Behind the scenes: 6 Underground

Michael Bay is synonymous with explosive high gloss action and on that score, the movie commissioned by Netflix doesn’t disappoint.

It’s the type of film that only gets made by a director with the clout of someone whose track record – Bad Boys, The Rock, the Transformers franchise – has made billions at the box office.

When Netflix gave Bay a budget of $150 million - reportedly its largest ever for a single project - a script by the writers of Deadpool (Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese) and the star of that mega-hit, Ryan Reynolds, they must have expected the sparks to fly.

“This shows what Hollywood can do when you have the money,” says cinematographer Bojan Bazelli, ASC, “I was like a kid in a candy store!”

The opening 20 minutes of the film is a car chase. Bay was to have staged it in London but after shooting one there for Transformers: The Last Knight he scouted for somewhere different.

“Why not go to the oldest cities in the world and go crazy?” Bazelli says of the conversation he had with the director. Bay chose Italy. “It’s the kind of idea that…