In the near future, a detective (Chris Pratt) stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. Judge (Rebecca Ferguson) he once championed, before it determines his fate.
That's the premise of Mercy, the latest movie from Wanted filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov. Ahead of its release in theaters on January 23, we were lucky enough to sit down with Atlas Entertainment President and veteran film producer Charles "Chuck" Roven to discuss the upcoming blockbuster.
Many of you will know Roven best for the superhero movies he's produced, including The Dark Knight Trilogy, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman. He also counts hits like American Hustle, Uncharted, and Oppenheimer among his many credits, and Mercy is clearly a project Roven is excited about.
During our brief conversation, the producer opened up on casting Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt as Detective Chris Raven, the appeal of an original sci-fi IP like Mercy, and why this is a rare 3D movie that's actually worth seeing in that format.
We also hear from Roven on his time in the DC Extended Universe, and what he set out to achieve with the stories told after The Dark Knight Rises concluded Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy in 2012.
You can check out the full interview below, and be sure to come back here on Monday for our exclusive chat with Star-Lord himself, Chris Pratt.
I know that you've worked with some of Hollywood's all-time great leading men, but how long have you wanted to work with Chris Pratt?
Oh, a long time. I've been a fan. I would say I've been a fan since he did his TV show [Parks and Recreation]. And then I kept occasionally meeting him on the fly because I'd worked on a number of movies with James Gunn, and Chris has obviously done many movies with James Gunn. I would go to a premiere or a screening or whatever, I would bump into him, and I just was always a big fan. I felt that he could be every man, but also he could be really cool, even though he doesn't have to be perfect. He could be physical. He's just a very special guy. And he also gives audiences a lot of reasons to like him and root for him, but they recognize that he still has flaws as a character.
You've been part of so many big franchises, like DC, but this is an original film. It's high-concept sci-fi. So why is it important for you to balance those big, well-known IPs with a new property like this one?
I mean, it's really great. Look, I had a wonderful DC run working with really great directors, from Chris [Nolan] and working with his wife Emma and Zack Snyder and James Gunn, and doing Wonder Woman—that was really a great experience with Patty Jenkins. So I've been very fortunate. But it's also great to have something where you're creating the brand. As part of the DC, I was hoping to actually expand the brand, even though they had made movies. Although we had never made a Suicide Squad movie before, and we had never made a Wonder Woman movie before, and we almost made a Batman v Superman movie before, but we did it. So those are all fresh. And that's a wonderful thing to do, but those all came from something that already had a lot of pedigree.
This didn't—this was an invention by this fabulous writer Marco van Belle. And when he talked about this, it was already about three or four years ago that we started the process of developing this, and people were talking about AI, but not like what's happening now. So all of a sudden, when we were in post-production on the movie, it just exploded, and I'm going, 'Well this couldn't be more relevant than today.' So that was exciting and is exciting.
It is such a timely, relevant film, and it's a very unique film with the 3D. You know, there was a time after Avatar where we were getting a lot of quite quick 3D transfers, but this one uses the format so well. So how blown away were you when you sat down to watch this thing?
So I saw the test because actually we shot in IMAX. And that was thrilling enough. But the guy by the name of Namit Malhotra who owns DNEG—who did most, actually, I think he did all of the visual effects on the movie—as we were finishing, he said, 'You know, Chuck, I think you should make this movie converted to 3D.' I'm not really that big a 3D fan. I've seen movies in 3D. I'm not really that big on 3D. He said, 'Let me do a test for you. I then went to the Culver screen that MGM owns, and it blew my mind, and I said, 'This is great. I mean, this is great. Okay, it's amazing.' And he put his money where his mouth is, and he said, you know what? I'll bank it. And then we showed it to MGM, both all of the creative executives, starting with Courtenay Valenti, and they just loved it. Courtney and Julie and Sue Kroll. It was great.
Chuck, thank you so much for taking the time. I'm such a fan of so many films that you've produced, from the DC to Oppenheimer to Mercy, which I think audiences are going to love. So thank you so much. It's been such an honor speaking to you.
Well, Josh, thank you so much for giving me that great feedback. You put a big smile on my face.
Amazon MGM Studios will release Mercy only in theaters on January 23.