Depraved Director Jon M. Chu Discusses Splitting the Musical Into 2 Movies

You wouldn’t comprehend it from the trailers nevertheless it’ll be very apparent as soon as the lights go down. Depraved, which hits theaters this week, is just part one of the story. It’s proper there within the movie’s title when it begins (the title card says “Depraved Half One”) and it’s the very last thing you’re reminded of on the finish (“To be continued” fills the display). This has been public knowledge since April of 2022 nevertheless it wasn’t an enormous promoting level, for apparent causes. Audiences don’t prefer to know they’re solely getting half a film. Just ask Tom Cruise.

Lately io9 spoke to Depraved director Jon M. Chu, who not solely defended the choice, he defined the way it was one of many key choices that made the film doable in any respect. Examine that, in addition to how the second movie impacted capturing, beneath.

This interview has been edited for size and readability. We’ll have extra from Chu later this week.

Germain Lussier, io9: Have been you a part of the choice to make Depraved into two movies?

Jon M. Chu: Sure for positive. [Universal] was dancing forwards and backwards and I feel that was a part of the issue of getting it began. They saved going “Oh it’s one film, no it’s two films.” I needed to come and be like, “We’d like to select with this.” You can not make one film or two films by dancing forwards and backwards. Commit to 2 films proper now, in any other case, we’re by no means making these two films good. I promise you that. We are able to at all times change our minds, however we can not give it some thought proper now. That’s what we dedicated to. And when you decide to that, then you may pull this factor aside and discover what we have to. The plot holes we have to fill, and the issues we have to construct to construct as much as “Defying Gravity.” In order that was a wide selection.

io9: Figuring out you needed to make this movie satisfying by itself, how did you go about reaching that?

Chu: It was actually about shifting backward from “Defying Gravity.” What we found was the angle of the film needed to be totally different than the present. Within the present, Galinda comes down on her bubble and he or she’s mainly the host of the evening. It’s form of vaudevillian. She’s going to carry you into the story. She’s going to take you out of the story. We don’t have the opposite facet of that to go together with. Ultimately we are going to, however not this one. In a bizarre means, the viewers is along with her in the beginning of the theater present as a result of this inexperienced woman pops in and he or she’s the outlier. That’s the bizarre one. Whereas within the film, the viewers has to simply accept the world that you simply’re constructing for the primary 10 minutes. In order that they’re singing and dancing, which remains to be an oddity in a film. After which the conventional inexperienced woman walks in and he or she’s like, “What the hell did I simply stroll into?” That joke is totally different. That one-liner joke may be very totally different on this.

And when that adjustments, now we’re with that woman. Now we get to see her in her youth and be teased. We get to root for her on this musical world. She’s like “Why is everybody singing?” After which in “The Wizard and I” you hear the little whisper of her voice and also you see “Oh she sings as fantastically as any of them and he or she’s going to go for that. Wow. It’s in her.” So that you’re utilizing the type of the musical to really assist evoke the story and that helps push it to the subsequent degree. Now you’re like, “What do we wish for that woman?” And if we observe that path, that’s what we did. Okay, then how does she transfer right into a dorm room and meet Galinda? You possibly can’t simply have one other track simply to have them at one another’s throats. What’s that awkward factor? What are they discovering about one another? Why do they want one another in the end? So we’re discovering a whole lot of issues in that scene. So there’s little moments that we simply observe alongside the best way to assist make “Defying Gravity” the tip of this film. Full your emotional journey, fulfill decisions made, then the second film is the implications.

io9: How did you’re feeling concerning the advertising and marketing choice to not put “Half One” or any singing within the trailers?

Chu: I imply, advertising and marketing has its personal technique for all these issues. I feel we have been fairly clear that there are two elements from the very starting. I had a press release, did the entire thing, everybody reacted. I knew that there was going to be a sure response. However I additionally knew that whenever you really take a look at the nuts and bolts of it, it was very clear. There was no query. Both it’s not Depraved and also you’re stripping out all these songs otherwise you’re altering the story a lot that it’s not going to be the Depraved that you really want. I knew we have been making the suitable alternative, so we went together with that and advertising and marketing—how they do it, I don’t understand how they do it. However I understood what these decisions have been.

And I felt like everyone knew it was a musical anyway. We had musical trailers and issues like that. What folks don’t take into consideration, and that is troublesome, is whenever you’re really chopping a trailer, when you may have music in there they usually’re singing, shifting their mouths, all of the songs are in several keys. And the way do you soar from one track to a different in an natural, trailer means, the place you solely have two minutes to do it? It’s really, technically, very troublesome. They usually have been dancing at totally different rhythms and issues. It turns into a multitude in a short time. So even those we did launch, I assumed it was not possible to chop all these songs collectively. They usually discovered sure issues they usually needed to pitch issues otherwise and it’s not precisely how I might like to do it, nevertheless it does join the songs and you must try this. However it’s technically very difficult. It’s not only a alternative that, “Oh, we are able to’t.” How do you go from “The Wizard and I” to “Defying Gravity” with out altering the important thing? It’s very troublesome.

io9: Inform me just a little bit concerning the filming course of for each movies and why you determined that.

Chu: We shot them on the similar time. So it was form of block capturing, I assume. However areas needed to change. Munchkinland is form of our city sq. in Again to the Future the place it’s continuously altering. The home is now crashed in there, and the home just isn’t there. It’s earlier than the Yellow Brick Street is constructed there, after which when the Yellow Brick Street is there. In order that turned a centerpiece. We needed to transfer in and transfer out of that location in keeping with what a part of the film. We additionally had totally different actor instances. You understand, you get Michelle Yeoh for a sure period of time. She’s up for an Oscar at the moment so that you’re “All proper, we’ve bought to shoot all of her stuff proper right here.” So there are logistical causes for that. However I’m actually glad we did as a result of I feel going out of it and going again in can be very troublesome.

We had to do this for the strike. We needed to come again to do “Defying Gravity,” which was emotionally troublesome for Cynthia [Erivo] and Ari [Grande]. [Erivo] had educated a 12 months to do these stunts and to know the place to place her voice. And out of the blue for six months she’s not doing it. Then she has to return again. For us, it really actually helped in the long run as a result of we bought to collect our vitality once more. We had been capturing for 160 days at that time. And I feel she dropped in so rapidly and simply. And Ari additionally dropped in actually simply. They have been these characters and it was not as troublesome as I assumed it could be.

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That’s only a style of our full interview with Chu. Test again quickly for extra on how he bought concerned with the manufacturing, his course of, and the fascinating story behind getting the show-stopping finale, “Discovering Gravity,” excellent. Depraved is in theaters Friday. Half Two is out subsequent 12 months.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and all the pieces you must learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.