Werner Herzog Says Lucasfilm's THE MANDALORIAN is “Cinema Back At Its Best”
Esteemed filmmaker Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man, and Aguirre, the Wrath of God), who has a role in Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian, has some high praise for the series. I know a lot of Star Wars fans have loved what they’ve seen from the series so far, and in a world where esteemed filmmakers are bashing genre films like what Marvel Studios is doing, Herzog says that The Mandalorian is “cinema back at its best.” He also praised Jon Favreau, as a force to be reckoned with in filmmaking.
During a recent panel at a screening of The Mandalorian at the El Capitan theater, Herzog said:
“When you invited me, I knew in less than 60 seconds that this was going to be big. I saw the universe. I saw costumes. I saw the round horizon. I saw the spacecraft. I saw an entire universe. And I knew this was really big.”
He went on to say that he enjoyed every single moment of the experiences he had in being a part of this project:
“I enjoyed every single moment of it. And I think it’s beyond what we are seeing on the screen. It’s cinema back at its best. On the big fantasy films, actors were acting almost like robots in front of green screens, you didn’t see the world that you were inhabiting. Now [with The Mandalorian] the actors see the entire universe in which they are operating and the camera does the same. The camera sees it as well so cinema is back to its very life, where it had been. And it becomes very, very Iivey it’s not robotic. It’s got very, very intense life in it.”
Herzog is referring in part to the innovative real-time rendering system devised by Industrial Light & Magic using some conceptual approaches and tech advancements. “The system allowed actors to ‘see’ the digitally augmented environs around them in a new way by using video screens to extend the set with virtual reality representations that give the actors a sense of the place and space around them.” Herzog goes on to talk about these filmmaking tech advancements and the mythology, saying:
“It sounds like science fiction but it is way beyond that because what you’re creating goes beyond that — what you’re creating is an entire universe. And this universe is filled with new mythology. Not very often in cultural history have we had new mythologies. We had it with ancient Greek mythology, we had it in antiquity, but very rarely…and it’s also a world filled of fantasy, full of fever dreams, full of new characters you never expected so it’s a wonderful possibility for filmmaking. [There] can’t be a better universe than the one that you inhabit with your characters.”
I was initially surprised to learn that Herzog would play a role in this series, but he perfectly fits the character that he’s playing and I’m curious to know what that character’s intentions are with what The Mandalorian was sent to get.
The first episode of this series completely hooked me and I’m excited to see where this story leads and what’s in store for the fantastic characters that we’ve been introduced to.
Source: Deadline