It wasn’t too long ago that writer-director Vincenzo Natali was getting bad vibes about his newest film. Splice, the latest effort from the filmmaker, was a project he worked on for ten years, beginning with a script he had written shortly after his well-regarded first effort Cube came out in 1997.
Splice, a wild tale of genetic mutation, was completed a year ago, just as the independent film industry became rankled by the bad economy. Two studios had been interested in distributing the film; both went out of business. Natali was beginning to think that Splice’s fate would mirror that of Cypher and Nowhere, his two previous films, by avoiding theaters and go straight to DVD.
Fortunately, a funny thing happened on the way to the film forum. A screening at the Sundance Film Festival was enthusiastically received. Word got out to uber-producer and horror specialist Dark Castle topper Joel Silver (Lethal Weapon, The Matrix) that Splice was worth a look. He took one, and his company picked it up, their first acquisition ever. Now, Warner Brothers is distributing it as a major summer release for the studio.
“If you had, three months ago, come to me and said Warner Brothers is releasing Splice on 3000 theaters in the middle of the summer season, I wouldn’t have believed you– it didn’t seem possible,” says Natali, 41. “So it’s really been an exceptional thing. I can’t believe there’s another independent film that has gotten a release like this all year.”
In Splice, Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley have the leads as genetic scientists Clive and Elsa—the names are intentional nods to actors Colin Clive and Elsa Lanchester in The Bride of Frankenstein. They are dabbling in the world of splicing different animal species together. When their corporate sponsor halts funding, the researchers, who are romantically involved, decide to continue their experiments on their own, adding human DNA to the mix. The result is a creature nicknamed Dren, a female mutation with physical and intellectual advancements that continually surprise—and sometimes shock—the couple and the audience.
The film was inspired by an image that Natali claims he’ll never forget. “I saw a real live mouse that had a human ear growing out of its back on the news,” says Natali, who started his career as a storyboard artist. “It was an MIT experiment called ‘The Vacanti Mouse.’ And it was such a shocking image that I thought there was a movie in it somewhere. We (he and co-writer Antoinette Terry Bryant) started with a short film. And eventually decided it should be a feature.
“I always wanted to make a creature film spliced with a relationship story,” continued Natali. “I always felt what would make this film work is the emotional side of the equation, as opposed to going where all of these Frankenstein/creature movies go, that the creature escapes and wreaks havoc on the world .
“This should be about the scientists becoming more monstrous that the creature they created, that they would contain their thing and there would be a hostage drama. Later on, I realized we were making a movie about a family– a highly dysfunctional family.”
The filmmaker, a native of Detroit whose family moved to Toronto in his infancy, is a big fan of science fiction films and literature. Similar to Splice’s scientists, he mixed the two mediums to shape the film. “I looked forward to seeing a movie that bends the genre and mutates it a bit,” he explains. “In sci-fi literature, you see examples of falling in love with creatures, but not much in films. The sexual component of this story makes this movie unique and dangerous and a tough film to finance.
“Ultimately, hopefully, it elevates it from what we’ve come to expect from a Frankenstein story. When I made it, I didn’t know how (audiences) would react to it. The movie pushes certain buttons. The film encompasses different things—it’s funny, serious, tragic. It’s a bit of an experiment, so I didn’t know how the reaction would be.”
The distribution history wasn’t the only example of kismet in relation to Splice for Natali. Despite some pretty strong R-rated sexual elements, Natali was able to make it without any interference whatsoever.
“I made the film with a French studio and everything the Americans thought were uncomfortable, the French loved,” Natali says. “The film was made in the best possible way. It was made independently, so I had complete creative control. Warner Brothers is not touching it even though they now have the right to if they want to.”
Natali is convinced the experience he had with Splice is very rare indeed. “It’s unlikely I’ll have this situation again,” he says. “Amazingly, the studio embraced all the weirdness. They liked the fact it is shocking and controversial.”
With its icky images, science-run-amok storyline, Toronto locations and eerie atmosphere, Splice resembles some of the work of Canadian director David Cronenberg, especially efforts like Rabid, Scanners, and The Brood.
When told that someone described Splice as “The Best 1980s Film David Cronenberg Ever Made,” Natali considers it a high compliment indeed.
Is he a fan of Cronenberg’s work?
“A fan?” Natali asks rhetorically. “David Cronenberg is from Toronto like me, and I grew up loving those movies. I was keenly aware of it (the similarities between the two directors’ films). We’re coming from the same gene pool. We’re from the same place and I was aware of it so I actually avoided some Cronenberg-isms. But there is no question that once you step into the realm of bio-horror, that that’s trademark Croenenberg.
“Some of his DNA is spliced into my movie. But I wasn’t too concerned about it, because there is a very strong personal component to the story and something that’s unique to me.”
As for the film’s foreboding atmosphere, Natali believes that has something to do with where he and Cronenebrg were raised. “I think it’s a Canadian thing. It comes from living in Toronto, which kind of feels like America but isn’t. You’re in a netherworld. It’s cold, and people spend time indoors and you live in hermetic spaces.”
Although Natali admits he’s a little sheepish about sharing Splice with Cronenberg so far (”I’m afraid,” he admits), he has received input from another director he admires. Guillermo del Toro, the Spanish filmmaker behind the Hellboy movies and Pan’s Labyrinth, has been a huge booster of the movie. “Before Sundance, I met him at a film festival,” recalls Natali. “He said he would like to produce a film for me. I thought of Splice because it was a film that made sense because he loves creatures and I thought of it as a love letter to creature movies. I saw him as Dren’s godfather. Just having his seal of approval really greased the wheels for the film to get moving.
“After shooting, we looked at the film and I got some great feedback for the cut. Essentially, he’s been involved at arm’s length but he’s essentially there if we need him there.”
Perhaps because of the advance word on Splice, Natali’s name has been bandied about in some pretty high-profile future projects. Among them are a new Swamp Thing movie (which he has said may be impossible because of rights issues), an adaptation of the futuristic satirical thriller High Rise by J.G. Ballard (Crash), and a long-in-gestation film translation of William Gibson’s cyber-punk classic Neuromancer.
Whatever film Natali settles on next, he’s pretty sure of one thing: It will be demanding for him and those involved in its production, as well as the audience.
“I can’t walk in (to a studio) with Neuromancer; They say, ‘What’s this?’ It’s never going to be an easy sell,” he explains. “My other projects are a little bit challenging, too. But it’s worth it. The good stuff is going to be harder, but it’s actually more rewarding when it actually gets made.”
Here’s Irv’s review of the film: