Barbara Muschietti: “What I would really love is to make an original musical”

There is a prevailing and sacred premise that governs all time travel films: when a past event is modified, the future is inevitably altered. But unlike the great “Back to the Future” (to which they dedicate more than a wink, a tribute) the fastest hero of DC Comics, in his alter ego of Barry Allen, discovers that there are certain events or unalterable turning points in any time and space. His is the one that turned him into “Flash”. To answer for her own, producer Barbara Muschietti focuses, like the protagonist, on an emotional objective; which not coincidentally is one of the great successes and strengths of the film. “Flash” takes you back to a sentimental fiber. Something more than nostalgia. But that first love for DC. In my case, it was with the Justice League animated series that Cartoon Network premiered in 2001. However, for director Andy Muschetti it was to pay homage to the Batman he knew in his childhood and left a strong imprint on his life (and that will now lead them to make the next Bat film, “Batman: Brave And The Bold”). Something of Adam West’s Bruce Wayne that he watched on black-and-white television at the age of four, the same age at which he once went to the garden disguised as the sprinter. It is not metaphorical, but intentional. “My thing, Andy’s always goes for an emotional element, for me it was absolutely vital,” says Barbara in this talk with Filo.news.Barbara Muschietti in a chat with Filo.newsAndy confirms that his “strongest feelings are linked to childhood”. So beyond appealing to the human side of the character who tries to travel to the past to avoid the murder of his mother (played by Spanish actress Maribel Verdú) and the arrest of his father (Ron Livingston), the Muschietti used their own experiences and dedicated more than one wink to DC fans “Spoiler alert” with stellar appearances such as Christopher Reeve’s iconic Superman (1978) and of Helen Slater as Supergirl (1984) or the Man of Steel that Nicolas Cage never was in the failed “Superman Lives” that Tim Burton was going to make, which finally did Batman with Michael Keaton. Effectively the stellar appearance of “Flash”. I know there were those who let themselves be carried away with some tears in the dark in the room.” I’m not interested in superheroes, infallible superheroines,” Barbara acknowledges. “They bore me because I already know what’s going to happen: they’re going to win. So I was fascinated that this story was about a superhero who is very fallible, very vulnerable, who has a trauma that he can’t move from. What has made him live his life trying to change that trauma: trying to get his dad out of jail or studying forensic science to work in the lab. I saw him as very human and I empathize with that. At the time, it seemed like a very suitable film for us to make,” he confirms.Barbara Muschietti in a chat with Filo.newsSummer 1986, Villa Gesell, Argentina. Barbara and Andy, a young-teenage sister and brother born in Vicente López’s party, devour a Stephen King novel. They are not afraid. After all, they are who they are because in their childhood, their family transmitted to them the attraction for terror through the filmography of the master Narciso Ibáñez Menta.Time jump to 2011, a Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro (who also ventured into superhero cinema with “Blade II” and “Hellboy”), sees the short “Mama”, which the brothers made for the Sitges Film Festival and then uploaded to Youtube, and conveys his support to extend it to a feature film, which was finally released in 2013. The film was the kick-off and their debut in a film of reduced budget but on a Hollywood scale (it featured the performance of Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) for the welcome given by Warner Bros. and the proposal to adapt the novel of their adolescence: Itby Stephen King. They made it in two tapes that divided the story into two parts (where they collaborated again with Chastain) and the satisfaction of the company was such that it summoned them for a greater leap: to take to the big screen the solo story of Ezra Miller’s Flash (careful for the production before the problematic episodes he had) that presented the “Justice League” (by Chris Terrio, with part of the work of Zack Snyder), in 2017.La condition that Andy presented was that the film was not of origin of the character as a superhero per se but that this was told through another larger plot: the flashverse, the point at which the hero unleashes the ability to travel in time and discoversA that there is not one but multiple universes. For this reason, the film picks up on the point left by “Justice League” (2017) and even includes its characters: Ben Affleck’s Batman and a surprise cameo by Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman.Andy and Barbara Muschietti | Photo: Courtesy Warner Argentina.Faced with the opportunity to make films in the self-proclaimed land of the American dream, Bárbara and Andy Muschietti do not miss the opportunity to present it on Argentine soil, nor to dedicate some winks (such as the already a classic independent mate, next to a thermos of red, and others such as including the Bocchini pizzeria in a post-credits scene) for those of us who watched from the end of the world.* How important was it to you that the film was also Argentina? Absolutely elementary because it’s not something I can take away from movies, it’s something I don’t even think about, because it’s who I am and DNA sneaks everywhere. I guess the more cinema I make, the more the elements are going to sneak in, because I’m going to have more opportunities to do it.* You talked about Andy and the emotional component that connects them to the movies, what dreams did they have when they were kids? And which ones were they able to specify? The dreams of when we were little were to make movies. When the dictatorship began I was 6 years old and it was a time where cinema was very crushed and very censored, there were a few filmmakers who had been able to stay here while there were others in exile. Then it seemed to us something that was from another planet, because we were here. When thank God that ended and we began to see democracy, that the possibilities opened up and that you could realize what you wanted. There we were able to cement the idea that the only thing we were interested in was making films.***These doors continue to open in their path. In addition to continuing their work with DC – which has James Gunn and Peter Safran at the helm – they also continue to collaborate with Warner and have already begun shooting a prequel series to “It”, called “Welcome to Derry” (“Welcome to Derry”, in its original English). So far little is known about its argument, but its title gives a fairly clear picture. An invitation to the town (fictional located in Maine, United States) where the horror was unleashed in the form of a clown and who calls himself Pennywise. The series will be set temporarily in 1960, decades before the iconic scene of the boat lost by Georgie, the boy of the yellow pilot. As for the plot, it is very likely that these are new stories with new characters. The truth is that King’s novel still has “a lot of cloth to cut.” If you look, the book has around 1,200 pages, where in addition to the story adapted on the screen, it develops other stories that happened in Derry related to the appearance of the creature, which returns in cycles of every 27 years. So the episodes will be able to tell their origin. However, it is still unknown if Bill Skarsgård will return to play him. Beyond the sighting, the horizon is even bigger and can bring unexpected destinations and perhaps, with films of other genres.* Today what dreams do you have? Keep telling beautiful stories. Some in the beta that we are already in that is in the fantastic and horror, of which we are very proud and we want to continue on that path but there are also new explorations: I want to make a musical. Do you have a musical in mind that leads you to say ‘I want to tell this story’? I was always in love with a musical called “Tommy” (based on the rock opera by the British group The Who Tommy), which I think is fantastic (and develops the story of a boy who becomes blind, deaf and dumb as a result of the shock suffered when contemplating the murder of his stepfather committed by his father). But there are also many others. Actually, what I would really love to do is to do an original musical. Barbara Muschietti produces “Flash”, the new DC Comics film directed by her brother, Andy Muschietti, with a cast headed by Miller, the special participation of Michael Keaton, Spanish actress Maribel Verdú, American actress with Colombian descent Sasha Calle, Kiersey Clemons, Antje Traue, Ron Livingston and Ben Affleck.

Original source in Spanish