"LOST" and "Lord of the Rings" star Dominic Monaghan participated in a livestream today along with director Henry Hobson to talk about his participation in 2K Games' web series promoting "The Bureau: XCOM Declassified," offering some details on 50's-style cool, battling the elements in thin shoes, and choosing the bottle over the gun (you'll get it if you've seen the web series).
Interesting note: the first short, "The Burn Room," was only supposed to be that: a standalone short promoting the upcoming shooter. However, fan response was so strong that 2K Games opted to expand it into a web series. Series director Henry Hobson says that when he took on the project, he wanted to expand on the story of Kevin, the unfortunate boy on the bike scene in "The Burn Room," leading to the short "Orbit and the Asteroids," and what would later become part of the story's overarching "Pima Incident."
Hobson also says that he wanted to take the opportunity to add details from the game to the world of the shorts, that things like a can of soda bearing one of the fake brands advertised in "The Bureau" lend additional authenticity to the project. He wanted to use the shorts to give the impression of a much larger world. He says he'd be happy to return to this world in an ongoing series, one he describes as a mix between "The X-Files" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."
Throughout the series, the invaders are kept from view for the most part, touching on Hobson's desire to maintain some of the mystery of the game which is about the slow revelation of the aliens. In fact, outside of the penultimate installment, "The Chase," viewers have almost no idea what any of the aliens in "The Bureau" look like, an approach which ultimately made them more dangerous and potentially frightening. Hobson also created the title sequence for "The Last of Us" as well as the live-action train sequence for "Resistance."
Monaghan describes the series as "classically cool," something drawing on the 50's aesthetic in a way that would be appealing to gamers. When asked about his own character's stakes in the story, he talks about Ennis Cole's connection to his son who represents the face of innocence in the story. "Anyone who's a parent can empathize with the fact that you would lay down your life to protect your kid." The actor was allowed to create much of the dialog for the character and says he even picked the name (he thought "Cole" is a quintessentially American name along with a combination of the name of a schoolboy crush, Jessica Ennis). Monaghan says that he approached Ennis as he would any other acting role, attempting to invest him with subtext. In this case, it was using filling out the form as a means of catharsis after the "Pima Incident."
Unfortunately, the story of Ennis' son doesn't end well, as we learn in "The Gun and the Bottle," which Ennis providing an after-action report on the first combat encounter with the alien enemy. The short included two endings, one where Ennis chooses the bottle in front of him, the other where he chooses the gun. By a narrow margin (2K says somewhere around 1% out of 20,000 votes), fans chose the bottle ending, but during the stream, we had a chance to see the alternate gun ending, which featured a less defeated Cole in its final moments.
"If it was me in that situation," Monaghan mused, "I would have chosen the bottle." He explains that he would have wanted to anesthetize himself from the experience. For his part, Hobson says he would have chosen the gun, saying violence against the enemy would offer some solace.
The followup, "The Chase," was shot over about half an hour in a field near Santa Barbara, CA on a set besieged by snakes and flying ants. Hobson and Monaghan recounted the challenges of filming in the elements with the actor hoofing it in thin shoes over rough terrain wearing a bulky prop backpack. The actor cited other films like Michael Cimino's "Days of Heaven" as inspiring the "magic hour" shoot, attempting to capture the fading light of dusk.
If you've seen "The Chase," then you know Monaghan's Cole might or might not make it to the next installment, "The Interrogation," which features a Q without a lot of A of an unseen alien subject. Monaghan did offer his thoughts on Cole's home in the story where the interrogation takes place, saying it felt like a cold environment for his son, Kevin, shared with a father who's a very hard worker in a very mature, "adult" environment.
Monaghan offered his thoughts on "The Bureau" making the jump from the web to TV/film, wondering which model would be best for a series based on the world crafted in the shorts. He says the Netflix model seems the most appealing in a currently volatile market that's seen traditional film and television projects disrupted in the past couple of years.
Hobson is starting production on his next film, "Maggie," featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a father attempting to save his daughter (Abigail Breslin) from a zombie infection.
The next installment, "The Aftermath," premieres tomorrow. You can see what's revealed there when the short makes its debut, but Hobson promises that it's the culmination of everything so far, answering "some" questions from the series.
"The Bureau: XCOM Declassified" will be available on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on August 20.
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