To celebrate the rerelease of Jon Watt’s debut feature Clown, Variety spoke to the director about his career a decade on, talking about working in the Marvel and Star Wars universes, and if he expects to make more Skeleton Crew for Disney+.
You’ve also had the opportunity to create franchises in both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the “Star Wars” universe. What did you learn working on “Clown” that translated to these big-budget projects that feel so different in tone and scale?
No matter how big or how small of a film you’re working on, at the end of the day, it’s always reduced to what story are you trying to tell with the image and frame. For “Clown,” I storyboarded the entire movie, every shot from beginning to end, and put together an animatic, recorded all the voices and watched it. I made that film ten times in my head, then on paper and then on the computer before we shot a single frame. And that’s how I still do it. That process that I developed on “Clown” is how I always do it now.
Were you able to do that process working on “Skeleton Crew” even though it was several episodes?
Yeah, even more so actually. We fully storyboarded and created animatics for every episode. I did all the voices and then we were able to add an additional step where the directors took it into a motion capture stage and did the 3D previz to literally block the scene. We were able to watch that back and give notes. It really allows you to be as iterative as you would be if it was an animated film. You’re giving notes on pacing and shot framing and even lighting. It gives you a couple of opportunities to get it as right as you possibly can. It’s fun. I think all the directors really enjoyed that process too. It’s a luxury. It’s something that we got to get because it was “Star Wars.” It’s nice to have a little wiggle room to try stuff out.
Do you expect to make more “Skeleton Crew”?
I mean, I love “Star Wars.” I’d love to do anything in the “Star Wars” universe and I think we set it up in a way where the story can continue in a lot of interesting ways.
Read the interview in full here, and stream Star Wars: Skeleton Crew on Disney+ now.
