Almost thirty years have passed since the escape function of Doug Liman Swingers Played in the side bar of the Deposit route of the Venice Film Festival dedicated to emerging directors, having been rejected by Sundance.
Bourne identity And Edge of tomorrow The director was back on the Lido this year to reveal his thriller XR Asteroid This is one of the 30 works in competition in the immersive competition of the Venice Film Festival.
With Hailee Steinfeld, Rhenzy Feliz, DK Metcalf, Ron Perlman, Frieda Pinto and Leon Mandel, the work revolves around a group of foreigners who are heading for an asteroid in an old Russian Soyuz rocket on a risky mission to extract a wealth beyond their wildest dreams. Only one of the space travelers will return to earth.
This is the last work of 30 Ninjas, the immersive studio Liman created more than a decade ago with Julina Tatlock and Jed Weintrob using technological developments to extend the limits of the narration.
Produced by 30 ninjas in combination with the 100 zeros of Google, Asteroid Among a list of XR films aligned for launch this fall of Android XR, the new operating system, combining AI, AR and VR, developed by Google and Samsung.
“At 30 ninjas, our mission was to adopt new technologies and narration. I have always been interested in the films that reflect the moment they have done – which can be through content, but also technology,” Liman told Deadline in Venice.
“I am a big fan of Jim Cameron because he is at the forefront. He tells stories that could not have been told until that time,” he continued, adding that the disclosure in Venice had an additional resonance for him.
“I sit here in Venice, not far from the place where I was created for the first time Swingersthat I was also able to do because of new technologies. »»
Written by and with Jon Favreau, the comedy of Buddy about an actor in difficulty occurring in sorrow, was filmed during 18 days on a budget of only $ 250,000 and went on gross $ 4.6 million at the American box office.
“At the time, we made films on the film, but there were new films, and I thought:” With these stocks of films, I can shoot a film without crew and lights, and with the camera on my shoulder “. I said to myself:” People have shot films in the same way for 100 years. I think that movies have evolved for, I can change the way you shoot a film. “ Swingers Don’t look like other films, and I think it’s a better film for that. “”
“From the start, my career was linked to progress in technology and obviously with AsteroidIt is by far the most ambitious thing I have ever done. It is an idea of a giant Hollywood film told in a VR helmet and it did not exist before. The reason why I am so proud is that it was so difficult to do and why I understand now why it did not exist before. “”
THE Asteroid Experience, tried by Deadline in Venice, offers pre-bangeing with the NFL Metcalf reader generated by Gemini, the AI assistant from Google; An immersive at 180 degrees, a live action and an interactive extension, also using Gemini technology, in which the spectator has the possibility of helping to solve what really happened on the dangerously frozen asteroid slopes.
Rogues in space
The short film at 180 degrees immediately plunges the spectator into chaotic scenes inside the Russian Russian rocket of Soyuz while the character of Metcalf has second thoughts and tries to leave the ship via a hatch before it rises, with the story that takes place on the frozen asteroid ground, then a interrogation room while one of the team members is interviewed asteroid, then a question room.
Steinfeld appears as an ambivalent figure whose real reasons for his actions remain vague; Mandel embodies an ancient astronaut of Russia, whose greed prevails over him, while the character of Perlman, is an older man who has trouble facing hard ground and temperatures below zero. Pinto plays as an official leading to the Earth investigation.
“”Asteroids is a story that I wanted to tell for a long time … In my films, I am proud of my construction of the world, and part of the construction of the world is the visual spectacle, but it is also the characters, “said Liman.
“In the way Bourne identity Changed the way you watched a spy film, I was very interested in making films or stories told in space with characters who have nothing to do. The characters who look at the moon and see money, not romance, “he continued.
“In AsteroidFive of them pile up a soy capsule which is designed for three because they think there is a dollars billion to do on an asteroid passing near the earth. “”
Perlman, who also made the trip to Venice alongside actors Feliz, Metcalf and Mandel, said that work on the Thriller XR had been a revealing experience.
“I thought I had done everything in show business until I see it,” said the veteran actor. “I will have to stay a little longer to be able to say, to be there, do this.”
“Sometimes it was a bit detached. But Doug knew exactly what he had to do for the narration in this thing, including the fights with gravity and the conditions”, “
For Liman, Asteroid was one of the most difficult technical films he has ever shot.
“As you say that you are going to pile up people in an adorable space and pull it for a VR helmet in which you are for a world of injury. From the start, you say to yourself:” You cannot do this, you cannot get the camera near people “, but you should be close because the space is claustrophobic when they are in the capsule.
“Technically, how to film more ambitious than any filming I have ever done,” he continues, adding other challenges including the capture of the impact of different gravitational forces in the capsule and on the asteroid.
“The world asteroid building, I loved it. My production designer Edge of tomorrow (Oliver Scholl) designed the asteroid. Part of this is in a way conventional, but how you film technically for the helmet and offer the public a Hollywood cinematographic experience … It is more technology that I have ever used in a film. »»
30 Co-Partis Ninjas Weintrob added: “All things in the spaceship and on the asteroid are the performance capture in the unreal game engine, then approached VFX, which allowed us to get closer to the capsule and the characters, but also with a huge focus on the loyalty of the actors. Then, the stuff in the interrogation room are turned with a slightly more traditional camera. »»
What is the next … More episodes, a feature film?
Liman and his 30 Ninja partners said it was too early to say if there will be other payments AsteroidOr even a turning feature film of the immersive experience. For the moment, the next focus is to nail the extension element of the global experience.
“It started as a script of feature film that I killed, or just a part of it, to create a short film. I did not make a short film from the film school. They are really difficult. If you saw my short films of film film Asteroid… It’s never too late, ”said Liman.
“There is a complete story that I want to tell Asteroid It is the length of the features or more, then part of the excitement to do it with Google and with the Android XR helmet is that I hope you want to know more. With Bourne identityYou wanted more, and you have four other films, “said Liman.
“My goal is to create films and experiences that people want more … But I am also really excited where it goes with the extension of history,” he continued. “You just have a little taste. The film is over, apart from a few technical things that I noticed here, because it is really throughout the press, but you only saw part of the extension of history. My plan had been to make the short for Android as a launch to go and make the functionality. is, it is difficult to compete with the experience you looked at on a head of the head. »»
A functionality version of Asteroid An ambition remained, he continued but said that no project had yet been in the green light.
“We could end up making seven other payments for the helmet … I learned so much about the narration on this subject … I also planned to go shoot a film in space with Tom Cruise and the reality is the experience you watched Asteroid On the Android XR, you are if inside a Hollywood film in a way that I have never known before, “said Liman
Pressed on the outdoor space project with Cruise, revealed for the first time on the deadline in 2020, Liman said he had stayed on the cards, but there were no updates.
“I just finished this [Asteroid] So I treat now what then and what I learned, part of it will be the way the public reacts. You prefer that I give you more concrete answers, but you are totally raw me … I don’t know where it leaves me. I know that I want to do more in space … I am more excited by this idea of characters who have no deal of going to space after doing this. On the way, I was excited after Bourne identity“Said Liman.
“My films are all anti-heroes. Tom Cruise is a coward Edge of tomorrow; He is a complete criminal American made; Matt Damon kills people to live Bourne identity And Brad and Angie both kill people to live [Mr. and Mrs. Smith]. I am interested in like my kind of characters who enter space and I love it AsteroidWe managed to pile up five of them in this tiny used capsule. »»
Liman added that the shooting of a film in space has remained on his list of buckets, but that nothing had yet been planned, with him and cruise linked in other projects.
“I am more excited to go to space, no less … But our goal is to do something great. Many people try to do fanciful things like, “Oh, it’s in space”. I am not interested in doing something that may be a promotional gadget. To exchangeS, it is very significant for me that many people who look at it were not even born when created here. »»
“If I ever shoot a film in space, the question will be what I could do that you could not do on Earth that makes great entertainment, it’s better than if you have not done space. Swingers Until this potential film in space. »»
