Justin Simien really wants to direct a remake of The Wiz
Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien has some ideas about revisiting Oz.
He and fellow filmmakers Gareth Edwards and Louis Leterrier gathered in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday for Collider's directors panel. In a wide-ranging conversation, the three opened up about the challenges of making movies in 2023 — and what they'd like to do next.
When asked about dream projects, Simien immediately jumped in, saying that he's been trying for years to direct a new version of Sidney Lumet's 1978 musical The Wiz.
"I want to make The Wiz so bad," the Dear White People filmmaker told the crowd. "Oh my God, I want to make it so bad. The Wiz was the first movie I ever saw, so by the time I saw The Wizard of Oz, I didn't understand why they made a white version of The Wiz. So my vision of the film was a Black-centric universe with Quincy Jones music. It's a really disturbing movie to watch as an adult, but that's one I'd love to do."
As for Leterrier, known for Fast X and the 2008 Incredible Hulk, he said he has his eye on adapting a particular video game franchise. "I would love to do a Fortnite movie," the French filmmaker revealed. "The game and the characters are incredible. I think there's so much more to be told."
Moderated by Collider's Steven Weintraub, the panel also featured exclusive footage from Simien's Haunted Mansion (out July 28) and Edwards' sci-fi epic The Creator (out Sept. 29). Edwards is known for directing big-budget spectacles like 2014's Godzilla and 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Creator is a wholly original story, starring John David Washington as a futuristic soldier caught in the middle of a war between humans and artificial intelligence.
The three directors noted that artificial intelligence is a hot-button topic in Hollywood these days, as writers and actors have called upon studios and networks to limit use of AI technology in filmmaking, especially when it replaces original artists.
Edwards pointed out that The Creator is set in 2070, but given recent advancements in AI technology, it might as well be set in a year like 2024. "The genie's not going back in the bottle," he said. "It's going to change everything. But whatever we try to say about it or predict, we're going to look like fools in five years."
All three agreed that AI can be a useful tool but should not be used to replace artists or actors. Edwards, for example, famously used CGI to revive Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One, but he says that only worked because there was a real actor on set, giving a real performance beneath the visual effects.
"What I've found is whenever you do a CG character of any kind, it has to be based on an underlying performance," Edwards explained. "If it's from scratch, it gets into uncanny valley [territory] really fast. I've not seen anything yet that looks good."
"It's a world in which the artist can get squeezed out," Simien added. "Especially if you're making work that isn't paying the bills. But AI doesn't work without other human people making art. It basically steals and blends into other things. You kind of get this feeling like, boy, if the [executives] at the top could make [movies] without these pesky artists, they would. I think it's important to protect the artists whose work is getting pulled into these different AI models. And I don't think [AI] is as fun or as interesting as letting humans tell stories to other humans."
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