Jacob Davison: How did you come up with the concept for Uncaged after the original 47 Meters Down?

Johannes Roberts: I went to cave dive while doing the first movie. We’d sneak away on the weekends and go cave diving which we were very much not allowed to because it was against insurance policies. I just loved it, it was terrifying and creepy, and I was like “I would love to do a movie here.” When the movie became a hit a couple years later I was like “Why don’t we try that? Do sharks in a cave.”

 

JD: Speaking of, where did you come up with the idea for the cave sharks? The albino sharks in the movie?

JR: Just looking at what would happen. We sort of pondered it and how whether we should have a shark, one shark come in and we came across this whole idea of and ecosystem that had thrived down there. Started researching The Greenland Shark which is like the oldest creature on the planet. They’re cool, they’re blind sharks that just occasionally come up to the surface and they’re enormous, slow moving creatures. Just mix that with a great white and it was great, good fun.

 

JD: I see. On top of the caves, I thought it was interesting how the setting was a sunken and I was wondering how you drew inspiration for that and how did you construct the sets for the city?

JR: The inspiration for the city sort of came from, I do a lot of diving. Like, in Malta I went diving and they sunk a statue of Jesus at the bottom of the ocean. It’s just creepy! When you swim around and you cross him, it’s like “Whoa!” So, I really wanted to have fun with the statues then you know David Brian, the production designer and I worked together for a long time and we discovered that we created this whole city. Which is a real thing, these cities that have fallen underwater. We sort of took it our own way. It’s an incredible designed city that he did, and it’s not like we had a lot of money. You know, we’re not a huge studio. We had to, on very little money create this whole underwater complex and it’s a bit like Cube, that movie. All the sets have to be constantly repurposed into it so it seems much bigger than it is. It’s very, very tricky to do. I’m very proud of the way we did both barriers there. Really no one had done this before.

 

JD: Back on the sharks, they looked to be mainly CGI but I was wondering if there were any other elements there? How did you have the actors interact with the sharks while shooting underwater?

JR: Yeah, the sharks are CG. But we would have a guy in, almost like a shark suit, with a shark head swimming around and he would do the whole action. Then we would take him out afterwards and put the sharks in.

 

JD: Also, on the subject of the sharks, I couldn’t help but feel that the way they stalked within the city almost had a bit of a slasher movie element to them. Because of the way it hunted and stalked them. I liked your work on The Strangers: Prey At Night and was wondering if that was a factor?

JR: Yes, it was very much. When you come back to do a sequel you want to try and find something for yourself as a director to do that you haven’t done. That you find interesting. And I really like the idea of- I’ve never seen a shark movie like a Halloween movie and I’m a huge John Carpenter fan. I was just having so much fun on Strangers. Sort of doing Christine that I almost took it to that level again with the sharks here in the way Christine is constantly stalking up behind people or Michael Myers in the Halloween movies. I was just playing around with that, that I felt like I had never seen in a movie like this before. It was trying something new and unusual.

 

JD: On that, how did you co-ordinate, since you wrote and directed 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, the scares. Because I felt like a lot of the jump scares were very effective. I literally jumped out of my seat!

JR: It takes fucking forever. I’m very lucky in that I work with the same editor on the last five or six movies, Martin Brinkler. Very talented guy. Sometimes a scare will work straight off the bat. But more often than not it’s like, I watched it (47 Meters Down: Uncaged) the other day and the biggest jumps people had at the top end of the movie was where they see the little sea scooter thing. Then it turns around and around and a shark just comes out of a tunnel and jumps at them and the audience at that point seemed to really jump and get the scare.

That was the scare, just picking that one instance, that worked. You just have to constantly, constantly work week after working and it’s just as simple as that line. An actor needs to say a line, in this case, the actors say “Oh, there’s a way through here.” And you’re just totally distracted for a moment and then something comes out the other way. It’s never the same thing twice with the jump. You can never quite tell what’s going to make it land or not, but I enjoy it and it’s my job and it’s lovely to watch an audience and they do jump! Equally it’s like watching a stand-up comedian that’s dying on stage when they don’t jump, so it’s like someone’s supposed to make you laugh and they’re just dying. If your jumps aren’t working it’s pretty brutal to sit with an audience.

 

JD: What was it like working with a new set of actors and characters for Uncaged?

JR: I love those four girls. They were just crazy. Sophie and Brianne had quite a bit of experience but they’re young. And the other two, Sistine and Corinne although they came from big acting families had never done anything, really. It was a really fresh group of people which were just eager to prove themselves and they really pushed themselves and I could not have been prouder of them, impressed by them the way they just went for it. They really did.

I was in awe of some of the stuff they would do. You know, I’m a diver, they’re not. They would do stuff that I had never done! Sophie taking off the mask and breathing air the top of the cave! I was like “I wouldn’t do that.” When they’re jumping off the cliff into the water I didn’t do that. I watched and went “You’re crazy, the lot of you.” But they’re very sweet people. I think they’re really going to pop, they really deserve it.

 

JD: Back on diving, I was curious if you have ever swam sharks or if you’d be interested in swimming with sharks after this?

 

JR: You know what, just one of those things I’ve never gotten around to doing is the cave dive thing. Which is why I initially learned to dive, because I’m endlessly fascinated with the ocean, and I love sharks. One of the questions that comes up quite often is “Do these movies harm sharks by demonizing them?” and I really hope they don’t. They’re never truly harmed in either of the 47 Meters Down movies. Not really. They get bashed around a bit, but I never kill any of them or whatever. I really feel passionate about that. I did go in a tank with sand tiger sharks. They’re not the kind of sharks, they look pretty fearsome but they’re a good six to eight feet long and you just go in and sit at the bottom of the tank and they swim above you. You’re not in a cage or anything. To be in the water with something that big was pretty incredible. I’ve never done the great white thing which I would love to do.

 

JD: And even after these movies you’d still do it?

 

JR: (Laughing) Absolutely! Yeah, I would do it. I wouldn’t want to get in a cave with a great white.

 

JD: One last question, would you be interested in doing a third 47 Meters Down movie? Do you have any ideas?

 

JR: I think we’ll probably have to see how this one does. I love filming underwater, it’s a very specialized skill and you have to be a certain kind of director. It suits the way I work quite a bit. I would definitely always love to continue with underwater filming. Yeah, more shark movies would be amazing. We’ll see if they’re in demand.

 

Pages: 1 2