Pierce Brosnan trades his renowned Irish accent for a genteel Southern elocution in the crime thriller Fast Charlie. Adapted from the novel Gun Monkeys by Victor Gischler, Brosnan plays Charlie Swift, a hit man and longtime enforcer of aged Biloxi mob boss Stan Mullen (James Caan). Charlie joins forces with Marcie Kramer (Morena Baccarin), the ex-wife of a dead mark, after Stan is betrayed by a ruthless competitor (Gbenga Akinnagbe).

Venerated Australian director Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Harrison Ford’s Jack Ryan films, Salt) was interested in a story that had “three really interesting characters poised on the second half of their lives.” He would only “sign on to the picture” if the producers hired screenwriter Richard Wenk (The Equalizer trilogy, The Magnificent Seven) and moved the setting from Florida to his “favorite city in the world” — New Orleans. Noyce credits Wenk as a “master storyteller” of “characters, humor, suspense, and action.” Fast Charlie surprises as a dark comedy, something Noyce hadn’t done since 1989’s Blind Fury. He wanted to “reinvent” himself from “serious action, serious drama, and serious thriller aspects” that he “was concentrating on.”

Noyce gave us some interesting news about casting Fast Charlie. “Morena [Baccarin] came in after seven days” when the film “lost part of our financing just before we started shooting.” He had to replace the “original actress.” Baccarin was able to seamlessly fit in and proved “the magic that we imagined in casting her.” Fast Charlie also marks the final performance of iconic actor James Caan. Noyce recalls that Caan “was giddy with excitement because he was back in the saddle. He hadn’t worked on a movie for more than a year.” Caan “passed nine weeks later.” Noyce credits Brosnan for being a “very sensitive guy” who “intuitively felt what was going on under the surface for James.” Their “on-screen and off-screen relationship started to merge.” Read on for our complete interview with Phillip Noyce, and check out the video interview above.

Adapting Gun Monkeys Into Fast Charlie
Fast Charlie Release Date December 8, 2023 Rating R Runtime 90 min

MovieWeb: You’re an Australian director making a film with a famous Irish actor in the American deep South. What interested you about Fast Charlie?

Phillip Noyce: The characters in the original novel are the same characters in the screenplay. The three main characters — an aging gangster, who dreams privately of having another life somewhere, an even greater aging gangster who’s suffering from dementia, and a woman that the first guy meets along the way, who is running away from everything associated with the life that she’s led up to that time. So it’s three really interesting characters poised on the second half of their lives. That’s what interested me, because I identified with all of them.

MW: It’s always tricky to adapt a good book. Screenwriter Richard Wenk is on a roll. How different was his script?

Phillip Noyce: Victor Gischler’s book is set in Florida, in Orlando and then Miami. When I came on, I said to the producer two things for me to sign on for this picture. One is you get Richard Wenk. Because he’s such a master storyteller, a master of character, of humor, of suspense, of action. And I said, I’d love to go to my favorite city in the world, which is New Orleans, and set the majority of the film in that city. That’s how we ended up with Richard and that’s how we ended up in the gulf coast of Mississippi and New Orleans. The story was slightly different. The one big difference is that the relationship in the book between Pierce Brosnan, the character of Charlie Swift, and Morena Baccarin’s character of Marcie Kramer, started out in bed and going at each other from page one. That’s not going to work.

Phillip Noyce: Let’s have a love affair that develops very slowly over the whole picture. Let’s not have them touch even with a fingertip. Let’s keep the audience on edge as they watch these two unlikely people join together, and maybe let’s just imagine that there’s another story, another film. Another episode is going to come later, where we’ll find out what happened between the two of them. That was the script that Richard set out to make. That’s the movie that you can see in cinemas, on Apple, and other demand platforms all around America this Friday.

Pierce Brosnan Hits New Orleans and Shares Some Laughs

MW: I was pleasantly surprised by Pierce’s southern accent. He’s famous for his great Irish accent, but is almost unrecognizable. Talk about how he developed the character of Charlie Swift.

Phillip Noyce: Pierce came to New Orleans quite early, a few weeks before we started shooting. I introduced him to a lot of New Orleans characters, some of them on the other side of the law, to police officers, to all sorts of people. He gradually absorbed the personality of New Orleans. That’s reflected in his performance. The character that he plays was a Marine who traveled around the world. And then in the backstory, that we don’t know in the movie, but can presume he came to work for a gangster. His accent is multinational in a funny way. There’s a southern twang to it, but the truth is that the New Orleans accent is right in the middle. It’s not strong Louisiana, the countryside. That’s a strong accent. But in the center of New Orleans, there’s not a strong Southern flavor. There is the way people move, and eat, and do everything. It’s like another world, another country, but in the city, the accent is quite neutral.

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MW: A very interesting thing happens in the beginning. I laughed my ass off. I didn’t see it coming one bit. You’re the action master, but this has got really dark humor. Talk about that element of the film.

Phillip Noyce: That was one of the big attractions for me. I have made a lot of movies. This is my 20th? Maybe that’s not true. I made a film way back at the beginning when I came to America. What was it called?

MW: Blind Fury?

Phillip Noyce: Yeah, so that’s 1989. That’s the last time that I made a comedy, or I made people laugh in between. There are a few jokes here and there, especially with Harrison Ford in the Jack Ryan films, but mainly it was serious action, serious drama, and serious thriller aspects that I was concentrating on. So the idea, at my age, I’m not young (laughs), of reinventing myself as a director of a very, very black comedy, was a big attraction. It’s in the book, the original novel. Richard Wenke is just the master of dialogue and amazing action set pieces. As we’ve seen from The Equalizer films that Antoine Fuqua has directed.

James Caan’s Last Role and Morena Baccarin’s Chemistry
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MW: James Caan plays Stan, Charlie’s mob boss and mentor. This was his last film. What can you tell us about working with such a legendary actor?

Phillip Noyce: Jimmy came to the project quite late. He started, I think, the second or third week. I went in on the Sunday before he started shooting to go over his costumes with him. It was like spending time with a little kid. He was giddy with excitement because he was back in the saddle. He hadn’t worked on a movie for more than a year. Once he started shooting, he was completely different when the camera ran. His energy wouldn’t go down. You couldn’t help but worry about the guy in real life. I’d say cut, and suddenly the kid would come back. He passed nine weeks later. He may well have been drawing on feelings related to what he was going through. He certainly kept all that hidden from us.

The relationship between him and Pierce was like a father and a son. Pierce, he’s a very sensitive guy. I think that he probably intuitively felt what was going on under the surface for James. James had a wheelchair as a prop, but Pierce was wheeling him all around the set and sort of looking after him. Pierce has an enormous respect for James. So the on-screen and off-screen relationship started to merge.

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MW: Morena Baccarin plays such a hardened character. She’s a taxidermist in jeans and a t-shirt. Was that portrayal from Richard Wenk’s script or taken from the book?

Phillip Noyce: It’s something taken from the book, from Rich’s script, and then very much her work. Let me tell you a story. You won’t believe we filmed for seven days without her. We didn’t have a Marcie. We lost part of our financing just before we started shooting. That meant we lost the original actress who was cast to play the part. We had to start shooting not knowing who the co-star was going to be. Morena came in after seven days. She came straight to the set. It was with a lot of trepidation because usually you have read-throughs. You have rehearsals. You go over the costumes. There they were, my male and female co-stars playing their first scene and the first reading together. I was really nervous until they finished the rehearsal on the first scene. Then I realized the magic that we imagined in casting her, but you never know how it’s going to all turn out.

Phillip Noyce: She came with a lot of comments about what she wanted to emphasize. The main thing was she did not want to be just the damsel in distress. She said, that’s not the woman who’s grown up as the wife of a gangster. She said, “I’ve grown up in that milieu. I know what the underworld is like. I’m going to be tougher than any of the criminals that I meet along the way.” The script was changed to emphasize that strength. There was an incredible connection between the two of them. But she was determined to keep her character immune from the charms of Charlie Swift. She rejects him, while at the same time planting an urge in the audience that they get together, despite their age difference, despite all the trepidation she has about linking up again with a gangster. You always feel the possibility that something will happen. But she never lets you know. I think that’s what fuels the relationship. It’s the hidden source in the whole movie.

Fast Charlie is currently in theaters, and available to rent or purchase on demand and digitally from Vertical. You can watch the trailer below: