Interview: Beck and Woods on ‘Almost There’ and Their Upcoming Sony Film
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods first broke into the scene with 2015’s ‘Nightlight’, a supernatural thriller with a nifty microconcept that turned flashlights – usually a source of relief and comfort in horror films – into a sinister force that called upon a demonic presence to terrorize its users, but it wasn’t until 2018’s ‘A Quiet Place’ that they truly established themselves as exciting new names in the industry. A global cultural phenomenon that was both a box office smash and a critical success, ‘A Quiet Place’ opened doors for the duo, one of which was a meeting with Sam Raimi and his production company that led them to write and direct an episode of the his Quibi anthology horror series, ’50 States of Fright’. ‘Almost There’, Beck and Woods’ installment of the series, set in Iowa and starring Taissa Farmiga and Ron Livingston, is a relentlessly thrilling and exhilarating experience that will no doubt strike a chord with anyone that has a fear of heights. Anchored by a powerful performance from Farmiga, ‘Almost There’ charts her character’s powerful journey from an anxious young woman suffering from PTSD after a traumatic experience with her mother to a courageous woman who faces her fears head on in a nuanced and complex manner. We talked to Beck and Woods about ‘Almost There’, how they came aboard the project, and their upcoming film with Adam Driver.
Film Updates: Can you tell us how you came on board this project?
Bryan Woods: We were initially meeting with Sam Raimi and his producing partners early on about another project entirely. We had a script we were trying to set up with producers and on our way out of the meeting, Sam was like ‘Oh, by the way, we’re doing an anthology series about scary stories in different states. I don’t know if you guys would be interested but I just wanted to throw that out there,’ and immediately, we were like ‘Oh my gosh, well, we’d be so offended if you found anyone else to do the state of Iowa!’ because Scott and I grew up together in Iowa. That’s where we first met. We made all of our first short films with our friends and family back there so it always had such a special place in our hearts and we were just really excited about the concept of doing an anthology series.
Film Updates: The format of a Qubi show is quite different than a normal film and TV series so I imagine the production process is quite different as well. Did you guys face any difficulties in writing and directing ‘Almost There’?
Scott Beck: I think the trick of this structure is that we wanted to make sure there was something really exciting that was happening every few minutes but without sacrificing character in that there was a journey and an arc that ultimately ended with Taissa Farmiga’s character coming to a head and overcoming her past trauma. That’s why I think, for us, it was all about looking at some of our favorite films, like one of our current favorites from the ‘90s is ‘Speed’ where you have [different setpieces] that [are] really difficult to surmount for Keanu Reeves’ [character] [happening] every few minutes and so I think that was one of our touchstones from a pure engine thrust mode. Once we were able to figure that out, we just wanted to make sure that we kept getting Taissa’s [character] into worse and worse situations. Take somebody that has this crazy fear of heights and by the middle of the piece and the end of it, really make them suffer as horribly as possible.
Film Updates: With ’50 States of Fright’ and Rob Savage’s ‘Host’, I feel like there’s been a recent surge of experimentation when it comes to the format and narrative choices of horror films.
Bryan Woods: Yeah, ‘Host’ was really fantastic and fun. We really loved that running time. The fact that it was short – it was an hour long – kind of made us wonder if that is the future of feature filmmaking, where the barrier between running time and content [slowly disappears].
Scott Beck: I think for us it’s all about the story. The story is the story. You don’t need to necessarily build a certain amount of running time and maybe fabricate things [to needlessly extend] a story. That’s an exciting place for us in terms of all these different streaming platforms to really engage what is really the most dynamic version of a film and what is the definition of a film. Like ‘Host’, it could be 60 minutes long but it still fills you the same way that a 2 hour [film] would.
Film Updates: Taissa’s character works as a mechanical engineer in the film. That’s not a profession we usually see explored in film and television. Can you tell me why you chose that specific angle for the character?
Scott Beck: In terms of the occupation that Taissa and Ron [Livingston] have, I think that really derives from an inspiration point for the episode itself. In Iowa, where we’re from, there are wind turbines everywhere. In fact, I think Iowa is one of the leading states in terms of wind energy and so for the longest time, Brian and I were looking at these wind turbines on the horizon and asking ourselves, ‘Why isn’t there a feature film about these?’ So when the opportunity came up, we thought that would be the perfect setting for this Quibi show and it was an atmosphere and setting that feels like it’s been rarely explored before and it also played off nicely with the character’s fear of heights. It felt like the mechanical engineering degree also said something interesting about Taissa’s character, who we see, at the beginning of the piece, comes from an Amish background. And we felt like it was this very fascinating clash of her trying to move past her trauma to really shield herself from what her upbringing really was and try to find this entirely new life. And so it just was all these different pieces that we kept sketching down in notebooks that ultimately ended tying together into this piece.
Film Updates: You’re reuniting with Sam Raimi on your upcoming project, ‘65’, which stars Adam Driver. What, if anything, can you tell us about this project?
Bryan Woods: There’s not really much we can say. I guess the only thing we can say about it is that we love that we can’t say anything about it! We love that the project is a bit of a mystery and that the studio – we’re partnering with Sony on this project – has been really respectful of keeping it a mystery for now. There’s something really fun to us about making movies that aren’t sequels or remakes or reboots or comic book films. We’re trying to get back to that moment in cinema when we were growing up as young filmmakers in the ‘90s where we’d go to the movie theater and we didn’t quite know what we were gonna get. There was still this sense of mystery in going to the movies whereas now it’s starting to feel a bit more like McDonald’s or Burger King, where you buy a ticket to a movie and you kind of know exactly what it’s gonna be. And the fun of this new film is hopefully it will be something a bit more outside the box.
Film Updates: Can you tell us how Adam Driver boarded the project?
Scott Beck: We sent him the script and then sat down with him and pitched [our] vision for the film. We just consider him one of the greatest actors of our generation with just how deep he goes into every single one of his characters, whether it’s something in a Jim Jarmusch film or it’s in a JJ Abrams film. So for us, we think no matter what genre he’s working in, whatever style of film, he’s really going to dig beneath the surface with the character and that’s something we’re really excited about in this one.
Film Updates: ‘Haunt’ was a really great film but I can’t help but feel like you only touched the surface with what you can do with that concept. Would you ever consider revisiting it in the future?
Bryan Woods: It would be fun [to revisit it]. We always said making ‘Haunt’ was our attempt to do our version of the Universal Monster movies. Kind of like inventing new monsters. The first movie was fun. [We] kind of [did] the devil, the ghost and the witch. There’s a lot more monsters out there that would be fun [to portray on screen]. We loved making the movie. It could potentially be fun [to revisit it].
Scott Beck: We were just talking about it maybe an hour or two ago, just about what that universe could look like and we always thought – even though this was very much in the slasher genre – we also spoke about it when we were writing it [and assessed it] like it was a crime zone in terms of the methodology of how you actually execute this haunted house and get away with it. I think we’ve always been like, ‘How did this get in motion? What are the origins of it?’ It’s something we’ve floated around. I don’t know if we’d be lucky enough to get that greenlit but who knows?
Film Updates: Selena Gomez has previously spoken about how much she loves ‘Haunt’ and how she’d like to work with you guys. Would you ever consider working with her on a future project?
Scott Beck: Oh, absolutely! That’s incredible to hear.
Bryan Woods: We’re big fans of Selena.
Scott Beck: We heard she loves horror so that’s quite an honor [that she loves our film].
Bryan Woods: We should collaborate someday, that would be really fun.
Film Updates: We’re huge fans of how you use your Twitter account to share knowledge and advice with upcoming filmmakers.
Scott Beck: We’re happy to hear that. We’re just trying to tell it like it is, and trying to be as honest about the process [as possible] so that nobody ever feels like they’re an outsider. Everybody goes through the same difficult journey. Everybody’s been there, from Steven Spielberg to everybody that’s in film school or just wanting to do this as a career. It’s all the same path.
Beck and Woods’ three-part episode of ’50 States of Fright’, titled ‘Almost There’, is currently airing on Quibi.