Escape The Undertaker Director Talks Working With Undertaker & The New Day

In a recent interview with Jeff Ames of Coming Soon, Escape the Undertaker director Ben Simms discussed shooting the fight sequence involving Undertaker and The New Day, building upon The Undertaker character, and much more. Here are some of the highlights:

Ben Simms on the most challenging aspect of shooting the film: “For a number of reasons, we were under a very tight timeline. Luckily the talent are all live performers so that was a huge plus. Our incredible crew was able to build and light every scene so we could essentially shoot almost as if it was a live show, yet still maintain high production value as well as the look and feel of a movie. In any production, you’ll always have budget and timeline challenges, but this was easily the fastest I’ve shot anything of scope.”

On shooting the fight sequence involving Undertaker and The New Day: “I really enjoyed choreographing and shooting the fight scene. Having characters that are essentially their own stunt doubles was such a luxury. We had an incredible stunt team working in conjunction with the performers that knew their capabilities and how to push those. As a result of the timing between choices and the age demographic, we ended up really having to tone down some of the fight and lost some great moments to time… Hopefully, someday there will be a version of the full sequence.”

On building upon The Undertaker character: “You can always add to the back story. The Undertaker has a lengthy history of over 30 years and we were still able to fill in and add to some of the lore surrounding such an iconic character. If you stay true to the character and build upon that, it can be very exciting and can add a lot of depth to the character and the story.”