PD: How did winning your first Golden Reel Award (for Whaling) feel?
WA: I honestly was more happy about all the nominations it got. We have so many talented writers at LRF, most of the award races are stacked every year. I mean the other writers of the movies nominated for Best Picture were Jimmy Ellis, Dwight Gallo and Roy Horne, that's pretty good company I would say. The one award we actually did win was Best Supporting Actor. Colin Farrell winning probably had more to do with his individual talent and his big name than my writing, but I'm happy he could bring it home. I know you probably shouldn't give too much importance to winning awards, but I really want one of my movies to win Best Picture one day. That one and Best Original Story are the ones I would be extremely happy to get. But you have to deliver and you also probably need a bit of luck to get one of them.
PD: Now onto your latest film, what made you want to bring the world of Batman Beyond to the big screen?
WA: I was just watching the animated series and fell in love with it. To be honest with you I'm not too crazy about superheroes and don't even care about most of the MCU or DC stuff outside of the LRF studios. The only superheroes I always enjoyed watching were Batman & Spiderman and when I started watching Batman Beyond it felt like a great mix of both worlds in a cool cyberpunk environment. With so many superhero projects on LRF I also kind of wanted to have my own superhero-franchise. I guess it was a bit like having "fear of missing out". My plan is to make a series of movies out of it, if the numbers are good enough. I already have plans for a possible second movie and can't wait to see how the first one is received.
PD: One question I'm sure the audience has: How does your film fit in with APJ and Joseph Kosinski's Batman film series?
WA: We were actually having those conversations about how a Batman Beyond movie could fit into APJ's great Batman series. It was you, APJ and me who were trying to figure out how to not run into any continuation problems with the ongoing Batman series. I'm really grateful you guys helped me to work that out. I remember that I really wanted to use an older Bruce Wayne as Terry McGinnis' mentor but then I decided to create a Lucius-Fox-like character instead - played by Donald Glover. This made things easier. APJ later had the idea to make him the grandson of Lucius Fox which I actually now like way more than what I had originally planned. Of course the ties and hints to the original Batman will always be there but I think the character of Terry McGinnis is very different from Bruce Wayne and I hope our movie is exciting and also good enough to stand on his own.
PD: Now that you've written your first big budget blockbuster film, will you want to write more of them or are you more interested in writing more of the dramatic ensemble films you're becoming known for?
WA: I mean why not both? Honestly I don't really think of genres or budget when I'm writing my movies. I will just pick whatever story or theme I find interesting at the time and than see what I can do with it. If it turns out to be a big budget blockbuster fine While I'm definitely interested in writing a sequel to Batman Beyond, my upcoming movies will probably be more in the realms of "dramatic ensemble films". My next movie will be set in a summer camp and you will be able to see me implement more romantic elements this time. I also would say it's the first time I'm using personal experiences for one of my stories. After that I'm really happy to announce we will be bringing the story of the founding of Nike to LRF. I've read the book written by co-founder Phil Knight a while ago and thought it was perfect to be made into a movie. It was my first time adapting a book to the big screen so I spend a lot of time with figuring out how to do it properly. I think I never spend this much time on writing a movie but I'm happy the project is progressing and that we will soon be able to show it to the world.
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