In time for the holiday season, the original animated film, Extinct, arrives on Netflix. Extinct follows a group of now-extinct animals transported to modern-day Shanghai. Co-directed by veteran animator David Silverman, who directed numerous episodes and shorts for The Simpsons and 2007's The Simpsons Movie, the movie features plenty of freewheeling fun as a uniquely adorable species known as the flummels try to prevent their species from going extinct in the 19th century. For Silverman, the experience was a thoroughly enjoyable one, from including nods to past influences to working with his stellar cast and crew.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Silverman provided behind-the-scenes secrets in bringing the animated film to life. Silverman also praised the Extinct creative team for developing such a delightfully wacky movie and explained how Disney acquiring Fox in 2019 actually led to a creative boon for The Simpsons' ever-growing universe and franchise.
David, this is one of the your biggest directorial gigs. How did the opportunity to helm Extinct come about?
David Silverman: I was in a break room at The Simpsons' Gracie Films office and I was approached by the three writers, who are all friends of mine: Joel Cohen, Rob LaZebnik and John Frink. They approached me with this some years ago, and I was like, "I'd love to direct it but I don't know if I have the time. If I do, that'd be great and maybe I could at least be a producer or advise it." We had a false start in 2016 and then suddenly, towards the end of 2017, it was going to happen again and we had a meeting about it.
They told me after the first attempt didn't work out that they were going to continue to look for investors and they found it in China Lion. Sure enough, by the end of the December, we were having a meeting about it and discussing it. We were happily talking about engaging Cinesite in Montreal, which I was very happy with it being an all-North American production. The beginning of 2018, we were off to the races and had a table read around the middle or end of January and away we went. I was so happy to have Raymond Persi as co-director, I didn't even think he'd be available but apparently he had been talking with them previously and away we went! [laughs]
How did you come up with the look and movement of the flummels? They have one of the more unique animated creature designs in recent memory.
It was certainly a challenge!
There were some times Raymond and I were just looking at each other because all they had written was that they had a hole in the middle. We were trying to figure this out and the earlier designs looked kind of like a squirrel with a hole in them and big hump, but looking at them, that doesn't really work. They have to be more bipedal. Everything looked like animals that had a gunshot in them but finally we came up with something that followed the flow, with a circle in the lower half, and everything radiates out from that.
Our character designer Ryan O'Loughlin really codified and came up with an idea. The people at Cinesite also helped [clarify it] with their modeling department coming up with variations of shapes, based on the models, in a way that that economical but also artistic. Everything came together but we were a little worried that, while we liked it, if we showed to people they might go, "Aaah!" [laughs] But we showed it to people and they thought they were so cute.
How was it having a big homage to Ray Harryhausen with the cyclops?
That was all Ryan because we had the cyclops in mind, and when me and Raymond saw it, we thought it was perfect. You've got to tip the lid to Harryhausen. [laughs] A wonderful pioneer and a great guy. I was actually privileged to meet with him and sit down next to him at a dinner years ago. I was thrilled and he could not have been nicer. It was absolutely great to do that and I was very happy that I ended up voicing the cyclops, kind of by default. [laughs]
You've worked with all-star casts before on The Simpsons but how was it assembled the voice cast for Extinct?
It worked out very well. We were all very fortunate. The harder casting, just in terms of getting people together, was getting Adam Devine and Rachel Bloom as Ed and Op, but once we got them, it was so great. I was so happy. We had this meeting with Adam and he was effusive. He really loved it and wanted to do it. With Rachel, our casting director reached out and she said, "Sure!" And we were so happy to get them and everybody else. Ken Jeong was perfect as the dog Clarance.
Other things just seemed natural, like Jim Jeffries as the Tasmanian tiger Bernie. I was watching at Deadpool 2 in the theater and just thought that Zazie Beetz just has to be Dottie the Dodo, she was funny and just had a charm but also a wit and take-no-prisoners attitude which is perfect for Dottie. We were so happy that we got Reggie Watts for the triceratops Hoss. We could not believe we got Catherine O'Hara as Alma. Richard Kind actually is a friend of mine so he as Wally was fantastic as was Benedict Wong for the small, but pivotal role of Doctor Chung, and a small cameo by Jon Lovitz and Henry Winkler were just fantastic. The whole cast was just amazing, really great.
Given the premise of Extinct, you're exploring locations all over the world and in different periods of time. How was it bringing all those distinct environments to life?
It was interesting because it was a combination of being creative with limitations and I think the limitations really helped us because we were able to convey quite a bit with very little. Having the montage the way that it was, you get a sense of a lot of traveling and covering great distances when, a lot of times, we were just coming back into the Time Terminal with different props. It was a really interesting thing to do. Later on, we had matte paintings that worked out very well and gave us a great scope, particularly when we show Clarance and Doctor Chung in their snapshots traveling to different areas.
We have to give it up to Evgeni Tomov, who was our production designer and art director. He really was great with digital painting. There was a montage when Ed is listing off all the disasters that was mostly done with digital paintings and that really helped. The character was modeled and we were able to solve an issue of covering these snapshots with a matte painting.
You certainly have a lot of experience in both 2D and CG animated, including blending the two in The Simpsons Movie. Was Extinct always going to be in CG?
It was always going to be CG which, in many ways these days, is probably simpler to do in CG than trying to basically rally an animation crew. Studios are set up to do CG because they have all the CG artists whereas 2D artists are around but more scattered and would take more of an undertaking to [assemble]. Also, I think the visual appetite of most people is geared towards CG, more's the pity, but I'm certainly very happy whenever I see something come out of Cartoon Saloon because they do absolutely beautiful work and their films are always exciting but this was always going to be CG.
With such a talented cast, how much did that affect shaping the performances and characters or was that all pretty well set beforehand?
It was a little bit of both. It was pretty well set but aspects of personalities certainly enhanced performances and ways to go in some aspects of design -- modifications, maybe, or maybe in performance with changing the way the characters looked. It's always a bit of a give-and-take. Nothing leaps out to me as a radical adjustment working with the cast but certainly enhancements and great ab-libbing from just about everybody.
In the song part, which by default I had to write the music too because I hadn't engaged my friend Michael Giacchino and his son Mick to write the music, there was part when Hoss does his solo. We had two choices: one was a baritone operatic performance and one was a rap. Reggie Watts is very much associated with comedy and rap and he could do either because he's a Juilliard-trained singer and musician but we ended up opting for the rap route and he just did the beatbox noises on-the-fly.
With the movie out and getting great streaming numbers on Netflix, would you be open to returning to the world of Extinct for more adventures with the flummels?
If the appetite was there for a sequel, we could probably think up something pretty fun to do. It's almost like, as much as this tells a story, it could be Act I for other adventures. As far as I can tell, it's been very well-received. I've friends of mine complimenting me about it. If you guys are interested in a sequel, keep those cards and letters coming into Netflix and whomever. [laughs]
In talking about The Simpsons, you all have been taking big swings with a line a Disney+ shorts and creative jumps like this season's "A Serious Flanders."
That was fantastic. It was a really great two-parter. We have more surprises coming down the pipeline too for next season that are in the same vein, in the sense that we're taking some interesting chances and doing some different things. I think there's been a reinvigorating aspect that's come to be connected to Disney. I've told a lot of people that, in many ways, it's probably the best thing for The Simpsons because Disney is probably the best-experienced studio with legacy projects and that is essentially what The Simpsons has become at this point, a legacy project like Mickey Mouse and the Looney Tunes.
On a personal level, what keeps you creatively fulfilled to continue working with these characters?
I would paraphrase [producer] Jim Brooks saying that these characters are generous. They give you a lot to come up with for material. There's something about the way they were crafted and evolved. They always take on their own life when they evolve over the years. There seems to be just limitless possibilities to have fun with them. I always enjoyed animating and working with them because there's a richness that we find with the writing and the performances, with the same wonderful cast we've had from the beginning. To me, it's always interesting and always a fresh challenge and I've had a very busy year myself! [laughs]
How many Simpsons shorts alone did you do this year?
If I include the small bit we did for Conan [O'Brien], I'd say six. They're always rolling right on top of each other and it'll be nice to have a little break here soon. [laughs]
Directed by David Silverman and Raymond S. Persi, Extinct is available to stream on Netflix.