Future and Taika Waititi Made a Three-Minute Modern Western for Belvedere Vodka. Waititi Tells Us How the Deal Went Down

Atiba Jefferson

A powder-white Rolls Royce Corniche barrels through the plains of the Mexican desert and onto the grounds of a fortress that wouldn’t be out of place on Narcos. The driver emerges, in a crisp suit that matches his whip’s pearly exterior, his cowboy boots crunching on gravel, ominous case in hand. It’s a scene that could be the intro to any Future video, right before he launches into a commanding barrage of stylized mob-boss bars. Only it’s clear from the jump that we are not in familiar territory—for starters, instead of focusing on Future’s steely visage as he marches towards his destination, we’re also… hearing his anxious internal monologue? And given that, it’s not much of a shock when the man he’s there to do a mysterious deal with isn’t an expected Future associate like Rick Ross or Metro Boomin but instead Taika Waititi, gleaming grills bared, Stetson atop his head, waiting to quiz one of hip-hop’s leading trap rappers on a secret handshake.

One of the most fun formulas for a great ad is the Iconoclast Angle: pairing two entertainers who could not seem more disparate on paper, but have a surprising spark of chemistry when brought together. It doesn’t get more unexpected than bringing Future, the Atlanta rapper who exudes a preternatural, stoic sense of cool, into the quirky, wild and kinetic world of Taika Waitti. And that’s exactly why Waititi’s new Belvedere ad that places him opposite Future Hendrix is such a fun watch.

Faced with succeeding the timeline-stopping Belvedere ad he cooked up with Daniel Craig almost two years ago, Waititi immediately knew he couldn’t just run the same play again. “Let's try and do it again, but try not to repeat ourselves,” was the mantra, Waititi tells GQ. “It was just trying to keep it within that same wheelhouse, make it fun and a bit weird and with someone different. And then that's where the idea to bring Future in came in.”

From Future reciting handshake steps in his head to him and Waititi’s character treating the situation as if the briefcase holds millions instead of top shelf liquor, the whole commercial has a Tarantino-esque flavor to it.

“The idea was to reach for something that feels like the tonal mood of From Dusk to Dawn but obviously not as bombastic,” Waititi explains. “And we just thought, it's just funny that someone so cool and powerful who seems so strong and gangster comes into this amazing ranchero—and then there's this really ridiculous long-winded secret handshake. And that idea came from seeing my kids and other people back home doing these handshakes. The thing with those handshakes is, at a certain point it's too long, then it ventures into the field of overkill and ridiculous. I liked the thought of taking it to that point—and then pushing it and going even further with it.”

The intricate secret handshake Future and Taika exchange in the clip goes for almost 35 seconds, so, mission accomplished. The complicated moves and different angles—at one point, they each moonwalk their fingers down the length of the bar—saved the duo from having to nail it in one take, but Waititi swears they could have if they needed to. “We were pretty close to getting the whole thing all in one go,” he laughs. “Obviously there's some contraptions required like these sliding rigs and some of the little hand poses required certain angles for them to make sense. I like to think I'm pretty quick at learning stuff, but Future just nailed that so fast. I think he had it down within an hour.”

And of course, a guy with a background like Future’s wouldn’t let the handshake choreography lock without sliding in a few of his very real FBG daps, or as Waititi puts it, “nods to some stuff specific to him and his crew.”

But as far as submitting to the satirical and slapstick sensibilities that Waititi brings to the table, Future offered no resistance—even though, as the writer-director self-deprecatingly jokes, he isn’t certain Future really knew of his pedigree. “He was incredibly cool, nice and supportive, not really knowing who I was at all and putting his trust in me.” Waititi says. “He was game right from the start, and we didn't do very many takes of anything.” (Waititi, on his end, admits that when it comes to new music, he’s the “old guy letting everything wash over me until I go ‘Hey, that’s awesome’,” but says Future’s reputation preceded him either way. “It was a really cool buzz for me to actually be around him.”)

Taika’s grills were once again overseen by his partner Rita Ora (“She was like, "Keep it small, you can't pull those big ones off”) but the rest of the ad feels specifically 2024 in mood and style. While the Mexican ranchero theme was an organic idea, it is striking how the ad, down to Future’s boots and Waititi’s 10-gallon, fits into the larger context of a broader western reclamation that’s happening across pop culture right now.

“I like that there are always going to be these cool adaptations of that culture,” Waititi says of the western aesthetic, “And in some ways for some people it’s a reclaiming of it. There have always been Black cowboys but they’ve been lost in the history of the Western and it's amazing to see that resurgence happening in a big way. Traditionally I don't think there are too many Polynesian cowboys in the States, so, we're taking it too!” he laughs.

But since Taika does not make music, might we see that manifest across one of his next films instead, buoyed by his fun experience making this spot? “I've always loved westerns, so it’s not out of the question” he hedges. “I grew up in a part of New Zealand where the only real mode of transport is horses and there's a lot of cowboys in New Zealand as it were.”

For now though we’ll just have to make due with a three-minute vodka commercial that sets a new standard for liquor advertising. Throw on one of Future’s excellent two new albums—which Waititi also promises to dig into himself—and watch two masters of their craft square off with the longest recorded handshake in the history of cinema.

Originally Appeared on GQ