This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast, more what you
Hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. You certainly know his wonderful career in film,
whether he was directing A Nightmare on Elm Street, for The dream Master,
Die Hard to and many more. Renny Harland's newest project is a thriller
called The Bricklayer, and he's joining us now. Rennie Harland, Welcome,
and I guess it's about time that terrorist of attack just about everything but the
CIA. Thank you me, good morning for you. And yes, I
think it's everyday actor's dream to make your own James Bond type of a movie,
a fine movie. And that's what I got to do with The Bricklayer.
I wanted to do a good old fashion action movie without digital effects,
with real cause, real actors, real stump, then real action. I
had a great, great time during this movie. It's called The Brick Layer.
It also stars Aaron Eckhart of the Dark Knight series, Nina d'orbreva Vampire
Diaries. It's basically about a retired CIA agent who gets pulled back in.
Yes, yes it is. I love the script because it's it's complex.
The characters are complex, the relationships are very complex. Aaron's character, he's
retired. He wants to just be on his own and laying brick and having
this cannabi zen lifestyle. But of course he's pulled back in when when Cia
realizes that his ex best friend, who everybody presumed is dead, is not
dead and very much alive and doing some very bad things. So he has
to go and hunt down his best friend and find out what the heck is
going on, and and that's where the travel starts, and things get very
very complicated, and he he goes on this journey with Nina's character, who
is a young, idealistic cio operative, and she has a lot to learn
from him as they journey through Europe trying to catch their guy. Rennie Harlan
is with us. He's the director of the new film The Bricklayer. And
I was going to ask the significance of that name. I thought your character,
Steve Vale, I thought it maybe had more figurativism. But he literally
becomes a bricklayer. Yeah, yea, his father was a brick layer.
He grew up as a teenager blame brick and this is kind of you know,
this is the opposite of the life that he's lived in Cia, killing
people, assassins all around the world. Now he just wants to do something
where he can touch and feel what he does, and he has a form
and function and it's simple. That life is never simple, so he gets
pulled back in. Well, some bricklayers are artists as well, because I
love to watch them do their thing, especially when they're building something complex.
When you see a mason who truly knows their craft, they really are artists.
It is amazing. It is very art form. It looks easy,
but it's not. Yeah, yeah, Rennie, we're here talking to Rennie
Harlan, who is the director of The Brick Layer. One thing about action
movies, and I know you know this, but they can be very expensive
to produce. Yes, they are. And sometimes it feels that nowadays the
studios invest so money into all the digital works and you know, creating these
sort of superheroes who are not vulnerable and are untouchable. And then I think,
but sometimes the dangerous that when the audience loses the ability to relate to
the main characters because there's nothing, they have nothing in common with them,
they are super rare. Then you know, you don't have the same kind
of an emotional connection to the story and the characters. So then you have
to be entertained by just the size of the events, and they have to
be digitally created, you know, with people flying and cars flying and just
completely unrealistic, huge, huge sequences. That that's the only way you can
really sort of entertain the audience, And that's why the movies get incredibly,
incredibly expensive. And my approach was the opposite in this but not that this
is a cheap movie, but still, you know, by not doing any
digital work and really relying on things happening in front of the camera, whether
it's a car chase or the flight sequence, I feel like, you know,
we were we were stepping stepping back in time and giving the audience something
that they can truly relate to and feel like they could be in this situation
themselves, which is the same that I tried to do even with the r
too. You know, Bruce Willith, his character was an every man interested
in extraordinary circumstances that we I think we'd all right to think that if we
were pushed into that situation, we could we could write to the occasion and
do something pretty amazing the Brick Layer. It starts. It stars Aaron Eckhart
and Nina doe Brev and it is out now everywhere. We're talking to the
director Rennie Harlan. Have you were you able to use the same demolition and
uh experts as you have in the past. Uh. I did use some
people that I've worked with before, not not quite as far far away,
but as with with Dhat or play Ender Days. But I did work with
with a lot of friends that I've worked with before. So we have a
shorthand and we know that when we say explosion, I mean a big explosion.
And when I say a fight, it's going to be a really bloody,
big fight. Sara. Uh. It's it's great to work with peopleople
who share the same sandbox with you. It's like a bunch of kids getting
together with all the toys and having fun. Well, firearms is another challenge
in this day and age, so I imagine you need a good and expensive
armorer. You know what. It definitely firearms. You know, if we
think of the movies that I was making in the nineties, we used real
guns, but of course fake ammunition. But it's you know, there's been
so many incidents where people have done this unsafely that we've resorted to completely using
non lethal weapons. So we are nowadays using replica guns that look like the
real thing. They act like the real thing, but there's no way to
put even put ammunition in them. They work electronically, and I hope this
doesn't disappoint anybody, but we put the muzzle flash in post production and the
empty showcasings flying in from the machine that helput in post production. We don't
use. I haven't used in the last few years. I haven't used the
real done on the set at which if fan want to take the risk of
putting anybody in danger now that actually is comforting to me as a movie fan
knowing that, okay, it was a completely and totally safe set. Absolutely
that's what we do. Renny Harlan. The name of the movie is The
Brick Layer. It is a thriller starring Aaron eck Hart, Nina do Brev
and Renny Harlan is the director. It is out now everywhere. If you're
like me and love these spy thriller action movies, this is something that will
get you through the weekend. And I thank you for joining us. Sir
Thank you, it was a pleasure to talking with you. Thanks for listening
to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen
to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and Iheartsmedia princes Centation