A crime boss sits in prison awaiting her parole date in hopes of getting out before her terminal illness takes her life. In a last-ditch effort, Ida "Red" Walker turns to her son, Wyatt, to pull off one last heist to help get her out of prison. Yet, before what feels like the kick-off scene between mother and son, the audience already knows they’re about to watch a high-octane thriller.
From the very first scene, the viewer can see how cunning Wyatt and his crew are and how they have the skill to pull off a major heist — if they can keep clear of the FBI. When Ida Red shares her desire with Wyatt, the audience knows the movie is heading in that direction. Therefore it’s not so much the destination, but the journey the viewer is about to embark on.
Ida Red stars Josh Hartnett, Melissa Leo, Frank Grillo, William Forsythe, Mark Boone Junior, and Deborah Ann Woll. Written and directed by John Swab, the film showcases his style and how he's becoming quite the prolific filmmaker — he doesn’t write specs, but rather knows full well that what he writes, he will shoot.
And that is Ida Red's origin story. Every screenwriter writes their screenplays with the intent (the hope!) of having it made, yet Swab knew without a doubt that what he was writing would be his next movie.
“I worked it exclusively with my producing partner, Jeremy Rosen,” Swab explains. “He and I, after making Body Brokers, wanted to tackle a more traditional neo-western thriller. We planned to make it about a year to the date after we had the discussion.”
And so they did.
This was the third collaboration between Swab and Rosen, which doesn’t include the one they already filmed and another they plan on shooting within a month. It was thanks to the relationships both Swab and Rosen have made that allowed them to reach out to Melissa Leo and Frank Grillo to garner their interest even before the writing began. Interest was one thing. Swab still had to write something compelling enough to ensure it would get made.
Swab chalks up his and Rosen’s ability to deliver on “irrational confidence” and determination.
Swab spent about three-and-a-half weeks writing the script and from there they started to attach their crew and actors. And because Swab and Rosen were in charge, there was little that was rewritten between final draft and the first day of shooting.
Write a project in under a month that actors were eager to join? It seems too easy.
It’s not as easy as it sounds. Just like any writer, Swab has a lot of ideas running through his head. The one he decides to pursue is “the one that usually gets ahold of me like a sickness that I end up running with. I can’t rid myself of the obsession until I write it.”
Swab treats writing like most people work a nine-to-five, waking up early and spending eight-to-ten hours a day writing. “My wife and I develop a routine when I go ‘underwater’,” Swab shares. “She knows I have to get it out of my system.”
Swab spends a lot of time thinking about the story and building rules of the world in his head before sitting down and writing.
“I take as much time as I need to really grasp the tone, the theme, the characters, who they are, their world,” Swab says. “I try to conceptualize it in my head. When it’s time to write, I do a 10–15-page outline, which are like scene headings.”
When it comes to sitting down and writing, he generally aims for seven pages per day based on the outline. “I’ve written 60 in a day, but that’s not my plan. From there, I read what I wrote and take notes on it.”
Swab also stresses the importance of knowing who to share your work with and who to take notes and input from.
“It’s such a delicate and personal thing to share with someone,” Swab says. “You have to find a group of people to share notes with.”
Swab’s go-to’s are Jeremy Rosen (his producing partner), his wife, and a few others. What he recognizes in this core group is that the feedback he receives is coming from a pure place and from those who want him to succeed.
As a writer, Swab suggests trying to be the best at being who you are and not hiding from that. “That’s the way things are going to feel authentic,” he says. “You’ll see who you are.”
“A lot of the movies I love, they’re just movies,” Swab says. “They’re not trying to say anything about the world or humanity. They’re there to entertain you.” It’s not to say his latest film doesn’t have a theme or message, but when it came to crafting Ida Red, Swab’s intention was to make it an entertaining ride.
He adds, “I did a movie called Body Brokers that had more responsibility to it socially, but this was a reaction to that experience.” Body Brokers focuses on a recovering addict looking for a rehabilitation clinic only to discover the place he chose is a front for fraud with the intention of using addicts to recruit other addicts.
Swab goes out of his way to ensure his material is wholly original. “When I’m writing a film, I try not to watch other movies because I’m trying to avoid replicating something,” he shares, but he also doesn’t shy away from creating homages to some of his favorite films, which include Thief and The Getaway.
When he’s preparing to shoot, that’s when Swab turns his attention to watching a lot of movies to study tone and see how others did what he’s about to do.
The film Swab and his team are prepping now is an action film born out of the Ida Red experience and how much he enjoyed shooting action sequences.
“Understanding how that works now and also having been through the process with Jeremy (Rosen) and some of the other crew, we’ve taken that blueprint and ramped them up and fine-tuned them. I’m excited to further explore them.”
Ida Red is in theaters, on digital, and on-demand on November 5, 2021.