James Gunn Reveals the Weird Way He Came Up With Idea for 'The Belko Experiment'
James Gunn had a dream — and a manifestation of that sleepy-time vision opens in movie theaters this weekend. It’s called The Belko Experiment.
“This is no lie, about 10 years ago, in 2007, I was asleep in and dreaming, and I dreamt a trailer for a movie,” Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) told Yahoo Movies during a Facebook Live interview Thursday. “And I woke up and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a pretty crazy dream… that’s an interesting concept.‘”
Gunn says he immediately wrote the script “in a fugue state” and that the gory trailer (as well as its Lego remix) is virtually identical to his unconscious version. (Watch the graphic clip below, if you dare.)
We’ll let the psychologists interpret what the dream means, but this is the concept: An office building is mysteriously put on lockdown one day, and the company’s staffers are then forced to select and kill or a lot more of them will die. The film, which has been described as a hybrid of Hunger Games predecessor Battle Royale and Office Space, features an ensemble that includes John Gallagher Jr., Tony Goldwyn, John C. McGinley, Sean Gunn, and Michael Rooker. It was written and produced by Gunn, while Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) assumed directorial duties.
The Belko Experiment is in theaters now.
Watch our full Facebook Live interview with James Gunn:
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