HAVOC
OUT TBC
IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, BUT GARETH EVANS’ BONE-CRUNCHING EPIC IS NEARLY READY TO KICK OUR FACE IN
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
Left:
Detective Walker (Tom Hardy) fights his way through the criminal underworld.
IN AN IDEAL WORLD, GARETH Evans’ HAVOC would have been part of Empire’s 2022 Preview. After all, Evans began shooting the movie in 2021, with a view to releasing it the following year. But that’s the thing about the world: it’s far from ideal. 2022 came and went, with no sign of the movie on Netflix’s release docket. So did 2023. And then 2024 joined the party. “It’s been an adventure,” understates Evans. “It was a perfect storm of things.”
The CliffsNotes version: additional photography was required on the movie. But, not being an MCU movie, a window hadn’t been built into the overall schedule. So it took a while to get all the players —principally the film’s lead, Tom Hardy, a strong contender for busiest man in movies —to align their schedules. Then there were a couple of strikes. You might have heard of them.