MOVIE NEWS – Two fleeing bank robbers and a dying policeman race an ambulance – that was the primary setting of the 2005 Danish film that Michael Bay has now turned into a psychological action thriller called Ambulance.

The project was first announced in August 2015, when Phillip Noyce was attached to direct. However, two years later, he was replaced by Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales, who were eventually replaced by Bay in 2020. Principal photography with cinematographer Roberto De Angelis began in January 2021 in Los Angeles and was completed in March of that year.

Ambulance is the American remake of the 2005 Danish film of the same name. The feature film was announced on 28 August 2015, and Phillip Noyce was attached to direct from a script written by Chris Fedak. 2 years later, it was reported that Noyce had left the project and was replaced by the director duo Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales, but the film was never produced. On 11 November 2020, Michael Bay was announced as the new director, and the film was described as a “character-driven project” that would use elements from Speed (1994) and Bad Boys (1995) while moving away from Bay’s usual “explosive fare”.

Financed by Endeavor Content and produced by New Republic Pictures and Project X, Jake Gyllenhaal and Dylan O’Brien have joined the cast as two brothers who steal a busy ambulance, with Eiza González in talks to play the paramedic in 2020. On 11 December 2020, Universal Pictures confirmed that they would distribute the film and announced that O’Brien had left the movie due to scheduling conflicts; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was chosen to replace him when he was able to fit the film into his schedule due to a delay in the shooting of the superhero film Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Three days later, González’s role was confirmed. The 2021 cast was expanded in January with Garret Dillahunt, A Martinez, Keir O’Donnell and Moses Ingram; in February, Wale Folarin, Cedric Sanders, Jackson White, Colin Woodell, and Olivia Stambouliah, Jesse Garcia, Victor Gojcaj and Remi Adeleke; and in May with Devan Chandler Long.

The story follows the conflict which arises because Mateen his character’s wife is seriously ill, but surgery costs a fortune. A hardened criminal played by Gyllenhaal persuades him to pull off a major bank heist to secure the funds for the operation, but of course, the venture goes wrong. Mateen must decide whether to save his wife or the policeman he shot.

(Ambulance – domestic release: 17 February 2022)