PRESS

BBC Interview with Andreas Petrides

Stunt/fight co-ordinator Andreas Petrides knows better than most exactly how tough Rome’s gladiators must have been. He, along with colleague Nick Powell, arranged all of the fights for the blockbuster film Gladiator, and trained Russell Crowe and Joachim Phoenix in the not-so-gentle art of sword play. 

Interview with Andreas Petrides - Assistant Stunt Co-Ordinator and Obi-Wan's Stunt Double for Episode I

TheForce.net's Joshua Griffin got a chance to speak to one of the men behind the stunt's of Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace. Read on for his thoughts on the prequels, and reliving fun experiences of the past and why he isn't in Episode II.

'Virtual actors' could mean a hard landing for the stunt man

The days of stunt men or women leaping from burning buildings, tumbling down stairs or clinging to fast-moving trains may soon be over. Virtual stunt artists are waiting in the wings, and are not afraid of anything. Better still for film producers, they do not need insurance.

A postgraduate researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles – just down the road from Hollywood – has developed "virtual actors" that react to the physics of the real world, rather than having to be laboriously "instructed" by a human illustrator. The virtual actors respond correctly to gravity, friction and impact with other objects. 

Bradley James plays Arthur

"The workload has been very intense. The sword work was the thing I enjoyed the most. They were the most fun sequences. I think that's why they hired me. I look like I can run fast and swing a sword around with conviction," he smiles.