Another Earth (2011)

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Overview

"Another Earth" (2011)

Another Earth is a 2011 science fiction drama film staring William Mapother, Brit Marling and directed by Mike Cahill. The film premiered at the 27th Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 and will be released on Friday, July 22 in selected theaters by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It is Mike Cahill's second film as a director and Brit Marling acting debut.

The film follows Rhoda Williams(Brit Marling) and John Burroughs(William Mapother), who's live become irrevocably intertwined after tragedy strikes on the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth.

Creation

Director Mike Cahill at Sundance 2011

Another Earth was written by the director of the film Mike Cahill and the main actress Brit Marling. Both Mike and Brit have said that when creating the idea for the film, they came up with the Sciencfiction part of the story first and workrd backwars from there, using the Sci-Fi elements as something that could unlock this unike or emotional human drama. In an interview after debuting the film in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Director Mike Cahill said:

“The Sciencfiction elements are all for the purpose of metafore and the idea of a duplicate planet is there to ask just one question wich is: What it would be like to meet yourself? So the idea is... if you could confront yourself what would you feel?"

Casting

Brit Marling & William Mapother

In the summer of 2009 at the public theater, William Mapother was participating in a Shakespeare lab and meet with some cast directors wich he had never met before. A few weeks in L.A. he received the script for "Another Earth", which he immediately found interesting. But he was really intigued by the character because he had "never played a character like this before" and after meeting with Mike Cahill and Brit Marling it was a "No-brainier" that he should do the film it felt right from the start and it was a "very colabrative process".

Brit Marling on the other hand does not have a backround in acting she had no formal training aside from acting in some plays back in school, she studied economis in Georgetown and had started her career in banking before perusing writing or acting. One day while in banking in New York the Mike Cahill who she knew from making short films with back in college, showed up while in the middle of the busyest two weeks of her life and proposed making a short for the The New York 48 Hour Film Project, wich lead to them not sleeping for 2 days and Brit eventually leaving her secure job and staring and co-writing "Another earth".

Plot

from the 2011 film Another Earth

Rhoda Williams, a bright young woman accepted into MIT's astrophysics program, aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant composer, John Burroughs, has just reached the pinnacle of his profession and is about to have a second child with his loving wife. On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, tragedy strikes and the lives of these strangers become irrevocably intertwined.

Estranged from the world and the selves they once knew, the two outsiders begin an unlikely love affair and reawaken to life. But when one is presented with the chance of a lifetime opportunity to travel to the other Earth and embrace an alternative reality, which new life will they choose?

Production

Mike Cahill

Mike Cahill decided to "Just start filming and hope that everything would work out", he began shooting without a script and just the treatment, Without money just with the camera. Two weeks into production he got a producer on board which lead to Mike and Britt Marling writing the actual script. They cast half the family, shot half of the movie and eventually William Mapother got involved. He described the production as a snow ball just ruining down a hill.

Critical Reception

Brit Marling & ...

The indie sci-fi drama was accepted to Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2011, where it won the Special Jury Award and the Sloan Prize, and was picked up by Fox Searchlight.