DIRECTOR JUSTIN Simien has a history steeped in Disney, he tells SFX. The films he grew up with - Beauty And The Beast, Oliver And Company and The Little Mermaid - were, he says, "a big deal in me figuring out I even wanted to be a filmmaker".
Visiting Disney World "all the time" as a kid - before later working at the theme park (a ride operator at Grizzly River Run in Disneyland, fact fans) while studying at film school - it was Haunted Mansion that was his favourite attraction. Specifically, he was intrigued by the trickery of it all: "When the hitchhiking ghosts are on your arm at the end of the ride, that used to really fuck me up as a kid."
Fortunately, it didn't put him off when reading the script for a new live action movie. "I felt that there was a cultural specificity that I could bring to it that I just always felt was missing from the attraction at Disneyland," he recalls. "You really don't get a sense of the place, but New Orleans in the 1800s is a very specific place. A lot of my ancestors come from that time period; I just had this oddly personal connection to this big blockbuster-y movie.
"The story at its core, it's about moving through this rephase of life. It's about leaning into something dark and finding something on the other side. I was like, 'Wow, I can say all of that in a movie that's fun and entertaining? That's kind of wild.'"
As if he already wasn't one of us, Simien also grew up fanboying for Marvel, Nintendo and Star Wars - so he gets the hardcore fanbase that Haunted Mansion has. It was them - and a ride "Bible" he was given by Disney - that became what he calls a "constant source".
"I feel like it doesn't take a lot," he begins to explain. "It just takes attention to detail, and leaning in to what their conversations are to make the fans happy. I just truly felt like that had to be one of my primary goals.
Bu hikaye SFX UK dergisinin August 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye SFX UK dergisinin August 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Making Alien - Jaws in Space - Forty-five years on from its original release, Alien continues to terrify. We dissect what arguably remains the most chilling instalment in the saga
The seven-strong crew of the commercial mining spacecraft the Nostromo seal their fate after reluctantly responding to a mysterious distress signal on a hostile planet. Here, a face-hugging alien from a derelict ship impregnates and later kills executive officer Kane (John Hurt) after its offspring is birthed onboard. After being unleashed, the fearsome newborn with acid for blood proceeds to dispatch the remainder of the crew.Ridley Scott's much more convoluted prequels have yet to reveal how the knowledge that led to this initial interception was acquired. However, the premise of the original Alien is perfect in its uncomplicated purity.
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