 70 foot waves off of Jaws. The force of the water is unbelievable. We were very fortunate in Maui to have the biggest wave break in North American hemisphere in a decade and we shot some extraordinary footage with our surfers there. Of course what Jeff Corliss does and these Wingsuited guys are flying at 140 miles an hour. You keep your fingers crossed everyone gets through this safely and in one piece. I would include Transcendence in this, the greatest footage we’ve ever gotten at Alcon is the second unit footage that we have gotten with these athlete and what they’ve done.”
Alcon is also aware of the skepticism towards yet another remake, and Kosove thinks the development of real extreme sports is the reason to do another Point Break.
“It’s tricky, we thought about this a lot because the world of remaking movies in truth is a pretty risky proposition,” Kosove said. “A lot of these don’t work as we have been regularly reminded. The question then becomes, okay, what is the raison d’etre for remaking a movie that, and Point Break wasn’t a giant hit but it’s an iconic film. It’s a film many people have seen. I would argue, and I know we’re going to be right about this, that the difference is the world in which a Point Break can exist today compared to almost 25 years ago is profoundly different. Again, a few guys surfing in the Santa Monica Bay and robbing a couple banks as compared to what one looks at YouTube Jeff Corliss does or what these big wave surfers do today or so on and so forth.”
Filming Point Break will become more immersive in 2014 than it was in 1991 as well, including 3D and IMAX presentation. “It will be in 3D and also in IMAX,” Kosove said. “We’re careful about that. I’m mixed on 3D. I think a movie has to have a real value proposition to consumers. Otherwise you’re just trying to take more money from them. I think this movie though really has a value proposition in 3D.”
Johnson jumped in to explain why post-converting 3D is a necessity to get the incredible footage Kosove described above. “We won’t shoot it in 3D,” Johnson said. “We’ll convert because one of the benefits of the smaller cameras is you can really put the audience in with the action. When you start shooting in 3D the camera rigs get very large.”
In addition to a host of new extreme sports, Alcon’s Point Break script features an entirely different plot between Utah and Bodhi.
“The script only shares in common the characters and the nature of the character dynamic between Utah and Bodhi in their relationship,” Kosove said. “Everything else about the movie is different. The narrative of the movie is different. While we do have surfing in the film it is only a subset of the extreme sports that we deal with, including free climbing and motocross and Wingsuiting and so on and so forth. Kathryn [Bigelow]’s original movie, which was really ahead of its time for 1991, that was really the infancy of what extreme sports have become, The X Games. This movie is on a much broader scale around the world and the narrative of the movie is completely different. What we found fascinating about the original film and is preserved in this is actually the character work in the movie and the relationship between Bodhi and Utah and these two general who are on opposite sides of the law but yet at the same time share a common bond. That’s the one element that the two movies share. Other than that it’s completely different.”
As for the ex-president masks that the original Bodhi used to commit robberies, Kosove suggests new politicians as well. “I think you’ve got to throw Merkel and maybe Putin and a couple people in it,” he joked. “Maybe we’ll put Nixon in there as a little throwback.”
Alcon is also producing Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner follow-up, but they were not talking about that one. “I have no comment on the next Blade Runner at all,” Kosove said. “You’ll know when you know.”
We’ll have more on Point Break after we catch a 50 year storm.
