Searchlight Pictures has shared new images from their upcoming film All of Us Strangers and Director Andrew Haigh and others shared some insights on the film in a recent interview with Vanity Fair.
- Vanity Fair points out that the new film is loosely based on Taichi Yamada’s Japan-set 1987 novel, Strangers.
- The film follows Adam who balances a new romantic relationship with his neighbor, Harry, with the supernatural experience of interacting with his deceased parents in his childhood home.
- Producer Graham Broadbent and Sarah Harvey first brought Haigh the novel to adapt it for film.
- Broadbent explained the fascinating nature of the story:
- “It’s an opportunity to revisit your parents long after they might have passed and to have a dialogue. What would you tell your parents about your life if you were an adult and they were no longer with us?”
- Haigh talked a bit about making that experience for the character feel real for the audience:
- “I wanted it to all feel very integrated, like our memories do and like how we go through life—the pain we carry around is always just there, hidden, and it can come up and feel incredibly real. It was always about that feeling when you’re just about to fall asleep or you just wake up from a dream—when everything feels a little bit strange.”
- Haigh also discussed the balance of the two different stories unfolding simultaneously in this film:
- “I wanted everything we see to feel like it is a manifestation of Adam's state of mind.”
- Broadbent praised actor Andrew Scott, who plays Adam, for his work on the film:
- “This whole film sits squarely on his shoulders, and he clearly had it in him, but it’s beautiful to see it.”
- Haigh added that Scott “hasn’t had this kind of central role—and I always felt like he should have that central role.”
More on All of Us Strangers:
- Directed by Andrew Haigh (45 Years), All of Us Strangers stars Andrew Scott (Sherlock) and Paul Mescal (Normal People).
- One night in his empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam (Scott) has a chance encounter with his neighbor Harry (Mescal) that punctures the rhythms of his everyday life. As Adam and Harry get closer, Adam is pulled back to his childhood home where it appears his long-dead parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) are both living and look the same age as the day they died 30 years before.
- All of Us Strangers debuts in theaters December 22.