Pedal to metal, they must drive wildly through the city, intermittently fed instructions by an unseen mastermind (Jon Voight) who knows their every move. As they carry out his bidding, the destruction mounts. But although every authority in the city is in hot pursuit, they must not get caught…no matter what. And the clock is ticking.
Director/producer Courtney Solomon states, “I thought it was a really great concept: trapped in a confined space on a wild chase for the duration, not knowing the identity of the person pulling the strings…literally driving for their lives.”
Executive producer Joel Silver, a longtime veteran of action features, says he responded to the central theme of the script, written by Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker. “The idea of these two strangers who end up together in a car, one trying to save a life, the other just trying to survive, was interesting to me. And Courtney had a fresh take on how to film it.”
In “Getaway,” former race car driver Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke) is pitted against the clock. Desperately trying to save the life of his kidnapped wife, Brent commandeers a custom Shelby Cobra Mustang, taking it and its unwitting owner (Selena Gomez) on a high-speed race against time.
To catch all the breakneck action from both inside and outside the Shelby Super Snake Solomon used a variety of cameras, numbering anywhere from 18 to 42, in any given scene. The director reveals that in addition to the amped-up camera quotient, for him, the crux of telling the story was to eschew the comfort and safety of a soundstage and literally take the action to the streets, with actual engines racing, gears shifting, rubber burning and glass shattering, but virtually no green screen or CGI. “Being able to put the audience right in the middle of the events, inside that amazing car, was enticing, but shooting real, high-stakes action made it even cooler for me,” Solomon states.
The cool factor was revved up even more for both the director and his stars by the choice of the Shelby GT500 Super Snake — a fast, powerful Mustang built to order and highly coveted by gearheads.
Screenwriters Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker are admitted car aficionados who “thought of all the things we ever wanted to do in a moving vehicle but couldn’t because they are very, very illegal,” Finegan laughs, adding, “we’d have done the driving ourselves if they’d let us.”
“At first, the car is a prison,” says Parker, “but it becomes their only way out of the mess they’re in. By the end, you want Brent behind the wheel because that’s where he’s at his best.” He concludes, “For us, the story was always about putting people into a situation that forces them to show who they truly are. When they have no choice but to work together, you get to see what they’re really made of.”
Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 16, “Getaway” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.