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Jon Spaihts:Very little mandate.
We really just sat down to figure out what the story ought to be.
Strange story to tell.
In the end, his origin story from the comics is so compelling that we found it undeniable.
His is one of the most elegant origin stories.
You already had some great bones to work with there.
I think it is the best comic book origin story.
It has a tragic sweep and an epic scale that makes it a real saga in its own right.
Do you think that thats a way for these films to move forward?
I think were seeing that begin to happen a little bit.
I dont actually know how the Black Panther film is going to go.
I dont know the story.
Its a way to step out of the potentially repetitious origin story business.
Was the comic book genre something youve been kind of chomping to get into yourself?
I was very fortunate to be part of the process.
The villains in the movie are Kaecilius and Dormammu.
Were any others tossed around?
Thats a very different quality of adventure for Strange to have.
It really helped in this case that the process was so integrated.
As we conceived the world, we already in a feedback loop with the visual creatives.
How much did things change when you passed it on to Scott and Cargill?
The bones stayed in place.
Its all very recognizable.
All the big set pieces in my draft are still there in the final film.
Some of them are beat per beat like I wrote them.
Some of them have evolved rather fantastically since I had left them last.
It was a combination of sort of Old Home Week and some big surprises.
Really, it was a great experience for me at both ends.
Derrickson and Cargill did fantastic work.
I think, oddly enough, perhaps paradoxically, if youre doing it right, it has to suck.
Thats simply the reality of screenwriting in this era.
That is what it is.
You will cycle through more often than not.
The experience Ive had onPassengerswhere Ive been in the saddle from end to end is very rare.
I think it can easily never happen to me again in a long successful career.
There are ways in which it wont be real until Im sitting in a theater eating popcorn.
There are ways it probably wont feel real even then.
Its a slow process of amazement and awakening.
I was lucky enough to be on set throughout production.
Yes, although literary doesnt necessarily need to mean serious or somber.
Theres a strong Douglas Adams influence on me.
Ive learned some things from that.
Im playing a couple of those games inPassengers.
Let me ask you about two other projects that have your name on them.The Mummy.
Are you still involved in it?
I know a few people have kind of kicked that one around too.
I did a bunch of drafts.
Then I co-wrote a bunch of drafts with the director, Alex Kurtzman, a lovely guy.
Ive had a lot to do with the shaping of it.
It is both a horror movie and an action-adventure movie.
Its horror adventure, which is a genre I love.
Theres a lot in them thats fresh.
I have very high hopes.
At present, Im not involved.
Im just sitting around like the rest of the public, waiting to lay my eyes on a movie.
AndPacific Rim: Maelstrom?
I think its very much his vision now.
When you turn on the computer in the morning, whats the first file you open?
What are you working on now?
The Forever War, an adaptation of a Joe Haldeman novel.
Its a top five book for me in all of science fiction.
I couldnt be happier to be working on it.
Im doing it for Channing Tatum.
No director attached to it yet.
Theyve been talking about making it for a while.
Im glad to hear its moving forward.
Yeah, Im thrilled myself.
Its both military epic and an epic love story.
Thats a real treasure.
But now a lot of your stuff is hitting the screen.
Well its certainly a better world when movies are hitting the screen.
Things take a long time.
Things go to sleep and then wake up again.
Never write yourPassengersand then cling to it as your one hope of realizing your dreams as a story teller.
Plant as many seeds as possible and one day, youll find yourself standing in a forest.
Doctor Strangeis out in theaters now.
