Michael Brandt has a love for spy thrillers dating back to his childhood. “I grew up loving the spy novels by Tom Clancy, Robert Loveland,” he said. “I loved watching thrillers from the ’70s like ‘All the President’s Men’ and ‘No Way Out’ in the ’80s.”
When he and his writing partner Derek Haas became established in the business, they decided to do a film that highlighted their love for the spy genre. “Something we wanted to do was create a throwback spy thriller, he said, further explaining the writing process of the film. “Whenever you write a story with twists and turns like this one has, there are a lot of traps you can get into,” he said. “If you change one thing that happens at the end of the movie, it affects other things at the beginning. One of the biggest challenges was tracking the logic of this movie. The characters are true to what the twists are going to be.”
The pitch for ‘The Double was sold 10 to 12 years ago to MGM, he said, but then it stayed in limbo. Once MGM faced bankruptcy, Brandt and Haas set out to get their rights back to the film. Once they did, they set out to make their movie.
“The Double” is Brandt’s first time directing a film. “It was important to find actors that wouldn’t take advantage of the fact that it was my first time directing, that would treat it as a power play” said Brandt. “Luckily, I did.”
The actors the team attracted to the roles, Topher Grace and Richard Gere, were fantastic in their roles, said Brandt. “They were very collaborative, easy to work with,” he said. “Richard is such a pro. He never makes a mistake. He knows his marks, he knows when he’s out of shot, if he’s out of focus–he knows the technical aspects of filmmaking so well, and it’s very helpful for someone who is a first-time director because with an actor who is knowledgeable, it decreases the amount of technical mistakes you’re going to make.”
If aspiring screenwriters are inspired by the film to write their own blockbuster, Brandt said that one way to break into the business of screenwriting is to come up with a marketable idea. “Come up with a script, a great script, but in the middle of it, there’s a great idea.” “You have to be able to write those big idea movies. Times have changed–you can have a great script about a man and his mother and a quiet movie about what they go through, but that’s not what people are going for. You have to be able to have a marketable idea.”
As far as his movie is concerned, Brandt hopes that it’ll inspire people to take a look at the slow-burn spy thriller again, citing “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” as one of the films that were successful at bringing that genre back to the forefront. “I want people to appreciate that genre again,” he said. “The ‘Bourne’ films–they’re amazing, but they’re so big and so fast. I want people to get back to the slow, thoughtful kind of a movie.”
Written by: Monique Jones
