Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: amber heard, conor allyn, Eduardo Noriega, exclusive, In the Fire, interview, Lorenzo McGovern Zaini, Saban Films

In the Fire Dir. Conor Allyn Talks Amber Heard Supernatural Horror

Director Conor Allyn (No Man's Land) talks to Bleeding Cool about the Saban Films supernatural thriller "In the Fire", Amber Heard & more

There are too many familiar tales of superstitious persecution and zealotry throughout history. While there has been a level of civility since then, many have shifted how to lob their vitriol thanks to the advent of social media. It was kind of the tale writer and director Conor Allyn wanted to tell in his latest supernatural historical thriller, In the Fire, which follows a doctor from New York (Amber Heard) who travels to a remote plantation in the 1890s to care for a disturbed boy who seems to have inexplicable abilities. She begins treating the child, but in doing so, ignites a war of science versus religion with the local priest, who believes the Devil possesses the boy and is the reason for all the village's woes. The No Man's Land director spoke to Bleeding Cool about the film's nuanced inspiration as a tale of persecution and feminism, whether Heard's public legal issues factored into casting, working with co-writers Pascal Borno and Silvio Muraglia, and environmental struggles on set.

In the Fire: Why Conor Allyn Wanted Film to Be a Gaucho Western

Bleeding Cool: What's the inspiration behind 'In the Fire?'
Allyn: It's a story I wrote the first draft around 2014 or 2015, so it was a long time ago. Whenever I'm doing my own writing, I feel it almost always, whether I like it or not, has to do with stories of exiles and outcasts. Through some formative years, I felt like one myself, which seems to bleed in my writing. This is a movie about this disturbed young boy who's become an outcast in his remote community in South America. Everything that goes wrong in this town gets blamed on this kid because he's different. Equally, this female Doctor of Psychology is much an outcast in her own right. She's a woman doctor when there weren't any. She's a Doctor of Psychology back when that was not a respected science at all. She's an outcast, too, and the two of them form this relationship against this community led by a zealot priest who thinks that they know how to fix this kid, but it gets a lot worse. The friction between these two groups is the science versus religion aspect of the movie; whenever you make a period movie, you want it to have a lot of relevance to our contemporary world. Science versus religion, fact versus belief, is something we are dealing with today.

My follow-up question is about the casting of Amber Heard. Was it a mere coincidence you both found each other, or was it something where one sought the other?
Not a coincidence. I met her through a TV pilot that I've written about. That show hasn't been made yet, but I learned more about her after meeting her. Most don't know she lived in Mexico City for a while. She speaks fluent Spanish and has a great interest in history. I felt that she was going to love 'In the Fire.' I showed her the script, and it's no coincidence because of her own story that she connected with a character who is a fearless truth-teller who has strong convictions and sticks to them, even when it gets her in hot water. She connected with that character right away, and then the rest was history as we went on in the movie.

How did Pascal and Silvio factor into the writing portion of most of the script?
I originated the scripts, which go through many iterations, especially over six or seven years. Pascal was a part of it first. We met about a year or something after I'd written a first draft. We worked on it together at that point, made some changes, and found new storylines to build it out. Pascal and Silvio knew each other from years before, so he got involved. Both of those guys are also producers, as I am. We all allied of like, "This is a great, what a cool, unique story. How do we make this happen on the page and off?"

Were there any external inspirations like other works that helped this story?
We tapped into the Latin romantic film genre. Gabriel García Márquez is a famous South American author who would create these wonderful worlds that were authentic but also romantic and magical. That was the kind of world-building we tried in this movie. Beyond that, it was mixing subgenres. I'd much rather create a whole new world than take an audience back to something world they've already seen many times before. We were mixing this like what I call the Gaucho Western atmosphere. This movie has aspects of Western, but it happens in South America. We're mixing that with religious demonic possession movies, like 'The Omen' (1976) and 'The Exorcist' (1973), but taking a different spin. In those films, there's no question if the child is possessed. They're the devil and evil. We've got to stop them. This is a different approach, turning it on its head where our questions are, "Is this boy possessed? Does he have magical powers that are killing people?" or "Is he a disturbed boy who becomes a scapegoat and needs our protection?"

Was there a particular aspect of seeing the film that stood out to you?
There were certainly some atmospheric challenges. When we were in Guatemala, several active volcanoes were near our sets, which was interesting. We shot this one big sequence by a cemetery. We were up on a plateau, a big, dusty plain, and it was windy that day. There was this kicking up dust the whole day, and the actors couldn't wear sunglasses or anything [to protect their eyes] during the scenes. They're getting pummeled in there; just the makeup teams are running in there doing Visine eye drops in between every take. By the end of it, all the actors, like Amber Heard, were blinded entirely out there as they wiped away tears of pain and then got in position. Keep their eyes closed. Wait until the last possible second to call action and try to shoot some scenes before they can't go any longer, not to close their eyes.

How did the cast come together, and what chemistry did they all have during filming?
The big chemistry in this movie is between Amber Heard, who plays the role of this woman, Dr. Grace, and this disturbed boy, Martin, played by Lorenzo McGovern Zaini. I feel so blessed to have both of those people who created fantastic chemistry on set, especially for a child actor. This boy was only 11 years old then, but he was remarkable. He spoke four languages and did the whole movie basically blind because he wore these special contact lenses. He and Amber, I don't want to say "came together magically" because we did a lot of work to make it happen.
The two of them were incredibly committed and did a huge amount of rehearsal and preparation. Their relationship blossomed on and off the screen, and the arc of the movie for her is going from this unemotional doctor who's protecting this kid for scientific reasons. She finds herself emotionally becoming involved with this boy and wanting to protect him for maternal reasons and love instead of science and watching that happen on screen. It's terrific for a director to see it all coming together.

Saban Films In the Fire, which also stars Eduardo Noriega and Luca Calvani, is available in theaters, on-demand and digital.

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