Spinning Platters Interview: James Ward Byrkit, Writer/Director, “Coherence”

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Director James Ward Byrkit’s COHERENCE

After Coherence screened to a packed house at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival, the film’s writer/director James Ward Byrkit (Rango, Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy), sat down with me to discuss the mind-bending thriller, its origins, its unique production, and more…

Where and when did you originally come up with the premise for Coherence?

Well, we came up with the premise in my living room, where the movie is shot.  A couple years ago we were trying to think about what a good low budget, or no budget, movie would be.  And, since we didn’t have any resources, I had to think of what we actually had.  We had a camera.  We had some actors who were pretty good, and we had a living room.  So we had to find out how to make a living room feel like more than just a living room.  And, that led to a whole Twilight Zone type story [laughs].

Coming off the work you’ve done  — storyboarding for Pirates of the Caribbean and working on the story for Rango, how did this shift your way of thinking?

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