Olympus Has Fallen hits theaters March 22, 2013 and while this film may look like it’s going to be awesome, before going to the movies you might want to get an inside look courtesy of director Antoine Fuqua himself. We got a chance to talk to the Training Day director about his latest action thriller and Fuqua opened up about some of what went into the making of the movie.
If you didn’t know already, Olympus Has Fallen is about the White House being taken over by a terrorist mastermind. And when a disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning hears the President is taken prisoner he manages to get himself in the White House. As the national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning’s inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President, and avert an even bigger disaster.
Olympus Has Fallen stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Dylan McDermott, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, and Rick Yune.
Check out what Fuqua had to say about the film, below…
Was there any reservations towards any political leanings giving the current climate?
Antoine Fuqua “First thing is to entertain. Make a fun action thriller, its always good to make an action thriller that has substance and relevance to our times. Terrorism is apart of our lives unfortunately since 9/11 our brains are wired that these things can happen.”
Its obvious that Morgan Freeman was behind the terror attack, because how else would the terrorist have gotten the military weapons?
Morgan Freeman: I told you somebody would figure that out.(Laughs)
Antoine Fuqua: “They get their weapons where everyone else get there weapons from. You can make them these days. You could make an AK-47. You can order it off line. You can get it from the military. You could get it from anywhere. That’s the problem.”
What were some of the memorable moment while making the movie?
Antoine Fuqua: “As the director, I have so many memorable moments. ever time I got to walk on set and see Angela Basset, and Erin Eckheart and Gerard—me and Gerard were together everyday in the middle of the night coming up with ideas. And then Morgan Freeman would walk in the room, then Rick Yune would walk in the room and Dylan McDermott would walk in the room. For me its was everyday….and then I got to shoot and blow some stuff up.”
After President Obama sees this film and see some of the scenarios play out, how do you think he would react? And do you think the Secret Service is going to be a little bit paranoid after seeing this?
Antoine Fuqua: “Nah we’re in good hands man. Hopefully our president will watch it and enjoy it as a movie. We worked with some secret service guys, these guys are the best of the best. We’re in good hands. I think creatively, the Government can look at this scenario and say lets make sure this doesn’t happen.”
How much did you learn about the secrets of the White House building?
Antoine Fuqua: “We work with people who work in the White House and some people who I can’t tell you, gave us some information. They were employees of the white House in different capacities. Secret Service, one gentlemen worked for George Bush Senior . They laid out the White House in a basic sense. They told me stuff that I wouldn’t put in the movie anyway and of course they wouldn’t let me.”
Are North Koreans the new bad guys? Is that going to be the new trend in Hollywood?
Antoine Fuqua: “Somebody got to do it. This script has been written years ago. Nobody knew that this is going to be happing in our world as far as nuclear threats. In this film, we went out of our way to make sure it was more about extremist terrorism as oppose to the country itself attacking us. We just wanted to make it personal rather make it about the country”
Catch Olympus Has Fallen In Theaters March 22 2013.
