Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
Short description
Michael Bryce, a former bodyguard still without a licence and unsettled by the events that cost him his career, takes a therapeutic break in Capri. His rest ends when Sonia Kincaid arrives asking for help: her husband Darius, the hitman Bryce once guarded, has been taken by criminals. Bryce is pulled into a rescue that grows into a wider conspiracy, one involving a wealthy Greek businessman named Aristotle Papadopolous whose plans threaten Europe. The three of them, a reluctant protector and two volatile charges, end up standing between the plot and its targets.
Patrick Hughes directs, following Red Hill, The Expendables 3 and The Hitman's Bodyguard in his filmography. Ryan Reynolds returns as Bryce, with Samuel L. Jackson as Darius and Salma Hayek Pinault as Sonia; Antonio Banderas plays the antagonist, and Morgan Freeman and Frank Grillo also appear. Tom O'Connor wrote the screenplay with Phillip Murphy and Brandon Murphy.
Released in June 2021, the film runs 117 minutes across action, comedy, crime and thriller territory, produced through a international grouping of companies and studios in Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Sweden. Against a budget of around 70 million dollars, it grossed roughly the same worldwide, a modest return. On IMDb it holds a 6.6 rating from about 2,700 votes, and on TMDB it scores 6.6 from a similar number of voters, while the critics' score of 4.3 from 192 reviews is markedly lower than those audience figures.
What's left behind the scenes
- Over 220 local film industry workers and more than 760 extras for episodic roles were hired for filming in Croatia.
- The photo from Michael Bryce's police file, played by Ryan Reynolds, showing him in a terrible Christmas sweater, was taken from the actor's Instagram in 2018. Back then, Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal tricked Reynolds into going to a Christmas party, supposedly requiring him to wear the ugliest sweater possible, but the party turned out to be a normal one, and Reynolds in his specially selected sweater, of course, caused a sensation. The photo in the film is a photo from that very party, but with Jackman and Gyllenhaal cropped out.
- Salma Hayek refused to perform a scene in which the three main characters fall on top of each other so that Ryan Reynolds' face ends up on her buttocks, and her own face is pressed against Samuel L. Jackson's groin. A stunt double replaced her in this scene.
- In collaboration with director Patrick Hughes, production designer Russell De Rosario created numerous sets, including the interior of an exceptionally expensive yacht belonging to the character played by Antonio Banderas, which had to precisely match the interior of a real yacht in Croatia, as well as a nightclub, vineyard, and a street with shop windows, an ice cream parlor, and a tavern.
- Johnny James and Venice Smith, who played Johan and Gary respectively, are the stunt doubles for Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson.
- The extended version of the film has a runtime of 116 minutes.
- Greg Powell's team primarily shot stunt scenes outdoors using cars and boats. The most challenging scene to stage was the one in which a plumber's van loaded with pipes, pursued by an SUV, drives down a flight of stairs. This scene appears twice in the film – once with Reynolds' character driving cautiously, and another time with Jackson's character driving aggressively, pressing the gas pedal – so everything had to be organized carefully twice. In general, vans are not well-suited for high-speed stunt races. These scenes were filmed in the Croatian city and port of Rijeka on a staircase built by the ancient Romans.
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