Martin Ivanov, or Who is responsible for the life of James Bond

In a short time, Martin Ivanov made a good career and became one of the best stuntmen not only in Russia, but also abroad. This he arranges crazy race in the James Bond films, is shot in a commercial for VW, in which the truck of the team Lotus F1 Team makes a jump 25 meters above the sports car "Formula 1", without his participation, no blockbuster, where There are frames of car racing.

What is known about the biography of Martin Ivanov

Martin Ivanov was born in the family of the performer of Viktor Ivanov's tricks in March 1977. Soon after his birth, his parents divorced, and my mother took her son to Lithuania. Martin started riding his father's car at the age of 13-14, later took up motorsport, participated in various races and achieved good results. At the age of 19 he became Lithuanian champion in hippodrome and ring racing, and two years later he won the republican championship by rallying. In 1999, he repeated the success. Over the next few years Ivanov takes part in the championships of Russia in motorsport and dreams of becoming a professional racing driver.

Father Martin - a stuntman, is engaged in the profession for about 40 years. He works a lot and successfully in Hollywood. In 2000, his father invited his son to take part in the shooting of the film "White Gold". Martin Ivanov coped with the task and began to be interested in the profession of a movie cadet.

Stuntman Ivanov is a double of Matt Damon

In 2003, director Paul Greengrass begins to shoot a series of films about Jason Bourne. Filming "Bourne's Excellence" took place in Moscow. Tricks put the father of Martin. Participation of Russian stuntmen in the film was not planned, but the English understudy failed to cope with the task, so in Tushino casting was conducted among stuntmen from Russia. Martin Ivanov showed the best results. A big role was played by his external resemblance to Matt Damon, so the director of the film invited Martin to his team as an understudy.

In the film there is no computer graphics, everything happens in real life. In the "Bourne Supremacy", the chase of the black "Mercedes" behind the yellow taxi "Volga" lasts 6 minutes on the screen. On the shooting episode took 2 months, during this time, was broken ten "Volga" and six "Mercedes" black.

For participation in the filming, Martin was awarded the "Taurus" award, which is considered the highest award for stuntmen. But her father received it, because the US Embassy did not open a visa for Martin. After this film, the stuntman is removed as an understudy in the movie "Bourne's Ultimatum" and becomes popular in Hollywood.

James Bond performed by Martin Ivanov

In the film "Quantum of Solace", Martin Ivanov duplicates Daniel Craig, an actor who played the role of James Bond. The stuntman did not want to be included in the acting group, because under the terms of the contract, English actors and stuntmen had to play there. But the film's director insisted that the main character be duplicated by the Russian stunt man. 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 to and managed to splash the Aston Martin car beautifully. For performing tricks in the "Quantum of Solace" Martin Ivanov - stuntman, was awarded the next prize "Taurus".

This film was the first in a series about James Bond with his participation. Followed by "Coordinates" Skyfoll "and others. The latest film about the 007 agent with Martin's participation is called Spectrum. It involved not only expensive cars, but also an airplane. According to the stuntman, the difficulty was to synchronize the movement of cars and aircraft in the mountains. The feature 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.

Preparing for tricks

In an interview with journalists, Martin Ivanov (stuntman, photo of which is in the article) says that preparation for tricks takes a very long time. In each specific case, different models of machines are required. For shooting in the "Spectrum" involved Range Rover Sport. Scenes filmed in Austria, had to ride on the ice cover, so the tires were wearing special spikes 4,5 mm long.

All machines are prepared before filming. They install a safety cage and turn off the electronic stuffing. If the machine turns over in the frame, the helmet and racing overalls are put on the stuntman, sometimes additional protection is installed. In general, the preparation of the trick lasts several months. During this time, they make the necessary calculations, prepare the equipment. Before taking part in the shooting, 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 shootings. According to Martin, he performed all the tricks that you can come up with for the film. In total, the stuntman participated in 37 projects.

Participation stuntman in the filming of the video with Volkswagen Polo GT

The Russian division of the company Volkswagen invited Martin Ivanov to take part in the filming of the video in order to demonstrate to potential buyers the possibilities of the new Polo GT car. To do this, the stuntman had to drive along the production line at the plant in Kaluga, make complex police turns 180 °, and then jump from the springboard through the fire. The car flew a distance of 8 meters.

To participate in the shooting, 3 cars were prepared in case of a replacement, if one of them fails. But this did not happen thanks to competent preparation for the execution of the trick of the whole team of Martin Ivanov, consisting of 85 people.