Gareth Edwards Discusses Monsters
Posted 08.15.10 by BrentJS
Writer-director Gareth Edwards' new movie, Monsters, was made on a shoestring budget, with hand-held cameras, home PC effects, and mostly non-actors, but it is already garnering comparisons to such successful movies as Cloverfield and District 9. In a recent interview in support of the movie from Movie-Con III, which is being held this weekend in London, Edwards described Monsters as "a road movie for aliens" and said that the movie deals with life after the aliens have arrived.
I was on holiday and I saw two fishermen pulling in a net, and I wondered what it would be like if they were trying to pull in a giant sea creature. In my mind there was a massive dead monster being pulled into the boat as if it was normal. That would be a great idea, to do a monster movie where most monster movies end. If most monster movies are 9/11, this movie is Afghanistan, where it’s just become a state of attrition.
Edwards went on to say that the inspiration for the octopus-type monsters in the movie came from envisioning what might be found beneath the icy surface of Europa.
If you ask any scientist where there’s most likely to be life in the solar system, they’d say Europa, the moon of Jupiter, which has liquid oceans. Nasa were planning on collecting a sample. They don’t know this yet, but they’re going to do a mission bringing it back to Earth, and that’s going to crash in Mexico. So I was looking at things like crabs, and octopi, and bioluminescence and so on. Although there are monsters in this movie, that’s not what it’s about; the characters are very much the forefront. But you do get a good look at them.
If you haven't seen it already, check out the trailer for Monsters.
Next Showing: Monsters opens in limited release October 29