But honestly, none of this was as hard for me as being in the middle of Covid and wearing glasses with goggles, mask and visor. I hadn’t quite realized how much I communicated through my face – a lot of director-actor relationships aren’t about giving a line reading but through the way you interact and non-verbal cues. Pandemic gear got in the way of all that.
What was your contribution to the visual design? Was there an illustrator or director you were looking for inspiration from?
Tim and Blur had been working on the story for a long time, and they had a lot of production art that looked like “Thief of Baghdad.” I felt the world itself needed to be a little less spooky and a little more “Deadliest Catch”. All I wanted was for people to run the risk of being swept away by the bridge at any moment. Either they’re going to get chewed up by those blunt-nosed sharks, or they’re going to be dismembered by those claws of those giant crustaceans.
It should be easier to tear characters apart and spill their guts when working in animation.
Yes, and on the water! As Jim Cameron and Kevin Costner will tell you, there are forces of nature. If you ever do a story that takes place on the high seas, do it in CG, because you’re not going to chase the sun, and you won’t worry about people being crushed between boats or drowning. And you will never wait for the wave machine.
Is there anyone you would like to bring into the fold if you manage to make a season 4?
There are many, but look, this show takes time. This episode that I did lasted about 18 months. Initially we wanted to do that with Ridley Scott, Jim Cameron, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski. So many friends of mine, I went over and said, “Would you like to do something like that?” and they replied, “Yes! But the reality is that the only way this show is affordable is if the people doing it don’t worry about losing the money they could make doing something else.
Do we expect the world to embrace this show at a level never seen before, making it a no-brainer to increase the subsidy for it? Yeah, that would be great. In the meantime, it’s hard to get the director of “Avatar” or the director of “Pirates of the Caribbean” to drop everything they’re doing and come play with us.
