No One Will Save You Having Almost Zero Dialogue Was Kind Of An Accident [Exclusive]
Why isn't every genre fan talking about Brian Duffield? He served as the screenwriter of fan-favorite hits like "The Babysitter," "Underwater," "Love and Monsters," and the new Netflix animated series, "Skull Island." He also made his directorial feature debut with the explosively emotional "Spontaneous," which I will fully admit was my #1 film of 2020. Now, Duffield is back with the alien invasion film "No One Will Save You," featuring "Booksmart," "Rosaline," and "Unbelievable" star, Kaitlyn Dever. The film is yet another homerun for Duffield, but the story differs from his usual snappy dialogue and witty banter, as Dever's character, Brynn, isn't one for talking.
/Films own Ethan Anderton recently had the chance to chat with Duffield about the film and learned what led to a story with minimal dialogue. Turns out, it was kind of an accident. "There's a moment in the movie where Kaitlyn's character goes for help, and it doesn't go well, and she's not able to get a word out," he explains. This moment was in his head before he ever started writing the script, and would influence the film as a whole. Brynn isn't talkative by nature, so it fits the world of the film to have her remain mostly dialogue-free. But this wasn't an intentional decision, just a happy accident that came from writing true to the character.
"After that moment, I went back, and I realized that there was never a Brynn character dialogue thing in the movie," says Duffield. "It's very stupid that it was a surprise for me." He also says that it's been very cool to see people respond so positively to the creative decision even if he "didn't mean for that to happen." As he explains, "I'm like, 'Oh cool. I'm glad that you like that. It was an accident.'"
Duffield had the support of the studio
Shockingly, Brian Duffield didn't get any pushback from the folks at 20th Century Studios about the choice to keep Brynn from being a talker, either. "The studio and I talked about a lot of different things about the movie, and what was great working with the guys at 20th [Century Studios], J.R. [Young] and [Steve] Asbell, was that they really loved the movie and wanted to make the same movie as we did." The studio clearly believed in Duffield's vision and trusted him to bring it to life, which resulted in a fantastic movie. Creatives are often at the mercy of studio notes, and sometimes the requests are laughably ridiculous. Luckily, that wasn't the case on "No One Will Save You." As Duffield tells /Film, "[This] didn't mean they didn't have thoughts, but it was so cool that everyone was in the same band, which is not often the case."
One of his biggest champions was Steve Asbell, president of 20th Century Studios. Duffield says he would often talk with him for "hours and hours" about thematic moments in the film, but they seldom discussed the lack of dialogue. "It wasn't like a come up in a 'that's great' or 'that's terrible' kind of way," says Duffield. "It was hopefully how people watch it too, where they're like, 'That's a cool addition,' but if the movie didn't have that element, it would still hopefully work." I can only speak for myself, but "No One Will Save You" definitely worked for me, and even if Kaitlyn Dever had been the most talkative character to ever deal with an alien invasion, I would have still found myself cheering for her.
"No One Will Save You" is available to stream on Hulu.