Fresh details have emerged about how the upcoming Channing Tatum Isle of Man TT film is being made, after a witness who has been photographing the shoot described the stunts and scenes he has watched being staged around the TT course.
The film, titled Isle of Man , stars Tatum and Eve Hewson and is being made for Amazon MGM Studios, alongside a separate four-part docuseries from Drive to Survive makers Box to Box Films. Filming has been taking place around the real TT, with the pair previously spotted on the start line during first practice.
Isle of Man resident, businessman and content creator Frank Schuengel has been documenting the production both during the TT and since.
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The most dramatic scene Schuengel has witnessed was a two-bike crash, complete with a fireball, staged on the Mountain Road at the Verandah – the same fast right-hander where Conor Cummins suffered his well-known crash during the 2010 Senior TT.
“They pretty much recreated it because it was the exact same spot where Conor came off,” Schuengel said. “Except this time, from what I saw, it was two bikes colliding with a fireball, whereby when Conor crashed there was, of course, only one. And there was no fireball. He ‘just’ tumbled down the hill.”
The Mountain Road was closed from the Bungalow to Ramsey for two days, with the first day used to set up. From what Schuengel could see, the bikes were not under their own power or towed by a lead vehicle, but launched by a compressed-air catapult running on rails.
“It looked like the bikes were side by side, so obviously there’s sort of a racing crash, colliding and then going in a big fireball over the cliff,” he said. “It was very, very sophisticated.” He also confirmed the ramp seen in widely shared images was part of the same stunt, at the same corner.
Schuengel said he flew a drone over the setup on day one, after liaising with the Civil Aviation Authority and one of the production’s own drone pilots, but held off on filming day so as not to ruin the shot.
Earlier scenes were filmed around the Grandstand during the TT itself , using the real grid and real practice sessions. The crew worked from the back of the grid so as not to interfere with the racers.
“It’s the real grid, it’s the real track… the racers that go off in front of them, it’s real practice sessions,” Schuengel said. “They just do it at the back of the grid so they’re not in the way.”
The riding is handled by stunt doubles, many of whom are real racers. Schuengel named Ian Lougher as Hewson’s double, standing in for anything where the bike moves, and said James Hillier doubles for Tatum most of the time, with Michael Rutter and local rider Joe Yeardsley also involved.
He explained how a start-line scene was shot: “Channing rolls the bike to the start line and then the moment the tap on the shoulder comes, he jumps off the bike. James [Hillier] jumps on and shoots off the start line and he goes straight back into the return lane.” At no point, he said, does the film bike go out on track with the real riders.
Schuengel first spotted Tatum at the start of practice week, during his own annual paddock walk, when the actor joined a real scrutineering queue surrounded by real teams. “Nobody really cared much about him,” he said, adding that the production also filmed alongside real teams for background and side action. “They were completely properly embedded with the r…