Premium Rush: A Short, Sharp Pressure Ride

Premium Rush hits US cinemas on Friday (August 24, 2012), and the film's director has spoken about the appeal of the succinct thriller set in Manhattan, reports The Los Angeles Times.

The film sees Joseph Gordon-Levitt as bike messenger Wilee, who's charged with delivering important documents across the sweaty metropolis that is New York. Armed with a fixed-gear bike and a keen sense of direction, Gordon-Levitt's character receives a delivery that will change his life. David Koepp, the writer of Mission Impossible, Spider Man and Jurassic Park directs the film, and considers its length and instant thrill a key aspect. "I wanted to do something contained, like Panic Room. And I am obsessed with maps, so I wanted to do a movie where a guy has to get from point A to point B in a limited period of time."

The character of Wilee was one Gordon-Levitt, who is fresh from his fantastic performance in the summer blockbuster Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, in which he plays a Robin incarnate, deeply enjoyed. "The appeal of the movie to me was riding the bike, doing the scenes on the bike. Scenes that would be traditionally two people sitting around talking are now happening where we're on a bike [and] talking on a phone. It brings a physicality to it that was really fun and challenging." The 31-year old actor is reported to have trained for months on a fixie-bike to perfect the exciting skids and scrapes performed in the movie.