Location Managers Guild International

Working in Abu Dhabi Hook noted that working in Abu Dhabi was a great experience. "The government, technically, was our production services company," he said. "That helps but could also hinder. Dealing with any government anywhere in the world, obviously, there will be issues of bureaucracy—and that's not a negative statement, it's just the reality—but in the UAE, phone calls can be made that help push things through. There are still lots of hoops to jump through to figure things out, but they were great with us and they pulled out all the stops. We got a lot of special treatment." One example of that special treatment was when they were able to airlift the crew out of the Liwa Sands location with the use of military Chinook helicopters. "We had this difficult day there on the sand flats with the military convoy," said Hook, "and at wrap, we loaded everyone into the choppers and took a one- hour and 45-minute flight that saved everyone something like eight hours of driving. That was due to the support of the UAE and Abu Dhabi in particular." It's like the crew were suddenly starring in a Michael Bay movie. On Being Nominated Of the LMGI Award nomination for the film, Crook, who is currently studio unit manager for the latest Jurassic World sequel in the UK, said, "The nomination means quite a bit to me because it's really for the whole team that worked tirelessly on the film. It would be great to share in the recognition from my peers in the industry." Latella shared the sentiment, saying, "I feel very proud of the nomination for the film. It's a great honor for me that the team is being recognized for this challenging but incredible adventure." 6 Underground was released on Netflix in December of 2019 and was viewed by some 83 million subscribers in its first two weeks. Due to the intensity of the Rome shoot, Bay was unable to tech scout the UAE. The entirety of scouting that portion of the shoot was handled by Crook, J.J. Hook, a UPM, gaffer and set decorator. Hook, for his part, had never worked in the UAE but had great trust in Crook whose experience there goes back to Syriana some 14 years earlier. Having worked in Namibia and Morocco, Crook noted the primary difference in dealing with locations in the UAE: "They really are allowing you to shoot there because they know it's good for the economy. They don't need the money. We had some challenging locations and it's always difficult to gauge an acceptable location fee in a situation like that. It's pretty unique." Although this was Crook's first time working with Michael Bay, he knew to be ready for anything. "I had heard the stories of previous shoots," he said, "and I had seen a small bit of 'Bayhem' in Malta when I was prepping Assassin's Creed and they were shooting 13 Hours. And of course, I had been following what was going on in Italy before the team arrived, so along with my team we prepped slightly bigger areas. All of the permits had additional 'What ifs' built in, but I don't think we had any 'on the day' changes that Michael is known for that caused us any issues." The most difficult location to secure, by far, was The Louvre Abu Dhabi. "I never thought we were going to get it," said Crook. "We tried and got turned down. We tried again and got turned down, but Michael and Jeffrey really wanted that location and felt we had to feature it in the film, so Michael rewrote the scene to fit what we would be allowed to do there." Along with help from their local production services company, they were eventually granted permission. The Abu Dhabi shoot saw the company in 24 locations over 19 days. In addition to The Louvre, the company also shot at the Aldar Headquarters, the first circular building of its kind in the Middle East, The Emirates Palace, a luxury five-star hotel, and the Etihad Towers. Lourve – Abu Dhabi 6 Underground (2019) L-R: Corey Hawkins, Adria Arjona, Ben Hardy, Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. Photo courtesy of Netflix

• Cover
• 40-43 Hollywood Forever
• 44-53 6 UNDERGROUND
• 54-59 GRIFFIN
• 62-63 Martini shot