by Anthony Frajman
To say filmmaker Tyler Atikins (Bosch and Rockit) gave his all on his MMA drama, Beast, would be an understatement. Not only was filming physically challenging and tiring, it also saw Atkins hospitalised after the shoot.
Yet, despite many setbacks, Atkins saw the film through.
Beast follows former MMA fighter Patton James (Daniel MacPherson). After leaving the sport, James returns when his brother faces danger. Reteaming with old coach Sammy (Russell Crowe), James agrees to one last fight against vicious opponent Xavier Grau (Bren Foster).
Ahead of the film’s release, Atkins spoke to FilmInk about drawing from his own life and overcoming setbacks.
Originally Beast was offered to you but didn’t feel right. How did you decide to make Beast?
“Yeah, originally, it got offered to me and it was set in America, in Buffalo, New York. And, for me personally, I just couldn’t see what the movie was. I had a conversation with Luke Hemsworth, who really opened my eyes a lot to what film I wanted to tell as a filmmaker.
“It was a series of events. I had a really long talk with Dan [MacPherson]. We were in the Gold Coast, and we spent some time together and wrapped our head around how could we make this a cool movie that I would wanna watch. And we ended up setting it in Australia.
“I had a job on a fishing boat as my first job out of school when I was like 14. I really wanted to shoot this in Newcastle or Port Kembla, that kind of Australian toughness, the grit. I grew up in the Gold Coast when it was pretty rough in the eighties and in the nineties. And, Newcastle and Port Kembla still have that. It hasn’t blown out there, and they’re still really hard workers there. I worked really hard to try and shape a story around what I thought could be Australia’s Rocky. Australia hadn’t really done that before.”
You said you saw parallels with the story and your own life. How much did you relate to the story?
“Yeah, a lot. There were a lot of parallels in my own life. As a filmmaker, I need to know what story I’m telling, or else I’m just a fraud. I’ve had a really hard life. I really lent into the things that I’ve learned as a man. I’m 40 now and growing through my thirties and getting out of being a little broken boy, there’d been a great deal of healing. I’m a father now, I’ve been married nine years. I’d learned as a man and what it is to become a man and grow through my adversity and make mistakes, but ask for forgiveness. I know that world really well.”
You also knew about MMA before filming?
“Yeah, I’d done MMA. I grew up with a dad that was a kung-fu master, he had a wicked backhand whack on him (laughs). But I grew up in that world, and I’d done a little bit of Muay Thai. I did kung-fu when I was younger. I was a surfer, so once I started surfing, I didn’t really do anything else. But I had a lot of friends that are fighters still, early MMA guys, and a lot of them I really love and enjoy. And they’re beautiful people. It’s a form of meditation and discipline, and a lot of fighters that I meet that had really tough upbringings as kids, they found solace or they found a church in the MMA gym or in the fighting gym. They’ve become very grounded and very meditative. That’s what I was really drawn to within this story, of trying to explore that.”
How physically demanding was filming?
“It was very challenging. After I wrapped this, I never wanted to make a movie again. It kicked me really hard. It was collapsing every day, every single day shooting. We didn’t have money and it was collapsing for various reasons. So, to hold that pressure as well as having to deliver a film that’s watchable is another pressure that you need to hold. Working with Russell Crowe is a whole other level. Because you’re working with a master actor that sees through everything. You’ve gotta be so prepared. But I knew the film I was making, and I was very prepped. We’d had two false starts over two years. So, the years that we didn’t get it up, I just kept studying, diving deeper into the film that I wanted to tell. So, when we finally got to the shoot and it was still collapsing every day, I just kept a really clear vision of what I wanted to tell, and every day was a miracle. So, yeah, it was challenging.”
Can you talk about the training that took place for the film?
“There was a lot of MMA training. Dan put his body on the line. I obviously positioned myself with Bren Foster, who’s an incredible martial artist. He’s a black belt jiujitsu teacher as well as a world championship martial artist. So, as a director, I’ve got to position myself around crew that understand my vision, but also that are as good as you can get. Because I’m only as good as my crew and cast. I was really fortunate to have Bren there, and Dan really just showed up. Bren was our leader in the MMA world. I worked really closely with Bren and Dan just to get all the emotional beats that I need, as well as trying to shoot the final fight in a couple days, which was so challenging. We didn’t have a lot of time to shoot that. For all the fights we only had about three days. It was hard, but we did it.”
What was that final fight like to shoot?
“It was very complex and Dan obviously in round three had torn his groin, his abductor off his bone, and he couldn’t move. We were in Thailand, I didn’t have my lead actor and I had created a sort of visual language that I wanted both my actors to be the fighters in the film. I didn’t want doubles. I wanted that sense of realism, so it’s not cheating the audience. And, at the end of the day, it was hard and there were a lot of problems and a lot of issues, but we managed to do it in such a short amount of time. It was so ambitious. A lot of people didn’t want us to go to Thailand to do this, but I didn’t wanna fall into a trap here of just getting a small studio and putting a hundred people in as extras. It just wouldn’t have been what it is. And the scope and scale of a 15,000 person stadium with a real crowd and that sound design… It’s big. And it’s quite unique for an Aussie film to have that level of production value. You couldn’t even get that with a $50 million budget.”
Did Russell Crowe have much involvement during filming?
“We had three blocks in this film. We had a Sammy’s gym block. He is just so talented. There’s a reason why he’s won an Oscar. I think he should have won like three or four Oscars. Working with someone like him, he just elevates everyone. And, as an artist, he really holds space for me to grow and to find my voice. I’m really fortunate and grateful to have worked with Russell because you can’t just be mediocre with him. You have to be at the top of your game and he will find any weakness and just go in there and open it up. I was very prepped with Russell, but also very flexible to work with him, to create with him and to collaborate with him. That’s kind of like our industry, right? You get the masters that teach the younger generation coming up. And Russell held a lot of space for me, and for Dan and elevated us.”
How important was authenticity to you in the film?
“It was super important. I studied a lot of fight films and Warrior is probably one of the closest ones. It’s one of the only MMA films to ever get made that’s within that sort of Rocky realm. I studied that and they did a really good job. But I wanted to really try and lean into holding onto shots, like one shots and really trusting that our actors are there. Not just have a cut every one to two seconds, like cut, cut, cut, you try and get the rhythm and you can build it. But also, I wanted to really sit when they’re doing jujitsu and really know that our actors worked and that’s who they are. They’re not stunt doubles. It was a really fine balance. And then getting into the edit, you gotta try and figure out the rhythm of it, the pacing of it. It’s really challenging and especially when we didn’t have a lot of time to shoot.”
It must be exciting to see the film released.
“It’s very exciting. It’s a big process to let go and know that we’ve delivered it and we put our bodies on the line for it. Dan tore his groin, he couldn’t walk… We did everything we could. I gave it everything.”
Beast is in cinemas now
