James Cullen Bressack is the director of Hot Seat starring Mel Gibson, Survive the Game and Fortress starring Bruce Willis and Beyond the Law with Steven Seagal. His latest picture is called Darkness of Man and stars Jean-Claude Van Damme; James stopped by to chat about the film.
Hi James, thanks for taking the time to chat.
Today we’re discussing your latest picture, Darkness of Man which I believe you co-wrote with Alethea Hnatko-Cho and Jean-Claude Van Damme; where did the idea come from initially?
The idea came from the pulp noir films that I grew up on and, really being able to take one of those films and turn it on its head and bring it into the into new age. So, being able to do that was exciting to me and so that’s where we first had the idea for the film.
Awesome. So, the action is brutal. How did you work with Jean-Claude and the cast to create such visceral fights and action?
JC is magic when it comes to fighting. He understands it, like nobody else. And also on top of that, Luke LaFontaine, our amazing stunt coordinator really brought a visceral nature to the action. I explained to him that I really wanted it to be realistic, human action where JC’s character was taking real damage. He’s actually getting hurt as the film progresses, and not just some superhuman, so it needed to feel like a caged animal being let out of its cage trying to fight for survival while everybody else is more equipped than he is. So, there’s an animalistic nature of him trying to fight and trying to find a way out and yet at the same time everybody else’s has the weapons, the guns, and they’re hurting him.
I love the noir visuals; how did you decide on this movie’s visual style and cinematography?
I worked very closely with my DP and we created a specific look for the film and film grain. That was also very much enhanced by our work with Mark Todd Osbourne and color correction. But we really wanted to take the idea of noir and see what it would look like now, which in my mind was sodium vapor, oranges, milky shadows and really playing with that world. Basically, what would a colorized version of The Maltese Falcon look like now? What would The Third Man or Double Indemnity look like? We wanted to really take that and enhance it. That’s why it’s a wet environment, reflections on the ground. I mean, we spent a lot of time wetting the ground over and over again with water trucks, to really enhance that look, and just wanted it to feel like a dirty, grimy world.
How did the use of colors and lighting help to move the story forward?
I think it really puts you in the headspace of the character; he’s this old school person in a new world. He has old school mentality, he’s an alcoholic, he’s falling apart. And yet he’s in this new world that’s passed ahead of him. If you look at the scenes where it’s just the Koreans when they’re talking there’s all these neon lights and colors and yet, JC’s world is drained of colour. His life is dim, and he’s barely hanging on and yet everybody else’s world is more vibrant. It’s really kind of the clashing of those worlds and the juxtaposition of that, really, I think it was like a fire and ice. And that’s kind of what we were trying to create.
Are there any films or filmmakers you’d say were a major influence on the film?
Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, obviously, I have a lot of love for noir films, many of the ones that I’ve mentioned, like The Third Man, and also Casablanca, so those were very both things that I pulled from visually as well as narratively. I would also go as far as to say Park Chan Wook’s Old Boy. There was a lot of stuff in the mood board that I was that I was showing off and believe it or not, some of it also was into the new Batman; I thought that was that definitely did noir very well.
What’s your process for working with the cast to develop their characters?
I imagine every character is a blank canvas and so what I do is I take my ideas about the characters informed by the script and the actor takes their ideas about the characters informed by the script. We throw both of those at the canvas and whatever works for both of us we use to paint the picture of who this person is. Every actor has a different set of tools that they bring to the table and so it’s really fun. One of my favorite processes in making movies is to collaborate with my actors to create things past the page that I didn’t think of.
It’s on IMDb, so I don’t think this is a spoiler, but I loved seeing Cynthia Rothrock share the screen with Jean-Claude; how did that come about?
I just reached out to Cynthia Rothrock and said, “hey, it would be really cool if you did a cameo. Are you willing to do that?” Because she’s such a badass, and she obliged. It was really exciting to be able to work with her. She’s a legend!
How would you like Darkness of Man to resonate with audiences?
I think if people are wanting to see JC like they’ve never seen him before, in an action packed movie, kicking ass and taking names. But it’s a very dark, very sad film at the same time. I think hopefully they’re willing to take this journey with us and I think it’ll be a rewarding one.
DARKNESS OF MANwill be Available on Digital on May 21, 2024.