Beyond Skyline is a new film about an alien invasion and a detective on a mission to save his son. I sat down with Liam O'Donnell to discuss the film and how it came to be.

Tomorrowed: Firstly, who are you?

O’Donnell: My name is Liam O’Donnell and I am the writer/director of Beyond Skyline. I produced and co-wrote the original Skyline. I’ve been working with Hydraulx Visual Effects since 2005, writing and developing projects for owners Greg and Colin Strause. I started writing treatments for their music videos and commercials and eventually for their film pitches, which lead to them directing Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem. So that was my first film experience, getting a front row seat from development, production, all the way through post. I sort of consider that my film school where I got exposed to a lot of the different elements, from practical creature FX and stunt work that ended up influencing Beyond Skyline a lot.

Tomorrowed: In your own words, how would you describe Beyond Skyline?

O’Donnell: I would describe it as a crazy alien invasion action adventure with a kickass cast that throws the kitchen sink at the screen. I figured it was my first and possibly only chance to direct a movie so I wanted to put everything I love into it. And then with a couple of lucky breaks I ended up getting to do things I never even imagined like full on martial arts scenes with Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian. Lucky my producers are just as crazy as me and encouraged me to push the limits and make something fun and unique.

Tomorrowed: What were your inspirations for making Beyond Skyline?

O’Donnell: Well it certainly wears a lot of homages on its sleeve, everything from Die Hard and Lethal Weapon to Aliens, Predator, Terminator 2, Big Trouble in Little China, Temple of Doom, even a little Apocalypse Now. But for the idea of doing a sort of side-quel for the first act, I was inspired by an episode of Lost in Season Two, called “The Other 48 Days” which showed the events of the entire first season from the perspective of a different group of survivors. I thought that would be a really cool way to start Beyond Skyline because the first movie was stuck in such a limited point of view in that high rise, that we could explore what it was like to be on the street level of the invasion before going well beyond that.

Another sort of odd inspiration was Skyfall of all things. I really enjoyed the third act of that film and how remote and personal things got with the siege at the end. So that was something that inspired the siege sequence in Beyond Skyline, which was even bigger and more drawn out in a earlier cut - but we had to scale it back a little for the pacing.

Tomorrowed: So, I gotta ask, how exactly did Skyline get a sequel? I actually enjoyed it, but it’s general reception was… less that positive. What’s up with that?

O’Donnell: It’s a great question! And obviously gets asked a lot. The first film was independently produced but acquired by Relativity only a month or two into post production. And they just really loved the movie and bet big on it, spending a lot on the marketing for it which translated to a really successful box office run overseas. So even though the critical reception of the film was brutal it went on to gross around $80 million worldwide and that’s not even counting the DVD/Blu-Ray, TV, streaming etc.

Because it was independently produced, Hydraulx still owned the rights. We were trying to get another sci-fi movie made independently at the time that fell apart but during those meeting foreign buyers would keep asking what the status of Skyline 2 was… so we knew there was some interest out there. I think enough time had passed that people were able to divorce themselves from the whole hype and fallout of Skyline. We put together a poster image and an updated pitch for Cannes 2014 and it sold better than expected which really kicked things into gear.

Tomorrowed: Beyond Skyline seems to take things in a completely different direction than Skyline. Is this a universe you want to explore more of? Maybe even continue the series?

O’Donnell: Absolutely, because Beyond Skyline is so different and frankly kind of crazy genre wise, it hopefully sets a precedent that each one is going to be its own thing. And it’s such a weird universe in general. The ending of the original leaves a world where about 90% of humans now live in alien robot creatures, so I think there’s a lot more to explore there if we’re lucky. I wrote a pretty detailed treatment for part 3 and I’m in the beginning phases of writing the script so we’ll see… As a director I’d like to do a couple of other projects first, I’ve been making alien movies for eleven years now, so I might return to producing for the next one if we’re lucky enough to make it.

Tomorrowed: You know I have to ask about the cast. You’ve put together an incredible action cast for this film: Frank Grillo, Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian. How exactly did that come to be? And what was it like working with them?

O’Donnell: It all started with just being a huge fan of them all. I wrote the part for Frank after seeing him Warrior. I finished the first draft in the summer of 2013 but then got pulled onto another project. In the summer of 2014 after we had a successful market at Cannes, there was a lot of pressure to nail a castable script and at the same time I was watching as Purge: Anarchy grew into a sleeper hit that summer, so I felt my window was closing with Frank. I rushed like hell to get him the script and wrote him a letter about how I’d written it for him and how much I looked forward to creating the character with him. He immediately saw that it was in his wheelhouse and I think the experience of working on The Purge: Anarchy showed him the potential of working on a sequel to divisive first installment.

From there we were off to scout southeast Asia. The first stop was Infinite Studios in Singapore then across the bay in Batam, Indonesia. At a dinner with Mike Wiluan and John Radel of Infinite they suggested Iko and Yayan for the film, which just sounded too good to be true to me. But thankfully they put us in contact with their rep and they had an opening in their schedules so we just hustled to get that deal done as soon as possible. Because that kind of changed everything, which Frank said himself at the time. It made it a legitimate action film and really changed everything in the back half of the movie, adding more stunts and of course martial arts into the mix.

Working with each actor was very different. Frank does a lot of preparation and comes to set with his big script all marked up with various ideas for his character. For Iko it was a really big challenge because he was acting in not just one but two new languages, English and Lao. So we’d be rehearsing and blocking choreo by day and then we’d meet up at night to run lines. He worked really hard with Pamelyn as well, getting comfortable as brother and sister.

The drama was the biggest challenge for me going in, and one of the reasons I wanted to work with experienced actors like Frank, Bojana, Callan, Antonio, etc… But shooting the action was always the easiest stuff because they’re all such great athletes and experienced on screen fighters, we could move through that stuff really quickly and just have a ton of fun.

Tomorrowed: Obviously, making things is incredibly hard. What challenges did you face while making Beyond Skyline?

O’Donnell: It was far and away the most challenging production I’ve ever been a part of, let alone in charge of. When you’re making an indie like this, the money is always tight and sometimes touch and go. Tax rebates that you think you’re getting fall through, etc. Scheduling was a huge challenge because Frank was so busy, we had to start shooting before our alien suits were even ready. Then we had to go on a hiatus for him to film another movie for a month and half before popping right back into gear to finish it.

Filming in Indonesia during rainy season was sort of insane as well. We lost some locations when the river we were filming on raised eight and half feet overnight. We got rained out halfway through our days a lot at the temples. Frank had a pretty serious hamstring injury early on filming a fight scene on like day 10 of the shoot with another month and half of work in Indonesia to go.

We were set to build a big practical set for the Silo sequence in Indonesia but it was too expensive to fly in all the rock’n roll truss it would take to make it safe. So that ended up becoming a green screen set and obviously a huge headache in post. And just making a really big movie on a small budget was definitely difficult in post, we had such a small crew that it would be overwhelming at times. But we pulled together and fought through the extended VFX doldrums and ultimately made something I’m very proud of.

Tomorrowed: You’ve written and produced films before, but Beyond Skyline is your directorial debut. How did that transition go?

O’Donnell: In a lot of ways, I felt completely natural… like most writers and producers I’m definitely opinionated and love to talk on and on about my projects. So meeting with actors and crew members and putting together a team was a lot of fun to me.

Once we were in prep though, there was that moment when I felt like I was retreating to the script too much and sort of hiding behind writing because that’s what I was comfortable with.

Eventually I was able to leave that behind and really embrace thinking the movie on more visual terms. Certainly helped having such a brilliant problem solver DP like Christopher Probst. Once we got into a groove together, it felt like we could shoot our way out of any scene and figured out fun and interesting ways around all the various problems that arise on the day.

In post, I’ve always loved editing so that was something I felt very comfortable throwing myself into completely. But working with a composer and a sound team was a whole new challenge for me and something I came to enjoy quite a bit. I loved getting to move through the entire process and collaborate with all these people along the way. I mean, directing is without question the best job in the world.

Tomorrowed: So, now that Beyond Skyline is out, what comes next for you? Are you working on anything now?

O’Donnell: Yeah, I actually just got back from the IFFAM Project Market in Macua where I presented The Last Savage. It’s an action packed, post apocalyptic, martial arts adventure that I’m very excited about. It was inspired by shooting in Indonesia and filming martial arts in Beyond Skyline. I wanted to make a real martial arts film from the ground up but with a sci-fi twist of course. We actually won one of the awards there so we’ve got a little momentum. It’s a little bit of a bigger budget than Beyond and if we can pull it off, it would be a huge step forward for me.

I’m set to direct a smaller fully Indonesia film this summer called Giganto. It’s based on a novel there about a safari down the rivers of Borneo in search for the ancient ancestor of Orangutans. So it’s a kind of a mix between Temple of Doom and Predator but with a really cool female lead, written by the incredibly talented Indonesian writer Gina Noer. So that’s the first time working off on another writer’s script which is definitely a huge relief and a lot of fun.

At the moment I am writing Skyline 3… I always take it with a grain of salt, but I wrote a treatment for it earlier this year and there’s been some serious interest so we’ll see. Without giving anything away, the very end of the movie goes in a very different direction so it would be a new setting and new dynamic that’s really fun. There’s nothing I would love more than for Skyline movies to be this weird niche franchise where no matter what you’re guaranteed to see something a little crazy that you haven’t seen before.

Tomorrowed: And lastly, is there anything you want to say that I haven’t asked about?

O’Donnell: I think that just about covers it! It’s been a whirlwind for me the past few months, bringing the film all around the world to various festivals and premieres. And quite honestly it’s been a dream come true. I’ve seen it ten times with audiences and I’m set to see it twice more over this coming weekend. And I still love it. It’s weird and for some unwieldy, but it’s the movie I wanted to make and in some ways even better than I had any right to hope for.