After working with director Terry Gilliam on "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and the ill-fated "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote", screenwriter Tony Grisoni has taken a change of subject and pace with "In This World", a drama about two Afghan asylum seekers and their terrifying journey to the UK.
What did you gain by travelling through Pakistan and the Middle East before filming?
On our journey we collected people. Some of those people were fixers, who would help us when we were actually shooting the film, and some of those fixers would then act and play parts as people smugglers. As we were filming, I went on ahead and found people and places to fit into our scheme and our idea of what the journey was going to be and where we were going to go. Because we were working in such a fluid way, we were always open to what we found and then responded to that.
How much of a traditional screenplay did you have to begin with?
There was never anything traditional about the screenplay. It still doesn't exist on paper anywhere. We had about 25-30 pages of outline. It's one way of avoiding script development hell - don't have a script!
What interested you about these journeys?
These are the journeys of the 21st century. It's extraordinary. You're talking about people travelling thousands and thousands of miles, leaving behind their families and friends for this final destination. They're really special journeys and they're very special people. Yet they put themselves in terrible danger because we put them in danger. It's now virtually impossible to enter this country - or Europe for that matter - and ask for asylum legally. Every time we tighten it up, we make it more dangerous for them.
What other projects are you working on?
There's the film about Laika the Canine Cosmonaut, and I'm also working on a project with Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe [the makers of "Lost in La Mancha"]. We seem to have unearthed one of rock music's darkest secrets. That's all I can tell you, I'm not allowed to tell you anything more than that. But I'm very, very afraid!
It must have been difficult watching "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" collapse the way it did. What are the chances of it ever being made?
You've seen "Lost in La Mancha"? That's just a little bit of the pain that was being felt. "The pain in Spain" is how Terry [Gilliam] refers to it. It's a film that Terry needs to make and I have every faith he will. And it'll be a good one. I'll see you at the premiere!
