While Netflix has been killing it with their original programming, it’s important to venture far from the trending list—which is how I found “Danger 5.” From the moment that I saw episode titles like ‘Lizard Soldiers of the Third Reich’ and ‘Kill-Men of the Rising Sun,’ I knew that “Danger 5” and I had to become best friends. After a steady binge-watch, I had both seasons under my belt and now find myself wanting more.
Created by Australian filmmakers Dario Russo and David Ashby, “Danger 5” unwraps a psychedelic alterna-history in which a special squad of soldiers, assassins and one mixologist are tasked with the impossible mission of killing Adolf Hitler. The squad has a loose basis on archetypes most commonly found in 1960’s B-movies. Jackson (David Ashby) is the lone-wolf American, Ilsa (Natasa Ristic) is the fearless Russian vamp, Tucker (Sean James Murphy) is the eagle scout scientist who nurses a crush on Claire (Amanda Simons), the group’s British moral compass, and Pierre (Aldo Mignone), who never accepts a mission without bringing along an encyclopedic knowledge of cocktails.
While “Danger 5” is funny because of its deliberate low-budget aesthetic and self-referential humor, it manages to sidestep the trap that have claimed mockbusters like “Sharknado.” You don’t watch “Danger 5” to see it make fun of itself, you watch it to see how awesome it looks when filmmakers and actors invest so much effort in making it feel low-budget. There’s a ton of meticulous detail that goes into the show’s production design. All of the buildings and vehicles that inevitably explode are miniatures built by the crew, and the story jet sets all over the world, making it feel bigger than it actually is.
Recently, I had a chance to talk with series co-creator Dario Russo about the show’s inner workings, and here’s what happened:
Big Shiny Robot: One of the most interesting things about “Danger 5” is the old-school filmmaking techniques that you use to make the story happen. Why did you opt for these techniques in lieu of something more modern?
Russo: Throughout high school I watched a lot of B-movies. All sorts spanning the 50’s through to the 90’s—mainly creature features. I always got a kick out of really shit production design that had been executed with extreme honesty. I guess “Plan 9 From Outer Space” is sort of the godfather of that phenomena. My favourite for a long time was “Alligator,” an 80’s movie with Robert Forster. A baby alligator gets flushed down the toilet where it mutates into a huge beast and terrorises the city. This movie had a fantastic array of prac FX techniques including a full-sized animation alligator mixed with real alligators on miniature sets—brilliant. Eventually, I became obsessed with the Dino De Laurentiis films from the 60’s, predominantly Mario Bava’s “Danger Diabolik,” which is a masterpiece of mixed prac effects that achieve an aggregate score of around 40% believability. This obsession lead to “Italian Spiderman,” and “Italian Spiderman” lead to “Danger 5.” Both of them are really just love letters to great and not so great practical effects and cinematic conventions of the past. These ‘visible string’ production techniques also add another dimension of comedy to the production, which a lot of people respond to. I think Frank Zappa sums this up pretty well in his song ‘Cheepnis.’
BSR: What directors/films did you draw upon for inspiration?
Russo: For series 1, David and I drew a lot of influence from the Connery Bond films, Dino De Laurentiis productions, TV shows like “Thunderbirds” and “The Avengers.” Also 60’s Tokusatsu movies like the early Godzilla series, “Latitude Zero,” “Kamen Rider,” etc. For series 2 we harvested inspiration from every 80’s movie and TV show we could think of: “Miami Vice,” “Scarface,” “Terminator,” “The Hidden,” “Star Wars,” “Back to The Future,” “American Werewolf in London,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”…too much.
BSR: You were recently nominated for an award by the Australian Director’s Guild—what does that nomination say about the work you’ve put into “Danger 5?”
Russo: It’s a great feeling to be nominated for anything. Ever. Even the ‘encouragement’ award you get for playing soccer in year 6. Which I think I won once—though I don’t think I should have been encouraged. I can’t play soccer for shit. To be recognised by your peers in the industry is great! I’m very grateful.
BSR: While it would be easy to throw in a few self-referential winks at the campiness of the show’s aesthetic, “Danger 5” seems to take itself very seriously. Was this a conscious decision, or did it happen organically?
Russo: It was always intentional, from the way David and I wrote the scripts, to the way actors deliver their lines, to the use of production design elements even down the use of sound effects. Particularly with series 1 it was crucial that the subject matter was played straight. That was key to the comedy. We never wanted the humour to feel really schlock—it had to feel serious within its own universe. This level of dryness probably made the show pretty hard to approach for some viewers. With series 2 we wetted up the comedy quite a bit. Let actors run with their characters a bit more and put in more jokes in general. I’m happy with both approaches within the context of each series.
BSR: What was the inspiration for the shift in decades between series one and two of “Danger 5?”
Russo: Firstly, David and I felt we had exhausted all the jokes we could make within the series 1 paradigm. Secondly, after 3 years of production, we were sick of the 60’s. David in particular has always been an 80’s action movie fanatic, and we’ve watched “Die Hard” like, a thousand times between us. The 80’s inspired us. It let us take everything to the next level.
BSR: By my count, a given episode of “Danger 5” can feature dialogue spoken in four different languages. What made you take that approach instead of having everyone speak English?
Russo: We wanted to create a show of unknown origin. I don’t think there is anything in either series that makes you think ‘AUSTRALIA!’—save the heavy-handed Aussie-ness of Tucker in series 2—and this was important to us. Plus making Ilsa a 100% Russian speaker is 100% badass.
BSR: I read that your father Carmine plays Adolf Hitler in “Danger 5.” How did your dad get involved with the show, and what’s it like working with him?
Russo: Dad played Professore Bernardi in “Italian Spiderman,” because he was the oldest and most accessible Italian speaker that I had at the time. He was hilarious! It worked. So while David and I were writing series 1 (at my parents’ house), we got to the point where we had to figure out who could play Hitler. I photoshopped a fringe and moustache on my dad’s passport photo. It worked. I went into the lounge room and asked my dad if he wanted to play Hitler in our TV show. He said yes. The Magic of cinema! He’s watched a lot of Hitler docs, so he was well-prepared. As for working with him, Dad was super professional. The only difference between him and alternate actor is he had carte blanche on being grumpy at me if we’re taking too long to film something. Mum and Dad were on-set a lot actually—particulalry on series 2, as they had both retired. It was great. I think on-set parents should be an official crew role.
BSR: What’s the status of Danger 5? Is a series 3 in the works? If so, when can we see it?
Russo: At the moment it looks like we’re going to remake “Home Improvement.” Tucker will be the Tim character, Jackson will be Al and Hitler is Wilson.
Because you deserve it, check out this BSR classic about Russo’s first project, “Italian Spiderman.”