Last month, when Russian and Chinese presidents discussed personal life at the Beijing military parade about living at least 150 years ago, repeated human organ transplants were repeated at the heart of that “hot microphone” moment.
Meditations between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping burned many stories online about immortality, which emphasized that advances in medicine and technological fields can now achieve exaggerated ideas.
But what if the twin pillars of science can help create enhanced humans? How will it change the world? And are people ready to pay for a more fitter, a stronger, more productive version of themselves? These are just a few of the questions explored in Timo Vuorensola’s new film Changed, It is most definitely divided between what the world has and what it has and the knot.
Euronows caught up with the film director behind him Iron sky and 97 minutes The decision to create a lead casting choice for his films, Tom Felton (Harry Potter’s Draco Malfoy) and Richard Brake (King of the Night in Game of Thrones) and the decision to create a feature in Kazakhstan.
What do viewers look forward to with the changes? What inspired you to explore the changed concept of humanity?
Timo Vuorensola: I was inspired by a few key themes, but I think technological advancements have always been my concern. And the more fast technology improves these days, the more people are left with no access, potential, or interest in that kind of technology. And because our society is so shaped around the fact that we know how to use all of these tools, whether it’s a smartphone, how to use them all, whether it’s a laptop or something on the internet, they easily become second-rate citizens.
And today, not everyone has the potential as artificial intelligence is making big moves and changing the whole thing. At the same time, I was interested in biological development. I’m sure science and ethics are the reasons for this. But I thought it would be if I just took this quick AI development idea, turned it into a quick bioengineering development and made it a story. And I think that’s when the bell started ringing.
One important point of your film is that humanity has made the decision to move in a different direction and develop biotechnology?
In my film, the story begins around the 1960s missile crisis. And in my films, World War I actually started, almost everyone was destroyed, but humanity rebuilt itself. But instead of going digital, they began studying biological possibilities. It all started with a very beautiful big idea of us making humans even better, but it becomes very ethical, medical, biological and scientifically questionable. How quickly do you need to develop? Where is the boundary between normal and altered humans? What happens to people who become stronger than people who don’t? Are they now considered the lower caste? And that’s one of the main things I really liked playing with this movie.
Kazakhstan played a major role in filming, especially as a location. Why did you first choose this country? How much production was actually completed and what was the overall experience?
Kazakhstan was taken in the photo when he began searching for the right place. And we knew we couldn’t build everything in CGI or in studios. The question was where to find an architecture that works in this kind of world. And it didn’t take long to realize that Astana is a beautiful city with very impressive architecture. At the same time, it offers architectures from different kinds of eras. I needed both worlds of film. They also needed older Soviet-style constructions. And we wanted to bring in that very high tech, high-end architecture. And there are not many cities in the world that can be used in both. We were running around Kazakhstan and looking for a place. In the end, we decided to film everything in Astana. I think more or less 100% of the filming took place in Astana, except for a few drone shots.
Why not work with the team there? Because I had to work with a local production company and local actors. How was that experience?
I’ve worked with the international crew a lot and I found it to take a little time to adjust. Though the film is a very structured system. Everyone has the same position. We have a first assistant director, a director of photography and a second camera assistant. And they work a little differently, as everyone has a different background from where they come. What’s great about Kazakhstan is that it has such a strong history of cinema. Returning to the beginning of the film, you will find a lot of things that have been done in that part of the world. So finding an expert wasn’t an issue for me. We had a very professional crew and the same thing as the actors. Obviously, it was a little limited for some actors, as it is an English film, but fortunately we were able to find a very good person to play an important role. Obviously, I didn’t know much about Kazakhstan’s film culture, but it was great to see how amazing the actors are when I started working and really wanted to know the people. So I think my overall experience was great. The only thing was that by the time we finished it was starting to get really cold.
We’re talking about the cast, so how did the main cast come about? Why was Tom Felton chosen for Leon’s role? Why was Richard Brake chosen for his enemy role? And how do they meet the expectations of the characters you want them to embody?
When I write, I don’t want to keep too many actors in mind. Because you will be disappointed because your schedule doesn’t work or your budget doesn’t work. I like to leave options open. Leon needed an actor with vulnerability, an actor with humor and clearly pure acting chops. And then I started going through people, and soon the name of Tom Felton came out and I was like, “That’s it!” And I thought he had the qualities, the background. There were a lot of things about him holding a green flag. So we got closer to him and he really liked the script and wanted to do it. And with Richard Brake, it was a bit similar. I knew I needed a strong presence. I needed someone who could portray someone with this threatening presence, but I didn’t want to be like a big, big actor. I wanted someone with a physical presence, but it comes from the eyes, face and reaction. And then I began to look into the ideas and Richard Brake appeared. In fact, my friend who just made a film with Richard said he was a great guy. That’s how all these characters come out.
All production has challenges and hurdles. Have you encountered any problems during filming or post-production?
As with all filming dates, we start by solving a million problems. In that sense, there is nothing new. There was a bit of a language problem. We had people who came from so many different backgrounds and so many different languages. I’m trying to get everyone to the same room and understand the same thing, which was a bit of a challenge at first, but once rolled it was surprisingly easy. And post-production is always painful, especially in my films. Because I make movies with many visual effects. And I’m asking quite a bit about those visual effects shots.
How was the post-production? You spent it in Antarya, did it lead to a more enjoyable end result?
Post-production itself is a long journey so it’s impossible to say. And when you start making a movie, it’s like you’re being introduced to animals. You don’t know what the animal is. You don’t even know what species the animal is. And you start to learn a bit about how this film works and how it connects. And it’s a massive learning experience. What I certainly know is that filming the filming itself in Kazakhstan gave me an interesting aura throughout. It pulled us away from home and we needed to know where. We needed to know people.
How does change fit into your wider work?
I think this is a continuation of what I did with Iron Sky. Iron Sky was a film that talked about the totalitarianism of today’s world, how totalitarianism found its way into today’s political landscape. What has changed is not about totalitarianism, but it is about the oppression of a particular group of people. We see the oppression of the majority against the minority. Iron Sky 1, Iron Sky 2 discuss the negative impact of totalitarianism and its ideology on society. Altered discusses it from a slightly different perspective. But I always say science fiction is a box that offers a different kind of perspective to our world. No matter how crazy or wild you are in your movie, it’s still talking about this world and our problems and issues that we need to solve. It simply provides a different kind of perspective to this world.
What do you think your future work will be? Are you already planning something, or are you enjoying a small break between the modified filming and its release?
Iron SkyTeam is working on a science fiction trilogy. I’m also working on catastrophe films. There are action movies I’m involved in. He is also developing a Finnish action television series. But you know, in the movie, there’s more balls to the game.