“You’re not bad, you know,” Owen said to Statham.
The film is Killer Elite —a loose adaptation of Ranulph Fiennes’s 1991 novel, The Feather Men . But the real story wasn’t about a British SAS officer seeking revenge against a shadowy cabal. The real story was about the three men hired to bring that blood-soaked world to life. Three men with egos the size of submarines, three men with very different ideas of what a "killer" looks like. Jason Statham arrived first. He didn’t need a trailer. He needed a gym. By day two, he had converted the prop room into a brutalist training space. Ropes hung from the rafters. A heavy bag bore the dents of his knuckles, wrapped in white tape.
Prologue: The Brief The year is 2011. A dusty, nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, has been converted into a clandestine planning room. On a whiteboard, circled in red marker, are three names: Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro. killer elite cast
De Niro sat in the chair, frail. Statham knelt beside him. Owen stood in the doorway, watching. The script had six lines of dialogue. De Niro threw it away.
“It’s not a punch unless you feel the dust in your teeth,” Statham growled, spitting out a chunk of drywall. “You’re not bad, you know,” Owen said to Statham
“Then why did you call me back, old man?”
Owen, for the first time, smiled. “No. That’s why he’s Robert De Niro.” The famous "chair scene" was where the three collided. In the film, it’s a quiet moment: Hunter, dying of cancer, gives Danny his blessing to walk away. But on set, it became a power struggle. The real story was about the three men
On the third day of shooting, he refused to deliver a line as written. The script said: "We’re not assassins. We are problem solvers." Owen turned to the director, Gary McKendry, a first-time filmmaker who looked like a deer in the headlights of a speeding semi.
“You’re not bad, you know,” Owen said to Statham.
The film is Killer Elite —a loose adaptation of Ranulph Fiennes’s 1991 novel, The Feather Men . But the real story wasn’t about a British SAS officer seeking revenge against a shadowy cabal. The real story was about the three men hired to bring that blood-soaked world to life. Three men with egos the size of submarines, three men with very different ideas of what a "killer" looks like. Jason Statham arrived first. He didn’t need a trailer. He needed a gym. By day two, he had converted the prop room into a brutalist training space. Ropes hung from the rafters. A heavy bag bore the dents of his knuckles, wrapped in white tape.
Prologue: The Brief The year is 2011. A dusty, nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, has been converted into a clandestine planning room. On a whiteboard, circled in red marker, are three names: Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro.
De Niro sat in the chair, frail. Statham knelt beside him. Owen stood in the doorway, watching. The script had six lines of dialogue. De Niro threw it away.
“It’s not a punch unless you feel the dust in your teeth,” Statham growled, spitting out a chunk of drywall.
“Then why did you call me back, old man?”
Owen, for the first time, smiled. “No. That’s why he’s Robert De Niro.” The famous "chair scene" was where the three collided. In the film, it’s a quiet moment: Hunter, dying of cancer, gives Danny his blessing to walk away. But on set, it became a power struggle.
On the third day of shooting, he refused to deliver a line as written. The script said: "We’re not assassins. We are problem solvers." Owen turned to the director, Gary McKendry, a first-time filmmaker who looked like a deer in the headlights of a speeding semi.