Happy New Year

I have finished GREEN HORNET and started on THOR for Marvel Comics. Kenneth Brannagh is directing and I have not worked with him since HENRY V which was a while ago so I am looking forward to working together again.

GREEN HORNET went fantastically well and I had a blast working with Seth Rogan who is an amazing talent and very professional and dedicated. My brother Andy and I along with my son Scott and nephew’s James and Jesse delivered a real “Kick Ass” car chase and I think it is one of the best I have done for a long time so look out for it later this year.

Last Sunday I was very privileged to be awarded the GEM award by the Stunt Women’s Association of America.

The Diamonds in the Raw awards are aimed at honoring various people in action and films and also to raise money and awareness for under privileged kids and to give them a chance and an insight into the movie business and hopefully give them some hope and a goal to aim for in life.

Other honorees were Mohammad Ali’s daughter Laila Ali, a World Champion boxer in her own right. Laila gave a wonderful and inspiring speech and Jamie Lee Curtis’s speech was hilarious and showed what a truly great and generous person she is as she praised her stunt double.

Thank you ladies for the honour it is very much appreciated

This is a book written by the greatest living Action Unit director Mickey Moore, and it is a must read for any fan of cinema. Mickey has been working in movies for 90 years ! was a child star with Mary Pickford, and has directed first units, second units and has worked with all the greats of the cinema, he directed Elvis Presley in “PARADISE ,HAWAIIAN STYLE” as first unit director, Mickey has done it all.

I first met Mickey in Tunisia on “RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK”, the unit had been shooting a while when I was drafted in to double Harrison. I had been shooting a picture in Mexico called “GREEN ICE” up until then. I learnt so much from Mickey, and his words of wisdom still come back to me today when I am directing and I often say to myself “what would Mickey do in this situation”?

Mickey is the role model for every action unit director out there today with his calmness, politeness, safety first, his thoughtfulness and his incredible knowledge. Since Raiders I have worked with Mickey many times in various places around the World.Thank you Mickey on behalf of all cinema goers around the World and every stuntman past and present, you have touched us all with your magic carpet, I look forward to seeing you at your 100th Birthday Party. Vic

Sadly Jimmy Lodge my mentor and the person that initiated me into the film World many years ago passed away this week, he had been suffering with cancer for some time. Jimmy’s Funeral will take place at 4pm on Monday the 21st of September at:

Chilterns Crematorium
Whielden Lane
Amersham
HP7 0ND

He was one of the most elegant men in the business and he is now at peace at that big race track in the sky, mixing with all the other legends he worked and played with over the years. Thank you Jim.

Here is a photo of me and the gang on “INDIANA JONES and the LAST CRUSADE” it was downloaded off the internet by a friend and sent to me, so it was a great suprise to see and a reminder of the old days and the gang that I worked with all the time.From L – R they are Gabe Cronnelly, Simon Crane, Miguel Pedregosa, Vic, Jordi Casares, Bronco McLoughlin, Billy Horrigan and standing in the back of Big Blue is Dickey Beer. It was shot in the Ramblas near Almeria Spain during the tank chase. It would be lovely to recreate those days but I guess everything in life and the World is changing. The great thing is we are all still alive and kicking and creating havoc in different parts of the World

Hi Everybody, just a quick update I am prepping "GREEN HORNET" in LA and will keep you all up to speed as things progress.

Prior to this I was doing some extra shooting on "WOLFMAN" for Universal which was great fun and kept me in the UK for a nice period of time and I got lots of stuff done around the farm at weekends. It was also fun shooting Wolfman because I had Wendy running the main unit and Jordi running my Action Unit and Nina was also working with Jordi so it was fun to be all working together. Scott has been in New York doubling Liev Schreiber on "SALT" with my friend Simon Crane which he really enjoyed and I am sure learnt a lot.

This is my LA view when I wake up

Here is a photograph of me and a group of stuntmen  covering many years of the British stunt business.

Jimmy Lodge and the gang

From the left to right we have Gerard Naprous, Tony Smart, Myself, Jimmy Lodge and George Leech.

Gerard and Tony are from my era and we all started around the same time. Jimmy Lodge is the Gentleman that got me started as a stuntman in 1965. George Leech is my Father in Law and one of the first stunt men in the UK back in the day.

Jimmy was a very good amateur steeplechase jockey and was the number one horseman in the film business in the 60’s. When I met him he had just come back from Spain where he was working with Yul Brynner on “The Long Duel”. Jimmy used to come and exercise my fathers racehorse to keep himself fit and one day he asked me if he could borrow one of our horses for a movie called “ARABESQUE” of course I said yes. Jimmy was doubling Gregory Peck in this big chase sequence and the horses they had from the usual horse hirer just could not jump the fences that were required. Jimmy new the horse that he wanted to borrow from me could jump anything you put in front of him. The next day Jimmy called and said we need another rider do you want to do it, so I said “you’ll have to give me about two seconds to think it over”.  I went to work for Jimmy and got the fantastic amount of £20 a day as a riding stunt double which was a Kings ransom in those days and actually more than the average persons weekly wage. The rest is history as they say, I just loved the work and luckily at the time they were making a lot of “horse operas” as they were nick named like “Mary Queen of Scott’s” Macbeth” “Young Winston” and being one of the only young stunt guy’s in those days I worked on them all. I soon branched out into other aspects of stunts such as fights, falls and driving and got an impressive resume very quickly.

The bottom line is I owe it all to Gentleman Jimmy Lodge, he taught me how to handle productions and how to negotiate and how to stand firm for what was safe and right and the many things a successful stuntman has to know, he also introduced me to his tailor because I was always in awe of Jimmy’s immaculate dress sense and later on when I could afford it I had my clothes made by the same tailor Bernard Wetherill of Windsor.

I am New York in the office prepping my next picture and I came across this picture of myself with the stunt legend Terry Leonard who has been a great buddy of mine since we met on “RAIDER’S of the LOST ARK”. Terry was one of the best stuntmen there has been and is now one of the best Action Unit directors out there.

I last saw Terry in Victorville California where I was shooting a sequence for “VALKYRIE” in the desert. Terry walked into the same hotel one night and it turned out he was shooting a sequence for the latest “FAST & FURIOUS” movie on a dry lake bed just down the road from where I was shooting. We had a nice early dinner together and reminisced a little about the old days and I promised to send him a copy of this picture which was taken at the last TAURUS WORLD STUNT AWARDS. We then turned in early because we both had to leave at the crack of dawn the next morning, it sure wasn’t like the old days!!

I will endevour to answer all your letters and requests over the next few weeks  so kep them coming in

Chow Yun Fat & Vic

Happy New Year Everybody

I thought I would start the New Year with a picture of  one of last years jobs. This is the fabulous actor Chow Yun Fat who I had the pleasure of working with last year in Bangkok when we shot “SHANGHAI” . I had sequence to shoot a sequence in a night club which involved  Yun Fat shooting a few assasins and he said it was the first shoot up he had done since “REPLACEMENT KILLERS”  which was an honor for me.

I am now in New York prepping a film that i will tell you more about as we progress

Gong Li

Here is another picture form the same movie of the gorgeous Gong Li. She was absolutely wonderful to work with and again it was a great honor to work with these superb Asian actors