I heartfully remember growing up watching Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade as a kid, and seething with excitement everytime the tank chase finale came up. The moment when a soldier gets knocked out by his own periscope after mocking Indy as he’s fighting the Nazis just outside the tank always sticks out as one of the funnier points in the film.
It’s also one of those moments in film you can appreciate as time passes. A quick few Google searches will promptly land you at the name Nick Gillard, having succeeded since the late 1970s in stunt performance with an incredible list of titles to his name, although cult fans of sci-fi may take notice of his work as the stunt coordinator for the light saber action in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Other credits include Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow and Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted, while it’s easy to see why someone like Gillard would want to, and probably should, take the reigns of his own film someday. Well, for reasons beyond our view, that opportunity has since arrived as of last week when it was officially announced that Gillard will make his directorial debut with the new crowdfunded, action thriller, The Order, which commences principal photography in January.
Gillard’s attachment signals the departure of David Wald whose own career in stunts lends a shared history with the Power Rangers franchise in addition to Sakamoto Koichi’s
Wicked Game (a.k.a.
Extreme Heist), Wald’s own 2009 directorial debut,
Hellbinders starring Bosch, and the long-awaited action thriller,
Love Like Bullets.
Crowdfunding has since continued for the film since earlier this year at Indiegogo with all the obligatory perks promised to donors through 2017.
Native New Yorker. Lover of all things pizza, chocolate, pets, and good friends. Karaoke hero. Left of center. Survivor. Fond supporter of cult, obscure and independent cinema - especially fond of Asian movies and global action cinema. Author of the bi-weekly Hit List. Founder and editor of Film Combat Syndicate. Still, very much, only human.
