Director Derrick Borte Interview: Unhinged

Russell Crowe is a psychopath on wheels in Unhinged, a provocative new thriller about the perils of road rage. Based on the film's trailer, Unhinged combines the current fear of "middle-aged white male rage" with the white-knuckle tension of Jaws; Crowe even drives a truck meant to evoke the iconic shark from Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic.

Director Derrick Borte is best known for pushing the audience's buttons with complicated movies like 2016's London Town and 2019's American Dreamer, starring Jim Gaffigan in a rare non-comedic role. For Unhinged, he leverages the star power of Russell Crowe to tell a story about relatable road rage gone horribly awry. People in cars are so prone to knee jerk reactions and tend to be dangerously quick to anger and escalation. Unhinged preys on the innate fear that things can escalate beyond their ability to be controlled. As the film's tagline plainly states, "He can happen to anyone."

While promoting the upcoming release of Unhinged, Screen Rant spoke to Derrick Borte about his work on the film, from the troubles that arose when shooting in New Orleans during hurricane season, to his experience working with his legendary leading man in an atypical role for the Hollywood star. He also discusses the film's fluctuating release date. Originally scheduled for the final week of August, Unhinged was pushed up to July 1, making it the first movie to open in wide-release in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. However, after this interview, the film was pushed back several times, ultimately landing near its initial planned release date in late August.

As of this writing, Unhinged is scheduled to release in theaters on August 21.

So, Unhinged seems to have come around at the right time, if you know what I'm getting at.

Definitely. I think the movie is definitely a reflection of a lot of things going on right now in the world.

What's the process of coming up with a movie that channels all of that energy into something artistic?

It all starts with the script. I think Carl wrote a really good script and was able to capture the general discontent and lack of faith in institutions that are supposed to be there to make society work correctly and protect people. I think he was able to paint this world as a pretty clear reflection of a lot of things that are happening out there today.

I'm always interested in how pieces begin to fall into place at the earliest stages of the movie. I know you've written and co-written several of your movies, but not this one. How did you come across the script, did you develop it with Carl Ellsworth, or did you get it through the studio?

I had met previously with the studio, prior to the studio existing, with a couple of people who ended up at the studio. And then, when I did American Dreamer last year, they watched it and wanted to meet and really loved it. So we had a great meeting, and they said they wanted to find a project with me. And then, maybe a week later, I got a call saying, "We just bought a script and we think you'll like it, we think you'd be great for it. Will you give it a read?" They had read and purchased Carl's script pretty quickly and wanted to fast-track it into production, and I connected with it, and it just kinda took off at an unbelievable rate of speed from there.

I got to interview Jim Gaffigan earlier this year, and he talked about being particularly proud of that movie, American Dreamer. It was something where he got to do stuff that he doesn't normally doesn't get to do, got to stretch muscles he doesn't normally get to stretch.

That was a fun process. That was really... We had the freedom to be bold and take a chance on Jim, and he really... I think it really paid off for everyone. It's his best role to date, and we're all really proud of the film.

It's funny, just watching the trailer, I'm terrified of Russell Crowe. I promise I mean this in a positive way, this looks like a role he was born to play. He's got the perfect look for it. You look at him in that big truck and it gives me chills. We've all seen someone like that, right?

I think that's really one of the big factors with this film. Everyone I've talked to has some experience with road rage and some version of who Russell is in this film. People see the trailer and everybody has a story about something... Look, obviously not to the extent of this, but everyone has a story they want to tell, and it's a touchstone; road rage is part of our language these days. I think that's what works so well about this film. We're all one horn honk at a stop light away from this happening to us. It's very believable. It's relatable.

Yeah. I don't drive, but I've definitely seen it. But Russell is the key, right? Did the movie change in any way once he was locked in? Did the character evolve once he got his hands on it?

Well, I think the script was solid. I think each of the actors and I worked together to help them take ownership of their characters in a way. There's some finesse going on there, some polish that allows each of the actors to inhabit these characters and believe in what they're doing on screen. So I think that's kind of an organic part of the process. Whether it's for me as a filmmaker or the actors taking ownership of the material and being part of its evolution to the script.

His truck almost seems like it could be a character in the movie. Did you have a lineup of trucks to choose from? How did you settle on that vehicle?

Yeah, the truck is definitely a character. I always viewed Russell's character almost like the shark from Jaws in this film, and that particular truck felt appropriate, like a gray shark terrorizing the beaches or the highways.

The other side of Russell's coin is Caren Pistorius. What was it like getting her? Did she do chemistry reads with Russell? How do you know when you have your two leads?

I cast Russell first. That was a really interesting process of just a lot of time spent talking with him, being with him. I sent him American Dreamer, which he really responded to. And once he was on board, it sort of allowed us to really just try to find the right and best actor to play Rachel, and we looked at... I don't know, over one hundred auditions, and then narrowed it down to call-backs, and then we brought people in to read with Russell. And she just had this great combination of being very approachable, very real, and an everywoman, but also really captivating on screen, and she just nailed the role. I think this is a great breakout for her, and for me to be part of that, being able to watch her jump into a film of this size for the first time, and then hopefully being able to watch firsthand the results of that is a great position to be in. I think she's got a massive future ahead of her.

Tell me about shooting in New Orleans. That city's had its share of turmoil in terms of civil unrest and natural disasters. Did shooting there bring anything unique to the movie that couldn't have been captured elsewhere?

When I found out that we were going to New Orleans to shoot the film during hurricane season, I had questions as to why in the world they would choose New Orleans to shoot the film during hurricane season. I mean, it's a beautiful place to shoot, there are amazing crews there, but we ended up there during the time of year where the production would get pushed because of hurricanes, the streets flooding out... Even when there wasn't a hurricane, there were lightning delays almost every single day, which takes hours out of your day that you can't get back. Shooting out on the roads, there were days where the heat index was well over 100 degrees. You couldn't drink enough fluids to stay hydrated, and you had to get an IV at lunchtime just to be able to function. So there were challenges. As I said, the crew was amazing, the locations are great, but environmentally, it's a very challenging place to shoot. We had to make adjustments and course correct along the way to accomplish what we needed to. But look, none of this is easy. It's all part of the package, part of the deal. You have to deal with whatever comes your way.

I've gotten to spend some time on sets, and I don't think you can do that and be a critic, because you get to see firsthand how much work goes into getting literally anything done in a day. There's so much that can go wrong, so much adversity on every single level of making a movie.

Oh yeah.

I can't imagine being in your shoes!

Well, look. It's easy to find things to complain about, but it's a great job. It's hard work. It's rewarding. It's challenging, it's fun! If it was easy, everyone would do it, I guess.

I guess now you're in the final stretch of this first chapter of the movie's life. I imagine you're on needles and pins waiting to see Covid numbers, because the movie got pushed up to July 1. Did you have a reaction when you got that news, that you were going to be the first wide-release movie, at least as of this interview?

I trust Mark Gill and the team at Solstice to make the right decisions. I think it's a bold choice, and all I can do is my job of delivering them the film on time, the best film I can deliver to them. I hope people get a chance to see the film in a theatrical venue. In theaters. I think it plays really well in theaters. I'm sure that they're not going to be open unless they're deemed safe. Safety and trying to flatten the curve, if that's still applicable, is more important than any movie, either my movie or anyone else's movie. So, safety first. But if they come through on the protocols that it sounds like they're working on, from spaced out seating to disinfecting between showings and using multiple screens in the same movie theater or cineplex so they can try to accommodate the same number of total people, spread out over more screens... If all of these things fall into place, then fantastic!

Here's hoping!

I think it's great. I know drive-ins are having a renaissance. This feels like a great drive-in movie to me. So hopefully it ends up playing there, as well. It's exciting, but there's so much out of my control that I just have to trust that the studio is taking care of their business in a way that I know they can, and that the theaters are taking care of it in the ways they can, and that local and state governments are doing what they're supposed to do to protect people. I know people want to get out. I know people want to be entertained and taken away from what we've all been dealing with for the last few months. I just trust in the fact that whatever happens after I deliver the film is going to play out in the best possible way.

Well said. It's funny, looking at your resume, I don't know if there's a message of, "Derrick's a guy who does this kind of movie." At least as far as I can see, there's not a direct throughline connecting your movies. I guess you could make superficial connections with American Dreamer, you know, the whole "white male rage," I guess, but I don't know. Do you see a throughline between your films?

I think it all starts with the script for me. It's not that I end up looking for something specific. But if I'm reading something and I can't put it down, then I feel like I have to make it. I think, outside of London Town, which was a passion project because of my connection with the music of The Clash, my experience discovering them as a teenager... All of my other films deal in, let's say, people flirting with questionable morality and societal issues in some way. I think there's some way to make the connections. I think the personal stories set against a backdrop of the zeitgeist is where The Joneses lives, and where American Dreamer lives, and certainly where Unhinged lives.