Co-Writers/Co-Directors Kevin McManus and Matthew McManus talk to Fest Track about structure, setting, approach and thematics in regards to their new film: "Redux Redux" playing the Midnighter section at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
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00:00This is Tim Wastbrook from FesTrackOnStreetTV.
00:29I'm here at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
00:33Yeah, I think for us going into this movie, you know, we love sci-fi movies and our favorite
00:38sci-fi movies are the ones where at a certain point the sci-fi takes a bit of a backseat.
00:42You kind of push it out to an arm's distance and you can really start to fall into the
00:48characters and at times watch a movie where, you know, you wouldn't even know it's a sci-fi
00:52movie. So that was sort of, you know, we had a lot of inspiration from science fiction
00:56movies like The Terminator, but the other side of it was also L.A. crime stories.
01:02You know, so how can we do an L.A. crime story where there is the sci-fi element
01:06attitude as well? So much of the driving force of this movie really was the human story,
01:13the story of this character going through something rough and as a parent, kind of,
01:17I think your greatest fear, right? So how do you see the thing all the way through
01:22on the human side of the story?
01:24Yeah, I mean, you know, I think on the other side of it too is that so often these revenge flicks,
01:28and I like these movies a lot, but they can be real wish fulfillment. Usually it's,
01:32here's an excuse to watch somebody kill somebody and you're rooting for that cathartic kind of
01:37violence. And I think those can be great, but I thought this give us an opportunity to tell a
01:42story that felt a little more personal about actually what would it really be like. It would
01:46be kind of brutal, that addiction to killing him. I mean, I think there is something really fun
01:50about Irene and Mia's relationship and you need Mia there to break the movie out of the
02:00despair. She's supposed to be fun, supposed to be spark plug, right? And she's supposed to remind
02:04you of teenagers you know. And it was fun working with Michaela on that because I remember we're
02:09trying to navigate some of the scenes and we're talking like, you know, just treat her the way
02:14you'd treat your 10-year-old if he was acting out. You know what I mean? And so there is this
02:19really great kind of, really natural chemistry they have that feels like mother-daughter and
02:24that was a really exciting thing to see. Is Neville working tonight? He a friend of yours?
02:35No. Please. Where's her body?
02:42How many times have you killed him? A lot.
02:45Ow.
02:48I have been traveling through the multiverse looking for my daughter. You're not from around
02:53here. No. Great. Neither am I. Looking for a world where she wasn't kidnapped and murdered.
03:01We have a soft spot for foul-mouthed, you know, teenagers, you know. I think everything from
03:06America Vandal to our first film, Funeral Kings, it's just like, it's something we just love to
03:10write. And so, you know, if you put a teenager in there, eventually they'll find that edge because
03:17we can't help but put it in there. And then so much of it is finding the right cast. I think
03:24oftentimes when you write a character that is so foul-mouthed, the temptation is to play it with a
03:31lot of contempt. And you get someone who has such a dark edge where they're not having fun with it
03:37and you're like, oh, they just seem miserable, right? And I think the lines can read one or
03:42two ways. Either it's fun and funny or they're completely miserable. And I think finding Stella
03:47brought so much life to all that dialogue in a way that we were so grateful for because
03:53there's a lot of trapdoors there playing a role like that.
03:57Yeah. With Michaela, the nice thing is there's just a pure trust there. You just know she's
04:01going to be able to deliver. She's got this reservoir of emotion that she always brings.
04:05And not only have we seen everything she's done, but when we were first starting out here,
04:11we would do all of her auditions on tape. And so you see her do this wide range of roles.
04:18And so many of them, she does all sorts of, I mean, she's been working for forever, but then
04:22she hasn't done something quite like this on screen, but we've seen her do this a gazillion
04:27times. And so it just felt like, oh, finally, this is going to be a real showcase to show everybody
04:32that side of her, which is, to me, one of the most exciting things that she does.
05:03When am I left today?
05:05I think also there's something we said about just the way that character, it's kind of,
05:11in some ways, like the character of Mia, where you're playing a hardened killer. So trying to
05:18make sure that humanity is there every step of the way is critical, right? Because otherwise,
05:22it can become a one note, right? So knowing Michaela had the goods to do that was critical.
05:29But we kept talking about how she's not a trained killer, and she's a mom. So it's like,
05:37how do we see that come through in every single scene? And part of that, we talked to Michaela
05:43about it recently, where she was talking about training for the project. She's like,
05:48I feel like I need to learn a lot. We're like, I think it's ideal not to learn a lot.
05:52When the armor would come in and be like, this is how you properly hold a gun,
05:55like you were in the military, you're like, she doesn't hold a gun like she's in the military.
05:58She holds a gun the way she's figured it out. So there is a certain naturalistic,
06:03amateur quality to it. And what has worked for her over the last several years going
06:08through the multiverse is how she carries herself now. So much of it was trying to figure out how
06:14do we find a relatable? How do we make sure there's still a mother there? How do we make
06:17sure there's still someone that we can all relate to? You lost your daughter?
06:21It was a long time ago. She's been dead in all of them.
06:26So I just keep killing the bastard who did this to her.
06:36What the f**k just happened?
06:51We're total structure nerds. That's when we're writing, that is first and foremost. And I think
06:59when people say, oh, that movie felt slow or fast or whatever, it's more often than not,
07:04it's not really about the runtime. It's about how well was the structure executed? And so you're
07:08like, well, this is slow because that midpoint happened 10 minutes late. And so it's such a
07:14big thing for us. We've always been that way. And there's so many tips and tricks that you pull from
07:18structure and these opportunities for character moments. And you think, well, this character
07:23moment would be great. And if we can make it land in this kind of area, that's where it's going to
07:27hit the audience in a really good way. That's a good question.
07:30I don't know. It's funny because I think there's also something interesting about
07:33structure where sometimes it gets mislabeled as formula. You're hitting exactly this certain
07:44character in that certain character in a certain reversal has to happen at a certain time. For us,
07:48the structure really comes down to every 15 minutes, you need a turning point. Just sort
07:52of like when you're watching a horror movie, every 10 minutes you want a horror set piece.
07:54And if there's not, then suddenly it feels slow. So it's like for us-
07:57So every 30 pages, 25 pages, boom.
07:59Yeah, every 15. So at every 15, if you find there's not a turning point, it starts to drag.
08:06And I think when you watch any movie, you go, that movie's kind of dragging. You're like,
08:08yeah, it's because they missed the turning point until they started to drag. So it's like,
08:12I think it's the same way as telling a good joke, right? There's a certain structure to a joke and
08:16you can put anything in that structure, but the punchline lands best when it's structured well.
08:24I can't stop. I can't quit. He's taken everything from me.
08:32I don't even know what I am anymore.
08:42I mean, I loved shooting in Los Angeles for the same reason I'm a film fan. Every great
08:50movie from growing up, every LA crime movie is like that. It's like straight into my veins when
08:54we were growing up and really starting to get into film. So it was so cool shooting this thing
08:59in Los Angeles and having the opportunity to really put a place I love on film and
09:05show that side of it again. I feel like so many things are not shooting in Los Angeles anymore.
09:10And when you get gas stations, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like the diners, I think we shot in
09:18as many diners as we possibly could. There's like five or six diners in this movie. But there's all
09:23those kind of little hallmarks of it. What's so fun about shooting there too is you find the history
09:27of where you go. So where we shot the motel and one of the diners, like, oh yeah, we shot Drive
09:32here. And Drive was a, we all went to the Vidiots to watch Drive before we shot the movie, right?
09:36So it was because it was such a good reference point for this one. And then he pulled us aside
09:40and he said, oh, you like John Carpenter? I was like, I mean, yeah, he's my favorite director.
09:43And he's like, I've got Christine in the back. I was like, what? And he opened the garage and he
09:47just had Christine sitting in there. Yeah. And she's still perfect. He's like, get in there.
09:51Want to sit in her? Yeah, I want to sit in Christine. Are you kidding me? That was so
09:54cool. Or there's a shot where, uh, you know, the pickup truck is coming out of a tunnel and that's
09:58the dual tunnel. Right. And then, uh, we were shooting at the very end, this kind of swamp
10:03set's really scary. And the owner at that ranch said, well, do you know what we shot here? What
10:07did you shoot here? Yes, we shot the Budweiser Frog commercial here.