Daniel Kleinman Reimagines Pulp Crime Aesthetics for Amazon's 'Play Dirty'

​Nexus Studios collaborated with acclaimed director Daniel Kleinman and Rattling Stick to craft the main title sequence for Shane Black’s new action heist thriller, Play Dirty.

Transforming the iconic style of mid-century pulp crime novels into a bold, cinematic experience, the title sequence sets the tone for the action-packed, darkly comedic detective caper. Play Dirty is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video. 

Play Dirty follows expert thief Parker (Mark Wahlberg) and his crew, Grofield (LaKeith Stanfield), Zen (Rosa Salazar) as they attempt the biggest heist of their lives, ultimately pitting themselves against the New York mob. Daniel drew on the instantly recognisable look of vintage pulp detective fiction to set the tone for the film’s stylised crime world. 

Inspired by traditional craft - such as oil painting and halftone printing - the titles evoke the look of 1940s-70s crime paperbacks, complete with visible brushstrokes, misaligned colours, and shifting paper textures. Kleinman and the Nexus Studios team explored the distinctive imperfections of vintage print, turning them into narrative motifs: circular halftone dots transform into gun barrels, bullet holes, and even subway maps, before zooming back out into new imagery. 

“One of the challenges was to create a modern sequence while keeping true to the soul of this nostalgic illustrative style, not always using the same media and then making it all animate. I hope the outcome feels fresh and new as well as acknowledging the history of the golden age of pulp illustration.” Daniel Kleinman, director.