In a short time, Martin Ivanov made a good career and became one of the best stuntmen not only in Russia, but also abroad. It is he who arranges crazy races in James Bond films, starred in a VW commercial in which a Lotus F1 Team truck jumps 25 meters above a Formula 1 sports car, without a single blockbuster without it there are frames of car racing.
What is known about the biography of Martin Ivanov
Martin Ivanov was born in the family of stunt performer Viktor Ivanov in March 1977. Soon after his birth, his parents divorced, and his mother took her son to Lithuania. Martin began to ride his father’s car at the age of 13-14, later went in for motorsport, participated in various races and achieved good results. At the age of 19, he became the champion of Lithuania in racetracks and ring races, and after 2 years he won the national rally championship of the republic. In 1999, he repeated the success. Over the next years, Ivanov takes part in the Russian motorsport championships and dreams of becoming a professional race car driver.
Martin's father is a stuntman who has been in the profession for about 40 years. He works a lot and successfully in Hollywood. In 2000, the father invited his son to participate in the filming of the film "White Gold". Martin Ivanov coped with the task and began to become interested in the profession of a movie stuntman.
Stuntman Ivanov - Matt Damon double
In 2003, director Paul Greengrass began filming a series of films about Jason Bourne. Filming of the film "The Bourne Supremacy" took place in Moscow. The tricks were set by Martin's father. The participation of Russian stuntmen in the film was not planned, but the English understudy did not cope with the task, so a casting was conducted among stuntmen from Russia in Tushino. Martin Ivanov showed the best results. A major role was played by his external resemblance to Matt Damon, so the director of the film invited Martin to his team as an understudy.
There is no computer graphics in the film, everything happens in reality. In Bourne Supremacy, the chase of the black Mercedes for the yellow Volga taxi lasts 6 minutes on the screen. It took 2 months to shoot the episode, during which time ten Volga and six black Mercedes were broken.
For his participation in the filming, Martin was awarded the Taurus Prize, which is considered the highest award among stuntmen. But her father received it, because the US Embassy did not open a visa to Martin. After this film, the stuntman is removed as an understudy in the movie “The Bourne Ultimatum” and becomes popular in Hollywood.
James Bond performed by Martin Ivanov
In the movie Quantum of Solace, Martin Ivanov duplicates Daniel Craig, the actor who played the role of James Bond. The stuntmen did not want to be included in the acting group, because under the terms of the contract English actors and stuntmen were supposed to play there. But the director of the film insisted that the main character be duplicated by a Russian stuntman. The producers of the film did not give their consent for 2 months, but when the stuntman came to the shooting, he immediately became the favorite of the film crew, because he performed tricks that no one agreed on, and managed to beautifully smash the Aston Martin car. Martin Ivanov, a stuntman, was awarded the next Taurus Prize for performing tricks in Quantum of Solace.
This film was the first in a series about James Bond with his participation. It was followed by the Skyfall Coordinates and others. The most recent film about Agent 007 with Martin is called Spectrum. It involved not only expensive cars, but also the plane. According to the stuntman, the difficulty was in synchronizing the movement of cars and aircraft in the mountains. The peculiarity of the film is that the main machines that are involved in the shooting are not yet on sale, there is only an experimental sample. The group created a model of the machine, which after filming went to the museum of agent 007.
Stunt preparation
In an interview with reporters, Martin Ivanov (a stuntman, whose photo is in the article) says that preparing for tricks takes a very long time. In each case, different machine models are required. For filming in "Spectrum" involved Range Rover Sport. The chase scenes were filmed in Austria, I had to ride on the ice, so the tires were wearing special studs 4.5 mm long.
All cars undergo training before shooting. They install a roll cage and turn off the electronic filling. If the car turns over in the frame, the stuntman is put on a helmet and racing overalls, sometimes additional protection is installed. In general, the preparation of the stunt lasts several months. During this time, make the necessary calculations, prepare the equipment. Before participating in the filming, Martin Ivanov’s tricks are practiced for 2-3 weeks. In the stunt group there is a director who is responsible for preparing for the shoot. According to Martin, he performed all the tricks that you can think of for the film. In total, the stuntman participated in 37 projects.
