By Ysabel Cacho
When “The Last Mimzy” returned to the screen at the Savannah Film Festival, fans of all ages flocked to the Lucas Theater to relive the movie. Audiences were eager to hear from the film’s director, Robert Shaye, as he fielded questions about his popular film.
The film is reminiscent of, and even makes references to, “Alice in Wonderland” and “E.T.”.
When two children, Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) and Noah (Chris O’Niel), discover strange devices on the beach that are literally out of this world, they soon discover that these devices can gives them powers. This leads to their parents bickering and the entire family being held for questioning by a group of FBI agents headed by the late Michael Clarke Duncan, whose appearance in the film caused a collective “Aww” from the audience.
“The Last Mimzy” combines both sci-fi and family genres. Shaye confessed during the Q&A portion that he did not intend for “The Last Mimzy” to be a family affair.
He explained that as a child he was a science fiction fan and read many books of that particular genre, including the short story “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” by Lewis Padgett, which later served as the foundation for his film. However, Shaye added that he was happy with the PG rating nonetheless, considering that he and his production team had to make several accommodations in the script to make it more family friendly.
Apparently parents had problems seeing Rainn Wilson’s bare bottom on the big screen.
Throughout the Q&A, Shaye would mention the word “synchronicity” many times, especially when describing his team of writers and child actors. From that word alone, it was easy to see that Shaye was focused on teamwork, both as a director and as a producer.
He even described the early script drafts as “a collective writer’s block.”
As for working with the children, he said that he found it more appealing working with the kids because they had less attitude and were more openminded.
Shaye mentioned that one of his regrets for the film was the title, which had originally caused confusion, as people thought “Mimzy” referred to a stripper.
The director shared his beginnings to the audience, during which he established a distributing company in New York. Shaye also talked about his experience as both a producer and a director.
He re-emphasized the idea of working as a team adding that “You do have to have real courage of your convictions as a director or as a producer when you submit yourself to that process of test screenings and… look at your colleagues straight in the eye and say, ‘Look.’ That the audience didn’t get it or it’s just goofy.”
When asked if he would direct again, Shaye replied that he felt there were limitations in terms of his skills and that he didn’t “find very many pieces of material that [he] really loved.”
“I would like to direct some more,” he said. “Because it’s very satisfying and it’s a great experience to turn people on.”
