Timothy Oliphant in Havoc.Netflix
For director Gareth Evans, it all started with a coffee mug full of cocaine.
“It’s quite simple for me – it all begins with an image. So once that picture of a cop picking up a mug of coke came into my head, it was all about backtracking as opposed to going forward. Where did the drugs come from? Who was delivering it? How did the deal go bad? That’s the seed.”
So went the process that inspired Havoc, Evans’s magnificent (and magnificently violent) corrupt-cop thriller that marks the director’s first new feature in seven years. While that gap might not be so notable for some filmmakers, it felt like an awful long time for super-fans of the Welsh mind behind 2011’s The Raid and its blood-soaked 2014 sequel, which stand as the most influential and brutal action films made this century.
Ahead of this week’s Netflix premiere of Havoc, which rivals The Raid 2 in terms of body count while upping the star power thanks to maniacally committed performances from Tom Hardy and Timothy Olyphant, Evans spoke with The Globe and Mail about breaking boundaries – and bones.
Yeo Yann Yann in Havoc.Netflix
Shooting on Havoc started back in 2021, and while you’ve certainly been busy with your TV series Gangs of London, what have the past few years been like for production on this film?
Once we shot and edited it, we identified that there was maybe about a week or two worth of pickup shooting that was required. And then we had this very long hiatus while we waited for schedules to line up. We had a wide ensemble cast and we couldn’t get everyone’s dates to line up. Then the strikes happened. Then people had to finish the films they’d started just before the strikes. Before we knew it, almost three years had passed. But we finally got to do the pickups last summer.
How frustrating was that?
It allowed me this odd luxury of time where I was able to sit and watch the film and also take some time away from it – detach from it, then rediscover it. But it was quite frustrating because I knew it was something special. But Netflix made sure to make it a priority project – they were not going to abandon it. But I can stop having my anxiety about it.
This film was made in Wales, as was your last movie, 2018’s folk-horror film Apostle. Do you see yourself ever going back to Indonesia, where you made the Raid films?
It’s always project by project, but I have so many ideas based in Asia, ones that would reunite me with [Raid star] Iko Uwais and the boys again. I’ve been dying to do that, and they keep telling me to hurry up before their knees give in. I’ve definitely not left Indonesia behind – that place gave me my career.
Havoc’s evocative opening car chase was filmed in a virtual space, with you choreographing the action using a VR headset. Yet other parts of the film, including the intense nightclub fight, seem to be entirely practical, with what seems like a record number of fake-blood squibs used. What’s the balance between in-camera action and digital effects?
It’s a healthy combo. We had some really good squibs going off, but I always lean on Andi Novianto, who has been my VFX guy since I started in this industry. There’s nobody better at doing blood and debris and bullet hits like him. But I think we shot something like 30,000 rounds in this film – a lot of the muzzle flashes are real. We also had a lot of great VFX vendors here who helped facilitate the world of this film, because it’s obviously not a real U.S. city but an amalgam.
Given the stunt work involved here, I have to ask about your thoughts on the Academy Awards deciding to honour stunt work with its own category at the 2027 Oscars.
It’s about time. But it’s funny because I was talking about this earlier and there are still so many layers and facets to it. One category doesn’t feel like it’s quite enough. You also want something that’s specific to fight choreography, design, engineering. Do you reward the intricacy of choreography within a martial-arts capacity? The bravery of a high dive? Pyrotechnics? Driving? It’s wonderful to have, though, because every stunt is about mitigating risk for the purposes of entertainment. Sometimes it’s all done for a five-second shot. So paying respect is the least that we can do.
Havoc is available to stream on Netflix starting Friday.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
