KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — His films such as Blade Runner and the Alien franchise served as prescient warnings about our relationship with artificial intelligence (AI) and that theme continues in legendary auteur Sir Ridley Scott’s latest sci-fi outing, Raised by Wolves.
The anticipated HBO Max original series which launches this week centres on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet after Earth is destroyed by a great war.
As the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task.
In a recent interview, the sage filmmaker explained the message of his television debut using sci-fi as a vehicle to comment about contemporary life.
“It’s a bit like making history films, we realise we don’t learn too much, we don’t learn from past events and we keep making the same mistakes so I think we’re witnessing that right now,” said executive producer and director Scott.
“It’s relevant to me in that way because the use of science fiction looking forward is useful, if somebody pays attention, because in a funny kind of way, it’s like striking a warning bell.”
Writer and creator Aaron Guzikowski, best known for penning the 2013 film Prisoners, was partly inspired by his three young sons, in particular, how technology is encroaching on them and what the future holds for his children.
“This relationship between us and technology is becoming increasingly overlapped and it’s something I have been obsessing over.
“That, in addition to my endless fandom of science fiction in general gave birth to the idea,” Guzikowski said.
For Scott, who has been making iconic sci-fi films since the late ‘70s, the challenge was to not repeat himself, often relying on his intuition which has served him well thanks to decades of experience.
“Sci-fi is in much need of something fresh,” the 80-year-old said.
“When something good happens, then there seems to be a generation of copycats and therefore it neutralises what was necessarily really good at a certain point.”
Navigating the touchy subject that is religion
Guzikowski explained that the series, which boldly explores the confronting topic of religion and conflict surrounding it, isn’t for or against religion but rather, looking at the subject of faith from all perspectives.
“The show is about faith (and who we) as a species decide to put our faith in — if we’re going to put our faith in technology which is obviously in some ways just as problematic as putting our faith in an imaginary deity or some kind of ancient mythology or whatever it might be,” Guzikowski said.
“It doesn’t matter what world you’re in, there’s always going to be drama and arguments and at the base of that so often is about faith and people’s beliefs and religion,” added Aussie actor Travis Fimmel who plays Marcus.
Marking her first sci-fi gig, Irish actress Niamh Algar had always avoided the genre after the gory chestburster scene in Scott’s 1979 film Alien scared the life out of her.
On playing someone who steals the identity of another woman to survive, Algar tried to find something in her character to ground her emotionally.
“When she’s thrown into this army that she hates, and I think is trying to find the truth in why she would help people she hates and was taught to dislike — it conjures up a lot of questions personally for yourself,” she said.
Becoming androids… with the help of latex
The two leads Amanda Collin and Abubakar Salim, who play Mother and Father, have the mammoth task of portraying androids in the series and one of their greatest challenges was the skin-tight latex suit.
The suits required copious amounts of talc and lube to get into along with polishing to maintain its shine.
“It’s a whole thing to go to the bathroom,” Collin said.
“You can’t really breathe in it also, so when it’s very hot, you just drip sweat — it was very interesting to discover the many facets of latex I must say,” said Collin.
Scott had wanted the androids to be naked, akin to Adam and Eve, but it was not an option for obvious reasons and tested the idea of latex suits after walking past the lingerie retailer Agent Provocateur in Soho, London.
“They helped in regards to movement and the feeling and vibe of everything, it aided a lot of the performance.
“Even though they were a challenge — depending on the environment, if it was hot it was really hot, if it was cold it was freezing — it added to the look of the show which is brilliant,” Salim said.
Raised by Wolves will debut exclusively on HBO GO on September 3.
