Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Bleecker Street, casey affleck, exclusive, interview, laurence fishburne, Mikael Håfström, Tomer Capone

Slingshot Director Mikael Håfström on Sci-Fi Horror Film's Themes

Director Mikael Håfström (1408) spoke to Bleeding Cool about the sci-fi horror thriller in Bleecker Street's Slingshot, isolation & more.

Mikael Håfström is one of the most refreshing minds in drama and horror to come out of the Swedish entertainment scene since his debut in 1988 in the TV series Varuhuset as a writer and director. He made his American directorial debut in the 2005 crime thriller Derailed. He followed that up with the film adaptation of Stephen King's 1401 in 2007. Other projects he's worked on include The Rite (2011) for New Line, Escape Plan (2013) for Lionsgate, and the Netflix TV series Bloodline. Håfström spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest film, Bleecker Street's Slingshot, the sci-fi horror film's isolation theme, casting, practical versus CG, and more.

Slingshot follows an elite trio of astronauts (Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne, and Tomer Capone) aboard a years-long, possibly compromised mission to Saturn's moon of Titan. As the team gears up for a highly dangerous slingshot maneuver that will either catapult them to Titan or into deep space, it becomes increasingly difficult for one astronaut to maintain his grip on reality.

Slingshot Director Mikael Håfström on Building on Film's Isolation Themes

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Slingshot?'
The challenge of doing something in a contained space. The psychological drama intrigued me. I worked with a similar concept like '1408' with [John] Cusack in a hotel room. I liked the challenge of the contained space and the interaction between these characters. When I first read the script, I liked the twists and turns and how it developed. It was a lot of compelling things.

How does this project compare to other work? How do you feel acclimated to space sci-fi and integrating the themes of isolation?
I like themes of isolation, which I used in other films like 'The Rite" (2011) we mentioned, and when you're out in space, it is such a great arena for isolation since you can't be more isolated in the middle of the universe. I felt like we had a good opportunity to tell a story about isolation, loneliness, solitude, longing, and all these great themes as human beings we live with. That's why space films have that, and many of them have that quality. They've tried to explore what's going on when we leave the foundation of ourselves to the earth, and we haven't done that as human beings. We've gone to the moon but haven't gone much further. We don't know what happens outside, but films try to explore and tell stories.

How did casting come together, what was it like working with Casey, Laurence, Emily, and Tomer, and what did they bring to the production?
A lot, because of the nature of the film. We had in this spaceship and three guys. It's all about them, their character, and their interaction between them. I sent the script to some agents we liked with good clients, and Casey promptly replied and read it. I didn't know him before, but he liked the part and the film. He came aboard, which was great. Same thing with Lawrence; he got the script from his agent, read it, and said, "I want to be part of this."

Emily Beecham, I just worked with before in a film Netflix movie called 'Outside the Wire,' (2021) with Anthony Mackie. I liked working with her, so I asked if she wanted to come to this one, and she did. Tomer Capone wasn't as known before finding success on 'The Boys'. He came on with tapes, I liked his performances, and things I've seen and talked to him about. He came on board quite straightforwardly, and we had a good casting process. I'm pleased with the bunch that we got together.

What was the most difficult part of production, or perhaps a scene that was a little harder to execute?
The hard thing was to design the spaceship because 90 percent [of the scenes take place there]. I asked a production designer I worked with before, Barry Chusid, to help me because we needed something we could work in that wouldn't be boring to shoot in. That was challenging, but when we got together, we felt very secure. It was a good space, and the actors felt the same. We went in the morning, and most of us didn't want to go out until we were done shooting because we felt safe there. Balancing the characters towards each other was challenging with the different attitudes and dilemmas. Also, space that out during the time of the film so we don't give too much away from the beginning. Slowly, we get to know this person, as in old movies, but especially here when we are so close to these characters.

Any previous work you've done or any inspiration from other films or filmmakers that inspired your approach to 'Slingshot?'
I saw a lot of space movies, but again, you can see a lot of space movies like '2001[: A Space Odyssey]' (1968), another great one was 'Alien' (1979) or other space movies and get inspired by things, and it's, okay. In this case, it's also much about character and what we discussed before isolation, loneliness, and inspiration you take from a bunch of films don't necessarily take place in space; character-wise, they have that within them. I'm trying to watch many different movies and different kinds of movies, get into a movie-making attitude before I start to shoot the film, focus, and try to tell the story. You can do that as best as you can under the circumstances.

When it comes to approaching the hallucinations with Casey's character, John. What went into the process of deciding the approach of the special effects with practical versus CG?
When we tried to make this film, it's not that we didn't have a huge budget for it. We had to be careful with the money we had, so we made a lot of the stuff in the spaceship practical, all the monitors and all of that. We pre-made them so the actors have something to play against, not just a green screen. We put it on in post-production, so lots of the stuff in the actual spaceship is practical for financial reasons, but it's also more fun. It's more fun for the actors with little visual effects components in the film. There are some here and there, space, and so on, but that's not much at all.

I love your work in horror. Was it a subgenre you're looking to explore, or maybe a different genre you hope to do in the future?
I just made a Scandinavian war epic in the 1500s between the Swedes and the Danes that was so far from anything else I've done. It's a big movie with 25-30 actors, hundreds of extras, some big battles, and stuff like that, which was a lot of fun. It's a Scandinavian movie called 'Stockholm Bloodbath' (2023), and it's sold to the US (via Brainstorm Media), as you will see at some point, but I enjoyed it. It was a different kind of beast and fun to do.

Slingshot, which also stars David Morrissey, is in theaters now.

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