“The reader will find a lot of time, love and attention have gone into Gemini Man: The Art And Making Of The Movie and that is to Singer’s immense credit”
Michael Singer is the vice president, marketing and publicity for Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Television. He has written several books including The Making Of Pirates Of The Caribbean, A Cut Above-50 Film Directors Talk About Their Craft and Michael Singer’s Film Directors-A Complete Guide. It is fair to say that the man knows his stuff and due to his connection to Jerry Bruckheimer and his studio, has the inside track on what films the blockbuster producer creates. He has the behind the scenes know-how and is in a perfect position to write articles and books about the films and their production. Which brings us to his latest book that has recently hit the book stores. ‘Gemini Man: The Art And Making Of The Film‘ is quite a lavish and stylish hardback, certainly suited to the film and its vivid scenery and colourful action. Although it isn’t that large (only 164 pages) it is another worthy making of book to have on your shelves.
Gemini Man: The Art And Making Of The Movie | By Michael Singer
The front cover of the book recreates the films movie poster with stunning clarity, a younger digitally de-aged Will Smith face to face with his true self. Upon opening the volume, we come to the contents page. Here we are faced with a picture of a machine gun-wielding Smith opposite the list of what awaits us inside, starting off with “Coming Into Focus: The Journey Of Gemini Man“. This depicts the tale of the film from its conception right up to the second it was completed. Fantastic behind the scenes photographs aid the story and bring the reader a great sense of exactly what happens during the making of a motion picture. Shots of director Ang Lee and producer Jerry Bruckheimer adorn most of the pages and deliver a top-notch introduction to what we will discover throughout the pages we will come across.
We now come across a section devoted to Director Ang Lee himself. The cast and crew of the film cannot speak highly enough of the acclaimed man and his style of working. Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who portrays the character of Danny in the film states “It’s amazing to work with Ang. He’s such a lovely person, such a visionary and he’s so committed to saying something with his work” Lee works closely with his actors on set and as Jerry Bruckheimer quotes “It’s great to watch Ang work because he will go up to an actor and whisper something like three words…and the performance totally changes” the cast and crew gush with nothing but praise for Lee throughout this section and the piece is accompanied by glorious photographs of Lee on set and directing star Will Smith.
Following the section on the director, we are afforded a piece on the producer Bruckheimer himself. Bruckheimer has over 40 years in the industry and is commonly known as being almost the master producer of the action movie genre. He is perhaps best known for his frequent collaborations with director Michael Bay. The section deals with Bruckheimer and his career starting with the partnership he had with the late Don Simpson. The partnership gave the world some of the most loved movies of the 1980s including Flashdance, Top Gun and the first two Beverley Hills Cop movies. Following Simpson’s sad demise, Bruckheimer went out on his own and made his name in his own right. During the course of the section, many full-colour photographs bring the reader closer to the legendary producer and many of his fellow filmmakers speak lovingly of him.
Following this, we now come upon actor Will Smith and his character of Henry Brogan in the film. We are given quotes from industry insiders and technical crew on the film about the actor and his character he portrays, all glowing testaments to the one-time box office champion. Following this, we have a description regarding the train shooting scene that opens the film. Concept art and photographs accompany the text along with behind the scenes secrets and descriptions of the characters seen during the sequence. We move on and are now given in-depth information on the other characters seen in the film, the descriptions of who and what the characters are and the depths each contains inside. The talented portrayers of these characters give us an insight into them and speak about their time on the set making the movie.
The book goes in-depth into every aspect of what the audience will see on screen, every set and property that the film contains is represented and shown with descriptions about why it was chosen and how it fits into the film like a puzzle piece. The special effects required to have Smith portray the younger version of himself face to face with his older version and how Smith’s face was visible during some of the film’s most amazing stunts are revealed and are in effect, expensive but pretty easy to perfect. CGI has come a long way and how they accomplished the effects are pretty standard in Hollywood visual effects studio nowadays. The film’s locations are beautifully represented here and the photographs that accompany look fantastic but cannot do the locations justice. The locations seen throughout the film need to be visited and seen for themselves to fully appreciate their beauty.
We continue to go through the book and see how certain scenes were shot, the complexity of the shots needed and how they achieved success with them. Once again, we are given the inside details and again, we have a look at certain locations once more before we come up to the final showdown sequence. Here we will find out everything we need to know about how the sequence was shot, the effects required to bring it to life, the set design right down to the actor’s placement in the completed film. If anyone was unsure exactly how much work goes into what we see on screen, then this book will bring it home to them everything they want to know. The workload is huge.
Michael Singer has authored an outstanding and thoroughly engaging making of volume with this book. His text goes into so much detail and gives away some of the biggest secrets and tricks the filmmakers used to bring the story to the screen. We are not left wanting in any department with this book and I can confidently say that this is one of the better makings of books that are on the market. The reader will find a lot of time, love and attention have gone into the volume and that is to Singer’s immense credit. The film itself may not have hit the heights it aimed for but I can say without a doubt, that Singer’s book flies high in its own right.
Gemini Man: The Art And Making Of The Movie by Michael Singer is published by Titan Books and is available to buy NOW!
The Future of the Force. The future of pop culture writing.
Carl Roberts is a Senior Staff Writer and Books and Literature Correspondent for Future of the Force. He is passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Indiana Jones and Horror movies. Follow him on Twitter @CarlRoberts2 where he uses the force frequently!
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
Editors Note: A big thank you to our friends at Titan Books for the advance review copy.
Author
Carl Roberts is the News Editor of The Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter where he uses the force frequently!
