The Flying Bandit, a novel by Robert Knuckle and Ed Arnold, inspired Allan Ungar to create a film based on the actual story of Canada’s most notorious outlaw. The film stars Josh Duhamel as the title character, a bank robber who escapes from American jail and crosses into Canada, where he quickly becomes one of the country’s most notorious villains. After falling for a kind social worker named Andrea (Elisha Cuthbert), the attractive criminal decides to start robbing banks to provide for her lavish lifestyle.
It helps that he is quite talented at what he does. The genuine Flying Bandit, whose true name was Gilbert Galvan Jr. or Robert Whiteman to his friends and family, became known after he escaped from a Michigan jail, settled in Canada, and proceeded to steal 59 consecutive banks. This was a Canadian record. The trailer makes it quite evident that he is a professional bank robber since he is able to enter a bank and leave three minutes later with the loot.
For Tommy K. (Mel Gibson), a man with “a doctor’s thesis in street” whom Duhamel’s Galvan goes for an investment, watching Duhamel swap between disguises and sneak into and out of banks like it’s nothing is a remarkable achievement. When he finally meets the woman of his dreams, life becomes more challenging.
As they fall in love and plan to spend the rest of their lives together, he lavishes her with presents from his stolen wealth. He keeps up his series of heists behind the scenes, but the police are starting to pay closer attention to him. John Snydes (Nestor Carbonell), a detective, is leading the search for the elusive criminal, but Galvan Jr.’s (Jose Luis Galvan) many guises and careful preparation keep everyone in the dark.
Keeping his relationship together is more crucial than ever, but whenever a unique employment opportunity presents itself, he feels compelled to take it, even though he knows that “just one more” never ends well. Bandit is Ungar’s third feature picture, although his short Uncharted fan film with Nathan Fillion as Nathan Drake and Stephen Lang as his grizzled explorer friend Sully gained him a lot of attention and helped launch his career.
In a statement, he explained how quickly he clicked with Bandit: “As a filmmaker who grew up in Toronto, I’ve always sought for tales that are both daring and have a strong sense of place. When I first started directing, I purposefully picked projects that would help me hone the abilities I’d already started cultivating, but also provide me with the experience I needed to become a respected filmmaker. In spite of this, I always felt it was important for my films’ identities to be rooted in that particular place. Being from a nation so steeped in history, I knew it was only a matter of time until I found a narrative that had everything needed to produce a compelling film that audiences would want to watch. That’s how I felt about Bandit.”
In addition, he said that Kraig Wenman’s screenplay did a good job of expressing the genuine crime, comedy, romance, and adventure that were all part of Galvan Jr’s narrative. As a result of the epidemic, the production of Bandit had to be moved to Georgia, which reportedly made things more difficult.
Ungar explained the process they used to make Vancouver seem like it did in the 1980s, and he continued: “After all this brouhaha about homeland and patriotism, here’s the biggest plot twist: we had to go to Georgia because of the Covid-19 outbreak. That’s right. Create the cities of the 1980s in present-day Georgia, including Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. One of the most challenging and ultimately gratifying periods of my professional life had begun. The film tested me in ways I never would have imagined, but in the end, it was worth it to see how a really gifted cast, crew, and artisans were able to work together to create something truly unique. I think we succeeded in bringing Gilbert Galvan’s narrative to life with conviction and emotion because we had such a wonderful ensemble.”
On September 23, Bandit, distributed by Redbox Entertainment and Quiver Distribution, will be available in cinemas and via On Demand.