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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
The Lee Matthews Podcast, more what you

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Hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive.
You certainly know his wonderful career in film,

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whether he was directing A Nightmare on
Elm Street, for The dream Master,

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Die Hard to and many more.
Renny Harland's newest project is a thriller

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called The Bricklayer, and he's joining
us now. Rennie Harland, Welcome,

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and I guess it's about time that
terrorist of attack just about everything but the

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CIA. Thank you me, good
morning for you. And yes, I

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think it's everyday actor's dream to make
your own James Bond type of a movie,

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a fine movie. And that's what
I got to do with The Bricklayer.

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I wanted to do a good old
fashion action movie without digital effects,

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with real cause, real actors,
real stump, then real action. I

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had a great, great time during
this movie. It's called The Brick Layer.

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It also stars Aaron Eckhart of the
Dark Knight series, Nina d'orbreva Vampire

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Diaries. It's basically about a retired
CIA agent who gets pulled back in.

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Yes, yes it is. I
love the script because it's it's complex.

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The characters are complex, the relationships
are very complex. Aaron's character, he's

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retired. He wants to just be
on his own and laying brick and having

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this cannabi zen lifestyle. But of
course he's pulled back in when when Cia

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realizes that his ex best friend,
who everybody presumed is dead, is not

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dead and very much alive and doing
some very bad things. So he has

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to go and hunt down his best
friend and find out what the heck is

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going on, and and that's where
the travel starts, and things get very

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very complicated, and he he goes
on this journey with Nina's character, who

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is a young, idealistic cio operative, and she has a lot to learn

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from him as they journey through Europe
trying to catch their guy. Rennie Harlan

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is with us. He's the director
of the new film The Bricklayer. And

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I was going to ask the significance
of that name. I thought your character,

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Steve Vale, I thought it maybe
had more figurativism. But he literally

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becomes a bricklayer. Yeah, yea, his father was a brick layer.

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He grew up as a teenager blame
brick and this is kind of you know,

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this is the opposite of the life
that he's lived in Cia, killing

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people, assassins all around the world. Now he just wants to do something

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where he can touch and feel what
he does, and he has a form

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and function and it's simple. That
life is never simple, so he gets

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pulled back in. Well, some
bricklayers are artists as well, because I

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love to watch them do their thing, especially when they're building something complex.

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When you see a mason who truly
knows their craft, they really are artists.

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It is amazing. It is very
art form. It looks easy,

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but it's not. Yeah, yeah, Rennie, we're here talking to Rennie

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Harlan, who is the director of
The Brick Layer. One thing about action

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movies, and I know you know
this, but they can be very expensive

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to produce. Yes, they are. And sometimes it feels that nowadays the

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studios invest so money into all the
digital works and you know, creating these

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sort of superheroes who are not vulnerable
and are untouchable. And then I think,

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but sometimes the dangerous that when the
audience loses the ability to relate to

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the main characters because there's nothing,
they have nothing in common with them,

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they are super rare. Then you
know, you don't have the same kind

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of an emotional connection to the story
and the characters. So then you have

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to be entertained by just the size
of the events, and they have to

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be digitally created, you know,
with people flying and cars flying and just

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completely unrealistic, huge, huge sequences. That that's the only way you can

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really sort of entertain the audience,
And that's why the movies get incredibly,

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incredibly expensive. And my approach was
the opposite in this but not that this

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is a cheap movie, but still, you know, by not doing any

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digital work and really relying on things
happening in front of the camera, whether

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it's a car chase or the flight
sequence, I feel like, you know,

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we were we were stepping stepping back
in time and giving the audience something

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that they can truly relate to and
feel like they could be in this situation

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themselves, which is the same that
I tried to do even with the r

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too. You know, Bruce Willith, his character was an every man interested

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in extraordinary circumstances that we I think
we'd all right to think that if we

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were pushed into that situation, we
could we could write to the occasion and

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do something pretty amazing the Brick Layer. It starts. It stars Aaron Eckhart

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and Nina doe Brev and it is
out now everywhere. We're talking to the

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director Rennie Harlan. Have you were
you able to use the same demolition and

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uh experts as you have in the
past. Uh. I did use some

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people that I've worked with before,
not not quite as far far away,

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but as with with Dhat or play
Ender Days. But I did work with

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with a lot of friends that I've
worked with before. So we have a

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shorthand and we know that when we
say explosion, I mean a big explosion.

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And when I say a fight,
it's going to be a really bloody,

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big fight. Sara. Uh.
It's it's great to work with peopleople

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who share the same sandbox with you. It's like a bunch of kids getting

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together with all the toys and having
fun. Well, firearms is another challenge

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in this day and age, so
I imagine you need a good and expensive

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armorer. You know what. It
definitely firearms. You know, if we

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think of the movies that I was
making in the nineties, we used real

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guns, but of course fake ammunition. But it's you know, there's been

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so many incidents where people have done
this unsafely that we've resorted to completely using

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non lethal weapons. So we are
nowadays using replica guns that look like the

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real thing. They act like the
real thing, but there's no way to

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put even put ammunition in them.
They work electronically, and I hope this

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doesn't disappoint anybody, but we put
the muzzle flash in post production and the

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empty showcasings flying in from the machine
that helput in post production. We don't

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use. I haven't used in the
last few years. I haven't used the

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real done on the set at which
if fan want to take the risk of

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putting anybody in danger now that actually
is comforting to me as a movie fan

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knowing that, okay, it was
a completely and totally safe set. Absolutely

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that's what we do. Renny Harlan. The name of the movie is The

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Brick Layer. It is a thriller
starring Aaron eck Hart, Nina do Brev

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and Renny Harlan is the director.
It is out now everywhere. If you're

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like me and love these spy thriller
action movies, this is something that will

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get you through the weekend. And
I thank you for joining us. Sir

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Thank you, it was a pleasure
to talking with you. Thanks for listening

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to Later with Lee Matthews, the
Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen

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to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from
five to seven and Iheartsmedia princes Centation