Ilya Naishuller is a Russian-born filmmaker and front man for the Moscow punk band Biting Elbows. His band’s groundbreaking, irreverent video Bad Motherfucker became a viral sensation, catching the attention of fans around the world, attracting over 120 million views. Producer/director Timur Bekmabetov was one of those fans and he encouraged Naishuller to expand his vision into a feature length film and the result was Hardcore Henry, an action-packed, immersive experience told completely from the point-of-view of a cyborg named Henry who’s been brought back from the dead by his wife Estelle (Haley Bennett) and soon finds himself surrounded with an army of mercenaries out to kill him and his wife.
Shot almost entirely on GoPro cameras with custom engineered rigs, Hardcore Henry completely abandons, even eviscerates, traditional filmmaking and replaces it with a raw and immediate experience, allowing the audience to become one with the protagonist, so viewers go on a very personal and breathtaking journey with Henry.
“Action cinema has always thrived when it captured the sensation of participating in dangerous situations that most people would much rather avoid in real life. The goal with Hardcore Henry was to push it a step further, to put the audience right into the body of the protagonist, to have them experience the primal, exhilarating feeling that we usually view from a much safer distance,” says Naishuller.
“I couldn’t stop watching Bad Motherfucker. I admired Ilya’s daring, creative spirit,” says Bekmambetov. “There are three major factors that draw me to a project – originality and boldness and an interesting concept. That video was truly unique and unusual. Something that looks like pure insanity turns out to be a well thought out and rational project. Ilya’s process in achieving this effect is one of his most valuable assets,” Bekmambetov says.
“The best way to help promising filmmakers is to give them creative freedom, as well as full responsibility. It gave Ilya a chance to make his own mistakes and then to find ways of making things right in the end,” Bekmambetov explains.
Hardcore Henry opens May 4 in cinemas from Pioneer Films.
