Wild Horse Nine writer-director Martin McDonagh and producer Graham Broadbent have expressed their gratitude to the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island for allowing them to be the second film ever to shoot on the island.
“We worked with [production company] Fabula in Chile, who helped us connect with Easter Island,” said Broadbent, in response to a question from Screen at the film’s Venice press conference about securing permissions to shoot there. “We approached the council there about 12 months before we started shooting, and began to get comfortable with each other. We wanted them to trust us, and us to trust that process with them.
“There has only been one film made there before,” said McDonagh [1994 action-adventure Rapa Nui]. “We had to bring all the cameras, all the period cars, it was a whole process of travel by boat.”
“One of the things for me was that the Rapa Nui people would feel they were completely respected,” said the filmmaker. “And when they see the film – when they see what we were trying to do, which was to portray the beauty of the island and how much we respected the moment.”
“The island is a UNESCO World Heritage site, an incredibly beautiful place,” said Broadbent. Those Moai [the famous stone statues], there’s about 1000 on the island. They’re all sacred. So the process of getting there, getting them [the Rapa Nui] comfortable with what we were doing, and respecting each other and enjoying that was terrific.
“Our idea was ‘leave nothing behind’. Take in what we take, leave nothing behind. We had a great team; it’s a big ship sailing from Santiago, there’s no crew there, we took it all in. We had an extraordinary experience with the islands.”
Set in 1973, Wild Horse Nine follows CIA agents Chris and Lee on a trust-testing mission from Santiago to Easter Island, as they wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies. The film is produced by Broadbent and Peter Czernin’s Blueprint Pictures with Film4, for Searchlight Pictures, and stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell.
Awards
Malkovich was asked about early awards buzz for his performance, and if he had started preparing his Oscar acceptance speech, with the question bringing laughter and applause from McDonagh and Rockwell.
“I’ve had a long career, really spectacular collaborations with directors, writers and actors,” said Malkovich. “So I never feel any competition with any of them because generally I love what they do. It’s a very nice thing. But the nicest thing is that the film gets attention, and the film has several terrific performances in it, and it’s beautifully written and directed – that’s what matters.”
The cast also includes Parker Posey and Steve Buscemi, with the latter saying he “practically stalked and threatened” McDonagh in order to work with him after seeing the director’s previous film The Banshees Of Inisherin in Venice four years ago.
“He offered me this strange boss role that I was so happy to do,” said Buscemi. “There are so many layers to the story and characters. My character has a lot of responsibility, he can’t control these two guys. And I think he’s jealous of their relationship.”
McDonagh revealed that Buscemi and Posey flew to Easter Island to do off-camera acting for phone call scenes. “I never wanted to go to Easter Island, what a boring place,” quipped Posey. “The path of an actor is any location or trip I can take under the umbrella of a story adds so much to my life.”
Wild Horse Nine will head to Telluride, Toronto and BFI London Film Festival after its Venice launch tonight. Searchlight Pictures will release the film in the US on November 6, with Disney releasing simultaneously in international territories including the UK and Ireland.
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