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Anderson, master of the ridiculously violent, has been working on hisGeorge R.R.
Martin adaptationIn the Lost Landsfor seven years by his estimation.
Its been a labor of love, he says, and he means it in more ways than one.
Anderson isnt a big studio guy.
How did you wind up adapting a George R.R.
Martin short story?The inception of the film was Milla.
Shes readLord of the Ringsprobably 50 times.
At a startlingly young age, shed read all the Greek myths.
And shes a huge, huge fan of Georges.
She was approached by Constantin Werner, our co-producer and writer, who had these three George R.R.
Martin stories under option.
Milla felt it was amazing, for multiple reasons.
Firstly, its George and he writes the best dark characters and has the best plot twists.
And the other is that she was excited to play a magical creature.
So Milla was very involved in the development of the screenplay.
Its actually the first time shes taken a full producing credit on any of our films.
Whered the characters go?
Wheres Boyce and Alys?
So we were trying to get that balance correct.
Its the first movie hes had made sinceNightflyersback in the 80s.
What was it like dealing with George?It was a little intimidating, because hes George R.R.
Martin, and also, hes got this persona hes like a wizard when he comes to visit you.
It was an early cut, and I wanted him to see how I worked.
So we sat and watched a bunch ofMonster Hunterand went for dinner afterwards.
What does George R.R.
Martin drink when he goes for dinner?
Hes got his own theater there, the Jean Cocteau, a nice little art-house theater that he saved.
People forget that George started working in film and television.
He was the showrunner onBeauty and the Beastwith my mate Ron Perlman fromMonster Hunter.
But George is very experienced in that world.
As you know, Ive had a lot of test screenings, and some have been very stressful.
I think it was my best moment in a movie theater ever.
To triumph at the end of the movie, she really needed to use her powers.
Were making a fantasy movie.
Milla took one look at that and went, No!
No, no, no, no, no.
Thats not going to happen.
Thats not how oracles dress.
It should all be diaphanous, it should be flowing.
And thats not how I had pictured the character at all!
But the more she talked about it, I realized she was right.
Then the challenge was, well, how do you make that look good in action scenes?
Its like Greek myth meets Batmans cape.
And we had lots of people with wind machines and little hair dryers off-camera giving it this diaphanous feel.
Because when we talk about Greek myth and oracles, were talking about illustrations in books and classical statues.
I think you are modern cinemas foremost wife guy.I dont know.
I think Charles Bronson beat me!
I think he made a lot more movies with Jill Ireland than I made with Milla.
Maybe Ill catch up at some point.
I know you love shooting in real, physical spaces.
Visually speaking,In the Lost Landsis like nothing Ive ever seen before.
It looks incredible, but clearly this is not a place that exists anywhere.
We cant go to Ireland and shoot in some forests or Iceland, because theyve done that already.
But I didnt want to just shoot against a blue screen and then make it all up in postproduction.
This really helped the actors immerse themselves.
But Ive never shot anything like this before.
You also often use the physical features of a location to inform the way your action scenes develop.
But it was a lot more work to create them beforehand.
Thats why I havent made a movie in three or four years.
In those movies, a lot is done through looks and glances.
ThatsTwo Mules for Sister Sara.The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
For a Few Dollars More.So obviously there were certain western tropes that we wanted to pay homage to.
Thats how we wanted to introduce Dave.
It was all about that band of light over his eyes and keeping him in silhouette.
How are we going to get him in silhouette, though?
Well, were going to have a collapsed building above him, and thats going to have a shadow.
Hes going to be on the very edge of the shadow.
He just steps into darkness so that its a very bright background behind him.
Here, it all had to be constructed and thought about in advance.
We all know the classic B-movie bait and switch.
One thing I appreciate about your movies is that you always deliver on the sizzle.
Heres ten, pick three.
Its only bound by your imagination.
You would think from the opening,Oh.
Its going to be one of those monochromatic movies where its all brown and gray.
You really do go on a journey visually as well as geographically.
You mentioned Sergio Leone movies and other westerns.
To what extent do you start off with visual inspirations?
Are you giving your team paintings or other references to look at?Absolutely.
We kept returning to, This is the graphic novel that Hieronymus Bosch never did.
What I love about Boschs work is theres so much detail and texture in it.
But where does the food come from?
Thats what I loved about movies when I was younger.
They evoked a world where you could imagine more of it.
All your films, I find, are very fast.
And this one is, too.
In the original, they went on a mission, but the mission was over pretty quickly.
Ive discussed this with George as well.
Thats why short stories are great to adapt.
Still, in my mind, the best Stephen King adaptation isShawshank Redemption.
You dont want the audience to forget what the movie is about.
In previous interviews, Ive asked you about the secrets to staging certain types of action scenes.
Im going to ask you a couple more.
First: Whats the secret to a good sword fight?Not poking peoples eyes out, obviously!
We dont really have that many swords inLost Lands.
We do have lots of bladed weapons.Its become a signature in my movies that Milla carries two weapons.
Its two pistols, two machine guns, two swords.
InResident Evil: Afterlife, she had that ninja getup, very samurai-inspired.
And then it started with the swords, and then the shotguns on her back as well.
Weve made quite a few movies together, and it gets harder and harder to find that.
But a good sword fight?
Its about the lead-up and its about the attitude.
Logan Lerman was smaller than him, so Mads was more physically intimidating.
Mads was like, I just dont want to be the bad guy.
And Im like, Mads, but youarethe bad guy.
And he said, Yeah.
But how am I going to be cool?
Mads has very good instincts.
Because in the original script, he was on a high guard, and he was physically intimidating.
But lowering your sword, its like when a boxer just lowers his gloves.
Like, Come on.
It said so much about the attitude of Madss character.
It was his version of Neo doing that inThe Matrix.
And it was infuriating for Logan Lermans character.
So its really all about the attitude.
How about the secret to good telepathic action, where someone can make things move with their mind?
Thats something that I learned from manga.
If you look atAkira, these characters all have immense mental powers.
Then whatever power is tearing up the floor hits that person and then flings them against the wall.
I think thats always been my approach to psychic powers: to have some physical manifestation of it.
I almost forgot that onLost Lands, and Milla had to remind me.
In her tower, theres a moment where she has a vision of the werewolf.
Were talking about it beforehand and Millas like, Yeah.
Im going to have the vision while Im levitating and Im going to be hanging in the air.
And Im like, Youre levitating?
When I have the vision, Im levitating, like it says in the script.
It never said anything about levitating in the script!
Id made it easy on myself.
Id forgotten all about my theory.
So I didnt contradict Milla, obviously.
And then we had to bring in a rig and lift her up.
Whats the secret to a good twist?You work with George R.R.
That made it easy.
Thats a real water-cooler moment.
Talk to M. Night about that.
For every good twist, theres five bad ones.
Sometimes people think a twist has to be a total surprise and not at all hinted at beforehand.
We lay a lot of ground for the twist as well.
Did you watch the recentResident Evilreboot?I didnt watch it.
I didnt read the screenplay.
I did receive an executive producers check.
Thank you very much.
My favorite kind of producing!
Were you happy with the response to it?It made a ton of money.
But the audience it eventually got in all of the ancillaries was pretty phenomenal.
Its got a big, big audience.
Thats been a feature in my career.
Sometimes Ive had great success opening weekend, and sometimes its taken a while.
I was just thinking about it in the shower this morning.
I still remember the headline on theHollywood ReporterwhenEvent Horizonwas released.
It was Non-Event Horizon.
