David L. Cunningham (Director)

Born in Switzerland 1971, David L. Cunningham was raised on the Big Island of Hawaii. Cunningham studied film and graduated from both USC (University of Southern California) and University of the Nations (Hawaii, Santiago, Amsterdam campuses). After directing documentaries in over 40 countries, Cunningham ventured into the independent feature film arena where his movie To End All Wars (2001) caught the attention of Hollywood. Since that time Cunningham has made a number of movies including the recent controversial The Path to 9/11 (2006) (TV).

Question: What drew you to this project? It’s nothing like your previous work such as war film To End All Wars and TV series The Road To 9/11…

David: The journey began with Mark Platt who is the producer of this film, we had done two shows together, and he brought it to me. I think from a creative standpoint what brought me to this was the juxtaposition of realism with the fantasy if that makes sense. I liked the concept that we would play the real world real and the fantasy aspect starts creeping in. Coming out of grittier films and
documentaries and indies and so on, I thought it would be a fun challenge to take on. To play a movie from the perspective that this could possibly happen and
try and suspend belief in that way, versus a fantasy world that from the first frame feels like you are in a fantasy movie. That was interesting. The variety of the
elements in this movie has been a lot of fun — we have Viking wars, and snake charming, and underwater stuff, and that was interesting to me. And then from the character standpoint, trying to get into the head of this kid who is coming of age and trying to find his own identity, who then finds out he has this massive
responsibility. He goes from being told he has to save the world to going home and being beaten up by his brother. I thought, that is something different and if we could embrace, we could tackle this genre through a different prism.

Question: Had you been aware of the books beforehand?

David: No, I had not studied the books or been very aware beforehand. As soon as this came up I obviously dived into them. What is so inspiring about her books is the world that she creates and the tone, and the richness in her words. There is a lot to be inspired by visually. It is a very visual book. Obviously any book adaptation is very difficult, especially her work, which is so layered and rich, and try and get it into a movie that is two hours and make it fresh and accessible to the European and the American audience as well. So there were some decisions made early on in the adaptation. Mainly to make this an American family living in England versus an English family. And what that has done — John Hodge the screenwriter — is create another element for me to work with, the culture clash with a foreign family living in a different environment. I think the difference between English and Americans is just subtle enough to create some interesting tension, if that makes sense. There is stuff to work with from a filmmaking standpoint that hopefully is adding another interesting dynamic to it.

Question: How do you feel the fans of the book will react to the changes?

David: You know, you cannot win, I admit that, and I will admit that there has been some things, some changes that are going to upset some people. What I hope that they will do is see that our attempt is to introduce this work to a new generation. This came out in the seventies and was a big part of many people’s lives. I don’t know how consistent that has been recently and we are hoping through this adaptation we can re-introduce a whole new generation. I’ve adapted some other works before and you just can’t win, so my hope is we can make a fantastic movie that honours the spirit of what Susan Cooper has done. I will say this now, there is no way I can hold a candle to Susan Cooper’s work,
I wanted to focus on making this movie as well as I can, and hope people can see the spirit of her work in there.

Question: How is this different from Harry Potter and its ilk?

David: As I said, the main difference is the realism aspect of ours. This is happening here and now to a normal kid in a very accessible and normal
environment. It is slowly creeping into this kid’s world, and there is an understanding as he goes about his normal days that there is something strange and different. It’s a bit of a slow-burn in terms of the reveal of who he is, and what does he do with that. The realism aspect is what is going to make this stand apart. The filmic language I am using is much more modern and something I think kids will relate to in terms of its pacing, in terms of its look, in terms of its camera placing, in terms of its soundtrack. All of that I believe is going to be quite fresh and a unique grid through which to view this film. I think it is going to be a fantastic ride, as opposed to other fantasy films that are more classic and more focused on the fantasy. We might have an interesting combination that might hook people in an unexpected way.

Question: There are, though, spectacular special effects sequences…

David: The larger set-pieces include him going back in time at one point and finding himself in the middle of a war between the Vikings and Saxons — we don’t play this as Pollyanna we play this is as a full on battle. And he has to find the sign in the middle of all of this — that was a lot of fun, we got in these real Vikings, they call themselves 21st Century Vikings, we brought them in from Scandinavia and they brought their ship. They are the real deal, with all the weapons and everything. That was fantastic. We have a snake sequence, we brought in a thousand real snakes from the Czech Republic, again instead of CGI, we have emphasised the realist side of it. We do a combination of the real with the computer generated. That is an interesting sequence in which a person that is very unexpected starts essentially vomiting snakes and that turns into a battle, I don’t want to give too much away. I think that will be a unique take on snake conflict! The other thing is we have a lot of water work — we built a manor in a tank and flooded it for real. Again trying to make this feel like it is really happening. We did it all in camera, in other words it wasn’t done with computer generated water. We brought in these tip tanks with thousands of gallons of water and smashed the snot out of the place with our actors in the middle of it. That will all help this be a fun ride. And then on and on, at the end we have a fantastic sequence that will be a great battle although I don’t want to give too much away. There is also some amazing horse work in this film, we have this character called The Rider, and we have an amazing horse team that came
in from London. We pull off some really fantastic stunts with the horses.

Question: How do you feel about the use of CG? Is it a curse or a blessing?

David: My whole feeling about CG is that it needs to enhance the storytelling. The philosophy of using it in this movie is to reinforce what we are already doing. For years there was no CG and some incredible movies were made. We are trying to do as much in camera work as we can, to sell the grip of the real world. For example if you want to blow up a car, you can blow it up for real, or you can blow it up on computer. When you blow it up for real some wonderful things you never expected happen and that is life. When you blow it up in a computer it is all pre-planned. It’s a tool, and it’s a tool that needs to be used properly to enhance and guide the story. Embedded in to the filmmaking process. That is how I approach it. For most of the work that I have done it has truly been an enhancer. We use it in such a way that you don’t know it was a CG shot —
that is my intention.

Question: A lot of fantasy films do come with a moral message entwined with the story, is that the case here?

David: I hope every movie has some kind of subtext about morality, and I hope we do have that in this film. I hope that comes across in some way. It’s about the light and the dark, and about the implications of some choices. It’s about responsibility, about coming of age, about things that are part of life. That stuff is important to me. In terms of a preachiness, I hope not, it’s certainly not in Susan’s work. Here it is more of being swept away by this world that descends upon this normal village.

Question: How tough has your schedule been?

David: It’s been insane, we are prepping, shooting, doing computer effects and editing all at the same time. I’m working here on the editing between shots, it’s absolutely nuts. We’ve got two or three units going simultaneously.

Question: Are you generating some empathy for what Peter Jackson went through on The Lord Of The Rings?

David: Ahh, I am a huge fan of him and his work, I don’t have any idea what that must have been like. What he did was monumental. Every movie is difficult. And one of the things is making a movie set in England in modern day Bucharest. That’s been very difficult.

Question: Did you ever consider shooting in the UK?

David: There was some investigation of the UK, but it has become so expensive. I think London has just passed Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world. It is very difficult to make a movie. It’s unfortunate I would have liked to have shot in the UK.

Question: How tough has it been creating England here in Romania?

David: It’s been difficult — we had to ship in all these right-hand drive cars. We had to ship in so much from England to be able to sell it. If you want to shoot a period piece in the hills its okay. If you want to show a modern day mall, or the homes and shops and schools, it’s tough. This is a wonderful country with a wonderful people that is still recovering from a broken heart frankly. Communism has just run this country over and now it’s the phoenix coming back, I believe in Romania and Romanians, I believe in the future. I am glad we are a small part in helping that happen, but we are certainly in a transition period here. We are stretching the infrastructure here and that is hard on the movie. A few more films here and they are really going to be up to speed.

Question: How difficult was it to find the right person to play Will?

David: We were looking in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Minnesota, Vancouver, Toronto, London and a few other places. We were trying to find that kid who was cool but didn’t think he was. Trying again to focus on the realism aspect of it. That was difficult. We were very lucky to find Alexander who came out of Vancouver. He’s been amazing, he’s been great, he’s full of energy and life, he’s athletic, he is just gung-ho everyday.

Question: You also have a fascinating array of British actors onboard…

David: What I was hoping, and the whole team of filmmakers and executives behind the show, is again to look at this through the prism of what real-life is like. You want someone who is extraordinary, or fascinating, or intimidating, but it has to be something you can relate to. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful cast who bring a lot of colours and shades to their character, and I think that is going to come across on screen.

Dark Is Rising is released in cinemas nationwide on October 19th.