Production Companies ApolloMedia, ApolloProMedia GmbH & Co. 1. Filmproduktion KG (I), Art Linson Productions, Epsilon Motion Pictures, Franchise Pictures, QI Quality International GmbH & Co. KG, Signature Pictures, Spartan Productions Inc.
Studio Apollo Media, Apollo Promedia, Art Linson Productions, Franchise Pictures, Indelible Pictures, Phoenix Pictures, Quality Intl., Signature Pictures
It was imperative to Mamet that Spartan represent the world of military espionage as authentically as possible. To this end, he asked former Delta Force operative Eric Haney to serve as the film’s technical advisor. “Eric served in Delta Force for about fifteen years from its inception, and I read his wonderful book Inside Delta Force,” Mamet says. “When I asked him to be an advisor, he said ‘Absolutely,’ to my great delight and the inestimable impact on the film.”
Along with consulting on the reality of how certain scenarios might play out and offering an insider’s eye to proper protocol, Haney worked with the actors in conventional and not-so-conventional manners. “We spent a good deal of time training together,” Haney reports. “We did room clearing, building assaults, close-quarter combat drills. It put the actors in the right mind frame. I was pleased and surprised at how quickly they picked everything up.”
The cast was further indoctrinated to the rigors of high-level military operations when Mamet asked Haney to take the group on an overnight excursion in the California desert. “The camping trip was Dave’s idea of Camp Misery, but I called it Camp Fun,” Haney explains. “I made sure everybody was cold. There were no sleeping bags, no tents, no comfort items, just a poncho liner to roll up in and a poncho to keep off the rain. We dug shelters in the ground and built a small fire and for food it was MREs.” (“Meals Ready to Eat,” or standard military rations.)
“I’ve been sworn to secrecy, so I really can’t get into what happened during our campout, but I can tell you that we went out with some gourmet military food,” Derek Luke wisecracks. “We ate like kings and queens and sang old spirituals around the campfire.”
Haney also trained the actors in military shooting; specifically, learning to fire in a deadly confrontation, which is much different than ordinary target shooting. “In fact, the techniques are very dissimilar,” Haney emphasizes. “I teach killing.”
Additionally, Haney helped Bell and Kilmer realistically play the physical aspect of Laura Newton’s plight and her confrontation with Scott. As Bell recounts, “There’s a scene when I first wake up and see Scott, and I don’t know if he’s a good guy or a bad guy, so I begin to scream. We talked to Eric about what would happen if a hostage began to get frantic in that situation. Eric said, ‘I would break her ribs. I would punch her in the stomach, because the job is not to pamper her. The job is to get her back to America safely. And by safe, that means alive.’ So Val and I played a fight scene where he smashes me in the solar plexus and knocks the wind out of me to keep me quiet.”
As for working with Kilmer, Bell says, “Val was like a big brother. We were constantly rough-housing, which was good, because Laura is supposed to have bruises everywhere. But he made me feel very safe in the process.”
Principal photography on Spartan was accomplished over nine weeks in and around Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Boston. Except for a single day on a soundstage, the film was shot exclusively at practical locations.
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