Thread by @ATRightMovies

ARRIVAL was released 8 years ago this week. Acclaimed as one of the great science fiction movies of the 21st century, and among the most popular of director Denis Villeneuve, the story of how it was made may change the way you perceive time…

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In 1998, Ted Chiang’s novella Story Of Your Life published in science fiction series Starlight 2. Telling the tale of a linguist making first contact with an alien species and discovering she can see the future, the story soon attracted Hollywood attention.

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Screenwriter Eric Heisserer read Chiang’s story, loved it, and approached Chiang about adapting it for film. After writing a draft, and calling it Arrival, Heisserer pitched his idea to production companies across a number of years, without receiving any interest.

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In 2013, Heisserer wrote and directed action thriller Hours. It wasn’t a big hit, but studios did take note. Dan Levine and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps Entertainment were aware of Chiang’s short story and, learning Heisserer had a completed script, decided to team up with him.

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Nic Mathieu was in discussions to direct. However, Denis’ Villeneuve’s war drama Incendies had been released in 2010, and 21 Laps saw the Canadian as the perfect person to helm their movie. He’d been interested in making a science fiction film, and signed up.

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Villeneuve would later say “Casting Arrival was the easiest thing in my career" as he managed to get every actor he set out to. For the lead character of Dr Louise Banks, Villeneuve wanted Amy Adams. She was sent the script and, within 24 hours, had accepted the role.

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In order to prepare for the role, Adams consulted with linguistic professor Jessica Coon, who taught at McGill University in Quebec, Canada. Coon served as consultant throughout the film, and Adams would learn some basic Mandarin for the part, too.

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Adams would later say that being a mother, as Louise is, helped connect her to the character immediately. And after filming the first scene with Villeneuve on set, she broke down in tears.

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A support character, and person who helps Louise translate the alien language, is physicist Ian Donnelly. Villeneuve said he wanted to work with Jeremy Renner for some time and, when offered the part of Ian, Renner accepted immediately.

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Renner said the main thing that drew him was working with Amy Adams: “The part was good for me but I was more interested in supporting her.” Renner was signed up to film Captain America: Civil War (as HawkEye), and filming on Arrival began as soon as he was free.

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The military officer who recruits Louise and Ian is Colonel G. T. Weber. Villeneuve thought of Weber as a character both abrasive and warm, so wanted an actor with depth. He called Forest Whittaker “a master” and was delighted when he said he’d play the Colonel.

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One of the more antagonistic characters is CIA agent Halpern, who assumes the worst of the aliens. Villeneuve had liked Michael Stuhlbarg in the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man and, again, he signed up for the film when offered the part.

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To prepare for the film, Stuhlbarg met an ex-CIA member, who suggested he read James Olson's book Fair Play, which discusses the ethics of spying and espionage. Stuhlbarg said that helped him find the character more easily.

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Story Of Your Life was never really thought viable as a title. Villeneuve reportedly thought it sounded like a rom-com and, when focus groups weren’t keen either, it was changed. Hundreds of titles were considered, before Villeneuve settled on Arrival.

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Villeneuve was keen on having a basis in scientific reality and brought in father and son physicists Stephen and Christopher Wolfram as consultants. They made sure all terminology and scientific descriptions in the script were correct.

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The premise of the film revolves around the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, which states that the language a person speaks influences their perception of the world around them. The works of scientist Albert Einstein and mathematician Pierre de Fermat were also influential.

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The film is a mostly faithful adaptation of Story Of Your Life, but there are differences. In the book, Ian is named Gary, and the character plays a far larger role in deciphering the alien language than he does in the film.

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In the film, Ian comes up with nicknames for the two main Heptapods – Abbott and Costello (after the famous American comedy duo). In the novel, Louise named them Flapper and Raspberry.

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In the novella, Louise and Gary’s daughter is never named. In the film, she is named Hannah – a palindrome that ties into the non-linear theme of the movies. And she does not die from a childhood illness, but in a rock-climbing accident at 25 years old.

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In the book, the heptapods display their words/symbols on screens mounted in the room that the humans enter. The film changes this to the more visual ink-like substance the heptapods can generate.

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The inner conflict on Earth that revolves around China isn’t in the novel at all. Eric Heisserer said the external drama was needed to heighten the tension required to make a film. General Shang (Tzi Ma) was created for the film.

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Villeneuve offered the role of Director of Photography to Roger Deakins, but there were scheduling clashes. Knowing he wanted a cinematographer who could deal with natural lighting, he offered the position to Bradford Young after his work on Selma.

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Villeneuve described the look he wanted as “dirty sci fi”. As such, Young shot the film digitally, meaning they could review the shots instantly. He also used different lends manufacturers throughout to add to the feel naturalism.

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Young also said he took inspiration from Swedish photographer Martina Hoogland Ivanow and her work called Speedway. For his work on the film, Young became the first African American to be nominated at the Oscars for Best Cinematography.

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Jóhann Jóhannsson was hired as composer having previously worked with Villeneuve on Sicario and Prisoners. He started recording the music before filming had even started, as he and Villeneuve liked to work side-by-side where possible.

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The classical piece On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter was also used to open and close the film. The main melody hook of the piece is palindromic in structure, again tying in with the non-linear theme of the movie.

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That seme theme carries into the visuals too. The pivotal moments in Hannah’s life (her birth and death) occur in the bookend chapters of the film. And the heptapod’s visual language is palindromic in appearance.

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Costume designer Renée April worked with Villeneuve on Prisoners and Sicario. It was her idea to dress Louise in normal clothes, then shift to military attire. This represented a change in her character and also the fact that she was on the basecamp longer than she expected.

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The orange hazmat suits became a key point of the visuals. Not just for the costume design, but also cinematography. Villeneuve and Bradford Young came up with a colour palette to compliment the striking hazmat suits for the scenes they’re worn.

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Production designer Patrice Vermette had also worked with Villeneuve before. He designed the three environments we see Louise in (her home, the classroom, the heptapods’ ship) to have similarities: the main one being that each has a large screen plate at their centre.

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In the book, the heptapods arrive in 112 spherical looking-glass style spaceships. In the film, there are 12 and the design of the craft changes a lot as Villeneueve wanted them to look like they were made of materials not found on Earth.

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In researching the film, Villeneuve came across an asteroid named 15 Eunomia, the shape of which he described as “an insane shape like an egg” formed the basis for the look of the heptapods’ craft. They were designed by artist Aaron Morrison.

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Louis Morin was the visual effects supervisor and his team was tasked with creating the striking images of the craft hovering across the world. This was carried out by use of photographic stills, matte paintings, and CGI.

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To create the look of the aliens, Villeneuve hired artist Carlos Huante, who had worked on Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. The idea of the creatures having 7 legs came from the original story, and Villeneuve/Huante worked for months on creating the heptapods in full.

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In the novel, Chiang describes the aliens as being barrel-shaped and having 7 eyes. Taking inspiration from Earth creatures such as whales, elephants and spiders, Huante created hundreds of concepts before Villeneuve settled on what we see in the film.

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Eric Heisserer, Patrice Vermette and their teams worked closely together in creating the heptapods’ visual language. They created a “logogram bible” featuring over 100 words that Villeneuve would refer to throughout production.

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As for the ink-based look of the heptapods’ language, that was created by Canadian artist Martine Bertrand. And her son created Hannah's drawings that we see during the movie.

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Filming took place in and around Montreal, with Saint-Fabien standing in as Montana, where the film is mostly set. Villeneuve took months finding the location, wanting somewhere that wasn’t barren (a cliché) but also not too mountainous, that could dwarf the ship.

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If the scenes in the film were to be played chronologically, the final scene would be Louise walking down the corridor after Hannah passes. The first scene would be the one immediately after it, where Louise arrives at the university.

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The language-based premise of the movie is foreshadowed early on when Louise first meets Ian. He quotes her book "Language is the foundation of civilization… It is the first weapon drawn in a conflict."

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The heptapod ships never land, always hovering 28ft in the air. Production designer Patrice Vermette said this was intentional by the filmmakers and the aliens so humans had to " make the final outreach to contact them."

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Villeneuve wanted practical sets built wherever possible, and the interior of the alien ship was a real 150ft long tunnel with the chamber at the end. Renner said that the cast had to enter the set via a scissor lift, as the characters do in the film.

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Visual effects studio Rodeo FX said that their biggest challenge was the gravity-shifting scene. Villeneuve said the idea came from necessity, as they had to come up with a way for the humans to make their way through a vertical craft of such height.

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While working on Sicario, Villeneuve and Vermette discovered the works of American artist James Turrell. They agreed that, should they work on a science fiction film, they’d take inspiration from Turrell, and that came to be in designing the interiors of the alien ship.

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Adams said that filming the moment she writes the big question on the board took a few takes as she struggled to look away and write at the same time. The first time, she wrote “What is your porpoise on Ert?” and Villeneuve had to shout cut.

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In the film, Louise tells Weber the word “kangaroo” was created from a misunderstanding, but later says it isn’t true. The story is actually an apocryphal tale about Captain Cook’s arrival in Australia in the 18th century, debunked in the 1970s.

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The dream sequence where Louise sees a heptapod in her room was originally a normal dialogue scene. It was cut from the film until Villeneuve realised it was the only reference to the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis, so the heptapod was added and it became a dream.

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In the final act of the film Ian calls Hannah "Starstuff." This is a reference to the acclaimed mini-series by physicist Carl Sagan, Cosmos. In that, Sagan says “We are made of starstuff."

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The climactic set-piece comes when Louise averts worldwide conflict by telling Chinese General Shang his wife’s dying words. There is no subtitle, but Eric Heisserer later revealed it meant “In war there are no winners, only widows."

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Originally, the film ended with the heptapods giving gifts to each country on Earth: faster-than-light ships or advanced life-support machinery. However, this was deemed to close to the ending of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, so it was changed.

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On a production budget of $47m, Arrival grossed $203.4m at the box office worldwide, making it a hit. It received a great critical response too, and was nominated for 9 Oscars, winning for Best Sound Editing.

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Finally… when the film was released in Italian theatres, the studio was concerned that the audience would not know who Abbott and Costello were. As such, they were renamed to Tom and Jerry.

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