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Scott Derrickson on "Paradise Lost" Adaptation
From Sci Fi Wire...
Quote:
"Director Scott Derrickson, who is developing a movie based on John Milton's 17th-century epic poem Paradise Lost, told SCI FI Wire that he's having dinner with Hellboy helmer Guillermo del Toro soon to discuss ways to visualize the fantastical story--and likes our suggestion of Mickey Rourke as a possible contender to play Lucifer.
"One of the reasons why I jumped and ... decided to do Paradise Lost--and certainly I decided to try--was seeing the last two films that Guillermo del Toro made and seeing Pan's Labyrinth and then especially seeing Hellboy II," Derrickson (The Day the Earth Stood Still) said in an interview on Dec. 5 in Beverly Hills, Calif. "Hellboy II knocked me out, and the reason it knocked me out was because of what he did with the budget that he had, and he managed to make a universe that was physical and real and that felt textural, and it felt like it was there, and it was very fantastical but without any falseness to it."
Derrickson added, "I'm going to have dinner with him later this month to talk. ... I've done a lot of research about how he made that film. ... He and Peter Jackson have really ... cracked the code for sci-fi/fantasy filmmaking in terms of the use of physical material, miniatures and CGI, and when to use what and how to establish that relationship in a visual manner that works for an audience. I really think they're working at a level that no one else is, though, so I've tried to learn from them. ... And it's certainly bringing what I'm learning and what I know to the table for Paradise Lost."
Derrickson added the he'd love to bring del Toro on to the project, though he's aware the Oscar winner is already committed to several other projects, notably the two Hobbit movies he will direct for producer Peter Jackson.
"That also becomes an issue for the other producers of the movie and the studio and all that kind of thing, but if I could, I certainly would," Derrickson said. "I mean, I'll certainly bring it up to him. ... I think that in genre filmmaking, he's the most exciting filmmaker in the world right now."
As for who will play the lead character of Lucifer in the tale about his fall from grace and Adam and Eve's transgression in the Garden of Eden?
"The way it's written in the script [by Stuart Hazeldine], it's really juicy," Derrickson said, adding: "The reason I want to do the movie has nothing to do with the visual effects or the creation of heaven or hell or any of that. It is the story, it is that character. It's a story about the fall of Lucifer. ... Milton created the first real antihero in the character of Lucifer, and ... he's not the villain in the movie. ... All I can tell you is I'm going to focus less on movie stardom and more on acting. I just want an actor who can really do it."
A guy like Mickey Rourke comes to mind?
"Somebody who could play the madness side of it, yeah," Derrickson said. "Mickey Rourke would be an interesting choice. Have you seen The Wrestler yet? ... I do [have other people in mind], but I probably shouldn't say, yeah. Just because we haven't sent it out yet. ... I'm doing one more polish with the writer on the script, and then we're going to send it out, so I wouldn't want the actors who I have in mind to hear about it."
Following is an edited version of Derrickson's other comments about Paradise Lost. Derrickson's Day the Earth Stood Still remake opens Dec. 12.
What can you tell me about Paradise Lost?
Derrickson: I'm in a holding deal with Warner Brothers and Legendary [Pictures]. It's a co-production with them, ... which I'm very excited about, because I think that at the studio level, the Legendary/Warner Brothers relationship is the most interesting thing happening in Hollywood with, you know, Zack Snyder's movies and the Batman films. And they really seem to be behind the vision of this movie. ... It's Milton's Paradise Lost, I mean, it really is. ...
I liked the idea of a big-budget movie about the fall of Lucifer and the war in heaven. That's interesting; no one's done that before. But I didn't think that a script could be done that would still be the true Milton, would feel like Milton. And the writer who did the screenplay, Stu Hazeldine, wrote one of the most brilliant scripts I've ever read. And when I read it, I think all of us were kind of blown away at what he had forged out in the screenplay form, and so if I can figure out how to properly visualize that script, it will be something.
The risk is that it turns into Spawn.
Derrickson: Yeah, there was a lot of risk with it. But, you know, I made an exorcism movie [The Exorcism of Emily Rose] after The Exorcist, and I did a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, so, I guess I'm just only up for suicidal challenges, you know? [laughs] ...
Warner Brothers and Legendary have enough belief it in that they're spending some real money on it. All of us are in agreement that, let's spend this money, let me do some serious artwork and some serious pre-visualization, and then probably shoot some real material and make sure that we can do this. Because if we did it, we would be trying to do something that was new and that hadn't been done before, you know? Basically an epic battle movie with non-humans that can fly, and that's really very exciting and interesting. But you only want to do that if you can do it well. And if I'm not good enough to do it, or technology isn't up to date enough to do it, well, then it shouldn't be done.
We've seen many versions of this kind of thing, from Prophecy to Max Payne. I cannot imagine what it would look like. I mean it's one thing to read the poem and sort of, you know, have it in your head, but to actually see it?
Derrickson: That's what we're looking at right now, you know? ... It's a challenge from a budgetary standpoint, because you've got to create heaven, hell and the Garden of Eden is still part of the story. But the gift of the story, from a budgetary standpoint, is those three locations are really the locations of the movie, and so it's not like The Lord of the Rings, where you've got that kind of scale but you're changing locations all the time. ...
I think that the creation of heaven is the thing that's the most challenging, but it's also the thing where I think we're making the most headway and developing ideas that are really, really fantastic. I mean, there are some visual ideas that are coming to the table that I haven't ... seen before. ... For me, the big touchstone directive for doing this is physicality. ... There's a lot of CGI in Day the Earth Stood Still, because I thought the material--like the spheres, these sort of things--were suited to what CGI does well, you know, in that you can get a realism from it that's better than using real materials.
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