Somewhere along the way, William Eubank, so far a journeyman genre director with movies like 20th Century’s enjoyable, “Abyss”-indebted “Underwater” and an underrated “Paranormal Activity” sequel that went directly to Paramount+ under his belt, became one of our most exciting action directors.
It was first apparent with 2024’s “Land of Bad,” a muscular indie that featured thrilling set pieces and a just-as-thrilling moment where Russell Crowe is shopping for groceries for what feels like 20 minutes of screen time. (It’s absolutely gripping.) His latest, “Ghost Soldier,” sees him conforming to more conventional action movie trappings – not that it is any less enjoyable.
In “Ghost Soldier,” Jim Caviezel plays a shadowy figure – a former Green Beret who now designs next-level weapons tech for the United States government – whose sleepy existence is threatened by unscrupulous corporate interests who want to remove him from his home to build a water-sucking data center. This, as you can imagine, doesn’t go over too well. Big action on a modest budget follows, with Caviezel getting extremely satisfying revenge on those who wish to kick him out of his home and destroy his community.
Eubank said that, when he gets sent a script, he tries to at least read a few pages to know whether he’s interested or not. Oftentimes he’ll bail after a few pages but with “Ghost Soldier” he was riveted. “This has got propulsion, and it feels like a movie I loved growing up,” Eubank explained. He had a meeting with producers from Mandalay, who would produce the movie for Sony. But there was a hitch – Eubank had another movie, “The Last Druid,” ready to go. His “Land of Bad” star Crowe had even signed on. But he was anxious to do another studio movie after the independent “Land of Bad,” an experience he found rewarding but taxing.
“Sony would probably never say this, but maybe there was a good amount of pressure because I had another job, so this one got greenlit, which is always the hardest part. You can get the job, but then maybe the movie never goes. We were really lucky that Sony decided they wanted to make it,” said Eubank. While “The Last Druid” was in pre-production, he pushed back the start date, something that (incredibly) everyone, including Crowe was okay with. “The Last Druid” is currently in post-production.
And Eubank was happy to be back in studio-land, even if it wasn’t extravagant.
“I think it might be the smallest budget action movie Sony has made, ever. Unfortunately, I’m becoming known as the guy who can like get on a micro-budget and make it look a little better,” Eubank explained. “Everyone’s always like, Man, Will, if they gave you $50 million, imagine what you could do. And I’m like, Yeah, but it’s never going to happen now.”
Another element that makes “Ghost Soldier” so interesting is its politics.
Like a lot of entertainment seemingly designed for the red states, it’s actually much thornier – there’s a great appreciation for the environment, Caviezel primarily helps a Mexican family and the big bad is a looming tech empire. Sure, casting the guy who played Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson’s blood-soaked lightning rod “The Passion of the Christ” is a choice that could ruffle feathers. But it’s much more complicated, politically and thematically, than you’d probably give it credit for.
Eubank describes himself as someone who “doesn’t love politics personally,” who was drawn to the themes of “Ghost Soldier” regardless of party affiliation.
“When I read ‘Ghost Soldier,’ it felt to me like anyone could get behind it – we don’t like it when corporate people steal our land and find a loophole. It’s about the little man and protecting your friends,” Eubank said. “And the themes to me were themes that I felt like could resonate with anyone, I think I’m pretty middle-of-the-road. I saw that as a film I can make.”
Coming just a couple of years after “Land of Bad,” which was defined by the juxtaposition of hard-R action sequences and Crowe strolling around a supermarket, we wondered if there was a longer, more intense version of “Ghost Soldier.” While watching the movie you can feel punches being pulled – sometimes literally. Or occasionally there are moments that feel like they need more explanation or elaboration to really soar that were just whittled down, either for runtime concerns or because of the rating (“I don’t think there’s a swear word in the film,” according to Eubank).
“There’s a hard R version of this. Maybe if it does enough box office, they might let me release that version someday,” Eubank confirmed. “They’ve promised me that there will be an extended cut for the digital release. When you make a movie with the big guys, there’s a lot of people who, way above my pay grade, make these choices.”
Eubank praised Sony as being “great collaborators” but that the experience was markedly different from “Land of Bad,” where they were constantly scrounging around for money and didn’t have to adhere to any real oversight (Eubank said they didn’t even test “Land of Bad,” they just locked a cut and put it out). “That never would obviously happen at the studio level unless I was Ridley Scott. But look, at the end of the day, there hopefully will be like an extended cut with more cool stuff,” said Eubank.
The shift towards a more family-friendly rating happened during the testing period, when the movie started getting very high scores. “You’re like, Okay this is a different market than maybe I personally would choose. It’s close to my market but then it’s a little adjacent. That’s the handshake you make in the movie business,” Eubank said. He contends that he’s still “super proud” of the movie and that he “stands behind it, even with those cuts or making it a little softer for a broader audience.”
Eubank is also heartened by the fact that his cousin sent him a note about taking his young sons to the movie when it opens – something that he likely wouldn’t have done if the movie carried an R-rating. “That’s why we made that choice. It wasn’t something I even thought about. But I’m like, Oh, that’s pretty cool,” Eubank said.
After “The Last Druid,” which he described as concerning a Celtic warlord fighting Romans (“It’s pretty bananas but has a lot of heart, a lot of soul”), Eubank said he would love to return to an older project that was originally named “Gravity” (he knows that it can no longer be called “Gravity,” for obvious reasons) about a group of scientists who discover an actual center of the universe and the group of people who travel to explore it. “When we get there, what’s there is so crazy,” Eubank said.
He also has a pirate movie he wants to do called “Three Decks Below” about a guy who wakes up tied to a cannon.
“That’s more of a two-hander where he’s just got to fight his way out of this – he has to fight with a cannon the whole time,” Eubank said.
And if there’s any director who can make a two-hander about a guy and a cannon seem even bigger and more explosive, it’s Eubank.
“Ghost Soldier” is in theaters now.
