Ted Raimi Stars in Wild Thriller FAILURE! Shot in a Single 87-Minute Take
Ted Raimi, the brother and frequent collaborator of Sam Raimi, stars in a bonkers upcoming thriller titled Failure! and the movie was shot in a single, 87-minute take.
Raimi takes on the role of James, “a man who has just one hour to choose between financial ruin or murder to protect his family.”
The film was directed by Alex Kahuam, and Alief has acquired world sales rights. When talking about joining the film with Bloody-Disgusting, Raimi said: “I read it, and it was pretty radical. It was one take only, one shot. Yeah, isn’t that bananas? One shot, that’s the idea. So, it’s 87 pages. It is essentially a three-act play with no intermission.“
Oh, and they really shot the movie in a single take. There’s no editing. When asked what would happen if a take was ruined, Raimi said: “Start over from page one, and it was quite a challenge, but it turned out great.”
Raimi went on to say: “The scenario was very enticing because there are no cuts; it’s an hour and a half and no cuts. And I felt capable of doing such a thing because I got my training in theater first… I knew that I was capable of things that some actors trained exclusively in film, who may be fantastic actors, would tire out after 10 or 20 minutes of nonstop acting. It might be challenging, and it doesn’t mean you’re a bad actor for not being able to do it, but it’s very much like the difference between doing sustained pushups and sustained walking.”
The actor went on to talk about his character in the movie and his part in the story: “Well, I’ll tell you this. He does choose murder, but that isn’t to say that the financial ruin is or is not achieved. Now, he does choose, but that doesn’t mean he gets what he wants. I’ll leave it at that. There is still a mystery there. It is really a character study more than anything else about a man and his family and deciding in a rather extra extreme and extraordinary way. If you love your children, how do you help them, rescue them, and provide for them? It is an age-old dramatic question. Along with that, there are, I think, elements of Shakespearean tragedy. There is a father figure that helps him out very much in the vein of Hamlet, or even going back further to the Greeks. It might be Antigone, if I’m not mistaken, that has these father figures helping out a character at a precipice in their lives trying to go one way or another. And depending on which bifurcation that character takes will change everything. There’s some neat classical cool stuff in there as well. I can tease you that.”
In an interview with Variety, Raimi talked about the film being picked up by Alief, saying: “With Alief, I’m looking forward to fans seeing me in a different light; still a black and morbid one, but now dramatic as well.”
Alief President Brett Walker added, “We are chuffed to represent Alex Kahuam’s brilliant genre-bending thriller featuring a tour-de-force performance from the one and only Ted Raimi.”
Well, this sounds like it’ll be a great movie, and I’m looking forward to watching it when it’s released!
