No Man of God: Elijah Wood, Luke Kirby, and director Amber Sealey (Tribeca Film Festival 2021)
125When I was asked to handle the interview for No Man of God, which premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival this week I was delighted to learn that the film concerned a man I've been reading about for years -- and I'm not talking about Ted Bundy. Yes, Bundy is a central figure in this story, and played with chilling menace by Luke Kirby, but the protagonist of this film is FBI profiler Bill Hagmaier, who is played by Elijah Wood.
Like director Amber Sealey, I'll just let Wood tell you what No Man of God is all about since he's so gosh darn good at it, which is no surprise, given that he doubles as one of its producers.
"No Man of God is a film that depicts the last four years of Ted Bundy's life as he sat on Death Row awaiting execution. It depicts his relationship with FBI profiler Bill Hagmaier, who met him on a number of occasions leading up to his execution. It's about what sort of transpires between those two men. Bill was in the early days of FBI profiling, so he took that opportunity when no one else wanted to because Ted was so manipulative and really was very distrustful of the FBI and law enforcement in general. And what transpired was an actual connection. At the end of it, Ted considered Bill his best friend, [though] Bill did not consider Ted his best friend. In addition to helping families get clarity on the whereabouts of their family members, there was also a human connection between these two people. It's a fascinating story that is not about glorifying Ted Bundy but rather getting into the heart of who he was as a flawed and deeply troubled individual."
I mean, yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself. Sealey explained that her manager has a relationship with Wood's company Spectrevision, and so the project came to her via traditional channels. She is likely not alone in her first reaction to the very idea of the film.
"My first thought was, 'another Bundy movie? What the hell'? But then I read it and it was such a great read and I immediately had a take on it. Obviously, I've been a fan of Elijah's for forever and I love Spectrevision, so I was like, 'yeah, I'll go in and I'll pitch my take and if they love it, great, and if not, no worries.' But I said to them as a kind of parting thought, 'look, you don't have to hire me, but you need to hire a female director. You can't make a movie about two men sitting in a room talking about raping and murdering women and not have a female director in today's climate.' And they were like, 'oh, no no no, we're way ahead of you, and we know that already.' So yeah, we just connected and they liked my take and it was off to the races."
Of course, the race slowed down a bit given the pandemic, which prevented the filmmakers from meeting with Hagmaier in person.
Read the full article on Collider here: https://collider.com/no-man-of-god-elijah-wood-luke-kirby-amber-sealey-interview/
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