When it comes to his new spy thriller “The Double,” writer/director Michael Brandt says that the genre was built into his DNA.
“[My co-writer Derek Haas] and I have always loved [Tom] Clancy and [Robert] Ludlum books,” Brandt explains. “I remember being 12 years old and picking up 'The Hunt for Red October' off of my dad's nightstand and reading it. I did not understand any of it but thought, 'Woah! This is really cool!' A spy thriller with a twist at the end has always been a genre that we have loved.”
In “The Double,” which is now available on Blu-ray and DVD at retail stores and rental outlets throughout the Valley, a senator's murder – which bears the earmarks of a presumed-dead Soviet assassin – brings a CIA operative (Richard Gere) out of retirement. Topher Grace plays a young FBI agent with whom said operative is forced to partner.
“We loved 'No Way Out' and 'Three Days of the Condor' and wanted to do something along those lines,” Brandt continues. “Originally, the idea for this movie in our minds was a double agent who is after himself. We heard that Richard liked our script. Once you get somebody like that, it helps you raise the money and get the attention of other actors.”
Of course, with “The Double” being his first attempt at directing a feature-length film, Brandt quickly discovered that the job is drastically more difficult than he ever imagined. He notes that even hard-working producers like Haas who are on the set for each and every moment of filming do not have a complete understanding of the weight that is ever-present on a director's shoulders.
“Especially your first time out, you take on so much responsibility yourself,” says Brandt, noting that he learned that directing is not only about knowing where to put the camera and how to deal with the actors but also what decisions are worth worrying about. “It took me a few weeks into the process before I started to let some of those decisions go and let them be handled by other people.
After all, as the filmmaker explains, there is only so much emotional baggage that one man can carry. Therefore, it has helped that Brandt has Haas as his right-hand man – someone he claims to be as close to as his wife. And while they may occasionally argue, said arguments are never about creative differences.
“We have just one rule – if you are going to change something, it has got to be so significantly better that the other guy cannot argue about it,” says Brandt, noting that he and Haas write scripts by sending them back and forth to one another. “With that as our motto, so to speak, it has worked out pretty well. We know that neither one of us would ever be any good without the other one.”
“The Double” marks the fifth major motion picture that Brandt and Haas have written with one another. Their filmography includes the 2008 action thriller “Wanted” and the 2007 remake of the western “3:10 to Yuma.” And while their films tend to vary in terms of genre, Brandt notes that they each share a common theme that means a lot to he and Haas.
“Derek and I have deep father issues,” explains Brandt, noting that his father died when he was just a teenager and Haas has got a complicated relationship with his father. “If you look at all of those movies, there are father/son scenes in all of them that are pretty heavy. If we are working on a project and that seam can show itself, then all of the sudden we will become very engaged.”
Brandt adds that said seam always involves a son who is attempting to understand his father and a father who is attempting to show his son the right way to do things and ends up giving up a lot in order to send his son that message. Of course, in “The Double,” Gere does not play Grace's father but their characters relationship resembles that of a father and son.
“Thematically, all of those movies are very similar even though they are in different genres,” continues Brandt, who promises to direct again sometime soon but notes that his next script – an action thriller titled “Overdrive” - was written for someone else to helm. “It is just about whether or not bullets can bend or bullets fly straight in the differences between some of them.”
“The Double” (PG-13 – 98 minutes) is now available on Blu-ray and DVD at retail stores and rental outlets throughout the Valley.
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