The Lost City, which stars Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Oscar Nuñez, and Brad Pitt, is now playing in theaters. As stated in our review, the comedic adventure features plenty of action and laughs.
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“Brilliant but reclusive author Loretta Sage has spent her career writing about exotic places in her popular romance-adventure novels featuring handsome cover model Alan, who has dedicated his life to embodying the hero character, ‘Dash,’” reads the synopsis. “While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes that she can lead him to the ancient lost city’s treasure from her latest story. Wanting to prove that he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, Alan sets off to rescue her. Thrust into an epic jungle adventure, the unlikely pair will need to work together to survive the elements and find the ancient treasure before it’s lost forever.”
ComingSoon writer Jonathan Sim spoke to The Lost City directors Adam and Aaron Nee about the comedy, how they assembled the all-star cast, and much more.
Jonathan Sim: What was the inspiration for the story and what was your writing process like for The Lost City?
Adam Nee: When we got a script from [screenwriter Dana Fox] and it’s amazing and we brought Dana back to write with us, it was this escapist adventure that we had been longing for. We were just like, “This is the movie that I want to see. So I want to be a part of it.” And our take was just kind of coming in and saying, “It’s super funny, it’s super romantic, but let’s approach it like we’re making Raiders of The Lost Ark, let’s approach it we’re making a high-stakes adventure movie, and then just let it be really funny instead of making it just a super broad comedy, let’s raise the stakes,” and that’s kind of, that was our way into the story, wouldn’t you agree?
Aaron Nee: That idea, that inspiration, influenced our decision on how we were going to direct it and how we were going to make it. Which meant in order to bring that level of adventure, we needed to really go into the elements, we needed to really take our cast and throw ’em into the jungle and throw ’em into the water and do it for real. Yeah.
This is a really funny movie and there are a lot of hilarious moments in the film. So were there any funny moments that weren’t in the script that you guys sort of improvised and found on the day?
Adam: I mean, in terms of…definitely lines, there are incredible lines that were left on the cutting room floor. I mean, we would do things where, there’s a scene where [Channing Tatum] and [Brad Pitt] and [Sandra Bullock] are in the jungle, and Channing is saying, “I have a few quotes that would be good in this moment,” and we’d have him do 15 different, crazy quotes that Dash would come up with in that moment. And we’re all cracking up after every single take, but you can’t use all of them, you know? So you have to choose one.
Aaron: Or Brad being asked why he’s so handsome. And then, for every take throwing some different idea at him or him trying out things, you know?
Also going along with that, being out there on location is a part of discovering those changes too. And so even things like, there’s a moment where Brad Pitt’s character, to get up on top of a tent, goes running up a palm tree. And that came from being out on location and seeing this palm tree leaning like that and, and imagining Brad running up, it’s like, I feel like he could run up this.
Adam: This would be a funny visual.
RELATED: Interview: Oscar Nuñez Discusses The Lost City, His Favorite Scene
Being on location really does enhance the whole experience because this is a big movie with a lot of stunts and explosions. What would you say was the most challenging part of making The Lost City?
Adam: I feel like it was kind of an endurance test of just being in the jungle in that heat during the pandemic. So wearing K95’s, and you’re wearing long sleeves because of bugs and mosquitoes and stuff.
Aaron: And Sandy’s doing the whole thing in heels and sequin jumpsuits.
Adam: Yeah. So we think we have it hard. We’re like sweating it out, but she’s actually in sequin jumpsuits with high heels running through the jungle, getting in the water, on the waterfall ledge, climbing the cliff, like…crazy stuff we had her do in that movie. I think it was like, I don’t know if there was one day that I would say was like the hardest day, it was really just like an endurance test because, you were in the elements, in a very extreme sense.
Aaron: It seemed like every week we’d be like, “Okay, we just got to get through the river work,” and then it’s “We can relax a little bit.” And then you get through the river work, it’s like, “We just have to get through the ocean work and then it’ll be a little bit easier now, we just have to get the caves.” And then it’s like, by the time we got to the end of the movie, it was never easy. It had never gotten easier. [laughs]
This really was such an interesting film to make because you have Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum as the two leads. So I was just wondering, how did you guys go about like the casting process for this movie, and how important was it to have two actors with on-screen chemistry?
Adam: I mean, that’s the make or break. The casting is really what makes the movie and Sandy was kind enough to cast us as the directors because she was a producer and she was on from the very start. And then we were just kind of thinking who is this Dash character, who is this cover model character that’s out there that would be a good pair with Sandy? And Channing came up immediately. And it wasn’t until we had our first meeting, the four of us together where we saw the way that Channing and Sandy joked with each other, that we knew that we had something special, that it was one of those rare pairings that you go, “Oh my gosh, this is so obvious. How has this not happened?” Because they’re just incredible together.
Then with the rest of the cast, it’s really about rounding it out with diverse types of actors and different tones and someone like Daniel Radcliffe, who is obviously known for the Harry Potter movies, but also as a dramatic actor. So putting him in this comedy, we really were very excited about that. And then having like Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who is this incredibly powerful actor who is really, really funny. Oscar Nunez, this terrific comedian and then someone like Patty Harris, I think is one of the most brilliant up-and-coming comedians actors as well.
Aaron: They are all extremely talented. They’re all very funny, but they have their peculiar, unique ways of expressing that talent and being funny, and the things that are different about them, I think are a big part of what makes this cocktail works so well.
I love every single member of this cast, so you guys did an excellent job with that. You guys also somehow managed to get the legendary Brad Pitt into this movie. How did that happen? What was that experience like?
Adam: He was just good in the audition. He wanted the part so bad. He was calling our agents and emailing our manager and then he came in and he prepared this long monologue about Jack Trainer, and he had a song, he brought his tap-dancing shoes. He was just after this movie for so long. He wanted to work with us. [laughs].
Aaron: The truth is that they share a hairdresser.
Adam: It’s always the hairdresser.
Aaron: Do not underestimate the importance of having the right hairdresser.
Adam: Hairdressers run Hollywood.
Aaron: Yeah. And so, Sandy makes a cameo appearance in Bullet Train, which was shooting just ahead of us. And then for real, they share a hairdresser, so that’s what started the dialogue between the two of them because we had brought Brad Pitt up as… we couldn’t imagine a more perfect person to play this, but Adam and I went, “We’re never going to get him.” Our feeling was that Brad’s not going to do it. We’re never going to be able to get him. But we were fortunate enough that we have Sandy, who’s an incredible draw and while Brad, maybe isn’t going to take the call from us, he’ll take the call from Sandy.
Adam: Yeah. We’re so grateful. I mean, he’s just like, he’s one of those guys where you have this idea in your head of what that person’s going to be like, and then you meet him, and he totally transcends that. He’s cooler than you think he’s going to be, he’s funnier than you think he’s going to be. And he also just somehow, seems really normal, and just like someone you can kind of chat with and hang out with it. It was a pleasure to work with him.
Aaron: We were very fortunate in that we have this all-star cast and they all were a delight to work with and all so good to each other, and so supportive of the project, which we really needed because we were throwing them in very difficult shooting conditions. If they didn’t want to be there, or they didn’t believe in the project we would’ve been lost.
This definitely is an all-star cast and it is your biggest venture into Hollywood yet. So I wanted to ask, what was the process like for getting an original action-comedy off the ground and getting it made into a blockbuster?
Adam: Well, I think Liza Chasin, our other producer, deserve a lot of the credit. They really championed this movie and having someone like Sandra Bullock say, “I’m gonna do this movie, I want to do this movie” gets people to pay attention. And then I think it was really just, there was just this universal hunger for an original adventure movie. I’m a big fan of Marvel movies and Star Wars movies, but I think there’s still this hunger for an original adventure film, original content. It takes people like Sandy and Channing being in the movie that helps something like that happen. The talent is what drives that.
Aaron: Yeah. My hat’s off to Paramount for breaking the trend, and taking a chance on something that isn’t based on some old preexisting I.P. but is a new original adventure film.
There are definitely so many scenes that really define the genre in this movie. What are each of your favorite scenes from The Lost City?
Adam: I think my favorite scene is probably the culmination of the sequence where Channing and Brad are going to rescue Sandy, but it’s at the end of it, when it’s just Channing and Sandy together and they’re on a cliffside and the car spins out and he has to find his rescuee. That is probably my favorite scene in the movie.
Aaron: Yeah. It’s hard to isolate it to any one given moment. I think a big part of what makes this fun too are all the little moments, like Da’Vine and Oscar Nuez that, while you’re having this great ride with Sandy and Channing, you also have these really special moments, with the supporting cast who elevate the movie and round it out so much. And with Daniel coming in and stepping into this role that we hadn’t seen him in before, that there are just lots of special little moments there of getting to see this side of him that we’re excited to be showing to audiences.
Adam: Yeah. I would also say that Daniel being this guy, who’s like this James Bond villain who doesn’t see himself as a villain, but as James Bond himself, when he first meets Sandy and is kidnapping her and his plane comes down and starts plating the charcuterie, I would also, say’s is one of my favorite moments in the movie.
Aaron: Yeah. Takes the Bond villain moment and flips it on its head.
Daniel is really great in this movie. I do want to ask, you guys have worked in many genres before and The Lost City has action, comedy, adventure, and romance at the center. So, when you guys make your next project, what is a genre that you guys might want to explore more of the future?
Adam: I would love to, at the end of our career, be able to look back and see that we’ve had a very diverse journey where we play in every genre. Our next movie is Masters of the Universe, which is obviously like a big kind superhero movie that will be more in that zone, but it also is going to be genre-splitting, where it’s going to be very funny, very adventurous, lot of action. But yeah, I mean, I think that to me, it’s really like being able to play in all of those things. I think all of my favorite movies are kind of all over the place.
Aaron: Some of the things that we’ve been exploring and cooking up bring in the thriller element. That’s something that we’re excited to play in as well. But like Adam was saying, we get excited about making a movie that isn’t just one thing. That…it can be an adventure, but it’s not just an adventure, it’s also just as much a comedy and a romance as it is an adventure, or…
Aaron: If we make a thriller, that it’s not just a thriller, but you’ve got these other layers in there that broaden that genre out.