Sci-fi's Prodigal Son - Director Denis Villeneuve

this video is brought to you by Squarespace director Deni V sat down with variety for an interview in early September 2016 just days before his first sci-fi film arrival had released to theaters this was a stark contrast to the work he' done in the past which was completely different genres in films like sakario and prisoners I'm always looking for sci-fi material and it's difficult to find original and strong material that's not just about Weaponry Denise said a long-standing dream of mine is to adapt Dune but it's it's a long process to get the rights and I don't think it will succeed the interviewer pushed a bit more into that thought asking why did you suddenly now decide to turn away from grounded budget dramas to the harder and more expensive world of sci-fi he sat and contemplated that question for a moment before saying I didn't turn to science fiction I went away from it vn's interest in sci-fi goes back to a very young age he was influenced Ed by the interests of his father a frequent reader of technology and science magazines and he was exposed to the influences of the nuclear age quite literally he lived near a power plant which he could see from his kitchen window saying I was raised in the atomic age where the big fear of the time was not the climate but the atomic bomb and to know that you had that power just a few kilometers from home I think it's something that sparked a lot of imagination you eat your cereal in the morning and you look at the nuclear power plant cinematically he cited Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner as sci-fi favorites leaving him with an early Vivid picture of what future worlds and strange Technologies could look like but when he grew up and began a directorial career of his own V didn't touch the genre with the first 17 years of his filmography consisting mostly of Dramas and short films but he still had sci-fi on his mind even then later explaining that in that time he just hadn't found a script he was happy with saying in interview with deadline it's been 30 years I wanted to shoot science fiction but I never found the right thing when I started to work in Hollywood people were asking me what would you like to do next and I always answer sci-fi because it was the obvious thing that I couldn't L make at home and I was dreaming to do sci-fi since I was a teenager yet as a young filmmaker he just would not be able to skew the funds needed to make a science fiction film even so he was still taking notes adding new Sci-Fi favorites to his list Children of Men by Alonso Kiran Christopher Nolan's Inception and Jonathan glazers Under the Skin and after a long wait eventually VN was ready for that right thing in 1998 VN would release his first film August 32nd on Earth this very same year writer Ted Shong had released a Nolla called story of your life a tale about alien beings with strange languages and a consciousness of the future and it was a film that would inevitably lead VN back to science fiction but first he had some movies to make Communications are dead help is not com I said mov go on go on outside outside mama mama every day so forgive me but not going home to have a good night's rest as he was midway working through his rather Dark film prisoners in 2012 Dan line and Dan Cohan of the 21 laps production company approached him about directing and adapting T Chong's book and it was a story and an entry to sci-fi that VN couldn't resist once prisoners and his next film 2015 sakario were out of the way he took up the project due to the modifications of screenplay made the shang's original narrative Vil nuve later renamed this film adaptation to arrival with the backing of Paramount prominent actress Amy Adams and Jeremy rener and a script VNV described as seductive the film was in a good place with VNV simply saying everyone was really enthusiastic and the optimism around the arrival project ultimately paid off with the film pulling in over $200 million at the box office against a $47 million budget and earning positive scores from audiences and critics alike after an incredibly long wait VN finally broke into the genre at the Forefront of his mind but though this film was completed VN didn't know how he felt about the new film oh you know when you make a film us you have like at least few days to recover and to to think about the experience just went through and with arrival I didn't have any time to to digest I just went straight on another movie and and that is not good this is not a process I recommend recommend it's painful to do that I have to be in two places at the same time it's very tough and it was about to get tougher for him because the film he was already in prep for during arrival was just a step deeper into sci-fi lore and it was something that would help him prepare for his future film Doom just like our sponsor Squarespace helps to prepare you to make a great first impression unlike the computerless world of Doom squarespace's fluid engine allows easy customization just click drag and drop assets wherever you want none of that crazy coding that just never seems to work is ever needed you can also choose from a variety of beautiful template designs or create your own with the ability to make beautiful Galleries and create an easyto ouse appointment system for your clients to book you for projects Squarespace makes it so easy to customize and create a professional and stunning site that even the space worms could do it so head over to squarespace.com slf frame Voyager to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using the code Voyager the production company Alcon entertainment which VN had collaborated with on prisoners had bought the rights to the Blade Runner IP and were in the process of putting together a sequel but they needed a director originally Ridley Scott had signed up to return for the film but he ended up pulling out to work on another iconic IP of his alien with the production of alien Covenant so the director's chair was empty and Alcon looked to V to fill it in a very strange secret meeting where Andrew one of the Alcon producer asked to meet me in a place where nobody could recognize Us in New Mexico where and and said it's very important Andrew came in a small Cafe and he sat in front of me and put an uh an envelope and on his envelope it was written one word which was Quin borrow and he looked at me in the eyes he said Quin borrow doesn't exist that's the Blade Runner project and that my heart skipped the a beat with the original Blade Runner being one of vn's favorite films and an inspiration for his work and a followup being an opportunity for him to continue his fet into the Sci-Fi genre this ask might seem like a dream come true for V but he didn't necessarily see it that way being intimidated by the Legacy he was being called to continue I don't want someone else to F this up it's like a suicidal Mission you know it's like super risky everybody will hate me I can be banned from the Cinematic Community from the rest of my life but it worth the risk arti artistically he went on to call the idea of Blade Runner sequel a bit berserk of a risk saying it feels like you are flirting with disaster every morning but he was also beaming with enthusiasm saying I've never been this inspired despite his anxieties he would take the plunge feeling moved by the trust Al Cove was placing in him to bring Blade Runner into a new era VN was Keen to stay loyal to the setting of the original film preserving the references to companies and countries long gone in our world the predicted technology that hasn't come to pass that iconic retr futuristic look of Titanic mega cities and skyscrapers surrounded by Decay the first Blade Runner was a dated 1980s vision of what 2019 could look like and VNV wanted to replicate its unreliable predictions to create his vision of the Year 2049 the first movie again is a landmark aesthetic landmark and fil mystery and so we had to relate the main qualities of that movie and then at the same time we had to I had to find the own identity of of this new [Music] movie when the film finally released VN was in awe at the positive response he got from critics saying he felt he had been blessed by the gods of Cinema and deeply loved the fact that they felt it had been respectful of the first film V NV said that the film had taught him to communicate his vision to thousands of people working on it getting over a past feeling of being naive and learning how to fight what he called a little War however while VN had learned this creative Confidence from the experience of making the new Blade Runner earning a sense that he had done one of his all-time Cinema favorites Justice the film was running into a big problem snag at the box office the film had made around $260 million through its screenings on a budget of $150 million seemingly a solid result on paper but a general rule of thumb for films is to multiply the production budget by 2 to 2 and A2 to get the full cost of the film including marketing and other elements not covered in a production budget needless to say Alcon was in Dire Straits with producer Andrew cosgro saying that the company had a substantial balance sheet high-profile failures like an unpopular attempt to remake the film Point Break had left the company sticking everything on this new Blade Runner with a figure of around $400 million being floated as the mark for Success V nuve speculated that this was because of action-oriented marketing clashing with the ouse anti- Blockbuster nature of the film but settled for the fact that his job was to make movies not sell them the moment filmmakers start trying to control the financial outcomes of their film it's the end of Cinema I can't predict whether a movie will be a success at the box office or not people think it's a science but it's art you never know what will connect with people I was just talking with Emma Thomas the producer of Dunkirk and they thought it would tank but it was a success these things are tough to call he also noted that despite the financial mess his film had made his reputation wasn't much worse for wear saying that the truth is I've had more offers than ever this proved that I'm able to work in that range however beneath this confidence in his work and his role he did hint at an underlying anxiety over the film's results admitting I can't permit myself to make three films like this films are expensive and since it's my first time it's allowed because the film was very well received but I can't do that every time the miracle for me about blade run 2049 is that I'm still making movies and you are still talking to me I I knew that when I did this movie I flirted with disaster I put myself into AR massive artistic danger that was like walking as Christopher Nan put said to me once we walking in sacred territory man it's true it's like it's like a sous what I did you don't think with that lucky escape from directorial Oblivion and the second chance to work with decided to continue his sci-fi Saga with an adaptation of [Music] Doom Dune was a tall order maybe even taller than Blade Runner a narrative that many tried and failed to adapt as we've discussed before in our video on Hodor rosi's Dune with only one director of several pulling it off before David Lynch in retelling that many including Lynch himself found to be lacking it's a story of incredible complexity and length and realizing would require V nuve to make use of all of his learning experiences up to that point VN reflected on this by saying all of my filmography has been built like bricks I'm thinking projects that are more and more technically complex and bigger challenges I would not dare to say that they were rehearsals but definitely I was able to do Dune because I did Blade Runner crediting Blade Runner for his understanding of World building and VFX the Dune book is something that vve has cited as another of his early influences as a filmmaker alongside the favorite film and the power plant at his window this story was one he said he had read specifically at the moment when he was starting to dream big about Cinema I started to dream about cinema at the age of 13 or 14 years old and that when I I read Dune in fact in the same period of time but it's just that it's like there was something I got more and more interested about the job of a director at a very young age I think it that it has to do with storytelling at the time he described the experience as one of my big dreams if you had said to me ultimately what would you like to do as a filmmaker I would have said Dune when I landed in Hollywood and people were asking me what would be your dream it's always those four letters that were coming out of my mouth and even more so than Blade Runner VN was determined to get this right in a first for his career he took up a trinity of roles the director's chair The Writer's room and the production Suite he put himself front and center with Dune taking on the Monumental tasks of adapting Frank Herbert's nearly 900 pages into something that could plausibly fit into a watchable runtime and he wanted to do this while still being loyal to Herbert's Vision when you adapt you kill Darlings when you adapt you transform uh it's like uh I think that the movie says more about me than about Frank Herbert I mean it's like it's like it's definitely when you adapt you have to necessarily bring your all sensibility I had the the the chance to to know that Frank Herbert felt that the first this book Dune was misperceived that felt that people wrongly thought that Paul was a hero so knowing this I knew that I will Orient the adaptation toward Frank Herbert initially intentioned and and it helped me tremendously to find my way into the book two previous attempts at Dune were familiar with the unreleased hosk's Dune and the finished David Lynch's Dune both of these films failed to match that goal Lynch's Dune was committed to the story but compromised the length due to Studio Cuts while yosi's Dune was committed to the length but not the story with Yosi adopting a mentality less like death of the author and more like killing the author I was Frank H you know like this but with love with love twisting Herbert's narrative to his own bizarre design rather than following their footsteps VN took a third option he would be loyal to both length and narrative and he would do it by dividing the format is Dune would not be one film it would be too VN described this as the first Liberty that I took to make what he wanted to be a closer adaptation saying Dune is all about details it's so sophisticated and there are so many Rich cultures that are described there's enough substance to make tons of movies there's so many things that I needed to approach to describe to shoot and to bring to the screen that I thought it would definitely need a minimum of two movies I just skimmed the surface of some of the ideas that will be approached deeper in the second movie I need to find the equilibrium between both movies so the first one is just like opening the door on a world this intense undertaking meant that it took years to go from V's initial commitment to the film to the actual beginnings of principal photography for the first half of the Dune adaptation January 2017 to March 2019 with the release planned for November 2020 later shifted to December but of course when we enter the 2020s and our timeline we know what happens like the rest of the industry the Dune production was thrash by the co pandemic causing its release date to receive a push all the way to October 2021 however VN interestingly seemed to regard this as a blessing more than a curse saying that it gave him time to make sure everything was perfect that it reached the quality that I was looking for making the process of refining the film into a grounded walk rather than like a race forcing the crew to do little things a bit differently with more time to experiment and ultimately it paid off Dune achieved the numbers Blade Runner 2049 dreamed of the coveted 400 million Mark raising $42 million on approximately $160 million movie budget despite some rockiness caused by the film's inclusion in a controversial HBO max deal that undermined theatrical runs causing tensions between distributor Warner Brothers and producer legendary pictures the film was a resounding success sci-fi's prodical son was getting his time on the sun and the road to Dune Park part two was being paved a dream fulfilled the resounding success of the first part meant that the sequel was green lit almost immediately this film will be the culmination of a journey its director been on for 30 years the Journey of finally getting to explore his dream genre the genre at the Forefront of his imagination since childhood Bill n intended his Dune to be a Coming of Age story but maybe in a way this journey is his story too the wild imagination of his younger self made manifest from a small green Village in Canada to the yellowy deserts of oracus a journey of imagination creativity and commitment but a film that is not out there for everyone else to see yosi's abandoned Dune that was reported to have been maybe about 14 hours or maybe 20 hours or I don't know you have to take a look at the video because it is probably one of the most insane stories we've covered

Channel: Frame Voyager

Views: 134,300

Keywords: Sci-fi's Prodigal Son - Director Denis Villeneuve, Dune part 2, Denis Villenueve, Frame Voyager, Director Denis Villeneuve, Dune Director, Dune part 2 director, Dune part 2 story, Blade Runner 2049 director, dune part 2 denis villeneuve, denis villeneuve interview, denis villeneuve, The making of dune, dune part 2 bts, denis villeneuve christopher nolan, denis villeneuve arrival, denis villeneuve movies, denis villeneuve blade runner 2049, greig fraser

Id: VgxOuNthZIg

Length: 17min 51sec (1071 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2024