Director Vincenzo Natali found himself in a curious place earlier this year – pushing his sci-fi fantasy “Splice” at the Sundance Film Festival.
The annual event usually showcases mopey dramas and politically charged documentaries, not tales of scientists creating new, potentially dangerous life forms.
Natali says bringing a creature feature to Sundance has its advantages.
“As an independent filmmaker, it’ easy to stand out if you’ve got a monster in your movie,” Natali tells WWTW. “You have an edge. Everyone wants to know what the creature looks like.”
Especially uber-producer Joel Silver.
The man behind the “Lethal Weapon“ franchise and other powerhouse films acquired “Splice” and made sure it got a summer release date – June 4.
“It was a tremendous stroke of luck,” he says. “He understands that there’s an audience for [’Splice‘]. He picked this film up because he thought it would make money.”
But Natali thinks movies like “Splice” and last year’s “District 9” represent the first wave of smarter science fiction movies.
“My generation grew up being influenced by fantasy and horror films. This is our bread and butter,” he says.
And, as technological barriers fall, indie filmmakers will become more inspired.
“You’ll see a lot of cool things coming out of people’s garages,” he predicts.
Besides, he argues, traditional film genres are limited by the boundaries of hard science and human nature.
“The world we’re living in is evolving so fast. No other genre more equipped to deal with that than science fiction,” he says.
And there’s always an audience for these kinds of movies.
“It’s like being gay in the best possible way,” he says, smiling. “There’s a very vocal, brilliant sub culture [for science fiction films]. That’s the feeling of making a gay-themed film – you just know there’s an audience ready to embrace it, an inquisitive, intelligence audience … even if they don’t like the film they’ll still be intrigued by it and want to talk about it.”
Natali’s first movie memories hearken back to “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” and the stop-motion wonders crafted by Ray Harryhausen. A little while later, “Star Wars” proved “an almost religious experience.”
Today, the filmmaker is eager to keep working within the fantasy genre.
“I have no interest in making a drama ever,” he says. “I can’t think of anything more boring to do. I like creating things that don’t exist. That’s a big part of the fun for me.”
(Photo: Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody star in ‘Splice,” a science fiction cautionary tale about tinkering with human DNA.)
Related posts:
on 
on 
on 
on 
