The Creator: How Rogue One Inspired Gareth Edwards’ New Approach to Sci-Fi Movies

The Holy Grail

That movie would be an epic sci-fi war movie following flawed, morally complex protagonists, perhaps not a massive departure for the man who had just made Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But Edwards would go about filming this story in a very different way.

Throughout his career, Edwards has directed independent short films like Factory Farmed and blockbusters like Godzilla. “It has always been my goal to find the holy grail, the sweet spot between those two processes,” Edwards says. With The Creator, Edwards took an almost backward approach to the production of Rogue One.

“Normally, with a big blockbuster, you design the entire movie. You sit down with concept artists and figure out what the world is like, and there is nowhere in the world that comes close to it, so you build big sets and use a lot of green screen,” Edwards explains. “Something about that process doesn’t feel as real as I would like it to, so I did it the other way round.”

Edwards and his team went on a global search for locations that were close to what was required by the screenplay. In the end, the movie was shot in eight different countries, with its crew going to 150 different hotels and traveling 10,000 miles.

“The idea was that we would shoot the movie as if it really existed, without sets, in real locations with real people,” Edwards says. “Then we digitally augmented the science fiction elements on top of that.”

Science Fictional Ingredients

Adding those science fiction elements was the job of production designer James Clyne, who had worked with Edwards before on Rogue One. “Essentially, I knew whoever was the production designer on this film would have to paint a million images at the speed of light because there were going to be so many paintovers, photoshops, and concept art put over the plates that we shot,” Edwards says.