Exclusive Interview with Predestination’s Filmmaking Duo Michael & Peter Spierig

This weekend, Michael and Peter Spierig (Daybreakers) are celebrating the release of their latest project, a mind-bending time travel tale called Predestination, which follows a Temporal Agent (Ethan Hawke) on his last assignment as he attempts to stop a killer from launching a deadly attack on the US population. Before he can put to rest his mission, he meets a writer (Sarah Snook), who may be the key to finally catching the killer and allowing him to finally move on from his work once and for all.

Daily Dead recently chatted with The Spierig Brothers about Predestination, their approach to adapting Robert Heinlein’s original story, reteaming with Hawke who had also starred in 2010’s Daybreakers, and taking a chance with Snook:

Thanks for chatting today, guys; I really enjoyed the movie. Can you start off by discussing adapting Robert’s (Heinlein) short story and the approach you took in expanding what the ideas he had originally conceived decades ago?

Peter Spierig: Firstly, we both had read Robert’s short story and thought it was one of the most unique and original stories we had ever come across. I mean, it was written back in 1958 and its themes are still as relevant as ever. It just stuck with us and we knew had to make it into a film.

We actually began work on the screenplay before we had the rights- which is NOT something I’d recommend ever doing (laughs)- but all of it ended up working itself out rather quickly which was good. It was such an incredible process for both Michael and I to go through because when you’re adapting a novel into a movie, often times you end up having to cut a lot out of good stuff in order to make it work and that can be a heartbreaking process. But with a short story though, you get the opportunity to really dig in and expand these ideas which we both enjoyed because the framework created by Robert is so good.

Michael Spierig: We started working on this after Daybreakers and this was the first time we had ever approached trying to adapt someone else’s work which was cool because it was an entirely new process for both of us. I think working on Predestination allowed us both to find new voices as filmmakers and completely changed the way we both write now.

When I spoke to Ethan earlier this week, he mentioned that he had wanted to be a part of your next project back when he was working with you guys on Daybreakers? Was that something you guys were aware of while you were in the script phase of this project?

Peter Spierig: When we wrote the screenplay, we really weren’t exactly sure just how Ethan would be involved just because of all the gender aspects to these characters. We knew he’d be great for this one piece of the film in particular, we just weren’t exactly sure how he’d fit in so we sent him an early script and he responded to it with a lot of enthusiasm. We knew he wanted to be a part of it as well but we gave it a little time as we delved deeper into the story just so we’d see how the characters would work themselves out in the end and eventually, they defined themselves in the final draft.

The thing is, though, Ethan was such a crucial part of Predestination just because there’s no way we would have been able to make this movie. He was a critical part of why we’re getting to talk about it here today.

Can you expand a little bit on that- I mean, these days it’s not necessarily that easy to get original stories like these made and I was curious if Ethan’s involvement helped in that capacity?

Peter Spierig: It ended up being surprisingly easy to get Predestination made which never really happens (laughs). Having Ethan on board definitely helped with the financing and no one was really nervous about any of the thematic elements of the story- or having a transgender character- at all. We were really lucky in that respect. We knew though that the real challenge with a film like this was going to be the release. We know this is going to be a challenging movie for some just because it really requires your interest and full attention.

Let’s talk about Sarah for a bit just because she’s another integral part of Predestination and I was completely blown away by her work here. I enjoyed her in Jessabelle but she was just something else in this role. Was bringing her on for this role the biggest gamble for you guys?

Michael Spierig: We knew that this role was going to be something bold and we absolutely knew we wanted someone who was mostly undiscovered because they needed to really disappear into the role. I think even Sarah was a bit nervous about it but ultimately, we put our faith in her because she was so intelligent and really understood the material.

I do think that the make-up and prosthetics that were used in the film also really helped the process too; the first time she was made up though it really brought everything together and we knew Sarah was perfect.

Ethan and I chatted about the fact that this a movie that seems to get better with repeat viewings. Was that something that you were conscious of while working on the movie?

Michael Spierig: It was. Predestination was designed in a way that once you sort of get through that first viewing, and get all of the story twists and time hacks out of the way that you can go back and catch some of the things you missed but also really pay attention to a lot of the character stuff as well. A lot of that hold the keys to these hidden mysteries we put in the film and we’ve seen a lot of people pick up on some of those little tokens but there’s quite a few that have yet to be discovered. To me, that’s a lot of fun; sometimes it’s good to tell a straight-forward story and sometimes it’s more fun to mess with people’s minds.