Patrick Wilson worked with director Roland Emmerich on the World War II drama Midway, and now the two are collaborating again on a very different project. Their new movie is Moonfall, another one of Emmerich's classic disaster movies. In the film, Wilson plays Brian Harper, part of the team who's tasked with saving the Earth from destruction after the moon is knocked from its orbit.
Screen Rant spoke with Wilson about his experience making Moonfall, gearing up for his directorial debut with Insidious 5, and much more.
Screen Rant: I love a Roland Emmerich disaster film. I'm so glad we're getting another one. What hooked you most about Moonfall? What was the big catch for you?
Patrick Wilson What was the big catch for me? I mean, I was in. I had heard a little of the concept when we were shooting Midway several years ago, and I knew it wasn't a space that I worked in a lot - both disaster movie and sci-fi. I was like, "I'm in."
For me, just from the fact that he was gonna be able to pull it off during the pandemic, I was down.
Do you find disaster movies weirdly comforting, like I do?
Patrick Wilson: Yeah, I find it in a similar vein of a good scary movie, in that you can at least walk out of there going, "Oh, they've got it worse than I do." You think COVID's bad? I mean, that could be happening. So, that's good.
At least the moon's not falling.
Patrick Wilson: At least the moon's not falling... yet. Aha!
Roland has said that he has a trilogy for this in mind. Are you down for that? What would you like to see in the second Moonfall?
Patrick Wilson: I have no idea. He said this to me, and I've heard this from other people. But it's never been like, "Oh, here's the idea." Because he's always so cool about it: "You know, I have this idea about the second or third one." Then you're like, "Well, what is it?" and he goes, "Oh I don't know..." So, I have no idea. I don't know.
I don't know if he wants me to be in it, so I'm always afraid to ask. Because you don't want to be like, "That sounds great, man. It'll be fun." "Oh, no, no. It doesn't involve you." I don't want to feel left out, so I just don't ask anything.
I was talking to him, and he was like, "We'll see how it does, but I do have two more in mind."
Patrick Wilson: I'm sure. But that's the thing: he's also very realistic. And he's like, "Look, it's hard to get any movie made." So, that's obviously only if the movie does well. If the movie doesn't do well, yeah, then there is no two and three.
Last time we saw a picture of you, you looked like you'd been going through some sh** in Aquaman 2. What's going on with Orm? He's got a little Castaway thing going on there.
Patrick Wilson: That's my CrossFit Castaway, I call it. Yeah, it was a little rough going. Clearly, he did not have a set of sheers in prison, where he was.
Your costar Halle Berry just made her directorial debut, and you were announced in 2020 to be directing Insidious: Chapter 5. Is that still moving forward?
Patrick Wilson: Yeah, we are. Yeah, we're scouting locations now, and we start shooting in the spring.
How has that been? Directorial debut. That's awesome.
Patrick Wilson: We'll check in when I'm done. No, it's great. It's something that I'm super passionate about, and there hasn't been a day since they pitched me the idea that I haven't been all in.
It's been a lot of work by Scott Teems, the writer, and me. And Leigh Whannell has helped out obviously a ton, and of course, Blumhouse is a great partner. I've done a bunch of stuff with them, so I couldn't be happier to have my first experience with a very helpful and comfortable group of people that, for some reason, trust me. So, we'll see.
