https://www.wataugademocrat.com/mountaintimes/from-script-to-screen/article_6b13d72e-2c50-5995-b791-2423bf184929.html
From script to screen Screenwriter Mark L. Smith discusses the making of 'The Revenant' By Jeff Eason
[email protected] Jan 20, 2016
Director Alejandro Inarritu and screenwriter Mark L. Smith answer questions about their new movie “The Revenant.” Photo by Matthew Eisman/Getty Images
VALLE CRUCIS — The biggest surprise so far in the movie awards season has been “The Revenant” winning the Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. Since that time, the harrowing period piece film starring Leonardo DiCaprio has picked up an astounding 12 Academy Award nominations, the most of any film this year. Among those surprised by its success is Mark L. Smith, the screenwriter from Valle Crucis who has been working on “The Revenant” script since 2007.
“It’s exciting that it’s doing so well,” said Smith. “We weren’t sure about that because it’s a tough sell.” In addition to its critical acclaim, “The Revenant” has proven to be a commercial success, earning $87.7 million at the box office since its Christmas day release. “You’re never sure how a period drama will do, especially against ‘Star Wars,’ but the box office with it has done well,” Smith said. “The Revenant” stars DiCaprio as fur and pelt trapping scout Hugh Glass, a man who is attacked by a bear and left for dead in the Rockies in 1823. His story of survival and revenge is set against the unforgiving forces of nature and ruthless men. It is based in part on a true story. “Hugh Glass is sort of the Paul Bunyan of that time in the trapper world and so there were a lot of different versions of the story,” Smith said. “So, I started with the novel that is also called ‘The Revenant’ and I ended up using just a few of the characters and the grizzly attack and I created the rest and tried to make it as cinematic as possible.” Smith worked on the screenplay for a number of years as a “spec” script, meaning he was not paid in advance for the work. During that time his other scripts such as “Vacancy,” “The Hole” and “Martyrs” were being turned into feature films in the horror genre. “I actually wrote several different versions of ‘The Revenant’ for several different actors and directors throughout the years until 2011,” Smith said. “Christian Bale was attached to it at one time, Sam Jackson at another time, so I would always change things around. It went through a lot of iterations.” In 2010 director Alejandro Inarritu (“Birdman,” “Babel,” “21 Grams”) decided he wanted to direct “The Revenant.” “Alejandro and I began working together in 2011 and we worked off and on in 2011 and 2012,” Smith said. “We were supposed to film it sooner, and then Leo was filming ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.’ While Leo did that, Alejandro filmed ‘Birdman.’ Then after that we all got together and did it.” According to Smith, the majority of the filming took place in Calgary, Canada from Sept. 2014 to May 2015. “Then we ran out of snow,” Smith said. “It was one of the warmest winters on record so we ran out of snow in Calgary. So we waited until August and filmed for 10 days in Argentina. They scouted the locations and found the perfect match for the mountains.” As the screenwriter for “The Revenant,” Smith needed to be on the set in case of any last minute rewrites. “The way Alejandro shoots, we already had the script locked in so that there weren’t a lot of changes on the set,” Smith said. “We made some minor changes but not much. It was nice. I could watch everybody do their thing. But when they’re all out there freezing and it’s 30 below I would get to run to my trailer and drink my hot chocolate. I had the perfect gig.” One of the biggest challenges of turning the novel into a successful screenplay was the amount of screen time in which the main character is by himself. “I joke to people that in ‘Castaway’ Tom Hanks had Wilson, the soccer ball to talk to and in ‘The Martian’ when Matt Damon is alone he’s making those videos, so you’re getting the exposition, you’re getting these emotions and stuff,” Smith said. “But on this one, we didn’t have that luxury. So it was trying to make sure that everything came across without words. It was tricky.
“Even before Alejandro came on, it was all written out: Every move, every turn, every kind of sound. We made sure that the description of the world was such that it got icier and colder and harder as Glass’ journey went on. “Leo was great because he’s so different than so many actors who feel like they need more lines. He and I used to go back and forth and the thing we’d find is that less is more. He saw Glass as this guy who wouldn’t waste words. So Leo is the rare actor who would say, ‘Give me less dialogue.’ He felt that was truer to the character, even though it made it more difficult for him.” “We countered with the Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) character and had him talk all the time. So we had the two opposites. That was intentional.” One of the most talked about scenes in “The Revenant” is when Glass is nearly killed by a grizzly bear. The details such as the bear’s breath and Glass’s screaming bring a horrific realism to the scene. “When I wrote the bear attack, I wrote all of those moves,” Smith said. “I couldn’t get away with just writing, ‘And then a bear attacks.’ Every move had to be written out. But the one thing I did in my script, I was cutting back and forth from the attack to the other trappers, Bridger and Henry, as they would hear the gunshot and run to Glass. But, Alejandro took those cuts out and it was such a smart thing what he did. If you had gone to the cuts that I had, you would have immediately been reminded that it was a movie. The way he did it made it feel so relentless. You were just so into that attack and it kept going on. That’s why Alejandro is a genius.” For the past month, Smith has attended numerous screenings, premieres and media sessions for “The Revenant.” He said it has been entertaining to watch others see it for the first time and he recalls his own first reaction to seeing it. “The first thing that hit me was that it was just beautiful,” Smith said. “The way that Alejandro and Chivo (cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) shot it, it was just so different and so perfect. The way the script was written and the way Alejandro wanted to do it was to make the audience feel like they were on the journey with Glass. And you do feel like you’re there. I love that. “At the different premieres and screenings we’ve been to we’ve had people actually reach for their sweaters. They actually begin to feel like they’re cold. At the end of the movie everyone gets so quiet. There’s a little bit of exhaustion. You do feel like you’ve been on a journey. So when it’s over, you’re a little worn down. That’s exactly what Alejandro wanted, to make them feel like they were along for the ride, not just watching something.”
Jeff Eason
