I ORIGINS Is a Prequel to a Script Sold to Fox in 2011
I Origins was one of my favorite movies at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It's a faith vs science movie that makes the audience think, and it blew my mind to pieces. I just found out in a /Film interview with director Mike Cahill that this movie is actually a prequel to a script that he sold to Fox Searchlight in 2011 after he made his great sci-fi drama Another Earth. That script is called I, and this is an explanation from the director.
"[The end credits tease] is a whole ‘nother movie that I wanna make. And it’s called I. This is I Origins. This it has a, this has such an unusual title, right? And a lot of people are like are literally like this is grammatically confusing. It’s like what the hell is going on there? And the thing about me is I’m so literal when it comes to titles. Another Earth is about another Earth. Boxers and the Ballerina is about boxer and a ballerina. I Origins is the origin story for I. And I is another movie that I wrote and sold to Fox Searchlight when Another Earth came out. It takes place 20 years in the future. It’s basically the coda is the beginning of that film. We didn’t make it. We were developing it and I couldn’t crack it. There were some aspects of the story that was just, I just couldn’t crack it yet. And so before going engaging in like making a movie that was gonna be really like not so good. Not to say that this one is. This one just, you know, modest little movie or whatever. It’s our tiny little baby. But I was so eager to make something and I had this rich back story for I. So we made Origins first. As a very small like super low budget movie for a million bucks."
This is a rare thing to see happen, and as awesome as it is the question remains… will we ever see I get made? I Origins opens with a limited release this weekend, but will it make enough money to give the studio the confidence to move forward with the next chapter of the story? I hope so! If I Origins is playing near you you need to go watch it.