COLD PURSUIT (2019) Production Notes

"A whole can of worms." That's how Liam Neeson describes what his character discovers in Hans Petter Moland's blisteringly violent - and bitingly hilarious

VIEW ALL 'COLD PURSUIT' PAGES
(Visual Review, Cast, Crew, Production Notes, Photos, Articles, & More)

BLOOD IN THE SNOW

Director Hans Petter Moland and Liam Neeson team up for a dramatic thriller that mixes icy revenge and dark humor

"It's a whirlwind of vengeance, violence and dark humour." - Liam Neeson

"A whole can of worms." That's how Liam Neeson describes what his character discovers in Hans Petter Moland's blisteringly violent - and bitingly hilarious - COLD PURSUIT.

"My character goes out on a path of vengeance, but doesn't realise what he's getting himself into," says Neeson. "He thinks he's going after one guy who killed his son. Then it escalates into a whirlwind of vengeance and violence. And it all has this grain of dark humor running through it."

This twisted revenge story swirls around Neeson's Nels Coxman, a snowplow driver in the Colorado ski resort of Kehoe. Just named Citizen of the Year for his services in keeping the roads open to the remote town, Coxman's life swiftly spirals into amateur retribution and an escalating pile of corpses when his son (played by Micheal Richardson) is mistakenly killed by local gangsters over a stash of missing drugs. All Nels knows about killing people is what he's read in crime novels, but to find out what happened to his son, Coxman sets off with a sawn off hunting rifle - and unwittingly sets off a chain of events that will include a snowbound turf war, kidnapping, two rival crime lords, and violent run ins with an array of colorful hoodlums.

Comparisons to classic Coen brothers movies - Fargo, in particular - greeted Hans Petter Moland's original Norwegian film, In Order Of Disappearance, starring Stellan Skarsgard, when it opened to rave reviews and massive global box office in 2014. Other fans drew parallels to the depth and wit of dialogue of early Quentin Tarantino films. But while Moland is "obviously delighted" to have his work placed in those two ballparks, for him, he has his own unique style with his inspiration going back further to the films of another filmmaker known for walking the edge of darkness. "I grew up loving the films of Billy Wilder," says Moland of the beloved and Oscar winning director of Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole, Some Like it Hot, and The Apartment. "I loved their darkness and their gallows humor, that great balance between the two. So when I was offered the chance to remake In Order Of Disappearance, this time in English, I took it."

The idea to have Moland remake his own film came from producer Michael Shamberg, whose credits include Pulp Fiction, Out Of Sight and Get Shorty, among many others, and knows a fresh crime movie when he sees one. "The best part of my career has been working with singularly talented people," says Shamberg. "When I saw In Order Of Disappearance, it had everything. And COLD PURSUIT has the same punch. Audiences will be emotionally invested in the characters, satisfied with it as an action film, and also be surprised by how funny it is. It's a film where that balance has to be just right, and that's why Hans Petter had to be the one to do it. And in the center of it all is the wonderful Liam Neeson, who brings his classic 'man-of-action' persona to the film - and then delightfully goes in a new direction with it."

It's also a story about multiple other twistedly complex characters, including two other fathers that Nels slams into. The first is Trevor Calcote, AKA "Viking," a psychotic local drug lord played by Tom Bateman (costar of Murder on the Orient Express and Snatched). The second is White Bull, played by legendary Canadian actor and folk singer Tom Jackson, who brings a soulful gravitas to the role of a rival boss who runs a cabal of tough Native American gangsters - guys as deadpan as they are deadly - with a dignity and coolness. "These are all bad guys. There are no good guys in this movie. So you have to start there, and then decipher, 'Well, how bad is that guy?'" says Jackson of a conflict that ends with lots of blood spilled across white snow and which he says recalls films like The Wild Bunch.

For COLD PURSUIT, Moland brought along much of his key crew from the Norwegian original while enlisting a new screenwriter, Frank Baldwin, and a supporting cast including Laura Dern as Coxman's wife, Grace; Emmy Rossum as smart small-town cop Kim; and Julia Jones as Aya, the tough and calculating wife of the unhinged cartel chief Viking. "The female characters are the ones who are smart enough to distance themselves from the actions and stupidity of the men," laughs Moland. "The men are domineering, self-important, and oblivious. They're either deadly serious ... or dead."

Baldwin's screenplay has particular fun with its richly drawn, bickering bad guys. "The stakes are high," says the screenwriter, "but the men act massively self-important, and that's where the humor comes from." Moland notes that his original inspiration was a serious one. "The original idea came from me thinking, 'If my son died in this way, would I just sit back and accept that happened? Or would I do something about it? And would it just lead to an endless escalation of violence?'" says Moland. "It's kind of a heavy theme, well-suited for a dark comedy. There was a desire to not be restrained by genre, to allow different genres to happily live next to each other, to be genuinely horrifying and tragic, but also worth laughing at - just like life is."

The result is something genuinely unique, a movie with incredible action shot through with an undercurrent of knowing humor and played out by a brilliant supporting cast.

"That's why this remake had to have Hans Petter directing it," says Shamberg. "That tone is such a fine balance that I think only he could do it. This isn't your typical revenge movie. It's a movie about the futility of vengeance. It's a violent film that's anti-violence. Which is a bit of an oxymoron, but you get to have your cake, and eat it too!"

HIGH STANDARDS, LOW DEEDS - AND AN UNDYING LEGACY

In a story filled with complexity, the inclusion of Native American characters was essential- even as COLD PURSUIT puts absolutely everybody in the crosshairs

"I liked the idea that those who some view as 'strangers' are, in fact, on their own land." - Hans Petter Moland

Vengence knows no boundaries: In COLD PURSUIT, that notion extends from the quiet man, Nels Coxman, who thought he had escaped his family's blood legacy to the descendants of indigenous people butchered and betrayed.

Yet even among this tapestry, the character of White Bull - played with steely soulfulness by Tom Jackson, the esteemed Canadian actor, artist, and educator whose mother was Cree and who grew up on the One Arrow Reserve in Saskatchewan - stands apart. White Bull's protection of his family and his territory is in direct relation to his values and his history. He is a man who was offered a chance when he was younger to stand close to the same playing field as those who long looked down on tribal people. Now, at age 70, White Bull is a criminal force to be reckoned with - though in keeping with the business he runs, he has attained his stature by unethical, and illegal, means.

"Film history is full of Westerns where Native Americans are merely used for plot purposes, or used as adversaries based on preconceived notions - they've been seen either as savages, ruthless warriors, victims, or just something else that serves the white point of view," says director Hans Petter Moland. "In my original film, the Serbians - or 'Albanians,' as they are often mis-called in that film by other criminals - were the classic strangers in a strange land, who then discover hidden aspects of Norway as the film progresses. For COLD PURSUIT, I wanted to explore the idea that those who some view as 'strangers' are, in fact, on their own land."

Says screenwriter Frank Baldwin, "When we did the table read in Vancouver before principal shooting began, I spoke with Tom Jackson and a number of the other First Nation actors that Hans Petter had cast in the film, and they said it was so much fun to have actual dialogue in a movie. Because they were used to having one line and then their character would get shot."

Moland says a number of factors went into his desire to have one corner of the criminal triangle in COLD PURSUIT be a Native American syndicate.

"I had a great interest prior to this in American history in general and the plight of American indigenous people, and how they were pushed off of their own land and had to suffer as a nation," Moland says. "I'm not going to pretend that I'm an expert in the issues and history of indigenous people. That would be wrong, and Frank did research prior to the writing stage. But what I did do was during rehearsals, I learned a lot from the actors. They carry with them a lot of their history, or knowledge about their own history, and that was invaluable because it informed me and the film about what possibly their characters might spring out of."

Unlike in the original Norwegian film, having this crime gang be Native Americans on land their ancestors lived on creates another kind of tension with Viking, who audiences see develop another level of awfulness and villainy as he denigrates White Bull's people's history on the land.

"Viking thinks this piece of Colorado around Denver and Kehoe is all his territory because his father, Bullet, was here before him," explains Baldwin. "It's another level of his myopia of course, since Viking has no understanding of anything larger than that. Yet Viking's ex-wife, Aya, is Native American too, so there's that complication. Plus, from a screenwriting standpoint, it also felt like this was the type of gang that hasn't been very often in movies, if at all. As compared to the original, in which Albanians, or Serbians, had been done a lot. They show up as villainous gangs in a lot of movies. And for this film, it was interesting and fun to show White Bull's team of gangsters having quirky conversations, and expand their personalities and show they had their own peccadilloes, just as Viking's men have, if not more so."

There is also, of course, more than a grain of truth in terms of the issues facing the Native American population that - while fictionalized and sensationalized for the purpose of a thriller - have echoes in COLD PURSUIT.

But of course, another major factor in COLD PURSUIT is its irreverence, and the way it props all of its characters, no matter who they are, up for a bit of puncturing and humor. And though White Bull is always a man of dignity, there are moments when Viking or other characters show their ignorance by using stereotypes - or even when some of White Bull's own gang get the upper hand in a situation or two by exploiting the sensitivity around them.

Overall, there is a universal sort of eyebrow-raising at the ridiculousness and folly that is a human existence, whether it's lived as a criminal or as a "citizen of the year."

Says Moland, "This is a film that takes an irreverent jab at everyone. That's the satirical element of it."

Adds Baldwin, "Part of that is Viking - he is who he is, and he disparages everybody and uses derogratory labelling, which is very telling in regards to figuring him out. He gets his licks in no matter who he's dealing with, or who his adversary is at the moment."

The notion of Viking taking aim at a group that is so "other" is illuminating, the director says. "It's this idea that it's convenient to have an enemy - somebody Viking can degrade by putting a label on them and perhaps call by a derogatory name. That mechanism is certainly part of the less-favorable aspects of being human. Here, Viking feels entitled and superior to everyone, whether they're black or gay or Native American or whatever, and being able to belittle somebody by putting a derogatory name onto them is part of that mechanism for him."

What none of that does is take away the enjoyment White Bull and his gang have in their day-to-day life, the warmth they feel or the quirkiness with which they view their jobs.

"White Bull is the leader of a criminal gang and is ruthless and has the potential for violence, but there seems to be a lot more fun to White Bull's gang, which says something about his capacities for leadership. He's not threatened by people being individuals. His guys are not afraid of enjoying their lives - even when they're on a boring stakeout, their individuality shows. You know, they're smoking pot, poking fun at each other by throwing snowballs."

And, in a pair of memorable scenes that involve hang-gliding, there are subtle meanings - and a memorable send-off for one character in the film.

"To me, that hang-gliding scene is the Native American gang simply enjoying the greatness of the landscape they are in," says Moland. "White Bull is enjoying the playful grace of the young skiers, and for his men I think it's simply the joy of seeing one of their own soar like an eagle. There's something elementary about wanting to fly. Seeing it done so successfully by someone they know, who's clearly not a pro, but who just reaches for the experience out of childish desire, brings joy to their hearts....And yet even the one man that momentarily defied gravity eventually comes crashing down."

"Although tongue-in cheek, this film can also be viewed as a cautionary tale about revenge. Pursuing it catches up with you eventually, no matter how nice you are."

WELCOME TO KEHOE

The modern American West provides a chillingly perfect setting: a snowed-in ski resort town with a dwindling population "Because this location is so remote, the story seems to take place out of time, in a way." - Frank Baldwin

"Mother Nature never ceases to amaze, does it?" marvels Liam Neeson of the show-stopping location of COLD PURSUIT. "There were a few times when we were filming up in the mountains that I thought, 'The audience aren't even going to be looking at me on screen, they're going to be looking at these mountains behind me!'"

He exaggerates, of course, but it's easy to understand what Neeson means. The production spent the first four weeks of shooting up in the The Fortress mountains in Alberta, Canada, battling extremely hazardous conditions at 9,000 feet above sea level to deliver something truly spectacular on screen.

"There were some days," laughs Moland, "where you would ask yourself, 'What am I doing dragging everyone all the way up here?' But then you'd watch the dailies back and realize that it was 100 percent worth it."

Onscreen, the result is a startling juxtaposition. On the surface, Kehoe is a tranquil destination, designed for fun and sporty relaxation. But, under its smooth, white powdery surface runs a blood-red river of murder and mayhem.

On the set and at that altitude, shoot days would start off relatively calm, "then suddenly you'd get these blizzards and heavy snowfalls," says Neeson. "It was very dramatic and beautiful, and cold, which was necessary for our film."

For Moland, aside from the extreme weather fluctuations, the constant changing of the light made continuity a struggle, and for the rest of the cast, multiple layers of clothing were a daily necessity. But for Neeson, who used to drive forklifts and trucks for Guinness back in the day, the snowbound locale also brought with it some nice added bonuses.

"For this movie, I had to drive three different snowplows," Neeson says with a smile. "We had a wonderful guy who showed us how to drive them. They're extraordinary machines! When you're in them, you're just aware of this metallic power you have underneath you. These things can gobble up snow and shoot it 50 metres away! And I had the privilege of driving them for short periods of time. It gave me a newfound respect for these guys that clear these roads. Those locations may look pretty, but there's a real harshness at play here too."

"One of the strongest impressions I had from watching Hans Petter's original is that, because this location is so remote, this story seems to take place out of time, in a way," says Baldwin. "I wanted to preserve that sense that this place isn't really governed by all the normal rules because it's so far out. It makes it easier to go with what's happening in the sense that these people are getting away with this stuff because it's so remote and so snowy and there's so many long stretches with no people around. The remoteness is really important to this story, both in the feel it gives you and in the sense of, 'You've got to make your own rules out here.' And that's kind of a classic American theme of the West."

CITIZEN CRIMINAL

Liam Neeson is no stranger to reinvention. But even by his standards, COLD PURSUIT is a shift into wicked new territory

There aren't many actors whose resume includes everything from a turn in one of cinema's most important achievements (Schindler's List) to playing a Jedi Master, a Batman villain, a pioneering sex researcher, a shady cop made out of LEGO bricks, and a wise martyred lion. But then, Liam Neeson isn't like many other actors.

With an astonishing 126 credits to his name, the actor from Ballymena, Northern Ireland, was memorably reinvented as an action star in 2008 with his starring role as Bryan Mills in the global smash Taken. But while that movie's plot - a father out for revenge against the men who have put his child in danger - may sound like it shares some DNA with that of COLD PURSUIT, this new film sees him deliver a performance unlike any in his already storied career.

"On the one level, COLD PURSUIT is a great, classic revenge thriller," says Neeson. "But what was really appealing to me was the dark undercurrent of humor that runs through it." Or, as director Hans Petter Moland puts it: "Basically, this is Liam Neeson like you've never seen him before. It's a very special, unique performance."

Between its mash-up of genre, and the fact that it's an English-language remake from the original Norwegian director, COLD PURSUIT is unique. How did you first come into its orbit?

"I was sent a script, and... No, I tell a lie. I say that all the time! It was Michael Shamberg. I'd worked with him before, and he's a wonderful producer. He asked me to see a screening of a Norwegian film called In Order Of Disappearance. And I thought it was very good. And he said they were going to adapt it for the American market, set it in Colorado, and would I be interested? I said yes. It's a character-driven revenge thriller with very interesting bad guys and a dark undercurrent, with an element of humor that runs through it that's really appealing."

Tell us about Nels Coxman, your character.

"He's just a regular guy, happily married to Grace, with one child - a son, Kyle, who's 21. He lives on the side of a mountain outside a little ski resort town called Kehoe. And his job during the winter months is to keep a section of the road open, because they get incredible amounts of snow. He has his own little industry, a workshop where he keeps a snow-blower, snowplow, various machines to keep the roads open. As he says in the script, he keeps a strip of civilization open through the wilderness for people. That's his life, that's what he enjoys. And as a consequence of that, he gets voted Kehoe's Citizen of the Year. It's an annual award, and this year he's the proud recipient."

Nels has chosen a very different path from his family, hasn't he?

"Yes. His father was heavily involved in underground crime in his younger days. And Nels' elder brother, beautifully played by Bill Forsythe, is also ... in his father's trade, let's put it that way! But Nels has chosen to keep to the straight and narrow and not being involved in crime, until something happens that sends everything spiraling. Before that, Nels is happily married to Grace, played by the magnificent Laura Dern, who I'm so thrilled that we got for this film. To all intents and purposes, they're very happily, contentedly married."

Did you know Laura before filming this movie?

"I didn't. I had dinner with her and an ex-boyfriend of hers years and years ago. Her, her boyfriend, me and my wife, Natasha [Richardson]. Laura and Natasha had been in a film together, Fat Man and Little Boy, a Roland Joffe film that Paul Newman starred in, back in 1986 or '87, I think. So they were friends, but I didn't know Laura well. But I've been a huge fan of hers for many years."

The tipping point for Nels in this movie is the death of his son. What was their relationship like?

"I guess it's like a classic father and son dynamic. They were close, and there's a bond between them that's unspoken. Kyle's job is to handle baggage at the little Kehoe airport. And everything is normal, until Kyle meets a horrible death at the hands of local drug dealers, and it completely makes Nels' relationship with Grace disintegrate. She can't handle it, and eventually leaves. So Nels suffers a kind of a double-death - the death of his son, and the death of his relationship with his son. And it prompts him to contemplate his own life, and also contemplate a path of vengeance and justice."

Yours and Kyle's father/son dynamic isn't the only one in the movie.

"That's right, there are three sons, and three fathers. There's Nels and Kyle. There's [cartel chief] White Bull and his son, who works for his father so is a criminal as well. And then there's Viking and his young son, who's this very sweet, intellectual kid of about 12 years of age who's really not a chip off his father's block. He's very bright, very astute. Likes listening to classical music, and likes playing FIFA. And so Nels kind of befriends him, and sort of takes him captive. The film does touch on the relationships between fathers and sons, and how complicated they can be."

You've starred in revenge thrillers before, but is it fair to describe this as unlike any of them?

"Definitely, yes. Nels isn't prepared for any of this; it doesn't come naturally to him at all. When Nels goes on his path of vengeance, he doesn't realize that he's opening a whole can of worms. He thinks he's going after one guy that killed his son, and in actual fact this guy works for these other guys, who then work for this other incredibly vicious criminal called Viking. He runs one drug cartel and White Bull runs another drug cartel, and Nels gets caught in between it all. So this whole vengeance thing escalates into a kind of a whirlwind of vengeance and violence. It's a classic revenge movie, but with a deep thread of dark humor running through it, with some very interesting, well-drawn, three-dimensional bad guys giving the film its ballast."

How did you find working with Hans Petter Moland, remaking his own original movie?

"He's terrific. He's got a European sensibility, of course. And there's something very laid-back, very calm about him. He is also very prepared. He's an ex-actor himself, and he's directed in the theatre, so he just knows the actor's process, as well as how to tell a story on film. He mines the script for the little subtleties that we as actors can bring out to enhance the story, to enhance the humor and pathos. He makes extremely interesting choices. I'd work with him again in a second."

DOUBLING-DOWN ON ACTION AND ATTITUDE

Why Hans Petter Moland, AKA "the Ridley Scott of Norway," remade his own gangster noir

With COLD PURSUIT, Hans Petter Moland joins a short but superb list of directors: A group who have deliberately flown in the face of accepted movie wisdom. "They always say you should never remake your own film," Moland notes wryly.

"But when I thought about it, I thought, 'Why not?'"

Like Michael Haneke with Funny Games, Takashi Shimizu with The Grudge and George Sluizer with The Vanishing before him, Moland's COLD PURSUIT - his brilliantly bloody and darkly hilarious roaring rampage of revenge - sees him remake his acclaimed Norwegian original, 2014's In Order Of Disappearance, and this time in English. "It's not that I wasn't happy with the original," says Moland. "But I looked at it as the chance to make a new production for a new audience and with a cast of amazing new actors. It was such an opportunity, I couldn't say no."

Here, the director British film historian Peter Cowie once described as "the Ridley Scott of Norway" - partly for his array of award-winning commercials and impeccable eye - talks about escaping the past and the nuances of Norwegian versus American humor.

You once described the process of making movies as "one long journey through a valley of compromises." Given that, why go back and remake a film that you've already survived once?

"Yes, I guess I did say that! [Laughs] That being said, I also think that allowing yourself to be challenged by things you previously haven't mastered is another part of that equation. When producer Michael Shamberg got the rights to this remake, he said he wanted me to do it. And that forced me to reexamine the accepted wisdom that you should always get someone else to remake your film. I tried to look at it the same way as if you had made a successful theatre production - in Oslo, say. And then somebody asked if you wanted to make a new production of the same play on Broadway, for a new audience. And that's an interesting proposition: to speak to a different audience, to make it with different actors, amazing actors. When I thought about it like that, I couldn't not do it."

The list of people who have remade their own "foreign-language" movies in English is very short. Did you look at any of those movies, to see what those directors did?

"I deliberately didn't look at them, because I think most directors who remake their own movies aren't necessarily happy with the outcome, or the process. I focused more on two things: finding a process that could work for me and, retaining that tone from the original. And that meant being allowed to make the film in the way I know how. If you're hamstrung by the process, you're not at your best game. And with this, I was very much encouraged and allowed to make the film the best way I knew how to. And because I lived in the United States for many years, I feel comfortable and at home in American culture. So it was a landscape that I wasn't foreign to."

Having lived in the United States for 11 years and being from Norway, what would you say are the differences are between American and Norwegian humor?

"There are cultural differences, obviously, and yet there are great similarities, too. But when people talk about my films being typically 'Scandinavian' in humor, I don't neccesarily agree. More than anything, my humor is also influenced a great deal by American filmmakers - Billy Wilder, for instance. And living in New York in the 1970s and '80s, that deadpan, grotesque, dark humor was always very prevalent for me. So whatever is typically 'Scandinavian' about me is also very heavily influenced by that. I'm a huge fan of Wilder's, and his ability to blend darkness and light. It's no great mystery that none of us live in a vacuum, that we absorb things and we respond to them in our lives and work. My upbringing certainly had a lot of gallows humor to it, so I really connected with Wilder's movies when I was in the States."

The irreverence towards everyone, every character, in COLD PURSUIT was crucial, wasn't it?

"Yes. Without the humor, this would just be bloody mess. So that was always a part of this story. I think it's through the humor or that we can watch something like this without being turned off."

The casting of Liam Neeson is a masterstroke, because on paper you might think that you've seen him do revenge movies before, but this is very, very different, isn't it?

"I relished the enormous expectation that Liam carries with him - because he's such a fabulous actor. The humor in COLD PURSUIT was something he really responded to and said he would like to do. I'm delighted I got to work with him. Basically, this is Liam Neeson unlike you've ever seen him before. It's a really special, unique performance. Not only has he always broken the norm with the films he's made before, but he's a remarkably curious and hard-working actor. There's nothing jaded about his approach to acting, even after having done more than 100 films."

It's also a movie about fathers and sons, isn't it, and the futility of revenge?

"Yes, it is. All three fathers lose their son, one way or another. Revenge is not a very viable strategy for a fruitful life, for the men and for their families. It's just not a very good idea, even though it's fun to see people do it."

You've talked about having your cake and eating it, about making a violent film that is ultimately antiviolence. Were you conscious of that dichotomy?

"I was very conscious of that dichotomy, because if you're doing anything satirical then the dichotomy is a very big portion of the satire -that incongruity of motive and action is crucial. This is a movie inhabited by a lot of people who are short on insight. One way to look at it is that all the people in this film are either dead serious, or dead. They are oblivious to the humor that surrounds them and the result of their actions."

The exception to that being the female characters, of course.

"Yes, those three characters [played by Laura Dern, Emmy Rossum, and Julia Jones] are the only ones who are really smart. It was deliberate that it's the women who aren't domineering in the film but they dominate in the way that they distance themselves from the actions of the male characters. They are too smart to hand around, so they just want to get the hell out of Dodge. A lot of the actors have said that when they first read the script there came a point where they started to ask themselves, 'Am I supposed to be laughing here?'"

Do you enjoy that, playing with the preconceived notions of the audience?

"Obviously, losing a child is a very serious and tragic event, but this is also a humorous film. The film has a very serious departure point and then it unfolds and expands into these new arenas. The absurdity has to spring out of that source instead of splatting it all up on the wall, saying, 'It's a comedy!' You have to allow people to discover it for themselves and laugh when they want.."

In the movie, Nels has long ago chosen a different path from his father and brother. He's a good man who nonetheless gets sucked into a trail of violence. What are you saying with that? That you can't escape your past?

"No, I don't think the film is trying to say that. That detail is there to at least give Nels the possibility to access some tools that a complete outsider wouldn't have access to. And also it offers an insight into his character and into his choices in life. Unlike his father and brother he's chosen an honest life, as snowplow driver. The real irony is that he's named Citizen of the Year, and then the first thing he does is go out and kill people! I think Nels considers himself a more upstanding or more civilized man than he really is, which I think actually goes for most of us. It's easy to have high thoughts of yourself until you're really put to the test."

TALES IN THE SNOW

Screenwriter Frank Baldwin had a killer assignment: Transfer a great Norwegian thriller into America's crime subculture - and make it feel dangerous and funny.

Creating the narrative scaffolding for a collection of characters to not only face each other, but face the issues and indignities they carry inside of them, was no small task. Luckily, novelist and screenwriter Frank Baldwin had a handle on COLD PURSUIT from the get-go. When producer Michael Shamberg approached Baldwin with the assignment, Baldwin's first duty was to see Hans Petter Moland's In Order of Disappearance, and then reimagine the story in the modern American West. As the pieces came together, maintaining the tone and humor of Moland's original film was crucial, as was weaving a rich, new tapestry that did justice to American characters living in complicated scenarios.

This story, and Nels Coxman's journey, has a lot going on besides a search for justice, doesn't it?

"It does. It has a lot of layers in it, all of which were baked into Hans Petter's original film. For me, it was important that you not lose those layers in its transference to an American movie. And there were all sorts of things that I thought was subtle in the story that worked - including that Nels has to kidnap the son of the villain, and has to break the cycle that he couldn't do with his own son, by essentially saving the villain's son. And that's at a point in the movie when Nels appears to be a character who's almost irredeemable, and has stooped low, and yet that is the source ultimately of his redemption, if he has it."

Nels is a man who tried to redeem himself, but after his son's death is on the precipice between the good and bad sides of life.

"What helped me conceptualize the story is when I thought of Nels as a guy who has violence in his blood. His father was a gangster, his brother is a gangster, and he turned his back on that road. He shoved that down inside of him and has lived a peaceful life out in the wilderness, working his honest job and doing his simple task. He's kind of a simple guy. And so the journey for Nels is he has to take the road not taken and in this late stage in his life, go into the life that he turned his back on. And it's terrifying when someone like that finds out, 'Oh, I can do this.'"

The connection to White Bull - it's almost an emotional parallel, or maybe a matter of connected but not quite similar paths - is fascinating. In the original film, this gang that opposed the main villain were Serbians. White Bull's motivations are much more complex, aren't they?

"Well, the idea of turf and territory has special meaning when it comes to Viking and White Bull. Because here's Viking thinking, 'This is my turf, my father was here before me' - and of course White Bull's gang has a special sensibility to being screwed over, and to defending what they know is theirs. If you harken back to the old, the idea of the West, White Bull's white gang is indigenous to Colorado and has been for a long time. So you have this uneasy truce that's existed for a long time between White Bull and Viking due to a misunderstanding involving Nels' son that winds up making White Bull upset, and it results in total war."

Even Viking's nickname evokes a colonizing force coming into existing lands, and the violence that accompanies that. Whereas White Bull is a man of honor.

"That's right. And at the end of the day, he made a deal and he upheld it, and the deal was broken on him. And ultimately he is a criminal who sets out to do what he said to do - without giving anything away - but in a more powerful sense. One of the major points of Hans Petter's movie, here as in the original film, is that revenge is not worth it."

The way the film develops its sense of humor, which can sometimes be snide or edgy, is crucial to understanding their tension and especially how in this tough, often villainous world, there are barriers between people that rear up and are even used as a sort of bargaining chip, correct?

"Nels' intention, in COLD PURSUIT as in the original film, is that it's good to 'take the piss out of everybody,' to use the British expression. Nobody in the film is exempt from being made fun of, including the Native American characters, and including Nels himself. It all serves a purpose. Like when they go to a morgue and they're raising Nels' son's body up on a gurney, and it's the worst possible moment, but while it's not being played for laughs, there is also the idea that, this is taking too long to get the body up so they can see it. Throughout the movie is a sense of nobody is exempt from the perhaps awfulness of things, the folly of human existence."

It's a terrific mix with White Bull and his gang, because for instance, in a scene at the hotel, they raise their eyebrows when a hotel employee uses the word "reservation." They're using this to get what they want. It's irreverent. And later White Bull is in the hotel gift shop, and he quietly looks at Native American clothing being sold that we see is actually made in China, and White Bull looks at some of the cheesy sculptures in the shop that turn his tribal legacy into something kitschy to be sold cheap to tourists. The line between all of that is well-handled.

"Yes, and remember, the Native Americans in the film are a crime cartel too, and while they and their history were handled respectfully, it was still important at times to see that their personalities and quirks were able to provide a bit of fun, just as with Viking's gang....The film has a balance of both real stakes and irreverent humor."

A SUPPORTING CAST THAT PLOWS AHEAD

TOM BATEMAN is Trevor "Viking" Calcote

You've said that this story 'erupts' from your character, Viking. In what way?

"Well, Viking doesn't really operate on the same wavelength as anyone else. He's a psychopath. I read a book called The Psychopath Test before I started, and it looks at people who aren't on the same wavelength as everyone else, but function in society. It's very interesting to see someone making decisions, like shooting someone in the face on a whim - even if that person is close to them or works with them - because the audience never knows what's going on in that guy's head."

Viking's a slippery character to pin down, isn't he?

"Absolutely. Just when you think he's going down one road, he flips it and goes down another. So, you might think, 'Oh, he's about to be violent', and then he might be seductive and charming. Or, 'Oh, he's about to be funny,' and then he cuts off someone's head. He constantly keeps the audience guessing - and kept me guessing, as an actor. I rehearsed my scenes on my own, and I found that there were about a hundred different ways I could play this character, and each scene could be played in a hundred different ways. I could play them deadpan, as they're written, or I could play around with them and go, 'Actually, what if I make this line funny even though what I'm saying is horrible?' It's been like being in a candy store, where I can just pick and choose what I like."

What does Viking do with his days, when he's not shooting anyone in the face?

"Viking's job in this - if he has one - is that he runs a club, but really that's just a front. He likes the idea of being a club owner, but really his main job is a drug dealer. He supplies cocaine for the town of Kehoe, and he's got a lot of people who work for him. But he inherited that from his father, so he hasn't built up an empire; he's one of those spoiled brats who inherited something but wears it like a crown. He loves that he's seen as powerful, but he hasn't done anything to deserve that status."

Is Viking the catalyst for everything that happens?

"Pretty much. The whole film spins off this catalyst moment of his guys killing Kyle Coxman. And there's also this tension between Tom Jackson's character, White Bull, and Viking, between their rival gangs. Really, Nels is doing everything he's doing because he's hurting, and he thinks that the only way to ease that is revenge. And revenge runs throughout the whole film.

Revenge becomes the weight no one can shake.

"Yes. Nels wants revenge for his son, then, as soon as he starts killing Viking's men, Viking wants revenge for that, and then there's an accidental act of revenge on someone else who has nothing to do with it - and then more characters want revenge on Viking. It's this huge, big mess of a web that comes to a boiling climax, and leaves everyone really screwed."

TOM JACKSON is White Bull

This movie is tonally unique and irreverent. What was your reaction when you first read the script?

"Well, I have an agent, Alicia. She reads everything before it gets to [my wife] Alison, and Alison reads everything before it gets to me. And I was sitting one night, and Alison was reading this script, and kept breaking into belly laughs. I said, 'What are you reading?' She said, 'A script Alicia sent, called COLD PURSUIT.'"

What did you both respond to about it?

"That it was a satirical piece, yet a very, very dark piece. It was really interesting to me to play a character who is in fact Native American, people who, by and large, don't get represented very often in the movies. It was also different for me to play a villain. I don't very often play bad guys in my life. So I considered all of that, and at the end of the day, I just thought this was a really nice challenge for me."

How did you find working with Hans Petter Moland?

"Hans Petter is brilliant. He's a very sensitive man, and I like that. We shook hands once. Since then, we hug. We only had one handshake."

Tell us about the cartel White Bull is in charge of.

"My comrades, they aren't a tribe, they're a collective group of Native American men who come from all parts. In the film, White Bull talks about his past, he says to the people who work for him, 'Thirty years ago, a man came to me one day and he stuck out his hand and made me a deal. It was a good deal. Not a great deal, but a good deal.' And similarly, with my fellow actors, we all shared stories about our backgrounds. You should have been in that room. That really built the character of the group. You know, we're all actors, but we still believe in each other as a group, and I think that's what you sense when you watch this movie: that there's something different and special about this group of people."

In the film, White Bull has a fascinating relationship with his rival, Viking. What was that built on?

"The guy my character shook hands with thirty years earlier was Viking's dad. So, White Bull made a deal with his dad establishing which cartel had control of what in this area of Colorado. And White Bull doesn't know much about Viking other than that he's maintained the drug flow from his dad. But Viking is much more violent than his dad. So White Bull doesn't really have any affinity for him and when Viking takes something from White Bull, something has to be taken in return."

Even though you're not on screen much together, White Bull and Liam Neeson's character, Nels, share an understanding. What was the process like to build that rapport?

"I only have one scene with Liam, but I dare say it's the best scene in the movie. We didn't spend much time together, but one night we worked together until 2:30 a.m. I was going on, as I have a tendency to do, about certain journeys I've had in my life, and he shared some of his. We talked a lot about this inherent ability for Native American people to live closer to the land, and to understand what that actually is and what it means. And how do you find all that out if somebody doesn't tell you? You have to go looking for it - but where do you start, right? How do you find out that the planet is alive? So, Liam and I explored that together. You know, you wonder if people sit around, drink coffee, and Martinis or whatever... or if they change the world. Well, I can say we changed each other's worlds."

Do you see similarities between White Bull and Nels?

"I don't know that the characters are dissimilar...I think when there's a gap created in your world, a gap that is founded in love, and that is removed from you, vengeance is maybe not the proper instinct, but it may be the only instinct that brings comfort."

This movie also has some great action. How did you feel about shooting that?

"I liked the shoot-em-up parts of the film! As much as I philosophize about it, the reality is that this is as entertaining a movie as any other I've been in."

Should we feel empathy for these characters, do you think?

"These are all bad guys. There are no good guys in this movie. So you have to start there, and then decipher, 'Well, how bad is that guy?' Remember THE WILD BUNCH? Remember movies like that? COLD PURSUIT in some ways is in that vein. I think throughout the film, there's a thread - it's not honor among thieves, exactly, but it's a thread that definitely gives you a perspective into all these bad guys. You feel for some of them. And that's bizarre."

LAURA DERN is Grace Coxman

How was it working with Liam Neeson?

"It's not easy, but somebody's got to do it! Somebody's got to sit there and kiss Liam Neeson! [Laughs] No - it's the greatest thing in the world. I adore him as a human, and he's the greatest storyteller. And he makes me laugh so hard that we barely got through our last scene. We started telling each other stories, then we just kept the stories going and got them into the scene somehow. I had the best time with him."

Was he the draw for you, or the script?

"Well, first and foremost, I've always wanted to work with Liam, who's a dear friend, and the gift of us working together came to me via text, with Liam seeing if it could work out if that we could be together on this. I was thrilled. And he introduced me to Hans Petter [Moland]. I had known his work a little bit, and have a great kinship toward it because I'm of Norwegian descent, from my grandmother's family. So I've always dreamt of being in Norway and I love his films, and his actors, so it was a dream to come together with this Norwegian crew and work with this filmmaker who's beautifully irreverent and, you know, a great visionary. So both things were really intriguing to me."

Had you seen the original when Liam's text came in?

"I hadn't until I was asked by Liam about doing it. And what really struck me about that film, that I feel like Hans Petter held true to - which is so important - is that the film feels so dark and desolate, and the loneliness of this man, Nels, that you feel so completely, and his inability to communicate what he's working through. And you're immersed in that, and then suddenly this really black, irreverent comedy takes over, amidst all the mayhem. And I love the theme of what can go wrong when revenge is your destiny. Or the path you choose. And in reinventing this, Hans Petter gave room to the new actors to make it their own. For Liam and I, we wanted to develop further the relationship between this husband and wife, to deepen what was at stake."

What happens to the relationship between Nels and Grace in the movie?

"There's a chemistry and intimacy and friendship between two people, but when a tragedy occurs, and two people handle it so completely differently, they can lose each other, not only themselves, in it. Grace needs to process it, and Nels needs to completely shut off. So there's no conversation, no healing, no dialogue - and the intimacy is lost. And he has a way that he's going to manage his agony. He's lost himself in this drive for revenge."

Beneath the surface narrative, what's this movie actually about?

"It's about what happens when you don't consider what you're feeling, and you take, oddly, what you think is the path of least resistance, which is revenge. As a way to deal with your feelings, you're just going to create hell, and end up far worse off than when you started. I find that heartbreaking, terrifying, and ultimately kind of hilarious, in its brokenness, because so many people get into so much trouble with that agenda. I think through grief - which we all understand and have experienced in some area of our life - we all want revenge. And we play it out in a daydream, or seek it in subtler forms, emotional revenge on people who have hurt us, which is still potentially damaging. So any character taking on our wildest contempt and acting it out is delicious and can be quite funny, and horrifying. Perhaps it'll make us see the mess we could make, if we actually stayed true to the shadow of what we're feeling. It's a cautionary tale, but a very irreverent one."

EMMY ROSSUM is Kim

What intrigued you about your character, a no-nonsense, eager police officer, in COLD PURSUIT?

"What intrigued me was seeing a young woman fight for herself and what she believes in in a male-dominated world. Not just within a criminal world but within her own workplace in the police force, too. That's just a really interesting picture to draw. In the end, it doesn't really matter if she solves the case or gets the bad guys. It's really that she sticks to her ideals. And I was really impressed by the tone of the script, the bizarre, slightly surreal dark comedy set against really intense violence. It was handled in a very kind of comic and strange way that really got my attention. I'd heard that the characters were drawn in unique ways that I hadn't seen before: bad guys that weren't all bad, good guys that weren't all good. And then I read the script, and wasn't quite sure that I was reading it correctly because I found myself laughing at things that I wasn't sure were supposed to be funny. And that had me sold. It's a movie about how strange life is, and how bizarre people can be."

What can you tell us about Kim?

"She's an eager young rookie cop, idealistic and highly moral, being shown the ropes by an older officer - played by John Doman, who I loved on The Wire - who's a little bit jaded. She's very idealistic about right and wrong. And the town she's in, Kehoe, is one where there doesn't seem to be a lot of crime. So when all these dead bodies start piling up, it's kind of exciting for her because suddenly she has something to do. So it's a great role. I felt that I had kind of a weird, bold take on the character that they were either going to like or not, and I guess they did!"

What was it like working with Liam Neeson?

"Well, l love Liam. He is tall and handsome and kind and funny. And annoyingly professional! He cares about everyone on set. He's really just everything that you could imagine him to be. He can go in and out of character completely seamlessly. He's not the kind of person that needs 30 seconds before the camera rolls to get into character. Working with him is very organic. And obviously I've been such an admirer of his work for so long that I was really looking forward to doing scenes with him. My character is initially intrigued by, and very empathetic to, his character's struggle and the loss of his child, so they have some kind of connection, until the bodies start piling up. And that's interesting, because nothing is black and white."

Did you do any preparation to play a cop?

"I did get a ride along in Brooklyn with the NYPD and that was really interesting. It was really surprising to me because I always think of the police force as being older than me because they're authority figures, and what I found was that the officers I did the ride along with were younger than me. It was so incredible to be with people who were armed and arresting people and in their quest for justice and right and wrong who were 27 and 24 years old. The female police officer reminded me a lot of my character, Kim. She was 27, and had just taken the Sergeant's test as she wanted to move up the ranks. She was a fierce driver. I'm a terrible driver! And just getting to see how powerful she was behind the wheel, it was just very inspiring and eye-opening."

COLD PURSUIT is such a unique movie when it comes to tone. How do you describe it to people?

"I think all of these characters are strange in their own way. I don't think they're normal, everyday people. They're surprising and bizarre. They're weird, and I think everyone feels like a secret weirdo. In this movie there's a gangster who only wants his kid to be macrobiotic and super-healthy, and a family man who becomes a murderer, and a young cop who's eager to see a dead body because that means something to do. These are all strange things that we wouldn't necessarily admit about ourselves. It has something really tangibly bizarre that feels weirdly familiar in its specificity."

JOHN DOMAN is Gip

What kind of cop is Gip?

"He's a pretty laid-back character. I mean, this is the town, Kehoe, that he grew up in, and it's a ski town. And his idea is live and let live. His idea of community policing is to let the locals do what they want to do, and try to stay out of their way."

And his partner, Kim, is quite the opposite, right?

"Yeah, my partner, Kim - played by Emmy Rossum - is this hard-charging, aggressive young police officer, and she wants to make her mark. She's dying to pull out her gun and shoot somebody, I think. And it kind of makes my character a little nervous. He's constantly trying to put her back in her box. And Emmy is a terrific actress. She has a great sense of humor."

What appealed to you about the role of Gip?

"What I liked about the Gip character was that he provided a little bit of comic relief, I think, in the midst of a lot of murderous things going on. I don't get a chance to play comic relief very often, so I thought this would be a wonderful chance to do just that. Also, the first thing that appealed to me about it was the fact that Liam Neeson was going to be the lead. I had never met Liam or worked with him, but I admired his work and I've heard through people who do know him what a great guy he is. So that right off the bat made me very interested in doing it. And the script was really well written, the characters are very well-drawn. And there's a lot of action, that was interesting, too."

What was your experience working with director Hans Petter Moland?

"Hans Petter has a very light touch as a director, which is wonderful. There's no shouting or yelling or screaming, he just comes over and gives little touches here and there. He knows what he wants. This is a remake of his own film, so he has a lot of insight into the characters, which is very helpful!"

What's Gip's take on all the bad guys in town? Does he care?

"I'm aware of the criminal element in town. In fact, I'm also aware that Nels' father and grandfather, I believe, were both involved with the crime in town. But it's always been a very low key, behind the scenes, nobody gets hurt, kind of crime. Basically dealing with the drug trade, and servicing people who come there to 'ski, to have sex and get high,' as Gip says. And his philosophy has always been to let them do what they want to do, and now the bodies are starting to pile up, and he's still trying to not deal with it."

JULIA JONES is Aya

How would you describe your relationship with Viking, Aya's ex-husband?

"Well, Viking is a raging lunatic. And they were married, and when, at a certain point, she wanted to get out, everything went to hell. And now she still has to deal with him because they have a kid together, Ryan. Her whole objective is trying to get full custody of Ryan. And it's a challenge because with her and Viking, it's almost like a tennis match, the power goes back and forth. But she wins all the time, and that's her whole point - every time she sees him, she goes in to try and win a battle. And each fight makes Viking get more and more angry, until he just goes over the top and does something so horrible that she will be able to get full custody. That's her goal. But it's hard, because he's a nightmare. Going to see him is like going into the lion's den, and it takes a toll. So, for me, it was a challenge to show the toll that it takes, but also be in control and win the battle at the same time. It's like two very different things going on at the same time, in every scene."

What do you make of Viking, as a character?

"You really want me to answer that? I mean, Viking's a mobster, Viking's a psychopath. Viking kills people, Viking is a drug dealer, Viking is a very, very bad man. He does whatever he needs to do, he doesn't think twice about it. In fact, he doesn't think once about it."

In the movie, pretty much everyone seems to be scared of Viking, except you.

"It's interesting, because I do think that the two characters that are not afraid of Viking are Mustang, his longtime henchman, and Aya. And they're like, 'I've already hit my breaking point, I'm out.' And I think that Mustang's journey is to get out too, and that he helped Aya get out."

How about your character? How would you describe her, as a person and as a mother?

"I think Ryan, her son, and her are really close. I think she's a very conscious, loving, attentive mother. And I think she's trying to be smart, and that dropping Ryan off every week at Viking's house is something that she can only think about to a point, because there are points where Viking is in one room shooting somebody, and Ryan is literally 12 feet away, watching his iPad. So that's what drives her to be as crafty as she is; the pain of having to go into that house and deal with that psychopath every day. And I think there's an element of shame or guilt that she carries with her, because she was involved with Viking, and she was a part of that for a long time. So in a way, as a mother, it's partly her fault. Yet she has a mother's instinct to protect her child. Her battling with Viking throughout this film is a manifestation of that."

How would you describe this film?

"It has so many different worlds and different characters. And what makes it unique is when those worlds - White Bull's gang and Viking's gang and Nels' world - collide outrageously. They're just totally different, they would never in the real world have the amount of interaction that they do. So there are so many crazy variables. There's a lot of mayhem. And it all leads to this sort of wonderful, ambiguous, comedic, serious ending. It's like everything at once."

VIEW ALL 'COLD PURSUIT' PAGES
(Visual Review, Cast, Crew, Production Notes, Photos, Articles, & More)