Maggie is opening in theaters on May 8 (read our review here) and we had the opportunity to hear about it from the people who made it: director Henry Hobson and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Joely Richardson who attended a press conference in New York on April 23rd to talk about the film. Needless to say so, it made us really excited about it! Here are five of those reasons:
It's Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most human role!
In Maggie, Arnold Schwarzenegger surprises with a career best dramatic turn. "This movie was very different because it really gave me a chance to do something from an acting point of view", the actor said. "It’s a dramatic piece. It’s the most human story that I have ever done. It’s the most human character I have ever played and I think it’s also the most human zombie movie that was ever done. The dilemma that this man is in, this strong farmer that normally can handle anything and also, the baggage that I bring to the movie with being the action hero and then all of a sudden I cannot overcome this challenge and become very vulnerable as a character."
Arnold is credited as a producer on the film.
Maggie is the first film he's produced in 15 years. He said this about his director, Henry Hobson. "To me it’s not so much about how many movies have you done, it’s more about do you have a vision? He had a very clear vision. It was very clear that I would be in good hands. I just wanted to make sure that he was protected as a director and that I can be a producer and make that be my responsibility so that some of us don’t come in and all of a sudden say I want you to shoot this differently or we want a different ending. First time directors need to be protected so that they can do their work. A Jim Cameron doesn’t need to be protected."
Henry Hobson is a first-time feature director with an impressive resume.
Although Maggie is Hobson's debut as a feature director this isn't his first rodeo. The industry veteran has been creating title sequences for Hollywood films and big video game franchises. Oh and he's been designing this small telecast called The Oscars, for years. When asked about how she stayed grounded on set, actress Joely Richardson praised the director saying, "Not only did he have a vision—some people have vision but might not know how to follow through with their vision—but he had the balls. If he didn’t like what Arnold was doing or what I was doing or Abigail, he would say how he wanted it and that takes courage and vision."
It's a Blacklist script.
Written by John Scott 3, the script for Maggie came from the industry's Blacklist (a collection of the best unproduced screenplays) and was virtually unchanged even after Schwarzenegger's casting. It took four years to finally get the film backed and produced. Hobson said, "We wanted to try and stay as close to the original thing that the community loved which was this kind of small scale, slow pace and difficult to finance film. So we really wanted to kind of stay true to that as much as possible."
It's the first film of the Schwarzenegaissance.
Schwarzenegger had such a positive experience working on Maggie that he seems chomping at the bit to continue exploring dramatic territory. In regards to the direction of his career going forward he said, "When I read the script, I felt like I could do that because I understood what it was like being a father. Twenty five years ago, I would not have been able to do that. First of all, I would not really have the time because there were so many big projects around then that I was chasing the big money, working my way up to be the highest paid actor. Today, that doesn’t mean anything to me because I’ve made a lot of money and I’m in a different place in my life now. So when I get an offer to do Terminator 5, I’m very excited about that. When Universal calls me and says, we’re almost finished with writing the script for a new Conan movie, I’m very excited about that. But I’m also very excited when I read a script like Maggie. So yes, I will be looking for more dramatic roles like that."
