I SPOKE TO ASIEL NORTON ABOUT HIS RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL FILM ORION
07:11:00
Good Morning Lovelies,
I am starting the day big today lovelies! With the Raindance
Film Festival beginning tomorrow, I spoke to the director of Orion, Asiel
Norton, who made the film starring Lily Cole and David Arquette.
Enjoy lovelies…
Firstly congratulations on being selected for the Raindance
Film Festival! How does it feel?
It feels good. A lot of [work] went into making the picture,
and the picture was made to be seen, so it feels good that more people will be
seeing it.
Could you tell readers who may not have heard about Orion
what it is about?
Orion takes place in a future world a few generations after
the collapse of civilization. The population has dropped to near zero. Enough
time has passed that the few remaining people live amongst the ruins of our
civilization but they have no idea about it. They have no idea where the ruins
come from. New myths and legends have arisen and there are rumours and
prophecies about a saviour figure called Orion. In this world there is a Virgin
Mother enchained by a cannibal Shaman, and there’s a Hunter-gatherer who
stumbles on the scene and attempts to save her, and take her to a last
mythological city which may or may not exist.
Where did the idea for the film come from? And what made you
want to make it?
The film came to me in an image. I had this image in my head
of a Hunter-gatherer figure playing cards with this deathlike Shaman character,
but the cards they were playing with were Tarot cards. But they weren’t reading
Tarot, they were gambling. That’s how the idea started. Then I just thought
about who these characters are, and what world do they live in. And I thought
it would be interesting if these characters themselves are kind of like Tarot
cards. And the cards they were playing with are themselves. So I built a sort
of Tarot set myself with my own characters. And I just started building image
on image. All archetypes. Virgin Mother, fool, etc.
There are some huge names in the film including David
Arquette and Lily Cole. What was it about them that made you decide to cast
them?
Lily I literally knew she had to be in the film by just
looking at her picture. I’m a very visual person and in creating I really trust
my instincts. For the Virgin I had a Cranach painting that really defined the
character for me. When we were casting, the casting directors where sending me
all these names for some good actresses and stuff, but none of them looked
right at all for the character I had in my head. They were all attractive
women, but they were next door pretty, LA pretty. Modern actress pretty. And I
kept saying this character has to come from another world. She’s a bird in a
glass cage. And sent them the Cranach image, and we were really pounding our
heads. They couldn’t think of anyone, and I wouldn’t even meet any of the
people they were sending me because none of them were right. And we can’t make
the movie without this character cast.
Finally, they sent me a picture of Lily, and I was like, that’s her. I
didn’t have to meet her or see anything she was in, I knew from looking at her
picture, it was her. I knew she could do it. And she could. David I met at a
coffee shop, and I was highly suspect before meeting him. The character I had
in my head was more of a Messiah. I thought of David more of as this crazy guy.
More of an insane irreverent jokester, trickster, guy, which he is. But when I
met him, it was very magical, very synchronistic. Just a lot of synchronistic
things happened during our meeting. And I he has a very interesting offbeat
energy that struck me. Again I thought about this character wondering around
this alien desolate world, and I thought he’s not gonna be this fucking bearded
Aryan Viking looking dude out of a Rubens painting, that’s bull shit. He’s
gonna be this half-crazed dishevelled guy doing whatever he can to survive.
Eating rats. I believe David in this world, he’s half-crazy already, he’d be
totally real there. Beyond which David is a very likable person with a great
energy. It’s really impossible not to like him, and the protagonist of this
movie, should be off, but he should be someone that people like.
Is there a scene in which you are most proud of that the
audience should look out for? Why this scene?
I like the ending, because I think it works.
Finally, can you tell us about anything you are currently
working on or that we should look out for in the future?
Working on a few scripts. But not sure I want to go into it.
Look out for Orion at the festival lovelies!
Blog Soon,
Joey X
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