Kev McCurdy is an instructor and examiner at the London based "Academy of Performance Combat." He teaches people various fighting styles and swordplay for stage, film and TV.
He is also the Swordmaster for the upcoming
John Carter of Mars film. Martian Chess recently caught up with him and asked a few questions regarding the film.
Here is a portion of the interview from Martian Chess... .
MartianChess: Ok, so according to IMDB you're the swordmaster for John Carter of Mars. Fans of the books will know that all of the Mars novels have a tremendous amount of swordplay in them. Is it safe to say the movie is no different?
Kev McCurdy: It's very safe to say that there's loads of swordplay in the movie.
MC: Does the swordmaster choreograph all of the weapons-based fights, or do you work with another fight coordinator or stunt coordinator?
McCurdy: The swordmaster choreographs with the core stunt team. The stunt coordinator then films the fights, gives them to the director. The director then says 'cool'. The stunt coordinator then 'signs' the fight off. We then teach the actors concerned.
MC: What approach to sword fighting did you take here? Does each character have his or her own style of fighting, or special techniques? Did you try to play to each actor's particular strengths or abilities?
McCurdy: Each character had their own style and I fitted their style to the way they were playing their character so moves became organic, they flowed easily for them. I also looked at how 'functional' the moves were so I did a lot of academic and practical research into the template style that I used. When formulating the styles, I had to know that it worked so I did a lot of sparring with our 2nd unit director (who's a very handy sword fighter). That was fun.
MC: Tharks have 4 arms -- did you have to train any quad-wielding Martians, a la General Grievous from Revenge of the Sith?
McCurdy: We had a lot of fun developing the Thark style and making it as brutal and minimalistic as we could. I won't go too much into it cause it may spoil some of the action, but we had fun.
MC: What are the different kinds of blades you worked with on John Carter of Mars? Were they like european long swords, or more like single-edged katanas? Does each race have its own style of weaponry, and did this play in how you staged your fights as well?
McCurdy: The style of blade were designed by Mark Andrews (2nd Unit Director). They fit the different races and this was helpful when designing the fighting styles. The Zodangan blade was straight and I used that for a very brutal close quarter combat style as well as long distance striking. The Heliumite blade was slightly curved so their style was, as I call it, 'living on the 45 degree'. Their movements were straight lined and diagonal whereas the Zodangans were straight lined and totally in your face. The Tharks had huge axes and spears and used those as well as anything else they could get their hands on (pardon the pun).
MC: John Carter was the best swordsman on two planets... How's Taylor Kitsch at it?
McCurdy: Taylor is a natural at movement. He clicks into what is needed for the fights very, very quickly and he's awesome with a sword. Can't fault him.
Andrew Stanton's
John Carter of Mars stars Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, James Purefoy, and Mark Strong.
To read the entire interview click on the link below.