Behind the Blockbuster Capturing the Mythical Scale of the ‘6 Kings’ of Tennis

Riyadh Season 2024 is here and it is serving up visual feasts of gargantuan proportions to promote its various sporting events. Last month Guy Ritchie helmed a slightly unhinged film promoting Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois’ boxing match in London – the first event in the UK for Riyadh Season, the series of events leading into Saudi Vision 2030 and the country’s ambitions to reinvent itself and transform the Saudi economy.

Now we’ve been treated to another spectacular film to promote part of the sporting series. Riyadh Season is hosting the 6 Kings Slam this month – a tennis tournament featuring Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune. And the film to promote it, combining ambitious production quality and all six tennis stars, is huge.

Created by Big Time Creative Shop and directed by Los Perez through Grayskull and Truffle, each player takes on a semi-mythical persona, giving the film the tone of a blockbuster movie trailer packed with grand environments, lavish costumes, and superhero-worthy visual effects from Electric Theatre Collective. 

‘Call of the Kings’ was filmed in locations around the world in what has to be one of the most ambitious productions anyone involved is ever likely to work on, turning tennis players into herculean figures of legend. LBB’s Alex Reeves spoke to directing duo Los Pérez about their experiences making this sporting epic. 

LBB> Firstly, what is going on here? Tell us about what the idea in the script was when you first saw it and how the '6 Kings' would each be portrayed. 

Los Pérez> When we received the creative brief from the guys from BigTime Creative Shop, they wanted to establish some relationship between the players and their countries, background or culture. That made total sense, since the basic idea was creating a journey, where they would hit the ball and pass it from one player to another. 

It was also a great opportunity to explore more of the players personality, and how they could react when they were accepting the challenge from the previous player. But although this is a tournament, we didn't want to give away that information till the end. So we created an intro to set up a cinematic tone, so the viewer could get in that kind of mood, experiencing this more like a movie rather than a commercial. The journey ends with the ball activating the winner's throne. It was the final missing piece for the tournament to begin.

LBB> What were your first thoughts on how you'd bring it to life? 

Los Pérez> We felt that this should be epic and fun, and somehow we thought immediately about those Nike football ads from the ‘90s that we love, and we thought that the game of tennis was missing something like that. But although on one hand it was exciting, because you had some of the best players in the history of the sport, and on the other there was the fear of making the journey a bit repetitive since they were just hitting the ball and not actually playing against each other. So that challenge really pushed our imagination to create something special every time you were watching a new player coming into the story. Creating a whole world for each player according to their personality and tennis skills. 

We made a lot of concept art and drawings to brainstorm ideas and possible scenarios. For instance, the minimalists glass court among the dunes in the desert for the Carlos Alcaraz scene, to represent him as the future of tennis, or the cemetery of racquets that leads to Novak Djokovic, to show all the players that he has beaten throughout his career. It takes a while to shape these scenarios to a degree where it feels that they can tell the story by themselves. 

LBB> When you were visualising this epic film, what were the priorities for making sure it feels as huge as it does? 

Los Pérez> We didn't really have any rules or priorities, it was more about making something fun and truthful to the players' personalities. Then, of course, once you set up the scene and the elements that will play a role in the story, you always push it more and more. But sometimes more than what is happening it's how, and this is when the narrative and the selection of shots play a big role to get this feeling of something epic and grand. How can you make a scene dynamic enough or different enough so it doesn't look like you're repeating yourself over and over?

LBB> What were the most ambitious parts of the production and how did you realise them? 

Los Pérez> Although we built a lot of sets like the Viking ship or the secret chamber, and shot in real locations like the gallery and the real water container etc., the most challenging aspect was making sure our ideas could be done in post. So it was a bit of a leap of faith in that sense, but we previz’d a lot of the scenes to make sure that they could work well. Also, having worked with ETC before gave us the confidence that they could pull this off. We had long sessions every week going through all the shots and pushed together as maximum to be creative till we were all happy with each player sequence.

LBB> What were the biggest risks and how did you overcome them? 

Los Pérez> A lot of them. Starting from the players’ availability, which was really tricky as they were playing different tournaments and travelling around the world. Sometimes we had a very short notice about when they could be available and where. That meant sometimes shooting the players before shooting the environments, so we had to make sure that our shots had the right energy and direction. 

When we didn't have the players available on set, we were using body doubles, dressed always with the same costumes so we could have the right plates and lighting to match the players in that environment. 

Although they are famous players, we wanted to make something special and enhance their personalities. So with our stylist we designed cool costumes for each one of them. We didn't really know how they would react as they've never done something like this before, but thankfully they loved it and were super excited playing their roles, which was a huge relief. 

LBB> Where did you shoot it? It shifts between so many fantastical realms. 

Los Pérez> Due to the players’ availability, we had to travel to different countries. We shot in Nica, Murcia, Mallorca, London, Saudi Arabia and the main part in Budapest where we built all the sets.

LBB> How did you work with the ‘6 Kings’ themselves as tennis stars? What were the biggest considerations there?

Los Pérez> The first part is making them feel comfortable, creating a nice and fun environment where they can feel relaxed. Although some of them have a lot of experience shooting different commercials, they are not actors, they are athletes, so it was about gaining their confidence. We shared the costume designs and the boards prior to the shoot, then we went through the boards together in person so they could get excited and understand the whole picture. From there it was really trying to capture the best performances and the right energy per shot. We tried to make the most of them, as their time was precious, all of them were very busy training or in between tournaments.  

LBB> How much of it is real and how much is post? Are there any surprises there? 

Los Pérez> Normally we try to shoot as much as we can in camera but in this case, due to the nature of the project we had to rely a lot on VFX. As we explained, it was really a process of storyboarding everything carefully, getting into 3D previz after and then deciding what was really needed in terms of construction, locations, technical equipment etc. We shot a lot of tests and references for post, like exploding Jannik Sinner’s head statue and different pieces of fake marble to have always a sense of reality where we could start from.  

LBB> What is your favourite detail or moment in the finished film and why? 

Los Pérez> We love how the intro gets you in the story, (there are little details there, like the descriptions on the walls of the chamber that anticipate each player scene) but we didn't want to highlight any player over the rest, so I guess it's hard for us to tell what's our favourite moment. After releasing the film, we actually love how people are reacting with different opinions, in terms of which player has the best scene. So for us that’s the biggest compliment.

LBB> Overall, what will you remember most from this shoot? 

Los Pérez> As tennis fans we’ll always remember the experience of shooting with these amazing players, but also the creative freedom we had to make bold decisions. Working with the creative team of BigTime Creative Shop was a pure joy, we all really felt that we were shooting a movie rather than a commercial.