Predestination, based on a Robert A. Heinlein short story, is the third feature film co-written and co-directed by Queensland’s Spierig Brothers.
The Spierigs are soon to be flying back from LA to attend MIFF for the premiere of the film before heading to their home town of Brisbane for around a month.
Predestination began its evolution into film when Peter Spierig read the Robert A. Heinlein’s short story, All You Zombies. He loved the story and ‘It stuck with me,’ he said. He encouraged Michael to read it too, with Michael having a similar reaction. They decided that one day they’d like to make it into a film. When it came time for them to tackle the ‘passion project,’ they obtained the rights from the estate holder and set to work writing the screenplay.
As the short story was only about ten pages long, they needed to expand many elements of the storyline. Michael explained that, ‘we added a whole thriller element to the film that is only very briefly touched upon in the short story. There was only one line that mentioned the Fizzle Bomber and we made a whole sub-plot around that.’ Despite these changes, they describe it as tonally very accurate.
Peter said that, ‘the short story is beautifully thought out in terms of the complexity of the time travel and the paradox that happens,’ but the characters weren’t fleshed to the same degree as the time travel ideas.
Once the screenplay was ready, they reconnected with their producing partner, Tim McGann, along with another producer called Paddy McDonald. The screenplay was also sent to actor Ethan Hawke, who had previously appeared in their film, Daybreakers. He received the script on Thanksgiving and responded the following day. He told them that he was keen to be in the film, and asked which role they wanted him to play. They were forced to admit that they weren’t sure yet.
The producers took the film to the Cannes Film Festival and pre-sold it to many territories, starting with the US with other major territories including Australia not far behind. This was of course helped along by Ethan’s involvement.
Predestination was shot at the Docklands Studio as well as other locations around Melbourne. They shot for 32 days with an eight week pre-production period. Most of the post-production work occurred in Brisbane, aside from the sound mix which was done in Melbourne.
Michael described how ‘the film is shot relatively quickly but we shot with multiple cameras…We plan everything out really carefully with storyboards, we do animatics, we really hunt the locations very carefully and plan things out very carefully. We do take the craft of it quite seriously.’
He was also quick to point out that they work with ‘an amazing group of people’ including cinematographer Ben Nott and production designer Matthew Putland, as well as the hair, makeup and effects teams. The crew were generally people that they had worked with previously, and they understood the kind of look the directors were aiming for.
The brothers have been working together for a long time now, and they’ve figured out ‘the best way to collaborate and not kill each other,’ Peter said. ‘In this case we were writing the script and there’s so much time to get it into talking about the story, talking about the characters, and what the intention is that we’re trying to achieve, so that when we get to set, there’s not a lot of figuring things out. It’s more about executing the plan that we’ve been talking about, for sometimes a year or whatever. We get along I think very well, and there’s very little disagreement because it’s all been figured out before we get there on set.’
Michael added that maybe he spends a little bit more time focusing on design and Peter might spend more time focusing on photography, ‘but I think it’s a pretty even split.’
In the case of this film, Peter also wrote the music, which was a new element for him to take on board. Asked whether this will continue in future films, Peter replied, ‘it all depends on the type of movie. There are some scores that I think are perhaps not right for me. On Daybreakers, we worked with Christopher Gordon, who’s an exceptionally talented guy, and it’s also fun for me and Michael to work with people like that and see what they bring to the table.’
Producer Tim McGann grew up with the Spierig brothers in Brisbane, and they started out making short films together while in year 11 and 12 Film and Television classes. They continued this collaboration through university. Tim started out as a cinematographer and was behind the camera for many of their early works, including shorts, TVC’s and music videos. He later moved into producing.
They have similarly known special makeup effects designer Steve Boyle for a long time. He’s worked on all of their films and Michael described him as ‘one of the best in the country, perhaps even the world. Steve has one of the hardest makups he’s ever had to do on this film, trying to do the transgender, the intersex makeup effects for Steve was very, very difficult.’
They have a preference for creating long term working relationships. Michael explained that ‘it’s about finding people that have a similar mindset and when you find extremely talented people, you cling onto them and you hope they’ll come back and work with you again because it makes it so much better.’ Peter believes that they’re very fortunate to be working with people they know and trust, suspecting that they’ll be working together until they’re old and grey.
They have a number of projects which they’re working on in LA, one of which will soon be announced. Their goal is to make all of the films back in Australia, but spending time in LA helps to get things moving along. ‘It just seems to be a necessary evil to get films made,’ Peter said.
Their first feature, Undead, screened at MIFF and they found it to be a wonderful experience. This time around, it feels like a homecoming. They’re looking forward to having a lot of the crew and cast attending the screening, including Noah Taylor. ‘It’s going to be a wonderful night. It’ll be the first time it’s screened in front of an audience as well,’ Michael said.
‘I think the film has action and thriller aspects to it,’ Peter said, ‘but it’s also a mind-bender. It’s really has elements that make you think and it treats the audience as intelligent people.’ He believes it will also appeal to people who are fans of the genre. ‘It’s a commercial idea but it also has some artistic merit to it too, I hope,” he said.
Predestination will be on general release from August 28.