Tribeca Film Festival: Eric Bana in 'Deadfall'

Sunday night, despite some pretty dismal rain in New York City, the stars of the new film, Deadfall, braved the elements to pose prettily on the red carpet.

But a few hours earlier Deadfall lead Eric Bana spoke to EW from the much drier (and more casual) quarters of the Chelsea Hotel about the new film, directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters) and co-starring Olivia Wilde, Charlie Hunnam, Kate Mara, Sissy Spacek, and Kris Kristofferson.

Bana plays a smooth-talking thief who, along with his sister (Wilde), is involved in a casino robbery gone wrong which forces them to flee into the snowy terrain near the Canadian border in whiteout conditions. They split up to better to reach Canada without detection, and through a series of twists and (violent) turns are destined to cross paths with a boxer just out of prison (Humnam) and his parents (Spacek and Kristofferson).

It's a tense 94 minutes set in blizzard conditions that sports one insanely thrilling chase scene on snowmobiles. "We're trying to a Fast and the Furious franchise. This one will be called The Fast and the Cold," Bana joked. "It took a bit of getting used to but those snowmobiles are fun. I ride dirt bikes and for some stupid reason I thought it would be similar, which turns out not to be true. But it was a hell of a lot of fun."

As for his co-stars, Bana had nothing but praise to give. "You do kick yourself, you know," he said. "Ring your mum and dad and say, 'Oh yeah, I'm on set with Sissy and Kris today, you know." He laughed. "I have a lot of reverence for that generation of actors, so I do feel privileged."

After his Tribeca duties are completed Bana will return to London to work on a yet-to-be-titled film co-starring Rebecca Hall and Jim Broadbent directed by John Crowley (Boy A) that Bana describes as "a thriller set in the world of advocacy and law." He leaned over and to knock the wooden coffee table. "It's another great cast, another great script," he said. "I'm very, very lucky."

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