David Leitch ‘How to Rob a Bank’ Interview

“A Fresh Heist Film For Our Time”: David Leitch Talks Directing ‘How to Rob a Bank’

The ‘Fall Guy’ director brought the algorithm to the silver screen for his heist film

It’s always interesting when pieces of our online experiences pop up in our entertainment. It’s almost like that thing in life truly hasn’t made its mark if a screenwriter hasn’t used it as a device in a film. Case in point: for as much money as top streamers like Kai Cenat and IShowSpeed make these days, it may take a film like Prime’s Livestream From Hell or the indie horror #Vymara for some to truly experience what watching a livestream is really like, from the ever-present chat scrolling in the corner to mimicking the specific way livestream camerapeople whip the camera back and forth.

Enter How to Rob a Bank, the Amazon MGM release starring Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, and Pete Davidson hitting theaters on November 13, 2026. Directed by David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool 2, The Fall Guy) from a Mark Bianculli script, the film follows a viral group of bank robbers that share their exploits on YouTube for the world to see.

Anyone who’s watched the trailer has been drawn to the content-creation aspect, which stood out to Leitch, too. “I think it was the fact that this was a fresh take on the heist genre,” the director told Complex. “I’ve always wanted to do a heist movie, and you always have to find your way in that’s original, ‘how can I [turn] a genre on its head?’ And this had this content creator component that I knew I could immerse myself in and create fun episodes that weren’t in the script.”

That’s right: some of the most plucked-from-the-algorithm bits came from Leitch and his team. “We created these fun episodes that were edutainment,” Leitch explains, “pulling the heartstrings of the audience and drawing them in to build this fan base. And I thought that would be fun. I get to put on the hat of a content creator.”

“There [were] also some really great, defined character struggles that are authentic and grounded and real and relatable to people right now,” Leitch says, “so it just felt like a fresh heist movie for our time.”

That “fresh” was housed in the content creator hook which, for How to Rob a Bank, meant a departure of sorts for Leitch, who immersed himself in the YouTube algorithm to capture the film’s visual feel. “We all sort of consume this new sort of media right now,” Leitch explains. “I think a lot of it I get fed through my algorithm, I’m sure—who I am and what I click on. But some of it I seek out and find really fun, provocative creators. My goal [with How to Rob a Bank] was to do something, hopefully, that was original and sort of risky and dangerous. I think what they’re doing [in How to Rob a Bank], you probably couldn’t get away with on YouTube. There were negotiations to have the logo on, and ‘how far will we go?’ but I think that there’s a tone quality of the movie [where] we’re allowed to do it.

“That being said,” Leitch continues, “we tried to push that to the limit because these guys, at the end of the day, they are radical in their approach, but that’s part of the entertainment, that’s part of the wish fulfillment of making a great movie.” And that’s where the fun comes in, because Leitch and company got to blow their “edutainment” segments out of the water with some exciting camera work.

“It was really fun to play with those new toys,” Leitch confesses. “I’m a traditional filmmaker, and even though I do action, we do crazy mounts and stuff, but I’m using big cameras. Having the flexibility to use little tiny cameras or the Osmos or the drones and the 360 camera, you can create all your shots in post. So we would stage the heist as a play, and then the guys would wear their cameras, because that’s what content creators would do. And then in post, we got to create these fun, irreverent, bananas scenes. There’s the shot where [we have the] 360 camera and they’re motorcycling, and it’s going around. For me, as a filmmaker, that was fun to play with all the new toys, to see where that technology’s going.”

One thing moviegoers shouldn’t lose sight of is the message underneath the manufactured mania, and once you find out what How to Rob a Bank really has going on, Leitch thinks viewers will start having deeper conversations about what the film presents. “It gets grounded when you really understand their motivations,” Leitch shares, “and you’re like, ‘how far would I go if that sort of trauma happened to my life?’”

How to Rob a Bank premieres in theaters on November 13, 2026.