Directed by Sandra Sciberras (The Dustwalker), the action-packed Australian thriller places a formidable female sniper at the centre of a relentless battle for survival. The film stars Radha Mitchell (Olympus Has Fallen, Rogue), BAFTA winner and Academy Award-nominated actor Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction, The Incredible Hulk), Ioan Gruffudd (Harrow, Fantastic Four) and Ryan Kwanten (True Blood, Them).
The first production from Monster Pictures Studios, as part of an ongoing genre slate partnership with Head Gear Films, SEVEN SNIPERS follows former elite sniper Kris Hendricks, a deadly marksman forced out of hiding when the ruthless warlord known as “The Dragon” (Roth) tracks her down. Once his captive, Hendricks must now draw on every skill she possesses to protect the daughter she has raised far from the violence of her past.
Annabel Wolfe stars as Hendricks’ daughter, alongside AACTA winner Lee Tiger Halley as her boyfriend, with Charles Cottier, Damien Ryan, Bianca Wallace and Pacharo Mzembe rounding out the seven snipers behind the title.
Before Seven Snipers shoots it’s way in to Australian cinemas on April 30, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the films director about the 90s throwback tone, and understanding the world of elite snipers for total immersion into the story.
Nick: When I was a teenager, I worked at a Blockbuster. And I couldn’t help but think that while watching Seven Snipers, this would be one of those films, with this poster, title and premise, that I would find in the action section and be really excited to watch. Do you feel like that sentiment describes the tone you were going for in Seven Snipers?
Sandra Sciberras: Yeah, 100%. I’ll tell you a quick, little story. I had two little video stores that made no money at all called Video Busters. The writer used to work at Blockbuster for a decade. So, we are just those kinds of people. When he wrote, and I read, the script, I saw it as a modern take on a 90s action movie. The story is simple – you have to protect something that someone wants really bad. And it was really just a simple story embedded in a full world of genre. That’s exactly what we were going for.
Nick: The story and the character work is really interesting, especially Radha Mitchell’s character. I loved how through showing her scars, and noticing the way she speaks to her team, you get a lot of backstory and context about her and the situation. What was the process of bringing those elements to the screen, and how did they evolve with Radha in the role?
SS: There was a big history to her, and it was all in the script. We had discussed a lot, even with Tim [Roth] about his character. And between us, we had a lot of chats about how much we want to know about the past, and we opted for subtlety. We just wanted to make sure the audience knew enough about their relationship in the past, and without giving too much away, that there was an event that changes everything in the present. It was important to the film, and a lot of those decisions were made in the edit. We genuinely had to be careful how much we showed in the final product.
Nick: Tim Roth is very much so in his villain era at the moment between this, Peaky Blinders, Resurrection. He’s a great bad-guy, and I’ve heard he’s absolutely lovely in real life, which I always love to hear. How did The Dragon evolve when Tim came on board?
SS: He is a very nice man. I feel like I got the full Tim Roth experience on set. He does what he does really, really well. He’s such a professional actor. He’s so smart and he understands character so well. Those conversations about who this man was in the past, he found ways to relate to that. And The Dragon can be so brutal, but Tim managed to find the humour in it as well. That was the Tim Roth experience. You get to witness his inner workings of the character. He loves subtlety, he loves humanity. And I think that’s what makes him exceptional, and why he really stands out as a strong villain.
Nick: Something that stood out to me was about how you manage to make the action and the quiet tension equally exhilarating. Is there a technical difference in how you need to execute that feeling based on whether you’re doing a huge set-piece or a shot simply looking down the rifle scope at nothing?
SS: It’s all about headspace from a filmmakers point of view. From the script, you read it and you need to feel the tension, and then bring that to set. I found that by immersing myself into the sniper world. I really got to understand it, in the ways that I could. And I really connected to the quietness. The tension for me came from the idea that a bullet could just come from anywhere, at any time. That’s what made the story so tense. And with action, the highest stake is life. So, it was about making the feeling visceral. When the characters start running and shooting, you need to be on the edge of your seat with them.
Nick: You mentioned gaining an understanding of the sniper world. In the movie, we get to see how the sniper team reacts and adapts to their environment to maximise their skill set. I can only imagine that there is a parallel as a filmmaker when you have to maximise and adapt to a location…
SS: Yeah, and especially because we didn’t leave the location. We stayed on that farm for the whole film. So, we had time in that space to find the film a little bit. But, all the actors were also crawling in grass full of bugs. It was fucking gross. And, you can feel that on the screen. That’s just how we make movies in Australia! We just throw the actors in there. The immersion came from being in the space for this particular film, and we allowed the landscape and environment to impact the film.
Thank you to Sandra for her time, and to NixCo PR and Monster Picture Studios for organising the chat. Seven Snipers is in Australian cinemas April 30.
