William Eubank is a director many film fans first took notice of with the release of the claustrophobic, aquatic horror thriller, UNDERWATER starring Kristen Stewart. Hitting theaters shortly before the isolation era of the global Covid pandemic, and despite a disappointing performance at the box office, the film became the decade’s first true contender for the label of a “cult classic” thanks to strong word of mouth from genre enthusiasts. What that dedicated audience responded to has been evident throughout Eubank’s filmography— whether it be in smaller passion projects, like the mind-bending micro-budgeted sci-fi film THE SIGNAL (2014), or in studio “for hire” fare, like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: NEXT OF KIN.
His work displays a dedication to well-crafted set pieces, striking visuals, and allowing space within the action for thoughtful character work. This trend continues with his latest effort, the military thriller LAND OF BAD. The film tells the story of a Delta team, on a routine rescue mission in Southeast Asia, who are suddenly ambushed leaving the rookie member of the squad (Liam Hemsworth) and a remote Air Force drone pilot (Russell Crowe) as the only two who can complete the mission and bring everyone home safely.
LAND OF BAD is a gripping tale of battlefield perseverance with strong direction, a smart script (written by Eubank himself alongside David Frigerio), and magnetic lead performances from Crowe and Hemsworth. I recently had the opportunity to talk with William Eubank about shooting the film and a variety of other topics concerning the project.
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**Please note: the following interview contains mild spoilers for LAND OF BAD.
In your work, you have shown an enthusiastic willingness to explore different genres; science fiction followed by horror, and now action. What led you to wanting to do a military action film, like LAND OF BAD?
As a filmmaker, you always want to tell fun stories. I’m a huge fan of all kinds of movies. Hopefully, my career moving forward will always be [filled with] very different types of things. Action is so much fun trying to translate– [you have] some crazy story, but then you’re also trying to weave in exciting stunts and wild moments. Every film is a giant puzzle you’re trying to piece together correctly.
One thing that all your work has displayed is a deft use of tension. How do you feel cinematic tension is best established?
Thank you. There’s so many different types of tension. I usually am trying to decide what’s the version of tension I want? Should it be a physical tension that’s just peril, and something that visually shows you something that is scary for the audience or that they can anticipate? Or is it a psychological tension, like you feel like you’re at the edge of your mind?
So much of making a story is trying to just give audiences a little bit of safety and then yanking it away, just so they continually are sort of going up and down, up and down. You’re always trying to decide for your characters while you’re crafting. It’s like, “Should this be a physical tension? Should this be a mental tension or psychological tension?”
I’m always watching other great filmmakers and in awe of the tension that others can capture… The Safdie Brothers are so good at making tension these days. Ridley Scott always does an amazing job of both types of tension. I don’t know. You’re always just trying to weave a story in a way that’s exciting and impactful.
LAND OF BAD has some compelling underlying themes: the vast disconnect of how war is perceived by the soldiers at home versus the reality of it in the field and also, that armed conflict is brutally ugly whether the tools are as advanced as drone strikes or as basic as a rock being used as a primitive cudgel. Were these ideas you had from the beginning or were they developed through crafting the film?
There’s definitely a sort of a “loss of innocence” story there. You can get very heavy-handed, obviously, with some ideas and whatnot. But there’s a simple loss of innocence story of a person who, obviously, believes that there’s a version of violence that could be better, and the veterans will kind of know right away that, at the end of the day, violence is violence no matter how it’s accomplished.
It’s just an interesting question that I think about a lot. There’s so many crazy things happening in the world that it can’t not be on your mind, but you’re always trying to tell a story that’s still entertaining and still gets to the core. In this case, it was just a question that I wanted to ask and make adjacent to the main of it. Not giving you an opinion on right versus wrong, but just kind of the facts. It was exciting to do and a fun process, thinking about that and actually trying to execute it.
I found it interesting how you intercut the chaotic fieldwork with the banal, and almost routine, remote work. You had these characters in the field doing very typical war film/action hero sort of things but then you cut back to home base where people are treating the whole endeavor almost like an everyday office job. They’re relaxing. They’re watching sports.
The reality of that particular job, being a drone operator, is very “on, off.” It really is. Every person who has a mission in a drone situation goes into their space and they’re in theater. Basically, almost, in that moment, they’re kind of like boots on the ground, even though they’re thousands of miles away. Then, yeah, when you’re on break in those environments, it’s like you would imagine. You’re not in a “mission operative” situation unless something very out of the ordinary happens. So it was a fun world to dream up, like okay, what could be happening, and showing that. Russell Crowe playing “Eddie Reaper” did such a great job of getting into that space and sort of imagining with me what that could be like.
Russell’s performance embodies that contrast beautifully where it almost like a normal “9 to 5” job but it’s also warfare and this unbelievable thing he is doing. How you have to compartmentalize it all, in a way, to make it viable to do day in, day out. It’s great work from him.
I agree. We worked with a lot of real drone operators. We shot in Australia, but we had a drone operator who had worked at Creech [Air Force base] out advising every day. He was saying, that when you are in your space doing your work, you kind of zone in and you are in that. You are dealing with life or death situations, so you really do need to fully commit. Then when you’re out, you’re just living your normal life and it becomes a very natural thing, especially when you’ve gone through the amount of training it takes to actually sit at the controls in a situation like that.
The very last scene of the film, with Russell and Chika Ikogwe, wraps everything up with such a light, hopeful tone. Why did you choose to end the story there with those characters? Also, tell me about crafting those moments.
I never totally know how my films are going to end. I actually thought it was going to end a little differently. Then while I was cutting it, that feeling that I got when I was watching… Because you watch the film, you shoot different things and you’re like, “Okay, I guess this could go here.” I always thought I would end, without giving too many spoilers away, in the scene before.
That scene before does feel like a more traditional place to end a film like this one.
From a writing aspect, it seemed like it was going to go that way. But after I shot it, I felt something while watching it, I was like, “Wow, this is so crazy.” As a filmmaker, you’re just constantly surprised by things that happened. Full disclosure, it was Russell’s idea to dance there. Man, I was so touched by it, and I could see it touched other people, as well, when we shot it. I was like, “Oh, my God. Wow, that feels so good.” When we cut it together and I tried different places and saw how that felt, I was like, “Wow, that is definitely… I love ending on this note.” After such crazy struggles and so many wild things happening, it felt appropriate to bring it back and end on that hopeful note like that.
The beauty of life is in those little moments and, to me, that little moment at the end feels very earned.
Thank you. Yeah, we thought so, as well. It wasn’t initially planned. If you ever read the script, you won’t see it like that, so it was wonderful to find that. So much of filmmaking is sometimes you find things, and you’re like, “Gosh, wow, this.” I love when that happens, because you feel like you’ve sort of happened into something that’s special.
To talk more on constructing LAND OF BAD, there is a lot of complex staging in the film. What was the most difficult sequence to capture?
The most difficult probably was, we had some days in the river, which don’t really look difficult at all, but when we were in that river, there was flash flood warnings and we ended up losing that location a few different times because of really wild, heavy rain. Those days, even though they don’t look crazy in the movie, those were some of the hardest days, just slogging way up into this jungle and then having to turn around because of rising water. That was just crazy.
Which scene was the most rewarding?
I love, even though we shot it sort of quick, the fight scene in front of the soccer game [on the televisions]. Those two fight scenes we shot really in a day and just had so much fun, because both Liam and Milo Ventimiglia, we were just running and gunning and going super hard and fast. Those guys gave so much to those scenes, and they practiced hard. It was a joy to shoot. Really fun.
Speaking of the action on display here, there are vocal pockets of online discourse that decry any depiction of militaristic action as endorsement and “propaganda.” How do you feel about that?
Look, especially now, we live in a very polarized time. I’m sure back [in the day], people would say the same thing. But politics and all that aside, people make their entire careers online ruffling feathers. Unfortunately, in social media, the crazier something is the more it gets traction. Whereas previously before social media, if somebody was crazy or doing wild things, society normally would be like, “Oh, that’s weird,” or “Stay away from that guy.” Unfortunately, now with TikTok and the way social media is, the crazier something is the more it goes to the top. It used to be the cream rose to the top, now it’s like the rotten goes to the top.
As a filmmaker, I wrote this thing a million years ago, so it has nothing to do with anything like that. Just people will say whatever they want to say to try to get a rise. Military movies, at least growing up, for me, I always loved them. I loved the action-packed stories. Inevitably, just like any other vein of story, it’s a very dramatic theater to tell a story in. It just happens to be, depending on when that story is being told, certain groups or certain people will have opinions on that, or think it’s propaganda or something like that. But that’s inevitably just a natural timing thing.
To wrap up on a lighter note; hypothetically if you were to program a “double feature” with LAND OF BAD and had to choose a movie from another filmmaker, what would you pair it with?
Oh, my gosh, that’s a tough one. Man, to pair LAND OF BAD with one for a double feature. I don’t know. I mean, love the movie BLACK HAWK DOWN, so we could say that, which is a very different type of film.. But I’ll throw one out to Ridley because I love Ridley Scott. I’m such a fan.
I think those two films would definitely go well together. Congratulations on the release of LAND OF BAD. I think it’s a great film and I can’t wait to see what’s next for you!
Thank you! I appreciate it.
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LAND OF BAD is currently playing in theaters nationwide.
