The true events portrayed in Paul Greengrass’ recent film were raw, real, and unsafe. And so, when making The Lost Bus, the filmmaker wanted the res
The true events portrayed in Paul Greengrass’ recent film were raw, real, and unsafe. And so, when making The Lost Bus, the filmmaker wanted the results to feel that way. In November 2018, the town of Paradise in California was caught up in a horrific wildfire that killed 85 people, injured 19, and destroyed 1800 homes. And through that devastation, school-bus driver Kevin McKay drove 22 children to eventual safety in the flaming hellscape, navigating one of the most hostile environments imaginable. Now, Greengrass brings that story to the screen with Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera (as fellow teacher Mary Ludwig), with one cinematic aim: “I wanted it to be the most realistic depiction of fire ever put on film,” he tells Empire.
Pulling off that feat, and doing it safely, was a major challenge. For a while, production mulled having the bus drive in front of extensive digital screens depicting the blaze, technology Greengrass had seen U2 utilize in their Las Vegas Sphere residency. But it didn’t feel real enough. “It’s one thing if you’re a band rocking against a backdrop,” the director explains, “but this is a bus moving through environments, with actors playing roles and kids having to perform. I just thought, ‘If we don’t have the real experience of travelling on the bus, it won’t have the rawness you would expect in one of my films.’”
Instead, Greengrass and producer Greg Goodman went more ambitious. They closed down Santa Fe University Of Art And Design, rigged a road circuit with sheltered gas burners and lines of fire, and shot at magic hour to get those glowing orange hues – which meant they could only film for up to an hour each evening, in extended takes. That left the rest of the day to rehearse the action before executing it on camera. “I remember saying to Matthew and America, ‘You’re just going to have to trust me. The beauty of this is it’ll make you feel like you’ve got the intensity of a once-only live performance, which will give an edge to what you’re doing, but we’ll have the safety net of a lot of preparation’,” says Greengrass. “We basically had to shoot a day’s work in an hour, but Matthew and America ran with it. There comes a moment in any film when you know your actors have got it, then all you’ve got to do is harvest their riches.” Prepare for a bus trip you’ll never forget.
Read Empire’s full The Lost Bus feature – speaking to Paul Greengrass, Matthew McConaughey, American Ferrera and more – in The Running Man issue, on sale Thursday 28 August. Pre-order a copy online here. The Lost Bus comes to UK cinemas from 19 September, and streams on Apple TV+ from 3 October.
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