WELL WARN YOU WHEN THEYRE COMING UP.
You know, its a weird one.
Do you think that theres a good shot now?
It came from me desperately wanting to work with Sam Rockwell!
I wanted him to be in that film and he loved the script.
But he wanted to play a different person to the one that I had in mind.
And Id heard some horror stories about that happening to commercials directors in the past.
And I got on incredibly well with Sam.
The thing that really struck me about the film is the silence.
How do you tackle that?
Do you do that on set, or is it something that comes together in the editing room?
Actually, there was an awful lot of time in writing the script, and even before that.
Just pacing out the story when I was at the treatment phase.
Did you edit the film as you went along, or did you tackle it in one block?
We were editing as were shooting.
So we had Nick Gaster, who was the initial editor on the film.
Did you find that the beats of silence that you put in the script were on the mark?
Was there a lot of tuning?
There was a fair amount.
Just out of necessity.
I really had to think on my feet an awful lot.
And I didnt want that opening routine to be the opening.
It worked as a title sequence.
You talked fairly openly about what many call the twist in the film.
You seemed to be having a lot of fun playing with the old conventions of the genre?
The more of them we could come up with, the more fun that it was.
Gerty and HAL were obviously one reference.
Then the idea of Sam and his clone.
We tried to do that in a number of different places.
In the film itself, why did Sam hallucinate seeing his teenage daughter near the start of the film?
Was this ever intended to be picked up on more explicitly?
Okay, Ive answered this a couple of times before.
This is my story and Im sticking with it!
But, I still argue that there is a roughly scientific idea behind it.
Thats how theyre all connected and thats why Sams having these visions.
Because, basically, this girl means so much to the original Sam.
I suppose youre right, actually!
But I would never have made this film if I had more money.
Because this film was designed to be done at the budget we had.
This was a film that was made to get the most out of $5m.
Yet many have noted thatMoonlooks better than lots of its more expensive contemporaries.
Do you feel vindicated for going down the model route?
Credit is certainly due to the post production houses as well, because we went with a hybrid look.
This hybrid technique is something that is really flexible, and you might do an awful lot with it.
And it does lend us that element of authenticity to the visuals.
Its been quite a year for that.
In its own way, youve got Spike JonzeWhere The Wild Things Areas well.
It becomes more about what is in your head.
Because visually, everythings possible now.
We went through the Blu-ray ofMoon.
You dont seem to have held too much back for the 25th anniversary edition?
Like a nice library of the concept artwork and things like that.
I think the transfers fantastic, Im very happy with the transfer on the Blu-ray.
I think the film looks great.
TheresWhistlewhich is a short film I did years ago, and there are commentaries and Q&As.
And theres an Easter Egg.
Did you get the Easter Egg to play?
Did I, heck!
[Laughs] I finally got it working!
I saw on your Twitter feed that you finally got it going.
But I thought if you cant do it, I stand no bloody chance!
[Laughs] Ive got it now!
Hollywood loves people who can make expensive films for not very much money.
Id imagine that youre inbox has been flooded of late.
Have you been offeredTransformers3 or anything of that ilk?
Ive been offered some things that I thought would probably not be where I wanted to go.
Not that one, though!
But Ive been offered a couple of other major franchises that Ive decided werent for me.
But what Im doing now Im very happy with.
Im working with Jake Gyllenhaal doingSource Code,which should be a lot of fun.
Can you tell us any of the franchises you were offered?
I dont know if I can.
But it would certainly fit within the same terminology ofMoon,if that makes any sense at all?
Well try and decrypt that later…!
It would have pointy teeth!
[laughs]
Ah, ok!
You mentioned thatMuteis pretty much on the back burner, and youre pressing ahead withSource Codenow.
I understand that your slate also has more films in theMoonuniverse as well?
One more incredibly sad question.
You had that…
….
It was absolutely fantastic.
Theres no bones about it.
Talking like the puppets.
Even when the cameras werent rolling.
It was just a phenomenal place.
Aside fromMoon, what are your film recommendations of the year.
AndUpas well, I really enjoyed that.
Are you going to making films in 3D?
Because I cant help but think that theres a little bit of a gimmick there.
Unless hes done something that Im not aware of yet…!
Duncan Jones, thank you very much…
Moon is out on DVD and Blu-ray now
