WithLionnow playing in limited release, I recently sat down with screenwriterLukeDaviesfor an extended video interview. During our wide-ranging conversation he talked about meetingSaroo’sbiological mother affected how he wrote the screenplay, balancing fact vs. fiction, how he wanted India and Australia to feel like distinct characters, the wayWALL-Einfluenced his take on the film, the way he likes to work, how the producers kept Google at arms-length but Google did help recreate an older version of Google Maps for the movie, and more. In addition, we talked about some of his other work like theCatch-22miniseries withDavid Michodand adapting two different books for an upcoming film.
If you aren’t familiar withLion, it’s based on the true story of a young man named Saroo who became separated from his family in India at the age of five and was subsequently adopted by an Australian family. As a five-year-old, Saroo could not correctly explain where, exactly, he was from, and thus all hopes of finding his family were lost. As an adult, however, the advent of Google Earth provides Saroo with a unique opportunity, as he sets about finding his long lost family once and for all. The film starsDev Patel,Rooney Mara,Nicole Kidman,David Wenham, andSunny Pawar.
Finally, while I knew the story ofLionbefore sitting down to watch it, the way Garth Davis told the story floored me and it’s a hell of a debut. I’m extremely confident Davis will be making a lot more movies in the coming years and I can’t wait to see them.
Here’s what we talked about during the interview followed by some images.
Luke Davies:
