The First Cut Of ‘The Creator’ Was Just Under Five Hours Long

“The first cut was just under five hours long,” revealed The Creator‘s director, Gareth Edwards. “However, that doesn’t mean there’s this gem of a five-hour movie to sit and watch. As editors, you sculpt that thing into the most compelling version possible, but something interesting happened right towards the end. The movie was two hours and fifteen minutes, and we had done almost all the visual effects, so it was nearly finished, and we showed it to an audience. No one could agree.”

The filmmaker explained that “everyone completely contradicted each other” when it came to sharing their thoughts on the sci-fi action thriller. “There was no consensus whatsoever,” Edwards added. However, he wasn’t concerned.

“The people who organize these things said, ‘We’ve seen this before.’ It typically means the film’s just a bit too long. They said, ‘ We recommend taking out 10 to 15 minutes. It was really difficult to do. If you pull out one minute at a time, you can’t do it, so what we did is we built the film from scratch with nothing, and we never looked back at the material. We only put back in what we missed and what we remembered until we finally rebuilt the whole thing, and it was about two hours long.”

However, that wasn’t the end of the process. There was another critical step for Edwards and his creative team.

“We all sat there and went, ‘Okay, let’s hit play on what has been taken out, and if anyone regrets it, it can go in.’ We did this exercise, looked at each other, shook hands, and said, ‘No, we’ve got the strongest version of the film.’ I feel bad that material isn’t out there in the world, and there are little glimpses of some of it in the trailer, but that’s why God invented special editions, right?”

Set against the backdrop of a futuristic war between humans and AI, an ex-special forces operative called Joshua, played by John David Washington, is tasked with hunting down and eliminating The Creator. However, when it turns out the world-ending weapon is in the form of a young child, the game changes, and the stakes get higher and personal. The breathtaking and emotional epic debuts in theaters on Friday, September 29, 2023.

Edwards, also known for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Godzilla, has been open about The Creator’s influences, including Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Rain Man, and, not surprisingly, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

“E.T. was in there emotionally, absolutely,” the director confirmed. “E.T. is the high benchmark of emotional sci-fi filmmaking, but I was aspiring to create a bond between two opposite species and have people be affected by it. I can’t ruin it for people, but there are moments that have parallels.”

The Eddie Murphy fantasy film, The Golden Child, is another classic 80s movie whose influence has unintentionally permeated the creative.

“I’ve heard a few people say this,” Edwards laughed. “It wasn’t at the forefront of my mind, but I have seen that film. It was probably when I was ten or whatever age I was when it came out on video, but I haven’t seen it since. Maybe subconsciously, it could have influenced it. For The Creator, it was more a lone wolf and cub scenario in terms of influence, but that could also have influenced The Golden Child.”

Capturing the emotional connection between man and machine, namely Washington’s Joshua and little Alphie, played by Madeleine Yuna Voyles, was something Edwards knew was vital to the film working.

“It’s the ultimate goal as a filmmaker, but you never know how close you’re going to get to achieving it,” the British director mused. “Getting the right casting was key. To be honest, at various times, the entire weight of the movie sits on the shoulders of these two. Madeline was about six or seven when she was making the film. It was an incredible ask.”

The Creator was her first movie; however, Edwards said she didn’t feel the pressure because “she was too young to realize what was at stake.”

“Nothing seemed to be a problem. It was incredible to watch,” the director continued. “I could just talk to her about the emotion of her character and very simply and quickly say what the situation was and how she might be feeling. I would then hit record, and this insane performance would happen that you die for as a director. As much credit as I’d love to take for some clever manipulation of a child to get what I needed, she’s pretty special and can just flick it on when you ask.”

Edwards also wanted a mix of vulnerability to balance the strength in his leading man. “That was my main goal with whoever we cast as the central character,” the filmmaker confirmed. “We talked about it a lot.”

“In front of other people, everyone portrays themselves as a lot stronger than they probably are inside. We all act very differently in certain situations than we do when we’re completely on our own. I enjoyed this idea that however he presented himself as this character when the door closed, and he was on his own, we would see that he was struggling, that this wasn’t easy, and that there was a lot going on.”

“I wanted to capture those moments. I’m bored of heroes that are so strong there’s never a crack in the armor, to the point that you never really worry about them. I really wanted you to think that there’s a good chance he won’t make it through this film. There’s power in that.”