BEAST follows ex-con Patton James (Daniel MacPherson), who abandoned his mixed martial arts dream
to support his wife, Luciana (Kelly Gale), and daughter. When Patton’s brother Malon suffers a serious
injury in a fight to make good on his debts, Patton has to risk everything to get back in the ring to avenge
him. But to reclaim his old glory and succeed in the ONE Championship, Patton must regain the trust of
his ace trainer (Russell Crowe) and keep his own family together.
As Beast prepares to blast into Australian cinemas on April 23, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the film’s director, Tyler Atkins, about meaningful cinema and filming the climatic fight in front of 15,000 MMA fans.
Nick: When we spoke for Bosch and Rockit, you mentioned how, as a filmmaker, it’s important to pursue “meaningful cinema”. What were the things in Beast when you first read it that stood out as meaningful to you?
Tyler Atkins: Yeah, it took me a long time to really figure out the story I wanted to tell. We had two or three false starts on this film. Years of pain and heartbreak. Before Russell Crowe took a pass at the script, there were things I liked in it, but there wasn’t a lot in there. I just really sat with it, and meditated on it, and started injecting things that I saw in my life – my partnerships, my kids. I’m a father, I’ve been married for nine years, and I love shaping and growth through marriage or partnerships. I love strong men who can protect their communities, and their families. I really like balanced med that can be vulnerable and give help. True masculinity isn’t just about breaking down a wall, but it’s about rebuilding it and being a better man. And so I really leant into that sort of true masculinity, not toxic masculinity.
The underdog story was also important to me. I basically come from the streets. As a young kid I was kicked out of school. I worked on a fishing boat when I was really young. I’ve had a hard, challenging life. I went through kidney disease. And it’s stories like Beast when being the underdog is a superpower. That element was in the script early on. I love people that can chase their dreams.
Nick: I can only imagine there were some parallels in the journey of making this film and that tough, underdog story you were telling.
TA: Yeah, I think you’re right. I look at every challenge in life as a lesson. And it’s my whole hearted belief that you can grow through trauma and pain. So, I tried to tie that into making this movie as well. We never would have had the grit or determination or resilience if we let this film push us over. I think we needed all of that to tell this story against all of the odds. It really allowed us to make the film that we made. I told the crew, “This film is going to kick the shit out of you”, and there were many instances where it really did. It was brutal, it was hard. But I loved the experience now reflecting on it. I’m really grateful that we went through it together, and no one buckled. We stuck together as a crew and cast, because it really is a collective. I was surrounded by hundreds of people that are so talented.
Nick: The film itself is fuelled by this very primal tone. Dan’s performance, the fight scenes, the score – it really taps into the deep primality. What was the process of bringing that feeling so viscerally to the screen?
TA: It was complex. I really wanted these war drums, because I sat in Sikh temples for 10, 15 years and they played war drums every day. And every time I hear that war drum, I want to go to war. So, I started tapping into the sound of what that primal feeling was. And I found that survival, and the fight for survival, was what I was feeling when I heard them. It’s a warrior’s spirit. But, I also was balancing it with music that I would listen to when I did yoga, and that sort of completed that full warrior spirit for me.
Sam Hobbs, my production designer, really understood the vision for the film and he elevated it to a whole new level. My original cinematographer had a heart condition, and was hospitalised before we began filming. So we were looking for someone new to shoot the film. And Russell put forward a guy who had never shot his own feature film before, but he shot camera on one of Russell’s previous films. And I was watching his stuff, and he was incredible. And he came in the weekend before shooting, when no other DPs wanted to because it was too ambitious of a shoot, and I met Thomaz Labanca. And together we all just hustled, which itself felt so primal.
Nick: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Bren Foster, who plays the film’s antagonist, but also choreographed the fight scenes. What was the collaboration like with Bren?
TA: Brent saved the film. He came on pretty late, and choreographed the whole thing. The action wouldn’t be what it is without Bren, nor without Dan being there and holding space for Bren. Dan had been training for three years before we even began shooting. But, Bren killed it. I can’t speak highly enough of him. He just got sweaty, dirty, taking hit after hit, shooting in the smallest possible window. I really connected with Bren on a higher lever. He taught me that martial arts is an art. It’s a dance. There’s a beauty to it. And I really opened up my eyes to that when we were shooting. I think Dan had that relationship with him as well. That final fight wouldn’t have happened if Bren didn’t choreograph it, and ONE Championship didn’t let us film in a 15,000 person stadium.
Thank you to Tyler for his time! Beast is in Australian cinemas April 23.
