Welcome To The Punch is the phenomenally ambitious sophomore feature from Eran Creevy, the British director who made his debut on the micro-budgeted dealer drama Shifty .
With touchstones that include Hollywood’s heavy hitters and Asian cinema’s groundbreakers, WTTP looks set to portray Brit cops and robbers in a slick new light.
It stars James McAvoy as a police detective Max Lewinsky, and Mark Strong as his longtime nemesis, mobster Jacob Sternwood. Sternwood evades Lewinsky’s grasp, but, when his son is hospitalised years later, Lewinsky spies a fleeting chance to take down ‘the one that got away’.
There’s a Making Of feature in the current issue of Total Film magazine - available now for only £1.99 on your iPad - and here’s an excerpt of what Creevy and his leading man James McAvoy had to say about the film.
Creevy told us about his filmic inspirations and aspirations: “In particular, I would show the crew that one long take from the hospital sequence in Hard Boiled ,” says the young director. “In many ways, it’s dangerous... when you watch The Raid and Hard Boiled - wow, it changes.”
To McAvoy, meanwhile, Lewinsky and Sternwood are “just like the two guys in Heat ”. De Niro and Pacino? “Fuck me, Jesus Christ, I can’t believe I’m comparing me and Mark to those two! I’m not saying that we’re as good as that - or that I am,” he laughed. “Maybe Mark is.”
Welcome To The Punch opens on 15 March 2013.
For much more from Creevy, McAvoy and the cast, pick up Total Film magazine issue 203 - which is out now!
Read a full preview of Total Film magazine - Issue 203 .
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