Scott Beck and Bryan Woods got a cold, wet welcome from Iowa Thursday after hopping from screenings of their new film in Los Angeles and New York City. But the friends weren't too bothered; it's the weather they grew up with, after all.
The filmmakers and Quad-City natives are making stops throughout Iowa for premieres of the film they co-wrote, directed and produced "65". They held Q&A sessions in Des Moines March 9 and in Iowa City March 10 and will introduce the film at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, March 11, at Cinemark 18 in Davenport.
Coming home for their movie premieres has become a tradition for the pair, having done the same when, "A Quiet Place," the post-apocalyptic horror film they co-wrote, came out in 2018. Beck said he and Woods always want to come back to the communities that supported them throughout their lives and careers, and it's always fun to catch up with friends, family and others in the local film industry.
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"It's hard to describe, but it's always just a really beautiful feeling, coming home and going to these movie theaters that we grew up in and being able to show our own work," Woods said. "It reminds us of how lucky we are to be able to get to make movies."
Watching "Jurassic Park" in theaters as children left Beck and Woods with the same fascination that gripped much of the world, Beck said, and the feeling lingered over the years. Despite all the loud dinosaurs, however, Woods said "65" is almost like a modern-day silent film, with little dialogue and using the language of cinema to convey the story.
While very different films in terms of plot and setting, the filmmakers said their movie is not entirely dissimilar to "A Quiet Place." Both stories have roots in the Quad-Cities. "A Quiet Place" was practically written from their backyard, Beck said, as it is set on a farm, and "65" was developed with the dream of making a dinosaur film set in Iowa. The setting later changed, but the basic idea remained.
The use of a maximalist canvas of big-screen cinema to execute a minimalist vision also is present in the film, he said.
"We wanted to kind of collide two genres together, you know, not unlike 'A Quiet Place,' where it's colliding our love of silent film with something like 'Alien,' like this is an extension of that, really," Beck said. "It's combining our love of 'Jurassic Park' with more nuanced character stories."
Looking ahead, "The Boogeyman," a supernatural horror film based off a short story of the same name by Stephen King and adapted into a screenplay by Beck and Woods, will premiere June 2.
Originally slated to premiere directly on streaming service Hulu, Beck said King pushed it to have a full theatrical release after previews tested well. The iconic horror author is famously hands-off when his stories are adapted, Woods said, but it was a nerve-racking day when they sent in the script and waited for his approval, which they got.
While they can't announce anything quite yet, Beck said, they have some other things moving forward later this year.
"We have a few more projects in the pipeline," Beck said.
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