How did the idea of the script develop from the art piece of the square?
Ruben Östlund: The whole idea of the script developed in 2008. I don’t like to talk about it as an art piece but instead of as a humanistic traffic sign, actually.


How did the idea of the script develop from the art piece of the square?
Ruben Östlund: The whole idea of the script developed in 2008. I don’t like to talk about it as an art piece but instead of as a humanistic traffic sign, actually.

There was such incredible chemistry amongst the cast. How did you build that? What was the rehearsal process?
Viggo Mortensen: Early on, which was great and doesn’t always happen, Matt brought me into read with the last couple of kids we were casting.

Can you talk about the germination of this idea, for you?
Jeymes Samuel: The film has been in my head since I was a kid.

When you’re talking with Cillian about that and how you’re going to essentially be inside of his head for a lot of the film, what do you discuss about him embodying this man?
Christopher Nolan: I think the first and most important conversation was the one where we both agreed that we were not interested in some kind of impersonation.

What was the process like between you two as you developed the screenplay?
Well the the screenplay developed in a really, to use an overused word, organic way. I knew he was a fine writer. I gave him a premise that I had been sitting on for about a decade. He did the writing, but we developed the story and the feel and the texture of it together.