Summary
Gareth Edwards, the director of The Creator, expresses remorse for selecting the year 2070 as the projected future timeline for his film, attributing this to the remarkable advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) happening in the present day. He acknowledges that opting for the year 2023 would have been a more suitable choice.
The accuracy of predicting the future in sci-fi movies has proven challenging, with many acclaimed classics falling short in their portrayal of imagined dates. However, the storyline's precise timeline is not the central objective.
The true purpose of science-fiction lies in employing abstract possibilities to reflect and comment on present-day concerns. The intention of the Creator is to prompt audiences to contemplate the pressing issues currently confronting humanity, rather than focusing on a fictionalized 2070.
Gareth Edwards, the director of the science fiction film "The Creator," has expressed regret over choosing the year 2070 as the future setting for the movie. The film portrays a world where humanity is engaged in a prolonged war against artificial intelligence. The story unfolds years after an alleged nuclear bomb was detonated in Los Angeles by AI forces, sparking a brutal and protracted conflict. However, protagonist Joshua Taylor, a former special forces agent portrayed by John David Washington, discovers that the enigmatic mastermind behind advanced AI and its new weapon is a young child named Alphie.
During an interview with Cinema Daily US, Edwards discussed his decision to assign a specific date to the movie's timeline, despite his initial hesitation. He admitted that many science fiction films fail to accurately predict the future, using Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" as a notable example for his own reluctance to determine a precise date. Reflecting on the rapid advancements of AI in the real world, he candidly admitted feeling foolish and suggested that setting the movie in 2023 would have been wiser. Read his remarks below:
The key to AI is finding the right moment, that narrow window of time before the Robo-apocalypse and not after—perhaps in November or maybe December. We seem to have been incredibly fortunate. The irony lies in the fact that when you write a film, particularly a science fiction one, you try to avoid specifying a date. I was adamant about not including a date in the movie, just like Kubrick. But eventually, it becomes unavoidable. I did some calculations and settled on 2070. Now, I can't help but feel foolish because I should have chosen 2023. Recent events of the past few months or year have taken an eerily strange turn, especially considering our current presentation. When we initially pitched the film to the studio, everyone was eager to understand the backstory surrounding the war with AI. Well, let's pause for a moment. Why would we even find ourselves in a conflict with AI? The answer lies in the fact that AI was outlawed due to some disastrous consequences. But why would one choose to ban AI? After all, it has the potential to be incredible and groundbreaking. These were the ideas we had to establish, the notion that humanity might reject this advancement instead of embracing it. The unfolding of events, much like the setup of our movie, has mirrored reality over the past few months.
Why The Creator’s 2070 Timeline Fits Perfectly With Other Sci-Fi Classics
According to Edwards, indicating the timing of a futuristic world in science fiction is a challenging endeavor for writers and filmmakers. Despite their imaginative abilities, predicting the future with accuracy has proven difficult for creators, frequently resulting in discrepancies between the projected timeline and the actual outcome.
Content must be written in English and without any explanation. This is the result:
Sci-fi classics like Back to the Future Part II's 2015 and the Terminator franchise's Judgment Day have tried to predict a future world that doesn't quite age well. However, getting caught up in these small details means missing the larger point of the stories being told.
Science-fiction is not about accurately predicting the future, but about using imaginative possibilities to comment on contemporary issues. The Creator, despite its chosen timeline, was never meant to be a prophecy. Instead, Edwards offers a glimpse into one possible future world to encourage audiences to reconsider the real issues facing humanity in the present, rather than his imagined 2070.
Source: Cinema Daily US