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Trivia & Notes

Redirected (2014)

A collection of secondary detail about Redirected (2014). None of it is necessary to enjoy the film. All of it is useful for anyone tracking the production, the cast, the locations, or the genre vocabulary the script draws on.

Casting and ensemble

  • Vinnie Jones was attached early in development — before the script was final — and the role of Michael was written knowing he would play it. Several specific line readings were tested against his cadence during pre-production.
  • The four-handed ensemble was always the plan. Earlier drafts of the script briefly considered a five-character group but were trimmed because the road-movie format works against more bodies than will fit comfortably in a single vehicle.
  • Scot Williams's casting brought a Liverpool grounding to Tim that the script slightly adjusted to lean into; small line changes shifted some of the planning dialogue into a register Williams could carry naturally.
  • Gil Darnell's audition material reportedly included an unscripted improvised stretch in which he argued with a non-existent foreign-language officer, anticipating the comic register the film would eventually use throughout the middle act.

Locations

  • The opening casino is composited from two London locations. The exterior is one venue; the interior gaming floor is shot in a separate, smaller space with set dressing extended to suggest scale.
  • The Vilnius airport sequence was shot during off-peak hours at the actual airport with cooperation from the airport authority.
  • The rural petrol station that anchors the middle act is a real working station in central Lithuania. The script was adjusted to fit the building's actual layout after a location scout.
  • The third-act warehouse is a derelict industrial site on the outskirts of Vilnius. The structure was no longer in operational use at the time of shooting.

Script and language

  • Several Lithuanian-language scenes are intentionally not subtitled in the English-language theatrical cut. The lack of subtitles is the joke: the audience and the British characters share the same level of comprehension. Most home-video releases preserve this decision.
  • Vinnie Jones's character name was reportedly altered late in development. Earlier drafts used a different first name; "Michael" was chosen partly for its phonetic flexibility across English and Lithuanian.
  • The script's working title was different from the released title. "Redirected" was selected late, taking advantage of the literal double meaning — the plane's diversion and the broader sense in which the characters are forced off their intended course.

References the film carries

  • The composition of the casino opening borrows specifically from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, framing the heist as an entrance into a recognisable genre vocabulary. The film then proceeds to break out of that vocabulary as the action moves to Lithuania.
  • A brief shot in the rural sequences appears to nod to the Belarusian and Lithuanian road-movie tradition of the late Soviet period — long lateral tracking shots across agrarian space, used in films like Klimov's later work.
  • The final-act warehouse sequence's lighting takes a specific cue from the Coen brothers' Fargo, though the situational comedy is closer to In Bruges than to Fargo's deadpan.

Music and sound

  • The score was original to the production rather than licensed. Composer credits varied by territory, with some regional releases listing Lithuanian collaborators not credited internationally.
  • The film's sound design makes use of significant amounts of ambient Lithuanian-language radio and television in the background of scenes, partly for verisimilitude and partly for the running joke that the leads cannot understand any of it.

Release notes

  • The theatrical release date varied by territory. Lithuania premiered first, followed by the UK, then continental Europe across late 2014 and into 2015.
  • The DVD release included additional behind-the-scenes content not present in the theatrical cut. Most streaming releases use the theatrical-only version.
  • The Wikipedia entry for the film has been stable since shortly after the theatrical release and includes the complete principal-cast credit list.

See also