Diamond, Andy Garcia’s detective story that will bow at the Cannes Film Festival, is a modern-day marvel — a Los Angeles-set film that actually shot in the city.

At a time when headlines decry productions fleeing the city, Diamond, which filmed everywhere from the Bradbury Building to the Paramour Estate, is a reminder of why the city is sorely missed onscreen.

Set in modern-day L.A., the film stars Garcia as the titular gumshoe, Joe Diamond, who is a relic from another time, favoring suits to athleisure and is happily at home on a barstool. When he is hired by a wealthy woman (played by Vicky Krieps) whose husband ends up dead in their hilltop mansion, Diamond investigates the case that also leads him to truths about his own mysterious past. Surrounding Diamond is a group of supporting characters, like a Chinese food-loving coroner (Dustin Hoffman), a glad-handing DA (Brendan Fraser) and sympathetic bartender (Bill Murray).

Ahead of Cannes, Garcia talked to THR about making his modern L.A.-set noir, Bogey’s best films, and how Ocean’s 11 helped him land his co-star.

Noirs have such a long history in Hollywood but are less prominent now. How did the story come about?

My daughter, who’s in the movie, she asked me to help her with her English homework when she was a senior in high school. She said, “Dad, I gotta turn in a paper tomorrow. Will you help me?” And I said, “Well, what’s the assignment?” She said it’s a little short story, and you have to pick a location in Los Angeles. She picked Bob’s Big Boy. I said, “Ready?’” And then I started. I improvised this thing while she was typing. I don’t know why it came out [as a noir]. It just came out in that format. I started this inner monologue, which is still in the movie. “I woke up to the morning light that had the courage to peek through the thick gray skies. I didn’t wake up in my well-worn Murphy [bed], but on a bed of ice plants that will forever have my imprint. And I looked up and I saw Bob, a big boy, smiling at me.” I improvised this thing while she was typing and I wrote a couple more scenes. She turned in the paper. I think we got a B.

When did you decide it could be something more than a homework assignment?

It just sat on my computer and probably around 2014 is when I started to home in and say, “I want to explore this character.” Then I had 60 pages, so I pitched it as a pilot for a television show. Nobody was interested. That’s the nature of our business. 

Diamond filmed at downtown L.A. landmarks, like Angels Flight, Clifton’s Cafeteria, the Bradbury Building and The Pantry. You also shot at Cole’s, famous for its French dip, after it closed.

It was announced in the paper that it was closing when we were prepping the movie. It’s a major location in the film. I was able to speak with the gentleman who was the owner, Cedd Moses. We had lunch and he read the script. He was accommodating, and we restored the sign. Then they opened for longer, but now they’re officially closed, which is a shame. It’s iconic to Los Angeles.

Why was it important for you to shoot in Los Angeles?

It’s the world he lives in. The period gumshoe detectives, a lot of them were based in Los Angeles. I’ve been in Los Angeles since 1978 and I have a love of architecture. I’ve had it all my life. I was always fascinated with Los Angeles in that time period of the ’30s and ’40s and all these iconic buildings — the California Club and City Hall. I started writing to these places. I had written in the story that he lived above a garage in the eastern part of downtown. A curious thing happened — during the COVID shutdown, Guy Ritchie was doing a movie with Jason Statham [Wrath of Man] and they called because they wrote an additional character to the film to do two or three scenes that would tie the story together. I went to work one day on the film with Jason and we just happened to shoot in the place where Diamond lives in the movie. I saw it, and I went, “This is the place.” The movie is love letter to the city of Los Angeles. Without those things, it is not the same movie. People would say, “I like the movie. We will finance it. Can you shoot in Atlanta?” I would go, “No, I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”

How long did you have for filming?

We had 25 days and 52 locations.

Wow.

That’s independent filmmaking. It was years in the making, and then weeks to get it done, on a $20 salary.

What was the casting process like on this?

It came together fairly quickly. Relationships are great, but [actors] have to be motivated by the material. Bill Murray is a friend. He said, “Whatever character, I’ll do it.” He’s a prince in my life. Dustin was the same thing. But the first linchpin that happened was Vicki. I sent the script to Vicki through our mutual agent. A couple of months passed and I didn’t hear anything. I kept checking with our agent, and he said, “She’s a slow reader. She’s distracted. She’s got kids.” Then out of the blue, she called me. Apparently, what happened was she was watching Ocean’s 11 with a girlfriend of hers. The girlfriend said, “Oh, I love this actor. I really like him. You should work with him.” She told her, “He sent me a script.” She read it that night and then called the next day. With her blessing, everything snowballed. It could have been a difficult part to cast because it could be played in a very cliché way. When I saw Vicki in Phantom Thread years ago I said, “That’s the character.”

After spending 20 years trying to make this movie, how does it feel now getting to take it to Cannes?

It’s like you’ve raised a child to the point where it’s grown now and you walk it to the intersection. You say, “I love you and I’m proud of you,” and you watch it go across the street by itself. You can’t make people like it. It’s on its own. 

Twenty-five years ago, I was developing one of William Saroyan’s plays as a screenplay, The Cave Dwellers. The play had a 20-page foreword where he was interviewed about his creative process. The interviewer asked, “Do you care if your plays are successful?” And he said, “The fact that my place exists is success enough.” Francis Coppola always said to me that the mark of a movie that has resonance is how it holds up 25 years later. I saw Francis’ movie Megalopolis. He had been trying to make that movie for 30 years. What I took away from it was there’s no great obstacle that can’t be overcome by a dream. To achieve that dream, you have to have discipline and commitment and thick skin. But all the great movies and great art starts with a dream that a person won’t let go of.