Geektown Behind The Scenes Podcast 52: Stunt Special – ‘Doom Patrol’s Thom Khoury Williams & ‘Warrior’s Brett Chan Stunt Coordinators
This episode of the Geektown Behind The Scenes podcast is something of a “stunt special” as we have two interviews – Thom Khoury Williams, stunt coordinator on DC’s ‘Doom Patrol‘, and Brett Chan who coordinates the martial arts epic ‘Warrior‘.
Up first is Thom Khoury WIlliams, who has hundreds of credits to his name as a stunt performer from shows such as ’24’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Lost’, ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries’, to movies such as ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2’, ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’, ‘Baby Driver’ and ‘The Matrix Resurrections’. However, we’re here mainly to talk to him about his work as a stunt coordinator on the wonderfully bonkers ‘Doom Patrol’.
‘Doom Patrol’ reimagines one of DC’s strangest group of heroes – Cliff Steele aka Robotman (Brendan Fraser), Larry Trainor aka Negative Man (Matt Bomer), Rita Farr aka Elasti-Woman (April Bowlby), Jane aka Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero), and Victor Stone aka Cyborg (Joivan Wade) – Each member of the Doom Patrol suffered a horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities but also left them scarred and disfigured. They have been brought together by Niles Caulder aka The Chief (Timothy Dalton) to form a, somewhat dysfunctional, family of superheroes.
Thom’s other stunt coordinator work includes the Marvel/Netflix show ‘The Punisher’, which landed him his first Emmy nomination. He also worked on the pilot of HBO’s astonishing ‘Watchmen’ series, and was responsible for the motion capture coordination on a number of video games including ‘Middle-Earth: Shadow of War’, and a number of the ‘Halo’ games.
The second interview is with Brett Chan, stunt coordinator on the martial arts epic ‘Warrior’.
From ‘Banshee’ creator Jonathan Tropper and ‘Fast and the Furious’ Justin Lin, based on an original concept and treatment by the legendary Bruce Lee, ‘Warrior‘ is a gritty, action-packed crime drama set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the late 19th century. The series follows Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji), a martial arts prodigy who emigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances. After proving his worth as a fighter, Ah Sahm becomes a hatchet man for the Hop Wei, one of Chinatown’s most powerful tongs (Chinese organized crime family).
In the interview, we discuss getting emotion into the fight sequences and evolving the action to drive the plot. We also discuss getting in those “Bruce Lee-isms” without coming on too strong, and sending lead actor Andrew Koji to China to study karate and fight techniques, to bring culturally authentic fight choreography to the show.
Brett also worked on CW’s ‘Kung Fu’, so we chat about the differences between the two shows, and worked on two seasons of ‘Snowpiercer’, which comes with its own challenges of creating fight sequences in incredibly tight spaces. His latest project saw him jump in on the upcoming Paramount+ series ‘Halo’, based on the video game franchise, as he tackled the action there with a very quick turnaround.
Geektown Behind The Scenes Podcast 52: Stunt Special – ‘Doom Patrol’s Thom Khoury Williams & ‘Warrior’s Brett Chan – Stunt Coordinators
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