Daniel Espinosa is back in the director's chair this week as Easy Money is set to hit the big screen in the UK.
We last saw him in the director's chair with Safe House, but this new project sees him tackle the gangster genre.
We caught up with the director to chat about the film, what drew him to the story and what lies ahead.
- Easy Money is set to hit the big screen in the UK tomorrow so can you tell me a bit about the film?
It is a multiple story gangster movie; it is about three different characters whose fates are all intertwined and; in the end, the punishment for them is severe.
It is about a young man who comes from the countryside who comes to the city with big hopes of joining the elite world that he has seen on television.
He realises that it is harder than he thought. He starts working on the weekdays as a cab driver, and then he starts dealing with cocaine.
The second story is about a Chilean, who is a former cocaine dealer who has escaped from prison. He has to do one last job before he can leave and go back to Chile.
The third story follows a Serbian and former gangster who has to take care of his daughter for the first time; that clashes with his normal work.
So the movie follows those three characters you see that their fates are intertwined.
- The movie is based on the 2006 novel of the same name so where did this project start for you? And what was it about this story that really intrigued you?
When the book came out I didn't read it, and I didn't have any real interest. At the time, I was making films that were more hardcore art house, and I couldn't seem to find myself.
I realised that all of my idols at the time were Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann and my best friend said that I should read this book.
I come from the working-class area of Stockholm, and I grew up with Serbian and Chilean people. I was also an outside like JW.
So I read this novel and, in many ways, all those different stories were parts of my life; if it wasn't me myself, it was an uncle I had or a brother or friend.
I thought that because I had that insight, I could do something about real people and show how difficult and complex their lives are. But I also wanted to show how beautiful it could be as well.
- Jens Lapidus penned the novel so did he have any input into the movie? Did you sit down and talk to him during pre-production?
No. Jens has written a great novel, and he was very encouragingly leaving us to write the script that we wanted to write and left me to do the movie that I wanted to do.
All our forms are unique; movies, music and literature, and you have to leave the person who is doing it to do their best. I know my craft better than he does, and he knows his craft better than I do.
My purpose was always to honour his work. When he saw the movie, he was very happy and that made me calm.
- So what sort of changes have you made to the story as the novel was adapted into film?
In the book Mrado, the Serbian enforcer, thinks about his daughter a lot, but he only meets her once.
In the movie, the daughter plays a bigger role than in the book; he meets her once, they say 'hello' and that is pretty much it. In the movie, she is the central motivation for changing his character.
Jorge's sister he a person that he meets very quickly on page twenty in the book. But in the movie, his sister plays a central part of Jorge's development as a character.
So I tried to use the family of the characters to round them as dilemmas such as 'am I a good father?, 'Am I a worthy brother?' Are questions that we all have and can relate to somehow.
- The film follows three central characters, as you say, so can you talk a bit about the casting process and what you were looking for in these three crucial roles?
In JW, I was looking for the chameleon. When I was sixteen years old I was sentenced to two years in prison; the Swedish government changed it, so I could go to a boarding school as part of a social programme. I was in this boarding school with some of the richest kids in Sweden.
Everyone in the school knew that we were five kids from that programme and we spoke different and we moved different. So they could always smell us out, and they knew that we were not part of the same social structure as them.
So, I knew how it felt to be a young man who just wants to belong and what you are willing to do and sacrifice for that feeling of belonging. That was something that was very interesting and personal to me.
I had a friend of mine who passed away, and he was in the same business as Jorge. And so I wanted to show other sides to those kinds of characters that are human.
They have the same strives to be accepted as an honourable brother, even though their action completely contradicts that.
My father always struggled to take care of us - I don't have kids, but I have seen that through my life. So I thought that that was interesting for the character of Mrado.
I also wanted to show a man who somehow wakes up from the violence and stupidity of his own life and realises that his daughter is the only thing that he cares about.
But he doesn't know any other way. When he wants to save her, he does the same thing as he usually does because that is the way that he sees a way out of his life.
All three of these characters had small and very personal connection for me.
- This is a very international cast list, and I was reading that you don't bring interpreters onto set - I was wondering why you chose to work in that way?
I speak Spanish fluently, but I don't speak Serbian. 90% of the cast were amateurs, and amateurs do feel very uncomfortable about acting in front of a camera.
At one point, when I was doing the casting, I realised that when they were speaking Serbian, they didn't care that we were standing around filming them because they knew that we wouldn't understand what they were saying. I formed a bond with one of the actors, and I would ask him to do long scenes in Serbian.
Then I would ask him to translate, more or less; there was a great fear until I got the actual translation (laughs). It was my way of letting them be private in front of us.
- How have you found the response to the film?
It has been good, mostly. Of course, it is not everyone's cup of tea but those who do like it seem to have a connection with these characters. The movie is also a fun ride to watch as it has a good pulse, and I think that the characters do have deeper levels.
So, the response has been good. That is why I have my career now with Child 44 and Safe House; I wouldn't have had that without Easy Money.
- Easy Money was only your third directorial outing; you have made more movies since then, but how have you found your movie experience so far? And what drew you into this industry?
I really wasn't good at anything else; I was a horrible athlete and a lousy mathematician. It was more that I didn't have any other options but to become a film director. In reality, I chose it because it was the only thing that I could imagine myself doing.
When I went to this boarding school, the kid that I lived with was director Lasse Hallström's son. When I spoke to the son and saw the father when he would visit, they seemed like normal people.
They didn't seem, like extraordinary aliens that were allowed to do stuff that I wasn't allowed to. So, when I met them, I thought 'if they can do it, then maybe I can do it'. So it was just by pure decision that I got into the movie business.
Then I worked for free for three years in different companies and slowly worked to a point where I could make a movie. I think the movie industry is a hard industry, but it is not that hard to be allowed to do what you want if you work hard.
- You are currently working on Child 44 so can you tell me a bit about that and how filming is going?
It is going great; we have a beautiful cast. It is based on the book by Tom Rob Smith; he was on the set yesterday, and he seemed very happy.
Tom Hardy is playing the lead while Noomi Rapace, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paddy Considine, Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnamen are all on board.
It is about a serial killer in the fifties in Russia, and the case is investigated by Leo, an MGB agent who was responsible for finding political traitors.
The story is set in 1953; that is the year that Stalin dies, and so it is a year of changes within Soviet Union.
It is going to be a very very interesting movie. What really fascinates me is the love story between Leo and Raisa as it is very complex.
- Finally, what is next for you?
I will be shooting for the rest of this year as I will be doing Child 44 until March of next year.
Easy Money is out now.