Splice Director Vincenzo Natali Talks About His Sci-Fi Film

Aside from its Sundance stint and prior to its commercial release through Warner Bros. Pictures, the grotesque creature-feature/science fiction film Splice also garnered nomination for Best Film and won the Best Special Effects at the 42nd Sitges Film Festival.

According to Student Filmmakers Magazine, filmmaker Vincenzo Natali initially worked as a storyboard artist for Ginger Snaps, Johnny Menemonic, the TV series Beetlejuice, and many other films and TV shows. His diverse experiences as a storyboard artist working closely with various directors helped him in many ways. For five years, he also worked in the animation studio Nelvana in Tonorto, Canada where he made storyboards for Saturday morning cartoons.

Filmmaking Background
Filmmaker Vincenzo Natali came from the generation who grew up with Super 8 film cameras. As early as 12 years old, he became interested in shooting Super 8 films.

While he always makes the storyboard of his films on his own, he always has a co-writer with with his films' screenplays. Through the years, he learned that doing a storyboard is an important part of his own filmmaking process, yet he is prepared to throw it away if something spontaneous comes in during the course of production. He considers the board as a step in the creative process rather than an end to the process. It allows him to develop the fitting visuals for each film and it helps him to more effectively explain to his team what he really intends to do.

Concept for Splice
Splice came from his inspiration about a real life scientific experiment where scientists took a lab mouse then added what looks like a human ear to its back. The very strange and powerful image that came from this idea reminded him of something like a Salvador Dali painting.

From that striking picture of a mouse in a scientific experiment, he started making a story about scientists who became more monstrous than the monster they created. It was initially a short film, then he co-wrote it with Antoinette Terry while attending film school at the Canadian Film Centre. Together, they felt that the story should become a feature film. The writing process took years. They started writing the screenplay way back in the late 1990s. He also brought in another writer Doug Taylor by the latter stage of their screenplay writing.

Interestingly, after years of revisions, he ended up pretty much with what he originally wrote. He believed that the long, searching, and exploratory process where he tried all different things along the way contributed to making the original idea much better for the many facets of the story.

Storyboarding for Splice
Like in Splice, Natali typically starts storyboarding after the final draft of the script is done. Storyboarding allows him to really get inside the film by visualizing the world he envisions, then initially materialize it through drawing.

Splice Cast
He had Academy-award winning artists Adrien Brody (The Pianist, Hollywoodland, King Kong) and Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Head, The Secret Life of Words) on top of his list for the roles of the young geneticists Clive and Elsa. He was grateful for the opportunity of working with such a fantastic tandem for the film. He knew that the acting performances for Splice's main characters were crucial in making the film effective, believable, and worthwhile.

"Splice (2009)," IMDb.com.
"Splice Director Vincenzo Natali," Student Filmmakers Magazine, 2010, Vol. 5, No. 2.