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At one point, Rake impales a bad guys head on the spikes of a literal rake.
(To say the onset of coronavirus has changed thingswould be an understatement.)
Ive really gotten to do a lot of cool action set pieces.
WhatExtractionallowed me to do was put it all together.
You worked with the Russo brothers on twoCaptain Americamoviesand the last twoAvengersinstallments.
Under their production banner Agbo Films, they championed you to directExtraction.
Tell me about your meetings with Netflix.
But you should let me direct a film for you.
They had a few notes they wanted to address.
Joe acted as a buffer.
He wrote the script so a lot of notes went through him.
He and I worked it through together so I wasnt alone.
Its a really cool place to make a movie.
Their attitude is always to make the best film possible.
And to let the filmmakers realize their vision.
There wasnt a lot of meddling, if you will.
It was a really cool experience.
You have worked at some of the highest levels of filmmaking with big budget studio films.
But the bigger the price tag, the more oversight a filmmaker usually gets.
Netflix has shown growing dedication to doing action movies.
Given that push, I was wondering if you could speak to Netflixs intentions in that department.
For the longest time, they were just acquiring what others made and provided an outlet for that.
Now, theyre producing content.
I know for a while it was, Oh, youre doing a Netflix movie?
When are you making a real movie?
We are making a real movie.
This is just a different outlet and this is how people are absorbing content now: streaming.
Having worked on many big-budget movies and then working with Netflix youre right.
So they are going to have an opinion.
So they allow the filmmakers to take more risks.
They let filmmakers try things because they have a built-in audience.
It allows them to take more risks.
Thats an exciting environment to be in for a filmmaker.
Especially a first-time filmmaker.
A first-time filmmaker is a huge financial liability.
You are an unproven commodity until you make your movie and see how it does.
A lot of studios dont want to take that risk.
What wasExtractions budget?Thats for Netflix or Agbo to say.
It was a higher number in the traditional studio model than I thought would be appropriate for this movie.
But then, when you look at their business model, they make the number work differently.
The ending ofExtractionis deliberately ambiguous.
As originally written, Tyler Rake was supposed to die in the end.
In the graphic novel its based on, he lives.
In the final cut of the film, though, you dont know whats going on.
How that hope was interpreted, we wanted to leave up to the viewer.
We had no idea it would be such a popular movie on Netflix.
That ending leaves potential for, if it was popular, you could devise another story within that universe.
Thats why we landed on this ambiguous ending.
Netflixs Scott Stuber gave you some advice regarding an emotionally satisfying ending versus an intellectually satisfying ending.
What did he say?That was one of the best notes Ive ever received.
You might think you have an idea on the page or to shoot thats smart.
Ultimately, the cinematic experience should be emotionally satisfying.
Good, bad, scary, happy, sad it should emotionally satisfy the audience.
That is a really important thing in making a film.
How I took that advice was to not get caught up in overthinking things.
Remember who you are making the movie for when you go through that process.
Joe Russo recently signed a deal to writeExtraction 2.
Are you attached to that project?
It hasnt been written yet.
Were exploring all avenues for this story to take place.
People seem excited about another movie in the Tyler Rake universe.
Im in talks to be in the middle of it.
