The film really is accidentally resonant in a lot of ways, because it’s about failures of communication, and in an age of social media polarization, we’re talking about that more than ever. That got especially ironic for us, going into this most recent election cycle, just to see how many things get blown out of proportion right away. The more we played with it, the more Denis and I both realized that if aliens did land on earth and the public didn't get immediate answers as to what their purpose was, the more everybody would freak out. However, our early attempts at building this narrative without that conflict added felt very flat, and felt like there were no stakes. It's a lovely literary conceit in its own right and works without that drama. The story doesn't have really any conflict of that nature. That was the biggest change that we discovered needed to happen to make it a film. How did you play that up without betraying the core of the story? Eric Heisserer One of the biggest differences between Chiang’s story and the film is that the film has to heighten the conflict by having the world nearly go to war. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
This interview has spoilers at the end, but they are clearly marked. Heisserer took some time to talk with us about communication difficulties, what he learned about his own profession from studying linguistics, and how he taught himself to think like an alien.
SCREENPLAYS WANTED 2016 MOVIE
The movie that is in theaters, directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Amy Adams in the lead role, is one of the best of the year, and a welcome respite from the usual bombast of Hollywood science fiction.
It took time to convince Chiang to sell Heisserer the rights to the story - and then it took time to get the film made as well.īut lucky for moviegoers, Heisserer persisted. Heisserer was so taken with Ted Chiang’s short story "Story of Your Life" that he wrote numerous drafts of a film adaptation of the story, convinced the emotional wallop he felt over the story of a grieving mother trying to communicate with aliens who have just landed on Earth could make for a powerful film. The magnificent sci-fi film Arrival, which proved a surprise box office hit in its opening weekend, wouldn’t exist without the passion of its screenwriter, Eric Heisserer.
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