I’ve heard that the sounds that the monsters make were also a point of debate. How did you end up deciding on that?
Andrew Form: I mean, when you’re talking about designing a creature for sound and visuals, it’s the hardest thing, because you know everyone says, “I’ve heard that before. I’ve seen that before.” You play that game over and over with everything. And you start with lots and lots of sounds – at least on this movie, that’s how it started. And you throw everything in then you start peeling back. But Ethan [Van der Ryn] and Erik [Aadahl], who were our sound designers, John challenged everyone: ILM with the visuals, sound guys with the sound. And everyone hears it on every movie. I want something different. You want original. Look at how original the movie is. How do we do this? How do we make this original? And what’s the philosophy behind the sound the creatures would make? Like, why are they making sounds? Are they communicating? What are the reasons for all this?
You start building that out and then the guys start designing and you’re left with what you saw in the movie. But it is definitely a process, and you hear lots and lots of different sounds, and then we all fell in love with the clicks. We talked about how dolphins communicate. And are they communicating with each other? Is there another one out there at that point in the movie? You don’t even know, but it’s making those sounds, and then it’s just breaths and breathing. Lots and lots of debate, but I honestly could not be happier with where we landed with the design of the creature, which was definitely a big challenge also, and the way the creature sounds.
And is it too early to talk about the sequel?
Andrew Form: It’s too early to talk about what it’s gonna be. I can’t wait to work on it and we’re starting to try to break story on it right now but it’s definitely too early to talk about what idea is gonna be. But yeah, I know that Paramount announced there’s definitely gonna be another one and we’re definitely trying to figure it out.
So you don’t have any kind of schedule set out yet?
Andrew Form: No, there is nothing there at all.
It feels like every franchise eventually becomes an expanded universe these days. Could you ever picture yourselves going the Conjuring route where you jump around the timeline and focus on different creatures?
Andrew Form: I mean, what they did was so brilliant, when they brought Annabel in after the first movie. I thought that was done so well, and I love the Conjuring movies. We really haven’t talked about that yet. I think you make a movie and you… First all, we’re so proud of this movie, and the idea that we can actually work on another one is crazy. So I think right now we’re just trying to figure out what the next version of the story can be. But we really haven’t talked about expanding the universe the way they did. I mean theirs was set up perfectly to go into Annabel. I haven’t even thought about where we would even go. I mean, the way our movie ends. But if you have an idea, please!
Were you thinking of doing a sequel before this film came out?
Andrew Form: No, not at all. When she cocks that shotgun and you just go to black, we definitely were not thinking about another one. When you talk about ending the film, for us it’s like, “What is the best ending for the movie?” Not, “How can we make sure we can make another one if this one happens to work?” So that final moment of just her cocking the shotgun for us was just the best way to end the film. And that point when you finish, the movie you don’t know if anyone’s coming to see it. You have no idea. Luckily, we are having this conversation about jumping back in.
What other Platinum Dunes projects are on the way?
Andrew Form: I mean, Jack Ryan comes out in a month for six weeks. We have The First Purge opening next week here. And we’re developing another Ninja Turtles movie for Paramount. So we just hired a writer to pen that. And really, A Quiet Place, just trying to figure out what that could be. And we’re doing the Purge television series for USA, which comes on the air in September. That’s filming right now. We’re trying to stay busy, but I really wanna figure out A Quiet Place. I really do.
That concludes our interview, but be sure to pick up A Quiet Place when it hits Blu-ray later this month (pre-order here).
