Director Francis Lawrence and Jason Momoa team up once again to explore a fantastical new world in the upcoming Netflix movie Slumberland. Based on the comic series Little Nemo Slumberland follows the wild adventures of Nemo, a young girl whose world completely changed after the loss of her father, and her companion in the dream world, an outlaw named Flip. Slumberland brings the world of dreams to life through excitement and color, as well as the darkness and terror of nightmares.
Lawrence is no stranger to bringing a unique world to life with See, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 & Part 2, and I Am Legend. Slumberland is a step away from the post-apocalyptic and into the bright and whimsical. In Slumberland, Lawrence balances the fantastical dream world with the very real struggles of grief and loss.
Screen Rant spoke with Francis Lawrence about his upcoming movie Slumberland. He breaks down what Jason Momoa brings to the role of Flip, a dream he'd like to explore in a potential sequel, and how impressed he is by young star Marlow Barkley.
Francis Lawrence On Slumberland
Screen Rant: Francis, what an incredible job on this film. I absolutely loved it. My family enjoyed it so much. Great family film. Now, this is based on a comic book called Little Nemo. How much of the visual elements did you take from the actual comic book?
Francis Lawrence: Honestly, not that many. It was more of a jumping-off point for the development of the story and the idea for the screenplay. But when we were coming up with the dreams that our characters were passing through we were trying to find dreams that felt really different from one another to create a character of the dreamer themselves, and build the world out that way, as opposed to just going back to the comic strip.
This is a fantastical film. The visual elements in this film are stunning. Were there any dream sequences that you wanted to possibly spend a little bit more time on or maybe dream sequences we didn't get a chance to see in the film that you wanted to add in there?
Francis Lawrence: No, there's nothing that I'm disappointed we didn't get to do. Ideally, we get to make another one, and then we can come up with a bunch of new dreams for that, but there were definitely some other dreams that were really interesting. There was one that took place in the Old West that was in the script for a long time, and I'd like to revisit that one because it was really clever. The dreamer and the concept of this Western town were really clever. It would be really fun.
Now, you got me imagining it in my head. Now, I got to see it. I want to talk about Jason Momoa for a second because his character, Flip, is wonderful, and he brings so much to the role. Can you talk to me about working with Jason and collaborating with him to craft the character of Flip?
Francis Lawrence: I mean, he and I had been doing a TV show together, we really enjoyed working with one another, and we became friends. I was at that time, developing the script for this, and thinking about Flip. I was like, "Jason in person is a lot like Flip." There's a lot of his personality that's in this. So, he and I spoke, he read the script, and he really liked it, and we kind of built the character out from there. But a lot of the physicality of it came out when he started to get into the wardrobe. When we started to fit him for the horns, and he got into the wardrobe and saw his shoes and all this kind of stuff. I remember one day on set before he started, he started walking around kind of like the band leader, and he got into this strange walk. So, he developed a lot of the physical aspects to it.
That's amazing. Now, I want to talk about Marlow for a second too because she blew me away in this film. What did she bring to the role that wasn't necessarily on the page?
Francis Lawrence: Honestly, she's just a great actress. I have to say, I was really shocked because she was 12 when we shot the movie. Look, I've worked with a fair amount of actors over my career, and there are some who are just really intuitive, that aren't very practiced. They might not even have that much craft, but they really understand emotion and really listen when they're in scenes and pay attention to the other actor. She's one of those people. She's got the switch, like in between takes, she's a lot of fun. And then, when you start going, she's really there and really present, and really understands it and is really smart and very intuitive.
Now, if you had your own pearl that you were searching for in this movie, what would your wish be once you got that pearl?
Francis Lawrence: You mean in real life?
In real life, yes.
Francis Lawrence: Oh, man, I don't know. I'm horrible with these. These are questions I don't know. I don't know what that would be.
Fair enough. But let me talk about Jason for a second because we don't see Jason in a ton of comedies. Talk to me about what he brought to the role once he actually put on the clothes and the horns and embodied that character as Flip.
Francis Lawrence: I think he just started to have fun. He brought on the physical aspects of it, the way he walked, the way he moved, to the idea of him sticking out his gut. There's all these things that just weren't scripted. I think when you're making stories like this in movies like this, you really want somebody to come in and be additive with their performance, and that's what he did. We had some of the jokes written in, but to create this living, breathing, physical moving creature, that was something that he was able to really shine with.
About Slumberland
After the loss of her father, Nemo's life is completely upended when she is sent to live with her socially awkward uncle Phillip in the city. While she struggles to cope during the day, at night, Nemo travels to the dreamworld known as Slumberland. With the help of an outlaw named Flip and a secret map, Nemo charts a course through dreams and outruns nightmares in the hopes of being reunited with her father.
Slumberland is currently playing in select theaters and debuts on Netflix on November 18.