Did you find it helpful to engage with the previous iterations of the story when you were preparing for this film?
Nicholas Britell: Well, what was interesting, actually, was that when Benjamin first told me that he had this inspiration to to do Carmen, my first instinct was that I actually didn’t want to adapt or rearrange Bizet at all.
How did you get from First Cow to this story?
Kelly Reichardt: Well, both films were written with Jonathan Raymond and we started out with this idea of making a film of this little-known Canadian painter, Emily Carr. We wanted to focus on a ten-year period of her life when she was a landlord.
A.V. Rockwell: I really wanted to tell a story, especially for my first film, that recognized my coming of age experience in New York City…
Was there an importance to telling this story at this particular time?Jamie Dack: I was writing this script at a certain time in my life where I was starting to look back on some relationships I had when I was younger—one in particular. I think due to my age, and time passing, I had started to look back on it differently.
When did you first conceive of this film?
Rian Johnson: The idea for this film came very very early, even when we were still making the first one.