BeforeThe Gorgecomes to Apple TV+ next week, we spoke to Derrickson about that and more.
Germain Lussier, io9: So I want to start with tone and genre.
Its romance, its sci-fi, its action, its horror, its political thriller.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller in The Gorge.Image: Apple TV+
Its all these things.
io9: Part of what makes that romance work is that its very intimate.
Basically its just two characters for the entire movie.
An intimate moment inThe Gorge.– Apple TV+
But you also have this huge set, and this world-ending premise.
So talk about balancing this epic story on such an intimate scale.
Derrickson:I mean, those are the kinds of big movies that I tend to like.
Anya Taylor-Joy inThe Gorge.– Apple TV+
Things that have an intimacy at a mass scale.
You have to tell an original tale about an original character to do something like that.
Theres a littleAliensin there,Resident Evil, Indiana Jones.
Miles Teller inThe Gorge.– Apple TV+
So sometimes youre aware of where youre stealing from and sometimes you just dont.
io9: Oh, totally.
One homage thats certainly clear is the casting of Sigourney Weaver [as a mysterious corporate leader].
Watching a movie in the Gorge…inThe Gorge. – Apple TV+
You dont cast Sigourney Weaver in a sci-fi movie without knowing what youre doing.
Talk about how she came onto the film?
And she thought about it for a second and she said, The Year of Living Dangerously.
The Grabber is going to high school. Or something like that. – Universal
And I was like, Oh my God, youre right.
Howd you get that?
Ive seen her play some very flawed characters.
As long as you want to play the character that way, Im interested.
And I think she liked the whole movie.
Its such a cool idea.
And part of it is you have this third character of the gorge itself, right?
This thing that you just want to learn more about thankfully we get to.
Derrickson:Im going to correct you, actually.
Its not made with CGI.
What it is, its CGI stitching of real plate photography.
io9: Oh, okay.
But when youre looking at the gorge, most of what youre seeing is real photography.
And that is what makes it look good.
It makes it look real.
It looks real because, for the most part, it is real.
io9: Oh, thats awesome.
Well, there you go.
Derrickson:Oh, no, no, no.
I didnt mean to correct you.
Thats a more challenging, more difficult way to do it.
It wouldnt feel realistic.
And so using the real photography as the plates is the key to an environment like that.
io9: Oh absolutely.
And I love that this isnt.
How important was it to you that it was a cohesive story and it did stand alone?
But for the most part, the script and the story that Zach wrote is the movie.
io9: For sure.
It makes it stand out in a lot of great ways.
It also stands out because its an Apple TV movie and not a theatrical release.
Derrickson:Well, I didnt know if it was going to be streaming or theatrical.
Derrickson:And I shot it in a way that it would work equally well in either situation.
Its such an original, again, audacious and daring movie, that Zach wrote and that we shot.
But of course, every filmmaker wants their movies in theaters.
And it doesnt make those films any less special to me.
If Im not mistaken,we killed the Grabber at the end of the last one.
Derrickson:I mean, Im not going to tease anything about the story.
What Ill tell you is that I didnt feel obliged to make a sequel.
And those were two very different kinds of films.
The Gorgedrops on Apple TV+ on February 14.The Black Phone 2is currently scheduled for release on October 17.
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