Let's go for it.

I've been, um ...

I g- like, a, I guess, I guess a decade-long goal I have is, uh, when the last Sight and Sound Top 100 Movies came out, there was a lot there I haven't seen.

Uh, and some that I had seen, like, in college when I wasn't ready to appreciate stuff.

And I sometimes, to be candid, like, sometimes the, the more, like, pompous- [laughs] ... movies don't float my boat.

But I was like, I real- this is, like, a good ...

I have a decade to do this until the next list.

Uh, what sort of film have you picked for us today, Brian?

Mm-hmm.

Um, um, and, and so it was never really, like, a green screen, "S- how do we do it digitally?" [laughs] kind of conversation.

It was all like, where there's water, there's light, there's a- a- uh, all the things in this very small space.

Like, the only way we could conceive of doing it was, was practically then, and then with ILM's help to kind of CG enhance the practical.

Um- And yeah, everything about it was incredibly challenging and, and difficult and dangerous.

You know, we'd had a really amazing stunt team kind of making sure Austin was okay the whole, the whole time.

And it was just that, the kind of that strange new world.

[laughs]

Right

...

the screenplay version of what Daniel- Wrote for some of those things.

And then, yeah, the, the main challenge was just the structural, like, when can we deploy Mitt that it doesn't feel like, um, you're conveniently getting an answer to something? Because I think in the book there are so many...

There's the opportunity for so many more flashbacks that, you know, it doesn't have the same... 60 flashbacks feel very different than five- Mm-hmm ... or however many we have.

And so it was all, like, crafting those things.

And then structurally, I remember we talked a lot about, like, the boat scene between Austin and Josh, uh, where it kind of was just, like, the end of their relationship in a lot of ways, and where to put that, 'cause at the book it's at a very different place.

[laughs]

[laughs] I mean, Brian, do you have a relationship with whales that preceded this movie? Are you, like, someone who's been on a 50 whale watching trips?

I've been on a bunch, yeah.

I, yeah, I always loved them.

Like, I, I grew up as a big dinosaur kid, and I think, you know, that's kind of the closest thing you can really get to it.

And then also, I g- you know, I grew up in a very, um, conservative Christian household, and so Jonah was always, like, my, my go-to Bible story.

And I remember, uh, getting, like, a very Christian, I guess just a comic book about Jonah where it talked about a guy who had been swallowed in, you know, in quotes, in reality, um, like in the 1800s, and they had gotten him out and he was all burned up by his stomach acid and everything.

And, like, a lot of the, the, the content I was growing up with, there was a lot of, it was, like, proving the Bible is true kind of stuff.

... and what this whale looked like?

To find out more, please visit picturehouses.com/kidsclub right now, and enjoy our conversation with Brian Duffield.

I'm in the whale.

Help me.

[tense music] Son.

Oh.

What are you gonna do? Just accept your fate? Think.

Think.

[laughs]

Right

... him down goes, um, "They say you...

All your best...

You have all your best dreams come true," kind of stuff, and has a shot of Cruise, like, in the dark with the halo.

And then the next shot is Von Sydow I think saying, like, "I blame myself." Um, and then he has the scene with Catherine Morris where she finds out about Anne Lively and everything...

So the theory is, like, Cruise is...

Gets haloed.

Mm.

The

movie kind of goes into why whales in a really beautiful way that I'm excited for audiences to find out.

What does putting Jay in that impossible situation allow you to explore about grief and the search for closure that might have been different in a more grounded

story? Great question.

Yeah, I think that was always what was so exciting about the novel by Daniel Prowse for me was that it was the most extraordinary setting possible for such a deeply human story and just following this young man who's got, he's not really even kind of aware that he's grieving his father.

I think he's got a lot of anger and resentment towards him that never really got resolved.

And I thought that was just interesting that it wasn't just a, a sad, a sad boy kind of figuring out, um, how to say goodbye.

It's really this man who's very angry and bitter towards his father.

How did you achieve this, man?

It's everything, man.

You know, it's the thing I'm...

One of the many aspects of the movie I'm most excited to talk about, which is Ramsay Avery's work.

where I don't think a production designer has ever been asked to do what he's done in this.

And there's no blueprint for this.

And it always sounds like I'm being dismissive of production designers, where I'm like, usually they build buildings.

So what was it like just trying to find that balance?

So how did you even have any instinct of how to direct actors? How did that evolve?

That's still evolving, man.

I think that's always like an area that I always want to work on.

Because I'm not like the most social person.

guy.

And I feel like with actors, well, I feel like the generalization of actors, right.

Kind of implies that they're all the same.

The squid didn't look like a squid at all.

Well, you know.

Would've been a different movie.

Um, but [laughs] it would've been, um, um, uh, if I directed Underwater, I probably wouldn't have directed this, so it all worked out.

Um, but, um, and I, I...

He was just like, "Oh, cool.

I'll, I'll send it to you when it's, uh, finished.

I haven't finished writing it." And then I waited a few months, and I would, like, ping him every now and again and just kinda be like, "I really wanna read this." [laughs] Um, and then I remember one n- night he was just like, "Oh, here, I'll send...

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, and, um, and I had a couple ...

I remember I had assistant jobs and I was writing screenplays, and then I couldn't get my bosses to read the scripts I wrote.

They, like, weren't interested.

Um, and I was just miserable.

I'm not, I was not built for that life.

And, and so I just started doing, like, these temp jobs.

That makes sense

All right.

Yeah.

I went sort of boring with this, but I think about this a lot, where I went with The Matrix and The Matrix Resurrections.

Both were very... seminal and important movies for me and in completely different ways.

Like I think everyone, my age, like the matrix was, I didn't get to see the matrix in a theater, but the matrix is, I think the, along with Jurassic park, like the pinnacle of studio blockbuster filmmaking, I am a really big nut for the matrix resurrections and the Wachowskis in general, I think are, you know, pretty much since they have made movies.

I, I think, maybe for me, but just in general, I think they're kind of the most important filmmakers in America where almost everything they've done, always so ambitious and not ambitious in a way that I feel like is a look at me ambition.

Like I feel like their ambition comes from the really deep hearted, both love of movies and an exploration of themselves, where I think the Wachowskis are always trying to challenged themselves, you know, when they announced, you know, uh, they were going back or one of the sisters was going back for resurrections.

It feels like it very much comes from a big idea.