Check out our behind-the-scenes interview with Shut-Eye director Dan Bush.
We’re searching for the next great sci-fi filmmaker with the Prototype contest, where eight filmmakers are vying for a chance to win a feature film deal with New Regency. You can check out the short films by all eight finalists right now, but if you want to go behind the scenes to learn more about the creation of these movies, we’ll be publishing weekly interviews with the Prototype filmmakers.
Today, you can take a peek into the minds behind Shut-Eye in our interview, where director Dan Bush talks about where the idea behind the film came from:
I was driving along a rural state road in North Carolina a few years ago blasting Radiohead’s KidA — completely zoning out (there are few things that will get your alpha waves juiced for a darkly futurist, sci-fi drama more than a long drive through the middle of nowhere while blasting Radiohead). I drove forever — through endless fields and mysterious forests, along a cracked two-lane black top, with no civilization for an hour or more. Eventually I came upon an old abandoned truck-stop-diner. Not some corporate mega-truck stop broadcasting at the edge of a 6 lane highway, but an old family style filling station. The structure seemed ancient — it was like ruins from another time — a relic of a forgotten American past. But the sensation I had was that I was actually visiting from the future. That the future is now.
For more, check out our interview or go watch Shut-Eye for yourself.