Short of the Day
Jake Scott directs the actor as a distracted hitman.
Jake Scott has been making fluid, visually-dynamic shorts for years. Most of these have been music videos for the likes of R.E.M., Radiohead, U2, No Doubt, Oasis, The Strokes, Soundgarden and scores more that reveal the director’s ability to make much out of little, and to tell full-size stories in compact frames. Even Scott’s two features, Plunkett & Macleane and Welcome to the Rileys are episodic in their feel, as though composed of several serial shorts. One should expect no less cinematic efficiency from Scott; as the son of Ridley Scott (Alien) and the nephew of Tony Scott (Top Gun), it’s in his blood.
In his latest short effort, Scott has teamed with everyone’s favorite 21st Century Bond villain and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the inimitable Mads Mikkelsen for an eight-minute film entitled Le Fantome (The Ghost) which doubles as a long-form commercial for the Ford Motor Company. In the film Mikkelsen plays a master assassin – think Alain Delon in Le Samourai with a dash of Mads’ trademark eloquent insanity – who’s latest assignment is interrupted when he stumbles upon the eye-catching new Ford Eagle SUV.
Don’t worry, though, there’s more story here than there is product placement, making Le Fantome reminiscent of The Hire, that great series of short films from 2001 made for BMW, starring Clive Owen, and directed by the likes of Guy Ritchie, Ang Lee, John Woo, and Jake’s uncle Tony.
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Le Fantome co-stars Barbara Steele, the British actress famous for her roles in Fellini’s 8 ½, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, Roger Corman’s The Pit & The Pendulum, and Joe Dante’s Piranha. Check the short out below and pray for the day we get to see a feature-length film starring Mads Mikkelsen as a hired gun.
Related Topics: Short Films, Video
