The Crossover You Didn’t Know You Needed: Avatar and Marvel Stars Unite — Now on Digital
Avatar and Marvel alums finally join forces in David Mackenzie’s slick heist thriller Fuze, which hit digital on May 26 — and the cast and director break down how this score came together.
If you fancy seeing the bloke from 'Avatar' and the chap from 'Kick-Ass' rob a bank together, there’s a new thriller you can stream right this second. 'Fuze', David Mackenzie’s latest effort, snuck onto digital platforms on 26 May, bringing a seriously stacked cast and one of those utterly mad London setups that probably could only happen in the UK.
World War II bombs and London heists: Naturally
The essentials: It’s modern-day London, there’s a construction crew digging up the city, and, as you do, they unearth an unexploded bomb from the Second World War. The authorities – not looking to have a repeat of the Blitz in 2024 – clear out most of the city for safety. What does that mean? Prime real estate for a well-organised crew to knock off a major heist while everyone’s out of the way.
Who’s actually in this thing?
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson ('Kick-Ass', the Marvel stint, various moody indie roles)
- Theo James (yes, him from 'White Lotus' and 'Divergent')
- Gugu Mbatha-Raw (endlessly watchable, always underrated)
- Sam Worthington (the blue bloke from 'Avatar')
- Saffron Hocking & Elham Ehsas round out the rest, just so you know it’s not a total boys' club
Mackenzie directs, and if his name rings a bell, it's probably from 'Hell or High Water' or, more recently, 'Outlaw King'. If you want a certified seal of quality, 'Fuze' already managed to land a 'Certified Fresh' on Rotten Tomatoes, so apparently the critics are impressed.
How did this odd setup actually come together?
According to Mackenzie, the film is something of a genre mash-up; his pitch was ‘tension of a heist film mixed with the anxiety of finding a literal bomb in your back garden’. A quote from the director himself puts it bluntly:
'I wanted to mash up the tensions of the heist movie with an unexploded bomb movie. These things are found all the time in Britain; evacuations happen, and they usually blow them up where they sit. It just felt like a very real situation to lean into.'
He was also pretty adamant that 'Fuze' is meant to be pure entertainment – not trying to make any grand statements, just a straightforward bit of cinematic escapism. No hidden metaphors, just a well-oiled genre ride with a frankly bonkers premise.
Sam Worthington muscled his way in
Here’s a slightly unexpected tidbit: Sam Worthington (who’s already been a Mackenzie regular) wasn’t actually lined up for a role. The man cold-called the director to see if there was anything left for him. Worthington said, 'I just phoned David and said, "What can I do in this one?" He told me all the roles were gone.' Worthington apparently wasn’t having that and pitched developing a secondary character connected to Theo James’s crew. Mackenzie let him run with it, so now he’s in the gang, literally and figuratively.
Credits and release details (for the completists)
Ben Hopkins wrote the script; the whole thing is available to stream now, with a home release on Blu-Ray and DVD coming Tuesday, 7 July.