Brad Pitt inspired Baltasar Kormakur's Beast

Brad Pitt's 'Snatch' performance inspired 'Beast' director Baltasar Kormakur.

The 58-year-old actor starred as an Irish Traveller boxer in Guy Ritchie's gangster film, and Baltasar has explained how it influenced his new survival thriller movie, which focuses on a family who go to a South African game reserve for their holiday.

The director explained to Collider: "Lions are not born on this earth to attack people, you know? But I think the situation is very clearly stated in the film, but at the same time, you have to have a worthy opponent.

"For example, Brad Pitt in 'Snatch' was a little bit the idea for the lion. Lean, mean, fast and unpredictable. And so you have to look at it not only as a chunk of meat or an animal, you have to look at it as a real character and we put a lot of work into creating a character and finding references of lions that we liked and felt would present this lion in a different way."

'Beast' stars the likes of Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley and Leah Sava Jeffries, and Baltasar has revealed that he tried to differentiate the movie from similar projects of yesteryear.

He said: "I wanted to try to set this film apart from other films of this genre and try to bring something different to the table. Because obviously, 'Jurassic Park' - a way bigger budget and bigger creatures - and so by getting you stuck in a shot, [we] up the emotional claustrophobia of being stuck, being one of the characters in this situation."