From director/co-writer Gareth Edwards (“Rogue One,” “Godzilla”) comes an epic sci-fi action thriller set amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence. Joshua (John David Washington), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Gemma Chan), is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war…and mankind itself. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory, only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child (Madeleine Yuma Voyles).

Entertainment Affair recently joined Edwards for a virtual press conference to discuss the new science-fiction film from 20th Century Studios. Check out a few highlights of the event below.

Edwards came up with the idea for the movie during a trip to Iowa with his girlfriend
“There was this factory that went by and it had what looked like a Japanese logo on it. I thought, just ’cause the way I’m wired, in science fiction, I wonder what they’re doing in there? I was thinking, imagine being a robot built in a factory and you step outside the factory for the first time. All you’ve ever seen is inside this building. And then suddenly you see grass and the trees and the sky. What would that feel like? I thought that’s a cool little moment in a film, but I don’t know what that would be… It kept coming back the rest of the trip. I started building on the idea. By the time we got to my girlfriend’s parents’ house, I kinda had the basics of the whole movie mapped out, which is really rare.”

Edwards explains why he tends to be drawn to science fiction as a genre
“I think it’s probably two main reasons. I’m not sure. One of them is, like, growing up with Star Wars and being promised this amazing world with spaceships and robots. And then you kind of realize it’s not true and that’s not gonna happen.”

“And so, the second-best thing is, like, I’ll become a liar, like George Lucas, and I’ll create these, like, stories for kids to grow up with. But then the other main reason is my favorite TV show growing up was The Twilight Zone, you know, the Rod Serling in black and white TV show. And what’s so good about those stories is they change one aspect of real life.”

On the practical reason to shoot across different countries
“If you get the crew small enough, the cost of the crew is so little that it's cheaper to fly them anywhere in the world than it is to build a set. Suddenly, the idea of picking every single best location based on the scene became a reality. So we cherry picked the volcanoes of Indonesia, Buddhist temples in the Himalayas, ruins of Cambodia, floating villages, and all this.”

Edwards touched on the importance of being able to move an audience as a filmmaker
“I feel like that's the goal [with] every movie you make. You don't say this out loud because you set yourself up for failure, but, if you don't make some people well up or cry, then you're not really abusing the power of cinema. So it's always the secret goal when you write a film– to do something that affects people emotionally. But it's up for other people to say if you are successful or not, I guess.”

Will there be a sequel? Edwards conceived The Creator as a ‘one-off movie’
“As much as I love the world that it all exists in and, it was amazing to design and build everything and shoot it all over in these beautiful countries. But it’d be a high-class problem to have the studio come up and tap you on the shoulder and say, ‘Hey, Gareth, you gotta think of something. You know, we need a sequel,’ or something. But that’s not on my agenda. I’m not really interested in doing that. It’s a one-off movie.”

The Creator arrives in theaters September 29.