Seine-sational drama
DQ arrives in Paris to meet the team behind Paris Has Fallen, a spin-off from the Gerard Butler film series that sees a terrorist plot target the French capital, and hear why they believe this could be the start of a new international action-drama franchise.
There may well be only two people on the entire planet with the power to close a road in Paris, one of the world’s busiest cities: the president of the republic and a TV director.
One of the latter, Oded Ruskin, is still beside himself with excitement as he recalls the thrill of wielding such control over the French capital.
Speaking to DQ from the set of Paris Has Fallen, Ruskin remembers the buzz of filming a pivotal scene from the adrenaline-fuelled new action thriller. “We closed this big street and shot a huge car crash there. I thought, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this in Paris – me!’
“It wasn’t about the quality of the scene, because it was just a car crash. But it was that thought – ‘Oh my God, I’m actually closing a street in Paris. And I’m going to do this stunt over and over again.’ That was a big surprise because I never thought I’d do anything like that, and suddenly I was doing it.”
He continues: “We shot it in this beautiful street, with all these extras running around, all these SWAT teams coming in and all these cars speeding around. It was hilarious because my apartment was actually in front of where we were shooting. So basically, I could complain about my own noise. I kept thinking, ‘Wow, how did I get here?’”
Ruskin may well have thought that, but the reality is, that’s the sort of power at your disposal when you are helming a major TV production.
Made by StudioCanal, Urban Myth Films, Millenium and G-Base, the eight-part series is scripted by Howard Overman, the Bafta-winning writer of Misfits, as well as the creator of such shows as War of the Worlds, Atlantis, Future Man and Crazyhead.
Launching on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland tomorrow, the high-octane drama revolves around a fiendish plot to destroy Paris. When a terrorist mastermind called Jacob Pearce (The Borgias’ Sean Harris) launches an audacious assault on the French minister of defence, the minister’s protection officer Vincent Taleb (Tewfik Jallab, Oussekine) is obliged to join forces with savvy MI6 operative Zara Taylor (Ritu Arya, Humans) to try to avert further catastrophe in the city.
But when events start to spiral out of control, the agents begin to understand the terrorist leader has devastating and far-reaching plans. Can Vincent and Zara prevent Jacob from ensuring that Paris Has Fallen?
Ruskin, who has previously directed Drops of God, Beauty & the Baker, No Man’s Land and Absentia, could not be happier to be thrust into the world of action series. “I love them. I grew up on action shows. I started making them when I was a student. I remember when I was shooting my first student action films, I watched [1994 Keanu Reeves movie] Speed. I wanted to make films like that,” he says.
“Everybody else was making these surreal films about somebody on a bridge with a red dress and a suitcase. But my films were two people fighting on the hood of a car!”
The director believes viewers are drawn to the adrenaline shot they can get from shows like Paris Has Fallen, which features breathtaking stunts in such diverse locations as a helicopter, a lift and a kitchen. “And of course, they want to be the hero,” he says. “But I think it’s mostly the adrenaline. It’s like surfing a wave or taking a ride in a theme park. It’s such a rush.”
Overman was also drawn to the idea of making a full-on action series, which, perhaps because of its cost, is still something of a rarity on TV. “Before I was a writer, I used to watch 24, which changed the TV landscape. I remember setting up my VHS on a Sunday night to tape it if I was out.
“That idea of very hooky TV was a new thing back then. So the appeal of doing this really hardcore thriller, with a propulsive narrative drive and big, movie-scale action scenes, was really compelling.”
The full-throttle series, which was filmed in Paris and in Newport, Wales, is a TV spin-off from Gerard Butler’s ‘Has Fallen’ movie franchise. And with 300 star Butler executive producing the show, fans will be curious to see whether he makes an appearance on screen.
The franchise started in 2013 with Olympus Has Fallen. London Has Fallen (2016) came next, followed by Angel Has Fallen (2019). A fourth movie, Night Has Fallen, is in development. The franchise has set the box office on fire, earning more than US$523m thus far.
Julian Murphy, another exec producer on Paris Has Fallen, says: “We knew that StudioCanal were looking for franchises, long-running TV ideas that could work internationally. Not that many TV ideas necessarily work internationally. But we realised that the ‘Has Fallen’ films were very successful across a wide range of countries. So we approached Millennium and G-Base, which is Gerard Butler’s company, and started to work out whether we could do it. And they were actually really supportive from the get-go.”
But despite the fact that making a successful action franchise is “really hard” to do, Murphy notes that there is an audience for them. “What also appealed to us about the ‘Has Fallen’ films is their flexibility. The format of the films is very clever. It takes code names like Olympus and Angel, and it builds action stories around them,” he says.
“We liked the idea that we could build an international series, and then we do another one with the same characters in a different place with a different codename and a different DNA. It’s rare to get that sort of flexibility. You need that flexibility to keep an action show going over a number of series.”
The premise behind the Has Fallen productions is certainly very repeatable. “We’ve got other ideas about how to roll it out in the future,” says Overman. “I think it’s one of those formats that can run and run because we can change locations, and we can change stories and keep it fresh and different each time.
“Next time it obviously won’t be set in Paris because Paris Has Fallen Again just sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Viewers would be shouting at their screens, ‘Have you learned nothing? Just tighten your security!’ So we’d go somewhere else.”
How about Milton Keynes Has Fallen, then? “I’m not sure Milton Keynes will be featuring anytime soon. We might have to wait a while for that one. That is season 17. But I think someone else can go on location for that one.”
But for the moment, the focus is on Paris, one of the best TV and film locations on Earth. Jallab says: “There are a few cities in the world that can offer you what Paris has got. If you put your camera anywhere in Paris, it’s going to be a great shot. Everyone wants to shoot in Paris. There’s a reason for that – because it’s another character in the drama. It’s just a gift for filmmakers.”
“I know Paris very well,” Ruskin says. “I filmed Drops of God and No Man’s Land there. It’s one of best places in the world to shoot. Paris is one of the most photogenic cities because it’s so complicated, because it’s so diverse, because it’s so messy.”
And yet, “it is beautiful, big and open as well. Everywhere you look, you have layers. You don’t have to worry about depth – that’s already there. The colours are beautiful, too. The messy parts and the beautiful parts combine brilliantly. So for me, shooting in Paris is always tremendous fun.”
There’s also another reason Paris might be a hot filming location. “The food is great,” the director adds. “I won’t say anything about British catering. But let’s just say the British crew were astonished when they came over to France and had such a superb full three-course lunch…”
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tagged in: G-Base, Julian Murphy, Millenium, Oded Ruskin, Paris Has Fallen, StudioCanal, Urban Myth Films