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ballistic: ecks vs. sever
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“I MADE MY MIND UP WHEN I WAS SEVEN.
I DIDN’T HAVE TO GO THROUGH,
‘WHAT DO I WANT TO DO: DO I WANT
TO BE A POLICEMAN, A FIREMAN..?’
- ANYTHING LIKE THAT. I JUST
WANTED TO MAKE MOVIES”
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“It was an executive of Chris’ that found the script,” explains Kaos. “What happened was, the same time he sent me the script, he sent Alan McElroy my movie. Alan flew in and the very first thing he said to me was that he thought I’d be the perfect person to do his movie. He backed that up by turning down an offer from Joel Silver and basically giving Chris and me the script for free.
“My philosophy is, I have none: all I want to do is make really fun movies! I don’t feel a compelling thing to have any sort of message or anything. I just want to entertain.”
While western film students grow up on a diet of classic movies from Europe and Hollywood, the peripatetic Kaos grew up watching bootleg videos - sometimes three a day - in his parents’ house
 in Islamabad. The first movie he saw, aged seven, was Jaws. He loved it because it terrified him. He also knew right away what he wanted to do with his life.
“Believe it or not, I made my mind up when I was seven,” he says. “One of the things I’m truly grateful for was that I didn’t have to go through, at any stage of my life, ‘What do I want to do: do I want to be a policeman, a fireman..?’ - anything like that. I just wanted to make movies.”
And especially movies like Ballistic, which became irresistible when both Banderas and Liu signed up. “I think they truly, both of them, brought a lot to it,” says the director. “Antonio is the consummate professional, both on and off set, and he’s got such a great understanding of cinema. This one was really hard for him because all he does is get beaten up the entire movie!
“Sever is the ultimate weapon,” he concludes. “In theory, no one can stand up to her. But part of what makes Ecks so formidable is that he’s completely relentless. He just will not accept defeat.”
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BALLISTIC:
ECKS VS. SEVER
Franchise Pictures and Epsilon Motion Pictures present a Chris Lee/Franchise Pictures production
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Prod: Elie Samaha, Chris Lee, Andrews Stevens, Kaos; Exec prod: Don Carmody, Tracee Stanley; Dir: Kaos; Scr: Alan McElroy; Ph: Julio Macat; Prod des: Douglas Higgins; Cost des: Magali Guidasci; Ed: Caroline Ross; Casting: Stuart Aikins, Jeff Gerard; Mus: Don Davis.
With Antonio Banderas (Jeremiah Ecks), Lucy Liu (Sever), Gregg Henry (Robert Gant), Ray Park (AJ Ross), Talisa Soto (Rayne), Terry Chen (Special Agent Harry Lee), Miguel Sandoval (FBI Assistant Director Julio Martin), Aidan Drummond (Michael).
European distribution:
Epsilon Motion Pictures.
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