Daniel Radcliffe said that he was “immediately intrigued” by the character he plays in Jason Lei Howden’s new indie “Guns Akimbo” — a man who has guns surgically attached to his hands.
“When I got to about page 10 of the script and there was this scene where my character Miles with his new gun-attachment hands has to work out and try to go to the bathroom,” the actor told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven last September at the Toronto Film Festival, where the film premiered. “That was the moment that I was like, ‘You’re fully exploring the premise, I’m in!’”
The rest of the film proved just enticing to Radcliffe, who’s been eager to shed his image as Harry Potter in the long-running film franchise. “It was both insane and crazy and violent but also incredibly funny and just exciting and really fun to read,” he said.
“Guns Akimbo” centers on a nerdy video game developer named Miles (Radcliffe) who becomes the next contestant in an illegal live-streamed death-match. One night, Miles makes the mistake of drunkenly dropping an inflammatory barb on a broadcast of Skizm, an illegal death-match fight club streamed live to the public.
In response, Riktor (Ned Dennehy), the maniacal mastermind behind the channel, decides to force Miles’ hand (or hands, as it were) and have him join the “fun.” Miles wakes to find heavy pistols bolted into his bones, and learns Nix (Samara Weaving), the trigger-happy star of Skizm, is his first opponent. She’s at his front door.
Check out the clip above to learn more about Radcliffe’s gun hands and one of the film’s insane stunts, above.
“Guns Akimbo” is locked and loaded for theatrical release on Feb. 28.