FEATURE Paul Walker: back behind the wheel
Africa, he has a triumphant look on his face after he successfully — and safely — crashes a car into a fake storefront window. Walker is back in the driver’s seat, this time
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on a more independent scale, with the dramatic thriller Vehicle 19, set in Johannesburg. “There’s got to be some kind of record here; I
don’t know in terms of screen time if anybody has spent more time behind the wheel of a car than I have,” Walker says with a smile. “As a kid I was driving go-carts and I always wanted to race cars. My grandfather was a race-car driver, I inherited his DNA, there’s a driving gene for sure.” On the Vehicle 19 shoot there was a stunt
driver but Walker did most of the driving him- self where possible. Audiences will see his driv- ing up close, as the entire film is shot inside the car with Walker. Yes, entirely inside the car. “I wanted to build that sense of claustropho-
bia,” says Cape Town-based writer-director Mukunda Michael Dewil, whose first feature was the recent Retribution. “It was always going to be like a thriller that has an edge to it, and was more intimate than a blockbuster.” Dewil’s script, which made it on to the US
2010 Black List of hot unproduced screenplays, follows a US ex-con who attempts to patch up his relationship with an ex-girlfriend who works in Johannesburg. When he picks up the wrong rental car (an extremely uncool minivan) at the airport, he finds a woman (Naima McLean) in the boot and becomes embroiled in a world of police corruption. “It’s a redemptive drama dressed up as an
action thriller,” explains Dewil. n 20 Screen International at the AFM November 3, 2011
(Above from left) Vehicle 19 executive producer Eddie Mbalo and producers Ryan Haidarian and Peter Safran
Walker, who is also an executive producer on
the film, was of course tempted by more than the driving. “I like the idea that it was con- tained, and as familiar as it was, it was different. And I feel like I’ve been that desperate man, try- ing to make things work.” One of the film’s producers is Los Angeles- based Peter Safran of The Safran Company,
aul Walker is not yet bored of crashing cars on-screen, even after his role in four Fast & Furious films. On a sunny August day in Johannesburg in South
Driving force
Paul Walker is at the wheel in a thriller uniting South African talent and financing with international producers. Wendy Mitchell visits the Johannesburg set
whose credits — fittingly — include another claustrophobic thriller, Buried, about a man trapped alive in a coffin. “[Walker] has risen to the challenge,” says
Safran of the actor, who appears in 95% of the film. “It’s not dissimilar to putting Ryan Rey- nolds in Buried. People hadn’t seen him do this kind of role.” Safran is producing with US-born, Johannes-
burg-based Ryan Haidarian — former head of production and development at South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) — through Forefront Media. The project has backing from South Africa’s Industrial Develop- ment Corporation (IDC) and will also use South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) production rebate. Principal photography wrapped on Septem-
ber 4 and sales company K5 International is showing new footage of the film to buyers at this month’s American Film Market. “We pre-sold the film really well in Cannes
and expect to close out on all remaining territo- ries at AFM once we show a promo,” says K5’s sales chief Carl Clifton. K5 came on board at script stage for sales and
financing (the project’s backers include Kevin Frakes’ PalmStar Media Capital and Los Ange- les-based EFish Entertainment). K5’s new head of acquisitions Erica Motley brought the project into the company and early deals include to Stu- dioCanal for the UK and Germany. UTA is han- dling the US deal, and the film should be delivered in the first quarter of 2012. “It’s the perfect film for the independent mar-
ketplace,” suggests Clifton. “It’s a supercharged, but distinctive, action thriller with a real Holly- wood star in the lead.” Vehicle 19 shot completely on location in and
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