Ivan Reitman

Evolution

Interviewed by Neil Smith

What made you want to make "Evolution"?

I've always been a fan of science fiction films, and I've never been able to put my particular spin on it. It was also an opportunity to use CGI. This movie couldn't have been made 15 years ago when we made "Ghostbusters". It couldn't have been made five years ago because of the computing power necessary to create all the extraordinary creatures we have.

How important was the scientific part of the movie?

It ended up being quite an outlandish movie in terms of what we ask the audience to believe, but that makes the movie work in that it's done in a very realistic style. When the scary parts come they really are scary, people jump out of their seats a number of times. I don't think that would happen if we didn't take the science fiction part of it seriously.

How difficult was it to create the alien creatures?

The complexity in this film was the sheer number of them, and making it clear that they were all evolving in some way. It was also important to find a personality for them. Apart from making you jump we wanted to differentiate between one species and another, not just by how they looked but also how they behaved.

Finally, do you believe that alien life exists?

It would be arrogant of us to believe that we were the only intelligent life in the universe, so my feeling is yes, absolutely.

Read an interview with "Evolution" star David Duchovny.

Read an interview "Evolution" star Orlando Jones.

Watch an interview with co-star Orlando Jones and Ivan Reitman.