This past week I had the chance to attend the press conference for the new movie, The Creator, which opens in theaters tomorrow, September 29th! This movie looks unbelievably good with great twists and turns!

ABOUT THE CREATOR:

An epic sci-fi action thriller set amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, “The Creator” stars John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, and Allison Janney. Joshua (Washington), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Chan), is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war…and mankind itself. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory, only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child (Voyles). The film is directed by Gareth Edwards, with a screenplay by Gareth Edwards and Chris Weitz from a story by Gareth Edwards. The producers are Gareth Edwards, p.g.a., Kiri Hart, Jim Spencer, p.g.a., and Arnon Milchan. The executive producers are Yariv Milchan, Michael Schaefer, Natalie Lehmann, Nick Meyer, and Zev Foreman.

INTERVIEW FOR THE CREATOR:

1. Can you tell me how it came about this movie?- asked to Gareth

There are lots of ways of trying to explain where the idea came from.  The most unique one which he remembers very clearly was that he had just finished Star Wars.  He needed a break so went on a road trip. He was looking out the window and then he passed this factory which had a Japanese logo on it.  He thought maybe they were robots and had a thought if they did a robot built in a factory and you step outside the factory for the first time. And everything you see is brand new from the outside world. 

2. This is a film that shot in several countries, like, seven or eight countries all around the globe.  Why did you choose to do that and what does that bring to a film in terms of the creative benefits and in terms of the obstacles, the challenges?  -asked to Gareth

When you make a movie like this, you design the world.  You do all these cool pieces of artwork.  You show a studio.  The executives will say, “You’ll never find anywhere that looks like this.  You’re gonna have to build it in a soundstage.  It’s gonna cost $2 hundred million, and you’ll shoot it against green screen.”  And he was like, “NO”!  Like, forget the literal images.  This is just the idea.  We’ll design it based on whatever we actually film.  So, we’ll do all the design, like, when we finish the movie.  Sort of like making the movie in reverse. 

He said they went to eight different countries and shot the movie a lot more like an independent film, to some extent.  And then when it was all finished, they had a big chunk of the budget for Industrial Light and Magic and some other vendors.  Basically, he said they edited the film, got frames from each shot in the movie, gave them to the Production Designer and the concept artist.  And what normally happens a year and a half earlier was then happening during the edit.  And they were painting and designing all the sci-fi just on the shots we were actually using. 

 

3. What is it about science fiction that appeals to you so much?- asked to Gareth

Gareth said it was probably two main reasons.  One of them was growing up with Star Wars and being promised an amazing world with spaceships and robots.  And then you kind of realize it’s not true and that’s not gonna happen.  So the second best thing was to actually create these stories for kids to grow up with. And what’s so good about those stories is they change one aspect of real life.  Basically you can live your whole life and have certain set beliefs.  They never really get challenged because nothing really happens out of the ordinary.  And so, you think, you know, everything you believe about the world is correct. And you can live and die and have the same views the entire time.  But when you change some aspect of the world to be an extreme you realize you start questioning what your beliefs are. That is the best type of science fiction. In this, we were using AI as a kind of metaphor for people who are different to yourself.  And that’s how it started.  But then obviously in the last year or so, it’s become quite a reality.  And it’s gotten very surreal. 

 

4. This is a film with incredible visuals.  It’s got suspense.  It’s intense.  But obviously, it’s also got a core emotional story, which is so vital to the film.   Again, why is that so important to you?  And tell us about it in this film. -asked to Gareth

 

Gareth said one of his biggest impacts on him as a kid was Steven Spielberg’s ET.  And as a kid, I went in, all he was interested in was wanting to see an alien and a spaceship and BMX’es.  And then he got absolutely moved to tears on this emotional journey with the two of them. 

 

5. Madeleine was incredible in the film.  Can you share a little bit about her audition and what it was that made you say yes, this is our Alfie? -asked to Gareth

Gareth said it was very simple because she was as strong in the audition as she was in the movie.  But essentially, they did an open casting call for , hundreds of kids around the world sent in tapes.  It was during the pandemic.  And then they got it down to show me a hundred or two hundred videos of kids.  Then it went down to the top 10. The first person he met was Madeleine. She came in and did the scene. She was so emotional and brilliant.  And he thought,  this is too good to be true.  Maybe the mom has played a trick on her.  Maybe she told her something just before she came in.  And I got paranoid that it was a one-off thing and it would never happen again.  And so, like, a bit cheekily at the end, I was like, “Hey, do you mind playing around and we just, like, make something up?”  So, I invented this other scene and she did something even more, heart-grabbing.  And I was just like, okay, this is it.  This is our kid.  

BE SURE TO WATCH THE CREATOR COMING OUT TOMORROW IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE!