Dave Bautista tweeted his dream project into existence. Jason Momoa answered. Studios fought over it. And filmmaker Ángel Manuel Soto turned it into “The Wrecking Crew,” the action comedy that debuted at No. 1 worldwide on Prime Video last week.
The project began with a tweet from Bautista back in the summer of 2021, which quickly snowballed into an actual movie (See tweet below which has since been deleted).
“Just going to throw this out into the atmosphere and see what happens. Here we go… Me and Momoa in a ‘Lethal Weapon’ type buddy cop movie directed by David Leitch. Ok! There it is. Now we wait.😬”
After the project was assembled, it landed at MGM following a competitive bidding war. The only difference from the tweet was that instead of landing “The Fall Guy” director David Leitch, as TheWrap first reported, the directorial duties were handed to Soto, who directed “Blue Beetle” for Warner Bros. and DC.
The script was written by Jonathan Tropper, who wrote Shawn Levy’s “Star Wars” movie “Starfighter” for Lucasfilm, and follows two half brothers — one a loose-cannon cop (Momoa) and the other a disciplined Navy SEAL (Bautista) — who must work together to solve their father’s murder in Hawaii.
But Soto saw something beyond the explosions and star power: “A story about two alpha males dealing with childhood trauma” that explores masculinity, family and reconciliation.
The Puerto Rican filmmaker spoke with TheWrap about navigating different budget scales, “Blue Beetle”’s cultural impact years later, conversations about continuing the character in animation, and why he makes action films that make audiences cry.
Now that you have some distance from “Blue Beetle,” what’s your biggest takeaway from that experience that’s informing how you approached “The Wrecking Crew?”
“Blue Beetle” was very different from “Charm City Kings,” and not just budget-wise, but I think on scale and expectations. It was my introduction to fans and everything that entails, my introduction to a beautiful world that I still cherish. But more than that, I was able to experiment with more budget, more time and with the right story. Different genres that I wanted to explore that require a budget and a studio behind them, because they tend to be a heavy ticket.
What I did learn was how to embrace certain new technologies, like using a blue screen to do an action sequence, or the importance of using storyboards and pre-visualization in order to communicate the whole vision of action sequences and stunt work. I did learn a lot about how to wrangle multiple personalities or how to work as a director with different ways of addressing whatever I want to do. Everybody has different personalities. There are different psychologies for different types of performances, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to actors.
Being able to have the tool set and the knowledge to prepare myself for that type of huge cast – in this case, all of them are pretty big in their own right – I think I learned a lot. And I still learn more. I learned a lot more in “Wrecking Crew” that I know I’m going to take with me for my next movie. Being able to work with an ensemble cast that big with so much at stake gave me a maturity of understanding how to bridge the gap between creativity and commerce.
“Blue Beetle” was notably the first Latino superhero in a DC film. Four years later, how do you assess its cultural impact? Did it open doors the way you hoped it would?
I like to think it did. I like to think it did something. I don’t think a lot has changed since back then, to be honest. And I do think that there’s been efforts on whatever advancements were done to go back to where it was – efforts that we cannot control, and it’s up to us to keep up the good fight.
But I keep hearing from the people to whom I dedicated that movie – how important it was that a movie like that came out. So the people that you will never hear on an awards show or anything, people that simply recognize it. For me, it did something that a lot of people at that time didn’t even know was possible. They didn’t even think about it, not because they thought it wasn’t possible. It’s just because it was never proposed. The fact that it existed opened a curiosity of like, man, wouldn’t it be nice just to see more stuff like that? Because it has a flair.
Now that the DCU has been rebooted with James Gunn’s “Superman,” have you had any conversations with Gunn or Peter Safran about Jaime Reyes returning? Or is that chapter closed for you?
I don’t think that chapter has been closed. I’ve had friendly conversations with Peter Safran and John Rickard. And I know James is a huge fan of “Blue Beetle,” and he’s said multiple times that “Blue Beetle” is part of the DCU.
I will say that I personally – I’m not saying that they’ve said it – I personally would love to continue “Blue Beetle 2,” “Blue Beetle 3,” work with Xolo (Maridueña) and the whole Reyes family. But we have had conversations of how we can expand the adventures of the Reyes family via animation. And if that’s something that finally happens, whether it happens or not, conversations have been had. It would be nice. I think that you can do so much with animation, and it’s also a fun medium that I’ve always wanted to explore. So if the movie gods and the people and our dear friends at DC and Warner Bros. see it fit, I would love nothing more than to continue to tell that story.
You went from “Charm City Kings” to a $100 million DC tentpole and now “The Wrecking Crew.” How has navigating these different budget scales shaped your approach as a filmmaker?
The stakes are higher when you’re playing with that much money. There’s so much at stake, and it does force you to be more present on everything that you’re doing. It forces you to be more aware of everything that’s around you, because every minute is so expensive.
I feel like, personally, as much as I’ve always liked to think that I prep a lot, every new project feels like what I did before wasn’t enough. With “Charm City Kings,” I feel like I prepped the hell out of it. And then with “Blue Beetle,” that prepping was like next level. If I prepped for “Charm City Kings” in two or three months, for “Blue Beetle” it was six months of storyboarding. And for this one, it was no different. I took a lot of what I learned from “Blue Beetle” in the prepping stage and applied it to this process.
As much as we want to control what the outcome is because we have an obligation to the studio, the schedule, the budget, once you’re in the field and things start to happen and the movie gods throw obstacles at you, it’s learning how to take a deep breath and see how can I use this new curveball. I can use it to my advantage and let the story tell itself. We did that a lot in this movie, and I think it made the movie better when I stopped resisting.
If you and I were in an elevator, how would you pitch “The Wrecking Crew”? What kind of movie is this?
The movie is an explosive, funny, heartfelt, buddy action comedy of two estranged brothers trying to solve the mystery of their dead father. It’s truly a story about two alpha males dealing with childhood trauma.
Bautista and Momoa both have distinct screen presences – Bautista brings that wounded intensity and Momoa has that charismatic energy. How did you play those two off each other?
I have to give credit where credit is due. Jonathan Tropper wrote those characters because he knew those guys very well. They had already worked together on “See,” which is a TV show that Tropper worked on. Their personalities were already on the page. Of course, they’re heightened – taken to an exponential level in the movie.
But Jason Momoa’s character is very similar to where he is in real life, in terms of explosive, fun, energetic. He brings a lot of that energy to the picture. And Bautista is, as big as he is, a very centered, controlled guy. Soft-spoken, intense. He can bring an intensity, but it’s not volatile or big. He’s very wounded, quiet, real.
That wounded intensity for me is the James version of the quiet, centered monk attitude that Dave has in real life. And the charismatic, funny, nihilistic approach – that’s really what they are. Them being able to tap into who they are made it fun. It was about letting them really play within who they know they are and channel a lot of that stuff. Being able to allow them to play in their comfort zone and at the same time tap into vulnerabilities that are usually not tapped in movies like this was both refreshing and inevitable when it comes to their personalities. Deep inside these two polar opposites, they always can find a way to connect – yin to the yang type of thing.
You find unexpected ways to portray deep themes in unusual places. “Charm City Kings” explored masculinity and mentorship through dirt bike culture. “Blue Beetle” was a superhero film, but really a family story about identity. And now “The Wrecking Crew” is an action movie with Bautista and Momoa. What draws you to smuggling heavier themes into genre work rather than making straight dramas?
For me, it’s very important to see the heart and the character and the subtext, because in my experience, movies that are able to have fun, be exciting at a plot level, but at a character level be about something else – I always like to read things through those lenses. And not only that, where in the world this movie sits and what commentary. It cannot be aloof to the world that we’re living in. As art, we want to make a commentary. If it’s not saying something about the world, it’s just window dressing.
As I read the script for “Wrecking Crew,” I saw this is a story about two brothers who haven’t been able to make amends because of childhood trauma, and until they’re able to heal and confront those traumas, they will never be able to work together. I do think that’s a message that is very important, especially nowadays. The fact that the story lives within Hawaii culture and deals with gentrification and the displacement of indigenous people – that’s something that I feel connected to, because the same thing is happening in Puerto Rico.
Tropper did such a good job of taking these characters through this journey that is often masked by either nihilism or chaos.
I do think, in a world where we’re so bombarded with so many amazing action sequences and CGI, you often get desensitized. While all of that is fun, and I still want to blow up s–t, I do think that the ones that are more memorable are the ones that tap into humanity or that explore the situation at a human level.
I’ve had people that watched the movie and be like, “Man, it just got me thinking – I haven’t talked to my father in so long, and maybe I should just give him a call.” I do believe that that type of character arc and subtext exploration is the thing that people remember at the end of the day. People will say, “That scene was crazy, that explosion was great. But man, I wasn’t expecting to cry in this movie, and that’s beautiful.” If I’m able to do that, I think it’s a success.
You went from working with a legacy studio like Warner Bros. and now one of the new players on the block, Amazon MGM Studios. How was your experience working with them?
It was great. The line of communication was always clear. They were very supportive, very vocal. They communicated. I’m very thankful that they trusted me, that they heard me, and that they gave me a chance to try things and let them play out and let the audience decide. They’re great collaborators. I’ve had great experiences with these studios, and I can only hope I have the same experience in the next projects I work on.
What’s next for you? What projects are you looking at?
I’ve been reading a lot of scripts, stuff that I like, stuff that have not been confirmed but that are exciting. We’re still waiting to see what happens with “Just Cause,” which I’m still dying to do. That’s still out there. It seems like it’s happening, we just don’t know when.
There’s a couple other projects that I don’t have the liberty to talk about, but I’m excited of the possibilities because it’s allowing me to play in different genres. I’ve been developing on the horror front, which is very exciting for me. I’ve been also developing stuff that has to do with Puerto Rico, or that could be shot in Puerto Rico – Puerto Rican stories that are as exciting as any other story – and bring stuff to the island, and also help local filmmakers in Puerto Rico to tell their stories and get their creativity out there.
“The Wrecking Crew” is now streaming on Prime Video.
