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How I Got into the Entertainment Industry - Part 1

When I got out of the army, after 18 years, first in the infantry and the remainder in the Special Air Service, I would never have dreamt that I would have ended up as an author and film producer.

The first book I wrote was about my experience during the first Gulf War, Bravo Two Zero. This was the name of the patrol that I led behind enemy lines in Iraq. It became the biggest selling war book of all time, but like so much else of my life, especially back then, I didn’t plan for anything like that. When I was released from Abu Ghraib prison as part of a Red Cross prisoner exchange, I was contacted by the staff of a senior officer who asked if I wanted to write an account of the mission, with him. It had been three years since the war ended and there was so much conjecture about what this eight-man patrol, call sign Bravo Two Zero, had got up to. So I thought‘he’s not doing this for my benefit… if I am going to write it, I’ll write it myself’. So I did. I hadn’t written anything before, I had joined the army as a 17 year old with the reading and writing age of a ten year old! But it wasn’t so difficult. Writing an account of just one mission is pretty straightforward, a linear story that starts at a point and ends at a point. No need for that much flowery language, or reflection, or observation. Just an account.

After that it snowballed. I got out of the Army into private military work and was in the Colombian jungle when I got a message to say that the book was doing well and was I interested in writing another one? Sitting on a damp log, covered in zits and insect bites, it wasn’t much of a decision, I got back and started the writing business!

Now I have worked as an advisor, script writer and producer on several Hollywood films, including Heat, Black Hawk Down, The Transporter series, The Expendables and Pearl Harbour (yes, sorry about that one). And more recently I’ve been the producer on SAS: Red Notice, starring Tom Wilkinson, Sam Heughan and Ruby Rose. This was the adaptation of my first Tom Buckingham novel, and I have a few more productions in the pipeline at the moment.

I progressed in the film business from advisor to producer only because, without realising it, I was using what I had learnt from being in the military. Not understanding who did what in the film world, I kept my mouth shut and my eyes and ears open to understand who did what and why. It became clear that it was behind the camera where the money was being made, so that’s where I wanted to be.

My best experience of film production was Heat, with Robert de Niro and Al Pacino. De Niro had read Bravo Two Zero whilst he was shooting a film in Australia and had said to Michael Mann, the director of Heat, ‘Can we see if this McNab guy wants to come over and help with the film in LA?’ The first part of my job was to look at the script and come up with plans as to how to rob the bank, take down the truck, that sort of thing. The second part, was to train the major actors so they looked as if they had been handling weapons for years. That involved a lot of live firing. Everything you see on the film, the actors did live while training.

We won an award for the authenticity of the film, which I was really proud of. They sent me a first class ticket to fly to LA and stay in Beverly Hills for the ceremony, and it was going to be great. But the day before I was due to fly, the North Hollywood branch of the Bank of America got turned over in exactly the same way as they did in the film. Just like in Heat, the robbers were confronted by the LAPD as they left the bank. It led to a six-hour seige and a shootout on the streets and when police raided the apartment of the guy fronting the group, he had my book, a Heat DVD, film posters, all sorts. The film company ripped up my plane ticket, and that was it, no awards ceremony for me!

Andy McNab CBE, DCM, MM, DArts

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