Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Adriana Malfatti, exclusive, interview, Julio Soto Gúrpide, Ronny Chieng, Viva Kids

Inspector Sun: Director and Producer on 30s-Inspired Animated Mystery

Director Julio Soto Gúrpide & producer Adriana Malfatti talk to Bleeding Cool about the animated mystery Inspector Sun, Ronny Chieng & more.

Director Julio Soto Gúrpide and producer Adriana Malfatti have had a wonderful rapport since the 2017 animated film Deep. They collaborated on the live-action 2019 drama Palestine and are now in the animated feature Inspector Sun. The film follows the title character, an anthropomorphic huntsman spider (Ronny Chieng), who seeks a vacation after being fired from his detective job after a mission gone awry. When Dr. Spindlethorp (Scott Geer) receives a threat on his life, Sun is back on the case. Trapped in a web of lies, Sun must find his suspect before it's too late. Gúrpide and Malfatti spoke to Bleeding Cool about the inspiration behind the Viva Kids animated feature, casting, and how Gúrpide learned to manage his resources better over time.

How 'Detective Sun' Was Inspired by Agatha Christie

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about Inspector Sun?
Gúrpide: I mean, what didn't intrigue me? It was an amazing story. It had all the elements to be an original 1930s crime story for families, spiders, insects, smugglers, mobsters, and femme fatales. It had all the elements to be an amazing story and original. It was this universe that made it enticing and interesting.

What elements of Rocco Pucillo's scripts stood out to you?
The most crucial element was it was a period-type of film set in the 1930s. It's a significant period of amazing significance, prohibition, but at the same time, it had all the freedom and craziness of the 1930s, and then they call them the "Crazy 30s." They were crazy, and everybody was doing different things. This was the one element that I found particularly interesting, and within the context of film noir, that was the winning point.

Can you break down the casting on how it came together?
The most difficult part of the casting was the main character, Inspector Sun. We were lucky enough to have Ronny Chieng as part of the cast, who was, from the beginning, interested in the project because of the idea of playing a spider detective from the 1930s. The character is much like Hercule Poirot, the detective from 'Agatha Christie,' because of his voice, we had to find a humorous counterpart in Janey (Emily Kleimo), the Apprentice. We were lucky to have a fantastic genius who had this playful voice, childlike in a way. At the same time, super energetic, fun, and humorous. Once we had those two pieces, the rest of the elements, we had to play around with the sort of like the clichés of genre. For example, Arabella (Jennifer Childs Greer), the black widow, was seen as having this silky and seductive tone to her, which was amazing. Red Locust (Rich Orlow), the arch nemesis [Sun], is an immensely great and powerful voice. Every character has its own intricacies and tone. There could be a universe of every character.

What did you learn from working on 'Deep' that you took with you for 'Inspector Sun?'
The biggest lesson I learned from 'Deep' is when you try to accomplish too much and when the stories become too ambitious, there is a risk of the budget not reaching where you want it to be. It is easy to underestimate the amount of money that you have and the thing you're going to come up with everything. One of the first things we did on 'Inspector Sun' was to limit the movie's scope. That's why we have three sets, basically, in the first act. Everything takes place in the second act, which is the longest; it takes place in the seaplane, a controlled environment. It's almost like a studio movie with a few locations. The third act was San Francisco. Those three locations are the way to contain the budget so you can go overboard and then start spending too much. Also, the number of characters you want to limit them. It looks like there are a lot of characters in the movie, but we only have 45 characters, which may sound like a lot. Trust me, it is not enough. We changed colors, and some of them we replicated and blown them up. We managed to get into a crowded environment with many characters, which we thought was a good thing.

Adriana, Julio, how do you describe your chemistry and rapport working together on several projects?
Malfatti: Well [laughs], we have the same idea about the type of studio we wanted to be and the type of stories we want to tell. This is the biggest driving force. Julio has good creative ideas, and I have good ideas on the financial said. We work well together.
Gúrpide: It's a bit like the yin and yang. If you try to step on somebody else's toes when you're doing something, then it becomes complicated. Since I'm more of a creative mind, Adriana is the financial force behind the company.
Malfatti: We work well together on time and within budget, so it's why we can keep making independent animated films.

What is the biggest difference for you between working on an animated project and live-action?
Gúrpide: Live action projects, you shoot for about six to eight weeks. You need to be highly focused for those eight weeks. You have to have the most amazing stamina to do that so that every day you wake up, you can endure 12-14 hours of shooting. Animation is more like a marathon. I mean, one genre would be like this speed runner, and the other one is the marathon. You will be producing the movie, so you have to be excited about it and super energetic. However, you must be careful to control how you handle your stamina, emotions, and passion for the project. It isn't easy to do as well in both of those worlds.

Inspector Sun, which also stars Iain Batchelor, Jeanette Grace Gonglewski, and Paul Louis Miller, is in theaters.

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