nutteronabus

I'm a bit late to the party, but I saw Arrival during the London Film Festival last month.

Despite it being a press screening at 8:45am on a Monday; despite being in need of the world's largest coffee (and despite also battling an enormous hangover), I was completely blown away by it.

(potential tiny spoiler ahead)

One of the things that really impressed me was that all of the action that a studio film would normally focus on (the 'Independence Day' moments, for want of a better term) were essentially relegated to being background action. Was that how you initially set out to approach the story and, if so, how difficult was it to persuade a studio to agree to make the film without adding any actions sequences in an attempt to make it easier to sell?

Congratulations on one of the best films of the year. A year in which we can have films like both Arrival and La La Land is a pretty damned good one.

Hi Ethan!

When you first started shooting Boyhood, how much of a script, or even a story, was in place? Were you aware of what would be coming up for your character over the course of the next 12 years, or did the film develop around the cast as you all aged together?