At the normal pace of Hollywood, it can take years to put together a movie about a jewelry theft starring two Oscar-level actors. “Locked Down”, with Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, was written, filmed and completed in a few months – mainly because the cast and crew had nothing more to do during the pandemic that froze their industry.
“It all started in this very crude place: literally, all the actors are available,” says director Doug Liman, whose films include “Mr. & Mrs. Smith ”,“ The Bourne Identity ”and“ Edge of Tomorrow ”. Among the stars with time available for supporting roles: Ben Kingsley, Mindy Kaling and Ben Stiller.
“Locked Down”, which hit HBO Max on Thursday, is one of the first releases with top Hollywood talent filmed during the pandemic and the pandemic. The question: does anyone want to see what they live every day on the screen?
The film has a comedic plot about a couple going crazy at each other in their London home during the confinement of the coronavirus. They take the opportunity to steal a big diamond from the city’s most extravagant department store, Harrods.
To do this, the filmmakers had to be a bit of a guerrilla. The actors signed even with the unfinished script. (“I was wondering how they were going to close in the next 10, 20 pages,” recalls Mr. Ejiofor.) Harrods surprised the producers by saying yes to a movie about a store robbery and granting them permission to the building. The masked team shot 18 days in case London returned to the real-life blockade. Mr. Liman decided to fly from Martha’s Vineyard to London on his own plane (a single-engine turboprop) for the shoot – partly to eliminate the risk of taking Covid on a commercial flight, partly because he always wanted to. He made a few stops along the way.