Making action movies unstoppable (and coherent)
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If you’ve seen chases and explosions on the big screen recently, there’s a solid chance they’ve been put there by Mark Bomback, a young writer who is fast becoming one of the key architects of Hollywood’s big action offerings.
Bomback, who earlier in his career worked on horror movies such as ‘Godsend,’ was the lead writer on ‘Live Free or Die Hard,’ the pyrotechnic-happy return of John McClane to the big screen. Bomback also wrote the Dwayne Johnson action movie ‘Race to Witch Mountain’ and another upcoming Rock movie, the hitman shoot-’em-up ‘Protection.’ He solidifies his reputation as the action architect next week with ‘Unstoppable,’ Denzel Washingon’s melange of high-speed chases and explosions.
Bomback will soon be on his own runaway train: According to those familiar with the project, Bomback will take his pen to the adventure film ‘Shadow Divers.’ Fans of underwater movies will remember the Robert Kurson bestseller, based on a true story, in which wreck divers discover a German U-boat off the coast of New Jersey in 1991.
The project has been around for a while -- Ridley Scott was going to direct it at one point (it looks like ‘Red’ director Robert Schwentke is now the man to give it a whirl) -- but the addition of a high-profile writer like Bomback could speed up its path to theaters.
Action-movie writers lead split existences: They’re called upon, maybe more than anyone else working in movies, to imagine lives very different from their own. (Which may be why they sometimes conflate those lives, like this screenwriter, who ended up becoming a gun runner in his spare time.) And they don’t get the love that other writers get, what with words not exactly the top priority in most action films.
More on the act of sitting still while creating constant motion (and getting only a modicum of love in the process) from Bomback next week.
--Steven Zeitchik
20th Century Fox
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