REINVENTING THE STEAL

CULPRITS NATHAN STEWART-JARRETT LEADS A HEIST THRILLER – BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT

1 PLOTTING THE HEIST

‘Heist thrillers end when the culprits have succeeded or failed,’ reckons Stephen Garrett. ‘They’re either dead or disappear into the sunset.’ Disney+ eight-parter Culprits, exec-produced by Garrett and created by writer-director J Blakeson (I Care a Lot), follows Joe Petrus (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), aka Muscle, over three timelines: signing up for, pulling off and, for the majority, reckoning with the consequences of raiding a bank vault when his fellow thieves are targeted, one by one, by a killer three years on. ‘This was full of “what ifs”,’ enthuses Blakeson. ‘What would you do if you had a huge amount of money? If you could have any life you wanted, what would you choose?’

2 PICKING THE MAIN MAN

‘Joe is the guy who has two lines, then gets killed in episode two – if he’s lucky,’ laughs Garrett. ‘He’s normally invisible for so many different reasons.’ Stewart-Jarrett brought versatility to a role that required him to adopt different personas in different timelines. ‘I’ve seen Nathan in lots of things, but never seen him do this,’ adds Blakeson. ‘He has a soulfulness, as well as the Griffin Dunne in After Hours quality of, “What the fuck?!”, because in every episode Joe’s having a very intense day!’

3 PULLING THE CREW TOGETHER

Joe’s co-conspirators include Officer (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Psycho (Niamh Algar) and Gemma Arterton’s criminal mastermind, Dianne Harewood. ‘I’d worked with Gemma near the start of our careers in The Disappearance of Alice Creed,’ says Blakeson. ‘It was a joy to work with her again. Look at Ocean’s Eleven and it’s pretty much a bunch of white guys in their 30s and 40s – we only have one of those and he’s not a main character, so for me, it was about subverting assumptions.’

‘Our first day of filming was cold, wet and crack-den central’

STEPHEN GARRETT

4 SCATTERING AROUND THE GLOBE

‘Our first day of filming was in the Toronto suburbs,’ Garrett recalls. ‘It was cold, wet and crack-den central – the most depressing place on the planet to begin!’ After this inauspicious start, the shoot moved on to Spain, the UK and Norway. ‘If these people could run to the four corners of the globe, you’ve got to show the four corners of the globe,’ shrugs Blakeson. ‘They can’t just run to the four corners of Yorkshire.’

5 GETTING AWAY WITH IT

Delivering high-octane action, smart dialogue and sinuous plotting, Culprits has rewarded the efforts of its creators. ‘I’ve really never come across a writer like J in his attention to detail,’ adds Garrett. ‘It’s a nightmare to have to produce and facilitate, but there’s a whoop of joy when you finally see it all come together.’ ‘Kind of like pulling off a heist!’ Blakeson grins.

CULPRITS STREAMS ON DISNEY+ FROM 8 NOVEMBER.