Culture news Christopher Nolan's Interstellar forced Denis Villeneuve to change the ending of this sci-fi film
Advertisement
The release of this excellent science fiction film completely disrupted this director's plans. Because of this production, he had to adjust his script.
Advertisement
Spoiler alert
This article spoils the film First Contact. You have been warned!
Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve, two great filmmakers
These days, cinema is experiencing a glorious period. The summer of 2023 was notably marked by the arrival of several notable feature films, such as Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan. If you follow cinema news, you have surely not missed this work, which still receives praise from the specialist press and spectators from all over the world. With seven Oscars, it would be difficult to say that this film was unsuccessful.
At the moment, another director shines with his talent, and it is Denis Villeneuve. The Quebec filmmaker offered us the second part of his film adaptation of Dune. The latter has achieved the feat of making a sequel even more appreciated than its first opus released in 2021.
These two directors are often compared, since they are among the most talented filmmakers of our time. Certainly, their attraction to science fiction brings them together, but it is above all their talent that makes them two internationally renowned personalities. Far from being competitors, the two admire each other. What's more, their similarities don't stop there, since they have already happened to have the same story ideas at the same time.
If Interstellar hadn't happened, First Contact would have been completely different. Eric Heisserer, one of the screenwriters of this science fiction feature film who recently discussed this subject. If you remember this movie well, you know that it features aliens called heptapods who arrive on Earth, and a linguist named Dr. Louise Banks studies their language. However, the ending of this production should have been completely different:
The only really significant change is the gift the heptapods leave us in the film. In previous versions, they had given a plan for an interstellar ship, a sort of ark. Then Christopher Nolan's Interstellar came out, and we all got together and said, “This isn't working anymore.” So we focused more on what we had in front of us, namely the power of language.
Released two years after Interstellar, the scenario had to be modified so as not to have too similar elements. The idea of an interstellar ship plan was therefore abandoned, in order to concentrate on the communication of these beings from elsewhere. Despite this change, Premier Contact is one of the most cult feature films in Denis Villeneuve's filmography.