by Billy Russell, Staff Writer

MovieJawn had an opportunity to chat with Cosmic Sin director Edward Blake. The film is available digitally now.

MovieJawn: Watching a movie like Cosmic Sin, I always think of something Steven Spielberg said about the making of his Indiana Jones movies, where he said it’s very much like getting to play with toys as an adult. You get to set up your action sequences, you have the cool costumes, the futuristic weapons--did you feel that way directing this movie? Did it give you an opportunity to sort of play with some toys and see what happens?

Edward Blake: Like winning the lottery and get struck by lightning at the same time. Cosmic Sin fulfilled a lot of childhood dreams. Next up on the list of dreams is to bring to life a giant robot Gundam/Jaeger story.

MJ: What kind of movies were you thinking of while making Cosmic Sin, whether intentional shout-outs or maybe subconscious influences during the writing process?

EB: Books including Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem Trilogy, and Carl Sagan’s Contact were a huge inspiration for me.

The cinematographer, Brandon Cox, and I picked apart films like Apocalypse Now, Fury, Ad Astra, The Dirty Dozen, The Fifth Element, and Space Jam in the lead-up to find a striking visual style.

MJ: What kind of movies did you like when you were younger? What were some of the movies that helped shape your vision as a filmmaker, writer and director?

EB: Ocean's 11, Gladiator, Lethal Weapon, Master & Commander, The Departed, The Good The Bad And the Ugly, Princess Mononoke, Snatch, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and we'd be here all day if I went on.

I love a cheeky little film.

MJ: Can you tell us how Bruce Willis joined the cast? What was it like working with him?

EB: I was on a rowing machine when I got a call from a producer, Corey Large. He was out in New York with Bruce back in February 2019. Bruce, in passing, said he was looking for a sci-fi film, and Corey asked if I had a script for him. So I lied and said I had the perfect script for him, then went up back to my apartment and wrote Anti-Life in three fantastic days. On the set of Anti-Life, I met Bruce and his team, we hit it off, and they said "what else you got?"

So on set I wrote the first draft of Cosmic Sin.

After each film wraps and the team has a good time, they ask "what else you got?" Bruce is a down to earth dude, I'm grateful to know him and for his support over the past two years. Working with B-Dubs is a great experience, it’s always a pleasure seeing an actor of his caliber work, even if his nickname for me is The Brit.

MJ. What was the writing process like on Cosmic Sin? How did you arrive at the idea, and how did it blossom from there into what it is today?

EB: I was out with some mates one night and we tied one on. When I woke in the morning I had written “elite soldiers fight aliens in space” in sharpie on my hand. When I realized what that meant I really wanted to get into the mind set of being in space, so I went a bought hundreds of glow in the dark stars, rented a motel room an blacked out all the windows in order to achieve a writing environment that has the wonder of the cosmos but the claustrophobia of traveling in space. I think that claustrophobia is what led me decide to have our hero’s travel through space in nothing but space suits.

First Contact narratives are important gateways to understanding how humanity will react when confronted with the fact we aren't alone in the universe.

I wanted you to be able to interpret the actions of the protagonists of Cosmic as both good or bad. Did we start this war?

I believe James Ford is a necessary evil. He's a soldier who gets the job done regardless of the toll it takes.

MJ: Outside of Bruce Willis, you had a number of other big names in the cast like Frank Grillo and C.J. Perry. Was there anyone in the cast you had specifically in mind while writing the character, or do you tend to write the character first and cast whoever is the best fit?

EB: Lochlyn Munro, I wrote the role for his singluar voice. Munz is a fantastic actor with so much to give, and I was lucky to work with him again on another film, APEX, right after COSMIC.

As soon as the cast shaped up, I did a pass of the dialogue to speak to the voices of each actor.

MJ: I liked that you subverted many of the traditional visuals of the sci-fi genre--instead of a big, massive spaceship, for example, our characters warped across the galaxy through a rip in the space-time continuum and then flew through outer space in suits. How much of that was intentional? While working on the script and the production design, did you feel that certain elements had been there before, and decided to do something new?

EB: Traveling through space without the protection of a spaceship raises the stakes and makes the task of getting to the battle a harrowing event in its self.

MJ: On that note, I also liked that even though the movie was set so far into the future, it still felt grounded and technology hadn’t eclipsed humanity like it has in, say, Star Trek. It felt more like the universe the Alien movies are set in, where it’s the future, but you have working schlubs still the norm.

Was that a conscious decision as a part of your world-building?

EB: Absolutely. All civilizations are built on the backs of an exploited labor force. A major theme of COSMIC is exploring why one society values itself more highly than an alien one.

The Expanse captures this beatifully.

MJ: You got really lucky with the principal photography wrapping before COVID lockdowns. How did it affect your post-production schedule?

EB: We shot Cosmic in nine and half-days and wrapped an hour before the Atlanta IATSE lockdown hit.

The editor Justin Williams and I met once before the lockdown. No sitting in the edit bay, just running all post remotely thanks to the team at Buffalo 8. They took each challenge in their stride and I'm grateful for their hard work. The VFX team at Chariot Drive also did an amazing job at adapting to a completely virtual office.

MJ: Lastly, what’s next for you? Do you have anything in the works right now that you can tell us about?

EB: I’ve got a few exciting things in the works.

The two things on the forefront of my mind are spending time with my new pup, Utah, and working on a passion project titled Cat’s Eye following the life of Percey Shaw.