KM: Having done Skyline back in 2010, what made you want to revisit that story and continue on – and it kind of continues on in a completely different direction and I love that – but what made you want to go back to that story?

LD: We came up with the general beat and the idea of what the sequel would be sort of in the post of Skyline. The whole thing about the first one was that it was kind of a movie made of found parts. Greg [Strause, director] has this penthouse, we have these cameras, this is the view, build the movie based on that, and you can kind of see the pros and cons of that. We had that ending and the tail wagged the dog a little bit too much where we had to get there, and maybe we should have ended that at the end of the second act, gotten up on the ship and then had him rescue his girlfriend and then you’d have this really satisfying conclusion.

Thankfully because we didn’t do that, it left so many unanswered questions and opportunities for a sequel, and that was my favorite part. The ending was still my favorite part and I thought it was the most original and coolest part of the first film. Even from back then, I think we had to start with a new “in”, even to catch up with them. We could make use of the fact that we’ve seen this really cool invasion only from one POV, and we can see things from the ground more in the thick of it from a different POV and it doesn’t have to be War of the Worlds or this huge expensive set pieces the whole time. It’s still very much contained on a human scale, and that was the idea of the subway set. They’re still going to miss the massive stuff, but you get tastes of it and  – as a first timer – I could just focus on the car-collapsed tunnel sequence and make that a set piece and not be overwhelmed out in the city trying to make an Avengers-type invasion scene. So I kind of approached everything from that.

I kept thinking back to Die Hard, was kind of an inspiration. One of the biggest set pieces in a movie is just him in an air vent. So I just kept thinking if I could contain it and if people like the characters and they like what’s going on, it’s still going to matter. It just has to be this human-scale thing. If I try to compete too much with these massive budget movies, it’s not going to hold up. Let’s do something different, and the people that like these types of movies are going to appreciate that.

As far as going back and telling that story, I just felt like there was a lot of opportunity and for better or worse I was kind of the ambassador of Skyline. Everyone else licked their wounds and I just kind of stayed out there, interacting with the fans and I saw what mattered to them. There was pressure at different points to just abandon any connection to the first film at all, but I thought it was important to kind of carry on the legacy of those characters and have it mean something. I didn’t want to leave whatever fans that we had of the first one, who are hardcore and dedicated, I wasn’t just going to abandon them. I didn’t think that was the right thing to do. They’re still the reason why this movie got made.

KM: It’s such a fun movie! I appreciate that you went in – having that background in visual effects – and just wanted to do more with it.

LD: Thank you. I really should credit Greg & Colin Strause and Hydraulx for that, and just some of the straight-up rock star artists that we had, I really have to mention Greg Haas, he’s a compositor. The holograms, the POVs, everything with the Shepherd character who’s our arch enemy, and the way they’re interacting with the console and all that stuff, he brought all that. When I first saw the shot inside the tanker and all the energy webbing… it was like, very vague, bad direction that I gave him, and he put all the energy stuff into the aliens brain and glowing in the eyes, and I was like, oh my God, I was so excited.

It’s just all those moments when someone brings it and lifts you up, that makes a difference. So he was awesome. Alex Young is a great young animator at Hydraulx and he did pretty much – did or supervise – most of the tanker’s animation and the tanker battle himself. He was another one… those two guys. And of course our VFX coordinator Alia Choi who put up with my bullshit for like a year plus. They were a pretty indispensable, big part.

They say you make three movies: the script, the shoot, and the edit. For this it was like four, with the script, the shoot, the edits, the VFX, the edits, the VFX… we kept going back and forth because of how many there were over such a long period of time. So I had this, like, extra compartment of a team and it felt like we were making the movie together as well. I’m really proud and happy for everything they’ve done for this.

KM: Do you have distribution plans?

LD: The distribution is figured out now! It’s through Vertical Entertainment, it’s going to be a limited digital VOD release on December 15, which of course is The Last Jedi‘s release date. So I kind of took the piss out of that release date. Like, after 7 years, are you fucking kidding me? I have to go against the most anticipated film of all time? [laughs] But it’s not really going against. We’re going to make most of our money on the VOD and those 3 weeks during the holidays are the best VOD business weeks of the year, so, I’m happy to be in there. I think it’s a movie that’s kind of a unicorn that’s competing with itself. It doesn’t really have any comps, and that’s what has scared some people I think, but that’s what excites me about it. So I’m just proud that we got it done, we got it out there, and people are digging it so far.

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