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Vertical releases Fight or Flight nationwide on May 9th, 2025. NYC MOVIE GURU: How would you define the term "cinematic"? James Madigan: It's one of those things that you know it when you see it. It could be a vista or a wide lense, but to me, it's about an attitude. I've worked with a lot of different directors and sometimes you get a lot of people who are just like, "Let's put 4 cameras on it and hope that the editor finds it." Other people are coming in and saying, "This is my perspective, this is my vision, and these are the things that I want the audience to feel." When you're coming in at it from that perspective, you wind up with something that is cinematic because it's not capturing real life; it's capturing real emotions, but it's like a dream. It's capturing something that feels more like how you'd like the world to look or you'd like the world to feel which is not necessarily better. Goodfellas and The Godfather are incredibly cinematic movies. It's about having a filmmaker that really has a distinct point of view and comes into it with a style that is just loving movies. NYC MOVIE GURU: How challenging was it to balance all of Fight or Flight's spectacle with truth or humanism? JM: At the end of the day, human beings are natural storytellers. The thing that separates us in our evolution is that, as far back as anyone can figure, people are painting on cave walls. That's how people are communicating. If you want to convince someone to come to your point of view or your side or your politics or whatever it is, you do it with stories. That's just how our brains are wired. All these things that are visual effects or car chases or fights, they are window dressings. They're really important window dressings, but something like John Wick cuts through because there's a story and character there. People want to joke that, "It's because they killed his dog." No, they killed the last memory of his wife who died. It's about a guy who, even though he's nothing like you, you relate to what he's going through and feel what he's going through. You want him to succeed. If you could just implement that into every great movie that's ever been made, if you're starting with a story and with a character that are going to grab people and make them laugh and cry and want to be on your side or root for you or follow you, you could then have the freedom to go in and put in your window dressings and bells and whistles. They won't work unless that's working. The thing that really worked for me is with this was being able to see that really clearly and know how I wanted to do it in having a partner in Josh [Hartnett] and Charithra [Chandran] who were on board with the same journey and the same story. So, as it got crazier and crazier, we had more fun things to throw in and it was like, "This is great because we're already feeling where we want these people to go." This is just kind of us just having a good time along the way, so, more than anything, it's the storytelling NYC MOVIE GURU: What was the process like to decide what the kills would be like and to make them original? JM: I just start watching the movie in my head. When I read something or I'm thinking about something, I see it very clearly. Sometimes when I work with people or have an assistant, I have to explain this to them because sometimes it'll look like that I've just left the room, but I'll actually be watching the movie in my head and I'd be like, "Wait, that doesn't work. I'm going to need breaks. I'm going to need to re-edit that." I'm actually trying to piece it together. As I do that, I go, "I've seen that, I've seen that, we'll that's out of character and I can kind of slot that in." Having the people around me, my stunt coordinator and fight choreographer were unbelievable. The things that they came up with! I'd tell them like an attitude. I could sit down and talk stories with them and say, "Here's the subtext of this scene. Here's what we want to get out of it." As they're working out the details of how we're going to do it technically, they're really good storytellers. So, they're like, "Here's this idea and that idea!" and I'm like, "That ridiculous! That's amazing!" There are lots of things in there that aren't my idea. There's a scene where they stuff a guy in an overhead compartment and it gets recalled when someone's fighting and then this hook comes out and then there's fighting and he kicks the guy that's in the overhead who you forgot about. That was his idea, and I'm like, "Oh my god, that's going into the movie!" So, some of it is really making sure that you're the goalkeeper that like, "We don't want this to turn into Airplane!, but right on the edge of it." And just sitting down and asking, "Can we do this without spending a whole day rigging it? Is there something that's simple to do?" But putting a premium on really trying to make sure that those ideas are not just a rehash of what we've seen. You just get insanely lucky when you Josh [Hartnett] who does all of the fighting. There's no price that you could put on that. That's why we have the movie that we have. NYC MOVIE GURU: Hitchcock once observed that Logic is dull and that there's something more important than logic: imagination. Do you agree with him? JM: Yes, I do--to a point. I completely agree with the sentiment because you could really tie yourself in a knots by going like, "There's a plot hole!" If you really drilled down on it, every movie, even Christopher Nolan's movies, has plot holes. That's kind of liberating when you see that as a filmmaker. When I'm in a situation where I'm posed with such a ridiculous scenario as this, you'll make yourself crazy trying to make it too logical. I didn't want to just have people attacking him for no reason. So, there had to be some premise to what's going on, but Hitchock is right. You can ruin a really great movie with logic. It's the same with action. If you're trying to make every single cut completely married to the next one, you'll step on the impact. So, it's super important to try to make sure that you back up from it and the audience can follow it, but you don't lose your mind in trying to make it all a one-er. That's at least my philosopher. It's worth trying to do long takes just to make sure that people are with you and tracking you through the story, but you gotta be kind to yourself, too, because it's better to get it in the can than to get it perfect. NYC MOVIE GURU: What film would pair well with Fight or Flight in a double feature? JM: I''ve recently seen The Substance and I cannot get over that movie. That director, I am so in awe of her right now. I know what it's like to come in with something and be like, "I wanna do this really ridiculous thing." and everyone looks at you and goes, "That seems like a bit much." I can only imagine coming in and choosing to do that all practically and the firehose of blood---there's no way that there weren't people giving her a hard time. I am so in awe of what she pulled off there, so I would humbly love to be along side that. I'm a massive Tarantino, George Miller and Spielberg geek, so anything of theirs. I'd say The Substance now. It's my latest absolute thing right now. NYC MOVIE GURU: Do you think Fight or Flight would work in 3D? JM: It could be fun. People have gotten off of it in the US, but it's still a big thing in China and Russia. It would 100% work as a 3D movie. Now they just dimensionalize it. I'm sure that what James Cameron does is just incredible and it shows, but you can dimensionalize it after the fact. It's kind of a cheat, but it's possible. So, yeah! I'm down with a 3D Fight or Flight. Why not? Main Page Interviews Menu Alphabetical Menu Chronological Menu ______________________________________________________ |
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