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Clive Owen at the premiere of "Children of Men" held at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, Calif. on November 16, 2006. |
In the chilling Universal Pictures thriller Children of Men, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y Tu Mama Tambien) creates a startling vision, set two decades into the near future, in which mankind edges closer to giving up all claims to a future. It has been more than 18 years since the last baby was born, and Great Britain is the one country that has managed, through a policy of militaristic imperialism, to survive the ever-increasing internal strife. In turn, the country is seeing a tremendous influx of illegal refugees landing on its shores, who it then herds into detainment camps to await deportation.
For former activist turned bureaucrat Theo (Clive Owen), none of this matters, until he finds himself thrown in the back of a van and brought before Julian (Julianne Moore), his former partner in both love and war, who is now the head of a covert group fighting for the rights of the remaining refugee population. Julian has surfaced long enough to ask for a favor -- she needs Theo to obtain transit papers for Kee (newcomer Clare-Hope Ashitey), a young woman within her organization who must be seen safely out of the country. Without knowing that Kee is actually eight months pregnant, making her the miracle that the planet has been waiting and hoping for, Theo agrees, and soon finds himself accompanying the young woman on a treacherous journey past several security checkpoints to the coast, where the Human Project are prepared to help them.
{quote_top}An adaptation of esteemed British mystery writer P.D. James’ downbeat novel of the same name, Cuaron brings a unique and striking look at the world of the near future, and one man’s fight to save it, to the big screen. The 46-year-old Mexico City native says that, although he didn’t respond to the material in the book, he was able to see a story there.
“I was not interested in doing a science fiction film, set in such a posh universe,” the writer/director tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “I respect and love P.D. James. I enjoyed the book, but I couldn’t see myself making that movie. Nevertheless, the premise of infertility kept on haunting me, for weeks. Then, I realized that the premise could serve as a metaphor for the fading sense of hope that humanity has. That’s when I said, ‘Okay, this can be the point of departure for talking about the state of the world today.’ The next stage was to try to explore what the state of things are, and you don’t have to go very far to learn that environment and immigration are two of the main factors that are shaping this world, and that are actually very connected. If the environment keeps on going the way that it’s going, it’s going to make the immigration phenomenally more acute. From that moment, we knew we had to craft a parallel story that wasn’t necessarily the story that was in the book. Kee does not exist in the book, so we took a big departure there.”
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Alfonso Cuaron at the premiere of "Children of Men" held at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, Calif. on November 16, 2006. |
“It’s a futuristic movie because it takes place in the near future, but the reason it takes place in the near future is only because of a convention of story, in which we’re talking about 18 years of infertility,” continues Cuaron. “In a science fiction movie, you would have gone into the whys and the mystery of infertility. We decided to not even care about it and just take it as a point of departure. Based upon that, we tried to make an observation about the state of things. The movie is not about Homeland Security. For an hour and a half, we experience the state of things, and then we try to make our own conclusions about the possibility of hope.”
British leading man Clive Owen was quickly drawn to the story, the role of Theo, and working with Cuaron. “I was, and now am an ever bigger, huge fan of Alfonso’s,” the Sin City star tells MediaBlvd. “He was very high on my list of directors I would love to work with. I even think that some of this films that were maybe not as commercially successful are very special. He’s a highly original, huge talent.”
“When he first sent me the script, I wasn’t sure about the part. I didn’t quite know why he wanted me to do it. It’s a highly unusual lead role. If you look at the character, he’s in every scene, but he has very unusual traits. It’s not the kind of role where you can just do your thing as an actor. It’s about sacrificing yourself to Alfonso’s vision and not getting in the way of it, which seems more important, to me, than doing any acting. When I went to meet him, I talked to him and found him hugely exciting. He told me his whole vision of the film. When I came on board, the first thing he said was, ‘I love working with actors. I love the collaboration. We’re going to do this movie together,’ and he was very true to his word. He kept me completely in the loop, in all the post-production. He doesn’t pander to what he thinks the commercial market wants. He makes his movies. He has a very singular vision, and he goes out there and does that. He’s very special.”
{quote_middle}Throughout filming, Owen was concerned that audiences wouldn’t be willing to follow Theo on his journey. A wounded soul who is a passive character, Theo becomes a reluctant hero, when he finds himself in the middle of a chance to save the world.
“He’s not a dynamic lead character, even though he’s in every single scene of the movie,” says Owen. “When you’re holding a film of this scale and size, and you are playing sad and apathetic, you worry if it’s holding. It wasn’t about doing good acting in this movie. I wanted to serve Alfonso’s vision and not get in the way of it, but you don’t know where that’s pitching. When you’re playing somebody who’s reluctantly dragged through the first part of the movie, you don’t know if the audience is going to go, ‘Why should we even be going with this guy because he doesn’t want to go on the journey?’ The opportunities I’ve been getting in the last few years are hugely appreciated, and the opportunity to work with Alfonso was a really great one. I think the film is one of those that, later on in my career, when I look back, I will be particularly proud of.”
{quote_bottom}Prior to doing Children of Men, Owen had not read, nor was he familiar with, the P.D. James novel. But, having since read it, he says that he thinks the subject matter is very relevant to the state of the world today. “Alfonso used a film set 20 years in the future as an excuse to talk about present worries, concerns and fears that we all have,” explains Owen. “It’s an incredibly relevant vision of the future because he’s really looking ahead and saying, ‘If we’re not careful, this is where things could be going.’ It isn’t that far-fetched. It’s not a fantasy.”
In contrast, Cuaron says that his pessimism is about the present, but he is hopeful about the future. “I think that an evolution is happening in the youngest generation. The generation to come is the one that is going to come up with new schemes and new perspectives on things.”
As for his own future, even though there are no plans, as of yet, for Cuaron to revisit the franchise, he says that he would be happy to direct another Harry Potter film, should the opportunity arise. “I would love to revisit the Harry Potter universe. It’s an amazing experience to do those films because, while you’re doing them, you’re surrounded by this beneficial energy. Everything that surrounds the J.K. Rowling creation is impregnated with this amazing energy. It was an amazing two years of my life, and I wouldn’t mind revisiting that.”
On the horizon for Owen will be a revisiting of his character Dwight McCarthy for the highly anticipated Sin City 2. “It’s been announced a few times that it’s happening, but I have no idea what is happening there. I don’t know when they’re going to do it, or who’s doing it, but it’s been talked about and it’s floating out there, as an idea.”
