The surrogates movie part 1 I

The surrogates movie part 1

I guess its safe to say we became friends, and we have a very close working relationship. Its the three of us, arguing, disagreeing and agreeing over almost every issue. In the end, Danny has most of the final creative decisions, I have most of the final financial decisions, and Alex is the only one that writes the script, and we dont do anything not in the script. I think that comes from Dannys theatre and television background, where the writer is more important. AM: For me, its always the same thing: The script. Alex and I were discussing the kinds of movies wed like to see over lunch. I said one of the things I would really like to do is a science fiction movie. I think some of the great science fiction movies were made in Britain, for some strange reason. Maybe its because its gray and it rains all the time, so they go inside and make 2001, Star Wars and Alien. I talked a lot about stuff I liked as a kid, like Day of the Triffids. I like HG Wells and science fiction. UGO: This is the first zombie film in a long time that takes itself seriously and is actually scary. AM: The movie has a fantastic, ridiculous concept. But the characters within the movie have to act as if its real. You have to connect with them, and that was the idea behind making the film. AM: It makes you feel closer to the characters. There was an aesthetic reason, because the movie starts with television images, and that influences the whole movie. It also gives you a feeling of hyper-reality, which makes it more frightening. There are techniques you can use, like the strobing when the zombies are moving in close-up, which is just a setting in the camera. But video is a very flexible format, especially when you have to do what we did, which was empty whole parts of London. You couldnt do that the surrogates movie part 1 you have to drag around giant 35 mm cameras, especially on an 8 million dollar budget. UGO: Did you have any fear of this film coming out after anthrax and SARS scares? AM: Well, this film was done pre-Sept But in the United Kingdom, weve had this foot and mouth disease. There were piles of burning animal carcasses on television. We seem to be becoming the leader of these kinds of diseases in the world. Genre films like this come out of fears like that; Omega Man coming out of the Cold War and Romeros films coming out of the Vietnam War. UGO: Danny described this movie as the worst possible case of road rage. AM: Its all the surrogates movie part 1 being intolerant. When Danny read the first draft, to him, it was a film about human rage. A psychological virus. The virus has been growing inside people. Everyone wants everything now. There are more and more cars and less and less room. Someone who doesnt move fast enough will get beaten up. Its the same in hospitals when they dont get served enough. Its an instability and intolerance that we have more and more in the west.