Exclusive: Max Landis talks ‘Chronicle 2′ at MEFCC

We and the rest of UAE had an amazing time at the Middle East & Film Comic Con 2012 that happened last week in Dubai, which was probably the best entertainment event the city has ever seen in terms of how well it was organised and how much there was to do for a film or comic geek there. We have quite a lot of coverage from the event (watch Jason Momoa say he would consider playing Kratos) that we will roll out slowly over the weeks. But one of the highlights of the event in general was Max Landis, the writer of the hit superhero film ‘Chronicle’ who was invited to be a guest at the event but ended up doing so much more to make the event as lively as it was. We managed to catch an interview with the guy that went more in-depth than we thought it would be, but it’s definitely the coolest interview we’ve done.

But aside from that, the writer dishes out some exclusive scoop on the sequel ‘Chronicle 2′ that he’s currently penning.

Earlier at the press conference of the event, he said that ‘Chronicle’ wasn’t set in a fantasy world like most superhero movies and because of that, it was actually about the ‘world’s first superhero’. Adding to that, he revealed that ‘Chronicle 2′ will be about the ‘world’s first super-villain’. We all know that Andrew wasn’t an evil character since the start and only used his powers destructively towards the end of the film due to the events that lead him to that. But could it be that someone in the sequel would actually plan to use his powers for legitimate evil?

Later in our interview below, Landis speaks about ‘Chronicle’ being ‘an artist driven film’ rather than a studio driven film. He talks about how the film doesn’t follow a single rule of found-footage movies but actually breaks them all. And in that, he also reveals a small spoiler for the film on how the footage from ‘Chronicle’ affects the events in the sequel:

‘Small spoiler -  the movie you saw (Chronicle) in the sequel, is a thing. That edited footage … is a thing. So it’s not like ‘we found this footage after this kids died’. You can’t deny cars being thrown in the air in Seattle. You saw all those helicopters. The world changed. That’s the end of ‘Chronicle’. And things are going to be different now. They can’t possibly cover up what happened. ‘

He also reveals that Josh Trank is unlikely to return to direct the sequel, though:

‘Probably not. Josh is all over the place with other projects. I’m also all over the place with other projects, but ‘Chronicle’ is really my baby. Josh will probably be involved in some respect but right now I just want to get the script done.’

That’s a bummer to know, but it will be interesting to see who comes on to direct it.

On the things that were influences on the film, he mentions ‘Akira’, ‘X-Men’ and ‘Stand by Me’ as the primary ones but also mentions that in essence it’s a Stephen King story as in it’s ‘a character driven story where things go progressively more crazy’.

He also mentions how the characters in the film are like his sons, and reveals that the character of Matt is expected to return for the sequel and won’t be having a good time:

‘ I loved Matt, and I felt really bad for him because I understood just how emotionally lazy he is and how he doesn’t really do what he’s doing. And that’s why I’m putting him through hell in (Chronicle) 2′

Also notice a peculiar movement he does at 06:30 of the first part and explains that it’ll make more sense later on. Make what you want of that.

But it’s a long interview filled with hilarious moments, talk about his upcoming projects as well as his experience on ‘Death and Return of Superman’. Watch both parts below.