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Author: Andrew Hedley, Flicks.co.nz September 1st 2010

Stuart Beattie is the mega-successful screenwriter of such Hollywood hits as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Collateral, 30 Days of Night, Australia and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. He has returned to his homeland of Australia to make his directing debut, an adaptation of John Marsden's hugely popular novel, Tomorrow, When the War Began, for the screen. Flicks caught up with him while he was in Auckland to ask him some pressing questions.

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What would you do if Australia was invaded?

I'd try to get out, I think! I have two boys so I’d try and protect them the best way I could which would be to get out of the way. I wouldn’t be worried about fighting back. Leave that to the professionals… and teenagers.

Nice to see everything from a rural perspective...

Setting it in Sydney would have been a hundred million dollar film. And I didn’t have that sort of money. You’re dealing with massive amounts of people if you go into the major cities and questions of geopolitics – you’d have to get into who’s invading and why. It’s the difference between doing Independence Day and doing Signs. They’re just different kinds of movies. This book is from Ellie’s perspective. And everything you see, you see through her eyes. If she doesn’t see it, we don’t see it. I like the idea that after they split up and get back together, two of them aren’t there – you just don’t know what’s happened. The traditional thing is you cut away to them during their thing and see what happens to them and I just like the idea of this mystery and not knowing for twenty minutes what happened to two major characters.

So this is your first film as a director...

I’d always wanted to be a director and writing was my means to becoming one. It was a way (A) to learn the craft of screenwriting and (B) to watch the directors direct my script, to learn from them and just get a free education. I’d just come from being on the set of G.I. Joe everyday and I just felt like I was ready to do the job. At the same time, this was offered to me to adapt. It was just the right timing. I wanted something that was Australian and had great characters, and the fact that it was based on this great book was even better, because it was all there!

Was it frustrating when you used to write but not direct?

That’s a hard process, but you learn to deal with it. That’s the job. For the first few, it’s your baby, and then you kind of get more and more used to it. It’s a great training ground for directing because you learn that your words are not precious, and the scenes aren’t precious – in fact, nothing’s precious! Not hanging on to things is something you really need, especially when it comes to the editing of the film. I think I was the most ruthless guy in the editing room. I’d be like “No, get rid of it, it doesn’t serve the story.” Everyone else would be like “but it’s so nice, we love that scene!” And I was like “It’s not serving the story, get rid of it.” I think that all came from years of getting the crap beaten out of me as a writer in Hollywood!

How did you work with the young actors?

We didn’t do any rehearsals, because I didn’t want the magic to be lost in rehearsing. We did a lot of improvisation with what I call the ‘scenes between the scenes’ – the scenes that we know must have happened but are not in the film. It made the actors get into the heads of their characters, which I think really helped them a lot. I also spent one-on-one time with each of them, often for days, just going through the script with every single moment and every single line and talking it through so they and I understood it, and we were on the same page. By the time they got to the set, it was the first time they’d done the scene, but they absolutely knew what every line, moment and beat was about. They were prepared.

Do you have plans to make more movies out of this series?

I’d love to but it’s not up to us. It’s up to the people coming to see the film. It’s got to make a bunch of money, so if you want to sequels, go see this movie! Ideally I’d make a trilogy. The economics is such that if you’re going to make a second one, you’d make a third one with it. You’d make them back to back. After that, I think that actors are going to get too old. They’ll be 25 to 30 years old, trying to play teenagers. Three’s a good number. There’s a nice break at the end of book three where they all get evacuated to New Zealand – that would be a good way to end it.