THE MAKING OF A FALL GUY

lan Dean speaks to Cinesite's Jennifer Meire about melding digital and practical effects in the revamp of an 80s classic

- lan Dean

Bringing cult 1980s TV series The Fall Guy back to life on the big screen was always going to be a challenge in the modern era of CG stunt doubles, not least because the team at Cinesite - whose filmography includes everything from The Witcher to Space Jam: A New Legacy - in essence needed to create VFX within VFX, as the film tells the story of a stuntman from the set of an imagined movie.

In the original show Lee Majors starred as Colt Seavers, a stuntman who found time between being "blown up for Raquel Welch" and making "Redford such a star" to solve crimes and catch criminals. It was a show built around the celebration of practical stunts and the magic of making movies.

Cinesite's VFX supervisor Jennifer Meire, who supervised the visual effects work on The Fall Guy's new movie retelling, says the team wanted to honour the pitch of the classic show. "The original TV series of The Fall Guy from the 1980s was known for its practical stunts, so our goal was to help honour that legacy," she says.

"The clue to the role of VFX is really found in the title of the film; we always knew that the focus would be on the stunts. We worked closely with the production team to blend practical and digital effects, and what we created was always invisible. Our digital support was there to enhance the film's action, rather than the atmosphere."

Cinesite teamed up with director David Leitch, VFX supervisor Matt Sloan, and the stunts team to create the film's jaw-dropping action. The collaboration resulted in around 355 visual effects shots, meticulously overseen by Meire.

The plot of The Fall Guy film centres around Ryan Gosling's performance as battle-hardened stuntman Seavers, who embarks on a quest to solve the mysterious disappearance of Tom Ryder, the star of the movie Metalstorm that he's working on.