The Big Picture

Spaceman stars Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan in a space drama exploring deep human emotions in the solar system.
Johan Renck discusses the making of the film with Collider, revealing massive changes during editing and working with David Bowie.
Renck talks about personal connection to the story, technical challenges, and future projects with Barry Keoghan.

Johan Renck’s latest film, Spaceman, stars Adam Sandler and Oscar-nominee Carey Mulligan in a bizarre space drama that explores the furthest reaches of the solar system and the depths of human emotion. Sandler plays Jakub, an astronaut on a solo mission to explore the mysterious Chopra Cloud, leaving behind his pregnant wife (Mulligan) on Earth. Six months into his trek, Jakub begins to experience loneliness and fears of losing his loved ones, which also happens to be when a bizarre stowaway, voiced by Paul Dano, appears to help the man navigate his feelings.

Check out the video above or the transcript below for Renck’s conversation with Collider’s Steve Weintraub where they dig into the filmmaker’s inspiration for making the film. They discuss the massive changes throughout the editing process and how Dano’s character, Hanus the Spider, could easily be transformed at that stage. Renck also talks about his time working with David Bowie on the singer’s final music videos for “Blackstar” and “Lazarus,” his involvement in Dune: Prophecy, and his next feature project with Barry Keoghan currently titled Amo Saddam.

Spaceman Jakub Procházka, orphaned as a boy and raised in the Czech countryside by his grandparents, overcomes his odds to become the country’s first astronaut.Release Date March 1, 2024 Director Johan Renck Runtime 107 minutes Writers Colby Day , Jaroslav Kalfar Studio Netflix

Read Our ‘Spaceman’ Review

COLLIDER: I am a fan of your work, both music videos and your filmography, but there’s gonna be many people out there who’ve never seen anything you’ve done. Besides this film, if someone has never seen anything you’ve done, what’s the first thing you’d like them watching and why?

JOHAN RENCK: Wow, I’ve never thought in those terms in my entire life. That’s an interesting question. I’ve never watched anything I’ve done since I’m done with it anyways. I hardly even know what it is, what all those things may or may not be. I guess the answer should contain what would represent me or what would be a good representation of what I’ve done, and so on and so forth. I wouldn’t know. What I do know is that some things have been more popular than others. I know that Chernobyl was quite popular and people seem to have liked that on a general level. So, I guess I recommend that then, because it seems like it’s almost like a foolproof piece of something that people can watch and take something enjoyable away from it.

David Bowie’s “Lazarus” Video Was Never Meant to Be an Epitaph
Image via Columbia Pictures

You got to direct and work with David Bowie on two music videos towards the end of his life. What was that collaboration like?

RENCK: That was formative for me. It was really an incredible experience just to have met and worked with this gentleman in the way we did. We did the two last videos, and the very last one of those two was released a day before he passed away. Many people have looked upon those videos and can consider them as a sort of deliberate epitaph or something like that, but it wasn’t, really. Those videos were made in good faith. They dealt with the fact that I was informed by him that he was very ill and that he might not make it, so that kind of became a part of my creative process in dealing with these videos. David was not involved at all in the videos himself because he was busy with treatment and all those other things, so it was kind of my interpretation on the journey he was going through. But they were never intended as an epitaph of his life and career or anything like that. We were just having fun making music videos.

Jumping into why I get to talk to you, what was it about this material that said, “I need to make this?”

RENCK: First off, it was because it was like nothing I’ve ever done before. I’ve never done anything in space, zero gravity. I’ve never ever had to deal with one character that would be computer-generated, and the ramifications of that. So, on one level, it was tantalizing based on the technical aspects of it, but primarily also the story itself, and Jaroslav Kalfař’s book, and the ensuing versions of the scripts that we’ve been dealing with. It’s a story that I relate to a lot, in terms of being a person who has a lot of love and passion for what I do. It’s almost like a calling, I have to say, and it’s always been since I was a child. I tend to go a little too deep into that without regarding the ramifications and the cost that has on other aspects of life. I mean, I think John Lennon was the one who said life is what happens when you’re busy doing other things, right? So it had to do with that. I find that very compelling. It’s almost like an atonement, you know? I have a bunch of crashed marriages and relationships behind me, so it’s a film about a past version of myself. I’ve come clean, I’ve woken up. I’m a better human now.

‘Spaceman’ Changed “Massively” in the Editing Room

I’m fascinated by the editing process because it’s where it all comes together. With every director I talk to, I always bring this up. How did the film change in the editing room in ways you didn’t expect going in?

RENCK: You’re spot on with that. Editing is such a magical part of filmmaking. You do so many things that you never had intended on set in terms of everything from how you can manipulate a scene to become something very different than it was on the page to literally work on the story arc by swapping places of scenes, by omitting stuff. And in our case, also, we had the opportunity that one of our characters could perpetually be rewritten, Hanus, our creature. Because of the fact that it was CGI, we could keep on changing his character, and that obviously had affected other aspects of the film.

So, in this particular case, massive, massive changes throughout the editing process, both in terms of the relationships between Jakub and Hanus, but also in the film itself. It had different kinds of trajectories on the page. This was the first time I’ve ever done something in which we had to reconsider some aspects of what was on the page when we showed it and what I wanted it to be afterwards. It became a lot of work in the editing, and some reshuffling of things in order to get it to where I wanted to.

Who do you trust for honest feedback? Did they give you a note that you were like, “Oh my god, this is good. I’m gonna have to incorporate this?”

RENCK: You got a lot of good questions, man. Who do I trust for feedback? Well, number one is my producing partner, Michael Parets. I really believe in the beauty of filmmaking, the troika of director, producer and writer, that we all have some version of a common goal but we also come from different places with slightly different trajectories. Then, where those three circles meet is the perfect spot of where everything happens. But Michael, I really trust in his feedback. He’s like me. We come from books and literature. We like characters and story arcs from that rather than leaning into the vernacular film, actually. So, I really trust him.

There were a lot of small notes, or notes in general throughout the process that were very meaningful to me from Michael. And again, that’s why we have these partnerships in filmmaking. But then, you have studio notes, also, to some extent and that’s something that can be an unpleasant experience, which I’ve had before in my life. But in this particular one, Netflix, on one hand, really believed in what the movie was intended to be and so on and so forth. The executives we worked with throughout the process, their feedback and their notes were never in any way preposterous in any shape or form. So, it was a meaningful process.

I wanna actually ask you, I read, and I could be wrong, that you’re one of the executive producers on Dune: Prophecy. Is that true or not true?

RENCK: The TV series? I had an involvement in the TV series about a year ago, which ended with creative differences or something like that. I believe I’m still some version of an executive producer on it, but I’m very much looking forward to it and I’m excited to see what it’s gonna be.

Related ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Didn’t Use the Volume The series’ cinematographer Pierre Gill details how ‘Dune: Prophecy’ will use practical sets, versus the Volume.

I’ve heard it’s gonna turn out good.

Barry Keoghan’s Next Film Deals With “Weird, Revered Stockholm Syndrome”
Image via MGM

My last thing for you. I read you’re doing Day of the Triffids.

RENCK: No, that one has gone away, actually. The next thing I’m doing is we’re making a movie about the last six months of Saddam Hussein’s life before his execution, and the relationship he had with the 12 American soldiers who were guarding him. So it’s this kind of weird, revered Stockholm syndrome between this manipulative and charismatic tyrant, so to speak, and the susceptible 12 young men who get a little too close for comfort in the relationship with him. It’s a very, very interesting project. Barry Keoghan is attached to play the lead — not Saddam, that is, but the other lead.

I read about that as well. Do you think you’re filming that this year?

RENCK: Oh, yes. This fall.

Spaceman is available to stream on Netflix.

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