Bruce Willis leads a venerable group of veterans and newcomers in “The Prince,” a non-stop action film that forces a retired crime boss back into the seedy underworld he’d left behind. For twenty years Paul Brennan (Patric), a retired New Orleans crime boss, has lived a quiet life off the grid, running an auto repair garage in remote Mississippi. When his teenage daughter Beth goes missing, Paul is forced to return to the city and face his former enemies including Omar (Willis), the city’s most powerful man whose family he mistakenly took out, in an explosive final standoff that may offer redemption for Paul’s past mistakes.
Prolific producer, Randall Emmett (“2 Guns,” “Escape Plan”) read the script and immediately knew it was a winner in the vein of his previous action packed movies. “Bruce really fell for the material, as well as Jason, and then John came on board and I felt that actors of this caliber would bring something really special to the characters and to the story of a man having to face his old demons when his daughter disappears in the same crime universe that he used to live in.” says Emmett.
As each new bit of information gets Paul closer to Beth, it also exposes him to Omar (Bruce Willis), “a very powerful man in the city of New Orleans who put a price on Paul’s head the day Paul mistakenly killed Omar’s wife and daughter,” explains director Brian Miller. “Like Open Range or Unforgiven, this is a modern day western where this gun slinger’s daughter goes missing in this city where he is a wanted man.”
“Bruce is an old school pro that can just turn on the charm; I would whisper in his ear and wound him up a little bit, and then just let him go,” recalls Miller, of the character that does little to hide his thirst for vengeance. Omar, finely dressed with an air of power about him, tightens his grip on the phone, as a car follows Paul’s Explorer through an industrial part of town. The voice on the other end assures Omar that everyone in the bar knew The Prince the second he walked in the door.
Director Brian A. Miller plants the audience firmly in the gritty underworld of revenge seeking gangsters with the action-thriller The Prince, which shot on locations throughout Mobile, Alabama. “I have to say, the production value that we got from Mobile is quite spectacular,” says Miller enthusiastically of the city that turned itself into a back lot and doubled as New Orleans for a large portion of the shoot. Adds producer Randall Emmett, “Brian fell in love with Mobile and thought it was just ideal for The Prince. The city worked with us and the community really embraced us, so it made our production really work.”
More of Willis in action when “The Prince” opens on September 10 in cinemas nationwide from Axinite Digicinema.