The New Mutants is finally on its way, despite studio and pandemic-related setbacks. After a long and arduous journey, the young X-Men film is committed to its theatrical release date of August 28. The film, which combines superheroes with teen drama and horror, is an ambitious project for director Josh Boone.
Boone spoke with Screen Rant in celebration of the film’s upcoming debut, and he shared his experiencing piecing the story together with co-writer Knate Lee, as well as the eerily prescient themes of his other upcoming project, The Stand.
What appealed to you about The New Mutants when you first came onto the project?
Josh Boone: Well, we really brought the project to Fox. I wrote it with my best friend Knate, who I grew up with. And we had loved the comic book series when we were kids. Even when I moved to LA, 10 years before I ever had made movies, I had a stack of these comics in my apartment. And I just knew that Bill Sienkiewicz's art was incredible. It looked different than anything I'd ever seen in a comic book before when I was a kid in the 1980s. So much closer to Vertigo art, or the really dark DC art that was coming out at the time.
We just wanted to bring his artwork to life, that's sort of what the idea started with. And I always loved that it seemed so much more like A Nightmare on Elm Street than an X-Men thing. it seemed so much that like Dani was hanging between life and death while her friends fought for her and all that. I just wanted to try to get as much of that stuff in as I could. That basically was the process; just trying to get as much in as you can. And then as the budget comes down, you squeeze more and more out until it's the movie.
When you pitched this idea, was there always this affinity for the Demon Bear?
Josh Boone: Yeah, to me that was the most representative of New Mutants and what made New Mutants special. They didn't have costumes on; the artwork pushed the frames of the panels more than I'd ever seen on a page before. And, dude, they were young in a way that movies aren't now, where it's like superhero movie star adults. They don't star kids.
We really wanted to make a teen movie. We really wanted it to have coming-of-age elements and dramatic elements and a romance in it, as well as all this other stuff.
Speaking of teenage drama and superheroes, they're such a compatible genre. Can you talk to me about why they fit so well together?
Josh Boone: Because that's when mostly these people began reading these things. You read them when you were a kid, and you probably read them when you're a teenager as well. I don't know, man, we're all looking for ways to escape high school life sometimes. I can remember being in high school, and I think everybody from the most popular kid to the least probably felt like an outsider to some degree.
So, [it was also] trying to make a movie for young adults who felt like outsiders, which I hope is all of them - and even other people as well. I already know comic book fans and X-Men fans will go, but it was really written for young people to come and see themselves hopefully reflected in it.
I know that you're a longtime fan, and I love seeing directors that are longtime fans get a chance to share their experience with a wider audience. Can you talk to me about which one of the New Mutants’ powers you would choose if you were one of them?
Josh Boone: Dude, I would want to be Illyana. She's f***ing awesome. But I feel probably closest to Rahne, because she was raised by kind of oppressive Christians, and she was in a kind of a strange situation. I sort of grew up raised by Evangelical Christians in the 1980s. So, I related to her a lot. But everybody wishes they could be the badass with the sword and the dragon, you know?
For a lot of teens, this is a scary time. This is about a group of people stuck in a place trying to get out, and here we find ourselves in a quarantine. Can you talk to me about how timely this movie is coming out now?
Josh Boone: It wasn't intentional. I mean, it was supposed to come out so long ago. But you could tell me that the universe wanted to open now because now everybody's quarantine, and I would have been like, "Okay, I believe you." Because we just made The Stand, and the pandemic happened.
Just in general, it's just a little bit eerie and spooky. But also, it's coming out when it's supposed to come out. I think things tend to, you know...
Is there any other corner of the Marvel universe that you would like to explore after New Mutants?
Josh Boone: I don't know, man. I'd look at any opportunity that came my way. Our favorite character growing up, more than any other, was always Spider-Man. So , we'll be like everybody else, "We wish we could make a Spider-Man movie!"
But, really, my favorite thing that I read every issue of to my daughter when she was growing up was [Power Pack]. I do love Power Pack. I think like a kids' Marvel movie would be awesome, with the aliens coming and all the dueling alien races, giving them their powers and all that. That would be so much fun.
I just recently watched The Stand, and I read the book.
Josh Boone: You watched the Mick Garris version? When we were kids and that came out, it was the most watched TV miniseries in the history of television. I taped it on VHS when I was a kid; I remember watching it over and over and being like, "Oh my god, it's so good." I love Mick Garris' The Stand. It meant a lot to us when we were kids. Even if you look at the technical limitations now, or things like that, it still holds you because the story is so good.
I can't wait to see what you do with it. The reason I watched it was because, here we are in a pandemic. It's about a super flu. This kind of thing is almost following you, right, Josh?
Josh Boone: I need to choose much more carefully what I make next time. I need to make like a period piece or something set - I don't know. I'm not sure; I just don't want to do anything else to the world.
But The Stand was cool. I mean, The Stand took years. It started as a movie at Warner Brothers; I carried a lot of cast members along the way to CBS, found amazing show runners who did a lot of the day-to-day and all that once the development was done. And I directed the first episode and the last episode, and I wrote the first one with Ben, the other show runner. And, really, the last episode Stephen King wrote, so we had sort of an hour of original material by Stephen King that was a story set after The Stand. There was a story that he'd always wanted to tell. So, I got to sort of open it and close it, and then go finish New Mutants while the rest of it got made.
I'm literally getting CBS All Access just for The Stand.
Josh Boone: Everybody's gonna have to, and they all will, because of the cast and it's an awesome show. I'm excited for everybody to see it.
We are closer to the release of The New Mutants. It's almost here. How does it feel to have the fans come and see this film?
Josh Boone: The fans have really kept it alive in a lot of ways, with all the amazing artwork that they've done online and all the positive messages that they've sent us. They've been so positive about the footage we have shown them, that I feel like they do really feel like we did justice to the characters. I feel that they'll truly believe that.
I'm just excited for people to get out of their houses and go to a movie instead of a party, or to do something irresponsible - instead go to the movies. I think people need to start going again. I think it's good to get out and see people, and not get agoraphobic, and not start to live like - I don't know, man. I just think there's a balance. We want to be safe and not get anybody sick, but we also shouldn't live in a fear culture.
Before the pandemic delayed the release, the movie business also shifted New Mutants’ release date. Have you had any talks with other directors about this experience? Do you have any kind of film delay advice or words of wisdom for people like Patty Jenkins or Christopher Nolan out there?
Josh Boone: I met Chris Nolan a couple times. He's been real nice to me. I was lucky enough to sit and have lunch with him and his wife once. My favorite director will always be Oliver Stone. My dad took me to see JFK when I was 12, and it changed my life. I know him a little bit.
But [one] of my closest friends is Josh Trank, who went through a lot of the same things that we went through with Fantastic Four. I talk to him regularly; he's one of the best guys around, no matter what a suit says about him. But just in general, he's a good guy who had a real bad experience. Again, it's just like, everybody goes through whatever. Ours was much less divisive, but it still was talented, artistic people trying to deal with corporate structure - which is a very difficult thing to do.
This movie, at its core, is a horror film. Usually, you hear a lot of stories about weird things happening on set. Did you experience that at all with New Mutants?
Josh Boone: Unfortunately, I didn't personally experience it. But I had several crew members have very strange, anomalous experiences happen to them. And I would rush to where it happened and be like, "Dear God, tell me if there's life after death. If there's a ghost, touch me. Touch me!" And then nobody ever would. So, I was like, Fox Mulder always getting to the case after was already done.
I liked how you're like, "Unfortunately, it didn't happen to me."
Josh Boone: Dude, give me a ghost. Possess me. Give me something. I want to know if there's something else or not. That all was interesting to me. There were a couple crew members who wanted to be walked back to their cars at night, because they just were so creeped out. They had ghostly whispers in their ears when they were by themselves up in places, putting lights up, where it was somebody right next to their ear. People were really shaken by it; were really freaked out.
I certainly respect people who've had experiences like this. The whole of human history is filled with them. But I have yet for anybody to care enough to nudge me.
I can't wait for people to see your vision of what The New Mutants is.
Josh Boone: Truly, thank you. Our vision. I mean, the cast and myself, and Knate and everybody, and Peter Deming. We all worked really hard on it, just like The Stand or anything. It's a lot more than just me that that makes any of it happen.
