You could have taken it in any direction.

Whats the process of writing between you guys like?

If youre coming up with all these horrific moments, how do bounce those ideas between each other?

Whats great about the internet these days is that its right at your fingertips.

All these astronauts have Twitter feeds, theres all these articles and great stories about life aboard the ISS.

This isnt 1,000 years into the future; there isnt some anti-grav machine spinning around the ISS.

Thats the nitty-gritty of our particular process.

So how do you avoid the pitfalls of writing just another B-movie?

PW:One, we were blessed with a budget and an A-list cast.

And I think that helps tremendously.

That was a wonderful idea back in Alien and Aliens, but its one thats really been overused.

We were just trying to be as original as we could.

Do you think theres a tendency, sometimes, to over complicate these kinds of scripts?

A creature looking survive.

The creature has that one simple goal, as do the astronauts.

They too have one simple goal thats to protect us from this creature.

It can never, ever return to Earth.

Two very simple goals in a very contained, claustrophobic environment.

Its a perfect recipe.

That means killing the creature.

They make the decision: Were going to kill it.

I love the darkness of the ending.

RR: It was always embraced from the beginning.

It was a non-negotiable point for him once he came aboard with it.

This is the ending.

Not with these stars and not at this budget level.

This has to be.

Brave decisions on everyones part.

But were used to seeing horror movies as being no more than $5m to $10m spent.

This budget number is pretty high by horror standards maybe as high as its ever had.

But it was all due to the integrity of those folks that it didnt happen.

He brings a very different tone to it.

RR:Hes fantastic.

It was a pleasure to work with him.

Its an interesting point you made about horror being made at this budget level.

But theres also the case that original science fiction ideas set in the present are on the ascendancy again.

RR:Christopher Nolan has as much to do with that as anybody.

The great thing about David is, hes willing to take those risks.

So to us, we like move around the tentpoles that we do, likeDeadpool.

Because theres a real healthy tradition in American cinema of film noir and dramas and thrillers.

Are they realising they need to break out of the formula a bit?

RR:We hope so!

It just all depends on success or failure.

If you get a string of these movies that dont do well, then studios become more fearful.

If you get a string of original movies that do well, then studios become more bullish.

Whether thats original fare or tentpole stuff, it entirely revolves around trust.

So thats our primary job from start to finish.

PW:I mentioned Christopher Nolan, too.

I really think Christopher Nolan has been instrumental recently in creating a niche for original screenplays.

Screenwriters are not often the source of stories they just arent.

Theyre usually brought in on assignment.

They prove to the studios that theres a big market for those kinds of things.

One final question, then, on that topic.

I think you guys have another original sci-fi script thats still in the pipeline:Epsilon.

RR:Yeah, its calledEpsilon, and its at Sony.

Well, I hope you do!

Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, thank you very much.

Lifeis out on DVD and Blu-ray from the 31st July.