The “Lost” filmmaker talks about the twists and turns of Sony Pictures’ Wild Teen Tech Thriller

in Missing. The computer never gets away from the action as the audience tries to solve this clever problem with its ever-present gaze. Spinning left, moving right, at times with no human driving the narrative, the computer watches a story unfold itself as the protagonist. That’s the genius of this movie, producer Sev Ohanian told me in a wide-ranging interview about his latest release with Sony Pictures.

With cinematic emotion, sweeping twists and a shocking ending, there’s a lot going for it Missing Apart from others in the horror genre on screen – including its prequel, 2018’s critically acclaimed seek.

Storm Raid on HBO (Last of Us, Euphoria) stars A teen turned digital detective must make use of the myriad of technology at her fingertips to save her mother, who goes missing three thousand miles away while on vacation in Cartagena, Colombia.

for my lovers seekthe movie follows a similar format — a family member disappears, a stranger is recruited as a helpful assistant, there’s some Googling and hacking, a news spin on TV, TikTok detectives jump in, and the movie goes sideways with an ending like a rant. white lotus 2.

For two hours, don’t be a moment late. He’s cheeky, he’s scary, he’s got a lovable Task Rabbit played by Portuguese actor Joaquim de Almeida who deserves his own series. He even got HBO’s Ken Leung industry – Then there is that Strange plot looming in the background.

AI plays a role in both the making of the film and the plot, and Ohanian shared his thoughts on the matter with me.

What follows is a transcript of our conversation that has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Missing, which is a movie on the computer screen, will be released on January 20, but only in theaters. why is that?

You know, it makes financial sense to have the initial release in theaters. The first movie seekIt was a worldwide hit, grossing $75 million theatrically, and $20 million in Korea alone. Also, the movie was made to be experienced in a shared setting. As a filmmaker, I always ask the studio to offer me a seat at screenings because I want to see what the audience feels like—the grab of their seats, the slow awe, the applause. There is no substitute for that.

Any plans to bring it up Missing to run?

yes, Missing It will eventually be released on home media and we put a lot into world building to increase replayability for fans who are in for easter eggs. Regarding seekWhile A father is going through the worst five days of his life trying to find his daughter, if you look closely in the background there is all sorts of information about an alien invasion descending on the planet which he is oblivious to. This subplot continues in a very unexpected direction Missing.

How much does it cost to make it Missing? Having shot on location in both Los Angeles and Cartagena, were you able to do it for less than a million dollars, along the lines of seek?

No, certainly not less than a million, but I’d say not much more than that. We did it very economically, and that’s one of the attractive things about this as a franchise. to seek, We managed to do it with less than a million (880 thousand dollars) and with a very small print and advertising budget.

You and Aneesh Chaganty have written a screenplay seek, But they turned to the editors, Will Merrick and Nick Johnson, to write Missing Screenplay and directing. why?

In 2019, when we got a call from Sony to do the sequel, Aneesh and I were busy with other projects. We’d read a specific script that Will and Nick wrote for Paramount and knew they were both great writers. So we wrote a three page treatment for Missing From start to finish, with all the key beats, arcs and character developments, and giving it to them to support the screenwriting and directing for the first time, while we remained producers.

Missing Editors Arielle Zakowski and Austin Keeling spoke with me about how AI editing tools like Adobe Premiere Pro make it possible for anyone to achieve a professional level of cinematic polish to their film projects. do you agree?

The technology is great and I’d love to see more original stories come out of it, but it’s still really hard to make a compelling movie in this computer screen format. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to find ways to make it feel fresh, original, amazing and satisfying, yet it remains to be seen if it can be done over and over again without audience fatigue.

Does that mean you won’t make a series out of it?

Well, we’re working on a sci-fi series with Warner Brothers Television for HBO Max called the recipient Which contain some of these elements, so we’ll have to see.

Artificial intelligence has played an interesting role in MissingNot only in production but also as a character. What are your thoughts on choosing ChatGPT in one of your future productions?

As far as ChatGPT is concerned, I love it. In fact, I’ve been feeding her all your questions and re-reading her answers – just kidding! Fans suggested me to play ChatGPT as structured – so you never know.

Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian follows you on Twitter — any relationship?

Haha no, although I sometimes joke that we are cousins, but we are not genetically related, although we have become friends.

What’s Next?

I have a production company called Proximity Media with Ryan and Zinzi Coogler, my producer Judas and the Black ChristAnd Space Jam 2and will be released soon Creed IIIAnd we also have a deal with Disney+ to make the Wakanda series Iron heart For the Marvel Cinematic Universe – so I’m looking forward to that.

And of course, I’m very excited to see how the audience is having fun Missing.

Sony Pictures provided screen access to preview the movie.