The director of hit film Locke – currently winning four and five star reviews for its portrayal of a construction manager in personal and professional crisis – apparently drew on comments and advice from a senior project manager on the Shard.
Stephen Knight wrote and directed Locke, which features star British actor Tom Hardy as construction director Ivan Locke.
Driving away from the site of a “multimillion dollar” development in Birmingham the night before a major concrete pour, his life reaches a crossroads. If he turns right, it’s the route home to his wife and sons in Stratford-Upon-Avon. But he takes the left turn to London, and the film then follows his journey in real time.
In publicity notes provided for the film, the director of Dirty Pretty Things and the BBC’s Peaky Blinders says that he “worked on a building site many years ago”, and also spent some time with the senior project manager of the Shard site while preparing Locke.
“I remember the arrival of the concrete was this big thing. When it comes you have to have everything ready for it because it’s a disaster if the concrete sets in the wrong place,” Knight says in the notes.
A spokeswoman for Mace was unable to confirm any meetings with Knight, but said that the Locke production team had been in touch to discuss using its 5 Bishopsgate site as a possible location for Locke’s construction site. However, another site was eventually chosen.
Knight says that he wanted his lead character to be the most ordinary man in the world to whom one thing has happened. “It’s an exploration of how one mistake, if you call it a mistake, can lead to the complete collapse of someone’s life. That to me felt like an analogy of a building, of destruction, of demolition. I liked the idea this very ordinary man did this very practical, solid job.”
While driving, Locke makes a series of phone calls to his wife Katrina and teenage sons, as well as handling calls from Bethan, the woman who was his assistant on a job site months ago, and who he is now on his way to see.
Then there’s a series of work-related telephone calls, including from his boss Gareth, who reluctantly fires him for abandoning the site, and his “scatter-brained” but loyal colleague Donal, who Locke needs to oversee a vital delivery of concrete.
“I wanted it to be what I think of as an ordinary tragedy,” says Knight. “It’s an ordinary man to whom an ordinary thing has happened. It’s not a car chase or an alien invasion. But to everyone involved it is a massive tragedy.”
So is Locke an accurate portrayal of a construction manager? Construction Manager can’t comment, having only seen the trailer – where the comment (from “scatter brained” Donal?) that Locke was risking “hundreds of millions of dollars of losses” over a concrete pour does seem to ramp up the threat just a bit too much.
But if you see Locke over the Bank Holiday weekend, please post your reviews!
