Haywire starring Gina Carano [Archive] - Kung Fu Magazine Forums

GeneChing

12-13-2010, 05:51 PM

I'm changing the title of this thread from 'Soderbergh hits up Carano for film: KNOCKOUT' to 'Haywire starring Gina Carano'

Exclusive: Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Haywire’ Set For April 22, 2011 Release (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/exclusive_haywire_set_for_april_22_2011_release1/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_content=Google+Reader#)

http://i.blogs.indiewire.com/images/blogs/theplaylist/archives/haywire-ewan-macgregor-michael-douglas.jpg
No, in case you were wondering (or didn’t hear the news), Steven Soderbergh‘s forthcoming spy action/thriller “Haywire” did not receive an Oscar qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles in October. That was basically an AMC ticketing snafu, but the news did create a ruckus on the web for a minute.

Starring non-actor/mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano, “Haywire” is simply not that kind of picture. Sources close to the project have described it to us as “if Alfred Hitchock made a Pam Grier movie” and let’s not forget it will have a score by David Holmes who composed the funky, retro-exotica scores to Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s 11-13” films (you can almost count on the fact that Holmes will likely score the just-announced “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” as well) and the tone and mood of “Haywire” sounds like it was greatly affected by his score.

Featuring an all-star cast including Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Michael Angarano, Matthieu Kassovitz and Antonio Banderas, the picture is a gritty spy thriller written by Lem Dobbs (”The Limey”) and starring Carano as a black ops soldier on mission of revenge after she’s double crossed by one of her team-mates (we read the script and it’s taut, lean and mean; typically no-nonsense work by Dobbs).

Last we heard, Relativity Media had essentially bought back “Haywire” from Lionsgate (Relativity Media financed it but Lionsgate had initially acquired it for North American release, Relativity also recently did the same with “Season of The Witch”—they bought it back) and we were told a late March/early April 2011 release was being planned, bumped off from the original idea of a January release.

That release date stuck. While no one is yet officially commenting on the Lionsgate/Relativity move (Overture who have now been absorbed into Relativity once denied it over Twitter), we’re told the film will be receiving an April 22, 2011 release date. That means the film will be up against Sony‘s “Born to Be a Star” remake, Warner Bros. “Crazy, Stupid, Love” and ironically, Lionsgate‘s own “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family.” It’s a smart move considering “Haywire” is essentially completely different from all those films and will target an entirely different demographic.

One of Anne Thompson‘s spies saw the film earlier this year and wrote her to say, “Haywire is pretty fine. Very much like John Huston in his ‘Kremlin Letter’/’Mackintosh Man’ period.” McGregor is playing in essence Erik Prince, added [her] informant, who also admired David Holmes’ “way cool” score.

Update/Correction: We’ve been told by sources that “Haywire” is a Lionsgate picture and that no release dated has officially been scheduled. Additionally, Overture was not absorbed nor is it otherwise connected to Relativity.

Kevin Jagernauth posted to Films, Haywire at 10:57 am on November 18, 2010

GeneChing

03-11-2011, 11:08 AM

There's a file of 52 shots under Gina Joy Carano's Photos - Haywire - Fight scene with Ewan McGregor on facebook. I cherry-picked a few below.

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/196079_131699310234715_100001839406128_203748_9918 61_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/199659_131698410234805_100001839406128_203711_3337 079_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/196105_131698863568093_100001839406128_203731_5289 598_n.jpg

Lucas

03-11-2011, 11:15 AM

Lookin good!

Hebrew Hammer

03-11-2011, 02:55 PM

Can't they get her in some sort of bikini? What is the director thinking?

Lucas

03-11-2011, 06:55 PM

is that tabi style hybrid foot wear i see? freaking ninjas :p

bawang

03-11-2011, 09:08 PM

she has huge thighs like elephant

Scott R. Brown

03-12-2011, 09:12 AM

Not even remotely interested!

Give me more Michelle Yeoh any day!

Zenshiite

03-12-2011, 09:18 AM

I didn't realize Gina was so thick!

Hebrew Hammer

03-12-2011, 02:33 PM

I didn't realize Gina was so thick!

She is Italian....work with me people!

Hebrew Hammer

03-12-2011, 02:34 PM

Not even remotely interested!

Give me more Michelle Yeoh any day!

A wise man doesn't limit himself...I'll have Michelle call you when I'm done. :D

doug maverick

03-15-2011, 11:33 AM

i would be excited if it wasnt a steven soderberg film...this guy bores the **** out of me.....ill see it, cause of the MA connection...but i have 0 expectations for this film. ill commend him thou on using "thickness" i mean Gina...she actually looks like she can beat a dudes ass.

Lucas

03-15-2011, 11:36 AM

she actually looks like she can beat a dudes ass.

thats probably because she can ! lol

i mean i looked up her specs, 5'8 and 148 or so...looks about right to me for a fighter. plus that suit she has on adds to the whole body image in those pictures.

Lucas

03-16-2011, 12:22 PM

oh ya, just a reminder. you guys are caaaraaazy. :p

http://larrybrownsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/gina-carano5.jpeg

sanjuro_ronin

03-16-2011, 12:56 PM

Most pro fighters always "walk around" bigger than they fight, you lose a lot of weight trying for a pro level fight.
Makes since she would be a tad thicker, but my, what lovely thickness :D

goju

03-16-2011, 01:01 PM

i dont mind alittle bit of thickness but bawangs right about the elephant legs:eek:

Lucas

03-16-2011, 02:08 PM

I'll put money down says you guys wouldn't say that to her face....even more says if u do that u get ktfo lol and even more yet cuz id pay to watch it all go down. Haha :eek:

GeneChing

03-16-2011, 03:29 PM

Okay...um... maybe more like 155....160? And I don't have elephant legs. I have bird legs. All my weight is in my qi belly. Nevertheless, Gina and Gene make a nice couple, don't you think? :cool:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/5809_1093055448453_1288554720_30228055_7252783_n.j pg

Lucas

03-16-2011, 03:40 PM

i would endorse that Gene ol chap :p at least a few of us have good taste lol

Zenshiite

03-16-2011, 04:27 PM

Hey now, I'm not saying she's not hot. Just saying, didn't realize how big she actually is.

goju

03-16-2011, 07:11 PM

I'll put money down says you guys wouldn't say that to her face....even more says if u do that u get ktfo lol and even more yet cuz id pay to watch it all go down. Haha :eek:

i would

if shes in that shape she will gass easily:D

or i get taken down and triangled

win win either way:D

GeneChing

07-25-2011, 10:04 AM

Haywire Official Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFV0Uvzpz0o)

Jul 22, 2011
'Haywire' star Gina Carano punches, kicks her way into fans' hearts (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/livefrom/post/2011/07/haywire-star-gina-carano-punches-and-kicks-her-way-into-fans-hearts/1)
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY
Updated 2d 19h ago

http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/Live-From/2011/07/22/Haywirex-wide-community.jpg
By Claudette Barius
Mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano made her case as the female Jason Statham today during the Comic-Con panel for Haywire, Director Steven Soderbergh was inspired to base an action film around Carano after watching one of her MMA fights on television, and it marks Carano's feature debut.

"I've never seen someone like her fight – in a cage," said Soderbergh, whose Haywire casts Carano as a former Marine and current special operative for a private firm who is framed for a murder.

Lots of running, jumping, shooting, kicking, punching, choking, kicking in doors and kicking people through doors all ensue.

"It was the time of my life," Carano said. "I woke up everybody with a fresh perspective. I really liked the physical days because I'm a physical person."

Carano met with Soderbergh for the first time soon after her MMA loss to Christiane "Cyborg" Santos in 2009. She still had a black eye she covered up with makeup, and they talked about her life and experiences.

Carano soon went straight into what she calls "Acting 101." "It ruined movies for a couple months for me because I noticed everything," she said, laughing, "But I appreciate actors and what they go through."

She had to go up against a lot of A-list actors in fight scenes for the movie. Soderbergh showed footage of one epic hotel-room throwdown with Carano in an evening dress and Michael Fassbender in a suit.

And in the beginning of the movie, there is a scene in a diner where Channing Tatum had to hit her with a ketchup bottle even though he didn't want to. "Then she called me the female P word and then I had to, for my manity," Tatum said. "Then I hit her and and she hit me back twice as hard. Then I didn't want to hit her anymore."

Haywire comes out in January, and she aims to be back in an MMA match before then. "My first love is fighting," she said, "and I don't think I've got out of my system what I need to yet."

GeneChing

11-07-2011, 04:49 PM

Just got this press release. Actually I got it at 01:18 PM 11/6/2011, but that was Sunday and I don't pick up my work email on Sunday.

STEVEN SODERBERGH’S HAYWIRE TO DEBUT AS “SECRET SCREENING” AT AFI FEST 2011 presented by Audi

Free Tickets Available at the AT&T Box Office Sunday, November 6 Starting at 10:00 a.m.

LOS ANGELES, CA, November 6, 2011 – The American Film Institute (AFI) today announced that this year’s “Secret Screening” at AFI FEST presented by Audi will be the debut of Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh’s highly anticipated new film HAYWIRE, starring Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Angarano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton and introducing mixed martial arts (MMA) star Gina Carano in a demanding lead role that has her performing her own high-adrenaline stunts. AFI FEST will roll out the People’s Red Carpet prior to the screening on November 6 at 9:30 p.m. where all guests can walk the carpet and pose for photos.

A dynamic action-thriller, HAYWIRE tells the story of Mallory Kane, a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive. Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious – and dangerous – trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary.

HAYWIRE marks Steven Soderbergh’s 25th film. Relativity Media will release HAYWIRE in theaters January 20, 2012. Soderbergh’s most recent film, the thriller CONTAGION, was released in September 2011. He earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for his directorial debut, SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE and the Academy Award in 2000 for directing TRAFFIC, the same year he was nominated for ERIN BROCKOVICH. Among his other credits are the films AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE, BUBBLE, CHE, FULL FRONTAL, GRAY’S ANATOMY, THE GIRLFRIENDEXPERIENCE, THE GOOD GERMAN, THE INFORMANT!, KAFKA, KING OF THE HILL, THE LIMEY, THE OCEAN’S trilogy, OUT OF SIGHT, SCHIZOPOLIS, SOLARIS and THE UNDERNEATH.

Admission to HAYWIRE is available to AFI FEST 2011 pass holders and free tickets for the screening can be obtained at theAT&T Box Office located in suite 219 at the Hollywood and Highland Center between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. today. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The Rush Line will begin forming at 8:30 p.m.

AFI FEST – celebrating its 25th year – takes place November 3 through 10 in Hollywood, California, at the historic Chinese Theatre, the Chinese 6 Theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

About the American Film Institute

AFI is America’s promise to preserve the history of the motion picture, to honor the artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers.

AFI provides leadership in film, television and digital media and is dedicated to initiatives that engage the past, the present and the future of the moving image arts. AFI programs include the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and Archive, the AFI Life Achievement Award, now in it's 40th year, AFI Awards, honoring the most outstanding motion pictures and television programs of the year, AFI Fest presented by Audi, celebrating its 25th edition this fall, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs, AFI Silver Theatre and the AFI Conservatory, which was named the # 1 film school in the world by The Hollywood Reporter.

Additional information about AFI is available at AFI.com.

About AFI FEST

Celebrating its 25th year as a program of the American Film Institute, AFI FEST 2011 presented by Audi takes place November 3 through 10 in the heart of Hollywood. Kicking off the awards season each year, AFI FEST offers a crucial avenue of exposure to the entertainment community, while providing appreciative audiences with a festive atmosphere and the very best of global cinema, right in the center of the film capital of the world.

The American Film Market (AFM), November 2 through 9, 2011, is the market partner of AFI FEST. Together, AFI FEST and AFM provide the only concurrent festival-market event in North America. AFI FEST is the only FIAPF-accredited film festival in the United States. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes AFI FEST as a qualifying festival for the Short Films category for the annual Academy Awards®.

Audi is the festival's presenting sponsor. Additional sponsors include American Airlines, the official airline of AFI;AT&T; Pepsi; Merrill Lynch Wealth Management; the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas; Levi’s; Stella Artois; Hollywood & Highland; Entertainment Weekly; Los Angeles Times; and American Film Market(AFM), among many others.

Additional information about AFI FEST 2011 presented by Audi is available at AFI.com/AFIFEST. Connect with AFI FEST at facebook.com/AFIFEST, twitter.com/AFIFEST and youtube.com/AFIFEST.

About Audi

Audi of America, Inc. and its U.S. dealers offer a full line of German-engineered luxury vehicles. AUDI AG is among the most successful luxury automotive brands globally. During 2010 Audi was the top performing luxury brand in Europe, and broke all-timecompany sales records in the U.S. Over the next few years, AUDI AG will invest nearly $16 billion on new products and technologies. Visit audiusa.com or audiusanews.com for more information regarding Audi vehicle and business issues.

About AFM

The business of independent motion picture production and distribution reaches its peak every year at the AFM, when more than 8,000 industry leaders converge in Santa Monica for eight days of deal-making, screenings, premieres, networking, parties and conferences. Participants come from more than 70 countries and include acquisition and development executives, agents, attorneys, directors, distributors, festival directors, financiers, film commissioners, producers, writers, the world's press and all those who provide services to the motion picture industry. The AFM is produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA). More information is online at AmericanFilmMarket.com.

HAYWIRE
January 20, 2012
DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh WRITER: Lem Dobbs
CAST: Gina Carano
Channing Tatum
Michael Fassbender
Ewan McGregor
Michael Angarano
Antonio Banderas
Michael Douglas
Bill Paxton
PRODUCERS: Gregory Jacobs
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Michael Polaire, Tucker Tooley

This dynamic action-thriller directed by Oscar® winner Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) boasts a talented cast that includes Channing Tatum (GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra), Ewan McGregor (The Ghost Writer), Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class), Antonio Banderas (The Legend of Zoro), Bill Paxton (“Big Love”), Michael Douglas (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), Michael Angarano (Almost Famous); and introduces mixed martial arts (MMA) superstar Gina Carano as Mallory Kane, in a demanding lead role that has her performing her own high-adrenaline stunts.

Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive.

Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious—and dangerous—trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/haywiremovie

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/haywiremovie

GeneChing

11-08-2011, 10:11 AM

THR likes it.

Haywire: Film Review (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/haywire-film-review-258306)
12:51 PM PST 11/7/2011 by Todd McCarthy
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2011/11/haywire_film_still_a_l.jpg
Haywire Film Still Relativity - H 2011

The Bottom Line
Martial arts maestra Gina Casrano convincingly kicks considerable ass in Steven Soderbergh's engaging action lark.

Venue
AFI Fest

Director
Steven Soderbergh

Cast
Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Mathieu Kassovitz

Gina Carano stars as a covert operative who proceeds to whup a succession of macho leading men in addition to assorted anonymous foes.

Imagine an entire action film dedicated to the proposition that every fight possesses the intensity of the classic Sean Connery-Robert Shaw to-the-death scrap in From Russia With Love and you’ll know what Haywire is all about. With all the feel of a vacation from more high-minded and ambitious projects, Steven Soderbergh celebrates making his 25th feature film within 22 years with a kick-ass international action romp toplining mixed martial arts star Gina Carano as a covert operative who proceeds to whup a succession of macho leading men in addition to assorted anonymous foes; she’s Pepper to Angelina’s Salt. World-premiered as a surprise sneak preview at Hollywood’s AFI Fest, this Relativity release should enjoy a solid commercial career with action-seeking male and female audiences upon its Jan. 20 release.

A handsome, black-haired hardbody who wears an evening dress as easily as she does a hoodie, Carano exudes the sort of self-confidence and physical wherewithal that leaves no doubt she can prevail in any situation. This is essential because the film rides upon one’s certainty that her character, Mallory Kane, an international troubleshooter assigned to off-the-books missions, can take out virtually any guy in mano a mano combat. Soderbergh shoots her half-a-dozen or so fight scenes without doubles or cheat editing, emphasizing his star’s abilities to the extent that the semblance and extremity of the combat’s reality becomes the film’s entire raison d’etre.

In this, Haywire entirely and winningly succeeds. In one sequence, she chases a young man across half of Barcelona until she catches up with him and lets him have it. Elsewhere, she bounces off walls, leaps from one building to another, employs a devastating leg lock, exhibits extraordinary backward driving skills, shoots unerringly, slams guys into assorted hard surfaces, knows just where to kick and, once, sensing she’s met a physical complement, makes out with a young hunk.

Soderbergh and scenarist Lem Dobbs, who previously wrote Kafka and The Limey for the director, seem keen to admit that the action scenes are the point of the film, content to construct a plainly generic story around them. It’s a straight revenge tale, with Mallory fighting her way through assorted muscle-bound, well-armed and otherwise formidable obstacles in order to find out who set her up for assassination after she pulled off the Barcelona job.

The script makes no attempt to assert its plausibility or realism; it is, instead, refreshingly frank about what it is, a simple, workable framework for the melees and mayhem.

Haywire gets right down to the business in the opening scene, a very rough tussle between Mallory and an agent (Channing Tatum) with whom she has history. Escaping in a car with a freaked-out young man named Scott (Michael Angarano), she relates what’s led up to this tense moment, beginning with the Barcelona caper, which Mallory pulled off with great panache.

Mallory’s point man (Ewan McGregor, with a very ****y haircut) then sends her to Dublin on unwanted arm-candy duty with another operative, the dashing Paul (Michael Fassbender, in glamor-boy mode). The two are very well matched physically, in their sophistication and their ruthlessness, which becomes apparent when Paul, instead of putting the make on her, tries to kill her. Their prolonged struggle, which demolishes a suite at the Shelbourne Hotel, is a tour de force for the performers, director and whoever else helped work out all the moves.

Now knowing she’s been betrayed, Mallory dedicates herself to getting back to the U.S., but must first contend with a platoon of agents who chase her through the streets and across the rooftops of Dublin. Her international travel difficulties conveniently skipped over, the yarn rejoins the present-day as Mallory and Scott’s getaway is abruptly ended so as to force the story to the grand New Mexico home of Mallory’s father (a very good Bill Paxton). It turns out Mallory is just a daddy’s girl after all, the daughter of a former Marine (as she is, too) who is now a renowned author of modern warfare nonfiction. The house becomes the setting for film’s rough penultimate battle before Mallory settles up accounts with her superiors, who also include the smooth top man played by Michael Douglas and a more shadowy figure portrayed by Antonio Banderas, mostly in a bushy graying beard.

The fine use of locations, elegantly mobile shooting style and hair-trigger editing are all in line with what one expects from Soderbergh. But here the generally larky but serious-when-it-needs-to-be tone is set by the wildly diverse musical contributions of David Holmes, whose film score-sampling background and blues-and-jazz techno orientation yield many different flavors to occasionally jarring but overall bouyant effect.

As solid as all the male actors are, in the end the show belongs to Soderbergh, who took a risk with a largely untested leading lady, and Carano, whose shoulders, and everything else, prove plenty strong enough to carry the film. The director shrewdly determined what she could and perhaps couldn’t do, and she delivered with a turn that makes other actresses who have attempted such roles, no matter how toned and buff they became, look like pretenders.

Venue: AFI Film Festival
Opens: Jan. 20 (Relativity Media)
Production: Relativity Media
Cast Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Mathieu Kassovitz, Michael Angarano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Screenwriter: Lem Dobbs
Producer: Gregory Jacobs
Executive Producers: Ryan Kavanaugh, Tucker Tooley, Michael Polaire
Director of Photography: Peter Andrews
Production Designer: Howard Cummings
Costume Designer: Shoshana Rubin
Editor: Mary Ann Bernard
Music: David Holmes
91 minutes

GeneChing

11-21-2011, 05:32 PM

click the first link for the trailer.

See Michael Fassbender kicking ass in new 'Haywire' trailer -- EXCLUSIVE (http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/11/10/michael-fassbender-haywire/#more-52062)
by Anthony Breznican
Categories: EW Exclusive, Movie Trailers, Movies

All the talk is about Michael Fassbender’s full-frontal nude scene in the NC-17 sex-addict drama Shame, but in the Steven Soderbergh-directed action-thriller Haywire, a mistake during a savage fight led to a different kind of full-frontal action.

“I remember it clearly,” Fassbender says of the error that led to prop weapon colliding squarely with his face. It happened while in the midst of a knock-down drag-out fight with mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano, who stars in the film as the special-ops agent everyone in the film wants dead.

“She is supposed to pick up a vase and it breaks away, and the stunt guy said, ‘She’s going to grab it and hit you on the side of the head. But the one thing that’s important as she swings toward your head is you don’t look at her. You turn your head away and take the hit.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it.’”

He underestimated the instinct to turn toward a projectile.

“Of course, Gina picked up the vase and I looked right at it,” Fassbender said. There was no serious injury, just a little blinding pain. “It was like a camera bulb had gone off,” he said.

In the movie, out Jan. 20, Fassbender plays an associate agent sent to masquerade with Carano as a wealthy couple touring Dublin, but he’s actually there to double-cross her for their superiors. As the pair enter their hotel room together at the end of a cover mission, a savage, shattering brawl ensues. “He makes his first maneuver on her at the door, and it should be a quick kill but it all goes wrong. And then it’s a matter of finding anything, something hard or that has a sharp edge. It’s an anything goes type thing,” Fassbender says. “These fights are messy.”

Those can be the best kind, though. “Yeah, it was fun,” he recalls with a wincing hiss. “A few bruises though.” Fassbender was facing off with someone who knew how to throw a punch in real life, but was a novice about movie fighting. “I was just focused on keeping it together, and not getting clocked and not hitting Gina, though she would be able to take it a lot better than I would,” Fassbender jokes.

When you watch the attack in the trailer, it’s hard not to see something sexual in these two beautiful, glamorous people grappling with each other. “I suppose the life [these spies] are leading seems to be an exciting one, so there are elements of sex and death,” Fassbender says. He supposes? At one point, she puts his face in a leg-lock and tries to smother him with her thighs. Fassbender chuckles: “I mean, I just put my head where they tell me to… ”

Except, of course, when he doesn’t.

Gina Carano's 'Haywire' stuck with R rating (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/11/gina-carano-haywire-mma-soderbergh-release-date-rating.html)
November 15, 2011 | 3:35 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0162fc707a57970d-600wi

EXCLUSIVE: "Haywire," the Steven Soderbergh spy thriller that marks the acting debut of mixed martial arts star Gina Carano, won't be available to a large majority of the teen market.

The ratings board at the Motion Picture Assn. of America has upheld its R rating for the film, said a person close to the group who was not authorized to discuss the decision publicly.

"Haywire," which will be released Jan. 20 by Relativity Media, hopes to target a youthful audience. Mixed martial arts draws disproportionately from teens, twentysomethings and thirtysomethings; Saturday's Junior dos Santos-Cain Velasquez fight on Fox, for instance, won its time slot in the 18-34 demographic. The prospect that filmgoers under 17 won't be able to buy tickets to “Haywire” without an adult present is a blow to the movie and to Relativity, which had spearheaded the appeal.

A globetrotting action movie that derives as much from "Warrior" as the Jason Bourne films, "Haywire" shows Carano as a kind of female assassin, taking care of her enemies (and she has many) with her fists as well as her brains, with Michael Fassbender and Michael Douglas costarring. "Why is Angelina [Jolie] currently the only woman who's allowed to run around with a gun and beat people up?" Soderbergh recently told an AFI audience. "Someone 20 years ago put Steven Seagal in a movie. Why don't we step it up?"

The MPAA does not offer details on appeals, although “Haywire” does feature a number of scenes of intense physical violence. (The initial ruling was given because of “some violence.”) Intriguingly, the movie is relatively light on the weaponry and other accouterments of some violence-heavy movies that merit only a PG-13, such as “Sucker Punch."

It's unlikely the studio could remove the most violent “Haywire” fight scenes, which are woven into the fabric of the film.

A Relativity spokesman did not immediately comment on the decision.

The MPAA sees a number of appeals each year, occasionally overturning its earlier decisions. Last year it famously decided to knock "Blue Valentine" from an NC-17 to an R after being lobbied by Harvey Weinstein, the film's distributor.

Hebrew Hammer

11-22-2011, 01:17 AM

Mongo like Gina, she is gorgeous...elephant legs?? Really? Maybe if you're 5'2". This doesn't look bad as Doug fears...I wonder how much they're gonna let her talk. I just hope I don't have to see Michael Douglas' ass again.

donjitsu2

11-22-2011, 10:29 AM

http://www.fightlinker.com/pics/ginacaranobodyissue.jpg

she needs to keep her hands up to guard her head...;)

Lucas

11-22-2011, 10:45 AM

ginalicious :D

nice post donjitsu ;)

GeneChing

11-23-2011, 11:22 AM

MOn the Scene || by Jen Yamato || 11 07 2011 3:00 PM
Soderbergh at AFI Fest: Angelina Jolie Meets Steven Seagal in Haywire’s Gina Carano (http://www.movieline.com/2011/11/soderbergh-at-afi-fest-angelina-jolie-meets-steven-seagal-in-haywires-gina-carano.php)

http://www-movieline-com.vimg.net/images/assets_c/2011/11/haywire_ginacarano630-thumb-630xauto-41697.jpg

AFI Fest’s “secret” screening of Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire wasn’t so much a showcase for the AFI darling as it was a coming out party for MMA bruiser-cum-action heroine Gina Carano, whom Soderbergh glimpsed fighting one night on TV and subsequently built a star-studded spy thriller pic around. But it’s hard to say if first-time actor Carano will branch out in a film career beyond the often lo-fi action experiment. Is she a hybrid of Angelina Jolie and Steven Seagal, as Soderbergh suggested Sunday night? Or is there more of a Cynthia Rothrock quality to Carano’s steely gaze and powerhouse physicality?

Haywire, which will be released by Relativity on January 20, follows spy/assassin Mallory (Carano) as she treks the globe after a double-cross, attempting to unravel the mystery of who betrayed and set her up on a recent job, and why. Through a series of flashbacks, past operations unfold with plenty of opportunity to watch Carano in action: pummeling grown men and fellow spies, parkouring across the rooftops of Europe, killing with a cold precision tempered by righteous motivations (and a conscience, of course), all while taking her fair share of bone-crunching blows along the way.

While Carano’s dramatic scenes leave something to be desired (her character seems to be written around her dry delivery and limited acting chops, similar to the more experienced but icy star of Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, Sasha Grey), the cast around her steps in to elevate the proceedings. There’s Ewan McGregor as Mallory’s boss and ex-flame, a private subcontractor who sells assassinations and spy ops to the likes of Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas’s shady government types. Channing Tatum is kind of great as a fellow spy who toes the company line when Mallory goes rogue. Michael Fassbender’s performance as an MI6 agent who may or may not be trustworthy is another highlight with a particularly memorable fight scene, while Bill Paxton, Michael Angarano, and Mathieu Kassovitz round out the cast with solid supporting turns.

“She need[ed] to beat her way through the cast.”

The plot twists and turns its way around familiar spy genre tropes, courtesy of Lem Dobbs (Kafka, The Limey, Dark City), who had to reverse-engineer the story because, as Soderbergh requested, “She need[ed] to beat her way through the cast.” While the unraveling conspiracy and spy games are nothing new and serviceable at best, where Haywire excels — and has the most unadulterated fun — is in reveling in the sight of watching Carano take on her famous co-stars in close-quarters combat. They may outperform her with character work and the spoken word, but no accomplished actor in the cast can conjure the pure glee of Carano believably tossing grown men around, or kicking an enemy — one played by an Oscar-hopeful in this year’s awards race, no less — clear through a glass-paned door.

Conjuring everything from Jolie to Seagal to early Bond films (“the From Russia with Love era”), Soderbergh explained the impetus for making his relatively low-budget action pic at a post-screening Q&A, where stars Carano, Michael Fassbender, and Ewan McGregor joined him for a chat moderated by The Informant co-star Joel McHale.

http://www.movieline.com/2011/11/07/images/haywire_afi630.jpg

“I’d just been fired off a movie,” said Soderbergh (said movie was Moneyball, later directed by Bennett Miller). Catching Carano fight one evening, he had the idea of putting her into a spy action picture. “I just thought, wow — somebody should really build a movie around this woman. She’s kind of amazing. She’s a natural beauty and she beats people into a pulp in a cage.”

“There were two things that were motivating,” he said. “One is, why is Angelina the only woman currently who’s allowed to run around with a gun and beat people up? And the other is, somebody 20 years ago decided to put Steven Seagal in a movie — [he’d] never been in a movie…”

The Haywire Q&A took a turn for the silly itself with McHale at the helm, yielding topics ranging from Seagal’s reality TV show (revelation of the night: Michael Fassbender is aware that Steven Seagal: Lawman exists) to the goat balls McGregor once ate on his own reality show, Long Way Down. Then there was Soderbergh’s lengthy faux lament of Kim Kardashian’s divorce (“I almost didn’t come tonight… we’re all in a period of mourning. I’ve been on some miserable shoots, and 72 days is a long time”) and his vague insinuation about real-life privateers and the financiers of Haywire: “Let’s just say the guy who funded this movie, his country’s now run by someone else.”

The best anecdote from the filming of Haywire, perhaps? McGregor recalled a choreographed fight scene in which he accidentally clipped Carano with a punch. “I punched her right in the head,” he said. “She came straight up and she went, ‘Are you okay?’”

“And she was right, I really ****ing hurt my hand. She didn’t even feel it!”

Could the same be said about Angelina Jolie… or Steven Seagal, for that matter?
I can't wait. This is first on my list of anticipated films for Jan 2012.

GeneChing

01-02-2012, 11:16 AM

I can hardly wait. Gina....:)

Gina Carano took her fighting to a new level for 'Haywire' (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-ca-gina-carano-20120101,0,3581561.story)
The former mixed martial arts champion was trained by a former special-ops fighter for the role in the action film.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-12/67036557.jpg
Gina Carano, who stars in the action drama "Haywire," trains with Aaron Cohen, the technical adviser for the movie, at the Burro Canyon Shooting range in San Gabriel Canyon. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

By Nicole Sperling, Los Angeles Times

January 1, 2012
It's been one year since Gina Carano fired a gun, but you wouldn't know it watching her shoot one. The former mixed martial arts champion, who will make her feature film debut in the Steven Soderbergh action movie "Haywire," is engaged in lively target practice with Aaron Cohen, an ex-Israeli special ops fighter who served as her tactical training coach on the film. Everything from Carano's crouched stance to the steely glint in her dark-brown eyes suggests that firing 9-millimeter pistols at close range is second nature to this 29-year-old extreme athlete.

"How's my form?" she asks as she fires multiple bullets into the chest of the paper target affixed to a wooden board 30 feet away.

"You haven't forgotten a thing," replies Cohen.

"Wow," says Carano, who earlier emerged from a black SUV at the dusty gun range in full movie-star attire — black leather jacket, lacy top, high-heeled boots — only to quickly transform into a fighter in cargo pants and sneakers, her hair pulled back in two low pigtails.

Geared up in hearing-protection headphones and a tactical fighting vest, she walks up to the target to poke at her center chest hits. "It's just like riding a bicycle."

Carano and Cohen are at the Burro Canyon Shooting Park at the base of the Angeles Crest Highway showing off the skills Carano learned during Cohen's six-week intensive tactical training course designed to transform Carano from mixed martial arts fighter into the role of Mallory Kane, a black-ops private contractor who is double crossed by her employers.

The movie, which opens Jan. 20, is another one of Soderbergh's filmic experiments: This time the Academy Award-winning director reimagines the spy genre within the confines of physical realism. Rather than employ movie technology audiences have grown accustomed to — stunt doubles, quick film cuts, wire work — Soderbergh opted to approach the genre with a real-life fighter as his lead and a real-life elite soldier as his technical adviser. He then surrounded Carano with such actors as Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas and Ewan McGregor.

The result is a high-paced action film with kinetic fight scenes that stand apart from those in other films because they look so real.

"I really wanted to make a spy movie that wasn't a fantasy, in which the scale of it was very human," said Soderbergh. "Then I saw Gina on TV, and I thought, 'She is [James] Bond,' just in a different context."

With little more than that idea in his head, Soderbergh first arranged to meet Carano in summer 2009, one week after Carano lost her first mixed martial arts fight against Brazilian fighter Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos. Sporting a black eye and a downtrodden attitude, Carano reluctantly picked up Soderbergh from a train station in San Diego, where she was living at the time.

"I didn't want to talk to anybody, see anybody," said Carano, who was surprised when their meeting turned into a four-hour lunch. "We had this normal conversation. He was feeling me out. He wanted to know what kind of person I am. And I didn't have any preconceived notions of him because I didn't really know what a director really was."

Soderbergh knew Carano mainly from her YouTube fights, where with her hair pulled back in tight cornrowed braids, she relentlessly punches and kicks her opponents, often breaking their noses and knocking them out. The director wanted to see if there was more to her than the intense brutality she conveys during her bouts. He was hoping for something soft, feminine, maybe even vulnerable.

Soderbergh, who previously cast adult film star Sasha Grey as his leading lady in "The Girlfriend Experience," knew the secret to working with untrained actors is to capitalize on their true character.

"The more you play to the essence of their personality, the more success you are going to have," said Soderbergh. "I found her genuine, sincere and very female. She was in some respects very girly, which I thought was great. Even early on, I was hoping to have her play both sides of this, a girl in a beautiful dress who could also chase a guy down on foot. I had no doubts about that after I talked to her."

For Carano, the Soderbergh interaction couldn't have come at a better time. After being heralded as the face of mixed martial arts, Carano had suffered a significant professional setback, losing in the first round to Cyborg in July 2009. At a crossroads with her career, the chance to be a lead in a major motion picture from a highly regarded director was an opportunity she couldn't turn down.

"I've always heard these stories about Hollywood and what you have to do to be in Hollywood but [Steven] was so professional and appropriate and I thought, 'Absolutely, I'll make a movie with you,'" said Carano.

A physical kid growing up in Las Vegas, where she attended a small Christian school, Carano never considered herself a violent person, but throughout her life, fights kept coming her way. Whether it was the guys who jumped her in high school or the basketball opponent who charged her over a jump ball during a game, Carano may not have instigated the altercations, but she wasn't ever willing to back down from one. Perhaps it was a trait she inherited from her father, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Glenn Carano.

"My dad and mom always taught me to stick up for myself so it's kinda in my blood," she said.

Carano started training in the sport of muay Thai at age 21, at the suggestion of her then-boyfriend fighter Kevin Ross. The striking brunet — whose profile should be on the head of a coin, according to Soderbergh — recently had abandoned a couple of scholarship opportunities to play collegiate basketball and softball, opting to stay close to home to help her struggling sister and study psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

wenshu

01-04-2012, 11:32 PM

I just noticed that this was written by Lem Dobbs. The Limey is one of my favorite movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BaXPg_2FJ4

Kevin73

01-05-2012, 06:09 AM

I don't think she is "thick" at all. I think that people forget most of the time we have only seen her when she was prepping for a fight. Also, most of us who followed her fight career know that she has always had trouble dropping down to meet weight.

I think it's the big boobs. :D

Hebrew Hammer

01-05-2012, 01:06 PM

I'm going to see this...just for her, but it looks like it might be a pleasant surprise.

GeneChing

01-06-2012, 11:17 AM

...especially KFM people in San Francisco, San Jose & Sacramento... ;)

THE ARENA
JANUARY 6, 2012
The Art of Directing a Fight Scene (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203462304577138690300881390.html)
By DON STEINBERG

Director Steven Soderbergh has been known for quirky film experiments since "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" gave audiences all three of those things in 1989. He's mixed commercial fare like the "Ocean's" movies, "Erin Brockovich," "Traffic" and the recent "Contagion" with a film-noir attempt ("The Good German") and a two-part Che Guevara movie.

With "Haywire," which opens Jan. 20, he heads in yet another direction, casting Gina Carano, a professional mixed-martial-arts fighter with limited prior acting experience, in the lead role as an international black-ops agent. It's a risk mitigated by a team of male co-stars (Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum) that would seem at home in Mr. Soderbergh's swanky "Ocean's Eleven" world. In fact, "Haywire" plays a bit like "Ocean's," with an added wallop of spy-versus-spy butt-kicking. Mr. Soderbergh talked about his tough new starlet's cross-demographic appeal (from feminists to Ultimate Fighting Championship fans), and the joy of seeing a girl beat up on the boys.

The Wall Street Journal: You decided to build a movie around Gina Carano after talking with her for about four hours?

Mr. Soderbergh: Yeah, pretty much. I saw her fight on TV, and saw her interviewed, and thought, given the history of movies being built around real fighters, why shouldn't somebody build a movie around her? She seemed kind of ready-made to do that. She's a natural beauty and a real fighter.

I went to talk to her and said, "Would you be up for this?" She said, "Yeah, actually, this comes at a good time for me." [Ms. Carano was lying low after her first and only loss, in a brutal battle against an opponent nicknamed Cyborg.] There's obviously a risk involved. People know her, but not because of movie stuff. But I feel like this is what movies are for. They did it for Steven Seagal. Why can't we do it for her?

I had also been looking—because I love spy movies—for something in this vein that was set in the world of these private security companies. So when I saw her I thought: I can combine these two things. That's what we ended up doing. There's probably more Ian Fleming and Alfred Hitch**** in it than Hong Kong martial-arts movies.

With a real fighter, you do get to execute some pretty serious fight scenes.

Very early on, we decided we wanted to keep them as realistic as possible. No wirework. Nothing that you couldn't actually do. And as a result, the fights aren't very long, because what we learned is that if you're gonna keep it real, and these people are only doing what they can do, it doesn't drag out for very long.

Steven Soderbergh built a movie around pro fighter Gina Carano.

You built a cast around her—of guys who wouldn't mind being beaten up by a girl?

Yeah. And also who were—we didn't want to be using doubles and cheating and cutting away. So these guys really needed to know how to do it. I mean, God, Fassbender, she really put him through the wringer. That was a pretty intense two days. Depending on the shot, he may have a pad here or there, but she's really strong. During training she accidentally knocked out one of the stunt coordinators. She was constantly telling Channing [Tatum], "You're not—you need to hit me harder. Stop pulling it." It's just really, really satisfying to see a woman beat up on guys like that.

Do you feel a nontraditional lead brings extra authenticity?

Athletes—there's a specific kind of presence and affect that professional athletes have that I think is very difficult to fake. Just the way they carry themselves. It's different. And in this case really crucial for us. As soon as we started shooting, I thought, "She looks like she belongs here." She has that kind of presence and physical grace that you need to have to carry someone's attention in a film.

One of the things I've discovered obviously is that she can run. I could have watched her run for an hour. I just think it's the coolest thing.

Have you been a fight-movie fan?

I had to educate myself a little bit. One of the things that Lem Dobbs, the writer, turned me on to, that kind of ended up being the template for the hotel-room scene, was this Rod Taylor movie from the '60s called "Darker Than Amber." There's a fairly notorious scene between Taylor and this other guy, set in a room where they really beat the s— out of each other and tear the room apart at the same time. It's a great sequence. The difference is we have a woman, and they're both in, like, evening wear.

Until recently, Hollywood didn't have the martial-arts sophistication and artistic qualities of Asian films...

There's no question that if you made this movie 20 years ago, those fights look very different. The influence of martial-arts fighting in movies has been so dominated by the Hong Kong films that 20 years ago, I don't think our fight choreographers and our stunt coordinators—these kinds of ideas about how to do a fight wouldn't have been presented.

What changed?

I would imagine "The Matrix" has a lot to do with it. The kind of fighting that was in that, the Wachowskis love that stuff. Their idea to fuse it with this science-fiction premise was really smart.

How do you promote "Haywire" to the UFC audience?

Well, the other trick for us is we want women to come, and that's not typically who gets targeted for this kind of film. We've done a series of screenings just for women, to try and get them interested in her. Because when they see the film, they're totally captivated by her and the power that she has. Women really respond to her.

Her [MMA] fan base is very Internet-driven, so it's not hard to get to them. When we went down to Comic-Con with some clips, and she was there, that day she was the third most Googled thing world-wide. The third most Googled thing in the world. She's got a following.

GeneChing

01-06-2012, 03:31 PM

KungFuMagazine.com is pleased to present HAYWIRE ADVANCED SCREENING (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1021)

San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento Only!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012!

Click the link above to get your tickets!

doug maverick

01-08-2012, 01:07 PM

im gonna see this movie just to support MA in movies...but i dont like soderbergh's films...so idk if im gonna like this one.

GeneChing

01-11-2012, 10:43 AM

If you're in the SF Bay Area or Sacto, hit me up! :cool:

From the Cage to the Screen, With Fists Flying (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/movies/gina-carano-makes-film-debut-in-haywire.html)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/01/08/arts/08HAYWIRE2/08HAYWIRE2-articleLarge.jpg
Gina Carano in a scene from the film "Haywire."
By MARGY ROCHLIN
Published: January 1, 2012

Gina Carano, a professional mixed martial arts fighter, stars in the movie "Haywire."

THE first time Gina Carano met with the director Steven Soderbergh she arrived with a black eye and an air of depression. Just days earlier she had experienced her first loss as a professional mixed martial arts fighter: She’d been taken to the mat in 4 minutes 59 seconds by an impressively sturdy Brazilian, Cristiane Santos, who is known as Cyborg. What Ms. Carano couldn’t have known until Mr. Soderbergh told her — especially because she’d never heard of him — is that he had recently experienced the film industry version of a technical knockout: Sony Pictures had pulled the plug on his version of the sports drama “Moneyball.”

“It was an interesting place for us both,” Ms. Carano, 29, said recently, recalling how their moods were perfectly in sync during that initial meeting at a cafe in San Diego, where her parents have a home. “We were two wounded birds just sitting there, going, like, ‘Life isn’t fair sometimes.’ ”

Mr. Soderbergh had an antidote for the bitter pills they each had swallowed. “The first thing you need to do is just immediately get back to work,” said Mr. Soderbergh, who, post-“Moneyball,” had been wallowing in front of the television when he spotted Ms. Carano in a match. He was struck by the notion that she would be ideal as the lethal covert operator in a “pseudo-Bond” action film he had been thinking about. “She needed to get her head out of that fight,” he said. “There’s nothing, in her case, like somebody saying, ‘You’re going to be the star of a movie’ to put yourself in a different space.”

Taking a page from the Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal franchises, Mr. Soderbergh envisioned “Haywire,” opening on Jan. 20, as a revenge thriller that capitalized on the effortless-looking athleticism of the pretty dark-haired Ms. Carano, who is considered one of the world’s top female fighters. What didn’t concern him was that her on-camera experience until then had been limited mostly to televised mixed martial arts bouts, a brief cameo in the direct-to-DVD movie “Blood and Bones” and a two-season stint competing under the name Crush on the reality contest “American Gladiators.”

He asked himself: “Why are action films so ugly? Why can’t there be action, and why can’t they be beautiful to look at?”

“Haywire” is lovingly lighted and filmed, its action as sparingly edited as old Hollywood musicals, so that the painstaking fight choreography can be appreciated. As the double-crossed freelance agent Mallory Kane, Ms. Carano gives “Haywire” jolts of energy with her arsenal of explosive moves: pushing off walls, slinging sheet pans, twisting arms until they break. In one memorable scene Michael Fassbender, playing a suave colleague, engages Mallory in a furniture-smashing brawl in an expensive hotel room in Dublin. Mr. Fassbender recalled Ms. Carano needling him to hit her harder. “I kept telling her, ‘Gina, this is called acting, yeah? It’s pretend. I don’t have to hit you,’ ” said Mr. Fassbender, who in “Haywire” tosses Ms. Carano, dressed in black Herve Leger, into a flat-screen television. “I’m going to make myself look like a real wuss, but I was wearing padding. But she wouldn’t. She was stubborn like that. I think she likes the bruising.”

Or perhaps she feels that scrapes and goose eggs come with the territory. One of the earliest memories of Ms. Carano, the middle daughter of Dana and Glenn Carano, a former backup quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, is the after-dinner entertainment at family get-togethers: sofas and chairs would be cleared from the living room, and one after the other, little Gina would wrestle her male cousins.

“They were all fascinated by how I could handle myself,” she said. “But I’ve been physical my whole life. I have these big legs, and I’ve always been so strong. I was born this way.” Each of Ms. Carano’s war stories, and she seems to have a lot of them, tend to include vivid details — what kind of taunt incited the battle, what happened to her white jeans — and are related so cheerfully that one tends to forget that she’s talking about something involving tears (not hers) and bloody noses.

It never occurred to her that not backing down could be turned into an occupation until she was in her early 20s, and a boyfriend introduced her to Muay Thai kickboxing. “I was actually really good at it,” said the 5-foot-8-inch Ms. Carano who, five months later, began participating in underground “Fight Club”-like events. She would be paired with a female fighter, then proceed to beat her senseless.

Once she entered the more animalistic world of cage fighting, she gained a reputation for strength, technical proficiency and regular employment of the rear naked choke, a move that involves wrapping your arms around an opponent’s neck and applying pressure to her carotid artery until she concedes or faints. But part of what drew her fan base was the sunny, girlish vitality she brought to ringside victory interviews.

Unlike her all-business “Haywire” character, she is quite animated in person. After one “American Gladiators” bout, for instance, she was accused of using an illegal kick to the head. But she just shrugged lightly and said, “It wasn’t a kick, it was a step,” demonstrating with an insouciant smile.

By the time Mark Koops, an executive producer of “American Gladiators,” met her in 2008, Ms. Carano was on a winning streak. Despite the allure of exposure on that NBC series, she didn’t want to ruin her professional-athlete image by pulling on a shimmery superheroine hot pants outfit.

“I joke that we signed her and unsigned her five times prior to the first day of shooting,” Mr. Koops said, adding that once Ms. Carano committed to shoving amateur opponents off platforms suspended in midair and other contests, she quickly became a viewer favorite. “She can get on camera and instantly know how to turn on her competitiveness and charm. She’s beautiful and has a smile, when you can get her to smile, that lights up the room.”

On a recent chilly morning at the Mr. C hotel in Beverly Hills, Ms. Carano sat at a table on the patio directing her charm offensive at the waiter with a hand brace who brought her scrambled eggs. “What happened?” she asked him about what turned out to be a softball injury. “Slow pitch or fast?” Judging from his demeanor he didn’t know that the woman before him in a zippered leather jacket, fingerless gloves, jeans and a striped knit hat was capable of breaking his other hand and a lot more.

Though her mixed martial arts career has been put aside for 2 ½ years, Ms. Carano still thinks of herself as a fighter. Time and the “Haywire” experience have allowed her to view her loss to Cyborg differently. “It put me in a very humble and honest place,” Ms. Carano said. “Like: ‘Gina? Maybe that can happen. Maybe life isn’t always going to go your way.’ ”

She’s wary when it comes to speculating about her future in movies, but she’ll allow that she’d love to play someone more light-hearted than the tough customer she portrays in “Haywire.” “She’s very serious. I laugh a lot,” Ms. Carano said. “There’s only one time in the movie that she smiles, and that’s when she’s pretending to be drunk.”

Then there’s the matter of her battered black notebook, which she flipped open after asking for suggestions of classic movies to put in her Netflix queue, then wrote down the titles in her looping, schoolgirl handwriting.

“I guess no one would be surprised if someone like Gina came off as crustier, a little more sarcastic,” Mr. Soderbergh said, after being told that she’s home-schooling herself in cinema history. “But her sincerity and lack of guile is real. There’s a funny dichotomy there. On one hand she’s a cage fighter, and on the other hand she’s someone who is still evolving.”

doug maverick

01-11-2012, 12:41 PM

so it seems here voice was either dubbed or digitally altered for the film..thats the rumor going around..and if you listen to her voice in the movie and her voice in interviews its hard to argue it wasnt.

GeneChing

01-12-2012, 04:56 PM

We are pleased to share the first five minutes of Haywire, the new action packed film by Oscar® winner Steven Soderbergh (Contagion).

Watch the adrenaline inducing clip starring MMA superstar Gina Carano and Channing Tatum on Hulu now at: http://www.hulu.com/watch/317437/haywire---exclusive-clip---first-5-minutes-of-the-film

The film also stars Ewan McGregor (The Ghost Writer), Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class), Antonio Banderas (The Legend of Zorro), Bill Paxton (“Big Love”), Michael Douglas (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) and Michael Angarano (Almost Famous).
We still have tickets for our three advanced screenings in San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento next Tuesday. If you want to join us, click here (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1021).

TaichiMantis

01-13-2012, 08:44 AM

doug maverick

01-13-2012, 09:48 AM

um like i said its a rumor... but if you listen to her voice in clips and trailers and you listen to her in interviews...you can clearly hear that either her voice was altered or dubed all together.

GeneChing

01-16-2012, 11:34 AM

Hope you can join us. Email me at NinjaStar@KungFuMagazine.com.

HAYWIRE ADVANCED SCREENING: San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento Only (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1021)

GeneChing

01-16-2012, 05:28 PM

Not sure about SF and San Jose yet. Gofobo keeps its own count and stops distributing passes when full. I only know when they stop.

Lee Chiang Po

01-16-2012, 08:56 PM

She is definately thicker than she was when she was fighting. But this is what beef steak and steroids do to you. Of course black tights and wet suits will hide the cottage cheese cellulite. No matter. She is still a great looking broad, and I sort of like um thick. Takes a real thick woman to handle me. Thick or thin, There ain't never been a woman I couldn't whip.

TaichiMantis

01-17-2012, 06:37 AM

Thick or thin, There ain't never been a woman I couldn't whip.

I'd pay to see her kick your teeth in...:rolleyes:

GeneChing

01-17-2012, 09:51 AM

Non captured her laughter & humor well. Follow the link for a photo gallery.

Jan 16, 2012
Carano still undecided on return to MMA (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/mma/post/2012-01-16/carano-still-undecided-about-return-to-mma/604838/1)
By Sergio Non, USA TODAY
4:51 PM

http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/fighting-stances/2012/01/16/ginacaranox-inset-community.jpg
By Frazer Harrison, Getty Images for Relativity Media
Gina Carano has yet to make up her mind about fighting again.

"I know that there's so much that you can do in a lifetime with acting and there's only a certain amount of time you can fight," Carano said. "I'm keeping all these things in mind. I'll definitely know a lot more in a couple of months."

For now, the first woman to become prominent in mixed martial arts wants to focus on the Jan. 20 theatrical release of Haywire, an espionage thriller that features her in the lead role. USA TODAY spoke to Carano recently about the movie and mixed martial arts. Excerpts from the conversation:

How much did the fight choreographers take advantage of your existing MMA abilities, as opposed to you learning new skills for movie fighting?

The fight choreographers are complete fans of the sport. They were so funny -- they geeked out and wanted to talk fighting with me the whole time.

They've seen all my fights and they knew my style -- Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing. They knew what I had come from. It was really cool to collaborate with them once they realized they weren't dealing with an actress, they were dealing with an athlete. It was really fun for us to implement my style of fighting in mixed martial arts into these fight scenes and have the freedom to learn their style and mix it in.

The new skills came with the acting part of fighting, which wasn't hard for me at all. With the actors I had, they took their adrenaline up in each fight scene and made it real to me. But it was more like we were taking care of each other being physically violent toward each other, instead of trying to smash each other. There was no egos involved.

Learning stunt fighting was learning how to miss and make it look very close, and doing that kind of stuff.

How difficult was it to hold back when you were working with the actors and stunt people?

There was only one person I really felt bad with, and it's because we were doing an additional shoot after we had already wrapped.

I had gone to Thailand, and so I'm in Thailand doing two-a-days, once in the morning, once at night -- all contact; all sparring; all padwork -- and really kind of detoxing and getting back to my roots there. Then they called me three weeks in -- I was planning on staying there for five weeks -- and they're like, "We've got this great idea for an additional shoot. We need you to come back and shoot it with us." So I was like, "Ok, on my way back."

The poor stunt guy that I ended up having this reshoot with ended up getting a little bit bloody, I'm not going to lie. He was such a good sport about it, but I did accidentally make contact a couple of times, because I had been making contact for the last three weeks, so it was kind of unfortunate. He laughed it off and thought it was hilarious, and went and told all his other stunt buddies that I beat him up that day. (laughs)

Yeah, if you did that to me, I'd be bragging about it, I admit.

(laughs) I was like, "Don't give me a bad reputation in this industry. It was an accident. I was training in Thailand. I couldn't control it."

You've been hesitant in talking about your future in MMA, one way or another. What criteria would you use to make a decision about returning or not?

(chuckles) There are certain things that I always dreamed of, like fighting in the UFC. That was a big one.

I don't know. There's just certain things that I feel like haven't been accomplished there. There's such great women coming up in the sport; seems like a wonderful time to be in women's MMA.

So I'm not sure. I'm going to kind of get on the other side of Jan. 20th and give back to this film what it gave to me. Because it was -- I won't lie and say it wasn't the best time of my life, because it absolutely was. It was really fun to creatively express myself in a sport and a passion that I love, without having to try and hurt someone.

I know that there's so much that you can do in a lifetime with acting and there's only a certain amount of time you can fight. I'm keeping all these things in mind. I'll definitely know a lot more in a couple of months.

Is that a way of saying that you'd be done with fighting if the movie does well and high-quality offerings come rolling in from Hollywood?

Not necessarily. I think that the right offer has to come in either way. I was told that by a wonderful actress whom I've always kind of looked up to and watched in her career, the good and the bad.

She told me something and I'll always remember it. She says, "No matter what, you've got make the right decisions for yourself in this life. You have to stay true to yourself."

Sometimes that means walking away from something that you don't want to walk away from because you think the opportunity's going to be so great. Or sometimes that's doing something that nobody believes in, like when I started Muay Thai and I got hard time for fighting and looked at sideways for thinking that that was a profession.

I think it's just going to feel right when it does. I'm not sure exactly what is going to take that decision. I'm just trying to get on the other side of Jan. 20th and look back and know I gave it everything I had to give back. Then I can have a clean slate and start and land where I'm at.

What actress was that?

I don't want to say her name. I don't want to name drop, but she's somebody that I respect.

What would be a high-quality offer, let's say, in terms of MMA?

Of course, fighting for the UFC, that would be huge. I'm going straight to the top on that one, aren't I? (laughs)

It's ok, you can be ambitious.

You know, why not just put it out there? (laughs)

Does money play a role in it?

It's really nice to support myself. As long as I can keep supporting myself, then I'm going to be ok in life. I'm not greedy when it comes to that.

I know I definitely need to make a living for myself, but we'll see.

I just think of the purses paid to you before your hiatus from fighting. Frankly, for the business that you generated for Strikeforce and EliteXC, you might have been able to justify more compensation.

(jokingly) I know, I need some pay for the last couple of years. (laughs)

No, I'm not trying to be greedy. I've been a really blessed person to experience the things that I've experienced. I don't know what is going to happen. I'm just going to stay positive and keep going forward.

You were supposed to return to MMA in June before some medical stuff derailed that. You've kept that private, but athletes talk about their injuries and health issues all the time. Why have you been reluctant in this case?

I guess, it's because it's just that personal. (laughs) I don't know. I'm kind of a private person when it comes to certain things. I think that in this world, we all don't need to know everything about each other.

I respect the fact that athletes do share what happens in their lives. But sometimes we're going to run into situations where we don't need to know.

Maybe someday I'll talk about things and I'll feel more comfortable too. But I don't think today is that day.

continued next post

GeneChing

01-17-2012, 09:52 AM

There's a photo gallery too, if you follow the link above.

You've heard about Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos' suspension for her positive test. How surprised were you to hear she'd be taking something like that?

Back when I fought here, I had rumors swirling around me for years that that was the case.

I definitely could have lived the rest of my life without hearing that she tested positive, because of course I put that in my head. My biggest MMA moment to date was that fight.

It kind of stung when I heard it. But I also know that we're all just human beings in this world and we all make mistakes. Sometimes we're etting bad advice from the people around us.

I think Cyborg's a phenomenal athlete without steroids and I think she should know that without thinking that she had to take anything.

Steroids can be not only a physical enhancement, but it's definitely a mental enhancement. Having that back-up of, "Well, I'm on steroids," that does make it quite unfair. If we all have to deal with the same mentality going into a fight, that's equal.

So it stung a little bit, but she's a human being. She's a great athlete. She doesn't need any of that.

She's going to have to deal with the repurcussions of having tested positive once in her career. I think that's going to be enough punishment for one human being. She's suspended,got her title taken away from her. I don't think she needs the rest of us fighters shoving it down her throat.

So I sympathize with her. I respect her still and I think she'll come back as a better athlete after she goes through this kind of hard time.

Seems like the chic thing in women's MMA these days is going to the 135-pound division. But you had some difficulties getting to 140 in EliteXC. How realistic would it be for you to attempt 135?

I've made 136, 139. In my Cyborg fight, I got down to 142 without even stepping one foot in the steam room.

I'm not acting like, "Hey, that would be the easiest thing for me to do," because we all know that it hasn't been for me in the past. But if I really want to do something, I can do it, and if I have to do something like that if I come back, I will.

One of the women dropping to 135 is Ronda Rousey. She's all the rage these days. Some of her peers think she doesn't deserve a title shot yet. How fair is that criticism?

Hey, I think if she believes in herself and she thinks she's ready, then she gets that title shot. I think she's phenomenal and a great athlete.

She's an Olympic athlete. We've attracted an Olympic athlete to our sport. How can anybody say that she's not prepared? She's been through more competitions than we will ever know about and she's been under a pressurized situation in the Olympics.

I hope for the best for her. I say give her that title shot if she asked for it. She's got all my respect.

She has said that, let's face it, looks matter, to paraphrase her. But you also recently said in an interview that you hope that someday, looks and sexuality shouldn't matter. Why shouldn't it matter?

I think everybody has their gifts. Some people were gifted in the looks department. But other people were gifted in a kind heart or other people were gifted in extreme athleticism. Whatever you've been gifted in, I think that in itself can be beautiful. Sometimes comedy -- somebody being hilarious can make them beautiful.

I think that if you just focus on not being anything other than yourself and just hone in on what you've been gifted with, you can always improve the other things around you. You can always improve the other things that you weren't gifted on. That's all that we need to really focus on.

When I really like someone -- when I like watching an actor, an actress, a fighter; or when I have a boyfriend even -- it's not because of the way they look. It's about what's inside them that makes them special. If we're all just focused on the most beautiful people, then this world be so empty.

How realistic is it to expect, not just MMA fans, but sports fans, in general, to stop paying attention to that aspect of things?

In order for people to stop paying attention to that kind of thing, the attractive people would have to stop taking beautiful pictures and stop feeling good about themselves, and I don't think that's correct either.

I think if you're a beautiful female and you want to feel sexy, then you should by all means feel sexy and be beautiful. If that's what we were gifted with, then of course. Why should it be wrong for a person to appreciate a God-given beauty that they were given?

I think it's going to be the difference in how people start looking at things. Like, yes, that's a very attractive female, and she has these good things about her. And over here, that's an extremely athletic female, and she's got these good things about her.

There's always things that you can look at and be positive about, I guess, instead of just putting it all off on "Sex sells."

GeneChing

01-17-2012, 01:36 PM

‘Haywire’ success could flip action movie industry, says martial arts vet Cynthia Rothrock (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/haywire-success-flip-action-movie-industry-martial-arts-vet-cynthia-rothrock-article-1.1004600?localLinksEnabled=false)
Pioneering female action star says Soderbergh movie could 'open doors' for women
By Cynthia Rothrock / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Tuesday, January 17 2012, 6:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday, January 17 2012, 6:00 AM

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1004599.1326306582!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/image.jpg
Bo Ho Film Company Ltd.
Cynthia Rothrock in the 1986 martial arts action film 'Righting Wrongs'

In a Hong Kong martial arts movie industry that was dominated in the 1990s by the likes of Jet Li and Jackie Chan, American import Cynthia Rothrock proved a woman could kick butt as well as any man. An undefeated world karate champion for five years before roundhousing her way into action films like “Female Reporter,” “China O’Brien” and “Righting Wrongs,” she had a much tougher time busting preconceptions about female action stars on this side of the Pacific. Rothrock tells The News what “Haywire” means for the business.

When I first started doing action movies, I was always playing the girlfriend who would fight, but would still have the boyfriend save her. Then I finally broke out of that where I could be the lead myself.

Then, when I was trying to get bigger projects, it was like, “Women don’t really sell as action stars.”

When a movie would come out, like Sharon Stone in the Western “The Quick and the Dead,” they’d be like, “You see, women in action don’t sell.”

But I don’t think it matters whether it’s a man or a woman doing the fighting, what matters is how good and believable the fights are.

When someone like Gina looks like she really can fight, it makes such a big difference on screen.

One of the best scenes I’ve ever seen was in “Mississippi Burning” and they had this guy on his knees and someone came up and gave him this roundhouse kick in the head, but the kick was just impeccable. It was strong, it was powerful and it was just one kick and you’re like, “Oh my God.” Whereas in some movies, someone can do this whole flurry of fancy things and you just lose interest.

But it’s also the fact that Steven Soderbergh had the passion to know that “Haywire” could be a good movie and this could work and getting a studio to do it with a big budget is amazing.

I’ve been looking for these people all my life. Whoever has the power to get that done. And the passion to do it. If this movie does well, it will open up doors.
Personally, I don't think that 'believability' is that important in a fight scene. Take the Star Wars light saber battles for instance. They aren't particularly believable. Believability is a factor, but then again, after all, it's the movies so most all the movie choreography is abstract. It's more about how engaging the story and characters are.

GeneChing

01-18-2012, 10:25 AM

...but it needed a bigger action finale.

Official review coming on Friday.

sanjuro_ronin

01-18-2012, 10:35 AM

Personally, I don't think that 'believability' is that important in a fight scene. Take the Star Wars light saber battles for instance. They aren't particularly believable. Believability is a factor, but then again, after all, it's the movies so most all the movie choreography is abstract. It's more about how engaging the story and characters are.

I think that context should dictate the degree of believablity.

Lucas

01-18-2012, 10:37 AM

i like believability in fight scenes when you are dealing with realisitic scenarios. a comic movie for me holds a different expectation than a militant film. from one i expect big leaping attacks, unrealistic counters and maneuvers, from the other i expect more grounded fights, little to no flash and faster fights. a kungfu movie imo is a good combination of those two, unless its fantasy based then its like super heros

Jimbo

01-18-2012, 11:16 AM

I also feel that the degree of realism depends on the movie itself.

That was my one complaint about the Danish/Turkish movie MA movie, Fighter. The story/situations and acting in it were pretty much reality-based, but then the fights were of a weird, dreamy, floaty/flashy style; and that's not including the actual dream sequences. It was a good movie, but would have rocked even more had the fights matched the rest of the movie.

sanjuro_ronin

01-18-2012, 11:50 AM

For movies of the "killer spy" theme, choreography the likes of Bourne, Taken and Hanna is ideal.
For the "uber MA' movies then the likes of Ninja Assasin is the way to go.
For the fantasy genre then pretty much anything is valid.

GeneChing

01-18-2012, 01:04 PM

It's not so much 'believability' for me because I'm being semantically picky and somewhat of a realist. After seeing enough fights first hand - both in the cage and on the street - I seldom find a movie fight really believable. Frankly, it's the tempo. Film fights are choreographed. They have a rhythm. They are cleaner. Real fights are staccato. It's all about breaking rhythms. That's really hard to choreograph.

Also, back when I was making swords for a living, I knew a lot of people involved in theater choreography, and there's all this theory on how fights play into a story arc. Fight choreography theory is mostly fight choreographers contemplating their navels, but it does make me look a fights differently. Probably, it's just my weird perspective on it all. As practicing martial artists, we all have a unique vantage point.

Like you all say, it's all about context and appropriateness. That being said, the fights in Haywire are very appropriate. The scenes where Gina was fighting - those rocked. This film just needed a whole bunch more of that. Less story, less cinematic style, more Gina kicking the crap out of villains.

But I'm jumping the gun. I'll have an official review up Friday.

Lee Chiang Po

01-19-2012, 11:45 AM

I'd pay to see her kick your teeth in...:rolleyes:

LOL!! I'm sure you would. You would probably pay to watch her take a dump too. She might last 10 seconds, only because I would have to use one hand and without really hurting her. I would need the other for gropping and I don't like beating up on girls.

Lucas

01-19-2012, 12:05 PM

LOL!! I'm sure you would. You would probably pay to watch her take a dump too. She might last 10 seconds, only because I would have to use one hand and without really hurting her. I would need the other for gropping and I don't like beating up on girls.

LOL!!!!!!!!!! man you crack me up.

sanjuro_ronin

01-20-2012, 07:02 AM

A review:
http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Reviews/H/Haywire/2012/01/19/19265806.html

rated 3.5 out of 4

The promotion line for Steven Soderbergh's kinetic thriller Haywire is simple and direct: "They left her no choice."

We, on the other hand, do have a choice. We can choose either to see or to avoid this action flick, which involves spies, intrigue, double-crosses and fight-to-the-death combat.

The turn-off is that an amateur actor, Gina Carano, is in the lead role. She plays the "her" who has no choice. She is an American spy forced to go rogue to save her sorry butt. The 29-year-old Texan's acting chops are minimal, although she does have natural charisma in front of the camera.

The turn-on is that Carano -- who is a female mixed martial arts star who may or may not be soon launching a comeback in the octagon -- is the real deal when it comes to the Muay Thai style of kickboxing. When she tackles her co-stars Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender in Haywire, you instantly understand that Carano can take a blow and can also pulverize an opponent. Rarely have movie fights been this realistic, this devastating, this savage and this mesmerizing.

So the choice really is made for you, assuming you like action flicks: Go and see Haywire. Forgive Carano for her emotional blank slate. She has the physical thing down to perfection.

Right from the opening scenes with Carano vs. Tatum, you know you are in for something different. While the plot is routine and familiar -- Carano is framed by other spies and targeted for extermination -- the overall visceral effect is fascinating. That is because, with its low-tech effects and hard realism, Haywire is the anti-Mission: Impossible. Her character, ex-Marine Mallory Kane, is the anti-Jason Bourne.

So there is nothing slick or fancy about Soderbergh's direction. Nor his cinematography (Soderbergh always shoots his own movies). As the story jumps from Stateside locales to Barcelona and Dublin, you get the feeling that there is grit in the mouth, blood on the fists and dirt on Carano's shoes as she kicks people in the face.

I even like the way the story is told, despite moments of confusion in the screenplay by Lem Dobbs. After her opening action gambit, Carano tells the saga to a total stranger, a total geek, while we watch it unfold in flashbacks. The twist is that, at this point in the story, Carano does not know everything. So we don't either. It's called suspense.

It is wonderful, too, how Soderbergh surrounds Carano with such sterling talent, generous actors who carry her along. Not just McGregor, Tatum and Fassbender but also Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas and Bill Paxton in strong cameos.

As for Soderbergh himself, he is a wily veteran of filmmaking since his debut film Sex, Lies & Videotape stormed the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Palme d'Or in 1989. He is now rumoured to be retiring from filmmaking. Yet he remains a busy fellow behind the camera, as a director and cinematographer.

So I don't believe the retirement thing at all. He is too good to give up. And this latest kinetic thriller shows that we still need Soderbergh in play because of his curiosity, risk-taking, obvious skill and willingness to mix up genres.

GeneChing

01-20-2012, 10:25 AM

Form their leading critic, who usually hates everything.

'Haywire' review: Lowbrow fun from Soderbergh (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/20/DDDB1MR351.DTL)
Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic
Friday, January 20, 2012

POLITE APPLAUSE Action. Starring Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor and Michael Fassbender. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. (R. 93 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

There are people who love movies, and then there are people who love certain movies. And to sort one type of person from the other, you might show them "Haywire," the latest from Steven Soderbergh.

Put simply, the people who love movies don't love them in spite of their vulgarity but because they are vulgar, and obvious, and manipulative, and cheap, and colossally and crazily effective. You don't love opera if you don't get a kick out of fat ladies singing ingenue roles, and you don't love movies if the sight of Gina Carano beating up every guy in sight doesn't make you laugh, get happy and feel as if you're getting your money's worth.

There are many good things to say about Soderbergh, but here is the best thing, the highest praise: He is talented enough to be a snob, but he's not. In between making art films and Major Motion Pictures, he has lent his inspiration to pure-entertainment features, and this latest is nothing more than a tangled revenge saga, in which several powerful people make a mistake and get the wrong woman mad at them.

Until this film, I had never heard of Carano, who was apparently a martial arts champion, though that was yesterday. As of today, she's a movie star. Beautiful in a girl-from-the-neighborhood sort of way, Carano inhabits Soderbergh's elaborate frame with wit, physicality and just a hint of ironic distance, the suggestion of someone who's not overawed by the opportunity or taking herself too seriously.

It starts off quietly, at a roadside diner, and yet something in the first minutes of "Haywire" - it could be the soundtrack, or the caged-animal edginess of Carano's movements, or the way the camera looks around the place, expecting trouble - tells you it won't be quiet for long. Yet even with that warning, when the shift comes from low to high gear, it's a jolt, and a delight, too, because with that you know the movie will not be confined by conventional limits. This is going to get a bit insane.

"Haywire" takes place in a movie world of international intrigue, with people zipping around the globe doing exciting, awful things. Mallory (Carano) works for a private contracting company, doing spy work, providing protection, rescuing hostages, whatever is needed for whoever is paying. Ewan McGregor runs the company. Antonio Banderas is a nefarious mogul who sometimes employs the company. And Michael Douglas (looking reassuringly tan and healthy) plays a U.S. government operative who knows where all the bodies are buried - because he owns the shovel.

Soderbergh elevates Carano in the audience's estimation by placing her in exalted company - Bill Paxton has a brief but strong role as her father, as well. Then he makes use of the various locations and circumstances (Barcelona, Dublin, middle America) to showcase her in a wide range of contexts, from the most rough to the most glamorous. Soderbergh sets out to make Carano into a star, and he does it methodically, like a carpenter making a table.

A "routine assignment" with a British counterpart (Michael Fassbender) goes wildly wrong early in the film, and that becomes the launching point for a film in which Carano is chased through several countries. It's one lively incident after another, presented with imagination and audacity, and yet with time taken for the movie and the viewer to breathe.

Soderbergh knows what he is doing, that he is working in a medium in which Charlie Chaplin kicking a guy in the pants is considered high art. Nothing is too low, not when it's done this well.

GeneChing

01-20-2012, 10:27 AM

From me, who is usually more generous.

Gina Carano Goes HAYWIRE (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1024)

WingChunABQ

01-20-2012, 11:22 AM

I don't care how crappy a movie this may turn out to be. I want to see Gina Carano tackle Michael Fassbender.

GeneChing

01-20-2012, 11:58 AM

I should note that this film ends perfectly set up for a sequel.

Soderbergh's 'Haywire': A Star Is Born, Fists Flying (http://www.npr.org/2012/01/17/145338807/soderberghs-haywire-a-star-is-born-fists-flying)
by Ian Buckwalter

Mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano stars as Mallory Kane, a highly trained covert operative, in a twisty, tautly wrought thriller.

Haywire
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Genre: Action
Running Time: 93 minutes
Rated R for some violence
With: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender
January 19, 2012

Back in the heyday of the pure action movie, you started with the star and worked your way backward toward a plot that played to that star's strengths.

If you had a Schwarzenegger, you crafted a film that required raw power, little agility, and (particularly early in his career) a bare minimum of speech.

Have a Van Damme on your hands? Martial arts action, lots of hand-to-hand combat, and a little winking wit.

Gymnastics champion Kurt Thomas is your star? Put him in white warm-up pants and have him pommel-horse the bad guys into submission.

So when director Steven Soderbergh caught mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano on TV by chance one night — and saw in her the sort of charisma and physical talent of a great action hero — the seed of Haywire was planted just like that. This is a film built around its star, just as surely as any of its cheesier '80s forebears.

Soderbergh, who has a long history of working well with non-actors in his films, took the fighter he saw on screen, and along with screenwriter Lem Dobbs (who also penned Soderbergh's Kafka and The Limey), created a celluloid persona that reflected what he saw in her already: a tough, self-assured and prodigiously talented physical performer. He just made her a mercenary doing black-ops work for the government rather than a cage fighter.

The genesis story might be all '80s, but Soderbergh reaches back further for the plot, which feels more like a twisty, contemplative '60s spy thriller than a pure action showcase.

Carano's Mallory starts the film already on the run, and the first half of the film reveals a globe-hopping knot of international intrigue that takes her from Barcelona to San Diego to Dublin — first on a government job set up by her handler Kenneth (an impressively conniving Ewan McGregor), then on her own after a series of double-crosses leaves her ducking into shadows and scrambling across rooftops.

The high-level motivations of that plot don't seem to interest Soderbergh much. As the puppetmasters (McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas) move the pieces (Michael Fassbender, Mathieu Kassovitz, Channing Tatum) into position, they talk in cloaked language that feels vaguely authentic without really meaning much.

But then understanding entirely what's happening isn't really necessary, because much of that jargon-heavy complexity is really a decoy — a device supporting the first-act notion that Haywire is a complicated machine in the mold of Ocean's Eleven. (That film's composer, David Holmes, heightens that perception with the same sort of jaunty, jazzy lounge music that defined Ocean's.) In reality, it'll turn out to be a deft, single-minded revenge story that shares DNA with the thoughtful, darkly funny The Limey.

As with any great action movie, what we're really here to see is the star showing off whatever skills got them on screen to begin with. And Haywire never disappoints.

Soderbergh makes two critical decisions in the action showcases of the film: First, he drops the music out entirely whenever a fight happens. He's savvy enough to know that you don't need to manipulate the audience's emotions with music when you can just use the blunt-force impact of fists meeting faces and bodies crushing furniture.

Secondly, he doesn't cheat reality with close-ups and disorienting quick-cuts. He lets Carrano's acrobatic talents play out in wide shots that are a less fantastical equivalent to the balletic beauty of Asian martial-arts movies. He gives each a unique tone and setting, all leading up to a multiple-angle, brilliantly edited masterpiece of a fight on a deserted beach that deserves to be enshrined in an action-movie hall of fame.

Some might say that Soderbergh doesn't give Carano much to do, but the fact is that he gives her only exactly what the movie needs: a stone-faced, magnetic physical presence with singular purpose and laserlike focus. Carano's got an all-star cast of talented actors around her to carry the dramatic load; that leaves her to perfectly execute the part that was created for her. To see what she's capable of here is to witness the birth of the next great action hero. (Recommended)

GeneChing

01-20-2012, 05:06 PM

Follow the link for a vid clip. Coco is totally on point with his interview.

Jan 20, 2012
Gina Carano of 'Haywire' says cagefighting is like sex (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/01/gina-carano-explains-why-cagefighting-is-like-sex/1)
By Tom Weir, USA TODAY
Updated 1h 38m ago

http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/game-on/2012/01/20/caranox-inset-community.jpg
By Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

Despite the MMA skills that make her a virtual lethal weapon, Gina Carano was a little nervous while appearing on Conan O'Brien last night to promote her Haywire action movie.

She said she would "rather get punched in the face" than be interviewed on TV. She also confessed she got into martial arts at a time when she was downing 40-ounce beers and a trainer looked at her and said, "Oh, baby, you're chubby. You really need to lose some weight."

Conan got to the good stuff fairly quickly, reminding Carano that she has likened cagefighting to sex, and saying, "I want to know why that's true, in great detail."

Carano's G-rated response: "If you think about it, it's a very real interaction between two human beings, and it's like an energy. You have a real energy really, and I have an energy, an energy that nobody else is going to share."

Jimbo

01-21-2012, 08:27 PM

Gene,
I liked your article on the movie. I'm planning to go see it, and I rarely go to movie theaters anymore.

I would imagine that Gina, if she chooses to pursue acting, can become the first(?) American mainstream female action star. I'm not counting, say, Angelina Jolie, because she's an actress who sometimes plays action roles, as opposed to it being her specialty.

As for why the guys haven't had the same luck in securing any lead roles in major theatrical films, some of it may come down to luck, but being a great fighter doesn't necessarily equal movie star power. A great example (pre-MMA) was Joe Lewis. He was an awesome fighter, and he also had the looks, but he did not work so well onscreen. And sometimes those who, at the outset, may seem the most unlikely (examples: Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris) go on to stardom (in JC's case, superstardom). Gina also has the advantage that, unlike in Asian cinema, female action stars are still a rarety in American movies.

doug maverick

01-21-2012, 08:46 PM

i doubt it...maybe if she really works hard at acting..her entire performance was dubbed.

doug maverick

01-22-2012, 01:46 PM

flopped!!! 9mil opening weekend.

the weekend went to underworld and redtails. redtails waay outperformed estimates, thanks to a grass roots campaign from george lucas and black celebs and media outlets to promote all black movies that dont involve a black man in a dress..

underworld was in 3d so that accounts for it sales...this is the type of film you want to see in 3d to be honest all the creatures and action and explosions. worth the extra bucks.

haywire while they promoted the crap out of it had a genuine martial artist(although her voice was dubbed) and a high profile cast...but i guess people are done with soderberg films...i know i am.

GeneChing

01-24-2012, 10:43 AM

I think Gina still has a chance for big screen stardom as an action star, never mind the voice dubbing. It's not like martial arts stars have had the best representation with dubbing in the past. That opens up a whole other can of worms, even when you factor out the language and accents.

The Soderbergh halo is pretty amusing. Critics love him despite his mediocrity.

Martial arts superstar Gina Carano wins accolade for debut movie (http://www.tempo.com.ph/2012/martial-arts-superstar-gina-carano-wins-accolade-for-debut-movie/#.Tx7s6vmwDq8)
Posted by Online on Jan 24th, 2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) *- Mixed martial arts superstar Gina Carano is knocking out the critics, with her ﬁlm debut, “Haywire,” earning strong reviews in its opening weekend.

Carano stars in director Steven Soderbergh’s action thriller as a special-ops agent trying to ﬁgure out who double-crossed her after a secret mission in Barcelona. AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire gave it three stars out of four, calling Soderbergh’s ﬁlm: “zippy, hugely entertaining and well-crafted as always (since he once again serves as his own cinematographer and editor), but not one of his more important ﬁlms in the broad scheme of things.”

Here’s a look at how these movies fared on the top review websites as of Friday afternoon. Each score is the percentage of positive reviews for the ﬁlm: — “Miss Bala”: Metacritic, 82; Movie Review Intelligence: 87.8; Rotten Tomatoes, 89. Average: 86.3.

— “Haywire”: Metacritic, 67; Movie Review Intelligence, 69.8; Rotten Tomatoes, 83. Average: 73.3.

— “Underworld Awakening”: Metacritic, 59; Movie Review Intelligence: 40.4; Rotten Tomatoes, 40; Average: 46.5.

— “Red Tails”: Metacritic, 45; Movie Review Intelligence: 47.8; Rotten Tomatoes, 33. Average: 41.9.

JamesC

01-24-2012, 10:46 AM

So I saw this movie the other night.

I have to say that it's easily one of the worst movies i've seen in a long time. Absolutely terrible. And I went into it with low expectations.

Actually can't say enough bad things about it.

doug maverick

01-24-2012, 10:49 AM

Jimbo

01-24-2012, 11:06 AM

Maybe it's more about who Soderbergh knows than the level of his movies?

GeneChing

01-24-2012, 11:08 AM

Just look at the Oscar noms. Never mind, I'll post up the relevant ones right now.

wenshu

01-24-2012, 11:15 AM

Maybe critics enjoy movies that don't resort to technological gimmicks like 70mm 3d blah blah blah.

Jimbo

01-24-2012, 11:17 AM

I'm still planning to see it. If nothing else, it's the first American film featuring MMA that is NOT stuck in the typical sports/competition/fight club format.

wenshu

01-24-2012, 11:20 AM

I'll wait until it's on demand. It certainly sounds underwhelming.

I do like the idea of cleanly shot action sequences instead of that Bourne style handheld jerky crap.

GeneChing

01-24-2012, 11:30 AM

Maybe critics enjoy movies that don't resort to technological gimmicks like 70mm 3d blah blah blah. Alas critics... we're all critics, aren't we? ;)

Like I said, I liked the first part of the film. Angerano was a funny foil and there were some decent fights. It just doesn't follow through. When Gina's hair went up in braids, I was like "alright, let's get it on!" I've got a few female fighter friends and when they braid, their personality changes. But in this film, that finale never delivers, so it's like ultravi interruptus.

wenshu

01-24-2012, 11:50 AM

Critics are just overpaid fanboys.

There's no question that Soderburgh's output since and including Oceans 11 (essentially the majority of his filmography) has been "meh" at best. He just rides the acclaim of one or two really good movies.

doug maverick

01-24-2012, 02:19 PM

Alas critics... we're all critics, aren't we? ;)

Like I said, I liked the first part of the film. Angerano was a funny foil and there were some decent fights. It just doesn't follow through. When Gina's hair went up in braids, I was like "alright, let's get it on!" I've got a few female fighter friends and when they braid, their personality changes. But in this film, that finale never delivers, so it's like ultravi interruptus.

because they begin to feel like a big black woman...or if they are already black, they begin to feel like their mom or grandma...ready whup some ass!!!!lol

GeneChing

01-24-2012, 05:43 PM

There's no question that Soderburgh's output since and including Oceans 11 (essentially the majority of his filmography) has been "meh" at best.
I disliked O11 because Yen (Shaobo Qin) was so underplayed. He really does the dirty work and he barely gets any lines. Typical. It's like the Green Hornet all over again.

because they begin to feel like a big black woman...or if they are already black, they begin to feel like their mom or grandma...ready whup some ass!!!!lol Really? Here I've been thinking it was they were getting their Bo-Derek-slo-mo-to-Bolero on. ;)

Jimbo

01-24-2012, 08:01 PM

In the local paper here, Haywire got a 2.5 out of 4 rating, and the reviewer claimed she and the other women in the audience were cheering during the movie. She said they were all taking great pleasure in seeing Gina Carano lay the smackdown on her male opponents. But then again, this reviewer also admits that, as a general rule, she does not watch action films. So it may have been the novelty effect at work; she most likely had never seen much or any MA action in movies, much less done by a woman.

It's a *tiny* bit remeniscent of when Crouching Tiger came out and critics were calling it the greatest kung fu movie ever, when I had seen countless movies over the years that, while much lower-budget, I thought were a lot better. Unless they meant that biggest budget means best movie.

GeneChing

01-25-2012, 10:44 AM

One thing that struck me about all this is that none of the critics have the faintest idea of who Gina Carano is. Dana White said it himself "We live in a bubble". While we as martial artists are very aware of MMA, most people don't really have a clue. I'm not even sure it's in the general public vernacular. I even saw one article that referred to Gina as a Kung Fu fighter. If only, man, if only....

Jimbo

01-25-2012, 10:59 AM

sanjuro_ronin

01-25-2012, 11:01 AM

True. Even though MMA is called "the fastest-rising sport in the world," and it may well be, it's still not in the mainstream. I still get the newspaper, and even after a championship fight, it's still rare that MMA gets any mention in the sports section. And when it does, it's usually a tiny blurb on the second page of the section.

Well, it isn't really aimed at the mainstream.
It's trying to but to be honest it seems to cater more to the "wrestling crowd" than it does to mainstream.

GeneChing

01-25-2012, 11:20 AM

And I'd say that WWE is pretty mainstream.

JamesC

01-25-2012, 02:52 PM

Well, it isn't really aimed at the mainstream.
It's trying to but to be honest it seems to cater more to the "wrestling crowd" than it does to mainstream.

I think you're spot on here about comparing it to WWE.

Been saying that about Dana White's direction for years. I can't wait until they start wearing masks.

sanjuro_ronin

01-26-2012, 07:09 AM

I think you're spot on here about comparing it to WWE.

Been saying that about Dana White's direction for years. I can't wait until they start wearing masks.

You can usually tell by the fans.
Of course the UFC is a by-product of it times and these are the times of "drama queens and reality TV", hence the TUF TV series that focuses more on the drama than the fighter.
Can't blame Dana for that, he is in the business of making money and we all know that the "pro wrestling" phenomena makes some serious coin.
Its the PPV age dude.

Jimbo

01-26-2012, 11:03 AM

The ironic thing is that a lot of MMA fans seem to want to separate themselves from WWE fans and laugh at pro wrestling. When in fact I'm betting there's more crossover fandom than they're willing to admit.

All the outside drama stuff is why I stopped watching TUF, and I rarely even watch MMA anymore at all, except in rare instances or for certain fighters. But like you say, nowadays people want or need that extraneous stuff to go along with it.

Lucas

01-26-2012, 12:04 PM

GeneChing

01-26-2012, 12:08 PM

Lucas

01-26-2012, 12:12 PM

Hey Gene, have you seen Ready to Rumble? really funny wrestling movie

GeneChing

01-26-2012, 01:03 PM

Then again, I forget a lot of movies that I've seen...and that's somewhat intentional. ;)

Now there's all this buzz about Gina playing Wonder Woman. That's so funny.

Jimbo

01-26-2012, 01:44 PM

mma in wwe? (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49901)

How UFC is like WWE (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55748)

To return slightly OT here, I'd say that WWE has been more successful in producing a marketable celebrity than MMA. Case and point, the Rock. I hope Gina has that potential too.

Best WWE fight scene in a movie = Roddy Piper vs. Keith David in They Live.

The Best MMA fight scene in a movie remains to be seen.

Gene,
The WWE has been more successful in that aspect because their whole program is based on bigger-than-life personalities and looks. And the most popular ones are constantly on the mic developing their characters. They get up in front of enormous arenas full of people and self-promote on the mic on a weekly or daily basis. It is a style of acting that they're constantly honing. Which may look easy, but I can guarantee that it's not. Even the most 'outrageous' MMA personality cannot compete with that, nor with the look. If given a choice of watching a movie starring someone with looks/personality or a great real-life fighter, the vast majority of people will choose the former.

I would imagine that Gina Carano has a better chance than most MMA fighters (at this time) to cross over to an actual movie career, if she has the potential for and really studies acting.

I don't know if it's the best, but my personal favorite MMA fight scene in a movie is still Donnie Yen vs. Collin Chou in Flashpoint. Not necessarily most technically correct, which shouldn't be all-important in a movie, anyway.

Scott R. Brown

01-26-2012, 01:49 PM

wenshu

01-26-2012, 02:36 PM

People who never make one good movie in the first place?

GeneChing

01-26-2012, 03:52 PM

sanjuro_ronin

01-27-2012, 06:57 AM

WWE is inherently entertainment, not sport, so there's a cultivation of stage presence. We have to remember that Gina was Crush in American Gladiators, which had that WWE quality too with its regulars, and factor that into her acting future. I'm warming to the idea of her as Wonder Woman.

As for the constant comments about her acting, as I said earlier, I'm skeptical of the acting of most action stars. It's more about the overall charisma than acting for action stars.

Action stars and acting, LOL !
Sure if you get a good actor and MAKE him/her an action star, maybe.
Action stars with MA backgrounds tend to play themselves or the stereotype the feel most comfortable with.

doug maverick

01-27-2012, 07:35 AM

case in point michael jai white, and wesley snipes...both trained martial artist...both terrific actors.

sanjuro_ronin

01-27-2012, 07:54 AM

case in point michael jai white, and wesley snipes...both trained martial artist...both terrific actors.

They have the real "acting fu", LOL !
Of course the asian actors are different, Donnie and Jet are perfectly good actors for example and Jackie Chan and Sammo of course.
Of coruse we do have great actors that are also MA, James Caan pops to mind.

wenshu

01-27-2012, 08:12 AM

Sure if you get a good actor and MAKE him/her an action star, maybe.

Liam Neeson. Nearly 60 too.

doug maverick

01-27-2012, 08:59 AM

They have the real "acting fu", LOL !
Of course the asian actors are different, Donnie and Jet are perfectly good actors for example and Jackie Chan and Sammo of course.
Of coruse we do have great actors that are also MA, James Caan pops to mind.

idk if i would call donnie an jet perfectly good actors...they are more case by case.

sanjuro_ronin

01-27-2012, 09:01 AM

idk if i would call donnie an jet perfectly good actors...they are more case by case.

Outside of the elite actors, isn't that the case with most actors though?

Lucas

01-27-2012, 11:52 AM

I could definately see her playing wonder woman. Generally the wonder woman character has a solid build, sometimes being portrayed with a more feminine quality about her, but usually more of the strong amazonian ass kicker she is. I think Gina has the right build personally to play the character. She also has the strong jaw line thats characteristically associated with wonder woman.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CW5iuzp1bHM/TCu4MEcBmrI/AAAAAAAADYo/zFiAWlL4e9o/s1600/Wonder+Woman+by+Terry+Dodson.jpg

http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/9/99/Wonder_Woman_Vol_2_128.jpg

http://cdn.msg.com/polopoly_fs/1.24831.1270976055!/image/4056671167.jpg

http://files.nealrodriguez.com/pics/charlie-sheen-women/gina-carano.jpg

sanjuro_ronin

01-27-2012, 12:01 PM

The only real and meaningful question that matter is:
Clean shaven?
Natural bush?
Landing strip?
shaped to suit?
:D

Lucas

01-27-2012, 12:49 PM

lol

http://www.2brendans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gina-Caranoy.jpg

MightyB

01-27-2012, 01:18 PM

The only real and meaningful question that matter is:
Clean shaven?
Natural bush?
Landing strip?
shaped to suit?
:D

Betcha Gene knows! Being a smooth talk'n writer n all.

MightyB

01-27-2012, 01:20 PM

lol

http://www.2brendans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gina-Caranoy.jpg

I could look at that all day.

sanjuro_ronin

01-27-2012, 01:22 PM

Yeah, that truly is a work of art !

GeneChing

01-27-2012, 01:46 PM

Betcha Gene knows! Being a smooth talk'n writer n all. Dude, if I had that kind of hustla fu, you think I'd be here posting this drivel to y'all?

Hebrew Hammer

01-30-2012, 12:42 PM

lol

http://www.2brendans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gina-Caranoy.jpg

Now that's a MANwhich!!! I need some alone time right about now...

GeneChing

01-31-2012, 10:37 AM

But this one struck me as very amusing.

Gina Carano interview: Haywire, The Expendables 3, Star Wars and MMA (http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/1225464/gina_carano_interview_haywire_the_expendables_3_st ar_wars_and_mma.html)
Matt Edwards

Matt talks to MMA star Gina Carano about Haywire, The Expendables 3, and whether she wanted to punch Ewan McGregor in the face...

Published on Jan 30, 2012

I nervously anticipated my interview with Gina Carano. I love action films and getting the chance to talk to a rising star from this genre would have been exciting enough, but I’ve been a fan of Carano as an MMA fighter for years now.

My nerves, then, were primarily due to excitement, but there were a couple of other things that were putting me on edge.

Someone whose day job is to punch people in the face might not make the friendliest interview subject, I considered. Not to mention that I’m an idiot who likes to ask silly questions, questions which someone who is well versed in throat-choking might not appreciate being asked. I felt physically safe, at least, as we’d be separated by a quite sizable ocean when the interview took place, but still.

My other concern was with myself. Den of Geek is a film and TV site and so would be not, I suspect, be pleased if I came back to them with an enthusiastic and whimsical chat about violent sports. I would have to stick to the subject of film, no matter how much I wanted to talk to her about her fight career.

Fortunately for the site, I just about managed to stay on subject, and fortunately for me, Gina Carano is lovely. This is the conversation we had.

My understanding of Haywire is that Steven Soderbergh saw you fighting on television and then approached you.

Yeah, he saw me fighting on CBS. After I lost my fight to Cyborg he came out on a train from LA to San Diego and had a little lunch with me. We had talked and then at the end of the lunch he was like “look, I wanna do a film with you. There’s no actors and there’s no script, there’s no studio attached to it, I just wanted to meet with you and see if you’d be interested in anything like that” and I was just like...I said ‘yes’!

You couldn’t ask for a better director to come to you that would want to build a film around you than Soderbergh. Were you familiar with his films?

Yeah, I was with his films, I just didn’t know who he was. Really I didn’t know what it was that was involved with making films. I didn’t know that the director is the guy with the vision. I just never thought about it, I guess. But it was definitely a Film 101 school for me, all of Haywire.

So you didn’t pick up any of that stuff on Blood And Bone, then?

No. Blood And Bone was a day that I got offered a couple of hundred or something like that to go in for six hours and do a fight scene. I think I had one line.

Yeah, I saw it.

Oh, you saw it?

I have to watch a lot of the MMA straight-to-video films*.

That’s not something that would have ever, ever prepared me for an experience like Haywire. So I really consider Haywire my genuine first acting experience.

What did you have to do to prepare for the role? Usually I would expect an actor in a film like this to have to do a lot of combat training, but I’m guessing you didn’t have to.

Training as far as the acting goes?

Well, acting training or whatever preparation you felt you had to do.

Steven didn’t want to me to go with an acting coach because he didn’t want someone to kind of get in my mind and confuse me. I think what he likes about working with non-actors is the authenticity that they bring to the screen and so, what he did, though, is me put me with an ex-Mossad, who pretty much brainwashed me.

So I spent three hours a day in stunts and three hours a day with this ex-Mossad agent and he put me through boot camp. He taught me entry and exiting a building, clearing a room, he put a GPS on my car, he like, followed me around. He had me stalking people, he had people stalking me. They just put me with a soldier who had never done a film before either. We were just soldier and a fighter thrown together in these unique circumstances and got to know each other’s backgrounds. I think that was the biggest part of my preparation.

That sounds dangerous! That could have backfired horribly.

(Laughs)

I know, right? Playing war games in LA doesn’t sound like a very smart idea.

So, the fight scenes in Haywire are the best fight scenes I’ve seen in a long time**. Did you have any involvement in choreographing them?

Oh yeah. Well, because when I went into the stunt gym me and all the stunt guys in there share the same passion for mixed martial arts, we’ve just always had a different goal at the end. Their goal is to make these fake fight scenes, to bring in every martial art they can that would work, to make most beautiful fight scenes that we can. My goal has always been to learn the techniques of these martial arts to be really effective.

So it was really cool because they respected me as an athlete and they were completely open to sharing what I wanted to do with it. So there’s certain parts of the film where I’m like “Hey, I put that in there! That was my move, that was my idea.”

When you’re doing fight scenes with Ewan McGregor, did you ever start to think about a Star Wars prequel you’d seen recently? Or about Channing Tatum in his film Fighting? You know, ‘I could punch him in the face now and it would be called an accident’.

(Laughter, potentially masking utter horror at the suggestion)

No! Like, on purpose?

Well, you wouldn’t have to tell anyone.

No! I am actually quite the opposite. I don’t really like to hurt people. The only time I really get turned on to hurt someone is when they’re coming at me and something kicks in and I have to do that.

Actually in my fights my Mom was always saying “Why do you have to let them get shots in before you turn it on?” It’s kind of funny. I don’t hit that point until someone’s coming at me and it’s a genuine threat.

I wanted to take care of these actors. If anything, that was my job.

I keep reading, mostly on MMA sites rather than film sites, but I’ve read a rumour that your voice was dubbed in Haywire. Is there anything to this or is it just internet nonsense?

No, actually Steven definitely did. He went into ADR and did some movie magic and completely altered my voice in some way. Him and his editor. So there’s truth to that, and I’m okay with it. I think he would always do things to help the film and he was really looking for Mallory and myself to be two completely different characters. He would obviously only do something like that to help it, which hopefully it did.

Are you going to be going back to MMA?

Umm, you know, I’m starting at the beginning with films, there’s a lot I can learn and there’s a longer career that can be had there. There’s a physicality that’s unique and new that I can bring to films, so I hope I can get the opportunity to do that again. But I haven’t necessarily retired from fighting either. I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to support myself and to keep going. My future’s a little fuzzy. I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next.

What about a Haywire 2? Would you be interested in that? ***

Yeah, this was such a beautiful experience I would definitely love to get more involved in Mallory and do some fun stuff. But that would obviously be up to the studio and Steven. You know, sometimes a film’s just better left where it was. I don’t know. It will be interesting to see. I don’t know what’s supposed to happen after this, I’m just gonna stay positive and keep going forward and hope for the best, you know?

Before they kick me off the line, I’m trying to instigate some kind of movement or campaign to get you and Hulk Hogan in The Expendables 3. Is that something that you’d want to do?

Is there going to be an Expendables 3?

I can’t imagine there not being one. Could Randy Couture get you in?

Yeah, I think Sylvester Stallone was really considering me for one of the roles in Expendables 2, but they needed a girl from China because that’s where they were going to be. They needed a Chinese girl, so I didn’t fit the bill for that one. I’m sure I’m on some people’s radars, especially on the Mixed Martial Arts websites, so just stay positive and put out some good energy for me.

Gina Carano, thank you very much!

Haywire is out in cinemas now.

Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here. And be our Facebook chum here.

*I lied here, I’m ashamed to admit. I really wanted to seem cool in front of Gina. Actually, I get to watch a lot of MMA straight-to-video films. I love them.

** I didn’t lie here. The fight scenes in Haywire are insane.

*** Another voice appears on the phone. It’s Gina’s PR, who connected me at the beginning of the call. “We’re gonna have to wrap up” she says, and I’m gripped by panic. I had run out of time and I hadn’t even asked about her work with Hulk Hogan on American Gladiators yet. I scan my remaining questions and pick the most important one, which I hope I might be able to sneak in after this one.

mawali

01-31-2012, 10:57 AM

lol

http://www.2brendans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gina-Caranoy.jpg

WOW!
que cosita tan bella!

Jimbo

02-02-2012, 04:44 PM

doug maverick

02-02-2012, 05:31 PM

I saw the movie, and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. While I have mixed feelings about the directing style, and the grainy picture looked like something filmed circa 1976, I think Gina Carano can develop into a very good actress in the future. And the fights were nicely done, too, esp. the hotel room one.

*Edit to add:
I really thing that she would be perfect to play Wonder Woman. She absolutely has the perfect look for it.

you do realize her entire voice was dubbed right?

the image was most likely done on purpose since the movie was shot in 4k(4 times the resolution of 1080p hi def and better looking then 3d imo) with the RED camera, im pretty sure soderbergh wanted the image to look that way, which is why they used hawke L lenses, which give that look(just some technical stuff for you guys)

Jimbo

02-03-2012, 02:09 PM

thanks for the technical explanation.

Yeah, I do know that her voice was dubbed in the movie. I still think she could develop and improve as an actress if she studies it.

MightyB

02-03-2012, 02:38 PM

lol

http://www.2brendans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gina-Caranoy.jpg

Anybody else want to be in her triangle? I'd love to be in her guard. She can mount me anytime. I'd let her ground and pound me...

I could do this all day :D

Crosshandz

02-04-2012, 09:19 AM

lol

http://www.2brendans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gina-Caranoy.jpg

That's Jaime Koeppe not Gina Carano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaB9qVzQrtg&feature=colike

Incredible.

Lucas

02-05-2012, 04:39 PM

Lol i blame google images!!

GeneChing

02-09-2012, 10:40 AM

Wed, Feb 8 2012
Gina Carano to be honored at ActionFest (http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2012/02/08/gina-carano-to-be-honored-at-actionfest/)
By: Sean O'Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: ActionFest has grown in size and stature over the years, attracting action-movie junkies to Asheville, N.C. to celebrate cinema’s general bad-assedness. This year’s event is scheduled for April 12-15, and they’ve just announced a very special guest that will help lure new attendees.

“Haywire” star Gina Carano will be the recipient of the inaugural Chick Norris Award at the 2012 festival. The prize, according to a release, honors the Best Female Action Star of the year, in a play off the attitude, spirit, athleticism and grit of Hollywood legend Chuck Norris, who was awarded ActionFest’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.  

“It is an incredible honor to be included in this event,” said Carano, a fixture of the MMA world who made a successful transition to action movies earlier this year.

“Chuck Norris has always been someone I respect and look up to. Being able to represent martial arts as a woman has been a blessing in my life and I am so intensely grateful to the people who have supported and shared this passion with me,” she continued.  

Said ActionFest co-founder Aaron Norris: “An award to honor the work of women in action films is long overdue, and we’re honored to present the first Chick Norris Award to the astonishing Gina Carano, who I am a huge fan of. She has exploded on the movie scene with the magnificent Haywire. We know from very bruised and reliable sources that she’s as tough as they come—making her the perfect honoree for ActionFest.”   

Even Chuck Norris weighed in, saying, “I am honored to have Gina Carano receive this award. My entire career has been blessed because martial arts allowed me to do what I love — make action movies. I cannot think of a better person than Gina for this honor, and I am proud that she is the first to receive this award. I highly respect her martial arts ability and she deserves all her accolades for Haywire. Watch out world, a star is born. A proven fighter and very tough action star is here to stay.”   

The 2012 film line up, information about celebrity attendees, and badge sales are upcoming at www.actionfest.com.
Chick Norris evokes a bad mental image.

@PLUGO

02-09-2012, 11:23 AM

Steven Soderbergh's "Haywire" and the Virtues of Getting Physical with Gina Carano (http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/steven-soderberghs-haywire-and-the-virtues-of-getting-physical-with-gina-carano)

Written by Joe McCulloch

It’s probably a dereliction of my sworn duties as a dilettantish semi-pro occasional pretend critic to characterize this new Steven Soderbergh joint entirely in terms of genre slop cinema—there’s a prominent visual cite to Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, for god’s sake—but I was still pretty ****ed that nobody in my sparse, 50-and-up weekend evening art movie crowd was moved to stand up and scream “she’s going haywire!!!”

GeneChing

02-17-2012, 10:34 AM

Gina outclassed all of her opponents in Haywire. Fassbender :rolleyes:

Berlin 2012: Hitting a Woman in ‘Haywire’ Didn’t Faze Michael Fassbender (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/berlin-2012-hitting-a-woman-haywire-michael-fassbender-291865)
3:04 AM PST 2/16/2012 by Scott Roxborough

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2012/01/haywire_a.jpg
Claudette Barius/Five Continent Imports LLC
“It’s not me doing this, it’s my character. I’m here to serve the story,” Fassbender said at the film’s international premiere in Berlin.

BERLIN — Michael Fassbender said he had no problem beating on mixed martial arts fighter-turned-actress Gina Carano in Steven Soderbergh’s new action movie Haywire.

“It didn’t really faze me,” Fassbender said at the Haywire news conference in Berlin, where the film had its international premiere Wednesday night. “This isn’t Michael Fassbender doing this, it’s the character. I’m here to serve the story and the character. And in real life, Gina would beat the **** out of me in any circumstance. I mean, have you seen her on YouTube?”

Carano said despite the brutality onscreen, there weren’t any major injuries resulting from the Haywire shoot. “I broke my finger on Michael’s shoulder once, that’s all,” she said.

Soderbergh added that during one take, Haywire co-star Ewan McGregor kicked Carano in the head. “But she wasn’t bothered," he said. "She asked him if he was all right.”

Haywire was well received at its Berlin premiere, with the festival audience whooping and cheering the film’s kick-butt action sequences. After a week of hard-hitting political and social drama — from Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood and Honey about war crimes in Bosnia to 9/11 in Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close to the rape of Nanking in Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of War — Berlin audiences welcomed a chance to lean back and be entertained.

Said Soderbergh, “When I was talking to [Berlinale festival director] Dieter Kosslick, I said I would love to come to the festival with this kind of film and show it at this time — after you’ve seen a lot of heavy drama and you are really ready to relax and just have a good time.”

doug maverick

02-17-2012, 10:56 PM

doug maverick

02-18-2012, 07:21 AM

i was mostly kidding about haywire flopping..the reality is indie films like that have in the moment stars like michael fassbender who is the hottest ticket..sell foreign and are probably well in the black before the film is even shot. ill give you an example, john travoltas horrible ode to scientology battlefield earth, was a gigantic flop for everyone involved except the executive producer/financier, a man who own a string of dry cleaners(the real life george jefferson lol) and finances movies on the side...how does he make money? star power he sells the foreign markets individually instead of in groups(so instead of given one company say..paramount the european market, he breaks it down selling it to different distributors in different countries) this maximizes his profits. so while gina garano was a virtual no body in the film world, michael douglass, fassbender, chanun tattum and all the other stars are names that sell foreign market...not to mention soderbergh himself who has a large foreign following.

here is a good example, this is the foreign distributors for ghost rider: spirit of vengeance:

Audio Visual Enterprises (2012) (Greece) (theatrical)
Columbia Pictures (2012) (USA) (theatrical)
E Stars Films (2012) (China) (theatrical)
Energía Entusiasta (2012) (Argentina) (theatrical)
Entertainment One Benelux (2012) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
Sony Pictures Releasing Canada (2012) (Canada) (theatrical)
Warner Bros. Pictures (2012) (Australia) (theatrical)
Warner Bros. (2012) (Singapore) (theatrical)
Deltamac Entertainment (2012) (Hong Kong) (all media)
Leeding Media (2012) (China) (all media)
Noori Pictures (2012) (South Korea) (all media)
Pinema (2011) (Turkey) (all media)
Prorom Media-Trade (2012) (Hungary) (all media)
Prorom Media-Trade (2012) (Romania) (all media)

with those sales theyve probably recouped the initial 75million dollar budget.

MightyB

05-11-2012, 04:50 AM

doug maverick

05-11-2012, 11:04 AM

I finally got the chance to see Haywire. I liked it - it's definitely a Soderbergh though... Meaning he has a classical old-school style that younger audiences may have trouble with. Basically he holds a shot and lets it play out. I find it refreshing in comparison to the hyper kinetic post MTV generation editing that's the prevailing action style nowadays.

Let's talk about Gina - she was great. Was she a little wooden - yes, but that was her character. And the fighting - awesome! SPOILER - my favorite moment in all of the fighting scenes was when she nailed the triangle on the British agent. The camera angle switched to see her sinking it in and relaxing through breathing to get the deep choke. That realism can't be taught to an actress - that's something that's trained and ingrained. What an awesome touch.

thats not a old school way of filming..watch any hitch**** film, see how long he hold a take, 7-12 seconds and then switches the angle unless he is doing a moving shot....probably have to go back to the silent picture days to see that...maybe thats the old style you are referring too...soderbergh is a extremely overrated underwhelming director. you wanna see a director who hold a single take but yet still managers to make his films interesting and intriguing, watch "the hunger" or "shame" by steve mcqueen(not to be confused with the actor) then youll see the difference.

TaichiMantis

05-12-2012, 08:37 AM

She reminds me of Jason Statham. I really think they need to make a movie together.:D

wenshu

05-12-2012, 09:10 AM

the prevailing action style nowadays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtZNvK3fTlM

Casting a professional fighter is the major difference. In something like The Bourne films a lot of the fast cuts and shaky, in too close camera work was to hide the fact that Damon can't fight and looked like ****.

MightyB

05-12-2012, 08:25 PM

She reminds me of Jason Statham. I really think they need to make a movie together.:D

I'd like to see her in more movies. I found her refreshing... meaning she was believable. I'm tired of seeing 90lb ultra-femme actresses kicking the crap out of a room full of guys. Gina's got curves and a jaw. She can handle herself and that matters. She doesn't have to act tough because she is tough.

MightyB

05-12-2012, 08:27 PM

thats not a old school way of filming..watch any hitch**** film, see how long he hold a take, 7-12 seconds and then switches the angle unless he is doing a moving shot.....

Rope.

.....

Hebrew Hammer

05-20-2012, 07:39 PM

Finally saw this bad boy errr girl! Gina was smoking hot, except whoever decided to have her wear corn rows needs to be shot. Action was good, some fight scenes were excellent some not so much. I enjoyed it, not completely predictable story line...great supporting cast. Would have preferred her voice...and hope she keeps developing as an actress, she has a way to go. Would it have hurt so see her smile some? She has an amazing smile!

Me gusta ella!

Lucas

05-21-2012, 09:38 AM

i watched this last night. i thought it was pretty good over all. i was expecting more of a climactic end but it kind of just fizzled out. but i did like the action. the fight in the hotel was pretty good.

when i saw pvt hudson i just wanted to be like 'we're all gonna die man!'

i agree with the corn rows statement. they did not fit her well at all. i can see the practicality of wearing them if your gonna beat some ass and keep your longer hair though, like in real life...but not for looks in a movie.

i'd like to see her in some more action roles. she moves right. and all the 'chubby' jokes...heh. watch the movie, shes smokin hot!

GeneChing

05-21-2012, 01:59 PM

Corn rows on female MMA fighters are hot. See my Gina Carano Goes HAYWIRE review (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1024) again:

In the MMA world, there's a sure sign that a female fighter is ready for war. She puts her hair up in cornrows. This has nothing to do with the cornrow fad in the wake of Bo Derek's slow-motion jog to "Bolero" in 10 (1979). It's all about practicality. There's no better way to keep long hair in place for the impact of a fight than cornrows. For many female fighters, there's a noticeable personality change when their hair gets braided so. When Mallory braids up, MMA fans get ready for some over-the-top action that never arrives. While some critics may applaud Soderbergh for his cinematic style, action and martial arts fans will be disappointed as they are robbed of that climatic finale fight. Soderbergh joins Mamet as a director who tried to capture the glory of MMA, but missed some basic elements.

See also Jenna Castillo on her Pro MMA Debut with STRIKEFORCE (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=943)

GC: Got your cornrows in yet? Because that's when female fighters get super scary - after the cornrows are in.

JC: Not yet. I'll get that in after weigh-ins or the morning of the fight.

It must play out better on the small screen as in the theaters, the lack of a climactic final fight was...well, anticlimactic. :(

Lucas

05-21-2012, 02:27 PM

context. in a real life mma fight thats one thing, but in the world of make believe its another, imo. its a small detail female mma fight fans would pick up on, but most people simply wont make that connection. in a movie, images are what really stick with us, and i think if you asked most men if she was hotter with or without the rows, you'd overhelmingly get without as your answer.

dont get me wrong i think shes smokin hot. i love the shape of her face. but when she puts in the corn rows its more of a ... meh...looks wise

Hebrew Hammer

05-21-2012, 04:21 PM

I actually laughed at the last scene where she comes to the house, takes out the girlfriend and then instead of walking straight out to the back and taking out Antonio...she decides to climb the roof, then jump down ten feet away from him. Like he wasn't going to be surprised anyway.

MightyB

05-22-2012, 07:26 AM

Soderbergh joins Mamet as a director who tried to capture the glory of MMA, but missed some basic elements.

It must play out better on the small screen as in the theaters, the lack of a climactic final fight was...well, anticlimactic. :(

I politely disagree sir. There wouldn't have been a climatic fight - Antonio was an old diplomat skeezer. It would have been like watching Gino do warm ups on a punching bag.

Also - this wasn't an MMA movie. MMA movies suck by default. This was a spy thriller that used practical MA as a vehicle for hand to hand. The MA displayed in this movie is what should be used in most movies that are going for realism. Mostly kick boxing with some practical groundwork while always being aware of and using the environment.

wenshu

05-22-2012, 09:03 AM

I agree that the pacing in the second half left something to be desired. Not that I was expecting an epic final showdown in the first place; the main bad guy was basically a bureaucrat.

Even so, the fight scenes in the first half were dope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLw9eftLgv0

I suggest that everyone who has seen Haywire check out The Limey (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165854/). Same director and writer. A lot of the scenes are almost completely recycled towards the end.

[spoilers below, highlight to read ]
The assault on her father's house, the final showdown on the beach, even the manner in which Kenneth eats it at the end.

Lucas

05-22-2012, 09:45 AM

i blame the second half fizzle on 'meh' writing. it was written that way, it could have been different if the writer made it so.

actually i'll do you one better, make that fight on the beach an actual fight, that would have been much better. you get amped up thinking shes gonna have a kick ass final fight. shes all corn rowed up, in that suit and all geared to have a fantastic finale...then the guys a complete and total puss. it would not have hurt the story at all if the guy knew how to fight. make her freaking work for it man.

that was really the only issue i had with the movie. and it would have been VERY easy to have made that much better.

wenshu

05-22-2012, 10:39 AM

The whole thing was poorly written.

Seriously, watch The Limey. You'll be shocked how blatantly they recycled entire scenes. Considering that no one saw The Limey in the first place maybe they thought no one would notice.

Great writers often have recurring themes and symbolism but I don't see snapping an ankle on the beach embodying some deeper meaning for the writer. I'm attributing it to pure laziness.

doug maverick

05-22-2012, 11:40 AM

Stickgrappler

04-16-2014, 09:28 AM

Since it's Gina Carano's 32nd bday today, I made some GIFs of her from Haywire.

My first set of Haywire GIFs

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y-rPYthEGjM/U04Qo2fqj_I/AAAAAAAAF4Y/ayl8ZbH_e-E/s1600/haywire1-400-sg.gif

3 more GIFs here:

http://www.stickgrappler.net/2014/04/gina-carano-haywire-gif-set-1.html

Enjoy!

GeneChing

10-14-2015, 10:21 AM

Channing Tatum’s ‘Haywire’ in Development for TV Series at Relativity (Exclusive) (http://www.thewrap.com/channing-tatums-haywire-in-development-for-tv-series-at-relativity-exclusive/)
TV | By Matt Donnelly on October 6, 2015 @ 10:09 am Follow @MattDonnelly

http://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Haywire-TV-series-.jpg

Steven Soderbergh action flick gets small-screen adaptation, per documents from the studio’s ongoing bankruptcy
“Haywire,” a 2011 action movie starring Channing Tatum and Gina Carano, is in development as a small-screen series at Relativity TV.
The Steven Soderbergh film, starring Carano as a secret agent on a revenge spree after her agency betrays her, is being adapted at the unit — soon to be an independent company following its purchase by a group of senior lenders in Relativity’s ongoing bankruptcy process.
Documents filed Tuesday in New York Bankruptcy Court said that Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh — currently finalizing a plan to purchase the remainder of the studio’s assets — will retain a 50 percent economic interest if the project makes it to the air.
Also Read: Relativity TV Sale Approved by Bankruptcy Court
The film, which featured an all-star cast including Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor and Antonio Banderas, made $33 million at the U.S. box office when it was released in 2012.
Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michael Wiles approved the $125 million sale of Relativity Media’s TV division to a group of senior lenders, as Kavanaugh and a group of investors seek to close a restructuring plan for the remaining assets.
At the Tuesday hearing, attorneys for Relativity also resolved a handful of remaining objections to the sale of the TV unit.
Also Read: Relativity TV Sale Approved by Bankruptcy Court
Wiles is expected to evaluate a reorganization plan from Kavanaugh and financiers at an October 20 hearing.
The assets Kavanuagh’s would retain includes Relativity Studios, with movies like Kristen Wiig‘s “Masterminds,” Nicholas Hoult‘s “Collide” and Rooney Mara‘s “The Sacred Scripture,” as well as projects in development like a planned reboot of “The Crow.”
It also includes the company’s minority stakes in a sports management group, the for-profit Relativity Education and a joint film marketing and distribution entity with EuropaCorp.

The success of this would all hinge on Gina taking the role.

sanjuro_ronin

10-15-2015, 09:26 AM

I'd watch anything with Gina.
Far more sexier than Ronda IMO.

GeneChing

12-04-2019, 01:51 PM

'The Mandalorian' Star Gina Carano on Cara Dune's Secret Backstory (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/mandalorian-gina-carano-cara-dunes-secret-history-1259402)
DECEMBER 03, 2019 4:06PM by Brian Davids

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/768x433/2019/12/gina_carano.jpg
Gina Carano | NICK AGRO/AFP via Getty Images

The actor also reveals her big fight with Mando originally went differently and recalls the filmmakers who have flocked to set: "Spielberg, the Coen brothers and Seth Rogen have visited."
[This story contains spoilers for episode four of Disney+'s The Mandalorian.]

When Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian’s Cara Dune, Gina Carano was the only actor he had in mind. Not only did he not audition anyone else, he even named the character after Carano: Cara-no. Introduced in Bryce Dallas Howard’s “Sanctuary,” Carano’s Cara Dune is a former Rebel shock trooper who partners with the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) to protect a local village of krill farmers from continued attacks by Klatooinian raiders. The raiders’ most recent pillage cost the farmers their latest harvest as the Klatooinians commandeered an AT-ST — a leftover imperial vehicle with advanced weaponry.

According to Carano, there is much more to Dune’s story, something the Rebel tattoo under her eye indicates.

“The eye tattoo has a much deeper meaning once we get into it,” Carano tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Obviously, it’s a Rebel tattoo, but there’s much more to that story. So, I’m excited for that.”

The Mandalorian is setting a new precedent as the series is being shot with state-of-the-art virtual reality technology that creates an immersive experience for actors on-set. Since word travels fast around town, the Mandalorian set has been a who’s who of Hollywood heavyweights.

“It’s really interesting because [Steven] Spielberg, the Coen brothers and Seth Rogen have visited to check out the set,” Carano relays. “Everyone wanted to see what Jon Favreau is doing over here in these Manhattan Beach studios. As an actor, even with Baby Yoda and the Ugnaught, you feel so in the moment because it all feels so real. When you put on your armor, you walk into that world, and that’s been an incredible blessing for my imagination.”

In a recent conversation with THR, Carano discusses working on The Mandalorian’s cutting-edge virtual reality sets, how she’s adapted her MMA skills to screen fighting, working with Baby Yoda and that Mando fight (“the choreography was originally something else”).

First order of business: Is it Care-uh or Car-uh? I bring this up because Mando referred to her as “Care-uh,” but I’ve heard you say “Car-uh.”

I know! (Laughs.) It’s Car-uh; it’s definitely Car-uh. In the beginning, everybody on set asked me, “How do you say your name?” and I would say “Car-uh.” But, for some reason, it’s natural for some people to say “Care-uh.”

Well, you’re in good company as the pronunciations of Leia and Han differed to varying degrees, too.

Oh, really? Oh, my gosh, that’s so funny. I had no idea. Thank you for telling me that because I’m going to use that later.

Your character was given a Han Solo or a gunslinger-in-the-corner-of-the-saloon-type introduction. Then, she had the ice-breaking fight with Mando. Were you and the brain trust conscious of wanting to give this woman an introduction that is usually reserved for men?

Originally, I feel like this all came from Jon and Bryce. I got together with the stunt guys, and we did some different types of choreography and previz. I’ve read a little bit online, and it feels mostly positive as I have so many people who are rooting for this strong female character. But, others are wondering how she did so well against the Mandalorian, who are the badasses of the galaxy. I can tell you that the choreography was originally something else, and we made it to where she got the jump on him. It comes to a draw at the end of the fight so we both get our licks in. They’re both battle-hardened warriors, and I feel like they both have an understanding of what they were dealing with. I definitely think Cara stands out in a way that’s very different from someone like Leia, who’s also very strong and independent. I think that’s exactly what Jon wanted to bring to the Star Wars universe as far as my character. He wanted my arms to show, and I’m like, “Long sleeves!” (Laughs.) He wanted my character to be this new soldier of women, and he wanted her to have an impact. For me, it’s been a way to embrace who I am, and if the biggest complaint is that I’m too strong, it’s really a compliment to me. (Laughs.)

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/2019/12/the_mandalorian_-_publicity_still_-_h_2019_.jpg
The Mandalorian | Disney+

Given your background in mixed martial arts, how helpful are your existing skills when it comes to screen fighting? Or, is screen fighting completely different?

Not every fighter or physical person can transition. What I’ve actually done in the last nine or 10 years of being in this business is I’ve adapted to onscreen fighting. I used to dance when I was a little girl; I did jazz, tap and ballet. It’s also so much more than that as you have to learn to give shots and take shots. The more you sell it, the more the fight scene goes well. A lot of people that come in with egos and are conditioned to “I must be the baddest person in the room” have trouble understanding that. You’re not gonna win everything, and you have to sell that body shot and face shot. I think I’ve had a little less of an ego as I come at it from an art and dance perspective with the skill set of a fighter. That’s really worked out for me, and I’m really proud of that because not everybody has been able to transition so well. (Laughs.)

On Haywire, you had to convince your male co-stars that they didn’t have to pull their punches. Did you have to have that conversation with the stunt performers on The Mandalorian?

Since I’ve been in this now for a long enough time, especially with the Mandalorian stunt team, they understand that I understand. I think the stunt community has kind of accepted me as one of their own because I come in, we collaborate and we do this together. I think I’ve been doing it for a long enough time that I’ve developed a good reputation in the stunt community to where I don’t injure or hurt people. I make sure to ask, “Is this a good amount of pressure?” It’s funny because stunt guys and girls like that you give them just a little bit so their reactions are good. I like the same thing, too, so we’re usually on the same page. You have to have the conversation, though, because if you’re working with a stunt team the entire day and you’re kicking someone from a wide shot to a closer shot, that spot can get a little sore. So, you have to pick your moments. If it’s a wide shot, maybe give it a couple good kicks, but wait until you get to the closer shots to give it a bit more. It’s just a matter of communication and trust. The stunt team on Mandalorian have been like brothers and sisters to me.
continued next post

GeneChing

12-04-2019, 01:52 PM

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/2019/11/bryce_gina_c.jpg
On the set of The Mandalorian | Disney+

Since Howard is an actor-director, what was she able to provide you that most non-actor directors don’t?

She’s got this fire in her eyes. She pays attention to everything, and she has complete 100 percent control of the set. She’s focused, hungry and passionate. Other directors do different things, but Bryce would bring a little tiny apple box out with an iPad to watch the replays on. She would sit there with you and direct you. She’d have a conversation and talk it through with you based on how she’s worked things out as an actress. She’d listen to my thoughts and ideas. She was very motherly and protective of our performances. She’s probably been in this business long enough to know that you don’t always get a director who’s going to protect you and give you the opportunity to express yourself and give you the chance to do it the way you want to do it. Bryce will try it this way and that way, and then she’ll let you try how you like it. She’s very protective over her actors and story. When she laughs, the entire building heard it. The one word I’d use to describe her is fiery.

What are these virtual reality sets like? During the battle sequence, could you see the AT-ST actually rendered on the display you were looking towards?

The AT-ST, no. But, the set is not a green screen set. It’s a completely different animal. It’s really interesting because [Steven] Spielberg, the Coen brothers and Seth Rogen have visited to check out the set. Everyone wanted to see what Jon Favreau is doing over here in these Manhattan Beach studios. On film, it looks incredible. As an actor, even with Baby Yoda and the Ugnaught, you feel so in the moment because it all feels so real. When you put on your armor, you walk into that world, and that’s been an incredible blessing for my imagination.

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/2019/12/mando_104-5_bd059560-h_2019.jpg
The Mandalorian | Courtesy of Disney+

What’s the Baby Yoda phenomenon been like from your vantage point?

I learned about Baby Yoda when I read the script after getting the job. When doing promotion at Star Wars Celebration, D23 and the press junket, we were already getting such a great reception, and meanwhile, we were all giving interviews to excited people and thinking, “You don’t even know the best part of it!” (Laughs.) I think it was so smart of Jon and Kathleen Kennedy to keep it such a secret. That was just genius to have people be surprised over something they were already excited about, and now everybody is absolutely in love with this little baby. When you’re acting with it, you’re just like, “Oh, my gosh, it’s insanely cute.” These puppeteers gave it its own personality; it’s a little actor. Jon once belly-laughed and was like, “No matter what, this little guy is going to steal the scene in every scene that he’s in. Just know that you’re all going to be number two to this.” (Laughs.) That’s our little star of the show — 100 percent. There’s no stealing a scene from Baby Yoda.

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/2019/11/mandoepisode4c.jpg
The Mandalorian | Disney+

Cara seems to be running from something since she feared that Mando had a bounty on her head. She also mentioned that she was forced into an early retirement. Did you know her full backstory when you shot this episode?

Yeah, I did. I knew it from conversations with Jon and Dave. They withhold little bits and pieces from me, and they’ll come in and say, “Oh, yeah, also this…” Before I did the introductory scene, Jon told me a secret about my character, and it added so much depth to what her life has been like. I think she’s a really cool character, and I think the sky's the limit with telling her story. When I read the script, I just felt like Jon wrote a little diamond of a character. I’ve been waiting for something like this for so long, and I love putting on the armor and thinking about the possibilities.

Since I’m only well-versed in the films, what’s the significance of the arm tattoo?

I thought you were going to ask about the eye tattoo. (Laughs.) I’d have to go back and do a refresher on it, but I think that comes from the Rebel Alliance in the Galactic War. I also think it came from one of the producer’s sons who watches The Clone Wars or something like that. I think it’s definitely an Easter egg that attaches me to those soldiers. I know that is an awful explanation, but the eye tattoo has a much deeper meaning once we get into it. Obviously, it’s a Rebel tattoo, but there’s much more to that story. So, I’m excited for that. A girl just tagged me in a photo the other day because she just got it tattooed on her cheek. I just sent Bryce a text message that said, “Bryce! It happened. Somebody got a Cara Dune tattoo on their cheek.” It’s been a crazy zero-to-one-hundred thing already.

I’ve had such an up-and-down career so far. When I worked with Ewan McGregor on Haywire, he said, “Make sure you love the script, get along with the director and respect the director.” He told me that 10 years ago, and, of course, I felt like I had to put in my time and do my time on those independent movies. I really wish I would’ve listened to those words because he was telling me something from experience. Now, after having this up-and-down career, that’s going to stick with me moving forward. I am going to work with people I respect — on stories I’m passionate about. I’m going to be patient and wait for those to come through. After The Mandalorian season finale, I hope people have seen the growth in my work and the hard work I’ve put into acting. I always say this, but I still feel like I’m just getting started.

THREADS
Haywire (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?55198-Haywire-starring-Gina-Carano)
The Mandalorian (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71066-Star-Wars-The-Mandalorian)