Production Notes

PRESSURE Production Notes LOGLINE Four deep-sea saturation divers stranded at the bottom of the Indian Ocean must fight for their survival and reach the surface. SHORT SYNOPSIS Four deep sea saturation divers become stranded 650ft below the surface of the Indian Ocean after disaster strikes their ship. With the air in their bodies compressed to withstand the depth, surfacing too fast without decompressing is unthinkable and will lead to almost certain death. With their diving bell damaged, rescue uncertain and oxygen depleting they are forced to work together to fight for their survival and ultimately find a way back to the surface LONG SYNOPSIS Reaching the bottom of the Somali Basin, a four-man saturation dive team prepare for work, servicing an oil pipeline at the bottom of the ocean. Jones the smart rookie, Hurst the fast-living joker, Mitchell the leader and stickler for protocol, and Engel, enigmatic and remote, make their final checks before heading out, unaware of the severity of a storm above water. Turbulence hits the bell, and the team are radioed to prepare for their ascent as the storm hits their support vessel above. Mid-ascent everything stops; the bell lurches and begins to free fall, hitting the bottom of the ocean, and leaving the bell systems operating on emergency support. Engel swims out to assess the damage and discovers wreckage on the ocean floor; the ship is down. With no support boat above, they argue over the best way to ensure survival. Mitchell insists on securing the bell, but if the rescue boat does not reach them in time, they will die. Engel believes they should float the bell, but Mitchell worries about the structural integrity after the accident, insisting they wait. Danger lies all around; the near freezing water outside, unendurable for long without hypothermia setting in; the decompression sickness if they ascend, lungs rupturing in the most unimaginable pain; and on top of all this, the diminishing air supply, without which they will all die. Hope comes in the form of radio contact with a Chinese ship requesting their co- ordinates but communication is lost and the peril persists. Mitchell takes charge, instructing Hurst to assist him in securing the bell. Mitchell’s umbilical gets snagged, cutting off his breathing gas and communication system. As he struggles to breathe, Hurst races towards him but is unable to detach the umbilical. The malfunctioning comms spark into action; Engel hearing Mitchell in danger dives into the water to drag Mitchell to safety back inside the bell. It quickly emerges that Hurst cannot use his hands properly – a side affect from years of diving – and has been unfit to do his job for some time. Determined to prove his worth, Hurst sneaks out of the bell in an attempt to find the sunken ship and bring back vital breathing gas. Ignoring Mitchell’s orders to return, Hurst pursues the wreckage; running out of heat, he starts falling into the throws of hypothermia. Worried about the continuing waste on air, knowing it’s too late to save him, Jones makes the decision to turn off Hurst’s breathing supply. Jones analyses a map of the seabed and determines that if they follow the pipeline, they will find emergency gas; Engel volunteers for the mission. Time and heat rapidly diminishing, he finally locates the canisters but exhausts his body to the limit. As Engel begins to lose the fight for life, Mitchell reacts fast, and swims out to help him, hauling both Engel and a canister back to the bell. Mitchell forces CPR to save the unconscious Engel, as he splutters back into life, gulping air into his starving lungs. The radio crackles to life with contact from HMS Marlborough, but without co-ordinates the chances of the ship locating the bell by sonar is time conditional. In a desperate effort to make their location known, Mitchell swims towards the surface as far as his umbilical can reach holding a GPS beacon. Before he can activate the device he is engulfed by a swarm of jellyfish. Batting the creatures away, his hand slips, the beacon escapes before he has the chance to activate. Still determined, Mitchell takes a deep breath, ripping off his umbilical, and chases the disappearing beacon. Grabbing hold, he must remove his glove to activate it; he’s successful, but with his hand badly stung by the jellyfish, and his umbilical disconnected, he falls through the ocean to his death. Now only Jones and Engel remain, awaiting further communications from HMS Marlborough. They have located the beacon, but it will still be hours before they can commence a full rescue, and there’s not enough breathing gas left. Engel makes the decision to float the diving bell. As it ascends the wreckage below snaps the umbilical, and the bell is stopped. The only option remaining is to swim to the surface, a near impossible dive. With only one helmet remaining, Engel demands Jones makes the dive, essentially giving up his life in exchange. Trepidation and suspense set in as Jones makes the ascent, struggling to switch from his umbilical to a breathing tank. Engel guides Jones via the communications, and he finally breaks the surface. The rescue boat charges towards Jones and hauls his exhausted body into the hyperbaric chamber. The reality of the situation hits Engel, and he accepts his fate. ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Genesis In March 2012, Jason Newmark and Laurie Cook – producers at Bigscope Films – discussed the idea of adding a feature to their development slate set at the bottom of the ocean. “It’s an isolated, technical place, where the odds of survival are slim,” says Jason, discussing the intrigue of the setting. At this point Jason suggested bringing on board Nick Chopping, a stunts co-ordinator and experienced diver who had previously worked with Jason on the feature HONOUR. During a meeting to brainstorm Nick suggested the idea of using a diving bell, which Laurie took back to Bigscope’s in-house researcher Louis Baxter. Louis set about researching everything to do with deep sea diving, with particular focus on commercial divers. Together with Bigscope, he developed a treatment titled PRESSURE LIMITS, which formed the bare bones for what would eventually become PRESSURE. With Louis’ treatment at hand, Jason & Laurie approached the writer Paul Staheli, who had shown in previous work to be particularly good with writing around action and set pieces. Paul’s other commitments did mean that he was available only to deliver a first draft of the script, but Jason recounts it as “structurally smart and full of jeopardy”. Feeling confident with the tone set, he and Laurie set about attaching a director to bring a vision, and a writer to continue Paul’s work; it was at this point that Ron Scalpello and Alan McKenna became involved. Around the time of Paul’s delivery of this first draft, Jason & Laurie had seen director Ron Scalpello’s first feature, OFFENDER, and immediately thought of him to be the perfect fit for PRESSURE. “There’s something about the way in which Ron can get right to the heart of the tension within a scene” recalls Jason, stating OFFENDER as “a brilliant piece of work”. There was also history, with Jason & Laurie previously involved in the development of another project with Ron, along with producer Alan McKenna whom Jason was also keen to get involved on PRESSURE. With a career in acting and writing, Alan saw PRESSURE as a real opportunity, finding it “the kind of genre piece that I found immediately exciting”. With the need for someone to take over Paul’s work, Alan stepped into the role of writer, and began the second draft. Carrying with him the tone originally set, he commenced a full re-write, which saw a heavy period of research. “I just immersed myself, and kept asking more and more questions,” says Alan, who spent a lot of time speaking with various divers. One the struggles he did face was making sure the terminology and technical processes was on point: “I think [divers] all operate in different ways, so you then have to find a balance for what works for our story”. Alan’s work on the script was solid: “everyone who we sent it to really engaged with it, and either wanted to track it very closely or just get involved” Laurie recalls. He and Jason had recently worked with Pinewood Pictures on a couple of projects, and with the state-of-the-art underwater facilities available at Pinewood Studios it was a great match for the project. Together with a strong interest from sales agent Embankment Films, PRESSURE quickly moved into production. Characters & Casting Four deep-sea saturation divers form the main cast of PRESSURE: Engel, Mitchell, Jones, and Hurst. “I wanted to play around with who they are as men, and what defines them as men” says director Ron Scalpello “it’s obviously a film about masculinity, and the definitions about masculinity in a modern world, and how that’s defined by post- feminist need to be a more altruistic man”. Ron had taken a hands-on approach once involved in the project, and fed into Alan a lot of what he wanted from the characters for the film. Colin Jones, casting director, reflects: “the script is unusual for quite a few reasons; it’s quite a masculine script… and not many actors involved, so it made it quite an unusual project to think about, but also very exciting”. Danny Huston is Engel Engel is a seasoned diver, with a dark history that haunts him throughout the film.

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