Μύ Newcomer Alex Pettyfer is Alex Rider in Stormbreaker. This "humorous and exciting" spy yarn is based on the children's book franchise by Anthony Horowitz. He also penned the script for director Geoffrey Sax, but despite the British talent and setting, this action flick is pure Hollywood. Sadly it wasn't what the blockbuster industry watchers hoped for, but a sequel may still be on the cards.
Calm Before The Storm
Horowitz explains that the Alex Rider book series was a slow burning success in the featurette From Page To Screen. He talks about ditching the jokes and bringing "more depth" to the characters, compared with previous works, while cast and crew reflect on what they like best about the story. Nighy adds that we should celebrate the advent of "a big commercial British action movie", especially since it was made entirely with British money.
Of course, packing in lots of breathtaking acrobatics is crucial to the formula and the Stunts featurette goes behind the scenes to reveal the mechanics. Surprisingly, the opening scene that finds Yassen Gregorovich (Damian Lewis) hanging upside down from a helicopter wasn't just a CG spectacle, but performed on location by stunt double Lee Sheward. Sax justifies the danger, saying he wanted the action to be "fairly full on..."
The business of organising a horse chase through London is dealt with in a separate featurette. Here, Sax points out that bringing central London to a standstill would have been too big an ask a few years ago, but since then measures have been taken to make London a more "film friendly" place. Unfortunately, Pettyfer doesn't seem so friendly with his horse, so leading lady Sarah Bolger obligingly takes the reins.
Breaking Bones
Fight scenes come under the spotlight with martial arts master Donnie Yen, whose credits also include Hero and Blade II. We see him prepping Alicia Silverstone (Jack) and Miss Pyle (Nadia) for their tooth-and-nail scrap, and there's a closer look at the junkyard sequence where Rider sees off the bad guys with an old chain. Although most of the action was performed on set, CGI did come into play at various stages; effects bod Mark Sanger deconstructs the finale atop Sayle's Tower in another fetaturette.
"It's the best character to play for a teenager," coos Pettyfer in a profile that offers a brief glimpse of his audition tape. Sax talks about needing a young actor who could meet the physical demands of the role as well as looking good, although Sophie Okenedo (who plays Mrs Jones) insists, "He's so good looking, he doesn't have to do anything else." Rounding off the batch of featurettes is a standard 20 minute look at the making of the film where each of the key players (including Ewan McGregor) explains their part in the story.
Sax and Horowitz deliver a breezy commentary to accompany the film, explaining which scenes from the book didn't make the final cut and why. Among other backstage trivia, Sax reveals that most of the film was shot on a rubbish dump on the Isle of Man (!) and Horowitz declares that he named Yassen Gregorovich after a "Norwegian children's illustrator". The writer also confesses to having "a fixation" with photo booths (used in the story as a secret door to MI5). "When I was a kid," he admits, "I thought they were weird and scary."
Okay, so it mightn't have taken the world by storm on its initial release, but this DVD boasts more than enough derring-do for young thrill seekers.
EXTRA FEATURES
