Alex Proyas Interview: Directing Knowing

Director of New Nic Cage Film Knowing Discusses Aspects of New Film

Mar 18, 2009

Alex Proyas, the seasoned director of such films as Dark City, The Crow and I, Robot, recently sat down at a roundtable Q&A regarding his new film, Knowing, out March 20.

Knowing is a film about a professor (played by Nicolas Cage), whose son's elementary school unearths a time capsule from the 1950's, and who discovers that within the capsule is a document containing cryptic series of number, which precisely match with past disasters, and some yet to come.

Suite101.com: It has been said that the script for Knowing didn't start out as a sci-fi themed project, much more of one steeped in fantasy. Any preference?

Alex Proyas: Look, it's really just my own personal sort of comfort design. I grew up on science fiction and it sort of really is part of my psyche creatively. And so I just feel very comfortable working within the genre. I think as much as I enjoy fantasy films from my own personal perspective, science fiction is often a little bit more grounded in the rules of the real world and I kind of like the sort of confines of that world.

Often in movies -- generally but in fantasy and science fiction in particular -- you're creating an entire world with its own set of rules. I just like the limitations that, you know, science fiction sort of a genre imposes upon me. But it's just really what I think I do best and I guess I sort of stick with it. Knowing was much more of a supernatural story when I first read the screenplay and we've moved it very strongly into the realms of science fiction now.

S101: You often both write and direct films you are involved in. Does this motivate you to do a film versus just directing?

AP: Well I like it because as involved with a story we’re telling as much as possible, I just believe it’s an integral part of the process. And, you know, probably why I take so long getting movies going is because I really tinker with the screenplay a great deal until I’m totally satisfied with it.

I like going into a movie with something that I feel is as well crafted as we can make it, you know. And that’s often a result of ripping it apart and putting it back together again repeatedly. Because it’s much easier to work stuff out at the script stage obviously than in the cutting room when you realizes you’ve got, you know, structural problems or character issues or whatever can come up at that stage. So yeah, I get as involved as I possibly can.

I mean, the process is always different every film. Some projects I initiate, others I come in at a later stage, like in the case of Knowing, and rewrite substantially. So it really every time is different. But I do certainly like to have as much involvement with the script as possible. I like to have as much involvement with every aspect of the movie process really. I think, you know, I wanted to have a sort of unique voice and its got to come from someone so it might as well be me.

Click here for Part Two of this roundtable interview, as Alex Proyas discusses the popularity of disaster/end of the world films, and how Knowing fits into that sub-genre.

(Many thanks to Meghan Parnell of Virginia Kelly & Associates PR, for her assistance in arranging access to this Q&A)

The copyright of the article Alex Proyas Interview: Directing Knowing in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films is owned by Dominic Messier. Permission to republish Alex Proyas Interview: Directing Knowing in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.