Focusing on a group of women kidnapped by a sex trafficking ring, Escape is a high-octane, tense action film from writer/director Howard J. Ford. Ford’s previous films include The Dead, Never Let Go, and The Ledge. We caught up with Howard to find out more about Escape ahead of its release…
STARBURST: What inspired you to write Escape?
Howard J. Ford: Well, it’s my tenth feature film, so I knew I wanted to do something outrageous and provocative. The sort of thing I might not be allowed ever to do again. It actually didn’t start with these ten girls getting kidnapped. During lockdown, I watched a late-night program on Quest called Aussie Gold Hunters, which I still like. There were people digging up a bit of gold. Sometimes they dig up nothing, and then they get heat stroke, but sometimes they dig up a thing worth 50 grand, 100 grand, 150… and I’m like, “Wow. I think I’ve been an idiot with my life to take on all this hard work. I could have just dig stuff out the ground and sell it”. I thought I can make this movie where a bunch of young people get together. They’re in this nice resort. They’re running out of money and decide to go gold panning. And then, by chance, one finds a big chunk of gold worth half a million. Then I started to think, they’re staying at some cabin. They get it valued, but some weird guy with an eye patch is watching them. They come at night and try to get this half a million worth of gold. Then, one of the girls gets kidnapped. Anyway, I started to think, what am I doing? I’m just writing this really complicated thing. I then saw something online where Andrew Tate said some disturbing stuff about pretty women being like jewellery, like, “She’s a 10, she’s like a diamond”. He said something like that, and I was thinking, “Why don’t I just have horrible men stealing pretty women and that I cut out all this other crap that I was trying to write”. Get straight to the point; I can still shoot it in a lovely resort, take people on, like, a holiday. Anyway, that’s how it came about. I felt like that hadn’t been done, at least not with ten women, you know, in the desert and all that kind of thing. The point was these women fighting back with whatever they can to get out of there.
Did you do any research into real people smugglers?
I did a little bit because I did it, weirdly, when I made Never Let Go a few years ago, which is another kidnapping story. I looked into it then because I had an experience when I nearly lost my son. I looked into this whole business, and it was alarming. I put some facts and figures up at the beginning of Never Let Go. I was so shocked at how much of this stuff is going on, and that was kids being taken; it’s all horrific. At the same time as researching that, I remember seeing the statistics on young women being trafficked and is absolutely horrific. So, as much as Escape isn’t a documentary, obviously, it’s complete fiction. I’m not trying to be wildly realistic, but it’s an exaggeration. Unbelievably, there’s also humour in the film. I wanted it to be larger than life because it’s the 10th feature. I thought, sorry, I’m just going to do it all! I didn’t delve into it too much this time because I knew what I was doing. It didn’t need to be wildly realistic; it needed to be entertaining. But I’m pleased if it raises this issue, because it’s a horrific thing that’s still going on everywhere.
Where did you film it? You always have some great locations!
Oh, thank you. We shot most of it in the Canary Islands. I wrote it pretty quickly because I had this window of opportunity to do it. So I was still writing bits of it as we were leading up to a production. I wrote this scene where they go to this cabin in the mountains. It’s a stone cabin surrounded by mountains. I wondered if this place existed. I went on to Google and put in ‘cabin in the mountains, blah, blah, blah…’ and a whole bunch of things came out. I scrolled down, and that’s it! It gave me goosebumps because it was literally the place I had in my brain. I’ve never seen this thing before at all. It’s in PortAventura. I said, “Hang on; you can actually book this place on Airbnb!”. I went there and said to the owner, “Hey, can I pay some more money to do some filming around your place? It’s actually shot in three countries, so we also shot a bit in France and Cannes, part of the villa, and then we shot some in the UK, this big mansion house near Hertfordshire. So essentially, the Canary Islands!
What was the casting process like, as it’s a great cast?
Thank you. Certain films I have more control over and I can use whoever, and certain ones already have financiers and you need to go through an approval system. Something like Escape, which I was kind of putting together myself, I was able to just go, “Oh, I’ve always wanted to work with them.” I wanted to do something Sean Cronin. He can play a brilliant bad guy, even though he’s actually a bit of a softy in real life. As a director, I get a lot of actors sending me show reels and sending me messages to say, “If you’re casting for something, keep me in mind”. I do try my best to keep all these people in mind. With Escape I thought, I’m just going to cast all the people I want to work with if they fit the role. Some of the cast have been in other movies I’ve already done, like Sarah Alexandra Marks and Louis James – it’s lovely to be able to use people that you want to work with, right?
ESCAPE will be available to own or rent on digital download from September 30th on all main platforms, but it can be preordered via AppleTV now. Howard J. Ford’s 11th film, DARKGAME, will be released on October 21st. Watch out for another interview in which Howard discusses that film soon.
