‘Muzzle: City Of Wolves’ Actor Aaron Eckhart And Director John Stalberg Jr. On The Powerful K-9 Sequel

Courtesy of RLJE Films

A man and his dog - a companionship that knows no bounds. Unless you’re retired K-9 officer Jake Rosser (played by actor Aaron Eckhart) in the new action movie Muzzle: City of Wolves that’s releasing into theatres on November 14th. He loves his german shepherds - it can be seen that he even cherishes them more than his own family members sometimes. As much as there are moments that show Jake’s dedication to his dogs though, director John Stalberg Jr’s latest release is far from a feel-good story. Following the events of the first movie where he finds himself facing off with a Mexican cartel who uses kidnapped K-9’s for dark reasons, the same criminals are out for revenge this time around and they will go to some extreme ends to achieve their goal. From beginning to end, Muzzle: City of Wolves does not stop with the twists and turns. Just recently, both actor Aaron Eckhart and director John Stalberg Jr stopped by The Movie Nerds for a quick chat regarding this very unique action-packed sequel.

Actor Aaron Eckhart

Salvatore Cento: Something that was established from the very first scene of Muzzle is your character Jake Rosser having “conversations” with his K-9 partner from inside the car that follow over into City of Wolves. As an actor, where do you go in a conversational scene like that when you’re talking to someone who might respond to your speech but doesn’t talk back?

Aaron Eckhart: Eh, that’s a good thing laughs. It’s because he’s a good listener.

First of all, I love the idea of my character speaking to the dogs. It’s great because it shows the audience how close we are and how much we depend on each other and how much warmth and love we get from each other. There’s a lot of lonely people in this world that rely on dogs and cats and horses and just pets to fill in the void.

 I think it’s a highlight of the film that even though Jake has a wife, a new child and a business, he’s still really the most comfortable around his dogs. He doesn’t know how to handle the other things. He just doesn’t feel adequate in his family’s structure. But with the dog, he feels great.

Logistically, making the movie - it’s hell. When you have a two page monologue and you want that dog to be right there in the truck facing forward - it’s just hard to get. The dog just doesn’t want to do it. He wants to stick his head out, look over here or go down. It is a challenge but it’s a lot of fun. That’s probably the thing I like most about the film though is those talks in the truck with the dog.

Cento: According to my research, you haven’t returned for a role since the Has Fallen series in 2016. It’s quite rare for you to do so. What was it about Muzzle that pulled you back in?

Eckhart: Well, I just love the character. I love the director, John. I think he’s got a great vision for the movie. They’re both very well written scripts and they challenge me as an actor. I like the idea of allowing me to run around and play with dogs - but also to try to work through emotional problems of the past.

I think the audience members can appreciate seeing and learning all the thoughts that my character has - that maybe he’s not such a great person, that maybe he has a lot of faults, that maybe he shouldn’t be around people or that he should have stayed in the military. All of that is interesting for an actor to play through. I think if there’s another one that I appreciate - and I just talked to John about that too this morning - was the idea of continuing these therapy sessions with the dog in the truck.

Cento: Jake Rosser is absolutely a multi-layered character - given his heartfelt bond with his dogs, his struggle with PTSD, his rocky marriage and his fortitude in these deadly fights for survival. Regarding both films in the Muzzle franchise, how did you prepare for such a role?

Eckhart: I just basically stick with the script. Now, in terms of fighting and all that sort of stuff, I like to do that. I train in real life. I think that Jake [Rosser] and I are alike in that way - I don’t necessarily do the things that he does but he’s a concrete thinker. He sees a problem and he takes out his hammer laughs. We’re probably similar in that respect. Really, it’s all about two things - do I get along with the director? Do I like the script? Then, we just go from there.

Cento: Did you happen to meet the dogs beforehand?

Eckhart: No, we made this movie in South Africa. I flew in a week before shooting and then met the dogs and trainers. At that point, we just went for it. I did my best to nurture the relationship with the dogs. I kept them with me all the time when I was on set. I gave them treats. Nobody else could touch them - only me so the dogs could bond to my character.

Cento: City of Wolves really elevates the suspense of the first movie, going from one impactful moment to the next. My favorite moment was when you instilled enough courage into Argos to attack the men in the truck after they flipped the ambulance. In saying that, what was your favorite scene to film?

Eckhart: I like a lot of the scenes we filmed but especially those where we take something that’s on the page and we make it better - we make it in a way that we never expected it to happen. In terms of acting, it has to be where I’m with good actors. That is my favorite part of movie making. Being around people that know what they’re doing and you can just really, really, slow down and make something special.

Cento: For my last question, I want to bring up one of your most iconic roles - Harvey Dent/Two Face in the Dark Knight. Not only does the character have a place in Batman’s history, but he does have a small role in the comic book version of Gunn’s oncoming story, Salvation Run. I know Dent’s death was final in the movies, but if James Gunn got into contact with you regarding any sort of cameo or small role for the DCU, would you consider?

Eckhart: The good thing about these characters is that anybody could play them. They’re not irreplaceable. You move onto a new Batman or a new whatever it is. There’s some great actors out there that are probably itching to play Harvey Dent. I’d probably prefer that.

I think I did my thing and so I moved on from that. You know, I’ve done a couple of movies with Tommy Lee Jones who played Two Face. It is what it is. It was that time, we did that thing and now we’re doing other things. It’d be good for somebody else to do it.

Cento: Alright, thank you Mr. Eckhart for the six questions!

Eckhart: You’re welcome.

Director John Stalberg Jr.

Salvatore Cento: There’s certainly an impressive evolution in style between Muzzle and Muzzle: City of Wolves. As the director of both the original and sequel, what were you looking forward to transforming or elevating the most from behind the scenes?

John Stalberg Jr: When we did the first one, I thought - wouldn’t it be nice to hold the screen with a person and an animal in a wider screen format or a 1.85 aspect ratio? Not necessarily wider, but a taller format? I then realized that that didn’t work so then I decided to step it up. Let's shoot the second one in a 2.35 anamorphic aspect ratio. I love to shoot with anamorphic - it all gets a more cinematic feeling.

I was going for a more reportage style in the first one, a docustyle realism with these spherical lenses. For the first movie, they cut a trailer that I don’t think necessarily represented what the movie was. It was more so a character study about this former marine and now LAPD K-9 handler. There’s obviously action in it, but they sold it like an all-around action film.

This movie, I wanted to deliver what was in the trailer from the first movie. I wanted to actually deliver all the shit-your-pants action from within the same complex character that we created there. So, take that guy and just move him into what the promise of the trailer was from movie one and deliver a movie too.        

Cento: This movie is certainly about a former K-9 cop trying to survive against cartel members, hitmen and his own past - but the movie also heavily features the homeless, the troubled and just an overall unhinged city. Why was it so important to convey this as the backdrop?

Stalberg Jr: It’s what I know. I was born and still live in Hollywood. It’s a city that I understand but also have a complex relationship with. I love it but yet some days I think I hate it - especially when there’s someone who is schizophrenic going to the bathroom on my front lawn and there’s toilet paper all over the place. I get frustrated. I’m just trying to take my kid to go get an ice cream.

If you want to talk about complex situations, that one is really difficult. But it doesn’t help to ignore it either and try to portray L.A like the way that Tony Scott or Michael Bay used to. Beautiful golden sunlight, beautiful girls in bikinis, convertibles  - It has all that stuff but let’s also look at it the way it really is.

Cinematically, L.A is a great city to show that type of odyssey where you have a guy traverse through difficulty to get from point A to point B. It’s facing a lot of crime, drugs, homelessness. We’re talking about downtown L.A - fifty two square blocks of skid row. One giant outdoor drug market. How can that be ok?

For me - for a guy who grew up watching Don Seagle and Sam Peckinpah movies, Death Wish, Dirty Harry - all this provides a great substrate to build a film upon. There’s an obstacle around every corner in this movie and that’s great for a character to traverse through. You want your lead character beaten up through the movie. L.A does a number on Jake Rosser.

Cento: You made mention in the director’s statement for this movie that Los Angeles is increasingly becoming a very difficult place for filmmakers. Could you go more into that and explain how it affected the shooting of Muzzle: City of Wolves?

Stalberg Jr: I shot both Muzzle films in L.A with a unit. I shot the interiors in different places. In Muzzle, we went to Louisville, Kentucky, and we had to seamlessly integrate the splinter unit. It’s not one of those movies where you shoot in Vancouver and then cut to a stock aerial shot of downtown even though the scene has nothing to do with downtown. We didn’t want that. We wanted to seamlessly integrate.

In City of Wolves, it was either shoot in the states and get eighteen days or go to South Africa and get thirty days. If you’re a filmmaker and you want to tell a complex and sophisticated commercial story that delivers the goods to audiences - you’re going to want as much time as possible. Time is money so we went to where we got more money on the screen.

In terms of why people don’t shoot here, there’s a lot of reasons. It’s expensive to shoot here, ya know? You just want to put the money to work for the movie. Look, it's not cheap to go see a movie these days. I remember when it was seven dollars and fifty cents. We should bring the costs down across the board. You could still make it profitable for distributors and exhibitors. Just bring the other costs down like the permits and all the other red tape. It all just gets very cumbersome. It’s just so sad that we can’t make movies here anymore. If you can strip all that stuff away and charge people seven dollars and fifty cents, the movie business would be back in a heartbeat.

Cento: Between Aaron Eckhart’s unique main character, spotlighting the animal side of law enforcement and a much darker and grittier look of the Mexican cartel than the first movie, what were - if any - the inspirations behind Jake Rosser and this sequel as a whole?

Stalberg Jr: The real men and women that put on the uniform for our military and service members. Both of my brothers in law to my two sisters are veterans. My grandfather and uncle are both veterans as well.  My uncle was a marine in Vietnam and my grandfather was an air force soldier in World War II. In terms of relatability, I just really wanted to give these guys a great experience watching the film. I wanted them to be able to say - “Boy, that reflects my experience”.

Cento: Alright, thank you, Mr. Stalberg.

Stalberg Jr: Good to meet you man, thanks.