Adam Egypt Mortimer is an up and coming horror director whose new film, Daniel Isn’t Real, stars Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnold, as a mentally ill young man’s imaginary friend.

We talked to Mortimer about adapting novels to the screen, Patrick Schwarzenegger’s commitment to his role as the film’s villain and working with Elijah Wood’s production company, SpectreVision.

Daniel Isn’t Real arrives In Theaters, On Demand and Digital December 6th.

LRM Online: Hi, how are you doing today?

Mortimer: I’m good, man. How you doing?

LRM Online: I’m doing very well. In starting, I was going to say that I saw your appearance at LA Comic Con this year, and your panel was pretty entertaining.

Mortimer: Oh, good. Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

LRM Online: A lot of the questions I’m going to ask you, I already know the answer to, but for our readers it’ll be new to them. Could talk a little bit about how you came upon the source material? What drew you to it? What made you want to make a movie out of it?

Mortimer: I had been somebody who made music videos and had a film career on that level, and I was really trying to figure out how to get a feature film made. I was reading a lot of novels and source material, looking for something that I think would make a cool movie. And I had adapted some other novels previously. So, I was in this very open state, hungry for things to read. And I met Brian DeLeeuw in LA at somebody’s birthday party. He had just moved to LA, and I really liked him as a person. And he told me that he had recently published a novel. And it sounded really cool. So, I read it that weekend. What immediately hooked me, was an aspect of it that kind of reminded me of Pan’s Labyrinth, which was that it was these children living in this dark fantasy world of imagination that was more real than reality around them, and they were having sword fights in castle, and in the novel they were getting chased around by a dinosaur. All of these cool things that reminded me of childhood and reminded me of the idea of how imagination can be so scary and interesting.

I was also attracted to the idea that it’s this very cinematic conceit, that you take the interior conflict of a young man, and you make it exterior by separating out aspects of his personality into two different characters. That seems like something that would film so well. So, I asked Brian if I could have the rights and try to make a movie out of it. He agreed to it, but he wanted to work on it with me. So, we started writing together and now we’ve written four together. But this was the first thing we were working on. As that process went on, I saw more and more how it was more of a personal story that I could apply my experiences from when I was younger and had relations with people who had mental health issues and what that felt like, and what I would want to say about that, and realized that it was this very universal story that had to do with how we are all split in two. Between the person that we want to be and the person that is somehow intruding on that desire and trying to make us be somebody else. So, all of those ideas went into dark gumbo of what this turned out to be.

LRM Online: The cinematic gumbo. I remember you talking about some changes you made. I believe, the book was told from a different point of view and that you added other elements to it. I can’t remember how you described it, but the cosmic aspect.

Mortimer: Oh, the horror. Yeah, there’s a cosmic horror. The movie really escalates from a kind of dark, intimate family drama, a psychological thriller, and then becomes this cosmic horror where aspects, unbelievable aspects of the entire universe, are unveiled to us. And there’s strange inter-dimensional locations and horrifying creatures. The trick was to get from one to the other. The book did not have that cosmic horror element. It was something that we found as we were digging into what it could be. And yeah, the novel is told from Daniel’s point of view. So what makes the novel supremely interesting when you first start reading it, is that an imaginary friend is telling you this story of what his life is like. That is an amazing conceit for a novel, where you’re sort of interior and it’s all about the voice of the character. But then turning it into a movie, we decided we wanted to be on the side of the person who’s real and understand what they’re going through and identify with their point of view.

LRM Online: Was Brian at all resistant to those changes or he was on board with it?

Mortimer: He was totally on board, yeah. We were both trying to make the same kind of movie. We both really understood what it should feel like and what it was about and why we wanted to make the movie. And changes, even radical changes, that had that kind of integrity, it didn’t bother him because he felt like the book already existed. The book was out in the world. He was happy with the book, and we weren’t going to destroy that by changing it. So, his point of view would always be about, is this a cool movie? Is this the right movie? Not is this going too far away from the book?

LRM Online: So, he’s more open to changes. Unlike say Stephen King who was famously unhappy with what was done with The Shining?

Mortimer: I’ve never really understood that about King. I don’t know if that’s because he was resistant to change or if he didn’t like the specific change that it was. I feel like we’ll never understand why Stephen King didn’t like one of the greatest movies of all time. It’s fascinating.

LRM Online: He’s like, nah, the TV version’s better, because he was able to collaborate on that. Can you talk a bit about the casting in the movie, because, for Patrick Schwarzenegger, it’s definitely a breakthrough performance for him. I know he’s been in lots of other stuff, but I feel like this is the first thing where bigger audiences, will really take notice of him.

Mortimer: Yeah, I think Patrick hadn’t yet had a chance. So far, he’s always done things that are really close to him and his image, which is kind of romantic, it’s all about being a romantic good guy. He was so excited to be able to play this darker character. He was relating it to his excitement about Patrick Bateman and that kind of a character. To me, it was so difficult to find the right guy to play Daniel, because he has to be such an outrageously beautiful, charming, unnaturally good looking person. How are you going to find an actor who is that, and also, can pull out the chops and play this character who’s both charming and sinister, and feels imaginary and also real, and all of those conflicts. He was just incredible at being able to do that, and I could tell from the first moment I spoke with him, that he had all that in him. And he really attacked it. He came at the role really wanting to succeed at it. So right off the bat, he was thinking, what color should we dye my hair? And what am I going to look like? I want to transform into this character. I don’t want to be me. I want to be somebody else. He came in, we had a lot of rehearsal time and he really gave himself over to that whole process. And then, a lot of it was about him finding the freedom in playing a character who was not real. Finding this freedom to do things on camera that other characters wouldn’t be able to do because nobody can see him, and he exists in this kind of liminal space. And it was really fun to watch all of that come alive as we were filming it.

LRM Online: Yeah, I think he’s great in it, and people are really going to take notice. I hope he blows up from it. How was your experience working with SpectreVision, because they’re one of the top genre production companies going. Did you enjoy working with them, and how did you guys find each other?

Mortimer: Yeah, they were great. I had wanted to work with them since I first heard of them existing. What’s great about them is, even when we’re having a creative difference, or a struggle, or it should be this thing or that thing, they’re trying to make the same kind of movie as me. We share exactly the same point of view about why we’re making the movie. So our struggles, even at our worst, are still going in the same direction. So, I can really trust them, and they really trust me. It’s a beautiful thing, and I’m now starting on my next movie, also with them. So, we have been developing this relationship and we really love to work together, and we’re really excited to see what kind of movies we’ll make. And I met them because I was desperate to meet them, and I wanted them to make my first movie, but I couldn’t get in touch with them. Then, I played at a festival where they got to see my first movie and that brought them to me, and everything worked out like it was supposed to. It just took a really long time.

LRM Online: I guess that’s how Hollywood goes sometimes, or filmmaking. Well, I look forward to seeing your guys’ next collaboration. Thank you for speaking to me, and good luck with the release of the film.

Mortimer: Thank you so much.

Daniel Isn’t Real arrives In Theaters, On Demand and Digital December 6th.

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