PD: Reactions were a bit on the mixed end of spectrum for your first LRF project, An Eye For An Eye. What did you learn or take away from the critical reception to the film?
WA: It was an incredible experience seeing guys like Bong-Joon ho or Brad Pitt turning the words you wrote into an actual movie. I think I take a lot with me from that alone. For my first project I was actually pretty happy with the reviews it got. I know there are a lot of things that I could have done better and I can completely understand most of the criticism. I guess with An Eye For An Eye, I was a bit too focused on painting the picture of a revenge story in the west, which led to me neglecting the characters. I actually had the characters fleshed out in my head but I just didn’t put it on paper and also didn’t give most of them anything important to do. This is definitely something I have to do better in the future.
Another point of criticism was, that it didn’t bring anything new to the western genre and I have to agree to that. When I started writing, I wanted to make an original story stylized as a western, but I completely got away from it in the process of writing. I think with it being my first film for LRF I was a bit to careful not to do anything wrong and that’s why I looked to much at how other western have done certain things. In the future I want to trust my own original ideas more and I’m also thinking of revisiting the western genre and giving myself another try at it after I do some other movies.
PD: What's more important to you as a writer: critical or box office success?
WA: That’s actually a tough question to answer, best case scenario is of course having both. I would love to write movies that stay in people’s minds, that’s like the most important thing for me. They don’t have to be critically acclaimed to do that but I feel like it helps for longevity. I think there are a lot of box office hits that will soon be forgotten and I don’t want that for any movie I write. I would rather make a great movie that is well received but doesn’t turn in a huge profit, than make a bad movie that makes a lot of money. So I guess my answer would be critical succes is more important to me as a writer.
PD: You've only been with the studio for a short while, but do you have any favorite LRF productions?
WA: I had a close eye on my debut season, season 19 and my favorites where probably Klondike, Poison Ivy and At the Mountains of Madness. All three of them were fantastic in their own way.
I’ve also been watching some of the older LRF movies and especially remember Mo Buck’s Letter to Myself and John Malone’s To the White Sea. With Letter to Myself I really enjoyed the autobiographical approach, something I would like to include more into my movies. And the duo of Lucas Hedges and Elle Fanning is at the latest after season 19 absolutely iconic. I don’t think I have to say a lot about To the White Sea. A man who tries to survive the war. I love movies that mostly focus on the story of one specific person stuck in an extreme situation just like in The Revenant or The Pianist and I think To the White Sea is similar to that. Great perfomance by Alden Ehrenreich and phenomenal movie.
PD: What's next for you?
WA: Right know I’m actually just happy Antarctica is finally being shown to the public and I’m very excited about how it is received. We all worked hard to make the best out of it and I really want to thank Danny, Ralph, Charlie, Jude, Nicholas, George and all the other cast and crew members working on the movie. I’m glad we were able to show the real story of these heroic explorers who risked everything to be the first at the south pole.
But to answer your question, I’ve already finished the screenplay to my next movie and can’t wait so see it getting made. I don’t want to get into details but I can tell you it’s an original story set in the 60s about a director who is trying to adapt Moby Dick onto the big screen. It’s something I’ve been really passionate about the last months and especially figuring out a good ending that I was satisfied with took a lot of time to write.
And of course I’ve already continued writing new stuff. I have a lot of ideas for movies but unfortunately you can’t devote yourself to all the ideas at the same time. Currently I’m working on a screenplay for one of my favorite superheroes, who also hasn’t gotten a live-action movie until now but it’s still way to early to tell if anything comes out of it
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