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An ageing but formidable club owner named Manco has been robbed by a masked gunman, and his aspirations of retiring into the sunset alongside his girlfriend and selling his club appear more distant than ever. With cartel bosses breathing down his neck, a young upstart posing as the new guy in town eager to purchase the clubs, and a Bonnie and Clyde-inspired duo hellbent on stealing everything he’s got, Manco has to use every trick he’s learned to get out alive with his lady friend and whatever cash he’s got left.
From page to neo-noir: The origin of The Get Out
The Get Out began far from the neon haze of Los Angeles. Producer Mark Fasano read Thomas Perry’s 2010 novel Strip and immediately recognised its cinematic potential, a world of hustlers, dreamers, and low-rent desperados circling a strip-club owner with a target on his back. “I got involved with the project when I read the book,” Fasano says. “I decided to option the book and develop it.”
He introduced the project to Russell Crowe while he was filming Sleeping Dogs in Melbourne, Australia. Crowe, fresh from working with director Derrick Borte on white-knuckle thriller Unhinged (2020), had an immediate instinct for who should bring it to life.
“I’d had such a good experience on Unhinged… I knew that I wanted to work with Derrick again,” he says. “He was a supreme artist, and he also was a great filmmaker… It was kind of like old school week – we got back together and the shorthand that we developed in the first project was still in place.”
For Borte, teaming back up with Crowe, this time in a darkly comic neo-noir, was an irresistible proposition. “I made another film with Russell that was very dark, that really didn’t have much humour whatsoever,” he says. “He is really a very funny guy… and I thought this would be a great opportunity for him to tap into that part of himself that he doesn’t get to show very often.”
Borte and his writing collaborator Daniel Forte approached the story with respect but not reverence, expanding character arcs and injecting humour.
“We adapted The Get Out from Strip by Thomas Perry, and it’s this dark, kind of neo-noir world,” Forte says. “As we decided to turn it into a screenplay, we drew inspiration from the rich cast of characters… and turned it into The Get Out.”
Borte adds, “Whenever you adapt a novel, you want to maintain the spirit of the book, but you also have to think about how to turn it into a film. So much takes place with internal monologue… You do have to take some liberties to tell the story in a slightly different way.”
What emerged was a pulpy, character-driven crime thriller with a darkly comic edge. “This film is really an intersection of several stories, different characters all dealing with their own negotiations with morality and legality,” Borte says. He describes it as “a dark comedy disguised as an action thriller.”
Producers quickly recognised the film’s throwback energy. “The Get Out is a comedic crime thriller,” Fasano says. “It very much has a True Romance, Reservoir Dogs feel, where you have a bunch of wacky characters that are bigger than life, but done in a grounded, surreal style.”
Fellow producer Jeffrey Greenstein agrees: “It really pays homage to True Romance, Sexy Beast, it’s got a lot of vibes of Point Break as well. Just a real fun, throwback type of film.”
During development, Borte and Forte revisited many LA noir benchmarks, layering the screenplay with nods for sharp-eyed cinephiles. Forte explains, “We talked about movies like Sexy Beast, Go, To Live and Die in LA… You speak the language of the world you’re in. I think we’re playing into all those pieces.”
Beneath its dark humour, the story is ultimately about people hitting crossroads
“The Get Out is about characters taking a look at where they are in life,” Forte says. “It’s about coming to terms with who you are in the world and having to accept your fate.”
For Greenstein, that emotional core paired with Borte’s signature tension made the film irresistible. “I thought what he did with Unhinged was excellent, just how he ratcheted up the tension,” he says. “Taking this cast of characters and using his style, I was like, this is something that I’ve got to make.”
Despite the violence and chaos, the filmmakers insist the film is, at its heart, a comedy
“I’ve always thought The Get Out was a comedy first and foremost,” Forte says. “Granted, it gets super dark, but the comedic elements hopefully make the contrast between the moments of brutality more impactful.”
Borte adds, “Hopefully, whatever less-than-realistic things happen are believable within the world we’ve created.”
With Russell Crowe leading an ensemble including Luke Evans, Aaron Paul, Nina Dobrev and Teresa Palmer, the team created a world that is larger-than-life yet recognisable. “It’s hilarious,” Crowe says. “It’s really funny, and there are a lot of great performances in it. It’s an unexpected plot. You can’t really see ahead what exactly might happen, which is always fun to have that kind of intrigue”.
DERRICK BORTE – Co-Writer/Director – Derrick Borte began his career as a painter. After receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Old Dominion University, he earned a Masters of Arts in Film and Media Studies at Parsons/The New School in New York. In 2010, Derrick wrote, directed, and produced THE JONESES. Next, he directed LONDON TOWN, then directed and co-wrote AMERICAN DREAMER. His film UNHINGED was hailed by the likes of William Friedkin and Quentin Tarantino.
DANIEL FORTE – Co-Writer, is a screenwriter/producer originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia. In 2019 he co-wrote and co-produced the intense crime-thriller AMERICAN DREAMER. Most recently he co-wrote and executive produced the LA-based crime-comedy THE GET OUT. He has several other projects at various stages of development with his writing partner, writer/director Derrick Borte.
