Aaron Paul has proven that he is, without a doubt, a remarkable actor. As one of the stars of the greatly-revered Breaking Bad, he demonstrated his ability to be hilarious, sympathetic, despicable, caring, self-centered, bull-headed, and vulnerable, among a range of other emotions. In addition to his phenomenal abilities as an actor, he is more than willing to be proactive with some of his own stunts, as IGN’s featurette for the upcoming Need for Speed movie proves.
In the film adaptation of Electronic Arts’ racing game series, Paul will be driving himself toward vengeance. He will be play the role of
Tobey Marshall, a street racer and garage owner who finds himself in a serious financial crisis. In order to try and solve his problems he puts his trust in an old associate (Dominic Cooper), but the decision turns out to blow up in his face as Tobey finds himself framed for murder. Years later Tobey is released from prison, and with revenge in mind he embarks on a high-stakes underground cross-country race. Unfortunately, his former partner welcomes him back to the outside world by putting a bounty on his head.
In preparation for the role, the actor attended a stunt driving clinic, a portion of which was filmed by IGN. Watch the video below to see how Paul learned how to drift, drive backwards and other such driving techniques that a normal driver should hope to never use.
Even with Aaron Paul leading the film, I sincerely doubt that Need for Speed is going to be the film that breaks the trend of horrible video game movie adaptations. The plot is trite and derivative of the type of material that was left on The Fast and the Furious’ cutting room floor. Even if Paul brings his A-game, the material he has to work will is pretty weak. The movie is clearly beneath him but I guess the amount of money the studio offered him is not, and I can get behind that. Paul has other, more notable films coming up, such as Ridley Scott’s Exodus, so it’s not like doing this movie is a result of desperation.
Adding to Need for Speed‘s woes, the film’s director, Scott Waugh, is lacking in experience. He has only directed one other major film, 2012’s Act of Valor. That movie was basically a video game, so at least his resume show’s an inkling of experience with turning games into films, but the movie wasn’t too impressive overall. I’m not expecting big things from this one, but hey, I’ve been wrong before. Not often, but it happens. Need for Speed will be in theaters in March.
What are your thoughts about the upcoming Need for Speed movie? What do you think is the best movie based on a video game? Let us know in the comments!