There’s a growing stable of films that weave fiction into the darker pockets of our histories, and World War II seems to be an overwhelming favourite among filmmakers. J.J. Abrams’ latest Bad Robot production Overlord manages to squeeze two prosperous genres into one: the contemporary war film and the Nazi zombie horror genre – although, it’s been noted by the film’s publicists that there are no zombies in Overlord. Instead, the film is populated by “super-soldiers” created by Nazi scientists, and are nothing like the undead you’d find in Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola’s Dead Snow, for example.
When Australian director Julius Avery first read Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith’s script, he remembers thinking, “This is completely bonkers; it’s like Indiana Jones on acid.” Abrams reached out to Avery after watching his heist thriller Son Of A Gun, and having been a long-time fan of Abrams, Avery was admittedly both excited and nervous. “I love what he stands for and his company. I mean, with Bad Robot you expect the unexpected,” explains Avery.
“He likes to subvert the genres. I’ve always been a big fan of his work because every time I go to one of his movies I’m surprised.”
It’s like Indiana Jones on acid.
Indeed, the first third of Overlord’s narrative keeps you on your toes. In the initial sequence, a C47 aircraft is shot down while flying over France during the Normandy Landings of World War II. We tumble through the air with protagonist Boyce until he lands in a river. It’s an immaculately recreated sequence, something paratroopers would have experienced during the war’s infamous D-Day, the biggest seaborn invasion in history to this day.
While underwater, Boyce struggles to unbuckle himself from a parachute. Jovan Adepo, the actor who played Boyce, was adamant on performing his own stunts – a practice not uncommon for war film actors. “We were shooting [at] the same place as Mission Impossible and Jovan got an invite to watch Tom Cruise at work,” explains Avery. “He was like, ‘Julius, I just went and met Tom and he did the most amazing stunt. I want to do all the underwater stuff myself.’”
Watch the trailer for Overlord below
Jovan, like most of the cast, received combat training from U.S. Marine Sargent Freddie Joe Farnsworth. “There were moments where I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s really drowning for real. Quick, get him out!’ But they’re professionals, they do it all the time. And they made it really safe. So credit to him, you can see his face, see the struggle – and it’s a really great way…” he gathers the thought, “it’s a birthing into war.”
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There were moments where I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s really drowning for real.
Actor Pilou Asbæk, who plays the villainous Dr. Wafner, chimes in. “That’s a great way of saying it. I went down to the Mary Poppins set – it was very different.” Avery lets out a big, wheezy laugh. Asbæk, a Danish actor best known for his role as Theon Greyjoy’s uncle in Game Of Thrones, is cheery and clearly loves to squeeze in a joke whenever he can.
Unlike the American saviour complex and revenge fantasy found in Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, or the tackier, wonderful, brash gore of C-grade Nazi zombie horrors, what sets Overlord apart from the array of films that rewrite history is the way it has instilled nuance into its heroes. Boyce proves a dangerously timid and ethically naïve hero, and Nazi Commander Wafner an unnervingly charismatic villain.
“I rang [Abrams] up and was like, ‘Hey man, the premise is really cool – it was crazy horror, sci-fi, action – but I really want to spent time to invest in these characters and I really want to get behind them before they jump into hell,” says Avery of his wish to develop the roles in the film.
“Because if you don’t care about them then there is no jeopardy, and it’s all for naught. You can have as many explosions as you want, but if you don’t care…” he throws his arms up into a shrug.
In an interview with Flickering Myth, Asbæk said, “I’ve always teased my colleagues when they’ve done Russians and Germans, and I was like, I’m never ever going to do a German.” When queried on his reasoning for this, he says, “Did I say that? Maybe I was drunk doing the interview.”
He elaborates: “There are some people I don’t want to portray on films. I think there are some historical characters, especially in our lifetime, that I would never ever do now, because it would be too, too…” He finds the word he’s searching for: “too evil. It doesn’t feel right, it’s not right.”
Asked the biggest challenge of playing Wafner, he says, “I got to work with Julius and work through the clichés of an evil Nazi super-soldier. I liked a character where you can’t really define him. We know he’s evil, the history books tell us this man is evil – but how can we make an evil man charming?”
He says that giving the unhinged Commander more screentime and making sure that he felt “three-dimensional” is what allowed the audience to see through the layers of his identity – and this in turn aided the depths of Overlord’s heroes and heroines.
“I think in the next couple of years, we are going to create characters that are going to be even more…” he stops and brings his index fingers to his temples and taps them. “More nuanced?” I ask.
“Yes, more nuanced. I think even if you’re making fantasy or fictional films, you want reality. You want something that resonates with us as human beings.”
Overlord hits Australian cinemas on Thursday December 6.
