Amazon Studios may have a visual masterpiece on their hands.

The Aeronauts is a wild adventure in the skies with an air balloon. One of the best visual sequences will be with the scene with thousands of butterflies in the air.

In an exclusive interview with VFX supervisor Louis Morin, we asked him about that visual sequence, and he told us a surprising story with an attempt with real butterflies.

“It’s funny. In those meetings, they said, ‘We want real butterflies.’ I looked at them and said, “Are you serious? Are you kidding me?” They tried it. They created a soundstage with nets. They breed a ton of butterflies, and they brought them to set. At the end of the day, how many of those butterflies are in the movie now? Zero,” he explained.

However, there is a silver lining to everything. During this experiment, they got the proper visual shots from Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.

He said, “Sometimes you get the happy accidents. The actor reacts in a certain way and fashion that we wouldn’t get if the butterflies weren’t there. In some shots, we had to erase the real ones and replace them digitally. It’s good to try to achieve with live shots as much as possible even though they had to be erased.”

The butterfly scene is one of the most beautiful and mesmerizing parts of the film. The full exclusive interview with VFX supervisor Louis Morin will be published tomorrow.

The Aeronauts is about a daredevil balloon pilot Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones), teaming up with pioneering meteorologist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) to advance human knowledge of the weather and fly higher than anyone in history. While breaking records and furthering scientific discovery, their voyage to the very edge of existence helps the unlikely pair find their place in the world they have left far below them. But they face physical and emotional challenges in the thin air, as the ascent becomes a fight for survival.

Amazon Studios will release The Aeronauts in select theaters tomorrow and be available on Amazon Prime on December 20.

Source: LRM Online Exclusive