DES MOINES, Iowa — After bursting onto the Hollywood scene with the 2018 blockbuster "A Quiet Place," two Iowan filmmakers are teaming up for another sci-fi adventure.
Bryan Woods and Scott Beck sat down with Local 5 to talk about their upcoming release starring Adam Driver — "65" — and their Hawkeye roots.
The full transcript is below.
Q: Thank you so much for being here, joining us from New York. You're living the life right now, huh?
A: Yeah, I guess so. But at the same time, we're just really excited for for our movie "65" to come out this weekend and spend opening weekend actually back in the in the Hawkeye State where it all started.
Q: What can people expect when they go see it?
A: Well, "65" is a big action thriller family film starring Adam Driver in the lead role. And it takes place 65 million years ago in the age of dinosaurs, where Adam Driver's character plays a interstellar space pilot that crash lands on Earth back in the age of dinosaurs.
Q: You both went to the University of Iowa, so tell us how your Iowa ties influenced your film careers and your art.
A: I mean, Scott and I met when we were 11 years old in Iowa. We have been making movies pretty much ever since then. And we went to the University of Iowa and studied communications and took a lot of great film classes, learned a lot about writing at our time at the University of Iowa, and I always just always, it's always been home. And it's always been a place of inspiration for our movies.
Q: And you've worked with some big name actors, including John Krasinski, Adam Driver — what was that experience like?
A: I mean, they're, they're all at the top of their game. You know, these are people that have been working for years and years honing their craft. And so we always feel like we're still those 11-year-olds in Iowa that are pretending to direct sometimes. And we have to show up and make sure you do your homework. But there's there's nothing better than, really, working with artists that have that type of capacity.
Q: You're both going to be at the Varsity Cinema here in Des Moines tomorrow night. What can people expect from that event?
A: Tomorrow night, we're very excited to come back to the Varsity, the theater that just recently opened. We'll be there to introduce the film and do a live Q&A where we're happy to take any questions about filmmaking, [questions] specifically on "65" or in general.
Q: And for those aspiring filmmakers, what do you want them to know from your experience?
A: Well, basically, if we can do it, anyone can, is how we feel. You know, being two kids in Iowa, we never knew if we'd be able to pursue a professional career and film we had zero contacts in Hollywood and kind of just started from the ground up. So yeah, I think if you're passionate enough about something and you love what you do, it's it's worth pursuing. We have not regretted it.
Q: It always feels like it's who you know, right? How did you network? How did you get your foot in those doors, get your name into spaces that seemed impossible to be in?
A: I mean, really, it's just a sense of you know, passion and and maybe sometimes not having a fallback plan. But I think just always doing the work, always finding what you can make in your own backyard first and that accessibility can really take you to great places.
Q: How are you guys doing with all the changes and to see your work really just take off? What's it like?
A: It's very surreal. I mean, you know, we spend a lot of time actually back in Iowa to stay grounded and so when we're, you know, traveling or making these movies on a large scale, you have to really pinch yourself because it does feel like you're fulfilling a dream. But at the same time, sometimes it doesn't feel that different than when we were in Iowa, you know, in our teenage years making movies because you always have limited time limited resources and you're just trying to to make the best that you possibly can sources you have so it's kind of fun that it kind of feels the same. Maybe a little different, a little bigger.
Join Woods and Beck at 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 9, at Varsity Cinema to learn more about the movie, filmmaking in general and much more. For more information, click here.