Image Source: PressView

Director Damien Power will soon be coming ahead with his thrill feature film, No Exit, based on Taylor Adam's novel of the same name. Sharing why he chose to direct the film, Damien Power said, "It had a great thriller premise, it felt intense and suspenseful, it's driven by some fantastic characters, who feel very real to me."

Explaining the key factor for drawing him to the film, the director stated, "One of the things that I like, as a film watcher, are films that with characters that I can relate to in situations that I could imagine myself in so I get to go, "What would I do in that situation?" This film has plenty of those situations, and also it has this great hostile setting on the side of a mountain in a snowstorm that really just doesn't let those characters escape and forces them into this kind of pressure cooker situation."

"And this great sense of mystery, as well, you know, "Who is the kidnapper? Who put the girl in the van?" It had all of those kind of elements that made me really excited to direct it," he added. 

When he was presented with the project, the director decided to see what it was about. "I was sent the script, and I read the script, and then straight away," he revealed and added, "I went and got the book, and I think I read that in one sitting, and I was like, "I must do this."

Books are not always easy to translate into adapted works on screen. Though many parts of the bookish narration might be missing from the film, Damien Power was adamant about ensuring that the book's mystery building remained the same in the film. 

"I think it was that sense of mystery at the beginning, that feels a little bit like a whodunnit, that there is this attempt to uncover the truth of it. Then the tension just keeps building and building and building until it becomes this very intense fight for your life. So that progression was something I definitely wanted to keep," said the director.

"I love how all the characters come with their own secrets when we find out these things through the course of the story, that was another thing that I wanted to make sure that we kept,' he further elaborated." 

Not only did he try bringing the best from the novel into his work but also tried expanding on its brilliance. "Even though it's set predominantly in one location at this visitor center on the side of a mountain, the novel has some little sense of scale in the world around that place, so even though it is contained, I wanted to make sure that we kept that sense of scale," he explained.

"Because it'd be very easy to read that story and go, "Okay, it's all in a room and it's snowing outside." That would be one way to do it, and I didn't think that that was the best way to treat the material. There is also a bunch of strangers in a room time, which I love too."

To make all of it the most realistic of experiences, the team of no Exit built an entirely plausible soundstage setting for the mountain, with a forest inside a building. "We did a lot of research, we built the entire set in a studio, and it was a completely practical set," he said about the sets. "The building functioned like a real building. You could walk in from the car park to the building. You could walk back out. And we built a large chunk of forest indoors, as well, although we did shoot some scenes in a real forest, but 95 percent of it we shot in the one location, which was such a treat for me and felt really quite magical."

Damien Power has already worked on a full-length feature film prior to No Exit and shared that his second attempt at a film was an easier experience. "This film was so much smoother to make than my first film. We were so much better resourced. The fact that we were able to do this in a studio, to start, kind of tells you that story."

Sharing how he came up with the cast of the film, the director told, "Assembling this cast in an ensemble kind of film was so exciting. They're great actors. Havana delivers what I hope is a breakthrough performance for her. She really is incredible. Dale Dickey and Dennis Haysbert, I think, are American icons, they were my first choice for those roles, and I feel so lucky that they said yes."

"Danny is fantastic, so committed, never wants to give you a bad frame," he appreciated. "David, when I first saw him, I thought that guy is Lars. He's just how I imagined that character, which is not at all who David is. He's such a lovely guy and so great to work with. And Mila, who plays Jay, the girl, was extraordinary."

The director also gushed, "I think it's a pretty tough role to be a girl who's been kidnapped so young, and she was incredible, and a real bright spark on the set, even when we're doing some pretty dark scenes."

No Exit is a thriller series focusing on a few strangers locked in a room; Credits: Screen Rant

The director is in hopes of encountering more stories like No Exit for his future works.