Code 8 starring Robbie and Stephen Amell arrives in theaters and On Demand TODAY. Set in a world where 4% of the population is born with varying supernatural abilities, these "Specials" face discrimination and live in poverty, often resorting to crime. That's where Connor (Robbie Amell) comes in, as he's forced down a dark path in order to pay his mother's medical bills.
Lured into a lucrative criminal world by Garrett (Stephen Amell), the gangster helps Connor sharpen his powers in order to execute a series of crimes while a militarized police unit hunts them down.
You can find our review of
Code 8 by clicking
HERE, and to mark the release of the movie, we recently spoke to director Jeff Chan and star Robbie Amell (his comments about a possible return to
The Flash are right
HERE). A clear passion project for both men, we delve into the crowdfunding campaign that made it a reality, some big questions we had after watching, and much more.
It was revealed this week that a spinoff sequel series is coming to Quibi, so
Code 8 is definitely a movie you need to watch and we want to thanks Jeff and Robbie for talking to us about the film!
Jeff: Oh wow, thank you so much. I appreciate you guys taking the time to talk to us too. It was a labour of love for us for the past two years so it's been an unlikely but very special journey which we never could have predicted would have gone the way it did. We're so excited to finish this and put it out into the world.
Jeff, you manage to fit a lot of backstory about this world into that awesome opening credits sequence - is the emergence of the "specials" something you'd like to explore further?
Jeff: That's a really great question. We actually had a really big debate about whether or not we wanted to delve into the treatment of the specials and the reasoning behind it. Ultimately, when it comes to the future, who knows, but with this film we decided that we didn't want to make the movie about the origin of the powers and that we wanted to focus more on a society where this divide already existed. We wanted to explore the subtle complexities of what that would look like and left a lot of that stuff off the table because we have a pretty good idea of what happened but didn't want to make this a superpowers origin story because that's so different from our intentions.
Robbie: Yeah, even though the movie has these superpowers, it's really a movie about humanity and about these people and how far Connor will go to save somebody he loves, his mom.
The way the film explores that mother and son dynamic is something I really enjoyed but what made you both want to delve into that sort of relationship rather than giving Connor, say, a girlfriend or child?
Robbie: Thanks, I appreciate that you liked that. It was all Jeff because in the original short film, I have a younger brother and we talked a little bit about that and he said, 'I think it works better with your mom' and I agreed. I grew up with my mom. I have a great relationship with my dad but my mom really raised me and my sister and took care of us and sacrificed everything for us. Reading the script, I could justify all these things for my character because I get it. That doesn't mean they're right, though, and our movie isn't black and white and doesn't talk about right and wrong. It's very much this grey area and shows people making these real decisions, some of them selfish, some of them not. We wanted people to talk about that and that was the nice thing about the short film as there was a great discussion in the YouTube comments about how some people agreed with what my character did and some people didn't. We wanted the same thing in the film.
Robbie, I know you've worked with Stephen before but what was the experience like spending so much time with him in front of the camera on Code 8 and, Jeff, how was it working with the two of them?
Robbie: Yeah, Jeff, how was it?
Jeff: [Laughs] I plead the fifth! Nah, I'm kidding, it was great. You always talk about making something with friends and essentially your industry family, and that's what this was. Robbie and Stephen are actual family but from the very beginning, there was such passion and a real spirit to make everything great. We had that throughout the entire process and in the time going from the short film to the feature, it was a real family with everyone coming together and collaborating. It was by far the best filmmaking experience I've had in my life and I hope that all my future shoots are as special as the one we had making Code 8.
Robbie: Jeff hit it right on the head there. Everybody was so excited and happy to be at work every day and to be making something they felt ownership of. The reason I think the movie turned out the way it did is because everyone cared and was passionate about what they're doing. That started at the top with Jeff and Chris [Pare] and Stephen and myself and the team who did the visual effects were just so incredible, our DP, our camera operators...everybody. They brought so much heart to the set every day that it was so much fun to be there and I think it shows on screen.
The robotic police force is formidable and so I was wondering if you could both give us some insight into the work that went into bringing them to life both on set and in post?
Robbie: One really great thing when we were making the short film was shooting in the middle of Pasadena on a street with Will and Brian, two of the heads of the visual effects company, in full green spandex gear playing the robots! We have pictures of it and it's such a great moment. It's really where Code 8 originated and to have your VFX Supervisor in gear playing the robot tells you how much these guys cared and how much they put forth in their efforts to create them and what an amazing job they did.
Jeff: Again, it's one of those things where as much I want to take credit, we truly had some incredible people working on it. They had done some iterations of the robots before we figured out the final version of them and our approach from the very beginning was that this is a genre movie with superpowers but we want it to feel as grounded and real as possible. The entire movie shot on location and whenever we did have a robot, we had an actual person wearing a vest and they would be there on set so that people could react to them. However, the robots you're seeing on screen are fully CG right down to the fabrics on their uniforms. So, while we did replace them with visual effects, we always tried to make it as grounded and lived in as possible.
Due to the emergence of machinery, "specials" aren't deemed as useful as they once were but given someone like Connor's powers, do you guys think there's room in a world like this for someone to step up and try to be a hero?
Robbie: One of the big things we talked about is that, ultimately, it's only 4%. So, even if every single one of them wanted to rise up, you're still only 4% and now you're dealing with a milatirised police force. Connor is really powerful but a bullet still stops him. Not hurts him, kills him. We wanted these powers to be as real and grounded as possible while still being entertaining. The other thing is that Connor's a Class 5 which is as high as it gets. A lot of the people with powers are Class 1 which means they're really not that much different than someone without powers. These people are just trying to get by and survive so creating a rebellion is a big ask of all those involved.
Jeff: The people on the ground are the ones with powers and one of the questions we asked ourseves was why in the world is anyone who uses powers powerless. The idea that anyone with powers was actually powerless in this society was something worth exploring from the beginning. It's one thing if you're dressing up in capes and we had a big thing early on that there would be no superhero costumes as that's not what this is. It's about people fighting to survive and not playing by the rules they're given. I think it's a really good question and one we're asking in the movie.
It was incredible to see how many fans contributed to the crowdfunding campaign but did that make you feel an added sense of pressure and what do you hope they will take away from the finished product?
Robbie: Since the beginning of the Indiegogo campaign, it's been an incredible, flooring experience to see the outreach and support from over 28,000 backers. What was really cool is that over the last six months, we got to share the movie with premiere goers across the United States, Canada, London, and Australia. Getting to share a movie with these people who supported it and funded it and helped make it happen and see them get to take ownership of it has been awesome. The reaction has been incredibly positive but not only that, they want to talk about it after and they ask some of the same questions you're asking and it's cool to talk to them about it and see how they feel about it. We don't all agree all the time as they think that some of the things Connor or Garret did were wrong but it's nice to have that conversation with people who support and take ownership of the project while having helped make it happen.
It definitely feels like the door is open to a sequel and while I know it's early days in that respect, is that something you'd both like to explore and did you ever consider a post-credits scene?
Jeff: I think for us, we wanted to make sure we were telling a story that was self-contained. The story of this movie is how far someone would go to save somebody they love. In the case of Connor, it's a love story about family and what you'd do to save the most important person in your life. The movie told that story and that's where we wanted to end things without trying too obviously to set up a sequel or any sort of a future because people have seen a lot of that and it comes off sometimes as disinegnous and we certainly didn't want to do that. We preferred to focus on a story that was self-contained and obviously, looking at where the characters and story end up, there's room to take things further down the line and if we get that opportunity, it's something we would be excited to do. For this movie, we wanted to make a standalone feature.
You were obviously working on a budget but were there any scenes which didn't make it into the final cut that you'd like fans to see down the line?
Jeff: I would say that as filmmakers, you always wish you had a bigger budget and you always have a bigger vision. Whether it's a $1 million movie, $10 million movie, or $200 million movie, it always feels like, 'If only I had the money to do more.' Ultimately, we felt like we had enough money to tell the story we wanted to tell and the scale and scope that felt grounded and real but still had a sense of epicness to it. That's how I felt we ended up.
Robbie: I think we took as much money as far as we could possibly take it. The money is all on screen and the sweat equity is right there with it. As far as deleted scenes, there are some that didn't make it into the movie and it's not that they would have hurt it but when we were looking at the edit, and Jeff lived in the editing room with our editor and they worked their asses off, we found that the 90 minute version felt the best. Right from the beginning, you learn Connor's story and you're along for this ride with him. Because of how fast it moves, you feel the desperation and it justified some of the decisions he makes because he's backed up against the wall.