other species were assimilated into society
and now live among us, paying bills, eating
burgers. Bright follows hot-headed LAPD cop
Daryl Ward (Will Smith) and pure-hearted Nick
Jakoby (Joel Edgerton), the force’s fi rst orc.
Running into troubled young elf Tikka (Lucy
Fry), they fi nd themselves in possession of an
all-powerful magic wand, which makes them the
targets of everyone who wants it for themselves,
including elf Leilah (Noomi Rapace), the fi lm’s
brutal big bad.
Beyond the fantasy, though, we’re promised
an unfi ltered David Ayer experience. “This
isn’t fucking Frodo,” Landis told Collider after
production was announced. The screenwriter
loves Ayer’s work, and Bright was specifi cally
infl uenced by his LAPD dramas Training Day
(written by Ayer, directed by Antoine Fuqua) and
End Of Watch (written and directed by Ayer).
Despite the script being written in his
voice — and even bearing a dedication to him
on its cover page — Ayer was initially hesitant.
“I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m gonna do this,’”
he says. “It was another cop movie and I’d done
so many cop movies. But then I realised I’m
the only person that can do this.” Because of
his growing fi elds of experience? “Exactly. It’s
straddling those two worlds, the higher-concept
special-effects movie and the gritty, naturalistic
police crime drama. The opportunity to do
a fantasy movie in a realistic way makes this
different. Normally these movies are happy
and shiny, very PG-13, very silly.”
Eager to develop the relationship he’d
developed with Smith viaSuicide Squad,he
immediately thought of him for Ward, and in
March 2016, after Ayer had revised the script,
Netfl ix bought the project, promising creativefreedom. “There are no studio games,” says Ayer.
“It’s very refreshing to be able to operate in an
environment where filmmakers are so trusted
and respected.”
Ayer has continually honed the script.
Last year Landis toldEmpirethatBrighthad
“moved away” a bit from his initial story about
brotherhood, recently saying that Ayer has made
it a bigger film with “more explosions”. Responds
Ayer: “Things evolve. We just tuned up the
cop stuff. Got the LAPD stuff right and correct.
I trust Max to be the expert on orcs.”“BOOM, BOOM! KA-KA, BOOM!”
It’s January 2017, and Will Smith is stalking
around a dark, divey apartment set in Los
Angeles’ Center Studios, a huge gun in his
hand, miming the noise of its shots. Ayer
calls action on a rehearsal, and Smith fires
some rounds for real.Empireis wearing
headphones with a sound feed, and it is
deafening. We hear a startled crew member
in our ears, responding under his breath:
“Fucking hell.”Top: Lucy Fry as young
elf Tikka. Above:
Director David Ayer and
Will Smith assess the
day’s work.❯