Higher Man, the terrific Robbie Williams biopic, includes a jaw-dropping dance sequence set on London’s iconic Regent Road, all set to Williams’ hit music “Rock DJ.” However as director Michael Gracey revealed throughout a Q&A on the Palm Springs Worldwide Movie Pageant, the scene got here dangerously near being scrapped resulting from an unprecedented complication: the dying of Queen Elizabeth II. The frilly quantity, involving 500 dancers, buses, and taxis, took 18 months of meticulous planning. However the logistical challenges of capturing on one of many busiest streets on the planet weren’t the one hurdles. Gracey described the excessive stakes:

“It’s the toughest dance sequence I’ve ever shot, and I’ve achieved a number of dance sequences. It’s Crown Land, so it’s owned by the Royals. You’re coping with the Crown Property, Westminster Council, and it’s additionally a bus route. If anybody produces movies, you recognize this can be a deadly mixture… We had 4 nights. If we didn’t make any a kind of nights, we didn’t have a quantity as a result of it’s all achieved with a single digital camera movement, so it was very excessive strain.”

The manufacturing rehearsed relentlessly to make sure all the pieces went off with out a hitch. Nonetheless, simply days earlier than filming, tragedy struck.

“On the finish of the week, we’re a finely tuned machine. After which we obtained a cellphone name from the property of the Queen, who died. And we wouldn’t be capturing as a result of there’s ten days of mourning. We already spent all the cash for the shoot… So in that one second, we misplaced your entire price range of the shoot. And there’s no insurance coverage for the dying of the Queen.”

Michael Gracey Felt the Film Could not Be Made With out the Sequence

The shutdown was an enormous blow to the manufacturing, leaving Gracey and the workforce scrambling. With no insurance coverage payout to cowl the loss, many on the manufacturing steered chopping the quantity altogether. However Gracey was adamant about its significance:

“A variety of the individuals concerned within the manufacturing have been saying we simply lower the quantity as a result of we misplaced the cash. And I saved saying, it’s a extremely necessary quantity, and it’s actually necessary, not simply due to the spectacle.”

It wasn’t till 5 months later—after the Queen’s funeral and King Charles’ coronation—that the manufacturing raised sufficient funds to reschedule the shoot. “Each time it performs, I simply sit there going, individuals do not know how shut we got here to not having that quantity,” stated Gracey.

Higher Man is at the moment enjoying in theaters.

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