“To me, honestly, at this point, it doesn’t matter if you’re left, if you’re right, what you believe, whatever your take is on any of this, there’s the truth,” states Red Alert executive producer Lawrence Bender on the eve of the second anniversary of Hamas‘ bloody attack on Israel.
“Something sparked all this two years ago. There was a massacre, 900 people were killed in the first few hours. Then 1200 people plus murdered all told. There’s 1000s and 1000s of survivors, there’s 1000s of stories, right?”
Two years after the most brutal attack on Jews since the end of World War II, an assault that left thousands dead, dozens taken hostage by Hamas, a nation and a people traumatized again and the beginning of the pummeling war in Gaza, the Lior Chefetz and Ruth Efroni created Red Alert aims to tell the poignant and visceral stories of those on the ground that terrible day. All four episodes of Red Alert is debuting on Paramount+ on October 7, 2025, the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. To be specific, that’s 9 pm PT tonight, midnight ET.
Last week at an advance screening of the series, Paramount boss David Ellison told the invited crowd “we at Paramount are here to tell stories. Period. We are not here to debate or platform politics or wars or argue about east or west.” Still, with the politics of the Middle East and America not far from the minds of most, and Bender, other filmmakers, Bob Odenkirk, and families of October 7 victims among those in attendance, the newish mogul added: “And Red Alert is the very embodiment of that mission and I couldn’t be prouder to support this series.”
Stitched together with funding from all over, the up-close and fast-paced Red Alert, from co-writers Kineret Peled and Idan Hubel, EP Mika Rodeh and others is co-produced for Keshet 12 by Bender Brown Productions and the Golda team at Green Productions along with Keshet Media Group and the Jewish National Fund-USA Israel Entertainment Fund. As the latest U.S. pease proposal to end the war in Gaza ripples across the region and hostages still remain held amidst the devastation and upheaval, the first episode of Red Alert premiered on Israel’s Channel 12 on October 4, with new episodes every week.
Now in his fourth decade making movies, Bender spoke with me as he hustled around NYC for a Red Alert screening tonight. The Academy Award winning filmmaker and longtime Quentin Tarantino ally reflected on the path that brought him to Red Alert, what he brought to the project, and what he hopes to achieve with other Israeli filmmakers.
Old enough and experienced enough to speak his mind, Bender also chatted about what October 7 means to him, Donald Trump, the power of the personal over politics, Ellison and Paramount streaming chief Cindy Holland, and some lessons from Tarantino.
DEADLINE: It almost sounds like a redundant question, but I truly want to know – what persuaded you to make Red Alert?
LAWRENCE BENDER: So, listen, I made this show because it was important to me, as the world turned against Israel on October 8, 2023, it was important for me, for the world to understand why we are here. Something happened, right? And to tell the truth about why this, why we’re here now, and with that to create, obviously, something you hope that someone’s going to have emotional reactions to it. Hopefully it creates conversation. Hopefully it hits the culture zeitgeist, we’ll see.
DEADLINE: That sounds like the big picture explanation, but you have long been a filmmaker driven by your gut, what was your inner voice telling you as this project came your way?
BENDER: You know, truthfully,I’m gonna say it’s easy, but it’s certainly one perspective, being safe in my home in Los Angeles, watching this happening on TV, speaking to people there, but still I’m in my home in America where I’m safe. It’s another thing to be where it actually happened and to be with people that were directly affected, not, you know, second, third hand, but directly affected. Honestly, that was a life changing experience for me in several ways. First of all, every Saturday night I was in Israel making Red Alert, I spent in Hostage Square, meeting survivors, meeting family people who had family members murdered, meeting people who have family members that were taken by Hamas.
DEADLINE: Did it clarify something for you?
BENDER: Yes, it did Dominic. I wanted to be part of it. I just wanted to feel it. To me, honestly, at this point, it doesn’t matter if you’re left, if you’re right, what you believe, whatever your take is on any of this, there’s the truth. Something sparked all this two years ago. There was a massacre, 900 people were killed in the first few hours. Then 1200 people plus murdered all told. There’s 1000s and 1000s of survivors, there’s 1000s of stories, right?
DEADLINE: In that, this Trump peace plan seems to be getting some traction, Hamas buying in to parts of it and not others, so who knows that that will mean for the bombardment of Gaza and the region, but whatever happens, the timing certainly adds a further spotlight on Red Alert, no?
BENDER: We all pray that this is resolved, the hostages come home, that there’s some resemblance of peace and that people can start to put their lives back together, on both sides. It’s clearly difficult. I mean, we pray that Trump is successful. It doesn’t matter if you’re for Trump or against Trump. You have to pray that that man is successful in making this happen.
DEADLINE: You know, that is going to peg you politically – it’s a consequence of the great American political divide. Which is a twist, because one of the undercurrents of Red Alert is how it avoids politics for people, for the five intertwining personal stores of those attacked, assaulted, abandoned and abducted on October 7, 2023 by Hamas in the border city of Sderot, the Nova festival, military and police bases and rural communities…
BENDER: Dominic, we very much did not want this to be about politics, because you can get stuck in politics.
DEADLINE: All truth there …
BENDER: Everyone has a political opinion, and right or wrong, it’s not, it’s, I mean, I have an opinion, of course, but it’s not why we did this at all. Lee Strasberg used to say, the more specific you can be, the more universal it will feel. Now maybe that’s not exactly the right analogy, but we felt like you just said it underdog stories about families is a relatable thing. We all have, most of us, in general, have families. Most of us are underdogs, right?
DEADLINE: You were on set a lot of the time in Israel for the 39-day shoot, you had survivors and hostage family members on set, I know. Obviously, since at the very least Inconvenient Truth back in 2006, you have made a number of projects about the hard realities of the world and you are very committed and passionate about exposing antisemitism and hate, but how up-close and personal did it get for you with Red Alert
BENDER: First of all, these are all very relatable stories and our desire was to pull you in, To put you in the shoes of the people, very people who are attacked, because right now, people don’t understand. I mean, I went down to a house that had been attacked, and actually I have a videotape of it. I saw where a grenade blew up, saw bullet holes everywhere. The place is a disaster, still. I went to Kibbutz Nir Oz, I went to the Re’im kibbutz. I went to the grounds of the Nova music festival. Making Red Alert, you know, it was important for me to see the real things, the real places.
DEADLINE: At a screening for Red Alert held on the Paramount lot last week, David Ellison spoke from his newly mogul minted heart of the deal that brought the show to Paramount+, hatched at renown lawyer Skip Brittenham’s memorial, and his deep desire to see the show as part of the new Paramount. You’ve been around from a while Lawrence, so have I, I have never heard a studio boss’ voice crack like that over a project…
BENDER: I know! I was blown away. I mean, blown away. Frst of all, this gentleman, David Ellison, he personally watched every episode. He’s the head of like, they just bought UFC for whatever it was, $8 billion some crazy number, right? He just bought Paramount. He watched those episodes, and Cindy Holland watched those episodes. And every time he watched an episode, he’d email me and say something beautiful. You know, that’s, that’s kind of humbling. This is like David Ellison. He’s one of the most important executives in Hollywood, right?
DEADLINE: Well, Lawrence, you’re not exactly, you know, you’re not exactly the new kid on the block….
BENDER: (LAUGHS) No spring chicken here! Yeah, true, but still, it’s still humbling.
DEADLINE: How does that support from David and Cindy, as the head of Paramount streaming, translated into getting Red Alert out there? It is a bit of a trial run for them…
BENDER: The head of every vertical at Paramount is personally involved, the head of communication, had distribution, head of Marketing, head of activation, and so forth and so on.
DEADLINE: Well, nothing lost in translation there…
BENDER: The other thing you know, David said, Okay, we’re buying it. WME’s Rick Rosen will say, maybe it’s the fastest deal he’s ever done in the 40 years of his doing this or whatever. And bam. And then David says, I want them all to drop on October 7. Yeah, that was, like, literally, two and a half weeks ago
DEADLINE: Was that your idea? David’s idea?
BENDER: No, no, that was not my idea. There was David and Cindy said it, both of them, although David’s the one who said it, I know Cindy was behind it too.
So, you feel the power I’m saying all this because, you know, we’re on a Zoom and there’s 35 people from Paramount on that Zoom, going through what they’re doing. Because from this deal to have Red Alert on Paramount+ just a several weeks ago to now. it’s a very short amount of time, by the way.
So, it was impressive.
Why am I saying that? Because we gave them cuts that were not finished. I mean, there were picture almost completely, picture locked, not 100% picture locked. But we were putting in new music, the visual effects we hadn’t done the sound mix yet. I mean this was what they had to go on. I was literally working all day, and then at nighttime, at 11 o’clock la time, which is nine o’clock in the morning, Israel time, I’m in the mix room. I’m on with visual effects. I didn’t sleep. I maybe slept two hours a night for like 10 days, basically, to get it ready for them. But, you know, they felt like they wanted to make an impact.
DEADLINE: Let’s shift that to the other side of the world, what was it like when you got on board with this, sat down with the Israeli filmmakers, Lior Chefetz, Ruth Efroni, Green Productions’ Maya Fischer, Shani Ettinger Sror, Roi Kurland, and Gal Greenspan, EP Mika Rodeh the crew, the cast – was there a bit of a culture clash between Hollywood and Tel Aviv?
BENDER: (LAUGHS) There was no culture clash.
But here’s what’s interesting. First of all, these people are all extraordinary. We had the greatest first AD, we had the greatest key grip, we had a great cast, I mean, we had great people. But I also had a very different experience, where I was the least in the least experienced person on the set. On Reservoir Dogs, I was the least experienced person on the set, right?
DEADLINE: For real?
BENDER: Well, okay, I had actually done one movie, a little horror movie, so I had more experience than Quentin (LAUGHS).
Here’s what was interesting working with these amazing filmmakers in Israel. On Dogs, it was the very first really kind of big movie that we made, but on this show, maybe the most experienced person on the set. Now, I’ve been doing this for almost, almost four decades, right? And I’m an old school producer, meaning I’m on the set, you know, on most everything I do. And I learned a really, really important lesson from Quentin about how to do the job.
DEADLINE: Waiting on bended knee, here Lawrence…
BENDER: (LAUGHS) Here’s what that lesson was. It’s interesting.
Every once in a while, Quentin would asked for something, and I’d have to say, no. Then he’d say, why not? He says, because that’s how it’s done, right??? And I’d go, sh*t, you’re absolutely right. The lesson is to figure out how to make that no, a yes and, and that’s, and that’s that kind of attitude you need for a show like Red Alert.
DEADLINE: Gotta say, after all this time in the biz, sounds like Red Alert is taking you back to your roots in more way than one?
BENDER: 100%!
Like when we made Inglorious Basterds, Quentin said to me, I want to go back to the old way we were making movies, like on Dogs, Pulp and Jackie Brown. I want to have to steal from Peter to pay Paul. I want you to give me what I need, not what I want, right? And that’s what making Red Alert was, that young filmmaker attitude is a great attitude. It is a young person’s filmmaking attitude. It’s, I don’t give a sh*t where you say we’re doing this. I feel like and maybe I brought that to the show because it’s a very it was a very difficult shoot, and maybe having, you know, having me there, encouraged if I said that, then there was like, okay, yeah, we can do that, right?
I mean, let’s be honest, there was also the realities of filming when there’s a war going on. There’s still the chance of a missile being lobbed around from Gaza when we were shooting in the Gaza envelope. That’s a that was a real possibility, and if affects you as you work, puts you in the place.
DEADLINE: Red Alert has changed who you want to be as a producer, hasn’t it?
BENDER: It’s definitely opened a different, a new chapter in my life.
I grew up in a very liberal household when I was a child in the 60s, and with my mom and my dad, we were on the busses going down to Washington, DC protests against the Vietnam War. All my life, I’ve been making movies and TV shows with a diverse group of people. I did three TV shows with women showrunners. I’ve done, you know, Jackie Brown, had a black woman, middle aged woman as the lead, I made Anatomy of a Hate Crime a film about Matthew Shepard, that young gay man who was murdered.
Yet, on October 7, when the phone was not ringing the way you would think it would about, are you okay? Are your people okay? Do you have any relatives there? Do you have friends there? That’s that just really didn’t happen, that I really felt like I needed to start to focus on my people. You know, it’s not like I haven’t focused on Israel and Jewish politics in the past, but this really felt like a real reopening. So, the long answer is yes. The answer is yes, I’m looking at doing different things, different movies and TV shows, very much focused on Jewish themes.
DEADLINE: How does that work?
BENDER: Now, I’m not cutting everything else out of my life, but I am definitely focusing on this. it’s important. When I was filming in Israel, I met with so many Israeli filmmakers. There’s such amazing talent there. It’s a young film community in the sense of things. It’s not that many decades old compared to like France or Italy or, you know, and so forth. But there’s incredible filmmakers there. I want to support them at a time when these Hollywood people who know not what they do, boycotting Israeli filmmakers, when those are the very people, and this is not the reason they shouldn’t do it, but the very people that agree with them, these are lefties.
DEADLINE: What do you mean, these are lefties?
BENDER: The filmmakers in Israel, they’re all lefties, that’s their politics. They’re lefties that were filmmakers in Israel, and they’re making movies that these people who are protesting against them would agree with. Now, that’s not the reason you should not boycott them, but I mean, those protesting them they don’t know what they’re doing and that’s pretty frustrating. So, it’s even more of a reason I want to support the Israeli film industry, you know
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