Empire Australasia August 2017

WORDS IAN FREER

SPIDER-MAN HAS NOTHING on

Dylan O’Brien. Empire is watching O’Brien as

American Assassin’s hero Mitch Rapp evade local

heavies by nimbly scaling a vent like your friendly

neighbourhood counter-terrorist operative.

Occupying studio space at West London’s Art

Deco Gillette building, the shoot is nearing its

midway mark. Next up, O’Brien will mow down

some bad guys in an Alfa Romeo.

American Assassin, a 2010 globe-trotting

thriller rooted firmly in real-world geopolitics,

is the 11th Rapp novel by the late Vince Flynn.

It’s an origin tale that portrays Rapp as a young

spook for the first time. The counter-terrorist

agent is also O’Brien’s first lead role since a

vehicular stunt went awry on Maze Runner: The

Death Cure in March 2016, leaving him seriously

injured with concussion, facial fractures and

lacerations. Eight months later, he’s back and

undertaking a six-week crash course in mixed

martial arts and intensive weapons training.

“I was worried about being able to pull this

off,” he concedes of the strenuous action beats.

“It was a challenge to find my feet in the training.

Funnily enough, I did get into the knife-throwing.

It gets really addictive trying to find your

distance, find your rotations and get it down.”

Rapp will need more than blade-lobbing

skills to survive American Assassin. Witnessing

the death of his girlfriend at the hands of

terrorists, the CIA black ops recruit goes rogue.

Brought under the auspices of CIA director

Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan), he’s assigned to

Cold War vet Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) to

track down mysterious operative Ghost (Taylor

Kitsch). Producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and

Nick Wechsler developed the character for nine

years with Rapp as an adult, but chose to

unleash him as a younger spook instead. Their

hope is to freshen up a genre archetype that is

often played by someone a little older.

“Here we have a character who is coming to

terms with what is right and wrong. That’s very

different from Bourne, Bond or any these types

of characters,” explains di Bonaventura.

Revenge-driven he may be, but Rapp’s journey

should ultimately see him side with the good guys

— albeit, not before he’s run down some bad ones.

Fictional badass Mitch Rapp

hits the screen for the first time

— and age is on his side

SPY KID

ON-SET

EXCLUSIVE

AMERICAN

ASSASSIN

OUT 14 SEPTEMBER

Clockwise from above: Mitch Rapp
(Dylan O’Brien) evades danger in
Turkey — recreated on set in
London; Is Turkish agent Annika
(Shiva Negar) to be trusted?;
Martial arts training with Michael
Keaton; Getting immersed in the
black ops moves.