It’s been five years since “Chernobyl,” HBO’s phenomenally successful miniseries about the catastrophic 1986 disaster and a show that garnered both widespread acclaim and a whole host of Emmys, Golden Globes and BAFTA TV awards. Its creator Craig Mazin has since brought us zombies galore in the video game adaptation “The Last of Us,” but now “Chernobyl’s” BAFTA and Emmy-winning director Johan Renck is about to unleash his next project.
From Netflix and world premiering in Berlin, “Spaceman” is based on Jaroslav Kalfar’s novel “Spaceman of Bohemia” and stars Adam Sandler in undoubtedly the most un-Adam Sandler role the actor has been seen in to date.
The story follows Czech astronaut Jakub (Sandler), who while on a solo mission to the outer reaches of the solar system begins to realize that the marriage he left behind to Lenka (Carey Mulligan) is falling apart due to his own failings as a husband. But as his depression sinks in amidst the daily routine of status reports and floating around in zero gravity, help appears in the form of Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano), an ancient mind-reading spider-like alien from the beginning of time that he finds in the bowels of his ship. As the human and tentacled CGI creature become friends, what follows is a quiet and exquisitely shot interstellar dreamlike meditation on life, regret and relationships.
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Speaking to Variety, Renck discusses the awkward situation of telling major movie star Sandler that he might have trouble financing a film with him in the lead (and how Sandler fixed it, and then some), returning to the big screen 15 years after his excessively nihilistic debut, and why after “Chernobyl” he wanted to give it all up and open a “really fucking cool restaurant.”
When you hear about a film called “Spaceman” starring Adam Sandler, you have a certain idea of what It’ll probably be about. But this is totally different.
I do agree with you very much as in terms of what to expect for a film like this. You show it to people and the first thing they see is Adam Sandler, and then they kind of put on the Adam Sandler glasses and spend the first 20 to 30 minutes of the film waiting for it to be funny. And then they slowly realize that not only is it not funny, but Adam Sandler is not even a shadow of Adam Sandler. He’s just a dour, isolated, arrogant man. Because even in his dramatic roles, he’s still Adam Sandler.
How did you get him on board?
It was almost random, to be honest. I had a general meeting with him in L.A. a couple of years ago, because I’m a massive fan of his, and by the end of that chat, he was like, “Hey, what about this space film I hear you guys are developing, I’d love to read it.” We weren’t that far along but that’s how it unfolded. I remember going back up to my room and thinking: that’s pretty fucking brilliant. It was like an epiphany. But when it he said he wanted to do it, I was like, “the issue is that you’re a big name in the comedy circuit, but I’m just a little concerned about being able to pull up the financing for this with you in a dramatic role.” It’s a weird thing to say to one of the highest-grossing actors! But he’s not going to bank a dramatic science fiction film like George Clooney would. He asked how much we needed, and I said, “Well, it’s in zero gravity, one of the characters is CGI, so it’s gonna cost a bunch of money.” And he says: “I’ll get your money, I have a deal with Netflix.” And three weeks later we were shaking hands.
Paul Dano is perhaps an inspired, if more obvious casting, to voice the extraterrestrial spider Hanuš.
He was my first choice, because of his cadence. He’s such a weird, cooky, wonderful actor. I just called him and said, “We’re doing a movie where there’s a space creature from the beginning of time and I want you to voice it.” I think he just felt, I haven’t done anything like that before, that sounds fucking cool.
“Spaceman” is your first film in 15 years. How did it feel going back after so long mostly doing TV?
I started out thinking out I was going to be a movie man. But then I did a film [2007’s “Downloading Nancy”] that was in competition in Sundance and it was very divisive, because it was the most nihilistic movie you could ever imagine. Some people loved it. Alan Rickman actually came up to me after a screening and said, “This is why we make movies.” But some people fucking hated it, because it was so dark, so nihilistic and so bleak. And it didn’t give me any sort of stepping stones into making movies in America. And then Vince Gilligan created a show called “Breaking Bad” and said, “Come work me.” I said, “I’m not going to TV,” and he said, “Consider this, either you come work for me, or you wait for your next music video and see how that’s going to help you become a great filmmaker.” That was sort of during the Klondike of TV, so I just ended up getting sucked up into a TV landscape. And one thing led to another and I started doing limited series.
This is your first major project after directing “Chernobyl,” which was obviously a huge success. Was it difficult to decide how to follow that?
When we did “Chernobyl,” some HBO execs came to the set while we were shooting and asked if it was going to be good. And I was like, “I think it’s going to be good, but I don’t think anyone’s going to see it.” It’s dark and a weird mashup of horror, war movie, psychological thriller, sci-fi … all that kind of shit. And God knows why, but it latched onto something in the zeitgeist or whatever it was. But I didn’t give a shit about the success. For me, the only thing is what am I doing next, what is meaningful in my creative process to do next. And after “Chernobyl,” like after every big project, I was determined to quit. I didn’t want to do it anymore. It kills me. So I was walking around my neighborhood in Brooklyn looking for space because I wanted to open a restaurant. A really fucking cool restaurant.
What sort of restaurant?
Just a great room with great food. A timeless brasserie, with a simple but fucking amazing menu. That was the plan. But then the very first draft of “Spaceman” was sent to me by my producer and I was like, shit, I have to do this. Because it’s also about some aspects of my early life and my own narcissism and ego, and the effect it had on people around me. This is my third marriage. It took me three marriages to figure out how life should work.
But I bet you got a lot of offers after “Chernobyl.”
A million things came in, but 95% were like … Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Russia this, Russia that! I’m like, I’ve done my Russia, I’m never ever going back.
In fairness, with “Spaceman” you didn’t go too far, to the Czech Republic …
Yeah, that was more of an unhappy accident.
One similarity between “Spaceman” and “Chernobyl” was that you didn’t try to give your actors Eastern European accents. Adam Sandler sounds like Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan sounds like Carey Mulligan.
I hate accents. They’re the most ridiculous thing ever. To me, if we want to suggest they’re speaking Czech, why is the best way to achieve that having them speak English with a really fake accents? Have you ever heard an accent in a movie work?
