SXSW Interview- Things Will Be Different Writer/ Director And Stars Explain How They Made A Down And Dirty Emotional Sci-Fi Movie

Longtime editor for Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, Michael Felker has struck out on his own with an emotional and promising feature debut. His film, Things Will Be Different, premiering at SXSW 2024, has much of the same feel as a Benson and Moorhead movie without being a copy. Ahead of the premiere, I got the chance to talk with writer and director Michael Felker and the stars Riley Dandy and Adam David Thompson about finding chemistry quickly, happy accidents, and making a grimy sci-fi film their way.

Tracy Palmer- I loved the movie. I had a feeling I was going to. I’ve been a big fan of your editing for a very long time, so I had a good feeling about this film, and it did not disappoint. From top
to bottom, I really enjoyed everything about it.

Michael Felker- Oh, Tracy, that’s so sweet. Thank you.

TP- The first thing I want to know is how you two [Riley Dandy and Adam David Thompson] developed such quick chemistry when you’re not real siblings.

Riley Dandy- We’re actually not convinced that’s true.

Adam David Thompson- After meeting and being together as much as we have been, it’s pretty clear that we have a very brother-sister relationship.

RD- Yeah, but I think that like it, it was developed pretty early on. Even before we met in person, we, you know, called each other and would chat just about character and backstory.

ADT- And like, we started developing that connection, like, very early on.

TP- This has a very Benson and Moorhead-like groove to it. It feels like it’s from the same universe or maybe a distant cousin. Are you just drawn to that kind of grungy sci-fi?

MF- I mean, it’s funny because I grew up loving sci-fi. I mean, my dad brought me up on all sorts of weird sci-fi, and, you know, half of this movie was making it for him. So when I started working with Benson and Moorhead back all the way to Resolution, which is a grungy sci-fi-horror, it was just a natural fit. And, you know, like how Adam and Riley acted like brother and sister, me, Justin, and Aaron, especially in the post side of things, we just all share the same mind.

You know, it’s just basically like, we’re, we’re not even trying to cancel each other out. Especially with some of the later crazier movies. So when I brought them the scripts, and I was like, I’m gonna go make it and give me your blessing or whatever. They’re like, not only are we giving you our blessing, but we want to be a part of it. So, it was just a natural fit from the get-go.

TP- Wonderful. Wonderful. Why did you run out and want to be part of this movie?

ADT- We read this so long before I feel like we actually started shooting it. I have a very close relationship with my brother, and for some reason, I just really connected with Joe’s intentions and, you know, kind of what he wanted to get out of this life with Sid. I just immediately connected with it. Once I met with Michael and Shane, we seemed to all kind of have that shared understanding of who Joe was, and it seemed as though it was going to be, you know, really kismet throughout the whole process, and that didn’t disappoint.

As we dug further and further into it, I just got more and more engulfed in the lore of it all, but also the very real past between Joe and Sid that just tugged at everything that I have, and you know, meeting Riley and, you know, we had a lot of zoom meetings much like this actually, when we were going through and discussing a lot of things, I wouldn’t call it rehearsal, but we certainly went through everything with a fine tooth comb, and we were able to connect a lot of those stories, you know, just for Riley and I and so I think that it was just, it was the love of the character, the love of the story, the love of the team, and you don’t really ever get that. So it was just kind of luck, I guess.

TP- What about you, Riley?

RD- My answer is a little different. Just because this was the first thing that like, came to me that. Sorry, this is a weird answer. But, like, it was the first thing in a very long time that I’ve read where I wasn’t playing a character that was sexualized or romanticized in any way. And it truly was just this, like, very different brother-sister story.

And I love the fact that I[Sidney] had a daughter that motivated me so much, and I’ve got four nieces that I’m obsessed with. So like, that was very easy for me to connect to. I think the first thing I was drawn to that made me go, yeah, I have to do this, was that this was something very different than I’ve done. And it’s like, awakened a little monster inside of me as well. Now, I just want to do a ton more like this.

ADT- Yeah, I’ve had people actually comment on that very thing, saying that it is so much more fulfilling, I think, as a brother-sister relationship than maybe some sort of romantic relationship that goes through the same course in the same plotlines.

TP- It’s a lot less manipulative if you’ve taken the romantic love part out of it, and you’re just allowed to sit in the emotion of what is happening.

RD- Yeah. And I think it’s actually so rare that we see siblings’ stories that aren’t, like, you know, psycho and traumatic. They’ve[Sidney and Joe] gone through their own tragedy and trauma, but they really are trying to work together. And I really loved that.

TP- Michael, I want to know about the house, and the dynamics, and how all of that came about. And then I want to ask you guys how much you were or weren’t told, going into it about that. It feels like you’re watching a video game cheat code, the way mechanics come across on screen, which was the coolest thing. Tell me about that.

MF- Yeah, I mean, that’s a great way to describe it. I’m a huge video game nerd. So, seeing that
described as a video game, cheat code, where all the doors unlock and go to different things, is a great way to describe it. I mean, I base this all off of my very imaginative brain growing up in very boring places. So I wrote this with my family farm in mind, and we shifted because of some, you know, the farm wasn’t quite ready for us, and we moved to this other farm, it was way better.

But I based it off of my original family farm, which is just me having this imagination and going, what is this old place? Where does it go? Does it take me to a new time, so to speak? What are these new things that I’m interacting with? Do they unlock something that I am not aware of that predates even me or this family? And it just kind of goes from there?

Because, you know, a lot of people who want to make like crazy sci-fi, horror, or thrillers, they’re always like, Well, I gotta go get a VFX person to build me a big spaceship, or blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, no, no, like, the science fiction can come from anything. That’s what’s magical about us writing this thing. And, you know, I was conceiving this movie with my dad after watching another one of our sci-fi movies and getting a coffee afterward and picking it apart. He just gets inspired by a lot of books. He reads, which a lot of good old sci-fi books are just like, here’s this house, but it’s also like a place where aliens come and stop at Earth and before they go and take off, and it just is like perfectly in disguise.

You know, I mean, obviously, the most popular example of that kind of thing is Men In Black, where it’s just like every corner, there’s just something that you don’t know, to a whole new world. So that’s just what really excited me and I think, given that we had, you know, farm access to stuff like that, it was very lucky that we could do something that cool with the mechanics like that.

RD- I also just have to interject here. When Michael was talking about being originally inspired by his family’s farm, we got the script, and there’s a full diagram.

ADT- It was like opening The Lord of the Rings. And you see, like, yeah, all the maps and everything.
Immediately. I was in.

RD- And I was like, Thank you. Sure. Everything that’s happening here. And it really like so often you’re left to, I mean, that’s the beauty of reading something is they like you create your own image of it in your mind. But it was so actually helpful to have the layout of what he was talking about. Because it was so specific to like, the rules that they have to achieve at the beginning. And, like, so you were able to picture it. So, I just wanted to mention that.

ADT- Yeah, that was one of my favorite things ever. Reading the script is opening up and seeing that because so often, you’re in the middle of a script, you’re like, okay, so wait, where are we? Like, how far did it come from there? And you can just flip back to the front, say, oh, we were here. Now we’re here. And, you know, it all makes so much more sense. Yeah. But, you know, we weren’t, unfortunately, and fortunately, able to shoot at that exact location. But I think with the change in venue, we could not have gotten luckier.

MF- Yeah, it’s like the old venue. Sorry, we started on a tangent. But this new venue where we were at is, like, actually a failed town from 100 years ago. That’s why there’s like, there’s all these different buildings here. And you know, like, they turned the old post office into where some of the crew slept. And there’s all these barns and milled grains and that underground, like, I won’t spoil anything, but there are locations that are all on that property because it was a failed town. Luckily, the owners, Jordan and James Thompson,, bought it a couple of years ago, and turned it into a wedding venue. And it’s perfect for shooting a movie. That place has even more magic and secrets that I didn’t even know about.

RD- And I now want to change all of my wedding plans to also get married there.

ADT- We should have just done it. We were all there. Everybody you care about, Michael, me. I could walk you down the aisle. Jordan will cater.

TP- Well, I can tell from the way you guys are talking. It was just awful to have to shoot this movie
together. Like it just sucked.

ADT- Yeah. Listen, we went through our fair share of obstacles that the outside imposed on us. And you know, I’ve never been with a group of people who take whatever. Even a massive obstacle like we lost power for three and a half days. And we were running on pull-start generators that were outside. There are certain scenes in the movie where you can actually even see our breath because we had no heat in the house.

And it was freezing cold in that house. It never ever dashed any sort of enthusiasm or happiness that this crew had across the board, and not to embarrass Felker, but it’s because of Michael. It’s, you know, it’s top down. And you know, if your directors not fazed by it, and he’s in it, and we’re gonna just make this thing happen. Everybody else followed suit. And it was, it was incredible, you know?

MF- Yeah, we had our fair share of stuff. That winter storm that took out power was the biggest thing for sure. That was like, oh, my God, what do we do? And then I just look to everybody, and our number one rule was just don’t be a dick. Like, if something happens, we’re gonna figure it out. Like, don’t be the guy who’s just like, oh my god, they couldn’t get the power, and it’s just like, hey, we’re working on it. We’re figuring it out. Meantime, what else can we go shoot? Can we go shoot in this room? And yeah, it’s a little cold, but maybe it adds to the performance. And so that really helps to make the whole production feel like family, which was really nice.

TP- Who are your influences, and don’t say Benson and Moorhead?

MF- There’s three movies that kind of come up. Two of them were a part of our big how are we gonna put it together? And then a third one was actually something that after Adam read the script pointed out, that was like, oh, a great companion piece. The first two movies were Looper and Blood Simple. I love both those movies so much; Looper for how to make incredible sci-fi with literally just people and guns, and Blood Simple in that movie is like the worst chaotic domino effect of something happens, we react, and then this person reacts, and it creates just like an unparalleled level of suspense, where you don’t know what’s going to happen next.

So, a lot of those were huge influences. But then, I think when Adam read the script, and we had our first preliminary talks, he reminded me that it’s like, a lot like the 2007 movie Time Crimes, which I feel like is a huge companion piece in that it is a movie about what is it like to go down a rabbit hole of how your best intentions and old habits are given a second chance to fix things. This time looping over and over and over again, and things just get worse and worse and worse. And no matter what you do, things happen. And so when he reminded me, I was like, oh, my God, I totally forgot Time Crimes is one of the best sci-fi time travel movies in the last 20 years. So huge influence.

TP- All right, for you guys. What was it like playing characters that you knew, ultimately, were
doomed from the second one?

RD- I think it’s hard. I think it’s hard not to play that, you know? It’s interesting, the way that we shot. We’d film scene four, and then we jumped to scene 63. So you have to really play that puzzle in your brain of like, where you are. What’s happening? But the thing that I held on to the whole time was the hope, which is a really streamline concept throughout the film. You know, I say, gotta love hope in it. And I think, like, yeah, the characters were fucked from the beginning.

But I think for us, like, holding on to that hope, was kind of my, like, North Star of playing that because, like, especially for Sidney, she’s got someone to go back to. She’s got a purpose for why she needs to get out of there. So I think, even though I knew I tried to trick myself every day into being like, now we’ll get out of this.

ADT- Yeah, yeah, hope was definitely such a strong component of kind of Joe’s trajectory, you know? Not to spoil anything in the film, but that everything he does is based on hope. And that if we can just get this one thing, then maybe everything will be okay and maybe things will be different. And so there and, you know, as you realize throughout the movie, like how, you know, cemented he is in that hope, and wants to make things right what’s and wants to be the big brother that she needed.

So, for me, it was always hope that was never dead. There is one split second in the movie where I believe Joe is close to losing all hope. And there’s a massive shift that happens in which that hope is restored. And you know, the line that Riley’s talking about got to love hope is in the film twice, and I think that that is no mistake, either. You know, it’s you gotta love it because we wouldn’t be doing this without it, you know.

TP- Love that. Alright, guys, one final question for everybody. What’s next?

MF- Yeah, I mean, we had such a great time. And it all got so much closer because this movie moves so
fast. Given all of the things we, you know, went up and down with in terms of, you know, what happens on a production. I am writing new things, and it’s great as I’m thinking about what can I do to get to work with these guys again. I would do it all over again because, to me, you know, the next thing is being reinforced by what you are doing currently. What we did currently was so wonderful and special to me. And I would do it all again. So I don’t know, maybe I’ll write something and send it to these guys and see what they think.

ADT- But first, let’s do it. You don’t even have to send it to us. Just give it to me on the day. We’ll be fine.

RD- I would follow Michael into a dark void anywhere. I wouldn’t be like yeah, what do you want to do? I have been delving into genre development at Warner Brothers. So, I’m trying to get a horror arm started for this production. A production company called ESX that I’ve worked with many times. So, I’m focusing on that right now and auditioning.

ADT- For me, my biggest kind of beacon right now is SXSW and being able to share this with as many people as we possibly can. And talking about it and being with these two, and I’m just really enjoying that process. Because I’ve, you know, I’ve been to, you know, a handful of different film festivals over my career, and I’ve learned a lot about how to enjoy the experience and to be able to be there with something that you really adore. And you don’t mind sitting around talking about it for hours. So, you know, that’s, that’s really my number one thing is just being able to get this out there and to be able to show as many people as we can. And, you know, hopefully, everybody feels the love that went into it.

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