No Sundance movie made a louder impression last week than Daniel Scheinart and Daniel Kwan’s “Swiss Army Man.” The filmmakers, known together as “The Daniels,” rocked the festival to its core thanks to a farting corpse, a phallic compass and a handful of other unforgettable visuals. While their film ended up being the love-it-or-hate-it cult hit of the festival, it impressed enough people at A24 to be picked up for U.S. distribution and it blew away enough members of the Sundance jury to earn the filmmaking duo the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award.
The survival indie stars a bearded Paul Dano as Hank. As he prepares to commit suicide on a deserted island, Hank discovers a corpse on the shore (Daniel Radcliffe) and uses it as a survival resource after it comes to life. What happens next involves the aforementioned oddities as well as a sharp buddy comedy that leaves a lasting impression the minute the screen fades to black.
As part of the “Indiewire in Conversation at Chase Sapphire on Main” discussion series, The Daniels joined Indiewire’s Deputy Editor and Chief Film Critic Eric Kohn and their star-studded cast — Dano, Radcliffe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead — to talk about their wild and crazy dramatic experiment. Check out the video above to see how the filmmakers trusted their guts to achieve the film’s outrageous images, and get all the highlights from the exclusive chat below.
Daniel Radcliffe on the Challenges of Playing a Dead Guy
Mary Elizabeth Winstead on Building Her Character
The Power of the Film’s Songs and Original Music
The Cast on Tackling the Risk of the Movie
What The Daniels Would Change if They Could
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