‘Captive State’: Director Rupert Wyatt & Writer Erica Beeney on Subverting the Sci-Fi Genre

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With the sci-fi film Captive State opening in theaters this weekend, I sat down with director and co-writer Rupert Wyatt and writer Erica Beeney at SXSW a few days ago for an exclusive interview. If you haven’t seen the trailers, Captive State takes place in Chicago almost a decade after extraterrestrials landed on Earth and instituted an occupational rule. Humans are now divided into two factions: those who cooperate “for the greater good” and those who resist. The film stars John Goodman, Ashton Sanders, Machine Gun Kelly, Vera Farmiga, Jonathan Majors, and Colson Baker.

During the interview, Rupert Wyatt & Erica Beeney talked about how Captive State was made, subverting the genre, how the film changed in the editing room, what they learned from early screenings, the pros and cons of the test screening process, deleted scenes, and more. In addition, Wyatt talked about what happened to his Gambit movie with Channing Tatum, why he left the Halo TV series, and what’s up with Storm King, and his desire to keep making middle-ground movies that aren’t blockbusters or indies.

Check out what he had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about.

Finally, I’d also like to take a moment to give special thanks to our Collider Studio partner, A-List Communications. At the Supper Suite venue in Austin, libations were flowing courtesy of El Tesoro Tequila, Blue Moon Belgian White, and Hint Water. Without these fine folks, we wouldn’t be able to share conversations about movies like Captive State with all of you, so another big thank you to our partners for their support.

Rupert Wyatt & Erica Beeney:

• Why he left Gambit and what his version of the X-Men spinoff was going to entail.
• How did they put Captive State together? Talk about subverting genre.
• Talk about making a film of this scale for a specific budget.
• Working with John Goodman and how they cast him in the role. Talks about first working with him on The Gambler.
• How did the film change in editing?
• Talk about getting feedback from screening the film for friends and test screenings.
• The pros and cons of the test screening process.
• Why did he leave the Halo TV series?
• Gives an update on Storm King and his desire to keep making middle-ground movies that aren’t blockbusters or indies.
• Talks about the deleted scenes from Captive State. They shot a lot of footage.
• Talk about how much they love Cloud Atlas.